Time flew like a shuttle; in the flick of a finger, three days slipped by.
After finishing his afternoon session of concocting Jade Marrow Pills, Luo Chen did not head down to the wilderness beneath Mount Huiye to practice his spells.
Instead, he lingered in the Pill Hall, watching Mi Li concoct Fasting Powder.
With an abundant supply of raw ingredients, Mi Li's skill in concocting Fasting Powder had reached a respectable proficiency.
Out of ten attempts, she could succeed two or three times.
If translated onto the panel, it would surely rate somewhere between Skilled and Perfect.
Luo Chen was very pleased with Mi Li's progress.
The profit margins on Fasting Powder were low, and market competition was fierce.
The purpose of concocting Fasting Powder was not to make money, but to meet the internal needs of the Luotian Association.
Now that winter had arrived, the activities of cultivators were severely hampered.
Although the Lianyun Merchant Alliance had seized the opportunity to take over the market previously held by Spirit Source Studio, shipping in vast quantities of spiritual rice from other regions to sell, it still could not meet the demands of the tens of thousands of rogue cultivators remaining in Dahe Market.
Many cultivators within the Luotian Association had also suffered because of this.
Under such circumstances, the Pill Hall's ability to supply Fasting Powder at low prices won great favor.
Compared to ordinary grains and cereals, Fasting Powder—which contained a trace of spiritual qi and kept hunger at bay—was vastly superior.
After Mi Li, it was Tang Quan's turn to try his hand at concocting Myriad Wonders Pills.
Having washed her hands clean, Mi Li now held the hand of a little boy, standing in the corner to watch.
Luo Chen stood ahead with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression calm.
"What attempt is this?"
"I don't know, but it must be over a hundred by now!"
"So many attempts, and not a single success? Can he really do this?"
"Who knows? After all, his uncle is Elder Zeng Wen, a man of high status and authority."
"Still, wasting so many herbs like this... doesn't the president feel the sting?"
Hushed whispers rippled through the assisting herbal apprentices and fire attendants.
Accustomed to it though he was, Tang Quan still felt a twinge of dejection.
This was probably the Pill Hall's very last batch of ingredients for the Myriad Wonders Pill.
If he failed again, President Luo Chen would likely no longer bother with this pill.
Everyone knew that right now, the Luotian Association's entire focus was on Jade Marrow Pills.
Dwelling on these stray thoughts, Tang Quan began the concoction process.
Halfway through, a faint scorched smell wafted out.
It was all too familiar!
Tang Quan's heart sank.
Right at that moment, Luo Chen pulled him back.
"Watch closely. This is how you concoct Myriad Wonders Pills."
"I will demonstrate this only one final time. If you fail again in the future, it proves you truly possess no talent for alchemy."
Taking over Tang Quan's position, Luo Chen channeled a stream of spiritual power and drove it into the Purple Cloud Bronze Furnace.
The spiritual power entered the furnace, instantly halting any further collapse of the medicinal essence.
Separate first, then integrate!
Luo Chen's fingers danced like blooming blossoms, brisk and effortless.
The onlookers were dazzled, struck by the heaven-and-earth difference between his movements and Tang Quan's earlier clumsiness.
Luo Chen paid them no mind, his attention wholly fixed inside the cauldron as he struck out strands of spiritual power from time to time.
Following his directions, the nearby fire attendants raised or lowered the flame.
About the time it took to drink a cup of tea, a refreshing medicinal fragrance drifted out from the bronze furnace.
"Rise!"
The furnace lid drifted upward, and Luo Chen reached out and grabbed.
Instantly, ten deep-red pills bearing three cloud patterns settled into his palm.
He seemed oblivious to their scorching heat.
Luo Chen tossed them casually, and Tang Quan scrambled in a fluster to catch them.
"High-grade!" Beside them, Mi Li gasped, "President, your alchemy skills have improved yet again!"
Staring at the pills, Tang Quan was shaken to the core.
It was no secret that the president could concoct high-grade Myriad Wonders Pills.
Yet this cauldron had already been on the brink of ruin!
Even under such dire conditions, he had turned imminent failure around, effortlessly condensing them into pills—and high-grade ones at that!
What profound mastery of alchemy this was!
Following the shock came an overwhelming sense of bitterness and defeat.
Did he truly lack any gift for alchemy?
