A familiar process, a familiar place.
Inside this cramped cave, Luo Chen once again circulated the Eternal Spring Art.
The fragrance of the Spirit Calming Incense was subtle and refined, settling his excited anticipation into a state as tranquil as an ancient well.
Vast amounts of spiritual energy surged into his body, inhaled, devoured, and refined until they became part of his spiritual power.
Yet this was still not enough!
With a soft gulp, Luo Chen swallowed the Qi-Nourishing Pill resting under his tongue.
An even more massive surge of medicinal potency washed through his meridians before ultimately flowing into his dantian.
Suddenly, a sensation akin to a silver vase bursting flashed and vanished in an instant.
Luo Chen's focus wavered slightly, and he missed the feeling.
However, he did not grow frustrated. According to Mi Shuhua's *Insights on Qi Refining*, the late stage of Qi Refining was an entirely different realm compared to the early and middle stages.
The upper limit of spiritual power contained within a late-stage cultivator was nearly the sum of the first through sixth layers combined, perhaps even greater.
Cultivators in the early and middle stages possessed very little spiritual power, leaving them severely lacking in combat techniques.
Even if they possessed ample magical artifacts, they lacked the capacity to unleash them.
Yet once they reached the late stage, their expanded spiritual power allowed them to break free from those shackles.
Just like on the Dao Discussion Platform back then, Zeng Wen had deployed technique after technique—talismans, spells, and magical artifacts—displaying nearly everything a Qi Refining cultivator could possibly muster.
This transformation occurred because quantitative change inevitably led to qualitative change.
A late-stage Qi Refining cultivator had already opened nearly every meridian they were capable of clearing.
The capacity of their dantian had also reached its limit, unable to expand further.
Consequently, late-stage Qi Refining cultivators focused far more on purifying their spiritual energy.
Within that same dantian volume, they refined spiritual power several times denser than in the previous stages.
It was said that if one could condense this formless spiritual power into a liquid state, they would find the opportunity to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm.
Luo Chen did not fully understand the underlying mechanics, but right now, following the instructions in Mi Shuhua's notes, he circulated the Eternal Spring Art again and again. Utilizing the circulating cycles of the cultivation technique, he purified the spiritual power within his body and used this immense power to batter against his dantian.
Another Qi-Nourishing Pill entered his stomach, and Luo Chen's mind once again turned as calm as an ancient well.
After a long time, that abrupt sensation resurfaced.
This time, Luo Chen seized it flawlessly.
Like a silver vase bursting apart, the spiritual power suddenly erupted.
*Crack! Crack! Crack!*
Sharp snapping sounds detonated inside him, like bamboo joints splitting open.
Abruptly, Luo Chen's face paled, and his eyes snapped open.
An aura carrying a contradictory blend of weakness and formidable strength emanated from him simultaneously.
The seventh layer of Qi Refining!
"It took more than two months, but I finally broke through!"
Glancing at his status panel, a gratified smile touched his lips.
Yet before he could fully savor the joy, his entire attention shifted to the meridians inside his body.
*Once the dantian is solidified and the meridians are cleared, the late stage of Qi Refining focuses primarily on purifying spiritual power.*
*However, breaking through into the late stage requires expanding the dantian's upper limit and tearing open more meridians.*
*My situation is different from others. Master-tier Eternal Spring Art already cleared all my meridians long ago. Who would have thought this innate advantage would almost cause disaster here?*
*Still, I succeeded in the end.*
Breaking through to the late stage should have involved clearing additional meridians.
Yet Luo Chen's meridians were already completely open, which meant that immense surge of spiritual power had rushed out of his newly expanded dantian all at once.
Without naturally clogged meridians to buffer the impact, the flood of spiritual power had rampaged unchecked through his body.
Now, he had drawn the spiritual power back into his dantian.
Yet the meridians ravaged by the flood were left battered and frayed.
*Damaged meridians are a minor matter; there are plenty of ways to mend them, so I don't need to worry about that.*
*More importantly, after expanding, my dantian can hold nearly double the spiritual power I had at the sixth layer.*
After a careful examination, Luo Chen finally put his mind at ease.
