Azure Cloud Market

At the same time, his alchemy skills advanced by leaps and bounds.

Starting from only knowing how to make Body Tempering Pills and Blood Qi Pills, he slowly explored and drew inferences about others from one instance.

Relying on his terrifying comprehension, Su Yun successively mastered three other types of first-grade pill recipes.

Qi Gathering Pills, Rejuvenation Pills, and Hemostasis Pills.

These were all basic pills that were daily necessities for cultivators and were consumed extremely quickly.

His approach to alchemy was simple and crude, focusing on high volume and cost-effectiveness.

He did not mess with fancy, rare pills, nor did he touch high-grade recipes that were difficult to refine.

He only chose first-grade pills with cheap medicinal materials, wide availability, simple refining processes, and stable markets.

The cheaper the medicinal materials, the better; the simpler the refining process, the faster they would sell.

In any case, with the Thousandfold Amplification, as long as the materials were in place, every furnace would produce top-quality pills.

While others produced four or five pills per furnace, he started at ten, each one of top-tier quality.

In ten days, he poured almost all of his one hundred medium-grade spirit stones into buying medicinal materials.

Large quantities of herbs, spirit flowers, and spirit grasses were continuously transported to the alchemy room.

He refined the five types of pills in rotation, the furnace fire burning day and night.

Only when the last spirit stone was spent and he could no longer afford even a shred of raw material did Su Yun finally stop refining.

In the alchemy room, rows of sealed jade bottles covered the floor.

Every bottle contained top-quality first-grade pills.

Crimson and round Body Tempering Pills, pearly-white and plump Blood Qi Pills, lustrous and translucent Qi Gathering Pills...

Each one was perfect in appearance, with clear pill patterns, pure medicinal power, and almost no pill toxins.

Looking at the storage bag full of top-quality pills, Su Yun couldn't help but curl his lips upward.

His eyes were filled with excitement.

These were all solid spirit stones.

This was all cold, hard cash.

As long as he sold them, he would become instantly wealthy.

However, after the excitement faded, a realistic problem immediately presented itself.

The pills were refined, but how would he sell them?

Hundreds of bottles of top-quality pills were simply too large a quantity.

Selling them one by one at a stall would be too slow and time-consuming.

Moreover, he absolutely could not sell them within the Azure Cloud Sect.

Inside the sect were all his fellow disciples, elders, and deacons.

For a newcomer who had joined less than a month ago to suddenly produce hundreds of bottles of top-quality pills—even a fool would know something was wrong.

His alchemy talent was too heaven-defying; his trump card would inevitably be exposed.

When that happened, everyone would be crazily curious about his secret.

The sect's upper echelons, other elders, and even outside forces would set their sights on him.

Trouble would come knocking one after another.

That was absolutely out of the question.

He had to keep a low profile.

He could not trade within the sect.

He needed to find a large buyer outside to offload them in one bulk transaction.

Su Yun wiped the smile from his face and began to calculate.

Where was the most suitable place to sell?

He planned to go out and find a cultivation market to clear out this entire batch of pills at once.

Over the next two days, Su Yun used the excuse of wandering around the sect to quietly inquire about information.

He scouted for where there might be trading markets where cultivators gathered nearby.

After several inquiries, he finally obtained accurate information.

Not far from Azure Cloud Mountain was the Azure Cloud Market.

It had flourished by relying on the Azure Cloud Sect and was the largest trading place for cultivators within a thousand miles.

The rogue cultivators and low-grade cultivators coming and going were endless.

Pills, magical artifacts, materials, monster beast cores, and technique jade slips—it had everything.

It was both a marketplace for cultivators to exchange supplies and an important contact point and tax revenue source for the Azure Cloud Sect.

Azure Cloud Market.

The entire market was hidden amidst rolling mountains and forests, with a concealment formation protecting its perimeter.

The formation suppressed auras and blocked out sound; ordinary mortals passing by from the outside would only see dense woods, completely unaware of the hidden world within the valley.

This was a major trading hub for cultivators that had flourished under the patronage of the Azure Cloud Sect, covering a vast area.

