Medicine Warehouse, Zi Yan (Part 2)

"Hmm, as little as half a year, as much as a year. By the time I break through to a high-level Dou Ling, it should be about right."

Xiao Yang would never tell Elder Hao that, at most, in just this month or so, he would soar straight to the Dou Wang realm.

Surpassing ordinary people by half a step made one a genius. But surpassing them by a full step made one a monster.

Xiao Yang had no intention of becoming an anomaly in others' eyes for no reason.

Geniuses inspired awe and admiration, while anomalies only made people keep their distance and feel fear.

Elder Hao rubbed his hands together as he faced Xiao Yang. "Well... little friend Xiao Yang, how about we make a deal? Once you become a fifth-tier alchemist, could you help this old man refine a Dou Ling Pill?

"Don't worry, this old man certainly won't treat you unfairly. Whatever medicinal herb you want today, I'll make the decision and give it to you. Furthermore, whenever you come to exchange for medicinal herbs in the future, I'll have the prices cut in half for you."

Xiao Yang froze for a moment. "Elder, wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

Elder Hao laughed and patted Xiao Yang's shoulder. "What's inappropriate about it? Most of the medicinal herbs in the Medicine Repository were found by students and exchanged for 'Fire Energy.'

"But at its core, that stuff is simply the number of days one is allowed to cultivate in the Heavenly Flame Training Gas Tower. The Inner Courtyard can write down however much it wants; it isn't actual gold coins.

"To put it bluntly, collecting these precious medicinal herbs is generally a business with no cost at all for the Inner Courtyard."

Only then did Xiao Yang understand.

Within the Inner Courtyard, "Fire Energy" had replaced gold coins and circulated as currency.

But unlike gold coins, it was essentially just a number.

A number representing how long one could cultivate in the Inner Courtyard's Heavenly Flame Training Gas Tower.

In other words, as the issuer of "Fire Energy" currency, the Inner Courtyard could write down however much it wanted, and there was no risk of inflation!

Because the fundamental value of this thing lay in the fact that cultivating in the Heavenly Flame Training Gas Tower could greatly accelerate one's cultivation and increase one's strength.

In other words, the value of "Fire Energy" was embodied in one's own strength.

In a fantasy world like the Douqi Continent, where strength reigned supreme, this was more stable and more value-preserving than anything else.

By the same logic, this was also why, at the top auctions of the Douqi Continent in later days, medicinal pills were used as currency.

Because what those things represented was quantifiable strength!

Therefore, so long as the Heavenly Flame Training Gas Tower's cultivation-accelerating effect remained, this currency system could be maintained forever.

Conversely, once the Fallen Heart Flame was taken away, or once it went berserk and could no longer be suppressed, causing the Heavenly Flame Training Gas Tower to fail, this currency system would collapse in an instant.

For Xiao Yang, who had graduated from a business management department in his previous life, even if Elder Hao had not explained it, he would have figured it out himself after giving it some thought.

Xiao Yang nodded. "In that case, I would be disrespectful to refuse. Elder, you have shown me great kindness today, and I cannot fail to appreciate it.

"How about this? When Elder comes to me in the future to refine that Dou Ling Pill, you need only prepare two portions of the ingredients."

By the rules of alchemists on the Douqi Continent, when asking an alchemist to refine medicine, one generally had to prepare three portions of the ingredients, because refining medicine involved a certain degree of luck.

Even an alchemy grandmaster like Yao Lao occasionally failed in his refinements. He did not dare guarantee a one-hundred-percent success rate in a single attempt, much less Xiao Yang.

"Good! Then it's settled." Elder Hao agreed eagerly, then took out a snow-white jade Token and handed it to Xiao Yang. "Take this token and go search the Medicine Warehouse yourself. But remember, you may only take one plant.

"For anything more, you can only exchange Fire Energy for it yourself."

Xiao Yang accepted the Token. Lifelike medicinal herbs were carved upon the jade surface, and faint traces of medicinal fragrance seemed to seep out from it, refreshing the mind and spirit.

Xiao Yang turned and pushed open the door. Behind it was a broad corridor. When he reached its end, he looked around and spotted a groove in the wall to one side. After gesturing at it twice, Xiao Yang could only helplessly activate the Vajra Glazed Body, enlarging himself to the size of an adult before pressing the white jade Token into it.

Using a Heaven-Tier Fighting skill to open a door—Xiao Yang truly was something else.

As the white jade Token was embedded, the glow of the energy barrier before him gradually weakened. After a while, it finally dispersed completely.

Retrieving the white jade Token, Xiao Yang pushed open the door and entered the Medicine Warehouse, which was enveloped in medicinal fragrance.

Beyond the wooden door was a spacious room shrouded in faint fluorescent light. Xiao Yan looked around, and a trace of amazement gradually rose onto his face. The inner walls of the entire room were covered with a layer of high-quality mutton-fat white jade. Even the floor beneath his feet was seamlessly pieced together from neat blocks of white jade.

The faint fluorescent light was emitted from this white jade.

There were six or seven corridors within the Medicine Warehouse. After searching for a long time, Xiao Yang finally found the target of his trip: the Vajra Bodhi.

It was a medicinal herb that was golden all over and emitted a metallic sheen. Its body was harder than gold and iron, and even ordinary flames could do nothing to it.

Just as Xiao Yang was about to take it, a fair little hand shot out like lightning and grabbed for the Vajra Bodhi.

Xiao Yang's eyes narrowed. A wave of Soul Power spread out and covered the Vajra Bodhi. With a thought, he stored it inside his Sumeru Ring.

This time, even Zi Yan, an exceptionally gifted Ancient Void Dragon, could not possibly take the Vajra Bodhi out of his Sumeru Ring, which was bound to the system space.

Seeing the duck that had nearly reached her mouth fly away, a childish voice immediately rang out beside Xiao Yang. "You dare steal my stuff?"

Xiao Yang turned toward the voice and saw a little girl dressed in white standing before him.

The little girl was half a head shorter than Xiao Yang. Her pale purple hair fell straight to her waist, while her delicate little face was puffed up like a bun. Her crystal-like large eyes glared fiercely at Xiao Yang, as if saying: I'm very angry.

Xiao Yang smiled, stretched out a hand, and pointed at a strange fruit beside them that looked almost identical to the dragon fruit from his previous life, except it was entirely golden and its outer skin resembled dragon scales. "Go eat that Dragon Scale Golden Fruit over there!

"It is a strange fruit that can only grow where dragon blood has spilled. To you, its effects are far greater than those of the Vajra Bodhi.

"You don't even recognize medicinal herbs, so stop eating things at random all day long. If I'm not mistaken, the reason you look like this now is because you accidentally ate Transformation Grass, right? Remember this in the future: you can't eat things indiscriminately, especially medicinal herbs."

Xiao Yang proceeded to thoroughly fool Zi Yan. There were naturally things on the Douqi Continent that even an Ancient Void Dragon could not digest, but a mere Vajra Bodhi was certainly not among them.