A bizarre sight

"Fine wine!"

Chen Lin exclaimed in admiration.

Zhao Zhengyuan smiled smugly. "Of course it is. This is the craft my family has passed down to put food on the table. It's entirely thanks to this skill that I can make a living in this city."

"Yes, Brother Zhao, your winemaking really is beyond reproach."

Chen Lin nodded, then looked at him again. "By the way, didn't you say a while ago that you were planning to refine pills? How did that go?"

Zhao Zhengyuan's face fell.

His smugness vanished in an instant.

"Ah, don't even mention it."

Zhao Zhengyuan sighed mournfully, shaking his head repeatedly.

But then he raised his chin high again, cast a sidelong glance, and sneered. "How could a paltry little art like pill refining possibly stump me? I, Zhao Zhengyuan, came from an Alchemy Clan!"

The corner of Chen Lin's mouth twitched involuntarily. He returned the sidelong sneer. "Yes, yes. With your perseverance and talent, Brother Zhao, you'll succeed sooner or later."

Zhao Zhengyuan gave a wry smile and returned to normal. "May your words bring me luck. Unfortunately, my inheritance is incomplete. Otherwise, perhaps there really would be a sliver of hope."

Chen Lin grimaced and said nothing more.

Talking to the people here was truly an ordeal.

They themselves seemed completely unaware of these abnormalities.

The two began drinking in silence.

"By the way, Brother Zhao, everyone says pill refining is difficult. Is it really that hard?"

Seeing that they had drunk more than half the bottle and nearly finished the meat and porridge, Chen Lin finally began asking for the information he wanted.

Although the other man's demeanor could change at any moment, since Chen Lin could not leave, he could only fit in. Besides, when people weren't having an "episode," they were all perfectly normal.

Resources here were extremely scarce. Given his standing, he simply could not buy pills that increased cultivation.

Otherwise, he would never have entertained the wild notion of using Spirit Rice Porridge to break through his bottleneck.

Yet he did not want to spend even one moment longer in this bizarre place. All he wanted was to reach the Mid Qi Refinement Realm and then escape.

Without reaching the Mid Qi Refinement Realm, he could not learn spells. Monster beasts ran rampant outside the city, and leaving rashly would only get him killed faster.

So he planned to refine pills himself.

With Ten Attempts One Hit, he would certainly be able to produce them, provided he had the tools, ingredients, and pill formula.

Zhao Zhengyuan was a little tipsy too. He exhaled a wine-scented breath and said, "What do you think? If it weren't difficult, would even the lowest-grade Qi Replenishing Pills be so expensive?"

"That's true. I heard that even those few Foundation Establishment lineages only have one alchemist each. If you succeed, Brother Zhao, you'll be able to move straight into the Inner City and enjoy the good life. Don't forget your little brother then!"

Chen Lin filled the other man's cup.

Then he asked with apparent casualness, "Brother Zhao, since you've already started trying to refine pills, you must have a pill formula, right? What kind of pill is it for? Could you tell me about it?"

Zhao Zhengyuan paused, gave an ordinary sneer, and glanced at Chen Lin. "What, you want to refine pills too?"

Before Chen Lin could speak, he continued, "Pill refining isn't that easy. I'd advise you to stick to studying talismancrafting."

Chen Lin did not mind having his intentions seen through.

Plenty of people wanted to learn pill refining. It was perfectly normal for him to want to learn it too.

But since it was out in the open, he decided to cut straight to the point.

"That's right. I do want to learn pill refining. My aptitude is far too poor, and my cultivation has been stuck at the Second Layer of Qi Refining for so many years. Without pills to help me, I'm afraid I can forget about breaking through. But as you know, the major lineages control all the pills in the city. Lowly rogue cultivators like us have no chance of buying them. That's why I started thinking about refining my own. Whatever happens, at least trying will spare me any regrets."

Chen Lin's words made Zhao Zhengyuan sigh as well.

He knew exactly how that felt.

Life was far too hard for rogue cultivators, especially low-level ones.

After a moment's hesitation, he shook his head. "I do have a pill formula. If you want it, I can sell it to you. But let me make this clear first: the formula is flawed. Don't accuse me of cheating you afterward."

"What kind of flaw?"

Chen Lin immediately pressed him.

Zhao Zhengyuan rummaged inside his robe for a while and took out a yellowed scroll. Holding it beneath his hand, he said, "Pill formulas all come from ancient cultivator inheritances. But as the Immortal Cultivation World changed, some of the spiritual herbs used in ancient times died out. Today's formulas were revised by alchemists who found substitute herbs through repeated trials. That's why pill formulas are so rare."

