Li Qingshan could clearly feel the torrent of pure spiritual energy forcing its way through his shrunken, blocked meridians with unstoppable force!
The accumulated impurities were flushed away, dissolved, and expelled from his body.
Nourished by this surge of vitality, his withered, shrunken meridians greedily drank in the moisture like branches parched by a prolonged drought, and began their difficult recovery, regaining the faintest trace of elasticity.
Gray-black, foul-smelling grime began to seep from Li Qingshan's skin.
His bones gave faint, crackling pops, and his aged, stiff muscles twitched.
After an unknown stretch of time, the surging warmth finally subsided, slowly settling into his dantian.
There, a faint yet unmistakable stream of verdant energy, brimming with vitality, rotated slowly like a newly sprouted seedling, steady and alive.
Wood-attribute spiritual power!
First level of Qi Refining!
Li Qingshan slowly opened his eyes.
The stone chamber remained dim, but to him, it seemed much brighter.
He could sense the thin spiritual energy in the air. It was gathering around him of its own accord, thread by thread. The flow was weak, but undeniably real.
The grime on his body reeked and clung to him.
But he felt lighter than ever before.
Most of his heavy fatigue had vanished. His blurry vision seemed a little clearer, and he could hear more of the faint sounds around him.
Most important of all, a faint but genuine vitality had begun flowing through his aged body once more, like a dead tree meeting spring and pushing out a tender new shoot.
He looked down at his wrinkled hand, no longer as withered and lifeless as before, then at the Yellow-Skin Wine Gourd lying quietly on the stone bed.
Deep within the Hall of Discarded Treasures, all was silent.
Only the wind occasionally sighed outside the window, while the heart in Li Qingshan's chest, dormant for a hundred years, now beat with fresh vitality, strong and steady.
"This Yellow-Skin Gourd is definitely a supreme treasure! With it, perhaps my path to immortality still has hope!"
Li Qingshan grinned, his eyes brighter than they had ever been.
"But I still need to test it and find out exactly what this Yellow-Skin Gourd can do! If it really can turn trash into treasure, then with all the discarded pills in the Hall of Discarded Treasures, I might be able to raise my cultivation quickly!"
Li Qingshan thought to himself.
Without the slightest hesitation, he headed into the Hall of Discarded Treasures.
Suppressing his excitement, he began carefully searching through the corners of the hall.
He focused on piles of discarded pills. Many had crumbled to powder or stuck together in clumps, giving off a pungent, strange odor.
Patiently, he sifted through them, searching for pills that were dim, damaged, and nearly drained of spiritual energy, but had somehow retained their shape.
The Hall of Discarded Treasures held only a year's worth of castoffs, since disciples came every year to incinerate the discarded pills and broken artifacts.
Besides, most of the discarded pills were clumped together. There weren't many that had retained their shape.
After spending most of the day turning over the piles of discarded pills, Li Qingshan found a little over a dozen intact ones.
Most were Qi-Boosting Pills, which helped cultivators in the early stages of Qi Refining restore their spiritual power.
There was also a Body-Tempering Pill covered in cracks, which could slightly strengthen the body.
And one Spirit-Condensing Pill, so misshapen it was nearly unrecognizable, which aided meditation and helped resist inner demons.
The spiritual energy in these dozen or so pills had almost completely dissipated. Their pill marks were blurred or broken, leaving them utterly useless.
Carefully, Li Qingshan placed all of them into the Yellow-Skin Gourd.
After a moment's thought, he picked up a small chunk of pills stuck together and stuffed it in as well.
He plugged the gourd and tucked it close against his body.
Back in the stone chamber, he sat cross-legged and tried to quiet his mind and cultivate the Evergreen Technique, but his thoughts kept drifting to the gourd against his chest.
That night felt especially long.
The next morning, Li Qingshan took out the gourd almost at once.
He drew a deep breath, his eyes full of anticipation, then pulled out the stopper.
A complex fragrance, mingled with the pure aroma of medicinal herbs, wafted out.
"Did it work?"
Li Qingshan's eyes shone with excitement.
Holding his breath, he turned the gourd mouth downward.
Fourteen round, plump pills, their brilliance glowing from within, rolled into his palm.
They had been discarded pills the day before, but now their surfaces were lustrous with a surging abundance of spiritual energy. Four distinct, profound pill marks flowed across each one.
They were all supreme-grade spirit pills!
Twelve supreme-grade Qi-Boosting Pills, one supreme-grade Body-Tempering Pill, and one supreme-grade Spirit-Condensing Pill!
The chunk of pills stuck together, however, had not changed in the slightest.
"I'm rich! I'm really rich this time!"
Li Qingshan's thin hand clenched tightly around the Yellow-Skin Gourd, his knuckles turning white with the force of his grip. His cloudy eyes blazed with a brilliance they had never held before.
He immediately realized two things.
First, the Yellow-Skin Gourd really could turn trash into treasure. Low-grade spirit pills could become supreme-grade spirit pills. Even discarded pills could be raised to supreme quality, as long as they still retained a trace of their medicinal power.
Second, it wasn't all-powerful. It couldn't improve scraps that had completely crumbled to powder or stuck together in clumps, nor pills that could no longer hold their shape.
"The five-grade boost from the Yellow-Skin Gourd requires spiritual energy? That must be why the wine I poured into it earlier didn't change at all!
"Low-grade Qi-Inducing Pills and those discarded pills all contain a trace of spiritual energy, so they can be improved!
"In other words, the Yellow-Skin Gourd can only improve items that contain spiritual energy. It has no effect at all on ordinary things!"
A glimmer of understanding appeared in Li Qingshan's eyes as he thought to himself.
"I wonder whether it can improve other things besides pills and turn them from trash into treasure. I'll need to experiment a few more times to find out!
"But right now, the most important thing is to refine these pills and turn them into strength! If anyone discovers these supreme-grade spirit pills, I'll be doomed!"
Li Qingshan gripped the Yellow-Skin Gourd tightly and thought to himself.
From then on, Li Qingshan's life had a clear purpose.
He still swept the Hall of Discarded Treasures every day at dawn. His movements remained slow, but his gaze grew more focused.
As he swept, he watched every new batch of discarded items more closely, especially the piles of pill scraps.
Like a patient gold prospector, he sifted through them for discarded pills that still held a trace of medicinal potency and had barely kept their shape.
Whenever he found a few, he treasured them and carefully tucked them into the gourd.
The next day, it would be time to reap the reward: supreme-grade spirit pills.
He began cultivating by swallowing supreme-grade spirit pills. The supreme-grade Qi-Boosting Pills worked astonishingly well for someone in the early stages of Qi Refining.
But the spiritual energy contained in supreme-grade spirit pills was so abundant that Li Qingshan needed three days to refine even a single supreme-grade Qi-Inducing Pill.
With a steady supply of supreme-grade pills to aid him, Li Qingshan's cultivation speed increased dramatically.
The supreme-grade Qi-Boosting Pills stabilized his first-level Qi Refining cultivation while continually cleansing his meridians and expelling even deeper impurities.
His body was no longer as heavy as before. His movements grew a little lighter, and his eyes much clearer.
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