He stowed his pill furnace, gathered up the ash on the ground into a pouch to dispose of outside later.
The breakthrough had not taken very long.
In the past, Luo Chen would certainly have continued cultivating.
Today, however, that was out of the question. With his meridians injured, he needed to rest and recuperate before resuming.
Since it was still early, Luo Chen did not feel sleepy in the slightest.
Having just broken through, he was still somewhat excited.
He paced around the cramped cave before finally sitting down on the raw spirit stone ore.
*Snap!*
He gently broke off a translucent piece of raw spirit stone ore.
With his Spiritual Eye Art active, he could easily discern faint strands of pure spiritual energy lingering within the translucent stone.
"Huh?"
Luo Chen paused in surprise.
He had originally assumed that the spiritual energy within the vein could be absorbed directly because it had been filtered through layers of rock as it leaked out.
Yet examining it now, that didn't seem to be the case at all.
The spiritual energy sealed inside the ore vein was clearly pure enough to be absorbed directly!
"Then why is the spiritual energy in our spirit stones so full of impurities? Why does it rampage violently the moment it's drawn into the body?"
Luo Chen retrieved a standard low-grade spirit stone.
He tried snapping it with his fingers, but it wouldn't break.
After a moment's thought, he tested it with his Jasper Saber, but made no impression either.
"Quite sturdy, aren't you!"
His stubborn streak flared, and Luo Chen drew out his Soul Breaking Nail.
A top-grade magical artifact, inscribed not with any first-rank array, but a second-rank Armor Piercing Formation.
*Go!*
With a flick of his finger, the Soul Breaking Nail grazed the rhomboid crystal.
A fissure split open.
Instantly, the spiritual energy trapped inside vented outward in a wild torrent.
Perhaps due to the close proximity, most of it gathered directly toward the raw spirit stone ore.
However, a small portion remained drifting in the open air.
Pushing his Spiritual Eye Art to its absolute limit, Luo Chen stared intently at the escaping energy.
"What are these drifting black wisps?"
Suddenly, Luo Chen spotted faint black wisps wandering amidst the spiritual energy.
Their state seemed contradictory—they coexisted with the spiritual energy, yet repelled it at the same time.
The moment they were released, they rushed toward the outside world, dragging parts of the spiritual energy along in a chaotic scramble.
Staring at this peculiar sight, countless thoughts raced through Luo Chen's mind, spinning out various conjectures.
*Is this the unique method major sects use to manufacture spirit stones?*
*An anti-counterfeiting mark? A proprietary signature?*
*Is it a technique to stabilize and solidify spiritual energy inside the stone? Or is it a measure specifically designed to prevent cultivators from absorbing it directly?*
Luo Chen attempted to capture the drifting black wisps with his spiritual power, but grabbed nothing at all.
His eyes could clearly see them, so why couldn't he grasp them?
Luo Chen frowned, watching helplessly as the black wisps dissipated into the air.
"Do they just vanish on their own?"
"It behaves almost like some kind of single-use consumable."
Luo Chen stared at another low-grade spirit stone he had pulled out.
After hesitating for a moment, he put it back.
Never mind. He had no means of capturing this black qi right now, so breaking more spirit stones would only be a waste.
However, if he could one day master a method to eliminate or control this black qi, he would be able to absorb spiritual energy from spirit stones while fighting an enemy.
Rumor had it that disciples of major sects possessed similar methods.
It was precisely because of this that ordinary rogue cultivators found it exceedingly difficult to confront sect cultivators in direct battle, while prolonged attrition was utterly out of the question.
*Still, if I ever stop cultivating here in the future, I might consider hauling this piece of raw ore away as a backup power source!*
Luo Chen eyed the raw spirit stone ore, already plotting to uproot the foundation of the place.
***
After a night of rest, Luo Chen's complexion had improved considerably.
Yet at first glance, he still appeared frail, weak, and pale.
When Mi Shuhua arrived, this was the exact sight that greeted him.
