"Mount Miaoyin City was safe for the time being, but conflict and battles were bound to come in the future. Perhaps I should also become familiar with and adapt to fighting among cultivators."
Lu Qingfeng listened in silence, and a thought rose in his heart.
To embark on the path of immortality and claim that one could rely on alchemy, artifact refinement, and the like to sail smoothly all the way to becoming an immortal or patriarch was undoubtedly nothing more than fooling oneself.
Cultivation meant fighting for what one wanted!
And once one had to fight for something, battle was unavoidable!
All kinds of arts, Divine Abilities, artifacts, and treasures were methods of protecting one's path.
Struggles either ended with victory or defeat, or with life and death.
In the game, one could revive after dying, and even reincarnate. But in reality, if one died at an enemy's hands because one was no good at fighting, then everything would be over.
"But before that, I still need to master alchemy and ensure that my cultivation proceeds smoothly."
"To do good work, one must first sharpen one's tools!"
"Artifact refinement must also come before actual combat. Puppetcraft—"
Lu Qingfeng silently pondered. When he thought of the ten puppets he had seen earlier, whose sight still shocked him, a system notification window suddenly popped up before his eyes—
Congratulations, player, on joining the Yuanyi Guild. Your current guild authority is: Elder
"Elder?"
Lu Qingfeng looked up at Mu Yuanyi, only to see that Mu Yuanyi happened to be looking back at him. He immediately understood that Mu Yuanyi had exercised his authority as guild leader, officially accepted him into the Yuanyi Guild, and appointed him an elder.
The Attributes panel also had an additional guild section.
Guild: Yuanyi Guild Guild Level: Six Guild Ranking: 112 (Bingling World regional ranking) Guild Members: 324 Guild Leader: Mu Yuanyi Vice Guild Leaders: Zhang Zong, Yu Bufan Elders: Wang Tao, Lu Hongwen, Yue Ran... Hall Masters: Ma Chang, Zhou Huan... Stewards: Song Yun, Xiang Tianqiong... Elite Members: ... Members: ...
The guild information was extraordinarily detailed, perhaps because Lu Qingfeng had high authority. The Yuanyi Guild had one guild leader, two vice guild leaders, and five elders including Lu Qingfeng. Everyone below them was a minor figure below the Foundation Establishment Realm, with the highest-ranking members reaching only the level of hall master.
What surprised Lu Qingfeng was that the guild actually had levels and rankings. Driven by curiosity, he clicked to take a look.
A moment later, Lu Qingfeng finally revealed an enlightened expression.
"The guild's level is related to the number of guild members, the cultivation levels of its members, the missions the guild completes, and its reputation in the region. Only after raising the guild's level to ten and having a Spirit Void Stage True Cultivator stationed there can one establish a sect and transform the guild into a sect!"
"As for the guild rankings, they only rank guilds within a single world. Bingling World has only just begun development. There are fewer than three thousand players and fewer than two hundred guilds. The Yuanyi Guild ranks 112th, which puts it neither high nor low."
Only after seeing this did Lu Qingfeng feel that the gaming atmosphere of "Primordial World" had become slightly more intense.
With Mu Yuanyi and the others' return, Mount Yuanyi became lively.
As far as Lu Qingfeng was concerned, however, little changed. He continued cultivating every day.
The Alchemy Room that belonged to him had already begun construction.
Half a month later, the Alchemy Room was completed.
Lu Qingfeng became the third alchemy apprentice in the Yuanyi Guild to independently command an Alchemy Room. He named it the 'Black Sand Alchemy Room,' commemorating the decades he had spent painstakingly cultivating his alchemy skills in Black Sand Town.
The Black Sand Alchemy Room was built to the same specifications as Wang Tao's 'Purple-Smoke Alchemy Room' and Yue Ran's 'Immortal-Spirit Alchemy Room'—
It occupied fifteen mu and contained nine alchemy furnaces: one Fourth-Rank Talisman Artifact, two Third-Rank Talisman Artifacts, three Second-Rank Talisman Artifacts, and three First-Rank Talisman Artifacts!
The nine alchemy furnaces alone cost nearly five low-grade Spirit Stones! Converted into Spirit Stone Fragments, that was five hundred portions; converted into Yellow Dragon Pills, it was a terrifying fifty thousand pills!
