Chapter 60: Arriving at Yunyang City in a Flash

Although those living at the foot of the mountain lacked independent cave abodes or residences, they at least had single rooms and didn't have to crowd together with others; servants were different, as dozens of them could live in a single three-room courtyard.

Whether it was because Ruan Xing was too young or because she had hinted that she would leave, the disciple had assigned her to work in the Spirit Field but hadn't arranged any specific tasks; since the other servants had already gone to the Spirit Field to work in the broad daylight, only Ruan Xing remained in her room with a small bundle on her back.

This was exactly what she wanted.

Rummaging through her small bundle, she took out two small medicine bottles, one of which contained Luoqi Pill; clutching this bottle of Luoqi Pill, Ruan Xing began the process of simulating a breakthrough.

She already had the experience of breaking through to the Innate realm several times in her memory; stepping into the Innate realm meant she was already half a step away from transcending the mortal, as the True Qi in her body began to transform into Spirit Qi, and this transformation process would also nourish her roots and meridians, allowing her mortal bones to transform into Spirit Bone—a process that usually took anywhere from ten days to a month.

Moreover, because it was the conversion of True Qi into Spirit Qi, although the quality increased and the quantity decreased, it still allowed her to skip the step of drawing Qi into the body to circulate the cycles that those without a foundation had to go through; therefore, once the transformation was complete, she would start at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, and depending on other factors, she could reach even higher—Ruan Xing reached the Qi Refining Sixth Layer almost every time she converted, without exception.

This simulation was the same: after breaking through to the Innate realm via the Luoqi Pill, Ruan Xing leisurely farmed in the Spirit Field at the foot of the mountain while converting her Spirit Qi; half a month later, she reached the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. After plucking half a catty of Spirit Rice as her wages for that half-month, Ruan Xing left the Six Suns Study and headed toward the nearest town at the foot of the mountain, Yunyang City.

After renting a residence with the gold she had on her, Ruan Xing bought materials for drawing talismans, drew some second-grade and third-grade Spirit Talismans to hang in Wanbao Tower for sale, and then used the resulting Spirit Stones to buy a Medicine Cauldron and Spirit Herbs, refining them into Gathering Qi Pill for her own cultivation use.

The goal of this simulation was very clear: to improve her cultivation; therefore, Ruan Xing did not spend much time on drawing talismans or refining pills. Once she had enough Gathering Qi Pill, she stopped and devoted herself to daily cultivation to improve her level until the age of twenty-three, when Yunyang City was invaded and destroyed by an Evil Cultivator; by then, she had finally reached the Qi Refining Eighth Layer.

Simulation ended.

Ruan Xing took a deep breath before finally turning her attention to the cultivation level she had never focused on before, and silently chose it.

The next moment, her small face crumpled from the sudden, overwhelming pain; she bit her lip hard but still couldn't help but let out a soft cry of pain.

The transformation of her Spirit Bone, which had originally been spread over half a month, now happened in an instant—this was something she hadn't expected. Enduring the pain and unbearable itch as if every bone in her body had shattered and was regrowing, these sensations slowly dissipated after about a quarter of an hour.

By then, Ruan Xing's cold sweat had already soaked through her clothes.

With messy strands of hair sticking to her forehead, she wiped her face with her hand; feeling the fullness of the Spirit Qi in her body, she trembled with excitement.

She reached out her hand, guided a wisp of Spiritual Power to dance at her fingertips, and murmured, "Is this the feeling of Cultivation? Not bad at all."

Once her excitement had cooled slightly, Ruan Xing began to attend to another matter: in the small medicine bottle she had also taken out earlier was that piece of flesh and blood from Sun Daozhang.

Although it was sealed, more than ten days had passed, and there were some signs of it starting to stink, but fortunately, it was still usable.

Recalling Sun Daozhang's birth date and time from her memory, Ruan Xing pulled out a piece of Yellow Paper, wrote on it, then chanted a spell, folded the Yellow Paper into a thin strip, and stuffed it into the medicine bottle; within moments, a foul odor from the burning had already begun to emanate from the bottle.

This meant it was a success.

Ruan Xing felt a surge of joy, and the tension in her heart finally eased.

She put the lid back on, planning to destroy the evidence of the bottle after going down the mountain.

The curse she had just used was the same method the Hongtou Daoren had previously used to curse her to death: it ignored distance and only required the flesh and blood and the birth date of the person or their closest kin; the only drawback was that the caster could not have a lower cultivation than the target, otherwise the effect would be relatively poor.

Ruan Xing was now at the Qi Refining Eighth Layer, while Sun Daozhang had already had his cultivation crippled; since she had successfully cast the spell without any sign of backlash, it meant that Sun Daozhang had already met his end.

Killing the enemy was the safest way of self-defense.

The Simulator had also entered an upgrade and would require twelve hours before it could be used again; she wondered what new functions it would have this time, though what Ruan Xing cared about most was the cost of each simulation.

Please, don't let the inflation be too excessive!

Next was to set off for Yunyang City.

Having been there so many times in her memories, she could recognize the road to Yunyang City even with her eyes closed.

