"Well, do you want it or not?"
Gu Caiyi took a sip of the tea Luo Chen had poured for her, her willow-leaf brows instantly knitting together.
What kind of tea leaves were these? It was far too bitter!
Across from her, Luo Chen's eyes were shining, his heart thumping several times faster than usual.
The Purple Cloud Bronze Furnace—a standard alchemical furnace produced by Wanbao Pavilion.
Its grade was not high, only Tier-1 low-grade, but its versatility was exceptionally broad. It could accommodate most of the pill-concocting techniques commonly used in the cultivation world.
Moreover, the furnace was engraved with a Fire-Gathering Formation, which excelled at regulating heat.
Novice alchemists often struggled to control the fire, resulting in the ruin of their prepared ingredients. With this formation, however, as long as one infused varying amounts of spiritual power beforehand, the furnace could regulate the heat at will, no matter how intense the external flames were.
A Fire-Gathering Formation: gathering and dispersing at will, endowing the alchemical flame with responsiveness.
Did Luo Chen want it?
Of course he did!
With a furnace like this, he would no longer be restricted to concocting only a single pot of Myriad Wonders Pills a day. In terms of efficiency, he could concoct at least two batches daily!
Staring at Gu Caiyi with an intensely burning gaze, Luo Chen suddenly reached out and clasped her slender hand before she could react.
"Sister Caiyi, are you going to give me one? I'm ready! If you give it to me, I wouldn't complain in the slightest even if I have to offer myself to you in return!"
Gu Caiyi froze for a moment, then pulled her left hand out of his broad grasp.
"Get lost! Who wants you offering yourself to me, you shameless brat!"
Rolling her eyes, she said seriously, "If you want it, you'll have to spend spirit stones to buy it."
"Is that so..." Luo Chen sighed dejectedly. "If I could afford it, I would have bought one long ago."
"I'm not telling you to buy it from Wanbao Pavilion." Unable to bear Luo Chen's swift change of face, Gu Caiyi explained, "Lady Xiangxiang, the top courtesan of Tianxiang Pavilion, is also an alchemist. She has an idle Purple Cloud Bronze Furnace. I asked her, and if you want it, she can sell it to you at a discount."
Xiangxiang, the top courtesan—of course he knew of her.
She possessed ravishing beauty and vast learning, and was particularly well-versed in water-element methods and the Dao of Alchemy. Moreover, the main reason for her fame was her title as an inner disciple of the Hehuan Sect.
Yet no matter how beautiful she was or how renowned her reputation, none of it mattered to Luo Chen. What he cared about most was the price!
"A discount? How much of a discount?"
"Three hundred low-grade spirit stones."
Luo Chen was secretly thrilled, but a troubled look appeared on his face. "That expensive? A secondhand one shouldn't cost more than two hundred or so."
"Then why haven't you bought one?" Gu Caiyi chuckled softly. "Stop crying poverty. This price was only offered on account of you being my neighbor. If you really want to buy it, just let me know."
In truth, that price was indeed very cheap.
The so-called secondhand price Luo Chen mentioned was Wanbao Pavilion's buyback rate. As everyone knew, Wanbao Pavilion was the greediest of profiteers. A brand-new Purple Cloud Bronze Furnace had an asking price of four hundred and fifty spirit stones. It was only slightly cheaper than defensive artifacts and far more expensive than other Tier-1 low-grade offensive artifacts. Furthermore, because rogue cultivators rarely dabbled in alchemy equipment, very few ever circulated on the open market.
Now that he had encountered one at such a low price, Luo Chen naturally wouldn't pass it up.
He smiled sheepishly and said hurriedly, "I'll buy it, definitely. But give me some time to gather enough stones."
"Are you really that poor?" Gu Caiyi looked at Luo Chen doubtfully. "Are you actually earning any spirit stones from concocting pills?"
She had begun to suspect whether her neighbor would be kicked out of the inner city in three months because he couldn't pay rent.
"You don't need to worry about that. When the time comes, I'll definitely arrive at the door with the spirit stones!" Luo Chen declared with complete confidence.
In truth, he really could produce three hundred spirit stones. If nothing else, he had over four hundred spirit stones in his pouch right now!
