New Uses for Exploiting System Bugs

Ten Thousand Immortal City, western district.

Inside the temporary cave abode where the spiritual energy was so thin it could almost be ignored, Zhao Hao turned that warm, white jade token over between his fingertips.

It was precisely the one that had fallen from that blue-skirted female cultivator.

The jade token felt smooth and fine in his hand, its quality extraordinary, and it was still wreathed in a faint medicinal fragrance that could soothe the mind.

Return it to its rightful owner?

He wasn't that eager to play the good Samaritan.

However, throwing it away outright would also be a pity. This thing might still be useful in the future.

The most pressing matter right now was how to survive in this immortal city.

Zhao Hao walked out of the cave abode and made half a circuit through the mixed crowd of fish and dragons in the immortal city. His ears were soon filled with every kind of clamor.

"Have you heard? The open selection for the Alchemy Grand Assembly starts in three days!"

"Nonsense, who doesn't know that? The reward for first place this time is a genuine Golden Core Formation Pill!"

The Alchemy Grand Assembly! The Golden Core Formation Pill!

Zhao Hao's steps abruptly halted.

A mad plan instantly took shape in his mind.

He immediately turned back, changed into the most ordinary gray dharma robe, put on the Bronze Mask that blocked probing, suppressed his aura firmly to the seventh level of Qi Refining, and headed straight into Ten Thousand Immortal City's largest intelligence trading center—All-Things Pavilion.

"I want to know all the information about this Alchemy Grand Assembly in the city." Zhao Hao spoke to a sleepy old man with a goatee behind the counter, his voice pressed somewhat hoarse.

The old man did not even lift his eyelids and lazily held out five fingers.

"Fifty spirit stones."

So damn black-hearted!

Zhao Hao cursed inwardly, but still counted out fifty spirit stones with an aching heart and pushed them over.

This was the little liquid capital he had left.

The old man swept the spirit stones away, and only then did he slowly hand over a jade slip.

Zhao Hao took the jade slip and probed into it with his divine sense. A vast amount of information immediately surged into his mind.

First, the Alchemy Grand Assembly was led by the Ten Thousand Immortal City Lord's Manor and jointly organized with several major merchant associations such as Hundred Treasures Pavilion and Spirit Medicine Pavilion. It was held once every ten years, inviting all alchemists of the Northern Lands to participate.

The grand assembly was divided into three rounds.

The first round was the open selection. It would begin in three days and last for three days. One could participate at any time in Ten Thousand Immortal Pavilion. Participants only needed to refine a first-tier pill of no lower than low-grade quality on the spot to pass.

The second round was the official competition. It began with first-tier supreme-grade pills, then advanced step by step upward, refining pill formulas for second-tier low-grade, middle-grade, and high-grade pills in sequence. The quality had to be at least low-grade, and anyone who successfully refined one low-grade pill could advance to the next round.

The third round was the creative competition. If more than three people remained after refining second-tier high-grade pills, high-grade pills, then an additional round would be required. The organizers would provide an incomplete pill formula and a corresponding pill, and the competitors would have to reverse-deduce the complete pill formula and successfully refine it. The final rankings would be decided according to pill quality.

And the reward for first place was astonishingly a genuine second-tier supreme-grade pill—the Golden Core Formation Pill!

The Golden Core Formation Pill could increase the success rate of a Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator breaking through the Golden Core bottleneck! Low-grade quality could increase it by twenty percent, while supreme-grade quality could increase it by a full fifty percent!

To any Foundation Establishment cultivator, this thing was a temptation that could not be refused.

No wonder the intelligence said that the top sects of both the righteous and demonic paths in the Northern Lands had sent their most outstanding alchemy prodigies to attend.

The path of immortality was nothing but struggle. If you didn't fight, what immortality were you even cultivating?

Zhao Hao left All-Things Pavilion. The confusion that had still lingered in his eyes before was now replaced by the resolute look of a starving wolf.

He plunged straight into Ten Thousand Immortal City's Hundred Treasures Pavilion and headed directly for the pill and equipment section.

One copy of Detailed Explanation of First-Tier Pills.

Ten portions each of the corresponding materials for the five most common first-tier pill formulas in Detailed Explanation of Pills.

One cheapest first-tier low-grade pill furnace.

He headed straight to Ten Thousand Immortal City's Hundred Treasures Pavilion and bought a copy of Detailed Explanation of First-Tier Pills, along with the corresponding materials for the five common pill formulas within it, as well as a first-tier low-grade pill furnace.

