The ancient painted scroll floated in midair, clouds and mist swirling within it. Whenever the white clouds parted, everyone could see a tiny figure bustling around inside.
The crowd gathered closer to watch, especially the pill cultivators. Everyone was curious about what kind of pills Xia Yunzhao was refining in there.
If one considered pure value for money, then naturally he should refine the most valuable pills he could. But on second thought, learning new pill recipes would be even more worthwhile. No matter how many furnaces he blew up, he would not have to pay for the ingredients himself.
What did Xia Yunzhao think? Naturally, he wanted to learn new pill recipes too.
The three Level-Two pill recipes he had drawn before, Bright-Eye Mind-Settling Pill, Cold-Dispelling Origin-Transforming Pill, and Jade-Essence Skin-Tempering Pill, were all useful and valuable.
Everyone crowded around the scroll and watched as four hours passed. Xia Yunzhao mastered one pill recipe.
Another four hours passed. Xia Yunzhao mastered another.
Everyone: “…”
Their defenses had been thoroughly broken. They knew time moved differently inside and outside the Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm, but mastering a pill recipe in forty hours was still ridiculously fast!
Then they remembered that this man had reconstructed a fragmentary ancient pill recipe in twelve hours… and everyone continued cursing internally: Where the hell did this monster come from?!
Xia Yunzhao mastered the Jade-Essence Skin-Tempering Pill and Cold-Dispelling Origin-Transforming Pill, then began batch refining.
He currently needed the Jade-Essence Skin-Tempering Pill himself, while the Cold-Dispelling Origin-Transforming Pill would be useful at Ice-Soul Snow Mountain. The more of either he had, the better.
As for the Bright-Eye Mind-Settling Pill, he did not urgently need it, so that one could wait.
Xia Yunzhao started by refining ten furnaces at once. Every furnace successfully formed pills. After thinking it over, he increased that to fifteen furnaces and, astonishingly, all fifteen succeeded too.
Sure enough, after reaching Foundation Establishment, his control over pill recipes had improved as well.
He continued increasing the number of furnaces: sixteen, seventeen, eighteen… When he reached twenty furnaces, three finally failed, leaving seventeen successful furnaces.
He put in another twenty sets of ingredients. This time, eighteen furnaces succeeded and two failed.
Xia Yunzhao’s eyes lit up. Sure enough, the success rate could improve!
He swallowed several Qi-Replenishing Pills and reviewed the refining process. The failures had happened because he was controlling too many furnaces at once and could not distribute his spiritual power evenly. In other words, two furnaces had received too little spiritual power.
Xia Yunzhao thought for a moment, then suddenly had an idea. He formed the hand seal for the Spirit-Transmutation Art and drew the surrounding spiritual energy into the pill furnaces. It worked!
That made sense. The Spirit-Transmutation Art could even draw spiritual energy from spirit pearls, so of course it could draw in the spiritual energy floating throughout the Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm!
His pill-refining speed increased dramatically once again! Better yet, with the spiritual power within the Medicinal Realm supplementing him, he could conserve a great deal of his own spiritual power!
Being able to directly feel his own improvement produced an extraordinarily satisfying sense of progress. He did not even need to rest and simply continued refining!
Furnace after furnace of pills took shape. Xia Yunzhao was having the time of his life.
The people outside were considerably less happy.
Just as Xia Yunzhao began batch refining, clouds and mist happened to obscure his location, so nobody saw what he was doing.
That alone was no problem. Even if the mist had not drifted over accidentally and Fellow Daoist Xia had deliberately summoned it because he did not want anyone watching him, nobody could have complained.
What shocked them was what happened next. The cloud bank gradually grew thinner until it disappeared completely, and immediately afterward a vortex formed around Xia Yunzhao. Like a tornado, it dragged all the spiritual energy inside the painted scroll toward him, instantly clearing the entire scene. Now everyone could see everything perfectly clearly!
Then the whole ancient scroll began trembling. Its treasure-light flickered erratically, and even its position in midair became unstable…
Everyone jumped in alarm. Guang Xingyu exclaimed, “Pill Master Lipan! What’s happening? Is Fellow Daoist Xia in danger?”
