Demon God Smithy

Zhou Cheng was not surprised when the other party asked about the Body Refining Pill; he had already guessed their intent.

"I only had that one Body Refining Pill last time," Zhou Cheng said, shaking his head.

Upon hearing this, Yan Wan could not hide her disappointment.

She was currently at the tenth level of Body Refining, and a top-grade Body Refining Pill was of great importance to her.

However, top-grade Body Refining Pills were truly rare; even the Four Seasons Apothecary struggled to acquire them.

Seeing her disappointed expression, Zhou Cheng said, "While I don't have the same kind of pill as last time, my subordinate recently refined a batch, and a few of them reached top-grade quality." He gestured toward Qin Meng, who was standing to the side.

Qin Meng broke into a cold sweat.

Since when did he know how to refine pills? He had no idea.

"Really!" A look of joy lit up Yan Wan's pretty face.

Zhou Cheng took out six Body Refining Pills.

These six pills were ones he had synthesized later using the Earth Cauldron. Although they were not Ancient Body Refining Pills, they were no different from the top-grade Body Refining Pills on the market.

Yan Wan looked at the six pills before her, suppressing her excitement, and asked Chen Zhiqu to appraise them.

The result of the appraisal was, of course, that they were top-grade Body Refining Pills.

At the market price of six hundred gold per top-grade pill, six would be three thousand six hundred gold, which converted to thirty-six thousand taels of silver.

The eighty-one types of medicinal herbs Zhou Cheng wanted to purchase cost over thirty-six thousand taels, so six ordinary top-grade Body Refining Pills were effectively traded for ten sets of materials for the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill.

The Nine-Orifice Golden Pill was a supreme spiritual pill that increased internal energy and possessed many other miraculous effects; even the Ancient Body Refining Pill was far inferior, let alone ordinary top-grade ones.

After receiving the eighty-one types of medicinal herbs, Zhou Cheng took his leave.

Before he departed, Yan Wan personally escorted him out of the apothecary, a smile on her face: "If Young Master Zhou's subordinate can refine more top-grade Body Refining Pills in the future, please sell them to my Four Seasons Apothecary. From now on, whenever Young Master Zhou comes to my Four Seasons Apothecary to purchase herbs, you will receive a ten percent discount."

"Very well," Zhou Cheng said with a smile.

He would certainly need to purchase more materials for the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill in the future, and he would simply use these ordinary top-grade Body Refining Pills to trade at the Four Seasons Apothecary when the time came.

Zhou Cheng left with Qin Meng and Lin Ru.

Yan Wan watched the figures of Zhou Cheng, Qin Meng, and the other man depart, standing still for a moment before turning back into the apothecary.

A short while later, Zhou Cheng returned to his courtyard.

"Congratulations to the Host for completing the mission."

"You have obtained two Nine-Orifice Golden Pills."

"You have obtained one Nine-Orifice Golden Pill recipe."

"Note: You can only consume one Nine-Orifice Golden Pill per day."

Zhou Cheng tried consuming one Nine-Orifice Golden Pill. Immediately, the medicinal power transformed into a torrent, surging into every corner of his body.

Under the constant impact of the pill's power, Zhou Cheng discovered that the cultivation speed of his Northern Dark Divine Technique was skyrocketing.

Originally, after a night of the Northern Dark Divine Technique automatically devouring the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, his progress at the first level of Qi Refining had reached 6, but under the impact of the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill, it instantly rose to 10.

"11."

"12."

"56."

Finally, it stopped at 56 on the first level of Qi Refining.

In other words, a single Nine-Orifice Golden Pill could instantly boost his first level of Qi Refining to the mid-stage.

If he consumed another one tomorrow, he would be able to break through to the second level of Qi Refining.

The medicinal power of this Nine-Orifice Golden Pill far exceeded Zhou Cheng's imagination.

Normally, the Northern Dark Divine Technique would automatically cultivate by devouring spiritual energy, increasing his progress by about 12 per day, meaning it would take eight days to break through to the second level. Now, however, he could break through in less than two days.

It was currently mid-July, and there were twelve days left until August. Before August, wouldn't he be able to break through to the fourth level of Qi Refining?