Carrying her small bundle, Ruan Xing walked out of the restricted area of the Six Suns Study; worried about the barrier on the mountain, she only summoned Sword Lai in her heart to send him the coordinates to come over after walking a long distance. Because of their mental link, she and Sword Lai could sense each other's positions, but Sword Lai still had to pass through many mountain passes, and even with his fast escape technique, it would take some time.

By the time Ruan Xing's short legs reached the city gate, Sword Lai had arrived; although he was hidden in the air, Ruan Xing could sense that the youth was already nearby, waiting for her orders.

Entering the city required a fee of one Low-grade Spirit Stone; Ruan Xing had no Spirit Stones on her, so she handed over ten taels of gold. Fortunately, Sword Lai didn't need to pay; she didn't know if the Yunyang City barrier didn't count him as a living person or if it simply hadn't detected that she was carrying a Puppet with her.

She was already very familiar with Yunyang City; she didn't need to cultivate herself, so she didn't need to rent a cave abode with a Spirit Gathering Array. She found a mortal intermediary agency, spent a tael of gold to rent a relatively spacious courtyard, and then went to Wanbao Tower to sell that bottle of Luoqi Pill she had used countless times.

The selling price of Luoqi Pill was eighty Low-grade Spirit Stones per bottle, but the purchase price was much lower; Ruan Xing only sold it for sixty Low-grade Spirit Stones, but she mainly wanted to save trouble and not waste time; otherwise, if she set up a stall at the Cultivator market and hawked it for two days, she could probably sell it for over seventy Low-grade Spirit Stones.

In the past, when she read novels, she was very curious about what Spirit Stones actually looked like; since they were natural ores mined from the earth, they must vary in size, and she wondered how their quality was classified.

Now that she was actually holding a Spirit Stone in her hand, she realized that Spirit Stones were about the size of grapes on a vine—round, smooth, oval-shaped beads; their sizes generally didn't differ too much, and the quality was distinguished by the concentration of Spirit Qi contained within the stone.

Those between twenty and forty percent were Low-grade Spirit Stones;

Those between forty and sixty percent were Mid-grade Spirit Stones;

Those between sixty and eighty percent were High-grade Spirit Stones. From this, it could be inferred that those with a Spirit Qi concentration of over eighty percent were Top-grade Spirit Stones.

Although those below twenty percent also contained Spirit Qi, they had too many impurities to be used for cultivation, though they could be used as raw materials for artifact refining and construction.

So, could one use up a portion of a Low-grade Spirit Stone with thirty-eight percent concentration through cultivation, turning it into a twenty-percent concentration Low-grade Spirit Stone, and then spend it?

The answer was no; it was originally a naturally formed grape-shaped bead, and if a portion of the Spirit Qi was used up, a spot on the Spirit Stone would dim, turning it into a flawed, misshapen stone that would be spotted by others.

Of course, if someone insisted on using transformation spells or illusions to create counterfeit Spirit Stones, it would be putting the cart before the horse, because Low-grade Spirit Stones weren't worth the effort, and you couldn't fool a Cultivator who could afford High-grade Spirit Stones.

With the effort it took to figure out how to make counterfeit currency, one might as well go find a Secret Realm to pick some Spirit Herbs to sell.

After selling the Luoqi Pill, Ruan Xing wasn't in a hurry to leave; instead, she picked out some items on the first floor of Wanbao Tower that could be used during the Qi Refining stage. Although Wanbao Tower's items were slightly more expensive than those in the market, they were guaranteed; she didn't want to waste time playing mind games with the shrewd people in the market. Those stories of picking up bargains at low prices only happened to the Children of Destiny; with her luck, she'd better forget it.

A small Medicine Cauldron for pill refining, a cluster of ordinary-quality Earth Fire, some Spirit Herb materials for refining Gathering Qi Pill, Zhixue Pill, and Spirit Returning Pill, a stack of Yellow Paper, a talisman brush, and two bottles of Cinnabar—Ruan Xing spent the sixty Low-grade Spirit Stones completely.

Carrying this pile of things back to her rented temporary courtyard, she began to refine pills and draw talismans.

She chose some first-grade and second-grade Spirit Pills and Spirit Talismans that sold well, so that after refining them, she could sell them as soon as possible to save up her first pot of gold. Given her success rate, there was almost no waste; once this batch was sold, not only would she recoup the sixty Low-grade Spirit Stones, but she could also earn extra for emergencies.

No matter when it was, one always felt insecure without money in hand.

As for why she, a Fourth-Tier talisman master, didn't make higher-priced fourth-grade talismans: one reason was that there was less demand for expensive items, making them harder to sell, and the raw materials required were more refined—she currently couldn't afford the Spirit Wood needed to make fourth-grade talismans. Another reason was that there were pitifully few fourth-tier talisman masters in Yunyang City; in the simulation where she became a fourth-tier talisman master, the market manager had watched her like a hawk, afraid she would run away. Presumably, if she had wanted to leave Yunyang City at that time, even if the manager had been willing, others wouldn't have let her go; after all, such a low-cultivation cash cow was rare.