The Flying Swallow Sword had sold for eleven hundred; after buying the Qi-Nourishing Pills and the five spell scrolls, four hundred remained. Add to that the twenty-odd loose stones he had originally possessed, and Luo Chen could hardly be considered poor at the moment.
The main reason he didn't buy the furnace right away was that he had no immediate use for it.
His current batch of raw materials had all been processed specifically for his iron pot. If he switched to an alchemical furnace for the remaining ingredients, his unfamiliarity with the technique aside, he would have to completely recalculate the firewood needed and the time required for pill formation.
Therefore, he planned to finish off this batch of materials first, recover all his funds, and only then consider purchasing the furnace.
Dammit!
If only there were large, interest-free spirit stone loans for aspiring rogue cultivators. This cultivation world controlled by the sects was far too cold to rogue cultivators like them!
...
Concocting pills, taking medicine, practicing spells, and studying techniques—his days passed one after another in orderly routine.
Luo Chen adjusted the timing and frequency of his spell practice.
He had previously retained his habits from living in the outer city, merely testing the waters during each daily practice. Only recently had he realized that the inner city was already quite safe; there was no need to keep his spiritual power at its peak at all times. As a result, he could expend more spiritual power to become proficient with the spells he had newly acquired.
In his free time, he would chat with Gu Caiyi about matters of the cultivation world.
He had actually found it strange that he never saw Gu Caiyi cultivate. Only after Gu Caiyi explained did the truth dawn on him.
It turned out she usually went to Tianxiang Pavilion to cultivate, where a spirit-gathering formation was installed to raise the concentration of spiritual energy by a whole tier. Of course, the spiritual energy of a Tier-1 spirit vein was limited; when someone gathered spiritual energy, others naturally missed out on the concentration they were supposed to enjoy.
That latter group, naturally, referred to rogue cultivator residents like Luo Chen.
Turns out the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect were massive profiteers too! What happened to the promised prime housing on a Tier-1 spirit vein? After all this, the spiritual energy they absorbed was merely the leftovers filtered by others.
During this period, Luo Chen occasionally ran into Bai Meiling, the round-faced woman. It wasn't often, as Hundred Herbs Hall seemed to be very busy lately. People from the Medicine King Sect had arrived to take inventory, intending to transport back a batch of spirit herbs collected by Hundred Herbs Hall.
As for the other resident living in the courtyard, Luo Chen had not seen her even once.
"Fu Xiuxiu is a manager at the Divine Talisman Pavilion and usually lives there. I hear her talisman crafting is quite advanced, and she stands a good chance of being accepted into the Divine Talisman Sect."
That was what Gu Caiyi had told Luo Chen.
Upon hearing it, Luo Chen had felt immense envy.
Joining a sect was an immortal opportunity that countless rogue cultivators begged for in vain. He didn't know whether he would ever have a chance to join a sect with deep foundations. His standards weren't high—something like the Hehuan Sect would do just fine. Whenever he was at the market, he told everyone he met that Master Yunhe was his idol.
Working extra hours, Luo Chen used up all the materials on hand before the grand market arrived.
The final result left him thoroughly pleased!
From the last twenty-five sets of raw materials, he had achieved five successful batches. This meant his success rate in concocting Myriad Wonders Pills had risen from an initial one-tenth to two-tenths!
In terms of cost control, this was a qualitative leap.
Initially, fifty spirit stones' worth of materials yielded ten pots, with one success selling for fifty stones, leaving him breaking even. Oh, wait, that was actually a loss. If he had spent those few months concocting Fasting Powder, he could have earned dozens of spirit stones. So back then, he had truly lost out.
Now, and in the future, the same fifty spirit stones of materials would yield two successes out of ten pots, which could be sold for one hundred spirit stones—a net profit of fifty stones. With such a profit margin, so long as he was willing to invest the capital, Luo Chen would soon be counting spirit stones until his hands grew sore.
"And this is only at the Proficient rank. What if I raise it to Adept, Perfect, or even Grandmaster in the future?"
Luo Chen looked forward to it with great anticipation.
Then, in the dim light of dawn, he set out straight for the Rogue Cultivator Market in the south of the city, just like a vegetable farmer rising early for market day.
Today was bound to be a harvest-filled day!
Chapter 34