Chapter 194

Ruan Xing asked curiously, "Didn't you all investigate me? Can't you find the reason?"

"Senior, you jest," Cen Zhong replied calmly. "Your transformation arts are masterful; to this day, we do not know how you enter and exit Canghai City freely, so how could we know what you did after leaving?"

"Since you can't find out, why would I tell you?"

Cen Zhong choked on his words.

Ruan Xing gave a slightly wanton smile. "Alright, don't disturb my pill refining."

Cen Zhong bowed his head and took his leave.

Among the newly delivered materials, there were six portions for Fifth-Tier Pills.

Ruan Xing refined them all, removed one failed portion, skimmed off ten percent of the remainder as usual, and then handed them to Cen Zhong.

Pill refining is also a time-consuming and laborious task; by the time she came out of the Pill Room again, two months had passed.

Cen Zhong gave her a few more pill formulas for Sixth-Tier Pills, but Ruan Xing was no longer as eager to upgrade her pill refining skills as she had been at the beginning.

To her, pill refining was just a means to make money; there was no need to pursue the highest realm.

Moreover, the points required to upgrade her pill refining skills now were not something she could afford.

By comparison, Ruan Xing wanted the formula for the Longevity Pill more; the Longevity Pill was a Fifth-Tier Pill, it did not require upgrading her pill refining skills, and the Longevity Pill was highly valuable, definitely enough to cover her expenses.

When she made this request to Cen Zhong once again, Cen Zhong kept a wooden face. "It is not that I won't give it to you, but that we truly do not have this pill formula."

"Then where do the Longevity Pills you auction come from? Since there are pills, there must be a formula. Can you at least point me in the right direction as to where this formula is obtained?"

Ruan Xing asked nonchalantly while rummaging through the freshly minted 300,000 Spirit Stones and a bottle of Spirit Nourishing Pill in her Storage Bag.

Cen Zhong shook his head silently and said nothing more.

Ruan Xing then set about continuing to deduce the incomplete cultivation technique in her memory.

300,000 Spirit Stones deposited meant only 3 million points, totaling less than 400 Simulation attempts; hopefully, she could succeed this time.

There were not that many high-level Cultivators in the world of Cultivation; if too many high-level pills were refined at once, the market would approach saturation, and the price of the pills would drop.

The next day, an uninvited guest arrived at Ruan Xing's small courtyard.

She had almost forgotten that she had come to Wanbao Tower at the invitation of the person before her.

For such a long time, she hadn't seen anyone else treat her with any special consideration.

The man in front of her wore a deep purple robe, held a jade-boned folding fan in his hand, and had his eyebrows slightly raised, wearing a smile that was familiar yet not overly intimate. He got straight to the point: "You want the formula for the Longevity Pill?"

Ruan Xing felt the atmosphere was somewhat strange; she coughed twice and did not speak rashly, instead opening the Real-scene Simulation first.

【Simulating】

"Come in and sit down to talk." Ruan Xing stepped aside and invited this Third Floor Master of Wanbao Tower inside.

She had no Spirit Tea in her courtyard to entertain guests, but this was Wanbao Tower's territory to begin with, and it wasn't her responsibility if there was no Spirit Tea. The Third Floor Master didn't mind either, and the two sat down at the stone table in the courtyard.

The Third Floor Master began, "Why do you want it?"

"Because it makes money," Ruan Xing said as a matter of course. "I am a Fifth-Tier Alchemist, and the Longevity Pill is the most expensive among Fifth-Tier Pills. Since I need Spirit Stones, of course I want to refine the one with the highest cost-effectiveness."

"To reach the Fifth-Tier, your talent in pill refining must far exceed others, and you must have your own unique understanding of the medicinal properties," the Third Floor Master said with a smile, stroking his folding fan. "Everything in the world becomes medicine because it possesses that specific effect. For example, the pills commonly used by Cultivators for cultivation—even if you just boiled the raw materials into a soup and drank it, you could still obtain abundant Spirit Qi for cultivation, it is just harder to refine and some Spirit Qi is lost. An alchemist's ability is to use more perfect methods and ratios to exert the greatest effect of all medicinal substances. What kind of raw material do you think can, by itself, extend a Cultivator's lifespan?"

Ruan Xing was silent for a long while.

Her pill refining level was raised by the Simulator; she knew how to refine, her techniques were very proficient, and she knew the effects and how to combine them upon seeing a medicinal ingredient. But just like the Chinese-style education she received in her past life:

Upon seeing a problem with excessive difficulty, the first thing that came to mind was not how to understand it, but how to get it right.

As long as the question was answered correctly, the process didn't matter at all.

Ruan Xing's pill refining was in such a state now.

She treated pill refining as a means to make money, so naturally, she would not delve deep or think about it.

As long as she could make money to top up her points, did the principles matter? But now, after hearing the Third Floor Master's words, she was indeed somewhat bewildered.

A Cultivator's lifespan is determined by the Heavenly Dao; a Foundation Establishment Cultivator only has two hundred years. They can die early, but they will never live a single year longer.

When the time comes, even without illness, disaster, injury, or pain, they will close their eyes and their souls will return to the heavens.

What kind of heaven-defying treasure could break the lifespan set by the Heavenly Dao?

In her short career of Cultivation, she had never heard of such a thing.

Seeing Ruan Xing fall into confusion, the Third Floor Master waited for a moment. He did not doubt the legitimacy of Ruan Xing's pill refining skills; he just felt that the young Righteous Cultivators in the world of Cultivation had been kept in the dark for too long.

The Third Floor Master sighed and continued, "We do not have the formula for the Longevity Pill; all Longevity Pills are transported from the Northern Territory."

"The Longevity Pill is refined by Demon Cultivators? And Wanbao Tower has a cooperative relationship with Demon Cultivators?" Ruan Xing widened her eyes in surprise.

"Are you shocked? Then if I told you that thousands of years ago, Demon Cultivators and Immortal Cultivators lived together in peace on the Xianyuan Continent, would you be even more shocked?" the Third Floor Master said amusedly.

She wasn't shocked by this.

After all, she had already seen it in the memories of the Sumeru Tree.

There were also the Immortal and the Demon Lord as evidence.

Before the Immortal-Mortal War, although there was friction between Immortals and Demons, they did indeed coexist in every state of the Xianyuan Continent.

What she didn't expect was that thousands of years had passed, and the traces of Demon Cultivators had not been truly erased from the other states.

Instead, they had shifted to more hidden, underground methods.

Perhaps... other Sects or forces had also, to a greater or lesser extent, established connections with Demon Cultivators that had never been broken.

It was just that these things were not put out in the open.

"If you really want to obtain the recipe for the Longevity Pill, I can take you to the Northern Territory to have a look," the Third Floor Master said meaningfully. "But you can only look, you cannot do anything. After all, you have signed a Contract and are now an alchemist for my Wanbao Tower."

Should she go and see?

Ruan Xing lowered her head in thought.

This might be the closest she would ever get to the Longevity Pill, and besides, it was in a Simulation, so there was nothing to worry about.

It was just that...

Judging by the Third Floor Master's tone, it seemed that the Longevity Pill refined by the alchemists in the Northern Territory was not a simple matter.

(The Lotus Root Breaks, but the Fibers Remain Connected)

She nodded, "Alright, I will go."

The Third Floor Master's gaze rested quietly on her for a few seconds, "I hope you will not regret it."

Thanks to Hopeful Sixth Son for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Pumpkin General for the monthly ticket~