Pill Formula

"Looks like this Dark Marrow Mushroom dislikes light, and at the same time, its growing environment requires decaying Spirit Trees."

Lu Xuan judged according to the hint that had appeared in his mind.

"Its dislike of light is simple enough. Although it can't easily be moved indoors because of the Spirit Field and Spirit Soil, I can build a simple shed over it to block the light."

"It's just that decaying Spirit Trees will be hard to find. Spirit Trees are common enough, but who would have that sort of decaying Spirit Tree at home?"

As Lu Xuan thought this, he took tools from inside his house and built a simple wooden shed around the Dark Marrow Mushroom.

It was a Second Grade Spirit Plant, after all. The sooner he planted it, the sooner he could harvest it, so he delayed no longer and decided to go out and look first.

He walked all the way toward the center of the Marketplace. Half a quarter hour later, he arrived before an enormous courtyard.

Looking past the stone wall, he could vaguely see dense, towering Spirit Trees planted inside.

The owner of the courtyard was a Cultivator Zhou, with a cultivation of Qi Training Stage 3. Lu Xuan had only heard of him before and had rarely had the chance to deal with him.

It was said that this Cultivator Zhou had close ties with a Qi Refining High Stage cultivator in the center of the Marketplace, which was why he could occupy such a large courtyard and plant so many Spirit Trees.

Decaying Spirit Trees either had suffered from Insect Pest during the planting process, had been stored for too long, or had lacked proper storage conditions, causing the nature of the Spirit Trees to change and decay.

This Cultivator Zhou planted a great number of Spirit Trees. It was possible that he had rotten wood at home.

Lu Xuan stepped forward, and a young cultivator came out to receive him.

Lu Xuan stated his purpose for coming, and the young cultivator brought him before that Cultivator Zhou.

The young man walked up to his father, Cultivator Zhou, and quietly said a few words.

"I am Zhou Yuan. Might I ask how I should address you, Little Brother?"

"Lu Xuan."

"Greetings, Daoist Lu. I heard from my son that you wished to ask whether my family has any decaying Spirit Trees. May I ask what use you have for them?"

"I won't hide it from Senior Brother Zhou. Recently, I've had some insights into cultivating Spirit Plants, and I wanted to find something decaying to verify a conjecture. I heard that Senior Brother Zhou has an extremely high level of skill in planting Spirit Trees, so I thought I'd come over and try my luck to see if you had any rotten wood."

Lu Xuan answered half-truthfully.

"So that's how it is."

Zhou Yuan nodded, his expression unchanged, and it was impossible to tell whether he believed him or not.

"Due to various factors, there are indeed a few pieces of decaying Spirit Tree at home."

Zhou Yuan gave his son a few instructions, and his son brought out several Spirit Trees from the warehouse behind the courtyard.

The Spirit Trees looked tattered and worn on the outside, giving off a rotten, unpleasant odor.

"If Little Brother Lu wants them, you may take them."

"However, planting Spirit Trees requires more manpower and resources than planting ordinary Spirit Plants. Even though these Spirit Trees have already decayed, they still have some value."

"Two Spirit Stones, and Little Brother Lu can take these three Spirit Trees away."

Lu Xuan frowned.

"Since the Spirit Trees have already decayed, that means they've lost their original use. Three useless pieces of scrap wood, and you still want two Spirit Stones? Isn't that a little ungenerous?"

He knew that the other party did not know the true use he had for the decaying Spirit Trees. Relying on this information gap, Lu Xuan was full of confidence.

"One Spirit Stone. Consider it me helping Fellow Daoist Zhou dispose of waste wood."

Zhou Yuan had merely been testing Lu Xuan's bottom line. Seeing his attitude, he did not insist further and nodded in agreement.

These discarded Spirit Trees were usually buried in an uninhabited place outside the Marketplace once enough had accumulated. Being able to exchange them for one Spirit Stone was already rather good.

The two reached an agreement. After Lu Xuan handed over the Spirit Stone, he brought the three discarded Spirit Trees back home.

In the courtyard, under the cover of the simple wooden shed, the dark-red fungus seemed as though it were about to merge into the shadows.

