Yang Jing's selling price was much lower than in the marketplace. A Lower Grade Blood Circulation Pill cost only one Spirit Crystal, a Middle Grade pill was just five Spirit Crystals, and Water Cloud Pills were one Spirit Stone each.
Because the prices were so affordable, Zhang Long and Zhang Hu bought up all the Blood Circulation Pills. The two of them often had to hire Innate Martial Artists when they went into Huangyuan Mountain, and Blood Circulation Pills were a hard currency for Innate Martial Artists. Wang Da bought the bottle of Water Cloud Pills.
Yang Jing put away the Spirit Stones.
"Now I can start another batch of pills."
He put on an act, looking like an impoverished man who had bankrupted himself for the sake of alchemy.
Li Yuanqing was rather envious. To be able to produce Formed Pills in just half a year showed that Yang Jing had considerable talent in alchemy; his future was promising. He stroked his beard, thinking to himself that his granddaughter was already twelve. In four or five years, perhaps they could become in-laws.
'Looks like I'll have to bring my granddaughter to the next gathering.'
After a transaction that left all parties satisfied, the small gathering continued. Everyone first shared their cultivation insights, then chatted about recent happenings in Huangyuan Marketplace.
The Zhang Brothers often went to Huangyuan Mountain to gather Spirit Medicines, and Yang Jing heard a piece of news from them. A demon might have recently crossed the Six Passes Defense Line. The number of Innate Martial Artists and Cultivators who had gone missing in Huangyuan Mountain over the past three months was up twenty percent compared to before.
So far, there were no survivors who had witnessed the demon; all who encountered it were devoured. The Law Enforcement Team found traces of Demon Qi at the scenes.
The Zhang Brothers asserted that it was definitely a Late Stage Qi Cultivation demon because among the missing cultivators was an expert at the Eighth Layer of Qi Cultivation. With this incident, they were both a little afraid to go to Huangyuan Mountain to gather herbs.
Yang Jing's eyes narrowed. He was certain that the demon was not in the Qi Cultivation Stage, but a Foundation Establishment Stage Great Demon. In the world of Nine Heavens, this Great Demon was known as the "newbie killer," and countless new players had died at its hands.
It had infiltrated Huangyuan Marketplace to carry out a mission for the Demon Country: to search for a Flood Dragon.
In the world of Nine Heavens, there was a well-known story. Sixty years ago, the Sovereign of the Qishui Kingdom—part of the demons' Flood Dragon Division—could no longer bear the Royal Court's exorbitant taxes and tyranny and prepared to have her entire kingdom defect to the Western Continent.
The matter was entrusted to the Taixu Sword Sect, the most powerful of the Six Sects. The Sword Cultivators of the Taixu Sword Sect possessed extremely fast Tunneling Speed and unparalleled combat prowess. For this reason, among the Six Great Sects, most tasks that required high individual power—such as reconnaissance, capture, interrogation, and gathering military intelligence on demons—were assigned to them.
However, the operation was leaked by a traitor from the Demon Country right from the start. The Sovereign of the Qishui Kingdom, who was pregnant at the time, gave premature birth to a son. She begged the Taixu Sword Sect's Sword Cultivator to take the Qi Kingdom's Crown Prince back to the Western Continent.
She then led the Qishui Kingdom's naval forces to face the Royal Court's army, but was ultimately defeated and took her own life.
But the Taixu Sword Sect's Sword Cultivator never brought the Qi Kingdom's Crown Prince back to the Western Continent. Instead, he vanished within the borders of the Chen Kingdom.
At that time, the Chen Kingdom was still demon territory, so the Six Sects sent several waves of cultivators to investigate. After conquering the Chen Kingdom, they conducted an even more thorough search but still found nothing, and so the case was archived.
The Six Sects placed such importance on the Qi Kingdom's Crown Prince not just because he was a Flood Dragon scion, but for the sake of the entire Flood Dragon Division.
True Dragons were the leaders of all scaled creatures, but they were now nearly impossible to find in the world. As descendants of True Dragons, the Flood Dragon Division's power was among the top tier of demons. Moreover, they mostly cultivated Magical Power, not Demon Power, which created a rift between them and other Demon Divisions.
The Six Great Sects' acceptance of the Qi Kingdom was a strategic move to show their sincerity, hoping to divide the demons by attracting more defectors. They just never expected the plan to suffer a major setback after only its first step.