Only a large guild like Yuanyi could afford such extravagance. An ordinary guild probably would not even be willing—or able—to build a single Alchemy Room of this scale!
Such a large Alchemy Room was more than Lu Qingfeng could use alone, so he recruited apprentices from the Yuanyi Guild to fill it.
First, they could assist him and save him the time spent processing medicinal ingredients.
Second, he could train several alchemy apprentices, which counted as repaying the Yuanyi Guild. At the same time, he could take a cut and earn a modest profit.
Mu Yuanyi might well have had this in mind when building such a large Alchemy Room for Lu Qingfeng. Lu Qingfeng did not mind. In the end, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement, so there was no need to refuse.
Time passed.
In this life.
Lu Qingfeng had undoubtedly risen much faster.
In Black Sand Town, excluding the sixteen years delayed by accidental deaths, Lu Qingfeng had spent nearly ten years starting from his second life before he could barely make a name for himself and master the refined low-level pills known as the Grain-Repelling Pill and Yellow Dragon Pill.
This time, Lu Qingfeng had mastered the recipes for ten pills right from the start.
The Yuanyi Guild also took care of the medicinal ingredients and sales, leaving Lu Qingfeng only needing to focus on alchemy.
He cultivated in the morning.
He practiced alchemy in the afternoon.
At night, he exchanged insights on alchemy with Wang Tao and Yue Ran, and time flew by.
In the blink of an eye.
Eight years had passed since Lu Qingfeng joined the Yuanyi Guild.
Seven Mysteries Artifact Workshop.
Lu Qingfeng stood before the smelting furnace, both palms pressed tightly against its walls.
"Wind power, level three! Firepower, level four!"
"Wind power, level six! Firepower, level nine!"
"Wind power, level two! Firepower, level eight!"
Lu Qingfeng kept his eyes tightly shut, calling out one number after another. Around the smelting furnace beside him, nine apprentices stood in a circle, each with a bellows in front of them.
Following Lu Qingfeng's instructions, the nine of them repeatedly pushed and pulled the bellows, regulating the wind power and temperature inside the smelting furnace.
Even though all these apprentices were Embryonic Breath Realm cultivators, beads of sweat still formed on their foreheads.
After roughly half an hour of such precise adjustments—
"Now!"
Lu Qingfeng abruptly opened his eyes and ordered all nine apprentices to stop. He reached out and pushed down the handle beside him. The smelting furnace immediately rang with a series of booming sounds, as if it were about to explode. A pipe on the other side opened, and waves of high-temperature vapor sprayed out like sharp swords, dissipating beyond the Artifact Workshop.
Once the vibrations vanished and all the vapor had poured out.
Lu Qingfeng waved his hand, and the top of the smelting furnace opened, releasing a plume of black smoke. After the smoke dispersed, he looked inside and saw an alchemy furnace three feet square lying quietly at the bottom.
The alchemy furnace seemed to have been cast entirely from red copper, and it looked ancient and elegant!
Lu Qingfeng's face was somewhat pale, the result of excessive mental exhaustion. He formed a hand seal, and inner breath surged as the alchemy furnace landed in his hands. He closed his eyes and sent his inner breath inside. After a moment, a smile appeared on his pale face. "It worked!"
"Congratulations, Elder Lu."
The nine apprentices beside the smelting furnace also revealed delighted smiles.
Hearing the nine apprentices' voices, Lu Qingfeng took three bottles of pills from the Storage Bag at his waist and tossed them over. "Thank you, everyone. Take them and divide them among yourselves."
"Thank you, Elder Lu!"
The nine of them caught the bottles and took a look. They were actually three full bottles containing thirty-six Yellow Dragon Pills in total, and their hearts leaped with joy.
Who in the Yuanyi Guild did not know that the low-level pills refined by Elder Lu had astonishing effects? Aside from the portion supplied internally, the rest were put on the market and snapped up instantly. They were completely unavailable even at a price.
The thirty-six Yellow Dragon Pills meant that each of them could receive four. Counting the pills they had gradually received from Lu Qingfeng over the past few days, it was worth as much as their income for an entire year.
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