Chapter 53: Have Some Luoqi Pills

Ruan Xing obtained many pill formulas used by mortals in the world of Cultivation from her memories; there were those for preserving youth and beauty, and those for prolonging life, but there was simply nothing regarding the Luoqi Pill.

She had spent three years in the simulation refining mortal-grade pills that were not even ranked; if she were to choose a skill, perhaps her Medicine Refining Mastery would have already upgraded to Refining Medicine Grandmaster.

Ruan Xing decided to simulate again following the previous route, choosing a random skill.

【Congratulations, you have obtained the alchemy experience of a twenty-three-year-old.】

The Medicine Refining Mastery in the panel quietly transformed into Refining Medicine Grandmaster, having reached the most top-tier stage among mortals.

It was a pity that knowing how to refine medicine did not mean knowing medical arts; in the early stages of her alchemy, she had farmed experience in Martial Medicine Liquid and some poisons, and in the later stages, she had farmed experience in youth-preserving and life-prolonging, so she was completely out of touch with curing illnesses and saving lives; otherwise, she could have incidentally farmed a medical skill as well.

Since she already possessed Refining Medicine Grandmaster, when she went to the herb shop this time, would the shopkeeper look at her differently and teach her some ranked pill formulas...

【Currently simulating】

……

At twenty, you enter the city and find a herb shop; the shopkeeper takes you in, and upon learning that you know alchemy, he assigns most of the unranked pill orders to you, with a monthly wage of twenty taels of Silver; you spend a portion of the silver to rent a place to stay.

Afterward, you work diligently at alchemy every day, your work efficiency is high, and you make an outstanding contribution to the herb shop's order fulfillment rate; the shopkeeper praises you happily, and you take the opportunity to ask him about the Luoqi Pill; the shopkeeper says that the Luoqi Pill is a ranked First-rank Alchemist's pill, expensive, and not something an ordinary mortal can afford, so he rarely refines it.

You ask why the Luoqi Pill is a pill for mortals yet is a ranked Spirit Pill. The shopkeeper replies that the function of the Luoqi Pill is to cleanse the bones and meridians, allowing mortals to possess Spirit Bones capable of Cultivation; even though such Spirit Bones are of lower quality compared to Heavenly Spirit Bones, they still make those mortals who possess no Spirit Bones flock to it.

You give the shopkeeper three medicine bottles containing white pills to appraise; after looking at them, the shopkeeper says these are Gathering Qi Pills used by Qi Refining disciples to assist in cultivation; although they are also First-rank Spirit Pills, the price is low.

You ask some more questions regarding Spirit Bones and the Luoqi Pill, all of which the shopkeeper answers one by one; afterward, you want to apprentice under the shopkeeper to learn to be an alchemist, but the shopkeeper says he is only a First-rank Alchemist and cannot teach you anything, and a small herb shop cannot afford to support two First-rank Alchemists, so he refuses you.

At twenty-one, you have saved one hundred taels of Silver in the herb shop and decide to change jobs; the shopkeeper tries to persuade you to stay for a few sentences but does not force you, letting you go. You ask around everywhere about where the work pays well, but apart from hunting Monster Beasts and picking Spirit Herbs in harsh environments, there is no public work that can earn Spirit Stones, and since you have no cultivation, you cannot do either of these jobs.

After asking around in many places, you decide to go to Wanbao Tower to work as a Maid; Wanbao Tower is similar to a modern high-end shopping mall, selling various high-level materials, pills, Dharma Artifacts, Spirit Tools, and some high-level Spirit Talismans and Array Disks, so those acting as shopping guides inside are all young men and women with good looks, and the monthly wage is four or five times higher than the herb shop; relying on your outstanding appearance, you obtain the opportunity to work at Wanbao Tower.

