Chapter 85: Zhou Clan's Pill Shop

The next day at the hour of wei.

Zhou Sen gathered all the servants, the shopkeeper, and the other two pill refinement guest elders of the Zhou Clan's Pill Shop in the back hall courtyard.

"Everyone, standing beside me is Daoist Sansu. From now on, he will be a new pill Dao guest elder of my Zhou family."

"When this old man is not at the market, Guest Elder Sansu will be the chief alchemist. Aside from buying and selling pills, all other matters will follow his arrangements."

Xu Chuan felt somewhat overwhelmed by this honor, not expecting Zhou Sen to value him so highly. However, he didn't know whether this was genuine regard or merely putting on a show in front of everyone.

"Greetings to Guest Elder Sansu."

"Greetings to Fellow Daoist Sansu."

Everyone cupped their fists in greeting.

Xu Chuan surveyed everyone and immediately saw that the other two guest elders seemed somewhat displeased, while the others carried at least some sincerity.

"Alright, the two guest elders stay behind. The rest of you, get back to your tasks."

In an instant, only the four of them remained in the courtyard.

Zhou Sen then introduced the other two guest elders to Xu Chuan.

"This is Ding Ming, Fellow Daoist Ding. The other is Zuoqiu Fu, Fellow Daoist Zuoqiu."

Ding Ming had a well-proportioned build with a short beard, ordinary features, and a middle-aged appearance. Zuoqiu Fu was slightly plump with an honest-looking face and graying temples.

Xu Chuan's divine sense swept over them, detecting that the former was at fifth layer of Qi Refining while the latter was only at sixth layer of Qi Refining.

"Fellow Daoists Ding and Zuoqiu, this old man observes that you two seem somewhat unconvinced by this elder's decision?"

"Elder Zhou, that's too serious. We will naturally comply with your arrangements." Ding Ming said with a smile.

Zhou Sen stroked his long beard and nodded, "That's best. Whether in pill Dao attainment or cultivation level, both of you are inferior to Fellow Daoist Sansu, so naturally he should take the lead."

Although Xu Chuan only began practicing martial arts in middle age, he achieved success quickly in martial training, and his speed wasn't slow either, so his appearance looked like he hadn't yet reached forty.

Hearing Zhou Sen's words, they immediately used divine sense to observe and instantly discovered Xu Chuan's seventh layer Qi Refining cultivation.

Unless immortal cultivators had breath-concealing techniques or their cultivation levels differed greatly, divine sense could detect the other party's realm and cultivation level.

"Fellow Daoist Ding, I'll trouble you to help Fellow Daoist Sansu familiarize himself with the pill refinement matters of our Zhou Clan's Pill Shop." Zhou Sen then looked at Xu Chuan, "Fellow Daoist Sansu, you'll start refining pills tomorrow. Any issues?"

"What about Fellow Daoist Yunming?"

"If he's willing, he can also stay in the guest rooms of my pill shop. If he wants to leave, that's naturally fine too."

"Of course, if he has any particular skills, joining our Zhou clan is also acceptable."

Xu Chuan smiled and nodded, "Many thanks. I'll inform Fellow Daoist Yunming of this matter, but how he chooses, I don't know."

Zhou Sen nodded, then left with Fellow Daoist Zuoqiu.

Ding Ming led Xu Chuan to tour the pill refinement rooms first. The Zhou Clan's Pill Shop only had three pill rooms.

After Xu Chuan became a guest elder, Zhou Sen would probably return to the Zhou family in just a few days.

"Fellow Daoist Sansu, here we have three pill refinement rooms labeled A, B, and C. Previously, Room A belonged to Elder Zhou Sen, but now that you've come, it naturally belongs to you."

"As for what pills to refine, it depends on scheduling. For example, if detoxification pills are running low, we need to refine some. Whichever pills are selling well in the market, we'll refine those."

Xu Chuan nodded slightly.

He had visited the Yuehu Market and knew that the Zhou Clan's Pill Shop wasn't the only one selling pills.

With competition comes motivation.

This principle applied whether to ordinary mortals or immortal cultivators.

"May I study all the pill formulas? Although this humble one knows some pill Dao, I've wandered for years and don't know many pill formulas."

Ding Ming, being a rogue cultivator himself, naturally understood.

Back in the day, to obtain even an ordinary pill formula, he had also exhausted great effort.

It wasn't until his pill refinement skills showed some achievement and he gradually gained reputation that his circumstances improved slightly.