Pill Master Lipan, who could sense the condition of the magical treasure: “…”
Shang Shuangze slowly backed away until he was standing outside the crowd.
The ancient scroll flickered for a moment longer before it finally could not endure anymore. It rolled itself shut and dropped to the ground with a plop.
A human figure was spat out as though the scroll could not get rid of him fast enough.
Xia Yunzhao landed steadily and looked around. “Huh? I’m already out? Isn’t there still time left? By the time inside, I should have another four hours!”
Pill Master Lipan: “…”
Xia Yunzhao turned around, took one look, and jumped. “What happened to the Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm?! Why doesn’t it have any treasure-light left?!”
Pill Master Lipan silently picked up the scroll, his heart aching. “Its spiritual energy has been exhausted. Fellow Daoist Xia, come back in ten days and you may claim the remaining four hours.”
Xia Yunzhao relaxed. He had thought he had actually broken someone else’s treasure. “Forget it. This is fine.” Four hours inside the painting converted to less than thirty minutes in the outside world. They had already given him such an enormous benefit, so he could hardly quibble over that little bit of time.
Pill Master Lipan did not even bother with a polite refusal. He had only two words left in him. “Very well.”
Xia Yunzhao looked around and found everyone staring at him as though they wanted to speak but could not. Confused, he asked, “What’s wrong? Why is everyone looking at me like that?”
Everyone shook their heads and backed away. Nothing. It was simply their first time seeing a monster who could drain someone else’s magical treasure dry in one sitting…
Xia Yunzhao scratched his head, still unable to understand what had happened. He assumed the ancient scroll had simply been used for too long and someone had forgotten to “recharge” it. He trotted over to Shang Shuangze with a cheerful expression. “I got a pretty good haul this time. I accumulated more than five hundred pills! Once we sell them all, we’ll have enough for the rest of our travel expenses!”
Plop!
Several people fell over behind him.
More than five hundred pills… What a bizarrely niche string of words.
Xia Yunzhao glanced back, then turned to Shang Shuangze again. “Don’t you like Beiliang City’s night market? Let’s have a proper stroll around tonight. Once I’ve sold the pills tomorrow, we’ll continue on our way.”
Shang Shuangze glanced at the pill cultivators behind them, all of whom looked close to tears. “All right.”
The two walked away without looking back, leaving the pill cultivators and members of the Pill Cultivator Alliance staring at one another.
The cultivator who had placed fourth scratched his head and asked the person beside him, “Fellow Daoist, how many pills did you save up for this Pill Cultivator Gathering?”
The other man held up his fingers. “Thirty-two. What about you?”
The fourth-place cultivator held up his own fingers. “A little more than you. Forty-seven. I started saving them last month. You?”
The other cultivator silently answered, “Three months ago.”
The two looked at each other. In other words, the number of pills Fellow Daoist Xia had refined inside the scroll in five days was six times what the two of them had accumulated together.
The two cultivators: “…”
Guang Xingyu scratched his head too and looked at Bei Wan. The two smiled bitterly together. They had taken second and third because Xia Yunzhao was ahead of them. Xia Yunzhao had taken first because there was simply no position above first.
A thousand thoughts eventually condensed into one sentence: Fuck! What exactly was he doing inside that scroll?!
“Refining pills, obviously.” Xia Yunzhao raised one long, fair finger and waved it at Shang Shuangze. “I didn’t waste even a single breath. I used every moment for pill refining. The Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm is incredible. It’s a pill cultivator’s paradise!”
Amusement filled Shang Shuangze’s eyes as he caught Xia Yunzhao and pulled him aside to avoid the passing crowd.
Walking backward, Xia Yunzhao gestured animatedly as he counted. “Three hundred Jade-Essence Skin-Tempering Pills. One hundred are high-grade, so we’ll keep those and sell the rest. Two hundred Cold-Dispelling Origin-Transforming Pills, sixty high-grade… Hmm. After taking one, you can resist ordinary cold for four hours. I wonder whether sixty will be enough for us.”
