Night fell.
Luo Chen leaped down from the roof. He dropped like a thousand-jin boulder, yet landed as light as a goose feather.
Carrying the last dustpan basket into the house, he checked how the herbs had dried over the afternoon and couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.
"Hundred Herbs Hall's medicinal herbs really do guarantee quality!"
In the past, the herbs he bought from rogue cultivators were often only half-processed.
Either they deliberately left useless parts attached to increase the weight, or they hadn't dried them enough, leaving excess moisture that kept the medicinal potency from condensing properly.
In short, there were always flaws of one kind or another.
As a result, whenever Luo Chen purchased raw materials, on top of any special treatments, he had to apply his own experience to reprocess the ordinary materials from scratch.
But the batch he bought from Hundred Herbs Hall had none of those issues.
With just a bit of simple preparation, they met the standard for pill refinement.
Indeed, you got what you paid for!
After packing everything away, Luo Chen took out the spellbook he had bought from Wang Yuan earlier that day from his storage bag.
*Five Essential Spells of the Qi Refining Stage*.
Fireball Art, Attraction Art, Wind Riding Technique, Spiritual Eye Art, and Healing Art.
Just this set of spells would cost five hundred low-grade spirit stones at Spirit Source Studio, and one would even have to swear a Dao oath not to resell it.
As for teaching someone by hand, there weren't many restrictions on that.
Still, with spells this basic, hardly anyone would spend money to deliberately seek instruction.
Luo Chen had bought it from Wang Yuan for merely two hundred spirit stones; he had undoubtedly saved a massive sum!
Of course, the downside was that his brow remained furrowed the entire time he read.
"Whoever copied this manual, why does their handwriting look like chicken scratch!"
"And this page is covered in bloodstains. I can barely make out the words."
Sighing, Luo Chen could only hold his nose and read on. After all, Wang Yuan had warned him about all this before the purchase.
It was a willing buyer and a willing seller!
"I already know Fireball Art, and its proficiency is about to advance to grandmaster level, so I took a slight loss of forty spirit stones there."
"Pity it only came as a bundle; I couldn't very well tear out a few pages!"
Turning to the page for Attraction Art, Luo Chen grew interested.
The text detailed: "do this and that, in such and such a way."
"So that's how it is!"
After reading through the entirety of Attraction Art, Luo Chen had a sudden realization.
Rather than a spell, it was more an exercise in controlling spiritual power.
Humans were born with souls, and once a cultivator began refining spiritual qi into their body, spiritual sense would take form within the soul.
Yet spiritual sense was restricted by a cultivator's realm; during the Qi Refining stage, it could only achieve internal vision and could not be projected outward.
This restriction would only be unshackled once a cultivator advanced to Foundation Establishment.
In any case, during the Qi Refining stage, when spiritual sense could not project outward, one could never achieve perfect control over their externalized spiritual power.
How, then, could one freely manipulate externalized spiritual power?
Some expert had taken a high vantage and devised a series of methods to progressively strengthen spiritual power control.
From small to large, from entry to mastery, over time, one could effortlessly manipulate externalized spiritual power.
"Let's give it a try!"
Luo Chen found a small pebble and held it in his palm.
Rise!
Fall!
Rising and falling, the little pebble danced up and down in his palm.
Go!
With a whoosh, the pebble landed on the ground.
Return!
Reaching out with a beckoning motion, the spiritual power that extended from his body and wrapped around the pebble steadily reeled back in accordance with the Attraction Art's reversal incantation.
It did return, but quite slowly, and maintaining that tether of spiritual power was rather exhausting.
If it were swapped for a magical tool inscribed with formations, he definitely wouldn't be able to pull it back.
Yet Luo Chen was not discouraged. Being able to pull the pebble back proved this training method was viable.
Next, as long as he proceeded step by step, gradually increasing his spiritual power control exercises, before long he would be able to manipulate that set of Jasper Sabers.
