Divine Medicine for the Underclass!

Divine Medicine for the Underclass!

Chen Wang stood by the door and listened for quite a while. Outside, the crowd had already exploded into a bubbling cauldron of chatter. After a brief moment of thought, he pushed the door open, walked out, and joined the gawkers. "A Foundation Establishment Pill is a divine treasure rarely seen in the world. Who would've thought it was really in Green Crane True Immortal's tomb!"

"How reliable is this news, anyway? If Green Crane True Immortal had a Foundation Establishment Pill, why didn't he leave it to his blood descendants? Why take it into the tomb with him?"

"Ahem! That's just what you think. Why must good things be left to descendants? Why can't he keep them for himself?"

"So what? Isn't Family Inheritance extremely important? If he hadn't left behind inherited resources, could Green Crane True Immortal have broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm and become such a rarely seen expert all by himself?"

Chen Wang listened from the side for a while, his expression turning somewhat strange. For some reason, these conversations felt familiar, like the many comments he had seen online in his previous life. People would catch a few scattered words, then launch into sweeping analyses, gradually citing classics and quoting authorities.

After listening for so long, he finally got a rough understanding. Green Crane True Immortal seemed to have had no descendants, and strictly speaking, he had no sect either. He had risen as though from thin air, much like a Rogue Cultivator. The one who reached this conclusion was a rather influential middle-aged man among the Market's Rogue Cultivators. He was at Qi Refining Sixth Layer, an expert of the middle Qi Refining stage—not some Early Stage Qi Refining rookie like Chen Wang—so his words carried some credibility.

Yet in the end, Chen Wang still failed to learn who had obtained the Foundation Establishment Pill and the Foundation Establishment Skill.

He tugged on the sleeve of a cultivator beside him and asked softly, "Brother Ma, who found that Foundation Establishment Pill?"

The cultivator called Ma Ge had a horse-like face and a formidable bearing. Hearing this, he smiled with an inscrutable look on his face. "They say it was a beautiful Female Cultivator. Her legs were long—those legs, tsk tsk tsk, you have no idea how good-looking they were!"

Long legs... Chen Wang smiled. "Really? Brother Ma, how do you know so much?"

In the Winter Wasteland World, Chen Wang had maintained his persona well: mysterious, cold, wealthy, and capable in a fight.

But in the Cultivation World, he was bottom-tier even among bottom-tier nobodies. His Qi Refining Stage 3 cultivation gave him no confidence at all. He called everyone brother or sister whenever he met them. The man called Ma Ge was only a year older than him, but looked exceedingly mature. His cultivation was roughly on par with Chen Wang's, also at Qi Refining Stage 3. Ma Ge said proudly, "What do you know? My second uncle's cousin is an Outer Sect Disciple in the Red Cloud Sect. He was the one who told me."

Chen Wang understood. Ma Ge had a genius younger cousin who was a remarkably prestigious Outer Sect Disciple within the colossal Red Cloud Sect.

Naturally, the words of an official Red Cloud Sect disciple held some credibility.

The horse-faced cultivator smiled. "You don't know this, but I've actually met that woman before. Back then, she was captivated by my imposing presence and seemed to want to marry me. But I figured that since she carried a treasure like a Foundation Establishment Pill, it would surely stir up a storm of blood and slaughter, so I refused."

Chen Wang said, "Brother Ma, I'll buy you some peanuts later."

Ma Ge froze, then smiled appreciatively. "Little Chen, this is what's good about you—you know how to behave!"

Clearly, he had not understood Chen Wang's joke.

Chen Wang listened outside for a long time. The crowd was so excited they could hardly sleep, and the discussion was feverish.

In some cultivation novels Chen Wang had read in his previous life, Foundation Establishment Pills could practically be found everywhere.

But in this real Cultivation World, for low-level cultivators like them, they truly deserved to be called Divine Medicine for the Underclass. With aptitude like Chen Wang's, reaching Qi Refining Sixth Layer would probably be the peak of his life. If he could reach Qi Refining Stage 9, it would be like his ancestral graves catching fire. If he could successfully achieve Foundation Establishment, it would be like his ancestral graves exploding—along with a whole stretch of everyone else's ancestral graves.

For cultivators in the Qi Refining stage to successfully achieve Foundation Establishment, aside from the rare few blessed with astonishing talent, most needed to rely on Foundation Establishment Pills. Chen Wang had not understood this at first. Why did cultivation have to depend on pills?

Later, he figured it out. Many university majors only admitted one student. Plenty of people believed themselves to be one in ten thousand and wanted to apply, but reality was often brutally cruel.

Foundation Establishment was the same. There were indeed people who could break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm without relying on a Foundation Establishment Pill.

But such people were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns among the vast multitude of cultivators. If someone truly had that kind of talent, they would not be muddling along at the bottom. The moment they displayed decent cultivation aptitude, whether they joined a sect or did something else, they would gain status. Stories of commoners rising against the odds were exceedingly rare in the Cultivation World.

Foundation Establishment Skills, meanwhile, were different from Foundation Establishment Pills. They contained two parts: one was the methods and techniques needed during Foundation Establishment, while the other was the cultivation skill practiced after Foundation Establishment, used to raise one's realm.

Normally, as long as one successfully achieved Foundation Establishment, joining a sect would earn them a Foundation Establishment Skill. Thus, the value of a Foundation Establishment Skill was actually lower than that of a Foundation Establishment Pill. The Foundation Establishment Pill was the Divine Medicine for the Underclass that let low-level cultivators leap through the dragon gate.

After listening for so long, Chen Wang had only obtained several descriptions of the person who had acquired the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Fair skin, beautiful face, long legs. The description was simple and crude, making Chen Wang wonder whether some Female Cultivator from the Pleasure House had obtained the treasure inheritance inside.

Forget it. Something with such a tiny chance won't happen to me, and this news might not even be true.

Chen Wang shook his head and headed back toward his room.

These days, quite a few unfamiliar cultivators had been wandering around the Red Cloud Sect Market.

Chen Wang suspected that these people had come to investigate the Red Cloud Sect's arrangements.

Presumably, he was not the only one. The Red Cloud Sect disciples had likely noticed that these people had not come to Green Crane True Immortal's Tomb with the simple purpose of seeking treasure. Then news suddenly spread that someone had acquired a Foundation Establishment Pill and a Foundation Establishment Skill. It was impossible not to be wary.

"Differences in information force people to be more cautious."

Chen Wang sighed. As he gently placed his fingers against the door, he suddenly sensed a peculiar aura.

If he had been nothing more than an ordinary Qi Refining Stage 3 cultivator, he would not have sensed a damn thing at this moment.

He had not cultivated to the point of possessing Divine Sense and could not detect that kind of special aura. Only strange powers such as yin energy or evil energy could be noticed through a cultivator's keen instincts. Yet the aura Chen Wang sensed now resembled Sword Qi, sharp and piercing.

That was because he was a second-rank Gene Warrior with the Eagle Eye ability. Moreover, he had just injected a Mind Adept serum, making his psychic power far stronger than that of an ordinary person. His perception of the surroundings was therefore exceptionally sharp. He immediately raised his head and looked around...