You're Not Ordinary, You're Worse
[You opened the official textbook for first-level Alchemists.]
[On the first page were the words: Textbook designated by the Heavenly Dao Professional Qualification Certification Alliance.]
[On the second page were the words: Unauthorized printing will be prosecuted, private instruction severely punished.]
[Only on the third page did the basics of alchemy begin.]
Lu Ping read three pages and nearly burst out laughing.
The Tianzheng Alliance was actually the Heavenly Dao Professional Qualification Certification Alliance.
So knowing alchemy was useless. First, you had to prove you were qualified to know it.
This world wasn't afraid you lacked ability.
It was afraid you hadn't paid the certification fee for your ability.
[You exchanged three Low-Grade Spirit Stones for thirty empty spirit blanks at the Alchemy Hall.]
[You closed the stone door of your cave abode and began your first spirit infusion.]
[An ordinary disciple at Qi Refining, First Layer would exhaust their spiritual power filling a single spirit blank in one day.]
[You placed the first spirit blank in front of your knees.]
[You circulated the Greenwood Art, channeling Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi through your body and into the spirit blank.]
[The spirit blank filled with Spiritual Qi bit by bit.]
[You soon discovered that your control over the flow rate, density, and points of loss of Spiritual Qi was outrageously precise.]
[Artisan Spirit activated.]
[Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement activated.]
[The first spirit blank's infusion was complete. Immediately afterward, you finished the second, third, and fourth.]
[You successfully infused four Low-Grade Spirit Stones in one go.]
[Your efficiency was about four times that of disciples at the same layer.]
[Just then, in the neighboring cave abode, two disciples who had just joined the hall were doing their accounts.]
[One spoke in a low voice.]
["I wasn't in good shape today. Halfway through infusing a Spirit Stone, my meridians couldn't take it anymore, and I had to stop. The spirit blank shattered too. I lost big!"]
[The other slammed down his brush.]
["Stop counting. If we keep this up, our Dao hearts will collapse."]
[You listened to the conversation next door, your eyes narrowing slightly.]
[Salty Fish activated.]
[Your Dao heart was harder than gold and tougher than iron.]
[You began absorbing Spirit Stones to cultivate.]
[You held a Spirit Stone close to your Dantian, drawing its spiritual power into your body.]
[After you finished absorbing the first Spirit Stone, your Dantian was noticeably fuller.]
[When the Spiritual Qi from the second Spirit Stone entered your body, your meridians began to ache and swell.]
[You stopped absorbing the Spirit Stone.]
[You confirmed that absorbing two Low-Grade Spirit Stones a day was your current limit at Qi Refining, First Layer.]
[Counting the one you had absorbed just after leaving the Ascension Hall, your Dantian had absorbed the spiritual power of two Spirit Stones.]
[But you were still some distance from Qi Refining, Second Layer.]
[From then on, you attended classes during the day and spent your nights infusing spirits, refining pills, and absorbing Spirit Stones to cultivate.]
[Life was full, and a lot like being in prison.]
When Lu Ping saw the words "in prison," he gave the system a big thumbs-up in his heart.
A new employee in the immortal cultivation version of the workplace: training by day, overtime by night, and self-improvement during breaks.
[On the first day of alchemy class, the instructor took out a stalk of dew-condensing grass.]
["The first-level Alchemist assessment only tests mortal-grade Grain Avoidance Pills and Qi-Replenishing Pills."]
["You may not bring your own medicinal herbs to the assessment. They are all supplied by the Tianzheng Alliance."]
[A disciple raised his hand.]
["Instructor, I heard the herbs used in the assessment are very poor quality?"]
[The instructor tossed the dew-condensing grass into a medicine tray and sneered.]
["Poor quality is what tests your skill."]
[The disciple was taken aback and didn't dare ask anything more.]
[You exchanged for several poison pill formulas from the sect.]
[Poison pill formulas cost much less than proper pill formulas.]
[One of them was called Spirit-Eroding Powder.]
[As its name suggested, Spirit-Eroding Powder specifically eroded cultivators' spiritual power and could pose a threat to cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm.]
[It cost twenty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[You couldn't afford it for now, but you remembered the name.]
