Chapter 13: Bewildering Fragrance

When leaving the market, Liu Xiaolou only felt a burst of coolness, but he didn't know when a forehead full of sweat came out. At this moment, he was blown by the cool wind, and he felt cold. The tense mood was relaxed, and he was relieved for saving two spirit stones.

This spirit elixir is not something he should get. Isn't it fragrant to accumulate more true qi?

As if feeling that he had picked up two spirit stones for nothing, Liu Xiaolou decided to celebrate himself, so he made a new set of clothes in the town, bought some oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, and medicinal materials, spent more than ten taels of silver, packed a large bamboo basket, carried it on his back, and hurried back to the mountain.

The benefits of cultivation advancement are everywhere. The journey that took nearly two hours in the past now saves about a quarter of an hour, and his steps are light, and he doesn't feel tired.

On the way back to the mountain, he caught a pheasant, stewed a pot when he went back, and filled his stomach beautifully.

The big white goose honked in the courtyard, fighting with those chicken bones. Liu Xiaolou lit an oil lamp, took out a small elixir furnace, placed it on the oil lamp to dry burn, and at the same time covered the elixir furnace with true qi to ensure that the heat did not dissipate, gathering more and more.

He is not an elixir master, doesn't understand elixir refining, and the Three Mystical Sect has no cultivation technique for elixir refining. He refines the sect's secret skill—Bewildering Fragrance.

When the elixir furnace changed color and faintly turned red, indicating that the heat in the furnace had arrived, Liu Xiaolou sent the pine fragrance essence into it. After a while, it turned into a milky white thick liquid, sinking to the bottom of the furnace, spitting out bubbles from time to time.

At the same time, the medicinal materials bought, such as tiger whip, deer antler, cinnamon, cynomorium, and epimedium, were taken in the required amount according to the formula, rubbed into powder with true qi, and put into the furnace. Pine fragrance essence is yin, these medicinal materials are yang, yin and yang are combined, and they immediately blend in the furnace. At this time, the thick liquid also shows a yellowish color, like amber.

Liu Xiaolou slowly lowered the furnace temperature with his heart method, and from time to time hit a ray of true qi, refining for a whole night. By dawn, he finally refined a fragrance tendon. This fragrance tendon is more than three feet long, as thin as a bamboo stick, not afraid of water and fire, soft and tough. At first glance, it looks like a fine rope that can fight with people. In fact, it can indeed be used as a magic artifact, which is not much different from a low-grade magic artifact.

But its true use is to burn it and use the bewilderment fragrance to smoke people. Those who are hit will have feelings from within. At first, they will be confused and confused, and later they will be dizzy and fall into a coma. Even those who are cultivating, as long as their minds are not fixed, they are easy to be tricked.

The most magical thing about this bewilderment fragrance is the Three Mystical Dao method integrated into it—the higher the cultivation of the fragrance refiner, the more solid the true qi, the deeper the Dao practice when casting the method, the more wonderful the means, the stronger the bewilderment effect.

As for the person who is hit, it depends on their situation when inhaling the bewilderment fragrance. If it is someone who does not understand human desire, this fragrance will not be used. If it is someone who is troubled by love, or is thinking wildly, the effect will be extremely obvious.

In any case, after refining the bewildering fragrance again, Liu Xiaolou's means of self-protection have been greatly enhanced. He wrapped the fragrance tendon on his arm with the sect's technique, covered it with his sleeves, and could throw it out as a thin rope in the shape of a soldier at any time, or stimulate it with true qi to attack people with fragrance, which can be said to be released and retracted freely.

After refining the fragrance tendon, Liu Xiaolou didn't delay, and immediately took out the spirit stones to eat. For a poor rogue cultivator like him, if there is no special use, spirit stones cannot be kept in any way. Sitting in the house, working day and night, in a blink of an eye, it was nearly a month. Two spirit stones turned into fragments and dust, falling on the mud ground in the courtyard.

The big white goose tried several times to peck the spirit stones in his palm, but failed, and was slapped several times, dizzy, so it had to peck the spirit stone dust that fell on the mud ground to eat, to comfort itself.

With these two spirit stones helping out, Liu Xiaolou broke through the first acupoint of the hand Jueyin meridian—Tianchi acupoint, spiritual power turned into true qi, accumulated in the energy pool of the Tianchi acupoint.

Counting the time, compared with when he was at Qi Refinement Stage 2, his absorption and refining effect on spirit stones has also improved. In the past, one spirit stone could allow him to refine for half a month, but now it seems to have saved a day. The effect of cultivation improvement is still quite obvious.

It's a pity that the spirit stones have been exhausted. This happy cultivation day can only be stopped temporarily. Now he has to figure out what to do next.

Just as he was thinking, he suddenly patted his forehead, lifted his feet and left, went to the bamboo forest to cut two long bamboos, carried them to the Wuchao River, split the long bamboo into six sections, tied them tightly with long grass, hurriedly tied a simple bamboo raft, jumped on the bamboo raft, and went down with the water.

The spirit fields of Eyang Mountain should be at the time of harvest. He was in seclusion and cultivation, and forgot this big event. I don't know if it's too late to rush over now!

Eyang Mountain is the territory of the Zhanglong Sect, a famous sect in Western Hunan, adjacent to the blessed land of Zhanglong Mountain. There is a leakage of the spirit spring vein in the blessed land of Zhanglong Mountain that opened a vent in Eyang Mountain. Although the spirit spring is not seen leaking, spiritual power permeates from here, covering a mountain hollow of two thousand mu in size on Eyang Mountain. Zhanglong Mountain opened spirit fields here, and the spirit rice produced contains spiritual power.

