Chapter 120: Three years later, I, Old Bian, have returned!

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After the pills were redistributed, four were of superior quality, two of medium quality, and nine of inferior quality. The rest had turned charred black, useless for consumption.

“Condense!”

Sensing that the process was nearly complete, Shen Lian blew gently. The crimson fishfire surrounding the pill furnace suddenly surged upward, and the scorching flames rapidly dried the medicinal liquid inside.

The rules of the alchemy world were simple: if the pills were ruined, there was no compensation. If they were successfully refined, the alchemist received payment, along with any leftover herbs.

This time, the Xu Clan’s Grand Elder had brought him two sets of materials. The raw materials alone were worth ten thousand spirit stones.

As an alchemist with a conscience, Shen Lian only intended to secretly keep one set of medicinal materials worth five thousand low-grade spirit stones.

Sensing the condition of the pills inside the furnace, he nodded in satisfaction.

The four superior-quality pills were for him.

The two medium-quality pills and nine inferior-quality pills would go to the Xu Clan.

As for the ten charred inferior pills, he would show them to the Xu Clan, proving that he had not wasted the herbs they had provided. After opening the furnace twice, he had refined twenty-one pills in total, using both sets of materials.

Shen Lian considered himself sufficiently conscientious.

With these eleven pills alone, the Xu Clan would not merely avoid a loss on the two sets of materials—it would even make a profit.

After placing the pills into a jade bottle, Shen Lian eyed the contents and poured one inferior-quality pill back out.

An ordinary Qi-Replenishing Three-Treasure Pill was worth around twelve hundred spirit stones. Yet such pills were rarely available in the markets and immortal cities. Even with enough spirit stones, one might not be able to gather eleven of them at once.

Besides, at the usual market price, ten thousand spirit stones would not be enough to purchase eleven Qi-Replenishing Three-Treasure Pills, much less two of medium quality.

“Ah.”

He sighed, then put the inferior-quality pill back and instead took out one of the medium-quality pills for himself.

Two sets of materials, two furnace firings, twenty pills condensed, ten successfully refined—one medium-quality and nine inferior-quality pills—plus ten waste pills.

After putting away the pills, Shen Lian did not hurry to leave his cave abode. He waited another day before opening the entrance and inviting the three members of the Xu Clan inside.

Xu Chaoling entered with two clan disciples, and the moment they stepped into the cave abode, a wave of heat swept over them.

“Alchemy Master Lu.”

Xu Chaoling cupped his hands toward Shen Lian, whose face showed a trace of weariness.

“Fellow Daoist Xu, these are the Qi-Replenishing Three-Treasure Pills.”

After showing them to their seats, Shen Lian placed three jade bottles before Xu Chaoling.

“Please.”

Xu Chaoling glanced at the three jade bottles. Rather than inspecting them with his spiritual sense, he picked them up one by one and examined their contents.

“Alchemy Master Lu’s skills are truly exquisite. You have given this old man a tremendous surprise.”

After inspecting the pills, Xu Chaoling could not suppress the smile spreading across his face.

One medium-quality pill and nine inferior-quality pills.

The yield was even higher than he had anticipated. He had originally expected seven or eight pills at most.

He had never imagined that there would be ten pills in total, including one of medium quality.

The last time he had hired an alchemist from the Profound Corpse Sect, only eight pills had been produced, and not one had been of medium quality.

Alchemy Master Lu certainly knew how to conduct himself.

Not only had he delivered the finished pills, he had even included the waste pills produced during the process.

He was making it perfectly clear to the client that he had not falsified anything.

What noble character.

“Alchemy Master Lu, this is your payment.”

With a wave of his hand, Xu Chaoling stored away the pills. He then took a jade box from his storage artifact and handed it to Shen Lian.

Shen Lian did not open it. He simply placed the jade box on the table.

He maintained the bearing of a truly honorable alchemist.

“There may be matters I must trouble you with again in the future. I hope Alchemy Master Lu will not find it tiresome.”