As he spoke, he unrolled the paper, revealing densely packed characters as tiny as flies' heads.

He ran his fingers over the writing for a while, then sighed. "The formula I obtained had already been revised too, but that must have been a very long time ago. One of its spiritual herbs is now extremely rare. The herb itself is worth far more than the finished pill."

Gently stroking the formula, Zhao Zhengyuan continued, "With no other choice, I replaced it with a cheaper spiritual herb based on its medicinal properties. Whether it'll actually produce a pill remains unknown."

"You replaced it yourself?"

Chen Lin tapped his fingers on the tabletop, his face full of doubt.

"Heh."

Zhao Zhengyuan's demeanor changed. He cast a sidelong glance and sneered. "Fellow Daoist Chen, I may never have successfully refined a pill, but I come from an Alchemy Clan. I've studied medicinal principles and effects in great depth. Improving a pill formula is child's play!"

"Really? Then let me see what you substituted."

Ignoring his pathological boasting, Chen Lin reached for the formula.

But Zhao Zhengyuan blocked his hand.

Zhao Zhengyuan rolled the formula back up. "Want it? Three hundred spirit stones!"

"Too expensive."

Chen Lin withdrew his hand and slurped a mouthful of porridge.

"This is a pill formula, and one for a pill that increases cultivation! How is three hundred spirit stones expensive? Through normal channels, you couldn't buy one no matter how many spirit stones you offered!"

Zhao Zhengyuan glared at him and spoke indignantly.

Chen Lin shook his head. "You're talking about a proper pill formula. Yours is practically useless. Who would buy it? How about this: I'm only getting it to study anyway. I'll give you twenty spirit stones, just to indulge my curiosity."

"Twenty spirit stones? Are you joking? What pill formula could you buy for that price? Do you think it's one of your Vigor Talismans?"

Zhao Zhengyuan shouted angrily.

Chen Lin said nothing more and simply lowered his head to drink his porridge.

If Zhao Zhengyuan had no desire to sell, he would already have swept his sleeve and left. Since he hadn't, he must be eager to make the sale.

Besides, Chen Lin was not sure whether his talent ability would work on a flawed formula like this, and he did not want to invest too much.

Most importantly, he was poor too. Spending the savings he had scraped together through years of scrimping and saving would hurt.

Sure enough, after grumbling angrily for a while, Zhao Zhengyuan relented.

"Raise it a little. Fifty at the very least, and you must swear not to pass it on."

Chen Lin could accept that price. He nodded. "All right, but I'll also have to trouble you to explain the basics of pill refining and the precautions I should take, Brother Zhao."

An incense stick's worth of time later.

Looking as though he had been taken for a ride, Zhao Zhengyuan left in low spirits.

Chen Lin carefully studied the pill formula in his hands.

After he had been absorbed in it for an unknown length of time, the bronze bell in the corner of the room let out a low chime. His expression changed. He immediately rose, went to the window, and opened it a crack, looking outside with a face as still and dark as deep water.

It was already midnight.

Apart from the sound of snowflakes whirling through the sky on the bitter wind, the city was utterly silent.

Suddenly.

A beam of red light appeared in a nearby courtyard.

It shot straight into the sky!

Then came a second, a third, a tenth.

In the blink of an eye, countless fine strands of light appeared above the entire city.

Densely packed yet perfectly ordered, they plunged into the pitch-black sky, their ends lost from sight.

This magnificent spectacle swept even the blizzard away, yet not a single cultivator in the city came out to look.

Everything remained silent.

Only after nearly a quarter of an hour did the red threads slowly fade and disappear.

The wind rose again, and snowflakes drifted down.

Chen Lin stood there for a while before closing the window and returning to the table.

This scene had been occurring ever since he transmigrated here.

It happened every night at midnight.

At all other times, everything was normal.

After a month of investigation, he had discovered that each of these fine red threads was actually connected to a person. What exactly they did, he did not know.

Moreover, the people connected to the threads seemed to feel nothing at all. He had sounded out quite a few people with roundabout questions, but they had all looked utterly bewildered.

Even the original owner's memories contained no recollection of this phenomenon.

He therefore suspected that the people here, including the original owner, could not see this bizarre sight at all, just as they could not notice their own constant sidelong sneers.

His limited knowledge gave him no way to deduce the cause, and with his current cultivation, he had no ability to investigate it either.

All he could do was raise his cultivation to the Mid Qi Refinement Realm as quickly as possible, gain some ability to survive in the wilderness, and then escape.

If you encounter ads such as "Are you a real person?", simply ignore and close them. Never scan their QR codes or send text messages!