Qi Refining Layer 8

Jiang Liu knew full well how valuable resource dungeons were in games. They were one of the must-run daily instances from launch day until the game shut down.

The moment he heard that reaching Qi Refining Layer 8 would unlock resource dungeons, he became anxious.

These dungeons reset every day. Clearing them a day earlier meant profit.

"Quick, trade with me in-game."

Jiang Liu sent Li Dongze a trade request in Cultivation Era and exchanged 5 Qi Refining Pills for 30 Ten-year Spirit Grass.

A few minutes later.

He refined those 30 Ten-year Spirit Grass into 14 Qi Refining Pills.

What a killing!

Jiang Liu's expression sharpened. Gritting his teeth, he got up from his desk and headed straight to the podium. He lowered his voice and said to the Head Teacher, "Teacher, I have something I want to say to the class. Is that okay?"

"What are you trying to do?"

The Head Teacher looked at Jiang Liu suspiciously.

"Something good."

Jiang Liu turned to face the entire class. After taking a deep breath, he shouted, "I got a Qi Refining Pill Blueprint! One Qi Refining Pill for 5 Ten-year Spirit Grass! Anyone interested, come trade with me!"

His voice rang through the enclosed classroom, startling every student who had been cultivating. They all turned toward him with astonished looks.

"Qi Refining Pill Blueprint? Aren't those things crazy expensive? Where'd you get one?"

"What's the success rate for Qi Refining Pills? That exchange rate is way too steep."

"Where are we supposed to get 5 Ten-year Spirit Grass?"

"I have some! I have some!"

If they couldn't afford to pull from the Permanent Pool, the only way to obtain spirit grass materials was through Story Trials. Most students were only at Qi Refining Layer 1 right now and couldn't even clear two stages of a Story Trial.

In other words, with the combined efforts of the whole class, Jiang Liu only got 50 Ten-year Spirit Grass, and even that came from two or three people pooling theirs together.

That was far too little. Li Dongze alone was nearly worth an entire class.

Jiang Liu returned to his seat helplessly and switched back to Cultivation Era to continue refining pills.

With 50 Ten-year Spirit Grass, he paid 10 Qi Refining Pills and gained 27 Qi Refining Pills.

Still too little!

Jiang Liu scratched his head. After thinking for a moment, he turned his attention to the Chat Box in the lower left corner.

Compared to yesterday's deserted Chat Box, today's was much livelier. The World Channel in particular was flooded with messages.

He skimmed through it. Most people were recruiting members in preparation for establishing sects in the future. Only a small portion were chatting, while some were showing off magic artifact details. It wasn't too chaotic, but there wasn't much useful information either.

Anyone who had reached Qi Cultivation Layer 5 on the second day after the server opened was, without exception, a rich player. No matter how absurdly talented they were, they couldn't have reached Qi Cultivation Layer 5 through cultivation alone.

There were already enough Qi Cultivation Layer 5 players to flood the chat. All he could say was that the three provinces were full of rich people.

In the Chat Box, the World Channel covered the entire server. The fourth server zone contained several hundred million players from three provinces. If speaking weren't restricted and didn't cost Spirit Stones, people probably wouldn't even be able to read the messages.

Besides the World Channel, there was also a Regional Channel where players could only see messages from their own city. There were fewer players and fewer messages, and perhaps because everyone was from the same city, the messages weren't nearly as hostile.

After all, if people started cursing each other in the World Channel, it wasn't easy to meet up offline across provincial lines.

But the same city was different. If you really dared to curse someone out, you might run into a hothead who'd challenge you to an offline PK. They were all cultivators and all rich—who was afraid of whom?

After hesitating for two seconds, Jiang Liu ultimately chose to send an anonymous message in the Regional Channel.

[Anonymous]: 1 Qi Refining Pill for 5 Ten-year Spirit Grass. Buying unlimited quantities. If you have any, add me as a friend directly.

