Buy One, Get One Free

During the latter half of the Celebration Banquet, everyone else at Branch 2's table sat in an awkward atmosphere.

Only Xiao Chen and Ye Fei kept wolfing down food as though nothing had happened.

Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Manager Chen simply excused himself on the pretext of having business to attend to, leaving the rest free to do as they pleased.

There was still a Temporary Trade Fair afterward. At Jiang Sixuan's invitation, Ye Fei stayed behind.

Xiao Chen, however, had no interest whatsoever. He returned straight to Branch 2 and continued seizing every moment to cultivate.

From Li Sibao's unusual words and behavior today, he had sensed an inexplicable yet unmistakable hostility.

Especially that venomous look in Li Sibao's eyes when he left—it practically spelled out for Xiao Chen that this matter was far from over.

"Where the hell did I even offend him? It makes no sense."

Heaven and earth could bear witness: before today, Xiao Chen and Li Sibao could barely even be called strangers—at most, they had been acquaintances who nodded to each other in passing.

Setting aside that time in the Valley when they had been disguised, they had exchanged no more than three sentences in total, all merely polite greetings.

When something was abnormal, there had to be a Demon behind it. There was definitely something wrong with Li Sibao.

But Xiao Chen had no channels at the moment through which he could investigate the whole story.

Fortunately, he had already touched the threshold of the 7th level of Qi Refining. He was only one final step away from breaking through successfully.

"Now that things have come to this, I should cultivate first."

No matter when it was, improving his own strength was the most important thing.

With sufficient strength, he could block soldiers with generals and dam floods with earth.

Thus, Xiao Chen sat cross-legged in Meditation, cast aside distracting thoughts, and immersed himself in cultivation.

Early the next morning, a dewdrop hung from the brow of Xiao Chen, who had cultivated through the entire night.

It was September in the golden autumn, and the weather had already turned cool, yet he remained completely unaware of it.

As the first ray of morning sunlight cut across the horizon, purple qi rose in the east.

Xiao Chen's eyes snapped open. His face flushed red, and a great cloud of steaming white vapor immediately billowed from his body.

"Done! Staying up all night wasn't for nothing."

Feeling Mana surge through his body, Xiao Chen revealed a trace of joy. He had successfully broken through to the 7th level of Qi Refining and entered Late-Stage Qi Refining.

The next instant, three golden cards appeared before him, presenting three options.

[Bitter First, Sweet Later: After you lose 50 years of Lifespan, gain four random magical artifacts.]

[Meditation I: As long as you are not carrying any magical artifacts, recover one Mana every quarter-hour.]

[Buy One, Get One Free: Every time you refine one furnace batch of pills, additionally gain one identical furnace batch of pills.]

"Ah?"

Seeing the first Hextech, Xiao Chen rubbed his eyes, thinking that staying up all night had made him hallucinate.

"Bitter First, Sweet Later my ass. Fifty years from now, who would still care about a few magical artifacts?"

To be fair, Xiao Chen felt that at his cultivation speed, it was not impossible for him to strive to reach Foundation Establishment within five years.

So the first option was immediately ruled out.

The second, Meditation, looked quite powerful.

Although it came with a restriction, he could simply put away his magical artifacts in daily life and bypass it completely.

The only issue was that he already had Featherweight, and his Mana recovery speed was sufficient. Choosing another one would clearly be somewhat wasteful.

The third Hextech, Buy One, Get One Free, seemed from its description to be a Hextech exclusive to Alchemists.

Its effect looked extremely powerful, but the problem was that Xiao Chen did not yet know how to refine pills.

Although after becoming an Inner Sect Disciple, he could freely choose one craft that interested him from the Hundred Arts of Cultivation to study alongside his main cultivation.

However, different crafts came with different considerations.

Among the Hundred Arts of Cultivation, the four most popular and widely known arts were Pills, Weapons, Talismans, Arrays.

