"Hong Yu, guard this place with a few trusted followers. In the future, if any disciples of our Xuesha Demonic Sect come here, capture those you can. For those you cannot, remember their appearances and report to me. Remember, not a single one is to be spared."
Elder Lin sent a telepathic message to the female disciple.
"Yes, Master!"
The female disciple bowed to acknowledge the order.
The two Elders then commanded the return to the sect.
The group quickly left the Siming Mountain, mounted the Blaze Horses, and galloped away.
Though most of the saddles were empty.
They had set out as a force of eight hundred, but now fewer than eighty were on the journey back. A ninety percent casualty rate—too chilling to think of.
"Thank God, I made it through,"
Lu Lin secretly let out a sigh of relief.
He wasn't afraid of any inspection; everything was hidden within the Inner Space of his Martial Dao Furnace. No matter how they inspected, they wouldn't find anything.
His greatest worry was the "Soul Searching Art."
If the two Foundation Establishment Elders truly performed Soul Search on each of them, his secrets would be exposed for sure.
Fortunately, they hadn't resorted to that.
It didn't seem they were free to use the Soul-Searching Art—either there were some constraints or unknown drawbacks...
For him, this was naturally a good thing.
Three days later, the group came back to the Xuesha Demonic Sect.
These over seventy warriors returned to their respective designated areas.
Of the two hundred who had been conscripted from the Xuan-Iron Mine, only seven had survived.
"Huh? Lu Lin? You're quite lucky to have made it back alive from the Siming Mountain."
When the goateed superintendent saw Lu Lin, he was clearly taken aback, a look of surprise on his face.
He knew some inside information and was well aware that this trip to the Siming Mountain was a near-certain death sentence.
He never expected Lu Lin, a mere warrior at the Body Tempering Third Level, to reemerge from such a dangerous place.
"Reporting to the superintendent, it was just luck,"
Lu Lin cupped his hands with respect while stealing a glance at the superintendent out of the corner of his eye.
It seemed the superintendent's injuries had healed.
"Luck?"
Upon hearing this, a surge of inexplicable anger rose in the goateed superintendent.
Why didn't he have such "luck"? The fortune he had painstakingly accumulated was stolen overnight, and every time he thought of it, it felt like a knife twisting in his heart.
"Humph, since you've returned alive, start mining immediately! Remember, you're now at the Body Tempering Third Level. You must turn in fifteen jin of Xuan-iron Ore daily, not a single liang(10 liang equals 1 jin) less!"
The goateed superintendent shouted coldly, waving him off impatiently.
"Heh, taking out your frustration on me because your fortune was stolen? Since when does a Body Tempering Third Level warrior have a quota of fifteen jin?"
Lu Lin sneered inwardly but couldn't be bothered to argue.
With his current mining skills and physical strength, fifteen jin was just a matter of digging a little longer.
He wondered to himself when he should "visit" the superintendent's residence again.
Back in the large bunkhouse, Lu Lin picked up his pickaxe and bamboo basket and headed straight for the mine pit.
…
A few days later, the rest day arrived again.
Lu Lin traveled to Xuesha City once more. After a thorough disguise, he came to Linyuan Pavilion.
Linyuan Pavilion specialized in refining various pills needed by martial artists. They supplied most products to the Xuesha Demonic Sect but were also open to wandering martial artists, albeit at significantly higher prices.
"Customer, how may I assist you?"
As soon as he entered Linyuan Pavilion, a graceful woman approached him.
"Are you in charge?" Lu Lin cut to the chase.
The woman was slightly taken aback, then quickly realized here was a big customer. "Please wait, customer. I'll go fetch the shopkeeper right away."
Soon, an elderly man emerged—that shopkeeper who had dealt with them last time.
"Customer, are you here for pills?"
The shopkeeper ushered Lu Lin into the tea room, had someone brew a pot of fine tea, and then began to inquire.
Lu Lin lifted the teacup and took a small sip, finding it fragrant and pleasant. He reflected with an inward sigh that this tea far surpassed any he had drunk in his previous life.
"That's right. I wish to purchase a batch of pills for martial artists: Qi Blood Pills, Tendon Tempering Pills, Bone Forging Pills, as well as Bone Protecting Pills and Essence Consolidating Viscera Protecting Pills."
Lu Lin stated.
"This is the full set of pills for martial artists. How many would the customer like?"
The shopkeeper asked with an affable beam.
"As many as possible."
"As many as possible?" The shopkeeper was slightly stunned. After a moment of thought, he said, "Most of our Pavilion's pills are reserved for the Xuesha Demonic Sect. What we can sell to outsiders... is truly limited."
