When Lin Xiao calmly said, "Next, pills," and led his team, each member holding a Profound Grade Spirit Artifact, up the stairs to the third floor, the Weapon Pavilion on the second floor of the Merit Hall fell into an eerie silence.
Everyone's blank gazes followed the backs of those youths until they vanished completely around the stairway corner.
Then, the long-suppressed uproar exploded like mountains roaring and seas crashing!
"They're insane! Those Yellow Class students... no, Chief Instructor Lin is truly insane!" "Nearly a hundred thousand merit points! He spent them without even blinking? Does he even know what that means?!" "Armed to the teeth... He said he'd arm his team to the teeth! I thought it was just a joke, but now it seems he... he was serious!" "Come on! Hurry and follow them! I have a feeling that today, we may witness the most insane spending spree in the history of Cloud Creek Academy's Outer Court!"
The crowd completely erupted! Countless students put down the items they had been selecting and surged toward the stairs to the third floor like sharks that had smelled blood, eager to witness this historic scene with their own eyes.
Third floor of the Merit Hall, Pill Pavilion.
Unlike the Weapon Pavilion on the second floor, with its cold aura of metal and Killing Intent, the moment one stepped inside, a rich medicinal fragrance that seemed impossible to disperse rushed forward. It invigorated the mind, making one's limbs and bones feel several degrees more at ease.
The entire third floor was divided by rows of medicine cabinets crafted from warm jade. Crystal-clear bottles sat atop the cabinets, filled with pills of every color, their radiance flowing and shifting. Every single one exuded an enticing pill fragrance and fluctuations of Spiritual Energy.
The atmosphere here was far quieter than on the second floor. Those able to come to the third floor to exchange for pills were all elites from the Profound Classes, and there were even Heaven Class students among them. They selected their pills with great care, calculating every expense, afraid of wasting even a single merit point they had earned with difficulty.
Yet this tranquility was swiftly shattered by a set of orderly, heavy footsteps.
When Lin Xiao led his "Profound Grade Spirit Artifact squad" grandly into the entrance of the third floor, everyone in the Pill Pavilion instinctively stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes toward them in unison.
When they clearly saw the newcomers and the uniform array of Profound Grade weapons in their hands, all their pupils abruptly contracted!
"It's... it's Lin Xiao and Yellow Class Nine!" "Why are they here? And they're carrying... My heavens! Those weapons are all Profound Grade?!" "Am I seeing things? Were they the ones who cleared out nearly half the Weapon Pavilion's inventory on the second floor just now?"
A wave of uncontrollable gasps and murmurs instantly rose within the Pill Pavilion.
Lin Xiao seemed utterly oblivious to the shocked looks around him. He merely swept his gaze calmly over the layout of the Pill Pavilion, then led everyone straight to the elder's counter in the center of the hall, where exchanges were handled.
The person in charge of the Pill Pavilion was an old man with white hair and beard, dressed in an alchemist's robe and wearing an arrogant expression. He seemed unconcerned by the commotion outside. At the moment, his eyes were closed as he inhaled the scent of a fiery-red spiritual herb with an intoxicated look, too lazy to even lift his eyelids.
"Elder," Lin Xiao said calmly.
Only then did the alchemist elder open his eyes with some impatience. A trace of displeasure at being disturbed flashed through his cloudy old eyes. He glanced at the Yellow Class badges on Lin Xiao's and the others' chests, his brows furrowing even more deeply, his tone full of undisguised contempt and dismissal.
"Young brats, what are you doing here? This is an important place for pills, not somewhere for children like you who cannot even understand the scent of medicine. If you wish to exchange for some crude Body Refinement Powder, go to the first floor."
His words were sharp and cutting.
Yet after hearing this, not a trace of anger appeared on the faces of Yellow Class Nine. Instead, they looked at this elder, who did not know whether he was dead or alive, with almost pitying eyes.
Another one.
They could already foresee the ultimate soul-shattering experience of questioning life that this lofty alchemist elder was about to undergo.