He also had fifty Delicious Fasting Pills. Those were not for sale, however. They could eat them like snacks along the road.
Shang Shuangze reminded him at the appropriate moment, “Can’t we also wear Fire-Rat pelts?”
Xia Yunzhao said, “Right. That’s what the map from the information shop said. But Fire Rats are hard to find and even harder to process. We need to go to a small city called Xiangqu, where there’s a tailor shop that can turn Fire-Rat pelts into clothing…”
As he spoke, he took out the map and began planning their next route. “Look. We have three roads we can take. This one’s more dangerous, and the distance is neither especially long nor especially short, but it passes through more cities, so we’d have plenty of places to resupply. This one is the fastest, but there are very few cities along the way. The last one is a detour and would take the most time. Which one?”
Shang Shuangze’s callused finger reached over and tapped the second route. “This one.”
Xia Yunzhao made a puzzled sound. “Weren’t you in no hurry before?”
Shang Shuangze sighed. “I am now.”
Xia Yunzhao burst out laughing. “Fine. Then we’ll take the fastest route.”
Since he had a full three hundred pills to sell, all of them Level Two, he could not continue using Yuexian Inn.
Beiliang City had many places specializing in pill auctions. The largest was Danxia Hall, which belonged to the Pill Cultivator Alliance itself. More precisely, it belonged to the main Alliance, not merely the Beiliang branch.
Danxia Hall held pill auctions every day. Ordinarily, they ran small auctions, with medium-sized auctions every ten days and large auctions once a month. During the Pill Cultivator Gathering, however, they held a super-large auction that came only once every three years and ran continuously for three days. Entry required an invitation.
Naturally, Xia Yunzhao did not have an invitation… but the top three contestants in the Pill Cultivator Grand Competition automatically qualified for entry. The first-place winner could also bring three additional people.
So theoretically, not only could Xia Yunzhao get in himself, he could even sell two of his spare spots…
After strolling around the night market, the two arrived at Danxia Hall. The Pill Cultivator Gathering’s auction would officially begin tomorrow, but the place was already extremely lively. People flowed in and out through the entrance, and many had even set up stalls outside, hoping to make some money off the crowds.
Xia Yunzhao’s eyes immediately found someone familiar. “Huh? Fellow Daoist Guang!”
Guang Xingyu was supporting a boy of sixteen or seventeen while buying roasted sweet potatoes. The boy could not put any weight on his left foot and leaned on a crutch with one hand while pointing insistently at the largest roasted sweet potato for Guang Xingyu to buy him.
Hearing the call, Guang Xingyu looked up and waved. “Fellow Daoist Xia, Senior Shang.”
The moment he lifted his hand, nobody was supporting the boy anymore, and the boy nearly toppled over. Guang Xingyu hurriedly lowered his hand and caught him.
Xia Yunzhao pulled Shang Shuangze over to greet them. “This must be your junior brother?”
“That’s right.” Guang Xingyu grabbed his junior brother with both hands, hoisted him upright, propped him against the wall, peeled the sweet potato, and stuffed it into his mouth. “Now you know what suffering is. Let’s see whether you still dare sneak away next time.”
His junior brother pouted. “I won’t. I’ll accept my punishment myself once we get back.”
Xia Yunzhao silently watched their movements, then looked at Shang Shuangze, and enlightenment gradually dawned across his forehead.
Exactly! What was there to avoid about brothers helping each other? It wasn’t as though they were like this every single day. Shang Shuangze was only inconvenienced lately!
Look at Guang Xingyu. He’s practically manhandling his junior brother from top to bottom, and it looks completely natural! Nobody would ever misunderstand!
Xia Yunzhao immediately lowered his hand as naturally as possible and grabbed Shang Shuangze’s. “Fellow Daoist Guang, are you here for the pill auction too?”
Guang Xingyu stared at their interlocked hands. “Yes. I’ve accumulated quite a few pills. Other than Danxia Hall, nowhere else could handle that quantity.”
