Beast Power Pill

"Could I not understand?"

Gu Ni blew his beard and glared as he carefully returned the third-grade pill he had studied for so long to its jade bottle.

"When I first started refining medicine, extracting the medicinal ingredients alone took me ages. I can't even remember how many batches I wasted before I barely managed to extract the medicinal liquid. In the end, I only produced a half-finished useless pill."

"But this kid... he really is a genius! Not even ten years old! A Dou Zhe not even ten years old, who made a first-grade pill on his first attempt at refining medicine after only three failures—and its quality was not bad, either."

"You have to know, the mental energy consumed during medicine refinement is something an ordinary one-star Dou Zhe simply cannot endure."

At this point, Gu Ni suddenly lowered his voice, a sharp gleam flashing in his murky old eyes.

"Miss, tell me the truth. Does this kid have some expert guiding him from behind the scenes?

"That technique for extracting medicinal liquid is definitely not something he could have learned just by reading a few books!"

Ya Fei set down her teacup. Her slender fingers gently stroked its rim as the smile on her face gradually faded, replaced by an indolent yet shrewd expression.

"Uncle Gu Ni, who doesn't have a few secrets in this world?"

Ya Fei turned around and leaned against the edge of the table, folding her arms across her chest. Her peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the bustling street beyond the window.

"I picked Lu Heng up myself. Over the past three years, he has not come into contact with anyone besides me. If there really were some expert, could he have escaped the Mittel Clan's watchful eyes? Could he have hidden it from me?"

"Then this..."

Gu Ni pointed at the pill Lu Heng had refined earlier, his face full of disbelief.

"Could someone truly be born knowing everything?"

"Does it matter whether he was born knowing it?"

Ya Fei gave a soft laugh and tilted her head toward Gu Ni.

"What matters is that he is Lu Heng. He is the younger brother I, Ya Fei, raised."

Gu Ni froze for a moment, then shook his head with a bitter smile.

Looking at the woman before him in her fiery red dress, he vaguely felt that she had changed.

The Ya Fei of the past, though capable and astute, had always carried an anxiety as though she were walking on thin ice.

But now, Ya Fei possessed a little more confidence.

The confidence of someone who had something to rely on.

In the backyard, inside the small house.

Sunlight streamed through the window lattice onto the wooden floor, while dust motes drifted quietly through the beams.

Lu Heng sat cross-legged on the bed, his hands forming a strange seal as he breathed slowly and deeply.

The commotion outside seemed cut off in another world. The room was so quiet that only the faint beating of his heart could be heard.

Although he had acted unconcerned before Ya Fei and had even cracked a few jokes, an indescribable emptiness was actually spreading through his body right now.

"A one-star Dou Zhe's Dou Qi is still far too inadequate." Lu Heng slowly opened his eyes, helplessness flashing through his dark pupils.

He examined himself inwardly. The whirlpool in his lower abdomen looked listless at the moment, and the originally viscous liquid Dou Qi had thinned considerably.

Although the Five Spirits Chaos Art granted him a recovery speed far beyond that of ordinary people, and the Azure Wood Body gave him extraordinary self-healing ability, the continuous consumption of Dou Qi during medicine refinement was simply too great.

"At this rate, refining three batches of pills a day will be my limit."

Lu Heng sighed and rubbed his brow.

This would not do.

Although Lu Heng was a transmigrator and possessed a powerful cheat like the Book of Destiny, this cheat was not the sort of system that went "ding" and instantly maxed out his level.

It was more like a rigorous mentor, showing him the way and providing resources, but leaving him to walk the path step by step himself.

If he wanted to rapidly increase his strength, resources were an unavoidable hurdle.

And resources meant money.

"Living off a woman may be nice, but Ya Fei is under a lot of pressure too." Lu Heng shook his head.

Although Ya Fei now managed the auction house, most of its liquid funds belonged to the clan. The private savings she could use were limited.

To get the Qi Gathering Powder for him earlier, she had probably already emptied her savings.

As a man determined to make Ya Fei a queen, how could he keep letting a woman spend money to support him?

"Make money... I have to make money."

Lu Heng took a deep breath and closed his eyes again. The scroll of the Pharmacopoeia of Ten Thousand Worlds slowly unfolded in his mind.

Since mass production was impossible, he could only take the premium route, or...

"Differentiated competition."

On this Dou Qi Continent, pills might be precious, but the types of first-grade pills were actually quite fixed.

They were nothing more than Spring Rejuvenation Pills, Qi Recovery Pills, Force Accumulation Pills, Blood Coagulation Pills, and the like.

Yet the Pharmacopoeia of Ten Thousand Worlds contained countless strange and unusual formulas.

Lu Heng's consciousness rapidly flipped through the Pharmacopoeia before finally settling on a first-grade formula.

"Beast Power Pill."

This was a pill that could greatly enhance physical strength for a short time, allowing its user to possess brute force comparable to that of a magical beast for the duration of an incense stick.

Most importantly, taking the first pill had no side effects!

But if one swallowed several pills in quick succession, that was another matter altogether.

After all, most pills that enhanced one's strength came with severe side effects.

For Dou Zhe- and Dou Master-level mercenaries who spent their lives licking blood off the edge of a blade, this was practically a life-saving divine tool.

Most importantly, its main ingredient was inexpensive. It only required a common medicinal ingredient called Ironwood Root, along with special refinement using Lu Heng's wood-element Dou Qi.

"Low cost, fast results, huge market."

Lu Heng opened his eyes. The exhaustion in them vanished completely, replaced by a merchant's shrewdness.

Among the basic medicinal ingredients Gu Ni had given him, there happened to be Ironwood Root.

He rolled off the bed and walked to the table, poured himself a cup of cold water, and gulped it down. The icy sensation flowed down his throat into his stomach, clearing his mind considerably.

As long as he could refine a batch of Beast Power Pills and put them into the auction house to test the market, he would have his first pot of gold.

But before that...

Lu Heng glanced out the window. The sky had already darkened.

He went to the door and checked whether the bolt was secured, then drew the curtains.

Only after doing all this did Lu Heng return to the bed and sit cross-legged again.

"I won't sleep tonight."

Since he lacked Dou Qi, he would cultivate.

The circulation route of the Dou Practitioner Chapter of the Five Spirits Chaos Art clearly emerged in his mind.

If the Azure Wood Chapter merely drew Qi into the body, then the Dou Practitioner Chapter was truly the first glimpse of the path. It required the cultivator to construct a small heavenly cycle of wood and fire within the body.

The Five Elements generated one another; wood generated fire.

Lu Heng closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his dantian.

At the center of that somewhat thin whirlpool, a strand of red Dou Qi and a strand of azure Dou Qi intertwined, yet did not merge.

As the surrounding spiritual energy flowed endlessly into Lu Heng's body, the Dou Qi Whirlpool began rotating faster.

As time passed, a faint red glow began to spread across Lu Heng's body, and the temperature around him rose with it.