Lu Ping Was Close to Living off a Woman
Lu Ping suspected that Little B simply wanted to broaden his horizons.
Lu Ping decisively chose A.
[You chose A.]
[You have activated the Restrictions on the cave abode.]
[You sit cross-legged on the Meditation Cushion and pick up a Jade Slip issued by the Azure Dragon Merchant Association.]
[This is information and rules regarding the Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition.]
[First, the rewards. The total prize money is said to be one million Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Moreover, the champion will receive Fourth-Level Alchemist Certificate!]
[This is supposed to be the world of cultivation, yet the rewards don't include any heavenly materials and earthly treasures.]
[Following this is the detailed rules of the core Formation Technique of this Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition, the Great Expansion Alchemy Formation.]
[You scanned it with your Divine Sense, and the more you looked, the more interesting it seemed.]
[This Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition has a limited supply of medicinal herbs, containing approximately one thousand kinds.]
[The medicinal herbs used in the competition can only be drawn from this herb warehouse.]
After both sides had extracted the medicinal herbs, they began refining the elixir.
[Two people form a team. The normal rule is that one person prepares the poison, and the other provides the antidote.]
[The Alchemist filled the core of the Great Expansion Alchemy Formation with the refined Pills.]
[The Great Expansion Alchemy Formation begins to generate pill energy, which interacts and attacks each other along the Formation Technique's Spirit Veins.]
[If one side is quick enough or the Poison Pill is potent enough, the poison's energy can directly entangle the enemy Alchemist, with consequences similar to poisoning.]
[This is hardly an alchemy competition!]
[This is clearly a life-or-death struggle disguised as "academic exchange."]
[Now you understand what Yan Xuanyao meant by "dying without even knowing how he died."]
Fortunately, the medicinal herb storeroom seems to only be able to refine high-grade Poison Pills at most.
[Take a deep breath and continue reading.]
[The Jade Slip containing the rules for the Great Expansion Alchemy Formation provides a detailed list of medicinal herbs, along with an attached pharmacopoeia.]
[According to the thousand-ingredient medicinal herb library specified for the Dao of Alchemy Grand Competition, theoretically, these herbs could be used to concoct over one hundred different types of Pills.]
[Of course, if a truly exceptional genius were to invent a completely new Poison Pill using existing medicinal herbs, it would be a huge surprise to their opponent.]
[This uncertainty and unpredictability maximizes the entertainment value of the competition and the thrill of gambling.]
[You look only nineteen years old.]
[But you've been refining pills in the Simulator for nearly fifty years now.]
[Furthermore, with the added Trait of Artisan Spirit and Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement, you're already intimately familiar with the pharmacology and properties of these herbs.]
[You carefully studied those more than one hundred kinds of Pills.]
[The competition is ultimately just a contest, not a life-or-death battle.]
[Due to the limited quality of the medicinal herbs stored in the warehouse, the highest grade of Poison Pills that can be refined is only high-grade.]
[In terms of toxicity, these top-grade Pills are far inferior to the Spirit-Chaos Lure and Spirit-Winding Thread in your possession.]
[But when you turned to the last page of the Jade Slip, you were stunned.]
This so-called pharmacopoeia only lists the names and effects of about one hundred kinds of Pills.
[Where is the Pill Formula?]
[You searched through the Jade Slip, but couldn't find even a trace of a Pill Formula.]
At the very end of the Jade Slip, there is a line of small characters.
["For detailed information on the specific Pill Formula, please purchase separately. During the competition, participants can enjoy a 30% discount upon presentation of their participation jade token."]
You stare at these words, speechless for a long time.
[This tastes so familiar.]
[This is basically the same thing: the competition is free, but the teaching materials are charged.]
[Options pop up.]
[A: You can deduce the Pill Formula yourself based on the medicinal effects and names; you have plenty of time.]
[B: You're no longer a poor True Person, show the Azure Dragon Merchant Association Guild your wealth!]