“Not at all.” Shen Lian smiled. “If you require any further pills refined in the future, feel free to contact me. And if Fellow Daoist Xu has friends who need an alchemist, you may mention me to them as well.”

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Xu Chaoling departed the cave abode with the clan disciples.

“Grand Elder, why did you give away the Three-Leaf Water Ganoderma? It’s worth five thousand spirit stones.”

After the Xu Clan party left the city, they summoned a spirit boat and plunged into the vast ocean. Only then did one of the Xu cultivators dare to ask in a low voice.

…

After sending them away, Shen Lian calmly returned to his cave abode and reactivated the defensive formations.

Inside, the Five-Element Spirit Golem had already emerged from underground. It opened the jade box and inspected it from every angle.

There was nothing particularly remarkable inside—only a single Water Ganoderma glowing with a faint blue radiance. It had three intact leaves and roughly three hundred years of medicinal potency. By grade, it was a second-grade, middle-quality spirit herb, worth five or six thousand spirit stones.

The Xu Clan’s Grand Elder was certainly a man of refinement.

This was Shen Lian’s first time refining pills for someone else. He had spent a day and a half and earned nearly ten thousand spirit stones’ worth of medicinal materials, in addition to secretly keeping four superior-quality pills and one medium-quality pill. Those pills alone could sell for at least seven thousand spirit stones.

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Why bother selling those blasted Pleasure Pills anymore?

Wasn’t it better to be a proper alchemist?

The ten Qi-Replenishing Three-Treasure Pills established Shen Lian’s reputation.

Within the circle cultivated by Qian Dai, the example set by the Xu Clan’s Grand Elder quickly bore fruit. Barely half a month later, Shen Lian received another order.

This time, it came from the Zhao Clan of Ziya Island. The visitor was Zhao Siyun, whom Shen Lian had hunted demons with previously.

The Zhao Clan wanted him to refine Gathering Spirit Pills for cultivation. They brought five sets of materials in total, and Shen Lian secretly kept two of them.

Using the remaining three sets of materials and three spirit potatoes, he opened the furnace three times. He refined forty-seven Gathering Spirit Pills in all, of which thirty-eight were successfully formed.

Nine were charred waste pills.

Of the finished pills, he kept the nine superior-quality ones for himself.

Four were of medium quality and twenty-five were of inferior quality, leaving twenty-nine pills for the client.

The second time he refined pills for someone else, Shen Lian also realized what had been lacking the first time.

When refining commonly used pills, the total value of the finished products had to exceed the value of the medicinal materials.

Otherwise, why would anyone ask him to refine pills? They might as well take their spirit stones and buy finished pills directly.

And if the refinement went especially well, the client would even provide additional compensation.

If hiring an alchemist cost more than buying pills directly, what would be the point?

If they could not even recover their costs, who would willingly pay him a fee? They certainly would not come back to him the next time they needed pills.

In addition, he had to include several medium-quality pills.

That was the attraction. Wasn’t that precisely why people came to him?

In the Zhao Clan’s case, the total value of the finished pills exceeded the cost of the materials by nearly three thousand spirit stones.

Before leaving, Zhao Siyun left two thousand spirit stones as payment.

What Shen Lian had not expected was that Zhao Siyun returned a month later.

This time, he brought ten sets of materials for Gathering Spirit Pills.

After a moment’s thought, Shen Lian understood. The Zhao fellow was not being honest—he was using Shen Lian to farm experience.

The more than twenty inferior-quality Gathering Spirit Pills from the previous batch had probably been sold by Zhao Siyun. He was repeatedly coming to Shen Lian in hopes of obtaining more medium-quality pills.

Having seen through Zhao Siyun’s intentions, Shen Lian did not reveal anything. He simply pocketed six sets of materials on the spot.

If shamelessness was all it took, who could possibly outdo him?

After finishing the Gathering Spirit Pills for Zhao Siyun, Shen Lian went straight to Qian Dai.

If he was going to cooperate with someone, he needed a cultivator with both formidable strength and a powerful backer. What did Zhao Siyun amount to?