This secret was only discovered in the world of Nine Heavens after a player entered the Inner Sect of the Taixu Sword Sect by a stroke of luck. It sparked a frenzy among the players to search for the Qi Kingdom's Crown Prince, but their efforts also came to nothing. Furthermore, neither the Demon Country nor the Six Great Sects had given up; they continued to investigate the Crown Prince's whereabouts in secret.
With Yang Jing's Beast Taming Battle system, the Qi Kingdom's Crown Prince—the Flood Dragon—would undoubtedly shine brilliantly if he fell into his hands. However, he wasn't prepared to risk trying to capture him.
'So many people have searched and found nothing. I'm not some chosen one who can just stumble upon him so easily.'
Besides, as far as he knew, the Qi Kingdom's Crown Prince wouldn't resurface for another hundred years, when he would be refined into a Blood Flood Dragon by Biyuan Ancestor, a Golden Core Elder of the Dark Spring Demon Sect. His consciousness would be completely obliterated, helping Biyuan Ancestor establish a fearsome reputation on the Western Continent.
'A Golden Core Master a hundred years from now would be at least a Foundation Establishment Great Power at present. He's not someone I can deal with.'
Before he had Iron Head, Yang Jing might have tried to scheme for it. But now with Iron Head, he had a high chance of joining the Five Elements True Spirit Sect and achieving Foundation Establishment, or even Embracing Pill. Naturally, he wouldn't attempt such a risky venture.
The small gathering went very smoothly. Yang Jing also bought several types of Spirit Plants needed for alchemy from Wang Da, which were slightly cheaper than in the marketplace. Wang Da even gave him two taels of Spirit Tea as a gift.
With his new identity as an Alchemist, his status in San Yuanli immediately rose.
Yang Jing placed his gains into his Storage Bag and returned to his Cave Mansion, feeling satisfied. After a moment's thought, he increased the power of the Five Gates Lock Jade Array by one level. Although this would consume more Spiritual Qi, safety came first.
Feeling a bit more secure, he took a Blood Circulation Pill and practiced the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Swordsmanship.
The Five Talisman Scripture Magical Power he had previously cultivated was shallow and impure. He planned to simply use the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Swordsmanship to convert all of it to nourish his physical body.
The Magic from the Five Talisman Scripture was barely passable in the Early Stage of Qi Cultivation. If he encountered an enemy, the only things he could rely on to protect himself and defeat them were the Talismans he had prepared and this Twenty-Four Solar Terms Swordsmanship.
Yang Jing's plan was to save up enough Spirit Stones to buy a high-level Body Refining Technique to practice. Because he needed to have Iron Head cultivate the Jade Water Skill to "add points" for him, he couldn't cultivate the Five Talisman Scripture to increase its proficiency. His Qi Cultivation was destined to stagnate for the next two years. To have the means to protect himself, his best option was to also take up a Body Refining Technique.
With the foundation laid by Spirit Rice and the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Swordsmanship, his constitution and vitality were far more solid than that of an ordinary cultivator. This gave him a significant advantage in practicing Body Refining Techniques.
'As for the drawback of Body Refining Techniques having high consumption, with Iron Head's alchemy, it shouldn't be a major problem.'
When cultivators practiced Magical Power, if they wanted to save Spirit Stones, they just needed to absorb nature's spiritual energy; at the very least, their Magical Power wouldn't regress. But if one chose Body Refinement, it required a large amount of nourishment. At a minimum, Spirit Rice, demon flesh, and Blood Circulation Pills were indispensable, or it would be very easy to deplete one's body.
He glanced at the busy Iron Head. 'My future cultivation path now rests on its shoulders.'
The profit margin on Blood Circulation Pills wasn't high; he could only win through volume. By running three furnaces a day, his monthly income was only thirty to forty Spirit Stones. Although this was much more than he made crafting Talisman Paper, it was considered bottom-tier among Alchemists.
Moreover, a high-level Body Refining Technique for the Qi Cultivation Stage cost around a thousand Spirit Stones. Relying on Blood Circulation Pills to save up that much would take far too long.
He decided to have Iron Head start refining Yellow Bud Pills and directly purchased over twenty sets of the required Spirit Medicines for them at the marketplace.
The Yellow Bud Pill was a Tier One Middle Grade pill. While it couldn't directly increase Magical Power, it could nourish the meridians. After taking one, a cultivator could run their cultivation technique for about one extra circulation. It could also heal damage to the meridians caused by using Magical Power too fiercely. They were never hard to sell, and their price was not low. A Lower Grade pill sold for three Spirit Stones, a Middle Grade pill could fetch six, and an Upper Grade one was quoted at sixteen Spirit Stones.