[C: Submit a "Reimbursement Application for Competition Preparation Materials Expenses" to the Azure Dragon Merchant Association, requesting full reimbursement; otherwise, you must withdraw from the competition.]
Lu Ping looked at Little C and took a deep breath.
Reimbursement—what an enticing word!
Lu Ping admitted that this was the time he most wanted to choose Little C.
But what about the risks?
If the Azure Dragon Merchant Association is like the company in his previous life, he still has two expense reimbursement cards under review even though he has been gone for half a year.
So, will the match still go on?
Oh well, never mind.
Lu Ping chose B.
[You chose B.]
[You left the cave abode and went to the Merchant Guild's Cultivation Method area.]
[You've spent a fortune buying up all the known Pill Formulas.]
[Fortunately, a high-grade ordinary Pill Formula only costs a thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[The Azure Dragon Merchant Association also thoughtfully provided a packaging service; the more than one hundred Pill Formulas used in the competition cost a total of 70,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
You feel like your heart is bleeding.
[When you were at the Greenwood Sect, Spirit Stones were counted one by one.]
[Upon reaching the Azure Dragon Upper Domain, the price easily reaches tens of thousands.]
[Even more tragically, the trip to the Azure Dragon Upper Domain yielded nothing, yet 120,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones were already spent.]
[After the massive purchases by Yi Wood City and Qingyang City, the three Nascent Soul inheritances are almost gone.]
[If you keep spending like this, you'll have to use the Spirit Stones Jiang Mutian left you.]
[Although these Spirit Stones were Jiang Mutian's reward to you.]
But you always want to stay until the very end.
[You didn't originally want to buy the package deal because it included twenty or thirty Pill Formula that you already knew.]
[But you did the math: buying the remaining eighty or ninety cards individually would actually cost over ten thousand Spirit Stones more than buying them all together.]
You sighed.
[In the end, you couldn't escape the bundled sales tactics of capital.]
[The only good news is that a certain amount of herbs for practice can be obtained for free each month.]
[For the next period of time, you started working Overtime.]
[Oh no, it should be called seclusion.]
[You sigh, sometimes you can't tell if you're on Blue Star or in the world of cultivation.]
[You repeatedly disassembled and reassembled these hundred-plus Pill Formula, along with the thousand medicinal herbs.]
[I Love Working, effective.]
[The Artisan Spirit is now in effect.]
[Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement, effective.]
[In the meantime, you added another 240 Spirit Stones to the Baojia Token.]
[This damn Breathing Tax.]
Two months later, the Azure Dragon Merchant Association's internal selection process officially began.
[The selection will be held at one of the Azure Dragon Merchant Association's own training grounds.]
[A small-scale Great Expansion Alchemy Formation has been set up in the center of the training ground.]
The surrounding stands were filled with managers of the merchant guild and cultivators who came to watch the spectacle.
[Yan Xuanyao sat in the main seat, still holding the two Fire Jade Gallbladder in her hands.]
All competition equipment will be provided by the Chamber of Commerce; privately brought equipment is not permitted.
[The officially standardized Azure-Pattern Bronze Cauldron, and the standardized Earthfire Formation.]
[You walk to the front of the platform and see your partner.]
[A round, fat man, wearing the formal robes of a merchant Alchemist.]
[His name is Liang Yishou, Golden Core Perfection cultivator at the peak, Third-Grade Alchemist.]
[He is a native cultivator of the Upper Domain, but he doesn't have a strong background. He toiled at the bottom of the Azure Dragon Merchant Association for over a hundred years before finally reaching his current position.]
[Options pop up.]
[A: Take the initiative to greet them and discuss the tactical coordination for later.]
[B: Giving him a haughty sidelong glance, "Alchemist, you're not worthy to be associated with me."]
[C: Produce a "Two-Person Cooperation SOP Standard Operating Procedure" and require Liang Yishou to sign and affix his seal, clearly defining the KPIs for both parties to avoid shifting blame after the competition.]