[You studied Grain Avoidance Pills and Qi-Replenishing Pills during the day and researched low-grade poison pills at night.]
[The Heavy Tomato User Trait remained active.]
[Poisonous mist had no effect, residual poison in medicinal dregs had no effect, and poisonous fumes from the Pill Furnace's backfire had no effect.]
[After refining poison pills, others would wish they could wash their cave abodes a hundred times.]
[After refining poison pills, you merely swept the furnace ashes into a corner.]
[Three days later, the poisonous gas in your cave abode began to seep outside.]
[Ordinary restrictions couldn't keep all the poisonous gas in.]
[The veteran disciple next door was the first who couldn't take it.]
[He covered his nose and rushed to the deacon's office.]
["Deacon! Cave abode Ding Thirteen is refining poison pills!"]
[The deacon didn't even look at the veteran disciple lodging the complaint and continued working his abacus with his head down.]
["The Alchemy Hall does not forbid poison refining."]
[The veteran disciple slammed the table in a burst of anger.]
["Deacon, that poisonous gas has already drifted into my cave abode. I can't even live there anymore!"]
[The deacon unhurriedly moved the last bead on his abacus and gave him an indifferent glance.]
["You can apply to change cave abodes. A standard cave abode costs five Spirit Stones a month."]
[The veteran disciple stood there without moving for a long while.]
[The next day, he moved out.]
[On the third day, the two newcomers in the cave abode on your other side moved out as well.]
[Without realizing it, you had once again generated revenue for the sect.]
[When you heard the news, you fell silent for a moment.]
[The good news: you had gained some peace and quiet. The bad news: the Greenwood Sect had profited again.]
[A story gradually spread through the Alchemy Hall.]
[The newcomer at No. 13, Ding Character was terrible at alchemy and also liked refining poison pills.]
[Poisonous gas constantly leaked from his cave abode, and even his robes were coated in poison.]
[All the disciples began giving you a wide berth when they saw you.]
[Some spotted you carrying medicinal dregs out from afar and immediately turned around.]
[Some left ten yards of empty space around you in the lecture hall.]
[Others placed bets on how many days it would take you to poison yourself to death.]
[The Alchemy Hall's neutral disciples began to agree in their assessments of you.]
["A lunatic! Driven mad by poverty."]
["A low-class cave abode, a busted furnace, and he's refining poison pills on top of that. Sooner or later, this guy's going to blow up."]
[After hearing the rumors, the Alchemy Hall deacon came to the outside of No. 13, Ding Character.]
[Standing at the entrance, he smelled the poisonous gas seeping out and took half a step back.]
[Then he made a note in the register.]
[Danger level of No. 13, Ding Character: high.]
[You paid no attention to the deacon outside your door and even turned a deaf ear to the rumors.]
[On the fifteenth day.]
[You had absorbed thirty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[You had infused a total of sixty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[After deducting the cost of spirit blanks, materials, pill formulas, and miscellaneous cave abode expenses, you didn't have a single Spirit Stone left.]
[You hadn't broken through to Qi Refining, Second Layer.]
[You finally confirmed one thing.]
[You had a Low-Grade Spirit Root.]
[The ordinary cultivators Deacon Liu Cheng had spoken of, for whom thirty Spirit Stones were enough to break through, did not apply to you.]
[You weren't ordinary.]
[You were worse.]
[You didn't stop, continuing to live as though you were in prison.]
[The Lying-Flat Trait cut your efficiency in half.]
[But it also kept you from being crushed by setbacks.]
[Artisan Spirit brought every one of your spirit infusions close to perfection.]
[Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement let you refine usable pills with fewer medicinal ingredients.]
[Heavy Tomato User let you treat the poison pills others avoided at all costs as everyday practice.]
[Bully at Home caused several disciples at the same layer who wanted to come into your cave abode and make trouble to fall three times at the entrance.]
[They hadn't even seen clearly how you struck.]
[One of them clutched his chest and retreated into the corridor.]
["Isn't he only at Qi Refining, First Layer?"]
[Another braced himself against the wall, his forehead covered in sweat.]
["He knows demonic arts. He must know some kind of demonic arts!"]
[The third person looked at the stone door of No. 13, Ding Character, then turned and left.]
["This place is bad luck."]