Lu Xuan hurriedly took out the three rotten logs and carefully placed them around the Dark Marrow Mushroom Spirit Seed.

By the time he returned after casting a round of Spirit Rain Technique, he had already discovered that the Dark Marrow Mushroom Spirit Seed had undergone an obvious change.

At the fungus's root and stem, perhaps attracted by the special odor of the decaying Spirit Trees, many tiny dark-red hyphae had quietly sprouted.

The dark-red hyphae spread into the rotten wood. Lu Xuan seemed to feel that the Dark Marrow Mushroom's color had grown even deeper, and inside the blood-vessel-like channels, the sticky liquid flowed a bit faster.

After successfully planting the Dark Marrow Mushroom, Lu Xuan finally set his mind at ease.

For the next period of time, he basically stayed at home. Most of his time was spent carefully cultivating Spirit Plants, while the rest was used to cultivate his cultivation technique and spells, as well as familiarize himself with how to use the still-incomplete Split Silver Blade.

In between, he also went to the Rogue Cultivator Market twice, wanting to see whether, taking advantage of the rogue cultivators returning from the Reclamation Secret Realm this time, he could pick up one or two Unknown Spirit Seeds from the stalls.

Unfortunately, the occasional stalls selling Spirit Seeds only had common Spirit Seeds Lu Xuan was relatively familiar with.

The courtyard's Spirit Field was only so large, and it was already packed full, with no space left to accommodate any other Spirit Plants.

The twenty stalks of Spirit Firefly Grass had entered a rapid growth stage, and on the two Eclipse Moon Trees, more than half of the Eclipse Moon Fruits had already matured.

One First Grade Red Cloud Pine had no high requirements for the spiritual energy environment and only needed to be stimulated with the Fireball Technique from time to time.

One Second Grade Sword Grass required the Gold Metal Swordplay and Spirit Rain Technique. One Second Grade Dark Marrow Mushroom mainly drew its nutrients from decaying Spirit Trees and did not need Lu Xuan to nourish it with the Spirit Rain Technique.

He only needed to use the Spirit Rain Technique and Earth Guidance Art to keep the rotten wood in a state of decay.

Looking at it this way, Lu Xuan realized that First Grade Spirit Plants were actually the fewest in the Spirit Field—there was only one Red Cloud Pine. As for the two Spirit Seeds he had picked up, they had brought him unexpected surprises, both being Second Grade Spirit Plants.

During this time, he harvested another five Eclipse Moon Fruits.

Four were Good Grade, and one was Superior Grade.

Of the five White Light Orbs they brought, two were Split Silver Blade fragments. With that, the magic tool Split Silver Blade became even more complete, left with only a few small notches.

There were still fourteen Eclipse Moon Fruits remaining, and Lu Xuan estimated there should not be much of a problem.

There were also two First Grade Talismans, the Sword Qi Talisman and the Exorcism Talisman respectively. Among talismans of this grade, both could be considered quite good.

As for that Superior Grade Eclipse Moon Fruit, after Lu Xuan absorbed it, a stream of information appeared in his mind.

"Essence Nurturing Pill Recipe. It records the materials, techniques, and other details regarding the refinement of the first-grade pill, the Essence Nurturing Pill."

"It's actually a pill recipe. As expected of a Superior Grade Eclipse Moon Fruit."

Lu Xuan was somewhat surprised. The several times before, what he had obtained from the White Light Orbs had all been finished Essence Nurturing Pills. This time, the recipe had directly dropped instead.

That was fine too. Giving a man a fish was not as good as teaching him to fish. It seemed he would have to spend some time learning how to refine pills.

Lu Xuan thought to himself.

"It's just that I don't have any foundation from before. If I start refining pills from scratch, the chance of failure will be rather high."

"I wonder whether the Eclipse Moon Fruits will still produce Essence Nurturing Pill Recipes. If there are more recipes, will they be like the previous Earth Guidance Art and Gold Metal Swordplay, automatically increasing my alchemy experience after repeated absorption?"

Lu Xuan looked at the dozen or so round, plump Eclipse Moon Fruits hanging among the emerald-green leaves and thought optimistically.