After opening the furnace only three times, Shen Lian discovered that refining pills was far more efficient than gathering medicinal materials himself.

…

The years passed like the shuttle of a loom.

In the blink of an eye, three years went by.

Yuanyan Immortal City.

A blessed-land cave abode.

“Is Alchemy Master Lu here? I am Qian Mingzhang, steward of the Wind and Thunder Pavilion. I have come to deliver a spirit treasure to Alchemy Master Lu.”

Amid swirling clouds and mist, the cave abode’s formation opened. Qian Mingzhang entered, carrying a wooden box in his hands.

“Alchemy Master Lu.”

“Steward Qian, it has been a long time.”

“I am a man burdened with endless affairs. How could I possess the leisure of Alchemy Master Lu?”

Qian Mingzhang set down the wooden box.

“Alchemy Master Lu, this is what you requested.”

When Shen Lian opened it, he saw a collection of stones marked with faint patterns. They were Profound Inscription Stones, materials that could be used for refining artifacts and arranging formations.

The deeper his cooperation with Qian Dai became, the more Shen Lian felt that the man was unfathomable. No matter what sort of spirit treasure was needed, Qian Dai seemed capable of obtaining it.

It had already been more than three years since Shen Lian had first opened his furnace to refine pills in Yuanyan Immortal City.

Yet very few people knew his name.

Those who came to him for pill refinement were Foundation Establishment cultivators and clans within Qian Dai’s network of connections.

The pills he refined were mostly Gathering Spirit Pills, True Essence Pills, and Origin-Recovering Pills.

Only later did Shen Lian discover that after these clan cultivators brought the medium-quality Gathering Spirit Pills home, they did not consume them during ordinary cultivation. Instead, they saved them for the moment when they were about to break through a major bottleneck.

This made him feel somewhat embarrassed.

Thus, after repeated furnace firings, Alchemy Master Lu’s skills improved.

Among the pills produced in each batch, the number of medium-quality pills rose from one or two to three, and occasionally even four.

Naturally, the number of inferior-quality pills would sometimes decrease by one or two accordingly.

After leaving the items behind, Qian Mingzhang departed without lingering.

Shen Lian inspected the Profound Inscription Stones once and then stored them away.

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Aside from obtaining spirit treasures through Qian Dai’s connections, Shen Lian also changed his appearance and aura every month, purchasing spirit treasures in Yuanyan Immortal City or attending auctions.

With the generous support of Foundation Establishment clans and cultivators from the nearby seas, along with his dealings with Qian Dai, Shen Lian had accumulated more than a hundred thousand spirit stones even after purchasing all those spirit treasures.

He had also secretly retained medicinal materials worth over three hundred thousand spirit stones. Altogether, he had privately kept roughly half of the materials he received.

Of course, not everything had gone smoothly over the past three years.

For example, the furnace explosions and other accidents he had staged himself had occurred twice.

Shen Lian slowly walked into the spirit-beast chamber.

At its center stood a spirit-water pool. Black spiritual light flickered beyond the pool, and within it, five-colored spirit patterns could be seen appearing and vanishing.

As a beast tamer, alchemist, formation master, and talisman master, Shen Lian had poured all his abilities into the formation before him—a Five-Colored Spirit Radiance Formation that shimmered with black and overflowed with five-colored light—together with the pool at its center.

Three Thousand was sleeping inside the pool, its entire body shrouded in black water. A demonic core covered in countless tiny holes floated above its head.

The violent aura within the demonic core had weakened by more than half compared with that of an ordinary demonic core.

To help Three Thousand advance, Shen Lian had spent insight points to raise his beast-taming inheritance to the second-grade, lower level, thereby arranging a suitable path for Three Thousand’s advancement.

The pool contained a specially prepared beast-spirit medicinal mixture designed to stimulate draconic bloodlines. It had cost more than ten thousand spirit stones to gather all the ingredients.

Outside the pool, he had constructed a Spirit-Gathering Formation so that Three Thousand could absorb spiritual energy and demonic power as efficiently as possible.