This hardly surprised Lu Lin.
Pills were difficult to refine, thus precious. Even those for martial artists were hard to come by, often in tight supply.
Otherwise, the group led by the bald, burly man wouldn't have ambushed the demonic sect's martial artists last time to seize Tendon Tempering Pills and Qi Blood Pills.
"How about this? I'll first show you the price list, and then you can decide the quantity. How does that sound?"
"Alright," Lu Lin nodded.
A price list was quickly handed to Lu Lin:
Blood Qi Pill: sixty silver coins per pill;
Tendon Tempering Pill: one hundred silver coins per pill;
Bone Forging Pill: three hundred silver coins per pill;
As for the Bone Protecting Pill and Essence Consolidating Viscera Protecting Pill, the prices were even higher—one thousand silver coins and two thousand silver coins, respectively.
Lu Lin's eyelids twitched.
These prices were absurdly high.
A piece of shoddy spiritual stone was only worth three hundred silver coins. With all his assets, he couldn't buy much.
"Shopkeeper, if I pay with spiritual stones, can you offer a discount?"
"You're using spiritual stones?" The shopkeeper's eyes instantly lit up, and his breathing quickened slightly.
"All payments will be made with spiritual stones," Lu Lin nodded.
"If the customer pays entirely with spiritual stones, you can enjoy a fifty percent discount! Moreover, I'll do my best to allocate more pills for you."
"A fifty percent discount?" Lu Lin was dumbfounded.
Using spiritual stones could get him a discount this substantial?
"Exactly, a fifty percent discount," the shopkeeper nodded solemnly, his gaze intense.
Someone as seasoned as him shouldn't have been fazed like this, but spiritual stones were simply too rare.
Whether shoddy spiritual stones or higher-grade ones, they were almost all in the possession of immortal masters. And immortal masters themselves were also extremely short on spiritual stones, so they rarely flowed into the mortal realm.
The price of spiritual stones was affordable, but often, there were none circulating in the market. For example, an shoddy spiritual stone was priced at three hundred silver coins, but even if you offered five hundred, you might not be able to buy one.
Linyuan Pavilion was founded by two wandering immortal masters. Their alchemy skills were decent, but refining spiritual pills was time-consuming, material-intensive, and difficult. In contrast, pills for martial artists were relatively easier to refine.
They had established this pavilion, selling pills to martial artists to amass wealth, with the ultimate goal of acquiring cultivation materials, such as spiritual stones, magical instruments, and the like.
When the Xuesha Demonic Sect purchased pills from them, most payments were made in gold and silver, rarely with spiritual stones.
And what ordinary martial artists got was only gold and silver.
Since Lu Lin was buying pills with spiritual stones, they naturally couldn't have been more welcoming and were willing to offer the maximum discount.
"Alright. Then I'd like to order two hundred Tendon Tempering Pills, two hundred Bone Forging Pills, and one hundred each of the Bone Protecting Pill and Essence Consolidating Viscera Protecting Pill. Shopkeeper, please calculate how many spiritual stones are needed."
Lu Lin still had some Qi Blood Pills left, thus he wouldn't purchase more for now.
"In that case, we'll value shoddy spiritual stones at four hundred silver coins per piece and low-grade spiritual stones at five thousand silver coins per piece. If paying all with shoddy spiritual stones, the total would be four hundred seventy-five pieces. If using low-grade spiritual stones, thirty-eight pieces would suffice."
"Shoddy spiritual stones at four hundred silver coins per piece?" Lu Lin remembered selling them to another place before for only three hundred silver coins, a thought that stung him a little.
Damnable crafty merchant!
"Good, it's settled then."
"Customer, the quantity of pills you've requested is quite substantial, especially the Bone Protecting Pills and Essence Consolidating Viscera Protecting Pills, which are difficult to refine. It will be hard to prepare them all in a short time. We'll need some extra time."
"How long?"
"Within a month."
"Fine, I'll come to collect them next month."
The two signed the contract. Lu Lin paid ten shoddy spiritual stones as a deposit and then left.
Afterward, he wandered around the marketplace but found nothing. He then went to Ten Thousand Volumes and purchased a martial arts manual, "Vajra Art."
Mastering this art hardened the body like a vajra, indestructible, making one excel especially in defense.
After his previous battle with a cultivator, Lu Lin deeply understood how terrifying a cultivator's attacks could be—almost unstoppable. Only by building up his defenses would he feel more confident against cultivators in the future.
Anyway, he still had some Qi Blood Pills left to fuel his training.
Returning to the large bunkhouse and seeing no one around, Lu Lin took out the "Vajra Art" and began to read.