Only by circulating spiritual energy to trigger the formation's restrictions could a cultivator see the entrance to the market and step inside.

Those who frequented this place were mostly local rogue cultivators, scions of cultivation families, and many sect disciples who had come down from the mountains to trade.

It was a mixed bag of people, yet it remained orderly.

To avoid exposing his identity, Su Yun had made preparations well in advance.

He had practiced the most basic Disguise Technique beforehand, and by combining it with the Breath Concealment Art, he transformed himself into a sixty or seventy-year-old cultivator with graying hair and a gaunt face.

His frame was slightly hunched, his back stooped, and he had deliberately added aged wrinkles to his skin. He suppressed his aura until it was unremarkable, making him look like an ordinary, long-time rogue cultivator who had been struggling for years.

Donning a dusty, coarse, and worn robe, he no longer bore the slightest shadow of a young man.

With his disguise complete, Su Yun strolled slowly toward the outskirts of the market.

As he approached the seemingly ordinary forest in the distance, a layer of pale white light rippled slowly.

The previously invisible entrance to the valley appeared out of thin air.

He stepped inside.

Instantly, a wave of noise rushed toward him.

The market was bustling and filled with the roar of voices.

Streets crisscrossed in all directions, lined with rows of stalls and shops, with a constant stream of cultivators coming and going.

Su Yun swept his gaze quickly across his surroundings.

Most of the cultivators passing by were of low cultivation, generally around the third or fourth level of Qi Refining.

Fifth-level Qi Refining practitioners were rare, and those at the sixth level were few and far between.

Rogue cultivators lacked resources; without sect support or stable cultivation techniques, their progress was difficult and slow.

After stumbling along for decades, reaching the fourth level of Qi Refining was already considered quite an achievement.

They simply could not compare to the disciples of the Azure Cloud Sect.

And he, at this moment, was a solid sixth-level Qi Refining practitioner.

In this market filled with rogue cultivators, he could already be considered a minor expert with enough deterrent power.

Su Yun walked slowly along the main street.

Hawking cries rose and fell throughout the market, one after another.

"Fresh beast cores, selling at a low price!"

"Low-grade magic tools, sharp and durable, only thirty low-grade spirit stones!"

"Healing herbs, century-old hemostatic grass, bulk discounts available!"

"Cultivation technique jade slips, incomplete martial arts, clearing out cheap!"

The roadside stalls were diverse, selling everything imaginable.

Magic tools, pills, herbs, beast materials, jade slips, and miscellaneous spiritual materials.

All sorts of items were packed to the brim.

Su Yun looked left and right, his eyes filled with novelty.

He was just like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden.

Whether in his past life in modern society or his current life within the Azure Cloud Sect, he had never seen such a lively cultivator market.

Many of the spiritual materials, ores, and beast parts were things he was seeing for the first time.

After browsing half the street, Su Yun did not linger too long.

He stopped a passing vendor and asked in a low voice.

After some questioning, he quickly obtained the information he needed.

The largest place for pill trading in the Azure Cloud Market was a Pill Pavilion that specialized in buying and selling pills.

Not only did they sell pills to the public, but they also purchased various grades of pills at high prices—especially high-quality ones. With generous offers and a stable reputation, they were the recognized leader in the pill trade within the market.

Having obtained the location, Su Yun set off immediately.

Passing through two long, narrow, and bustling alleys, he avoided the crowded stalls, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.

An imposing three-story wooden pavilion appeared before his eyes.

The eaves were upturned, and the gilded plaque bore two large characters: Pill Pavilion.

The area in front of the building was spacious and tidy, with two Qi Refining stage six guard cultivators standing watch at the entrance.

To be able to secure such a large three-story pavilion in a marketplace as chaotic as this, complete with guards on duty, was enough to reveal the Pill Pavilion's foundation and strength.

In all likelihood, there was a major family or sect power backing them.

Su Yun pressed down on his gray cloth hat, feigning the appearance of an ordinary, elderly rogue cultivator, and walked slowly inside.