Lin Xiao could not be bothered to waste words with him either.
He directly took out a list he had prepared beforehand, densely covered in writing, and gently placed it on the counter.
"Prepare the pills for us according to the categories and quantities on this list."
"Hmph, overestimating yourselves."
The alchemist elder snorted and picked up the list with a face full of disdain. He wanted to see what earth-shattering pill names a group of poor Yellow Class students could possibly write down.
Yet when his gaze fell upon the first item on the list, his contemptuous expression stiffened slightly.
[Profound Grade Lower Tier pill: Core Condensation Pill, three hundred bottles.]
"Core Condensation Pills? Three hundred bottles?" The alchemist elder raised his brows slightly. Core Condensation Pills were the finest pills for late-stage Body Refinement Realm students to assist cultivation and purify Spiritual Energy. They were expensive, costing fifty merit points per bottle. Ordinary Profound Class students could only afford one or two bottles a month. Yet these brats wanted three hundred bottles right away?
Suppressing the trace of doubt in his heart, he continued reading.
[Profound Grade Lower Tier pill: Spirit Recovery Pill, three hundred bottles.]
[Profound Grade Lower Tier pill: Golden Bone Pill, three hundred bottles.]
[Profound Grade Lower Tier pill: Calm Heart Pill, three hundred bottles.]
When he saw the string of Profound Grade pill listings on the list, each in quantities of "three hundred bottles," the hand holding the list began to tremble uncontrollably! His arrogant old face gradually turned red!
Was... was this a joke?!
The combined price of just these few items had already exceeded sixty thousand merit points!
He forcibly suppressed the stormy waves in his heart and shifted his gaze to the end of the list.
Yet when he saw the final two lines, the state of mind he had long maintained as still as an ancient well could no longer remain calm. He sprang from his seat as if struck by a thunderbolt from the ninth heaven!
[Profound Grade Middle Rank pill: Blood Qi Pill, thirty bottles!]
[Profound Grade Middle Rank pill: Muscle Regeneration Powder, thirty bottles!]
"Blood Qi Pills?! Muscle Regeneration Powder?!"
He cried out in shock, his voice becoming shrill and piercing from the sheer extremity of his disbelief!
These two were the finest among Profound Grade Middle Rank pills! Blood Qi Pills could stimulate a martial artist's blood and qi throughout the body for a short time during battle, unleashing strength beyond one's limits! Muscle Regeneration Powder was even more of a life-saving miracle medicine. So long as the heart and other vital points were not injured, even grievous wounds such as severed hands and feet could have the lost limbs regenerate in a short time!
Because these two pills used rare materials and were difficult to refine, each bottle sold for a thousand merit points! Moreover, the number available for exchange was normally strictly limited. Only the chief instructors of Heaven Class could use their privileges to exchange for one bottle per month!
Yet this youth before him actually... actually asked for thirty bottles of each?!
What did he intend to do? Eat these things like candy beans?!
"You... you... do you know what you've written?!" The alchemist elder pointed at the list, his finger trembling. He could no longer determine whether the youth before him was an utter madman or some unimaginably wealthy magnate!
Facing the alchemist elder's ghost-seeing expression, Lin Xiao's face remained as calm as an ancient well.
He merely placed the student jade token, which had long become the center of everyone's attention, lightly onto the counter once again.
The long, terrifying string of remaining numbers on the jade token emitted a heart-palpitating golden glow beneath the brilliant lights of the Pill Pavilion.
"Charge my card."
The same words, spoken in the same calm tone.
Yet they seemed to possess the most terrifying magic in the world, plunging the entire Pill Pavilion into instant dead silence!
The alchemist elder stared fixedly at the jade token, his cloudy old eyes widened larger than bronze bells! He swallowed hard, feeling as though his throat were so dry it was about to burst into flames.
He finally understood what sort of existence he had offended today!
"Y-you... you are... Chief Instructor Lin?!" His voice stammered from agitation and fear.
Lin Xiao nodded and pushed the list forward.
"The pills."