He had originally come in high spirits, as Sikong Shoujia had brought back a mid-grade Jade Marrow Pill yesterday.
This signaled a breakthrough in Luo Chen's alchemy.
Low-grade and mid-grade were worlds apart!
A bottle of low-grade Jade Marrow Pills could fetch only ten spirit stones, and its side effects made many cultivators hesitate.
Yet a bottle of mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills, packed with sufficient medicinal potency, could support the cultivation of early- and mid-stage cultivators alike. Its price could easily be raised to forty or even fifty spirit stones!
This meant the Pill Hall was on the verge of reaping massive profits.
Profits far surpassing those of the Myriad Wonders Pill!
Because of this, an overjoyed Mi Shuhua had not come empty-handed.
He had ordered large quantities of demon beast meat and spirit rice brought along to reward the logistics cultivators of the Pill Hall.
After all, with one dead and one injured yesterday, he couldn't let morale plummet.
As for Luo Chen, he had prepared a lavish gift, hoping only that he would keep up the momentum.
However, the moment he saw Luo Chen looking so bedridden and sickly, his heart turned as cold as the impending winter.
"Little Luo, Little Luo, what happened to you?!"
Lying in bed, Luo Chen opened his eyes "weakly." "Gang Leader Mi, I fear... I'm not long for this world."
"Uh..."
Mi Shuhua was stunned. Releasing his spiritual sense, a single sweep told him Luo Chen's true condition.
"What nonsense are you spouting? It's just damaged meridians! I have a bottle of Mending and Nourishing Meridian Liquid right here, made specifically for Foundation Establishment cultivators. Dilute it with water and drink it; you'll be fully healed within a month."
*Whoosh!*
Before Mi Shuhua had even finished speaking, the jade bottle of medicine was already in Luo Chen's hand.
Sitting straight up, Luo Chen examined the medicine curiously.
"Mending and Nourishing Meridian Liquid?"
Mi Shuhua said helplessly, "Yes. Once a cultivator breaks through to Foundation Establishment, their dantian solidifies and becomes virtually indestructible, rarely suffering the embarrassment of a shattered dantian like Qi Refining cultivators do."
"Under those circumstances, Foundation Establishment cultivators will attempt to pierce open every meridian and aperture across their entire body, using these extra spaces to store spiritual power."
"Forcibly opening meridians and apertures naturally causes minor damage. Thus, Spirit Herb Pavilion specially sells this Mending and Nourishing Meridian Liquid. Its effects are outstanding."
Having heard the explanation, Luo Chen treated the bottle like a treasured gem.
Clutching the jade bottle, Luo Chen sighed with emotion. "Gang Leader Mi, you treat me so well. If you weren't so old, I'd want to take you as my adoptive father."
*Who's old?!*
*I still have nearly a hundred years left to live!*
A vein bulged on Mi Shuhua's forehead, but he didn't rise to the bait.
Between the lines, Luo Chen was clearly saying he didn't want him as an adoptive father.
He wasn't keen on it anyway. Luo Chen's value lay in alchemy, but his aptitude was far too poor; he would likely never advance to Foundation Establishment in his lifetime.
His current investment was already sufficient.
If he became the kid's cheap old man, wouldn't he have to bleed even more resources?!
Speaking of aptitude, Mi Shuhua suddenly noticed something amiss.
"You're at the seventh layer of Qi Refining?"
Luo Chen's heart skipped a beat. His verbal misdirection hadn't fooled him after all.
So he had been found out anyway?
The perfected tier of the Breath Concealment Spiritual Art still couldn't completely block the spiritual sense of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Yet it hadn't been entirely useless—at least Mi Shuhua hadn't noticed during his initial check of the injuries.
Luo Chen smiled helplessly. "Yes. These injuries were sustained from forcibly breaking through to the seventh layer."
"Why the rush?" Mi Shuhua frowned.
"How could I not be in a rush? The gang needs me to refine pills, and everyone in the Pill Hall is working so hard, even paying with their lives."
"I only resent that my cultivation is so meager, that I cannot contribute more strength to the gang."