With more than two months left until October, perhaps he could reach the Innate Realm before then!

As for the end of the year, he should be able to break through to the fourth level of the Innate Realm or even higher.

Subsequently, Zhou Cheng discovered that after consuming the Nine-Orifice Golden Pill, his Black Tortoise Divine Body and Indestructible Vajra Divine Body had also been strengthened, each improving by 4.

"Young Master, the weapon-refining materials you wanted to acquire have all been collected," Qin Meng said as he entered to report.

Over the past few days, Zhou Cheng had asked the weapon-refining shops to help him acquire materials for forging low-grade spirit weapons.

Qin Meng delivered the materials to Zhou Cheng.

These materials were sufficient to forge two low-grade spirit weapons.

Zhou Cheng sorted the materials one by one and then placed them into the Earth Cauldron in order. The Earth Cauldron glowed, refining the materials into liquid one by one, removing impurities, and then beginning the fusion process.

Once the materials were liquefied, the fusion process was extremely complex, and the slightest carelessness could result in an explosion.

However, under the control of the Earth Cauldron, the fusion of materials was absolutely perfect.

Before long, a longsword and a broadsword, both at the low-grade spiritual weapon level, slowly flew out from the Earth Cauldron. Under the sunlight, the blades shimmered with a chilling radiance.

Zhou Cheng leaped up, grasped the longsword and broadsword, and swung them both. Instantly, Sword Qi and blade energy crisscrossed throughout the courtyard.

After testing the power of the longsword and broadsword, Zhou Cheng tossed them to Qin Meng, instructing him to take them to the Demon God Smithy to be sold, and to continue purchasing large quantities of materials for forging low-grade spiritual weapons.

Having just forged two low-grade spiritual weapons, the Earth Cauldron had leveled up by 1. Once another one hundred and ninety-eight were forged, the Earth Cauldron would be able to upgrade to a top-grade spiritual weapon.

Noon.

Zhou Wei returned from the morning court, his face etched with exhaustion.

"What's wrong?" Luo Shui handed him a cup of spiritual tea and asked with concern.

"It's all because of Grand Tutor Gao Fan." Zhou Wei rubbed his temples. "His grandson is dead, and for the past ten days, he's been acting like a madman, arresting people left and right. The doors of the Ministry of Justice are practically being trampled down."

After chatting for a while, Zhou Wei asked, "Where is Cheng'er?"

Luo Shui hesitated. "Cheng'er went out. Ever since Abbot Huineng returned to Shaolin, Cheng'er has been nowhere to be found every day, often heading out with those guards of his."

"I don't know where he recruited those guards. I had people look into it, but there's been no result."

Zhou Wei frowned. "Could they be spies sent by the Mongol Kingdom or the Southern Border Kingdom?"

Surrounding the Great Feng Dynasty were over a dozen nations, including the Mongol Kingdom and the Southern Border Kingdom. In recent years, these two had grown powerful and were eyeing the Great Feng Dynasty like tigers stalking their prey.

"I don't think so." Luo Shui shook her head. She recalled something and said, "Oh, that's right. Chang Qing mentioned that a shop called the Demon God Smithy is selling low-grade spiritual weapons. The highest bidder wins before six o'clock this afternoon. It's already the talk of the Capital City."

"What? Selling low-grade spiritual weapons!" Zhou Wei was startled.

Low-grade spiritual weapons were extremely rare in the Great Feng Dynasty; even the treasury of the Great Feng Imperial Palace held very few. Under normal circumstances, no one would be willing to sell such items.

Luo Shui nodded. "And I heard it's a sword and a blade—two of them! I had Chang Qing inquire about it. This Demon God Smithy has only been open for ten days or so. The strange thing is, there are no blacksmiths in the shop, only ten Qi Refining stage clerks selling the weapons."

"These clerks don't know who the shop owner is. Every day, a masked person arrives on time to deliver the weapons for them to sell. Furthermore, the clerks say these masked individuals are all guards of their boss, and they are very strong—likely all Xiantian Grandmasters."

Guards who are Xiantian Grandmasters? Zhou Wei was astonished.