"Yes! Yes! Of course we have them!" The alchemist elder's attitude instantly made a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn! His arrogant old face now bloomed like a chrysanthemum, full of flattery and fawning. "Chief Instructor Lin, please wait! Even if our stock is insufficient, this old man... even if I have to smash my own pill furnace today, I will refine them for you on the spot!"
With that, he rushed into the Pill Pavilion storeroom himself with agility utterly unfitting for his age, clattering and banging as he began preparing Lin Xiao's terrifying order.
The surrounding students had already been so shaken by the scene that their souls felt overturned and their minds had completely lost the ability to think.
"I... I didn't hear wrong just now, did I? He... he asked for sixty bottles of Profound Grade Middle Rank pills?!" "The total price... the total price together must... must exceed a hundred thousand merit points again, right?!" "A devil! He is absolutely a devil! Are merit points nothing more than a string of numbers in his eyes?!"
Under the nearly numb stares of everyone present.
Very soon, the alchemist elder came running out, drenched in sweat as he pushed a small cart piled high with crystal bottles.
"Chief Instructor Lin! The pills you wanted are all... all here! The total... the total is one hundred and fourteen thousand merit points!"
Without changing expression, Lin Xiao signaled for him to charge the card.
"Beep."
Another enormous sum, enough to make anyone's heart stop, was deducted.
After finishing all this, he looked at the merit point balance on his jade token, which had fallen to less than ten thousand, and finally nodded in satisfaction.
"We have weapons and pills."
He turned to look at the team members behind him, who had long been dazed by happiness and were all grinning from ear to ear.
"There are still two final things missing."
"Armor, and talismans!"
With that, under the alchemist elder's respectful escort that was nearly fawning, he led his moving treasury grandly toward the Armor Pavilion on the fourth floor!
Fourth floor, Armor Pavilion.
Fifth floor, Talisman Pavilion.
Over the next hour, the entire Merit Hall was completely swept into a golden storm called "shopping spree," led by Lin Xiao!
At the Armor Pavilion, Lin Xiao once again spent thirty thousand merit points extravagantly, custom-making a set of Profound Grade Lower Tier soft armor for every member of the team. The armor was made from the hide of the Second-order Demonic Beast, the Ironback Rhino! Light yet tough, it could be worn beneath one's clothes and withstand the full-force strike of a Body Refinement Seventh Level cultivator!
At the Talisman Pavilion, Lin Xiao spent all of his remaining eight thousand-plus merit points! He exchanged for over a hundred first-order talismans of all kinds, from offensive Fireball Talismans and Ice Spike Talismans, to defensive Golden Light Talismans and Earth Wall Talismans, to auxiliary Swiftness Talismans and Breath Concealment Talismans. Everything was included!
Though these talismans were not of high grade, at critical moments they could produce miraculous effects capable of turning the tide of battle!
When Lin Xiao finally led his team—armed to the teeth from head to toe, inside and out—out through the grand doors of the Merit Hall.
The merit point balance on his student jade token, which had represented immense wealth, had become an incomparably bleak number—three hundred and fifty points.
Two hundred and twenty thousand merit points had been spent clean in less than two hours!
Yet there was not the slightest trace of heartache on Lin Xiao's face.
As he looked at Yellow Class Nine before him—a team whose cultivation levels were still only at the third or fourth level of Body Refinement, but whose equipment, pills, and hidden cards were enough to rival or even surpass the core teams of Heaven Class—his eyes blazed with boundless ambition!
Money could be earned again once it was gone.
But an army of steel that could fight at his side and live and die with him was something no amount of money could buy!
"Starting today, everyone will enter closed-door cultivation at the highest intensity!"
Lin Xiao's voice rang clearly beside every team member's ear, filled with unquestionable authority!
"Cultivation methods, Martial Skills, pills, weapons... I have given you top-tier resources enough to make the entire Outer Court green with envy!"
"Three months from now!"
"I want everyone to see exactly what kind of... monsters my Yellow Class Nine truly are!"
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