"I hate my own weakness!"
"That is why, in deep reflection last night, I relied on that whole bottle of Qi-Nourishing Pills you gifted me to force a breakthrough."
Luo Chen spoke with remorseful grief, before his expression turned desolate.
"Alas, my aptitude is simply too poor. A single attempt left me battered and bruised. Ah... the Great Dao is beyond my reach! The Great Dao is beyond my reach!"
By the end, his tone was utterly dispirited and his face weary, as though he had lost interest in everything.
At first, Mi Shuhua thought the words sounded familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before.
Yet seeing Luo Chen looking so thoroughly disheartened, he grew anxious instead.
"You're so young! How can you lose heart over such a minor setback?!"
"Besides, didn't you succeed? You should be proud of yourself!"
"Pull yourself together, I won't allow you to sink into despair!"
Luo Chen blinked his wide, glistening eyes. "Gang Leader, can someone with five spiritual roots really achieve Foundation Establishment?"
Mi Shuhua said earnestly, "With enough resources, even a pig could become a demon beast king. You... of course, I'm not saying you're a pig."
After a brief pause, he said solemnly, "You can refine mid-grade Jade Marrow Pills now. Going forward, the Pill Hall's revenue will only grow, and your dividends will increase along with it. You have a very real shot at Foundation Establishment."
"Then my mind is at ease!"
Luo Chen rolled out of bed with crisp, nimble agility.
Not a trace of weakness remained.
After all, with his realm elevated, his overall strength had increased. A minor internal injury didn't hinder his movements in the slightest.
In truth, what he had really wanted was Mi Shuhua's final sentence.
With those words on record, no one would be able to shortchange his dividends from the Jade Marrow Pills down the line.
Smiling brightly at Mi Shuhua, Luo Chen held out an open palm. "I heard you came today to reward everyone. Is there a share for me?"
Mi Shuhua's cheek twitched. This rascal had been waiting for him right here!
With a flick of his right hand, a sheet of paper fluttered down in front of Luo Chen.
"Here. Study it carefully; it should prove very useful to your alchemy."
Curious, Luo Chen smoothed out the paper. Why did this sheet look so familiar?
Wait, wasn't this paper from the *Qingyuan Alchemy Exposition*?
You old fox, you held out on me with this too!
***
Mi Shuhua went off to reward the logistics cultivators of the Pill Hall.
With his exalted status as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, his personal presence served as an effective morale booster after the recent blow.
Luo Chen stayed behind, holding the paper and studying it closely.
He confirmed that this was indeed a page torn from the *Qingyuan Alchemy Exposition*.
The reason he hadn't noticed a missing page before was that the contents bore no connection to what came before it.
Instead, it looked like a supplementary alchemical technique added separately by the author, Qing Yuanzi.
Yes, an alchemical art!
Just like spiritual farmers had specialized spells useless in combat but vital for tending crops—such as the Minor Cloud and Rain Art, the Bing Fire Land-Clearing Art, and the Lunar Yimu Marsh Gas Art.
Alchemists also possessed auxiliary spells known to the world as alchemical arts.
The Jade Breaking Hand and Pure Heart Hand techniques Luo Chen had learned earlier were the most basic alchemical arts.
They yielded exceptional results when processing mineral ores, herbs, flowers, and fruits.
This standalone page, however, recorded an art called the "Qingyuan Pill Nourishing Art."
This art had no use in processing raw ingredients or standard pill refinement, and offered zero combat benefit.
Yet if one mastered it, there was a chance to forcibly elevate a finished pill of a fixed grade to a higher grade.
*Such an alchemical art actually exists in this world?*
Luo Chen's gaze drifted toward the pill refinement chambers, where a group of pill-tenders he had trained was working.
Though their title contained the words "pill-tending," their daily duties were merely storing, cataloging, and safeguarding pills to prevent medicinal potency from leaking due to improper storage.
This Qingyuan Pill Nourishing Art was an entirely different beast.
Paired with specific hand techniques and a specialized environment, it offered a chance to raise a finalized pill by an entire tier.