While he stood dazed, Luo Chen had already stepped past him and headed outside.
Passing by the alchemy chamber doorway, Luo Chen paused.
He rubbed Qu Lingjun's little head and smiled. "Have you thoroughly grasped the Illustrated Guide to a Hundred Herbs?"
Qu Lingjun looked up at Luo Chen with admiration.
He nodded excitedly.
"I've memorized it all, and my comprehension passed muster! Sister Mi Li can vouch for me!"
Luo Chen glanced at Mi Li, who nodded gently.
"I've quizzed him several times. At first there were a few mistakes, but now he gets almost everything right."
"When it comes to understanding the Illustrated Guide to a Hundred Herbs, he ranks near the top even among all the apprentices."
It seemed he truly was a clever, fine lad!
A pity his aptitude was lacking.
With a sweep of his gaze, Luo Chen detected faint fluctuations of spiritual power from the boy.
It was the hallmark of having just entered the first layer of Qi Refining.
Yet the fluctuations were far too weak, virtually nonexistent.
From what he knew, Qu Lingjun had begun cultivating a month ago.
As the sole hope of the Qu family capable of cultivating, Qu Hancheng certainly would not skimp on him.
Yet after a whole month, this was all he had achieved?
Luo Chen thought of Yuan Xiaoyue; back then, she had taken only a month to advance from the second layer of Qi Refining to the third.
After some thought, Luo Chen produced a small vial.
"Very good. You completed the task I gave you perfectly. This is your reward."
Qu Lingjun took it with delight and moved to open it, but Luo Chen stopped him.
"Open it when you get home."
That pointed look made Qu Lingjun instantly understand what he meant.
Being a sensible child, he immediately bowed in gratitude.
Luo Chen brushed it off, turned around, and left the alchemy chamber, leaving the rest to clean up.
Like a little adult, Qu Lingjun helped the others scrub the cauldrons, repair the fire pits, and replace the firebreak bricks.
Whenever he came across leftover dregs, he carefully collected them as if they were treasures.
Mi Li asked with a gentle smile why he was collecting them, explaining that these dregs were useless and usually buried out in the wilderness.
Qu Lingjun merely opened his large eyes wide and said that these were dregs from a successful batch, and collecting them to compare against failed dregs might reveal other differences between success and failure.
Outside the alchemy chamber, nearing his stone cottage, Luo Chen paused in his tracks for a fraction of a second.
He had a similar habit himself, drawing lessons from failure after failure.
Yet he seemed never to have paid attention to the dregs left behind by successful batches.
It was just like solving a math problem.
When people arrived at a wrong answer, many would trace back to see which step had gone awry.
Yet very few, upon reaching the correct answer, would bother studying the significance of each step in the calculation.
Because people were naturally immersed in the joy of success.
Whether concocting pills or solving problems.
"Though it might only be a slight help, it certainly opens up a fresh perspective for me."
Luo Chen chuckled softly and gave it no further thought.
Returning to the stone cottage, he activated the formation and descended into the mine shaft, heading toward Mount Changyin.
Both Earth Mountain Art and Billowing Waves Art had reached the Perfect level.
In the estimation of immortal cultivators, this placed him somewhere between Minor Accomplishment and Major Accomplishment, allowing him to wield them with complete ease.
Today, he was going to test the second-tier spell derived from combining the three arts of Fireball, Earth Mountain, and Billowing Waves: Landslide!
...
"Lingjun, stop playing in the dirt. It's time to cultivate."
"Grandpa, I'm not playing in the dirt!"
Qu Hancheng gave a helpless, doting smile as he pulled the filthy boy away from the basin.
Glancing down, he caught a scent mingling floral sweetness with scorched ash.
"Are these medicinal dregs?"
"No, these aren't ordinary dregs!"
Qu Lingjun grinned smugly. "These are dregs caught right between failure and success!"
"Huh?"
"Never mind, Grandpa. You're old; you wouldn't understand."
"Pah, you little brat. Go get washed up."
While Qu Lingjun washed, Qu Hancheng watched the sky darken and gazed into the distance toward what had once been Dahe's inner city.
Now, it was a ghost city.
And all his descendants—his son and daughter-in-law, along with two young grandsons lacking spiritual roots—had perished within.
"De Xian, rest in peace! I will definitely raise Lingjun into a powerful cultivator."