The moment he sent it, Jiang Liu saw his Social Tab flashing wildly. Hundreds, even thousands of people added him at once, making his scalp tingle.

Luckily, he had gone anonymous beforehand and hidden all his personal information. Otherwise, he would've become famous throughout the city.

In just one minute, more than a thousand friend requests appeared in his Social Tab, and they were still increasing. Startled, he hurriedly turned off friend requests.

This was insane. Wasn't he just trading pills? Was there really any need for this?

He hadn't considered what kind of person could afford an alchemy blueprint and use Qi Refining Pills to trade for spirit grass at this point. Plenty of people surely wanted to latch onto him and beg on their knees for a few Qi Refining Pills.

There were online beggars even in trashy mobile games, let alone Cultivation Era.

Still shaken, Jiang Liu opened his Friends List. He added one person, traded with them, and didn't even read whatever message they sent. After the trade, he deleted them immediately.

More than 1,800 friend requests—enough to keep him busy for quite a while.

Add friend, trade, delete friend.

No more Qi Refining Pills.

Refine more pills, then keep trading.

Repeat endlessly.

As time passed, the number of Qi Refining Pills in Jiang Liu's inventory grew and grew until even he was shocked by the amount.

From more than 1,800 friends, he flipped his way to 714 Qi Refining Pills!

Holy shit!

Why the hell would I even cultivate?!

I'll just chug pills!

You could actually play this game like this?

No more talking. Time to eat first.

Jiang Liu frantically tapped on the Qi Refining Pills, stuffing them into his mouth one after another as his Cultivation Points shot up.

[Used Qi Refining Pill. Cultivation Points +100]

[Used Qi Refining Pill. Cultivation Points +100]

[Used Qi Refining Pill. Cultivation Points +100]

[Realm advanced to Qi Refining Layer 8]

[Notice: Your realm has reached Qi Refining Late Stage. The effects of consuming the lowest-grade Magic Pills are reduced by half.]

[Used Qi Refining Pill. Cultivation Points +25]

[Used Qi Refining Pill. Cultivation Points +25]

Jiang Liu: "?????"

Jiang Liu abruptly froze. Listening to the notification, his mind filled with question marks.

Qi Refining Late Stage?

The effect of eating the lowest-grade pills was cut in half?

Damn, there was actually a mechanic like that?!

Jiang Liu's face darkened as he looked at the hundreds of Qi Refining Pills in his inventory. They suddenly didn't seem so appealing anymore.

He had guessed that this game wouldn't let players chug pills all the way to ascension. No game worked like that.

But wasn't this pill-chugging penalty kicking in way too soon?

He'd thought Qi Refining Pills would only become useless once he reached the Foundation Establishment Stage. He hadn't expected their effect to be halved as early as Qi Refining Late Stage.

What a shame. He'd been planning to chug his way straight to Foundation Establishment, but now that plan was screwed.

"Fine, I guess. At least I didn't waste my effort."

Though he was somewhat disappointed, he didn't care too much. Qi Refining Pills were merely low-grade Magic Pills. Once he got his hands on mid-grade or high-grade Magic Pills, he could keep chugging them anyway.

With several hundred Qi Refining Pills, his alchemist level had risen by two whole levels. At his current alchemist level, even refining mid-grade and high-grade Magic Pills wouldn't have a low success rate.

The First-Charge Gift Pack and the Crimson Refining Furnace truly lived up to their reputations!

Qi Refining Layers 8, 9, and 10 were considered Qi Refining Late Stage. A single Qi Refining Pill only gave 25 Cultivation Points?

Then it still wasn't a loss to eat them!

After all, I was only one layer away from getting onto the Leaderboard!

The instant he reached Qi Refining Layer 8, a system notification appeared before his eyes.

[Congratulations! Player has advanced to Qi Refining Layer 8 and unlocked the 'Resource Trial' feature.]

The resource dungeon was open!