This wasn't a simulation; she was in reality, and to avoid accidents, she had to keep a low profile.

She first refined a batch of Gathering Qi Pill. The courtyard where mortals lived didn't have a Pill Room dedicated to Cultivators, but she had considered this when renting and specifically chose a courtyard with a large space so she could refine pills in the open area; since the city was protected by a barrier, there wouldn't be any unexpected phenomena like strong winds that would affect the pill formation.

Igniting the Earth Fire and setting up the Medicine Cauldron, Ruan Xing added the medicinal materials one by one according to the pill formula, carefully controlling the heat. After all, she had refined Gathering Qi Pill thousands of times in the simulations, so the process of extracting the Medicine Liquid was quite skillful, and the medicinal properties were preserved to the greatest extent. When it came to the pill formation, Ruan Xing carefully used her Spiritual Power to control the Medicine Cauldron, using high heat to condense the liquid into pill form.

Putting away the Earth Fire and letting the Medicine Cauldron land gently, Ruan Xing counted them: twenty-three pills, not bad. Under normal circumstances, one set of materials could produce seventeen or eighteen to twenty-plus pills, depending mainly on whether there was any waste during the extraction process; as long as the heat was controlled well, producing over twenty pills each time was no problem.

One set of materials cost about three Low-grade Spirit Stones, and a bottle of Gathering Qi Pill (six pills) sold for two Low-grade Spirit Stones. Of course, Wanbao Tower's purchase price would be slightly lower, but with twenty-three pills, she could round that up to four bottles, netting a profit of five Low-grade Spirit Stones.

And she refined a batch in less than a quarter of an hour.

This was much more profitable than working in a factory screwing in bolts.

The Spiritual Power of the Qi Refining Eighth Layer was enough to support her in refining pills without stopping; Ruan Xing went all out and refined all the other medicinal materials she had bought, sorted them into small medicine bottles, and looked at the results on the table with satisfaction.

There were seven bottles of Gathering Qi Pill, and twenty bottles of Zhixue Pill and Spirit Returning Pill; the latter were more expensive, so if nothing went wrong, she decided these would be her main sources of income for the time being.

Her Spiritual Power was mostly depleted, so Ruan Xing had to go back to bed to meditate, recover, and rest. Her cultivation was currently low and she was still a mortal, so she would have to wait until she reached the Golden Core Stage and reshaped her body before she could completely abandon the need for eating and sleeping.

Ruan Xing spent the first day of her arrival in the world of Cultivation in such a fulfilling way; from boarding the Black Eagle in the morning to being in Yunyang City by night, she was so busy she barely touched the ground, yet she felt much more at ease now that she had cultivation than she ever did before.

Ruan Xing was afraid she would laugh out loud even in her dreams.

Now that she was already in Qi Refining, wasn't transcending the tribulation and ascending to immortality just around the corner?

After meditating for an hour, Ruan Xing lay on the bed and closed her eyes; as for things like talisman making, she would talk about that tomorrow.

She had a good night's sleep.

Ruan Xing got up feeling refreshed, first checking the countdown for the Simulator's update—there were still two and a half hours left—then she went out for breakfast before taking a pile of small medicine bottles to Wanbao Tower, heading straight to the counter that purchased Pills; the attendant inside checked the grade and integrity of the Pills, then provided Spirit Stones at a purchase price slightly lower than the market rate, and when Ruan Xing received them and took a quick count, there were 127 Low-grade Spirit Stones.

This was about the same as her own estimate; it seemed that alchemy was a very lucrative industry, but in reality, it was mainly because Ruan Xing had a relatively high success rate that she could have this income; ordinary alchemists were not like Ruan Xing, who could produce pills in almost every furnace, and it was a frequent occurrence to produce a furnace of waste pills if one was slightly careless.

As for Ruan Xing, it was nothing else, just that her hands were skilled!

The experience from so many Simulations was not practiced in vain; the improvement in success rate relied on one percent effort and ninety-nine percent Simulator.

After putting away the Spirit Stones, she went to browse the first floor again; this time she wanted to add a Storage Bag for herself, as carrying a small bundle around every day was quite troublesome; she had wanted to buy one yesterday, but the price of Storage Bags was daunting—the most basic one with only two cubic meters of space cost fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones, and if she bought it, she would have no startup capital for alchemy.

Although it pained her a bit, Ruan Xing still spent fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones to buy the most basic Storage Bag, a small pouch style that did not require a drop of blood to claim ownership; after imprinting her Divine Sense, it was equivalent to putting on a lock, and she didn't need to worry about losing it, because unless she died, only someone two major realms higher than her could forcibly erase this mark and break the lock, though a Golden Core Stage Cultivator probably wouldn't look twice at her pile of junk.

As for if she died... then the mark would naturally dissipate on its own.

Opening the lock to put the small bundle she was carrying and the remaining Spirit Stones all inside, Ruan Xing's next step was to go to the area where cultivation techniques, Magic Arts, and Dharma Artifacts were sold to take a look.

(End of this chapter)