By the time he came out of Hundred Treasures Pavilion, the spirit stones in his storage pouch that he had seized from Jia Ren and the demonic cultivators of Ten Thousand Soul Hall had already hit bottom.

If this path did not work, he would not even be able to pay next month's rent for his cave abode. When the time came, he would become the first Foundation Establishment cultivator to be chased out of the immortal city with his tail between his legs.

After returning to the cave abode, Zhao Hao immediately activated its restrictions and spread all the things he had bought across the table.

He first opened the purchased Detailed Explanation of First-Tier Pills and discovered that the thick stack at the front was all about alchemy basics.

From identifying over a thousand kinds of spirit medicines and evaluating their medicinal properties, to the control techniques for various pill fires, only at the end were there a dozen or so common first-tier pill formulas.

Fortunately, a cultivator's memory was beyond what mortals could compare to. In less than half a quarter of an hour, he had memorized the alchemy basics from Detailed Explanation of First-Tier Pills.

Immediately afterward, he flipped to the end and found the simplest beginner pill for cultivators—the Inedia Pill.

Pill formula: Green Spirit Grass, Jade Dew Flower, Earth-Condensing Poria, Clear Spring Lotus Seed, Honey Marrow Dew.

All were common spirit medicines of one to two years' age.

Zhao Hao followed the diagrams in the book, drew over the weak earth fire that came with the cave abode, and then, according to the order in the book, tossed one portion of spirit medicines into the pill furnace one after another.

His divine sense probed inside, sensing the fusion and changes of the medicinal liquid within the furnace.

After an incense stick's worth of time.

With a muffled "pff," a pungent scorched smell sprayed out from the pill furnace's pill outlet.

The first furnace batch failed, as expected.

Zhao Hao was not discouraged. He opened the pill furnace and took a look. It was not empty inside; instead, six pills lay there, full of impurities and dull gray in color.

According to the alchemy classics, these were called ruined pills. Their quality was even lower than low-grade pills, and after swallowing them, the pill toxin would be greater than the pill's medicinal properties.

However, the instant he saw those ruined pills, that familiar pale golden screen suddenly appeared before his eyes!

[Alchemist: First Rank (Beginner 0/100)]

[Pill: Inedia Pill (Beginner 1/100)]

It worked!

Sure enough, just as he had thought, alchemy skills could also be entered onto the system panel!

He immediately grabbed a ruined pill and, with a thought, dragged it into the enhancement box.

[Main Item: Inedia Pill (Ruined Pill) enhance to (Low-grade)]

[Please insert consuming materials...]

Zhao Hao's heart shook, and he immediately began experimenting.

First, he put in one Low-grade Spirit Stone.

[Enhancement Success Rate: 100%]

As expected, spirit stones were omnipotent—capable of anything—but they were also what he lacked most right now!

He removed the spirit stone again, then selected one ruined pill and placed it into the materials slot.

[Enhancement Success Rate: 20%]

Just like enhancing other items, items of the same kind were the best "sacrifices."

But what surprised him was that he discovered the spiritual herbs used to refine Inedia Pills, such as Green Spirit Grass and Jade Dew Flower, could also be placed into the materials slot.

He selected one stalk of Green Spirit Grass.

[Enhancement Success Rate +10%]

Then he selected one Jade Dew Flower.

[Enhancement Success Rate +12%] Moreover, spiritual herbs used to refine other pills could not be used as enhancement materials.

Zhao Hao's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and even his breathing became hurried.

What did this mean?

This meant that as long as he had one finished pill, he could even reverse-engineer the complete pill formula by continuously trying different combinations of spiritual herbs!

Wasn't this a BUG tailor-made for the "Creative Competition" in the final round of the Alchemy Grand Assembly?

Without any further hesitation, he threw all five remaining ruined pills into the materials slot.

[Enhancement Success Rate: 100%]

"Confirm enhancement!"

Light flashed, and the six ruined pills disappeared.

In their place was a low-grade Inedia Pill, perfectly round throughout and giving off a faint fragrance.

Zhao Hao pinched the pill between his fingers and sensed that pure medicinal power, yet there was not much joy on his face.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze sweeping back and forth between the pill furnace, the pill, and the very few spiritual herb materials he had left.

One low-grade Inedia Pill sold for half a Low-grade Spirit Stone in the market.

And the material cost for that furnace batch of Inedia Pills just now had also been about half a spirit stone.

An incomparably bold plan, one that could let him quickly gain a firm foothold in Ten Thousand Immortal City, grew wildly in his heart.