Hearing that even Guang Xingyu used this place reassured Xia Yunzhao even more. “It’s my first time here. Could Fellow Daoist Guang explain how it works?”
Guang Xingyu continued staring at their hands. “There’s nothing particularly complicated. Danxia Hall belongs to the Pill Cultivator Alliance. Their commission is a little high, but everything else is reliable. They do have pill appraisers, though, and they won’t accept pills that fail their quality standards. Fellow Daoist Xia definitely doesn’t need to worry about that.”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “I’m curious what standards the pill appraisers use. We’ll go inside and take a look. Sorry to disturb you two.”
The moment the pair walked away, Guang Xingyu’s junior brother leaned over. “Senior Brother, those two fellow Daoists are holding hands… Ouch! I was wrong! Stop hitting my head!”
Ahead of them, Xia Yunzhao burst out laughing. “Looks like even the mildest-tempered person gets irritable when they’re looking after a kid.”
Shang Shuangze quietly watched him, then lowered his eyes to their joined hands.
Xia Yunzhao spoke with perfect righteousness despite his reddening ears. “What? You can’t hear, so it’s inconvenient. I’m holding your hand because I’m afraid you’ll wander off if I’m not careful! Is there a problem? Guang Xingyu’s junior brother almost fell over and Guang Xingyu straight-up picked him up. Compared with that, we’re barely doing anything!”
Amused, Shang Shuangze said, “I never said you couldn’t.”
He did not yet know just how much he would “regret” saying that later.
The two entered Danxia Hall hand in hand, and an attendant immediately came over to receive them. He might have been dressed as an ordinary waiter, but he was actually a cultivator too, with cultivation slightly higher than Xiao Tian’s at around the second layer of Qi Refining.
Danxia Hall truly deserved to be a major enterprise. Its attendants had seen the world. This one did not so much as blink at the sight of the two men holding hands and simply smiled. “Might this be Senior Xia?”
Xia Yunzhao was surprised. “You know me?”
The attendant answered cleverly, “I wouldn’t dare claim too much, but by now, virtually every pill cultivator in Beiliang City recognizes your face.”
Even that was putting it mildly. Just think about everything Xia Yunzhao had done: refining a furnace of pills in less than fifteen minutes, using someone else’s furnace no less; refining an artifact during a pill-refining competition, for reasons nobody could comprehend; reconstructing an ancient pill recipe in twelve hours, like some kind of monster; and then draining an entire First-Glimpse Scroll of the Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm…
That final feat alone had been enough for every member of the Pill Cultivator Alliance in the city to learn his face. Rumor had it that when Pill Master Lipan carried the drained Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm back with him, even the reclusive Golden Core cultivator came out to see what had happened… After looking, the man reportedly said: “I’ve been in the Pill Cultivator Alliance for more than three hundred years. I’ve never seen this before.”
Seen what?
A Myriad-Formula Medicinal Realm that had been sucked dry!
The treasure could recover spiritual energy on its own. Ordinarily, even putting ten low-level pill cultivators inside at once would not drain it because they consumed spiritual energy more slowly than the scroll replenished it!
Yet Xia Yunzhao remained completely unaware of what he had done and even politely told people, “I really have to thank your Alliance for holding the competition. I gained so much from it.”
The attendant laughed stiffly and gestured them inside. “To tell you the truth, the second- and third-place contestants have already arrived. We’ve all been wondering when you would come! Shall we visit the pill-appraisal area first?”
“Sure.” Xia Yunzhao tugged Shang Shuangze along and looked around curiously.
Danxia Hall looked unremarkable from outside, but the scenery within was quite beautiful. Winding covered bridges crossed over murmuring streams, and the fragrance of pills drifted through the air.
There was also clearly a Spirit-Gathering Formation in place, since the spiritual energy was several times denser than outside.
The attendant brought them to the pill-appraisal area. Inside were individual small booths equipped with soundproof barriers, preventing anyone outside from hearing what was said within. The privacy was excellent.