Ling'er, the fiancée who broke the marriage with Wei Hongqing, married Zang Qianli, an inner sect disciple of the Zhanglong Sect.

And it is the Zang family who manages the spirit fields of Eyang Mountain for the Zhanglong Sect.

Every deep autumn, when the spirit rice on Eyang Mountain is ripe, the Zang family has to recruit a batch of independent cultivators to rush to harvest, and at the same time pay some spirit rice as remuneration to the independent cultivators who help out. For many independent cultivators in Western Hunan, it is a good income.

On one side is the brotherly love, on the other side is the hunger in the stomach. Originally, Liu Xiaolou was hesitant about whether to abandon this opportunity, but since the brother ran away, he couldn't take care of the brotherly love for the time being.

Drifting down with the water of the Wuchao River, passing through Wuchao Town, and walking for more than ten miles, Liu Xiaolou abandoned the boat and went ashore, striding toward the northeast. After rushing all night, climbing over more than ten mountain peaks, he finally arrived at Eyang Mountain at dawn.

To the north of the mountain hollow are dozens of houses of various sizes. This is the Eyang Shanzhuang. To the south of the manor is a creek a foot wide. The two thousand mu of paddy fields reclaimed along the creek are the spirit fields of Eyang Mountain.

When Liu Xiaolou arrived, he saw a thin mist rising on the creek, scattering toward the spirit fields on both sides. This thin mist is the spiritual power leaked from the spirit spring vein, leaking out along this creek, evaporating every morning, nourishing the surrounding land.

He really wanted to rush over and take a few refreshing breaths, but this is strictly forbidden by Eyang Mountain. If everyone ran over to take a few breaths of spirit mist, what would be used to nourish the spirit fields? Therefore, the manor specifically set up a long fence wall to protect the spirit fields.

The fence wall falls at a push, or can be jumped over, but it represents the majesty of the Zhanglong Sect. No one dares to cross this rule, and Liu Xiaolou is the same, so he had to walk along the fence wall to the front of the manor and ask to see the manor master Zang Baili.

While waiting for the notification in front of the manor, many rogue cultivators had already walked out of the manor, each holding a sickle and carrying a bamboo basket, and went down to the spirit fields.

Terrible, it seems that I am late.

While pondering, he reached into his bosom and took out two spirit stones and a wooden box, handing them to Liu Xiaolou: "I am ashamed; I don't have many spirit stones on me either, so I must be taking advantage of you. I will compensate you in the future. By the way, this box of essence of pine resin is just right for your Three Mystical Sect's use; consider it a small token of my sincerity."

Liu Xiaolou likewise did not decline, taking the spirit stones and the small wooden box. He opened the wooden box and saw a three-inch square piece of pine resin lying inside; the fragrance faintly carried a sense of decay, and it was indeed the essence of pine resin.

This was the main ingredient for refining the Illusory Fragrance Tendon, one of the Three Mystical Sect's three supreme techniques, and it was extremely rare. After his master passed away, Liu Xiaolou's source had been cut off, and the last of the Illusory Fragrance Tendons had long since been used up. He had not known when he would be able to refine it again to restore his master's sect to its former glory, so he had not expected to obtain a piece today.

"Senior... seems very familiar with my master's sect?" Liu Xiaolou asked, blinking his eyes.

Longshan Sanren sighed: "Your master and I could be called close friends."

The term "close friend" was a common phrase among the rogue cultivators of Wulong Mountain, and Liu Xiaolou did not have any deep feelings about it, but this Longshan Sanren must have had some friendship with his master, Master Sanxuan, otherwise he would not have taken out the essence of pine resin to give away.

Longshan Sanren continued to head to various markets, rushing about to collect the materials for Foundation Establishment Pills. After collecting them, he would still have to find someone to refine the pills, which was a major hurdle that was extremely difficult to overcome. Whether he could finally fulfill his wish was not a problem for Liu Xiaolou to consider.

However, before leaving, Liu Xiaolou underwent a soul-searching ordeal.

He saw someone selling spirit elixirs, and many people were surrounding the seller, inquiring about the efficacy of these few spirit elixirs!

After squatting nearby and listening for a moment, he understood: these were healing spirit elixirs refined by the Lu clan of Mount Tianmu. As long as the injury was not fatal, it could delay the condition for severe cases, and for minor ones, it could heal them on the spot.

Such a spirit elixir had immense appeal for rogue cultivators who were often in life-and-death combat.

The other party had only managed to get three in total, and each spirit elixir was sold for two spirit stones. This price was indeed not high for the efficacy of the spirit elixir; it could even be said to be very low. These spirit elixirs must have been obtained through improper channels, and the seller was eager to get rid of them.

Smelling that medicinal fragrance, Liu Xiaolou wanted to buy them several times, only to feel dejected again; it was truly a torture. Many rogue cultivators were the same as him, surrounding the area, each feeling tormented.

When the torment reached its end, Liu Xiaolou was finally rescued from this painful state of mind: an outer sect disciple of the Zhanglong Sect passed by, squeezed into the crowd upon seeing the excitement, and then threw out six spirit stones. Looking like he had picked up a bargain, he left with a beaming smile.

Amidst a burst of cursing, the crowd dispersed with a roar.