Faint Smoke Sparse Rain Pavilion

Early the next morning, Luo Chen's body clock woke him out of habit.

He sensed the state of his body and was immensely satisfied.

Before sleeping last night, he had circulated the Evergreen Art to restore his spiritual power, then swallowed another Qi Nourishing Pill.

The Qi Refining Fourth Layer entry had risen a little, from one at the start to two.

"So it really is a progress bar, not proficiency."

He once again confirmed his guess. Lifespan and realm both displayed progress.

Cultivation methods, spells, and skills displayed proficiency instead.

"That means if I eat all five bottles of Qi Nourishing Pills I bought, I should be able to push the progress bar about halfway."

It was a little slow, but if paired with the Perfect Evergreen Art and a Tier 1 Spirit Vein, the progress bar should rise even more.

Compared to his previous cultivation speed, slow as a turtle crawling, this change could already be called earth-shattering.

After doing some rough calculations, Luo Chen stopped dwelling on the matter.

He pulled out the forty Fire Hound Whips from his Storage Bag and rubbed his hands together eagerly.

The other raw materials had come from Hundred Herbs Hall, saving him a great deal of processing time. Now, as long as he gave the main ingredient some special treatment, he could begin refining the All Wonders Pill.

Time was Spirit Stones!

Time to get to work!

Around the hour of the dragon, when the sun had yet to rise, Luo Chen finally finished preparing the medicinal liquid.

All that remained was to soak the Fire Hound Whips in it for three days and three nights, until they softened and rotted.

Luo Chen stuffed the Fire Hound Whips into the wooden basin one by one, and a foul stench came billowing out.

Luo Chen put on his homemade mask and occasionally turned over the Fire Hound Whips.

Just as he was working in full swing, the sound of someone vomiting came from the courtyard.

"Bleurgh!"

"It stinks!"

Then came the hurried sound of footsteps.

Knock, knock, knock!

Someone knocked on the door.

Luo Chen opened it, and a somewhat familiar little face came into view.

"You're... bleurgh!"

The round-faced woman had only gotten halfway through her sentence when the stench rushing out of the room made her retch dryly.

One hand braced against the doorway, she pointed with the other at the Rear Room's only window.

"Hurry and... bleurgh... turn on the Faint Smoke Sparse Rain Pavilion... bleurgh!"

Luo Chen hurriedly sent out a strand of spiritual power, and the magic tool Sun Shou had given him began to hum.

At the same time, the various strange odors in the room gradually disappeared.

Meanwhile, clear droplets of water began to trickle from the outward-facing end of the Faint Smoke Sparse Rain Pavilion.

This was Luo Chen's first time activating the magic tool. Seeing this reaction, he was left staring blankly.

"A cultivation-world range hood?"

"What range hood? This is a Tier 1 magic tool developed in Sky Sail City for extracting smoke and removing odors."

The round-faced female cultivator said this, then glared angrily at Luo Chen. "What are you doing so early in the morning? Are you going to let anyone... Huh, it's you!"

After saying that, she looked at Luo Chen hesitantly, only then realizing that she actually knew him.

Looking at her bare face without a trace of makeup, Luo Chen also found her familiar.

Suddenly, he remembered.

"You're Miss Xiao Ling from Hundred Herbs Hall!"

Bai Mei Ling wrinkled her nose. "Your surname is Luo, right? What's your name?"

Though she looked petite and adorable, she was a genuine Seventh Layer of Qi Refining Stage cultivator.

Luo Chen did not take offense at her impolite words and said breezily, "Junior Luo Chen greets Senior Bai."

"What junior and senior? Am I that old?" Bai Mei Ling took out a handkerchief and wiped her mouth. "And I'm asking you, what exactly were you doing so early in the morning? Don't you know other people live in this courtyard too? You'll easily get complaints from everyone acting like this."

That did seem to be the case.

When Sun Shou rented the house to Luo Chen, he had mentioned it.

That one Spirit Stone management fee included the obligation to handle disputes between neighbors.