Arrays had extremely demanding requirements. They had the highest learning threshold, the most expensive learning costs, and the slowest returns of all professions, so they were ruled out.

There was not much difference in status between weapon refining and pill refining, but this Hextech was only related to pill refining and Talisman Making, so weapon refining was ruled out as well.

Thinking of Talisman Making, Xiao Chen recalled that during the Outer Sect Trial, an Inner Sect senior brother had set up a stall to sell Talismans and effortlessly earned a great number of Spirit Stones.

At the time, he had even considered learning Talisman Making after joining the Inner Sect.

The advantage of Talisman Making was its low cost and ease of entry. It was the easiest of the four major arts to get started in.

In particular, since Talismans were consumables, the market was enormous. For most Qi Refining Realm cultivators, it was practically the most suitable choice.

Its drawback was also that it was easy to get into, which made competition fierce. Most of the time, the profit margins on Talismans were driven extremely low by mutual undercutting.

Furthermore, completed Talismans had a shelf life and became invalid once expired. Thus, buyers generally only purchased them as needed.

If he chose Talisman Making, then Meditation would undoubtedly be the most suitable Hextech at present.

Every time a Talisman was drawn, whether it succeeded or failed, it consumed the cultivator's Mana.

Cultivators whose cultivation was not high enough could only make a few attempts each day before exhausting all the Mana in their bodies.

With Meditation, they could draw Talismans repeatedly. Whether for practice or sale, it would offer a certain advantage.

It could be said that Meditation greatly raised the lower limit of Talisman Making.

In contrast, Buy One, Get One Free paired with pill refining undoubtedly had a much higher upper limit.

Alchemists were universally recognized as the profession with the most Exorbitant Profit. In theory, a qualified First-Order Pill Refiner could earn several times the wealth of a Talisman Master.

Of course, the drawbacks of Pill Dao were also glaringly obvious.

The first problem ordinary cultivators faced was access. Every inheritance of Pill Dao was incomparably expensive.

Fortunately, as an Inner Sect Disciple, if Xiao Chen chose Pill Dao, he could receive a Pill Manual for free.

Then came the exorbitant cost of learning.

It could be said that every Alchemist's skill was built up through countless Failed Pills.

Before successfully mastering a certain pill, such learning was no different from burning Spirit Stones as firewood.

Ordinary cultivators simply could not afford it and could only be forced to choose other arts, such as Talisman Making.

Fortunately, Xiao Chen had saved up a large sum of Spirit Stones during the previous Trial. It should be enough as starting capital.

Moreover, with the Buy One, Get One Free Hextech, he could obtain more pills in a shorter time.

The difficulty of recouping his investment had been reduced by far more than a little.

Lastly, Pill Dao had another Hidden Danger: pill refining itself was extremely time-consuming.

When refining pills, Alchemists often had to remain by the Pill Furnace for several consecutive hours, adding Medicinal Herbs at the proper times, adjusting the intensity of the Spirit Fire, and performing Pill Dao Secret Arts.

Under normal circumstances, the higher the grade of the pill, the longer it took to refine.

They also had to spend great amounts of time studying different Pill Recipes.

Many Alchemists refined pills year-round. Though they contributed greatly to their sects or clans, they had very little time left for their own cultivation.

Although they could advance their Cultivation Realm by consuming spiritual pills, it would inevitably leave them lacking in spells, causing them to be left behind by cultivators of the same level in battle.

Though Alchemists usually held exalted status, and few were willing to offend them.

The world was unpredictable, however. Sometimes, only one's own strength could dispel disaster and overcome misfortune.

As it happened, Xiao Chen had Featherweight. He might not be invincible among those of the same level, but he could at least remain undefeated.

"Looking at it this way, I happen to be able to solve all three problems of pill refining."

"What do you mean by an Innate Pill Refining Saint Body!"

Xiao Chen exclaimed, then decisively chose 'Buy One, Get One Free.'