With resolve in his heart, Qu Hancheng retrieved two jade bottles from his storage bag.
The first contained low-grade Jade Marrow Pills, stockpiled at internal discount prices back during his time with the Mountain Breaker Gang.
They were well suited for Qu Lingjun's current realm.
The other was Qi-Nourishing Pills, which he had recently won at high prices from the black market in the southern outer city.
Produced by the Medicine King Sect, its potency was mild, leaving no sequelae.
"Consuming too many low-grade Jade Marrow Pills carries the side effect of jade-like calcification in the dantian."
"By right, I should have Lingjun take Qi-Nourishing Pills, but I..."
Qu Hancheng recalled that his remaining lifespan was short, and having suffered severe injuries in the past, he truly had few years left to live.
Though he served as a fire deacon in the Pill Hall, and the president had raised his pay several times, the monthly spirit stones he earned barely matched those of a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
"Qi-Nourishing Pills are growing more and more expensive. My spirit stones can't buy many."
"Better keep these bottles saved for now. Once Lingjun reaches the middle stage of Qi Refining, he can stop taking Jade Marrow Pills and switch to the Qi-Nourishing Pills!"
Having made his decision, Qu Hancheng treasured and stowed away the bottle of Qi-Nourishing Pills.
When Qu Lingjun finished washing and ran out naked, the old man scolded him with a laugh, telling him to get dressed and cultivate.
Unexpectedly, Qu Lingjun stood on the bed, wiggling his little bird, and declared loudly with full justification:
"No!"
"A couple of days ago, I heard the president say that drawing close to nature and experiencing the Great Dao is the very foundation of cultivation!"
"Cultivating with clothes on will hinder me from absorbing ambient spiritual qi!"
Qu Hancheng stood utterly dumbfounded. Was there really such a saying?
It was just a layer of undergarments, after all.
Yet thinking that it had come from Luo Chen, he found himself half-believing it, so he let it slide.
"Fine, do as you please. Here is the pill for today. Swallow one before you begin cultivating."
As he spoke, the old man lit a brazier in the corner of the room.
The burning charcoal cast a warm glow through the chamber.
He cracked the window open a sliver, letting a faint trace of chilly air seep in from outside.
He couldn't let his young grandson freeze, nor could he let the room become suffocatingly stuffy.
It was no easy task for the old fellow.
Turning around, however, he found that Qu Lingjun had not begun cultivating.
Instead, he crouched on the bed, staring blankly at a pill in his hand.
"It's just a low-grade Jade Marrow Pill, what's there to gawk at..."
Qu Hancheng froze.
Because the pill in the child's hand distinctly bore three cloud patterns, meaning it was not a low-grade Jade Marrow Pill at all.
It was a high-grade Jade Marrow Pill!
He snatched the pill away, his face tense. "Where did you get this?"
Qu Lingjun pouted. "The president rewarded me with it today. He said I memorized the Illustrated Guide to a Hundred Herbs well."
The president gave it!
He had initially feared Qu Lingjun might have stolen it, but hearing that it came from Luo Chen, the heavy stone in his heart dropped.
Whether in the Mountain Breaker Gang or the Luotian Association, their Qu family had relied on honesty and dedicated work to stand out step by step among the multitude of rogue cultivators.
Stealing was an absolute taboo!
One could never touch such a thing.
Having breathed a sigh of relief, Qu Hancheng finally processed what was before him.
"A high-grade Jade Marrow Pill!"
"Heavens!"
"The president's alchemy skills have advanced to such a degree? How long has it been, and he's already concocting high-grade Jade Marrow Pills!"
"If Old Gang Master Mi were still alive, he would probably be overjoyed beyond measure."
While he muttered to himself, Qu Lingjun tugged at him.
"Grandpa, you can't tell anyone about this!"
"Hmm?"
Qu Hancheng could not understand. The president had made another breakthrough in the Dao of Alchemy—why couldn't it be spoken of?
Tensing his little face, Qu Lingjun mimicked Luo Chen's manner from earlier that day, fixing his grandfather with a stare.
He said solemnly, "We definitely can't speak of it outside. That's what the president meant!"
Qu Hancheng opened his mouth, momentarily caught off guard by his grandson's expression and tone.
In a daze, he seemed to catch a trace of Luo Chen's very presence.