"My apologies. I'll be more careful in the future. Whenever I process medicinal ingredients, I'll definitely remember to activate the Faint Smoke Sparse Rain Pavilion. Senior Bai... Miss Xiao Ling, please don't file a complaint against me this time!"

Luo Chen said with an apologetic smile. He noticed that she did not seem to mind being called Miss Xiao Ling.

Instead, she seemed somewhat sensitive about being called Senior Bai.

"Hmph!"

Bai Mei Ling gave a light snort, letting the matter pass.

Her peripheral vision swept over the wooden basin beside the stove, and her expression suddenly became rather strange.

"What did you use to soak that stuff?"

"Uh, trade secret. That's not something I can tell you." This was a little trick from the pill recipe, capable of releasing the medicinal power contained within the Fire Hound Whips to the greatest extent.

Why were aphrodisiacs for cultivators sold so expensively on the market?

Because the raw materials were costly.

Luo Chen could use cheap Fire Hound Whips as a substitute without losing any medicinal power. The secret lay in the processing formula.

With her curiosity left unsatisfied, Bai Mei Ling became very annoyed. Her eyes rolled.

"Are you a Pill Refiner?"

"I think I am!"

Grain Avoidance Powder barely counted as a pill, but the All Wonders Pill absolutely did.

Luo Chen had enough confidence to call it his profession.

"Then what pill are you refining?"

Luo Chen's head began to ache. How had two women asked him this question in the span of one short day?

"Too embarrassed to say it? Or too afraid to?" Bai Mei Ling narrowed her eyes slightly. "You aren't refining some devil-path pill, are you? The Jade Cauldron Sword Sect is a righteous Dao Sect. Cultivators aren't allowed to refine those devil-path pills that bring harm to heaven and reason!"

Luo Chen immediately tensed up. "It's absolutely not a devil-path pill!"

Bai Mei Ling said, "Then why are you hemming and hawing?"

Luo Chen was beginning to suspect that renting this courtyard had been a mistake.

It was not that he was thin-skinned or ashamed to say what pill he was refining.

He had already thrown away his face when he made the decision.

Before male cultivators, he could speak freely, his words pouring forth like a river, citing classics and drawing on ancient texts.

Because male cultivators were his target customers.

But female cultivators?

That was awkward.

If he said it, he would gain nothing but contempt.

Other women would have been fine, but Gu Cai Yi and Bai Mei Ling happened to be his neighbors for at least the next three months.

Who wanted to live under contemptuous stares every day for three months?

"Hmph, I know a thing or two about pills too. No matter what you're refining, sell me one after it comes out of the furnace. If it turns out to be a devil-path pill, I'll report you to the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion, and even collect a reward for it."

"I'm going to work. Bye!"

With that, she hurriedly ran out through the residence gate.

Only then did Luo Chen notice that a large, burly woman was standing by the main entrance, apparently waiting for Bai Mei Ling.

If nothing unexpected happened, she should be Feng Xia, who lived in the other side room and worked with Bai Mei Ling at Hundred Herbs Hall.

Watching the two female cultivators rushing off to work, Luo Chen felt a faint trace of nostalgia for some reason.

They seemed so full of everyday life. Rather than cultivators of this world, they were more like white-collar beauties from Earth in his previous life.

There was no yearning for the Dao of an ascetic cultivator on their faces, nor the fierce air of Outer City Area cultivators.

All they had was the contented joy of going to work and getting off work every day.

When they spoke with Luo Chen, a minor Qi Refining Fourth Layer cultivator, they might not have been polite, but there was no sense of distance between them either. It was as though they had completely cast aside cultivation level and realm, and were simply two ordinary people talking.

Between ordinary people, when neither sought anything from the other, why did anyone need to be polite?

"What a pity that large companies like Hundred Herbs Pavilion and Spirit Source Studio only hire female cultivators. Otherwise, I'd apply too."

After muttering that, Luo Chen returned to his busy processing of medicinal ingredients.