He practiced dozens more times, stopping only when he felt he had consumed ten percent of his body's spiritual power.
He opened his attribute panel.
[Name: Luo Chen]
[Lifespan: 27/75]
[Spiritual Roots: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth]
[Realm: Qi Refining Stage, Layer Four: 1/100]
[Cultivation Method: Eternal Spring Art, Perfect: 340/500]
[Spells: Fireball Art, Perfect: 432/500; Carefree Wandering, Proficient: 275/300; Entangling Art, Adept: 180/200; Cleansing Art, Beginner: 52/100; Attraction Art, Beginner: 5/100]
[Skills: Tier 1 Alchemist: Fasting Powder, Grandmaster: 590/1000; Myriad Wonders Pill, Beginner: 70/100]
[Achievement Points: 2]
"Sure enough, this spell isn't difficult. I can easily get the hang of it on my own."
Looking at the newly added entry for Attraction Art in the spell section, Luo Chen was very pleased.
Aside from a minor incantation to reverse spiritual power, the rest of Attraction Art was just basic practice.
The difficulty of getting started with it was far simpler than spells like Fireball Art, which required at least three incantations.
In fact, that made complete sense.
Even without learning Attraction Art, so long as one was sufficiently adept at manipulating spiritual power, one could still control magical tools during the Qi Refining stage.
The reason this spell existed in the first place was that some expert had reverse-engineered the process and popularized it.
After checking the entry for Attraction Art, Luo Chen casually reviewed the rest of his attribute panel.
"My lifespan still hasn't changed?"
He felt a bit depressed.
Logically speaking, after breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining, his body was gradually improving, so he should have had at least a few more years than his past life's limit!
Could it be that in this life he was truly doomed to live only to seventy-five? Or did lifespan only increase after breaking through a major realm?
He couldn't figure it out!
His depression dissipated quite a bit once he saw the proficiencies of his spells.
Fireball Art was about to break through to the grandmaster level; his persistent practice hadn't been in vain.
Carefree Wandering, a movement technique, had progressed the fastest; having gone from beginner to proficient, it would likely break through to the perfect level soon.
Under his deliberate practice, the long-stagnant proficiency of Entangling Art had also begun to climb.
Advancing the proficiency tiers of these spells not only brought a leap in combat power, but also awarded Luo Chen achievement points!
Earlier, when Eternal Spring Art reached the perfect tier, it had granted him one point.
If he could accumulate ten achievement points again, he would be able to gain basic mastery over an entirely new pill.
Even though he didn't even have a pill recipe yet.
However, compared to these spells, what Luo Chen paid the closest attention to was the skill section.
[Myriad Wonders Pill, Beginner: 70/100]
Just thirty points of proficiency away from leveling up!
By then, the success rate for Myriad Wonders Pills should rise, and he would possess a true trade that could sustain him long-term in the inner city.
After browsing through his attribute panel, Luo Chen let out a long sigh of relief.
All along, the lack of spirit stones had been a shackle binding his cultivation.
To break free of this shackle, he had continually ramped up the production of Myriad Wonders Pills, all to raise his proficiency and generate real profit.
Now, he finally saw the hope of breaking those shackles!
"This calls for a celebration!"
Luo Chen walked out of the house. Without him realizing it, the night had grown deep.
He glanced in the direction of Tianxiang Pavilion, then immediately shook his head.
Out of the question, out of the question. Your boy really doesn't have the cash to spend there.
"Forget it, I'll set off some fireworks for myself!"
Aiming toward the sky, he launched four Fireball Arts.
Watching the fireballs explode in the night sky, their sparks showering down with soft crackles, he grinned from ear to ear.
Then, a furious roar drifted over from next door.
"What's with all the racket in the middle of the night!"
It was a woman's voice, full of vigor.
Luo Chen shrank his neck, made sure there was no fire hazard, and hurriedly scurried back inside.
Rash move!
Chapter 29