The attendant smiled. “Any booth with a wooden plaque marked ‘Vacant’ has no one undergoing appraisal. You may choose whichever one you like.”
“That’s convenient.” Xia Yunzhao nodded, casually picked a booth, and entered with Shang Shuangze.
An elderly man sat inside holding a jade slip, apparently reading something. Hearing someone enter, he hurriedly put it down and raised his head. Then he froze, lowered his head to look at the jade slip, looked back up at Xia Yunzhao, and froze again.
Xia Yunzhao was baffled. “If this is inconvenient for you, should I choose another booth?”
“It’s… it’s convenient!” The pill appraiser hurriedly stood. “I simply never expected you to choose me to appraise your pills. It’s an honor!”
Xia Yunzhao wondered why even this man knew him. Isn’t the Pill Cultivator Grand Competition held every three years? Is first place really that famous…? He raised his hand, and with a succession of heavy clunks, five huge, burly bamboo jars landed on the table. “These are the pills I want to auction this time. Please appraise them.”
The pill appraiser began wiping sweat from his forehead and forced a laugh. “B-bamboo jars…”
Xia Yunzhao reassured him, “I know bamboo jars let medicinal properties dissipate, but I only refined all these pills today. They haven’t even had time to lose anything yet! Take a close look if you don’t believe me.”
Sweat gathered into drops on the appraiser’s face. “Understood, understood.” He pulled a jade box from under the table, opened one bamboo jar, picked up a pill with jade chopsticks, examined it carefully, and placed it inside.
Normally, pill cultivators were the ones distressed to see their precious pills placed in Danxia Hall’s plain jade boxes. Never in his wildest dreams had the appraiser imagined there would come a day when he was the one distressed by… bamboo jars! Bamboo jars! His family did not even store ore in bamboo jars!
A pearl on the table flashed. After looking at it for a moment, the appraiser asked, “You have too many pills. Some of the other pill appraisers would like to come help. Would that be acceptable?”
Xia Yunzhao hurriedly said, “Of course! Sorry to trouble everyone!”
The appraisal fee was already included in Danxia Hall’s commission, so Xia Yunzhao was perfectly happy to finish sooner.
Before long, a young male pill appraiser entered from the back. He gave Xia Yunzhao a shy smile, sat down, and began working.
Then a female pill appraiser came in.
A little while later, another two arrived…
In less than fifteen minutes, eight additional pill appraisers had filed in one after another, packing the little booth full.
Every pill appraiser who entered froze for a moment when they saw those five bamboo jars.
Xia Yunzhao thought his quantity of pills might indeed be a little excessive, but was it really necessary to bring in this many appraisers? And perhaps it was his imagination, but they all seemed to be sneaking glances at him… He suddenly turned his head and caught one female appraiser looking directly at him. “Did you want to ask me something?”
The female pill appraiser panicked for an instant, then forced herself to calm down. “N-no. I just think the pills you’ve refined are exceptionally good. They’re so… round and large!”
Xia Yunzhao: “…Thank you for the compliment.”
With nine appraisers working together, the process went extremely quickly. In less than an hour, they finished everything, and the appraisers began filing out.
The original appraiser lifted the jade box, then brought over a jade plaque bearing the character “A.” “Your pills are Grade A quality. Take the pills and this jade plaque to the auctioneer to arrange the details… You may keep the jade box.”
“Really?” Xia Yunzhao happily accepted it. “This jade box is nice. It can hold a lot of pills!” Then he packed the five bamboo jars back into his Hundred-Compartment Pouch.
Pill appraiser: “…”
Shang Shuangze helped him carry the jade box. The two left the booth, and sure enough, the attendant who had been waiting outside led them to the auctioneer.
If even an attendant here was a cultivator, naturally the auctioneer was one too, and his cultivation was not low. He was at the eighth layer of Qi Refining.
After discussing the details, Xia Yunzhao said, “We’re in a hurry. Is there any way to auction everything tomorrow morning?”
The auctioneer considered for a moment. “If you truly are pressed for time, there is a bulk auction tonight that would suit you very well.”