In that case, he suppressed his urge to broadcast the president's fame to the world.
Flattering someone only to end up kicked would be bad indeed.
Even so, this left him in a dilemma.
Should he let his grandson use the low-grade Jade Marrow Pills, or the high-grade ones?
"The high-grade ones!"
"Since the president rewarded him with an entire bottle, he must have considered Lingjun's cultivation realm."
"Besides, he seems quite fond of the boy. If Lingjun raises his cultivation sooner, he can help out with tasks, and might even be entrusted with important responsibilities."
"I'll just keep these low-grade Jade Marrow Pills for myself. In any case, I haven't consumed many pills in my lifetime."
Having found an excuse to indulge himself, Qu Hancheng hurried his grandson to begin cultivating.
He stepped out to stand at the doorway, leaving the air inside the room for Qu Lingjun so the spiritual qi wouldn't be siphoned by him.
Facing the biting cold wind, Qu Hancheng pulled a tobacco pipe from his waist.
Skilled as ever, he used the Fireball Art to light the pipe bowl and took a draw.
He found that the usually harsh tobacco leaves now tasted faintly sweet.
...
A look of anguish crept across his face.
Luo Chen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and drank a small sip of Mending and Nourishing Meridian Liquid.
He looked down at the small mound raised a short distance away.
"This is the power of a second-tier spell?"
"Damn it!"
"Did the Zhenlong Black Market sell me a counterfeit knockoff?!"
After a stream of grumbling complaints, Luo Chen replayed the situation in his mind.
According to the manual, as long as all three prerequisite spells reached the Minor Accomplishment level, one could begin practicing Landslide.
Right now, his Fireball Art was at Great Perfection, while Earth Mountain Art and Billowing Waves Art were both at the Perfect level, far exceeding Minor Accomplishment.
Yet the three arts failed to merge!
"Where did it go wrong?"
All the foundational conditions had been met, so why did it fail?
Luo Chen did not doubt his talent for spells.
In fact, compared to his alchemy skills, which even Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators envied, his spell aptitude was genuine through and through.
Among the many spells he had learned, not a single one had relied on the system for initial mastery.
Every one had been achieved through his own painstaking cultivation.
Mulling it over, Luo Chen gazed at the small mound.
That was the effect of the Earth Mountain Art.
If unleashed with full power, it should have been at least dozens of meters tall.
Yet during the casting just now, the spiritual energy in his body had become chaotic, briefly running wild.
Not only did the casting fail, but it also lightly damaged his meridians.
Fortunately, he had the Mending and Nourishing Meridian Liquid obtained from Gao Tingyuan's legacy; otherwise, today's attempt would have cost more than it was worth.
"Where was the water?"
"I invoked the Billowing Waves Art as well, so why wasn't there a single drop of water, or even a whiff of water-attribute spiritual qi?"
"It can't be that my Earth Mountain Art and Billowing Waves Art aren't proficient enough, can it?"
Midway through his confusion, Luo Chen suddenly realized.
Perhaps it wasn't that those two prerequisite spells were lacking.
Rather, his mastery of the Fireball Art was simply too high.
A Great Perfection Fireball Art, pushed to its absolute limit, was comparable even to the second-tier fire spell Blazing Sun Art.
Combining three arts was about balance first, and explosion second.
If balance could not be achieved first, how could there be an explosion?
The only result was a premature detonation.
And a premature detonation injured none other than the caster!
"So what I need to do is either advance the other two prerequisite spells,"
"or regulate the spiritual energy input of the Fireball Art?"
The former would require grinding work, measured at least in months.
The latter, on the other hand, was much easier to handle.
Over the past several months, he had been continuously optimizing the Fireball Art.
The Great Perfection Spirit Eye Art gave him wings.
By now, the optimization of the Fireball Art had reached a very advanced stage.
If fused once again into the Blazing Sun Art, its might would surpass its former power by thirty percent.
Given sufficient time to drain all his spiritual power, he would surely unleash a dazzling strike.
If it was merely a matter of controlling the spiritual energy input, that would not be difficult to resolve.
Just as Luo Chen was about to continue practicing, his eyes narrowed slightly.
Beneath the cover of night, an old wolf radiating a powerful aura was climbing to a mountain peak a hundred li away.