There was also a second-grade, early-stage demonic core.

Demonic beasts lived far longer than humans. Correspondingly, their juvenile period was also several times longer. To absorb the medicinal power more effectively, Three Thousand had fallen into a deep sleep, allowing it to digest the medicine more quickly and shorten the time required for advancement.

This method of sleeping cultivation was practically unique to the demon race. Other races could not imitate it.

The reason some demonic beasts quickly passed through their juvenile period after being subdued by humans and raised as spirit beasts was precisely that they consumed various spirit medicines and entered prolonged periods of sleep.

Shen Lian was in no hurry to force Three Thousand to advance.

The energy within the demonic core was primarily intended to help Three Thousand awaken its bloodline.

“Master, when will Three Thousand advance?”

Seeing that his little brother was about to advance, Big Black felt miserable. Every day, aside from going out to stand guard, he returned to the spirit-beast chamber and silently watched the spirit pool.

Shen Lian gently patted Big Black’s head. Seeing his expression, he explained, “Three Thousand possesses draconic blood. Though it is exceedingly thin, it is still far stronger than the Mountain-Shifting Ant bloodline in your body.”

“Three Thousand is advancing first so that we can conduct a trial and see whether there are any flaws in the advancement formula tailored specifically for it. That way, when the formula is used on you, it will be safer.”

Big Black lowered his head, looking dejected.

He remembered how his master had once grabbed him and stuffed pills into his mouth.

At the time, the pills had nearly made him burst apart, and every part of his body had been wracked with agony.

But he had been very happy.

“All right. The safety of your master’s cave abode depends entirely on you.”

Shen Lian grabbed Big Black’s two enormous pincers, held them before his eyes, and shook his body vigorously.

At once, Big Black’s eyes lit up again.

After giving Big Black a little psychological counseling, Shen Lian walked into the talisman chamber.

With resources in abundance over the past three years, he had already inscribed twenty Number Two Heavenly Derivation Jade Talismans and sixteen hundred Number Three Heavenly Derivation Jade Talismans.

Because cultivators came to his door every month to have pills refined, he had not yet found a suitable opportunity to nurture the Number Two Jade Talismans.

Shen Lian was also considering leaving Yuanyan Immortal City and finding a place where he could nurture all these Heavenly Derivation Jade Talismans.

…

The Southern Sea Region.

Upon an incomparably vast ocean stood a barren, desolate island.

Suddenly, an explosion rang out, sending the seabirds resting on the beach into a panic.

“Ha…”

“That vile woman Qi Yuhuan wanted to kill this ancestor? She is still far too inexperienced.”

His robe was tattered, dried blood and filth caked his body, and his long hair clung together in filthy strands. Yet Bian Qingyun’s eyes shone brightly.

He had hidden on the isolated island and recuperated for more than ten years, finally suppressing his shattered Golden Core. But without miraculous pills and medicines, he still could not draw excessively upon his core power.

At most, he could engage someone in a low-intensity fight.

“First, I’ll find a place where people live and inquire about how my master is doing. Then I’ll look for some pills.”

With that, Bian Qingyun plunged headfirst into the vast ocean.

When he emerged again, he was wearing a new robe, and his aura had been suppressed to roughly the ninth level of Foundation Establishment.

Several days later, aboard a passing treasure ship, Bian Qingyun’s expression was gloomy.

Before him lay a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his entire body twisted by spasms. The terrified man wanted to speak, but no words would come.

“Uuu…”

“Master, oh master, you really did ask for a beating and then receive one.”

“Still showing off? You have only your Nascent Soul left now.”

Bian Qingyun’s expression shifted repeatedly, and his thoughts drifted into the distance.

That Five-Element Spirit Treasure was in the Starriad Sea south of the Southern Sea Region.

All these years, he had been preoccupied with fleeing and hiding. On top of that, the distance was too great, preventing him from contacting the Soul-Borrowing Gu.

Now that old Ziyang had only his Nascent Soul left, could he search for the Five-Element Spirit Treasure and flee?

End of Chapter