Back then, the reason Qing Yuanzi had been able to refine third-rank pills during the Foundation Establishment stage was precisely because he employed this very art.
The technique itself wasn't difficult to learn. After reading through it, Luo Chen was confident he could master the basics in short order.
However, the "specific" requirements listed on the page gave him a massive headache.
*The lowest acceptable vessel is a first-rank top-grade pill furnace, with supreme-grade preferred, and a magical treasure furnace being optimal!*
*The chosen pill must be of supreme grade.*
*At least ten portions of raw ingredients must be maintained in the furnace at all times to replenish medicinal potency.*
*The pill chamber is best situated atop a spirit vein, or at the very least within a specialized environment beneficial to pills.*
*The cultivator must constantly temper the pill's quality with Foundation Establishment true fire; in the absence of true fire, various heavenly fires, earthly fires, or exotic flames must be substituted.*
*The duration of the pill-nourishing process begins at half a year at the minimum, and can extend up to a century.*
His scalp tingled!
Reading through those "specific" conditions made Luo Chen's head spin.
Not a single one was something he could easily achieve.
Even the ten portions of raw ingredients, which seemed the simplest, had the caveat of "at least."
In other words, whenever ingredients were depleted, they had to be replenished immediately.
With a minimum timeframe of six months, ghost only knew how many ingredients that would consume.
Furthermore, the condition of a "spirit vein location," which seemed within his reach, was actually wishful thinking.
The spirit vein cave he had discovered was merely a minor tributary.
It barely sufficed to support his solitary cultivation.
Using it to sustain pill nourishment, however, was utterly impossible.
*No wonder Mi Shuhua withheld this page from me earlier—he was afraid I'd aim too high and indulge in wild fantasies!*
*And no wonder he decided to give it to me now. He probably saw that I was stuck on low-grade Jade Marrow Pills and couldn't break through, so he handed me this page hoping I could use stones from another mountain to polish my own jade, gleaning some new insight from it.*
All in all, this Qingyuan Pill Nourishing Art was rather useless to the current Luo Chen.
There were simply too many constraints.
*I'll put it away for now. Who's to say I won't have an opportunity to use it in the future?*
Luo Chen sighed, yet tucked it away contentedly nonetheless.
Anything beneficial to his alchemy was an improvement in his eyes!
Having practiced alchemy for so long, the more he encountered, the more he felt the vast depth of the alchemical path.
His past work had merely been small-scale tinkering. The true vistas of this path were something he had only caught a tiny glimpse of so far.
Perhaps truly stepping onto the Great Dao of alchemy would have to wait until after he advanced to Foundation Establishment.
Just as Luo Chen's thoughts were drifting, Mi Shuhua finished distributing the rewards and walked back over to him.
"Next month is when the auction begins. Are you sure you want to attend?"
Luo Chen patted his storage bag. "I'm quite well-off!"
The old man chuckled, his laugh tinged with disdain.
Luo Chen flushed. "Even if I can't afford anything, just watching and broadening my horizons is good enough!"
"Fine. I'll count you in for a spot. When the time comes, follow this old man to widen your eyes."
***
After finishing work for the day, Luo Chen did not linger at the Pill Hall.
For one, his meridians were damaged, making it unsuitable for cultivation.
Secondly, staying there every day would eventually arouse suspicion.
Besides, life in the Pill Hall was truly ascetic; every day was spent either refining pills or cultivating.
For Qi Refining cultivators who had yet to establish their foundation, very few could endure such a lifestyle.
It wasn't that Luo Chen couldn't bear it, but doing so day in and day out would drive anyone toward cultivation deviation sooner or later.
Sometimes, necessary relaxation and adjustments were essential.
Returning to his courtyard, Luo Chen first cast a Cleansing Art to give the place a thorough sweep, then headed out to run a few simple errands.
Along the way, he stopped by the Yuan residence to see Old Man Yuan and Yuan Xiaoyue, settling the accounts from last month's snack stall.