Two years ago, taking advantage of the Zhou family's large-scale recruitment of alchemists, he fortunately passed the test and became a Zhou family guest elder, only then stabilizing his situation.

He had stayed until now.

When he first arrived, he only knew three ordinary pill formulas and similarly learned while practicing.

"This isn't a big problem. As long as you make a Dao heart oath in front of Elder Zhou Sen that you absolutely won't leak the pill formulas, he'll certainly have these formulas copied for you."

"Then I'll go find Elder Zhou Sen right away."

Xu Chuan didn't hesitate much. He believed that as long as he obtained the pill formulas, with his continuous research in pill Dao, he would certainly be able to optimize these formulas in the future.

This way, he wouldn't violate his Dao heart oath or hinder his Dao path.

When Elder Zhou Sen heard Xu Chuan's words and witnessed him make the oath in person, he took out copied pill formulas from his storage bag and gave them to him.

"How strange. Fellow Daoist Sansu's pill Dao is indeed profound, yet he even needs the most basic detoxification and healing pill formulas, as if he's just beginning to encounter immortal cultivation."

He stroked his long beard, pondering briefly before reasoning to himself, "Perhaps he wants to see if the pill formulas collected by my Zhou clan are similar to those he had before?"

"This old man didn't misjudge him. Fellow Daoist Sansu is indeed someone as devoted to pill Dao as myself."

That afternoon, Xu Chuan began studying the pill formulas he obtained.

Indeed, these pill formulas were several levels lower than the Breakthrough Pill in terms of both materials and refinement difficulty. The only things requiring attention were controlling the heat during pill refinement and the changes in medicinal properties.

He requested three portions of each to attempt refinement.

For detoxification and healing types, he succeeded in pill condensation on the first try, though it wasn't even low-grade, nearly a waste product.

The second time he refined carefully, he successfully produced a low-grade pill, yielding three pills, though two were waste pills.

The third time was similar.

Then came foundation-stabilizing and origin-cultivating types, magical power recovery, and magical power advancement pills.

These three types increased in difficulty progressively. For the origin-stabilizing and essence-recovering types, he only refined one low-grade pill on the third attempt. As for the magical power advancement type, all three attempts failed.

Xu Chuan requested two more portions of magical power advancement pills.

He refined until late at night before finally producing two low-grade pills.

Xu Chuan had an agreement with the Zhou family to refine six and take one, so all the pills he refined were recorded.

More than a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Xu Chuan spent four hours daily refining pills, five hours in meditation and cultivation, and three hours studying pill formulas and reading pill Dao texts.

Day after day, without interruption.

During these days, he refined the most essence-recovering and magical power advancement types.

The essence-recovering type already had a seventy percent pill formation rate, while the magical power advancement type had fifty percent.

This pill formation rate had completely surpassed Ding Ming and Zuoqiu Fu, who had been immersed in these two types of pills for several years, only falling short of Zhou Sen by a margin. However, Xu Chuan still wasn't very satisfied.

Although the pill formation rate had greatly improved, the number of pills formed per furnace remained at three or four, all low-grade.

In the path of pill Dao, nine was the ultimate number.

That is to say, at most nine pills could be condensed from one furnace.

Nine high-grade pills from one furnace was the ultimate in pill Dao, the embodiment of perfect material utilization.

High-grade pills had almost negligible impurities. As for pills without any impurities, they basically didn't exist in the world.

Day by day passed.

Xu Chuan hid within the Zhou family, intensively studying pill Dao, while Xu Mingxian researched array Dao.

Three months later, summer turned to autumn. However, the secluded valley where the Yuehu Market was located was shrouded by a grand array, making it like spring all year round.

"Father, I need to find some materials to test array formations." Xu Mingxian transmitted via divine sense.

"Yunnu, you've gained some comprehension?!"

Xu Chuan was overjoyed. The difficulty of comprehending array Dao far exceeded pill Dao. Although he had bestowed the Nine Palaces Dao Evolution talent, he hadn't expected Xu Mingxian to gain comprehension in just four months.

"Mm. Just go find materials. If spirit stones aren't enough, you can take all the spirit stones I have. The pills I've stored can also be exchanged for spirit stones."

Xu Mingxian nodded slightly and left Xu Chuan's room.

These past few months.

He had also gone out several times, strolling around the market.

Overall, the safety in the market was still guaranteed. Everyone tacitly followed one rule: no causing trouble in the market.

Those with grievances would go outside to settle matters themselves.