At twenty-two, you have worked at Wanbao Tower for a year; through constant exposure, you have learned quite a bit of knowledge and pricing regarding pills and Dharma treasures in the world of Cultivation, and you have also saved over one thousand taels of Silver; you decide to take the silver and leave this town; before leaving, you sell those three bottles of Gathering Qi Pills and exchange them for six Low-grade Spirit Stones; not long after leaving the city, a Qi Refining Loose Cultivator approaches you, demanding you hand over the Spirit Stones on your person; you refuse and have a fight with him using Talismans, but you have no Spirit Talismans on your person, the power range of the Talismans is limited, and it is difficult to cause damage when he is on guard; your True Qi Body Protection cannot withstand the opponent's spells, and even by fighting for your life, you can only wound the opponent; you die.

【Simulation ended】

Still choosing memory, Ruan Xing sighs; had she known, she wouldn't have left the city; in that memory of her time at Wanbao Tower, she learned of quite a few alchemists who had cooperative relationships with the city and Wanbao Tower; she could have gone to apprentice or even become a servant at their Cave Abode; perhaps she could have stolen a bit of knowledge.

It is also true that a beautiful mortal woman alone is easily noticed by those with ulterior motives, and on top of that, she was carrying Spirit Stones, like a three-year-old holding gold through a busy market—of course it would attract greedy hearts! Moreover, she only had the Acquired Realm of martial arts; even with Spirit Talismans, resisting in front of a Cultivator was like a mayfly shaking a tree.

She roughly understood the realms of Cultivation: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Spirit Severing, Return to Void. Above Return to Void, one can ascend to the Spirit Realm; as for what the Spirit Realm is actually like, no one knows.

The first three layers of Qi Refining are still in the stage of guiding Qi into the body and refining Qi in the meridians; not even the meridians in the body have been fully expanded, so not only is the body's strength weaker than a mortal who has practiced martial arts, but one also cannot learn many spells; back when she was carrying water and watering fields at the foot of the mountain, most Outer Sect Disciples at the first or second layer of Qi Refining would exhaust their Spirit Qi before they had even finished watering one acre of land with a Small Cloud and Rain Spell, which is why she dared to boldly trick a male Cultivator at the second layer of Qi Refining into going down the mountain with her and killing him.

Once at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, all the meridians in the body are fully expanded, and one can officially learn some low-level spells; although one runs out of fuel after casting them two or three times, at least one has a means of attack, right? And most Qi Refining disciples also supplement their training with Sword Technique, because apart from the fact that Sword Technique only requires a Dharma Sword, all other techniques require Spirit Stones or Sect contribution points to exchange.

Furthermore, the fourth layer of Qi Refining is also the minimum standard for leaving the city to hunt Monster Beasts; no Monster Hunting Team will want you if you are not at the fourth layer, because you are of no use at all.

Ruan Xing quietly compares herself; she should be able to beat anyone below the third layer of Qi Refining; of course, the premise is that this person cannot be someone who obtained their Spirit Bone through a Luoqi Pill, as anyone who can eat a Luoqi Pill to cleanse their Spirit Bones must have gone through the Acquired Realm, and their body strength cannot be compared to other third-layer Qi Refining cultivators.

She should also be able to clash with someone at the fourth layer of Qi Refining, but above the fifth layer, it is probably a different story—a three-seven split; they take three moves, and she has her funeral on the seventh day.

Perhaps at the current stage, she should not focus on escaping the Evil Cultivator's attack, but rather on accelerating the acquisition of the Luoqi Pill to cleanse her Spirit Bones.

She isn't worried about "lower quality" aptitude or anything; anyway, ever since she started practicing martial arts, she hasn't really practiced it herself...

Once the Simulator is turned on, heh, isn't every realm just within her grasp? And the price of the Luoqi Pill makes Ruan Xing sigh in despair; Wanbao Tower has them—one bottle of six pills sells for eighty Low-grade Spirit Stones; depending on the difference in martial arts aptitude, for a mortal to cleanse their Spirit Bones, it starts at three bottles with no upper limit.

Ruan Xing has self-awareness regarding her aptitude; she needs at least five bottles.

That would be four hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones.

No wonder those mortals who spent a huge price still could only remain mortals after entering the world of Cultivation.

