Demons and Ghosts Running Rampant

Back in the bamboo house, Qin Dongcheng entered the secret training room and began to focus on practicing the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist.

Now that this fist technique was nearing Major Achievement, he prepared to push himself over the next few days to reach that level. This way, both the body-tempering effects and his actual combat prowess would soar significantly.

He consumed Blood-Replenishing Pills one by one to compensate for his exertion, though he dared not take too many for fear of affecting his cultivation foundation.

"You practiced the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist once. Congratulations on triggering a double critical hit; you have gained double the rewards!"

"You practiced the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist once. Congratulations on triggering a triple critical hit; you have gained triple the rewards!"

With the critical rewards from the Heaven Rewards Diligence System, Qin Dongcheng made rapid progress in the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist, and his cultivation realm was also steadily improving.

Several days passed quickly. While practicing his punches, he did not forget to practice alchemy and refine various pills.

The critical rewards over these few days were not high, reaching at most a fivefold critical hit, so his progress was not as fast as he had imagined.

"You practiced the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist once. Congratulations on triggering a fortyfold critical hit; you have gained forty times the rewards!"

Just as he was thinking that the critical hits were unsatisfactory, the Heaven Rewards Diligence System gave him a surprise, granting a fortyfold critical hit that caused his cultivation to surge by a large margin.

At the same time, his insight into the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist broke through its bottleneck, reaching a new level.

Major Achievement!

He smiled slightly. When he practiced the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist again, he could clearly feel the difference; compared to before, its power had increased significantly, and it flowed with greater ease and fluidity.

Each session took less time, yet the results were better. This meant that Qin Dongcheng could practice more times each day, spend less time doing so, and advance his cultivation realm faster.

Even among most Official Disciples of the Five Elements Sect, the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist was only at the Small Achievement stage, and those who could reach Major Achievement were few and far between.

They often completed their cultivation in the Body Phase Realm with only a Small Achievement in the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist, and before they could reach Major Achievement or the Perfected Realm, they had already begun their cultivation in the Skin Phase Realm.

Although some Official Disciples chose to continuously improve the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist in the hope of awakening some Strange Phenomenon, many eventually gave up because it consumed too much time and energy, and there was no certainty that a Strange Phenomenon would be awakened.

Unlike Qin Dongcheng, who had only recently reached the Late Body Phase and already attained Major Achievement in the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist, he was on track. By the time he reached Body Phase Perfection, he should be able to bring the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist to the Perfected Realm, with a high probability of awakening a Strange Phenomenon.

However, his innate talent was not high, and he possessed no special constitution; these factors would affect his chances of awakening a Strange Phenomenon.

Not every Martial Artist could awaken a special Strange Phenomenon across different martial dao realms.

To say that those who could were one in ten thousand would not be an exaggeration.

Having stabilized the level of his Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist and adapted to the Major Achievement technique, Qin Dongcheng began to refine a third type of low-level pill.

Detoxification Pill!

As the name suggested, it could remove potent toxins from a Martial Artist's body and was also a very common low-level pill.

Its refining difficulty was not much greater than that of the Blood-Replenishing Pill or the Golden Wound Pill.

Qin Dongcheng had already prepared nearly a hundred sets of materials for the Detoxification Pill, though he did not know if he could succeed even once.

He processed the materials for the Detoxification Pill in an orderly fashion, taking only the time it takes to brew a cup of tea to finish the preparations.

He then began the official refining process, but less than three minutes later, smoke billowed out; the first attempt had failed.

"You failed to refine the Detoxification Pill. Congratulations on triggering a triple critical hit; you have gained three failed Detoxification Pills and three portions of experience and insight..."

The bad news was that he had failed right out of the gate, but the good news was that he had triggered a triple critical hit, gaining three sets of failed materials and, most importantly, three portions of experience and insight from the failure.

The harvest was actually quite decent; he should be able to last a few minutes longer during the next attempt.

Thus, he began the second attempt, which lasted for about half an hour before it finally failed.

He could not continue refining; he needed to rest properly. The mental drain from alchemy and medicine-making was immense, and Qin Dongcheng had to pace himself, deciding to practice the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist for a while instead.

Over the following days, Qin Dongcheng continued to refine Detoxification Pills, yet he never succeeded. He fought and failed, failed and fought again; it was no easier than the Blood-Replenishing Pill or the Golden Wound Pill had been.

During this time, several other herb field handymen came to visit, hoping to gain Qin Dongcheng's guidance. He would occasionally take time out to instruct them, once every ten days or half a month being sufficient.

He naturally would not pass up such an opportunity to earn precious medicinal herbs. After all, among these herb field handymen were veterans who had been there for decades, responsible for over ten acres of herb fields and having accumulated many precious herbs.

Even if they had already mastered the Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist, they still needed guidance in alchemy and medicine-making, and since Qin Dongcheng's Mount Tai Body Strengthening Fist had reached Major Achievement, he could provide guidance in that area as well.

Therefore, he naturally did not refuse such a win-win situation.

This caused his reputation among the surrounding herb field handymen to skyrocket, and they spontaneously hailed him as their leader, his prestige and status even surpassing that of the overseers.

By picking their precious herbs, Qin Dongcheng also gained quite a bit of critical-hit income. Although it still could not cover the consumption of his alchemy and medicine-making, he did not need to go to the Black Market to buy too many herbs, thus avoiding suspicion.

The costs of alchemy and medicine-making were also largely offset, and his wealth, which had been hitting rock bottom, was slowly growing.

The consumption required for martial arts practice was truly immense, not to mention that Qin Dongcheng was constantly trying to refine new pills, failing time and time again, with each failure wasting quite a few herbs.

Even so, feeling his constantly improving cultivation realm and alchemy skills, he remained quite satisfied.

At his current rate, it would not be long before he could successfully refine the Detoxification Pill and become an Official Alchemist.

On this day, he came to the herb field to pick precious herbs as usual and took the opportunity to instruct everyone on their practice, only to find that everyone looked grave and was discussing something.

"It's been confirmed. They say the reason it hasn't snowed this year is because demons and ghosts of the eighth level or higher are running rampant, affecting the celestial phenomena of our Luo Cloud Prefecture. That is why it hasn't snowed here yet."

"My god, a demon of the eighth level or higher—what kind of existence is that? It must be comparable to an peerless expert of the eighth martial dao realm. No wonder it hasn't snowed here."

"It is said that other prefectures failed to govern effectively, causing many demons and ghosts to invade our Luo Cloud Prefecture, throwing us into chaos as well. Recently, the Mission Hall has issued many missions to slay demons and eliminate ghosts, forcing Official Disciples to go out and fight them. Many Official Disciples have already been killed or injured."

"It's a good thing we aren't Official Disciples; there are no mandatory missions for Chore Disciples, otherwise it would be dangerous. I just don't know if those demons and ghosts will invade our Bamboo Forest Valley. Everyone had better be careful."