Xia Yunzhao immediately asked what a bulk auction was.
Danxia Hall divided its auctions into ordinary auctions and bulk auctions. Ordinary auctions were similar to the one at Yuexian Inn, where pills were sold individually. At bulk auctions, pills were sold in lots, with at least fifty pills per lot.
Ordinary auctions mainly served individual cultivators and smaller powers. Bulk auctions catered to major powers, extremely wealthy cultivators, and merchant caravans.
Every transaction at a bulk auction involved sums large enough to make ordinary people’s hearts tremble.
Once Xia Yunzhao understood, he made his decision. “Then we’ll use the bulk auction!”
The auctioneer immediately beamed. “Quickly, take these two seniors to our finest room! Serve the best tea and spirit fruits. Put it all on my account!” Then he smiled at Xia Yunzhao. “Senior, please wait a little. Tonight’s bulk auction is about to begin.”
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze followed the attendant through a winding corridor and into the auction hall. They went up to the second floor and entered a tastefully decorated room. Looking down through the window gave them an excellent view of the auction stage below.
Even this room had its own Spirit-Gathering Formation, raising the concentration of spiritual energy another level above what it had been outside.
Once the attendant left, Xia Yunzhao cupped Shang Shuangze’s face in both hands and muttered, “We only have one Spirit-Gathering Formation at home and have to use it carefully. We even bring it with us when we travel. Do these people get Spirit-Gathering Formations for free or something?!”
Shang Shuangze had become used to Xia Yunzhao holding his face, but this was the first time they had been this close. He could even feel the other man’s breath. His scalp prickled slightly, and he tried to lean back without drawing attention.
Xia Yunzhao refused to let go. “I’m not finished. Look carefully!” He leaned even closer. “Where do you think they bought these formations? Are they cheap? Can they introduce the supplier to me?”
A trace of red slowly spread upward from beneath Shang Shuangze’s neat, restrained collar. His voice was slightly hoarse. “Perhaps… they employ their own formation master.”
Xia Yunzhao thought about it and reluctantly admitted, “Fine. That’s a major power for you.”
The door opened again. Several attendants entered carrying tea, fruit, and snacks. Behind them came two beautiful female cultivators with similar features.
The two female cultivators entered with smiles. “Greetings, Seniors.”
Xia Yunzhao looked up in confusion. “Isn’t this supposed to be the best private room? Why am I still sharing it with other people?”
One of the women burst out laughing. “Senior is joking. My sister and I are here to explain the auction for you.”
Only then did Xia Yunzhao understand. He pointed at the chairs opposite them. “Then you two can sit there.”
The sisters froze. Their expressions became more restrained as they sat down somewhat nervously.
Xia Yunzhao still wanted to ask about the Spirit-Gathering Formation, but he figured Danxia Hall might not be willing to explain, and the women were only attendants anyway, so they might not know.
Seeing him appear hesitant, the older woman smiled, picked up a fruit, and leaned closer. “Senior, why don’t you try this spirit fruit…”
A hand came between them. The woman instinctively looked up and instantly felt as though she had fallen into an icy abyss, as if an exceptionally terrifying slaughter beast had fixed its gaze upon her.
Shang Shuangze pushed her hand aside and said in a low voice, “Sit properly.”
The woman immediately withdrew, sat perfectly straight, and gave her younger sister a tiny shake of the head. Her anxiety deepened.
Xia Yunzhao thought the woman obviously did not know that all his spending today was being paid by the auctioneer. No matter how much she tried to sell him, she would not earn a commission from it.
Still, he picked up a fruit and tasted it. It really was delicious, bursting with juice, sweet and refreshing, with plenty of spiritual energy. He immediately took another and stuffed it into Shang Shuangze’s mouth, then lifted Shang Shuangze’s hand and placed it against his throat. “This fruit is really good. Let’s keep an eye out while we’re traveling. If we see any, we’ll pick some.”
Shang Shuangze poured him tea and told him to eat slowly so he would not choke.
The two female cultivators silently watched their interaction… and seemed to understand something.