Who the hell can afford this!

She has actually been carrying those twenty thousand taels of silver banknotes all along, but the world of Cultivation doesn't have the concept of a bank; it's all about real gold and silver, or trading with Spirit Stones; having silver banknotes is useless—no one recognizes them.

After calculating carefully, she had over thirty thousand, lent ten thousand to Cui Yurong, and still has over twenty thousand left; the old man's cave also has forty thousand taels of silver banknotes hidden in it; if all these banknotes were exchanged for silver and then brought to the world of Cultivation to be exchanged for Spirit Stones, it would be about—sixty Low-grade Spirit Stones.

Damn it, can't even afford one bottle.

And over sixty thousand taels of silver would require three or four large chests to hold; she simply cannot carry it with her. Exchanging it for gold would also be tough; would six thousand-plus taels of gold really be small in volume? Carrying it on her person would still be very obvious.

This is simply an unsolvable problem; Ruan Xing sits on the bed thinking: if she doesn't go with the Immortal on the eagle, can she cross the layers of mountain passes to reach the world of Cultivation?

Ruan Xing guesses there might be a barrier or natural chasm, but she still has to simulate to test it.

……

A few seconds later.

Damn it! There are Monster Beasts! Ruan Xing's face is dark; when she walks to the desolate border, she can clearly feel a jelly-like barrier; Ruan Xing passes through it very easily, and there are no signs of being annihilated into ash, but when she wants to pass back through, the jelly-like barrier becomes incomparably hard, like a layer of transparent, sturdy glass—she cannot break it, nor can she find a gap.

She only tries it once before giving up, intending to continue walking outward to see if she can cross the continuous mountain peaks she saw while in the sky, but only ten minutes after walking into the mountains, she is pinned to the ground by a flower-spotted leopard with blood-red eyes, and after feeling the pain of being torn for a few seconds, she dies.

How could a flower-spotted leopard appear in the mountain forest? And that speed was so fast she didn't even see it clearly.

Then it can only be an unscientific Monster Beast raised by an unscientific world of Cultivation.

No wonder the barrier allows exit but not entry; it turns out it was to protect mortals from being harmed by Monster Beasts.

She now understands why there is no armed force within the dynasty other than the Patrol Security Division; the surroundings are all uninhabited mountain ranges—there is no one to attack other countries, let alone be attacked.

With the protection of the barrier, living in a corner, self-sufficient, and living out one's life in peace—it actually looks quite happy.

If one didn't know that there were Cultivators outside.

Ruan Xing can only change her line of thinking; what if she goes directly to find an alchemist to try?

【Currently simulating】

……

At twenty, you enter the city and find the Cave Abode of a high-level alchemist, requesting to apprentice, but you are driven away by the disciples under the alchemist.

You switch to a second-rank alchemist and continue to request to apprentice; the other party refuses on the grounds that you have no Spirit Bones and cannot use Spirit Qi to ignite Earth Fire for alchemy; you change your tune, saying you only hope to follow by the alchemist's side as a servant to help out and do not covet an apprenticeship, so the alchemist takes you in, providing food and lodging, but no wages.

You observe the alchemist refining pills and handle medicine dregs for him, cleaning the Pill Room; the pills the alchemist refines each month are sent by you to Wanbao Tower for sale; because you were a Maid at Wanbao Tower, you know that every cooperative contract signed by an alchemist has a fixed amount, so you don't secretly embezzle a single pill, and the alchemist gradually begins to trust you.

The alchemist uses the Spirit Stones exchanged from his monthly alchemy to supply his own cultivation, and since he only has you as a servant, after a long time, he teaches you some simple preliminary processing methods for medicinal materials to save him time; many of these materials you had already experienced at the herb shop, so you process them quickly and well, and the alchemist is very satisfied.