"Six hundred and twenty spirit stones. Not bad at all. It seems our monthly revenue has stabilized."
Luo Chen took the spirit stones and did a quick tally.
He then handed Yuan Xiaoyue thirty spirit stones—her wages for the past month.
He also set aside an additional hundred spirit stones, which roughly covered the procurement cost for Old Man Yuan's batch of yellow pear wine.
Yuan Xiaoyue happily accepted the spirit stones, raising her oval face to say, "Actually, the month before last, we broke past nine hundred spirit stones at one point. I feel like we could sell even more."
"Oh?"
Luo Chen's interest was piqued. He hadn't expected the market for a humble snack stall to be so vast.
Should he consider scaling up, expanding operations, and creating even greater glory?
"Starting this month, though, other people started selling all sorts of snacks too," Yuan Xiaoyue said, pouting unhappily. "Auntie Li next door rolled out jellied bean curd rice. Supposedly it's a simplified recipe she learned from Zhongding House—filling and restores spiritual energy."
"Across from me, someone set up a stall specifically selling various demon beast jerkies. It doesn't taste as good as your spicy beef jerky, Brother Luo, but they have a wider variety."
"And then..."
Watching her chatter endlessly about the competitors, Luo Chen, who had been marveling at how cultivators in this world also jumped on business trends, couldn't help but chuckle.
He ruffled the girl's increasingly dark, glossy hair.
"Xiaoyue, there's no end to the spirit stones in this world. Others need to earn a living to cultivate too; we just need to sell our own goods well."
Early on, this girl had been meek, delicate, and bashful.
After months of tending the stall, she had grown poised and generous.
She had just become a bit more calculating about every coin.
Yuan Xiaoyue pulled away from Luo Chen's hand, her round eyes wide. "But some of them clearly copied your secret recipes, Brother Luo!"
"Take that guy selling demon beast jerky across from me—before setting up his stall, he bought beef jerky from me for half a month straight. He was obviously trying to figure out the tricks!"
"And the person selling popping beans—those look awfully similar to our immortal beans too."
Luo Chen burst into laughter.
After a long pause, he shook his head with a slight smile. "A secret recipe that can be copied so easily isn't much of a secret recipe."
"Besides... did they pay protection fees?"
"Uh?"
Yuan Xiaoyue stared blankly.
Beside them, Old Man Yuan, who had been sipping wine in silence, curiously set down his wine gourd as well.
Luo Chen tapped Yuan Xiaoyue's forehead. "Silly girl, that wine I have you deliver to the Sword Pavilion cultivator every month isn't given away for free."
"Tomorrow, go find that Sword Pavilion cultivator. Tell him the square has been far too filthy lately, spoiling the environment of the Dao Discussion Platform that the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion worked so hard to build."
"Also, if I recall correctly, White Stone Square is still full of unregulated street stalls, right?"
"Give him a suggestion: have the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion lay down large stone slabs to standardize the stalls, and charge one or two spirit stones per stall."
"Make sure to reserve the best spot with the highest foot traffic in advance. We'll pay the spirit stones too!"
This string of suggestions left Yuan Xiaoyue completely dazed.
Her grandfather beside her was equally bewildered.
Luo Chen didn't elaborate further; this "call the city inspectors" trick would keep them covered for a long time.
As for future competition?
Securing the prime location already placed them in an invincible position.
When he found some spare time, he could develop a few new snacks, and wouldn't their product competitiveness surge right back up?
There were so many hands in the Pill Hall, and the furnaces sat idle at times anyway.
Having those logistics cultivators help him roast a few snacks would be effortless.
He refused to believe that individual peddlers could compete against an operation backed by a full production line!
"Right, next month is my birthday, and I'm hosting drinks in the courtyard. Will you two come?"
Seeing their hesitation, Luo Chen added, "It's nothing extravagant, just a few friends sharing a meal and a bit of wine."
Yuan Xiaoyue seemed tempted, but her grandfather spoke first.
"An old fellow like me won't attend, but Xiaoyue can go have some fun. Getting to know a few seniors will do her good."
Chapter 101