Soon after, a desolate, low wolf howl echoed across the desolate mountains and ancient forest.
"Today is no longer suitable for continuing with this spell."
"No matter. Now that I've found the root of the problem, I will master this spell sooner or later."
Without hesitation, Luo Chen turned and left.
Unleashing Carefree Wind Riding, howling winds surged around him, with black clouds cloaking his form.
In an instant, Luo Chen vanished without a trace from Mount Changyin.
...
Upon returning to Crescent Moon Valley, Luo Chen did not immediately begin cultivating.
Over these past few days, the processing of raw ingredients for the Nether-Passage Pill had been completed.
Ten sets of prepared primary ingredients lay inside his storage bag.
"Well, methods of protecting one's path are only meant to safeguard it; cultivation is the true foundation."
"Better concoct the Nether-Passage Pills and boost my cultivation first!"
System, initiate!
Without the slightest hesitation.
Ten achievement points were deducted from the panel.
And on the status panel, a new entry appeared:
[Nether-Passage Pill 1/100]
Based on past experience, this additional "1" meant that by default, Luo Chen had already experienced a single successful concoction.
That was why it was rated at the Beginner level.
One must not underestimate this "1".
Without this "1", no one could predict how many failures would have preceded it.
From Tang Quan, Luo Chen had seen firsthand the bitter defeat of being unable to succeed even once.
To master the basics of the Myriad Wonders Pill, Tang Quan had attempted it over a hundred times.
At a cost of five spirit stones per batch, he had already squandered five hundred low-grade spirit stones.
What kind of concept was that?
Back when Luo Chen had started from scratch, his entire net worth had been a mere fifty spirit stones.
Five hundred spirit stones would have required him to start over and rebuild his fortune ten times!
And still without a glimmer of hope for success.
Only with that single success could one cement that sweetest of memories, drawing further experience from it.
In short, success bred success!
With stray thoughts brushing past, Luo Chen brought out the Four Symbols Cauldron.
This was currently the dharma artifact he was most familiar with, even more so than the Purple Cloud Bronze Furnace, the Xuanyun Cauldron, or the Divine Wood Cauldron.
"Old Man Mi, I kind of miss you!"
With a nostalgic sigh, Luo Chen stoked the fire himself and added the ingredients one by one.
"Azure Star Grass, tabasheer..."
"Phantom Nether Grass, alternating with blue citrus grass juice..."
"Finally, the snow fox demonic blood, and with this... Wait, no!"
In just a split second, Luo Chen snapped out of a daze.
Yet in that single moment of abstraction, a pungent, foul stench hit his face.
He rose into the air, looking down at the interior of the cauldron.
A thick, snow-white slurry of solid and liquid was churning within.
The foul stench emanated from this very mixture.
Luo Chen's face darkened. A failure!
It had failed before even reaching the stage of integrating the medicinal essences.
Let alone the step of coalescing the pills.
"Merely activating the snow fox demonic blood produced a hallucinogenic sensation that dazed me for a fraction of a second."
"And that split second alone ruined the batch!"
"In all my years of concocting pills, this is the very first time I've suffered a backlash from the ingredients."
Such an occurrence was rare.
Or rather, it happened!
Yet it typically occurred only with high-tier pills.
For instance, in concocting certain high-tier pills that utilized living creatures, one had to withstand the backlash of the raw ingredients.
He hadn't expected a mere Nether-Passage Pill to behave this way.
"It's likely because the incomplete recipe I restored didn't include a way to suppress the hallucinogenic potency of the snow fox demonic blood."
"Now that it's registered as Beginner on the panel, it's too late to modify and optimize the recipe on the fly."
"I must find a way to keep from being ensorcelled while concocting."
When a problem arose, solve it!
Luo Chen was not discouraged; he had experienced failure countless times.
Without those failures, how could more success be achieved?
Still, suffering both a failed spell casting and a ruined batch of pills in this single short day left his mind thoroughly exhausted.
"Perhaps it also has to do with how tired I've been lately."
"And my meridians suffered a slight injury today anyway, requiring some rest."
"I'll skip cultivation for tonight. I'll just take the Golden Quality Jade Liquid and Clarity Liquid, then go to sleep!"
Luo Chen understood well that too much was as bad as too little.
He decisively chose to sleep.
And truth be told, he slept rather peacefully.
Chapter 167