At twenty-one, in the mechanical work of observing the alchemist refine pills and purchasing and processing various medicinal materials, you slowly piece together several pill formulas refined by the alchemist; the second-rank pills he refines include Calming Pill and Jade Beauty Pill; the first-rank pills include Gathering Qi Pill, Luoqi Pill, Hemostatic Powder, and Clearing Heart Pill.

At twenty-two, you propose to the alchemist whether he can refine a few bottles of Luoqi Pill for you; you will work for him for free for a hundred years once you step into Qi Refining and learn to refine pills, and all the pills you refine will be exchanged for Spirit Stones to supply your master's cultivation; the alchemist is somewhat moved—he is at Qi Refining Perfection and is indeed about to step into Foundation Establishment, which requires a lot of time to cultivate—but he also feels that it will take at least a few years for you to learn alchemy, which would delay his current Foundation Establishment, so he refuses you and says he will consider this matter after he reaches Foundation Establishment.

At twenty-three, the alchemist has not yet reached Foundation Establishment; Evil Cultivators invade, and while the City Lord is leading most of the city's Cultivators to resist the Evil Cultivators, you rush into the Pill Room that the alchemist never lets you enter and, before dying, get a bottle of Luoqi Pill in your hand.

【Simulation ended】

Ruan Xing was a bit conflicted; she did not know whether she should choose the memory or the items. If she chose the memory, she could obtain the prescriptions for the Luoqi Pill and some other Pills, but if she chose the items, she could obtain six Luoqi Pills.

However, choosing items involved randomness, and if she consumed the Luoqi Pills, her realm would certainly improve; she did not know if that would affect the subsequent development of the Simulation.

Forget it. Anyway, her realm was low right now, and one Simulation only cost one hundred points. She had over four million points, so what was there to fear? Wouldn't it be fine to just simulate a few more times? Only children make choices; she would have it all! After choosing the memory, Ruan Xing followed this path in the Simulation again and successfully obtained another bottle of Luoqi Pills.

With this bottle of Luoqi Pills in hand, it was as if she had a calming pill, and she was no longer so anxious.

Even if there was only one bottle, she could use the Simulator to make one bottle have the effect of a hundred bottles. It was just that she was not in a hurry to use the Luoqi Pills; she worried that once she stepped into the Innate realm, the Simulator would upgrade, and by then, a Simulation would cost one thousand points each time, which was ten taels of Silver per time... It didn't seem like that much, but given the frequency with which she used the Simulation, she was afraid she would consume a huge amount without realizing it.

She had to take advantage of this time when the point consumption was relatively low to grind her skills. At the very least, she had to learn alchemy and talisman drawing; otherwise, once she reached the world of Cultivation, she would have no means of making money. If she couldn't earn money and just sat around eating through her savings, how would she be able to simulate?

Ruan Xing first used the Simulator to cultivate by consuming Luoqi Pills, repeating this four or five times. Once she reached Post-Heaven Perfection and was only one bottle away from breaking through to the Innate realm, she stopped and continued to simulate along the Alchemist path. In her memory, that Alchemist was a relatively kind and easy-going figure. As long as she solved the Spirit Bone problem herself and added a century of unpaid labor, she didn't believe the Alchemist wouldn't be tempted.

【Simulation in progress】

……

At twenty years old, you enter the city and find a pawnshop, selling all the gold necklaces and gold bracelets on your person in exchange for over three hundred taels of Silver. You find a place to rent in the city and begin consuming Luoqi Pills to cultivate. Seven days later, you successfully break through to the Innate realm.

You find the residence of the Second-rank Alchemist and request to become his apprentice, promising that if you succeed in becoming his apprentice, all the Pills you refine within a hundred years will belong to your master, and the Spirit Stones earned will be provided to your master for his cultivation without charge. The Alchemist is shocked by your request. He asks you: since the lifespan of the Qi Refining stage is no more than a hundred years, how will you cultivate if you don't want a single Spirit Stone? Are you willing to stay in the Qi Refining stage for the rest of your life just to work for him? Thanks to alby for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to jane55 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Rosetta_ for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Qisheng Qichang for the monthly ticket~(End of this chapter)