What's So Bad About Being the Poorest? I Have a Girlfriend—Do They?

After returning from the Mittel Auction House, Gu Xia immediately threw himself into refining the Heavenly Fragrance Pill. Xun'er, meanwhile, continued her cultivation. She did not want to hold Gu Xia back. Though catching up to Gu Xia, who might already be at the Dou Ling level, was impossible, she did not want the distance between them to grow too vast. At the very least, getting a little closer to him would give her a little more sense of security...

"Hmm, I remember this thing being a fourth-grade pill. Although I'm a complete beginner, it shouldn't be a problem..."

Before beginning, Gu Xia cautiously reviewed the methods for refining third-grade pills once more. After confirming that there were no mistakes in his approach, he began refining the Heavenly Fragrance Pill...

In truth, Gu Xia was worrying for nothing. With his Emperor-tier soul power, refining a mere fourth-grade pill would be easy even with his feet. After all, it was only a fourth-grade pill. As long as Gu Xia could properly extract the herbal essences and ensure the recipe and medicinal properties were correct, he could directly condense them into a pill with his overwhelming soul power. There was no need for him to be as cautious as other alchemists, afraid that one wrong step would ruin all their previous effort...

Although Gu Xia had only recently taught himself alchemy, he had never failed once while refining pills from the first to third grade. That was the benefit of possessing powerful soul power. The only thing that dissatisfied Gu Xia was that extracting the essences took far too much time.

Every time he refined pills, he would sigh in frustration. But now, he was about to obtain his first Heavenly Flame. He only needed to wait a while longer...

Since this was Gu Xia's first attempt at refining a fourth-grade pill, he carefully followed every instruction in the pill formula. It might have been slower this way, but thanks to that, the refinement proceeded flawlessly.

Oh, almost forgot to mention it. Gu Xia's formula for the Heavenly Fragrance Pill had been tossed to him by Gu Cheng. It was merely one among a pile of strange pill formulas.

As for the Heavenly Fragrance Pill, to be honest, it was pretty damn useless... It had only one effect: it made the body reject all filth and permanently emit a fresh, faint fragrance. That was all...

When Gu Xia learned that such a formula existed, he wondered why his second granduncle, a dignified seven-star Dou Sheng and peak seventh-grade alchemist, possessed such a bizarre and useless formula. So he would not have to wash his hands before eating chicken legs? Or because he was afraid a furnace explosion would turn him black?

Although Gu Xia found it strange that such a practically useless pill was fourth-grade, it was perfect for giving to Xun'er as a gift. He could also use it to test his skill as an alchemist. Simply perfect!

"I wonder whether this Narcissus Orchid and Jade Muscle Bone Lotus can make the Heavenly Fragrance Pill produce the effect I'm imagining..."

As he spoke, Gu Xia tossed two herbs into the small white medicine cauldron. One was the Jade Muscle Bone Lotus, while the other was a common wild spiritual flower. Its floral scent was elegant and faint, and it had a slight refreshing effect. Thus, most households kept one in places that required calm focus and alertness, such as cultivation rooms...

Yet neither of those two herbs was recorded in the original formula for the Heavenly Fragrance Pill! In other words, Gu Xia had added them on his own initiative!

Of course, modifications were not meant to be made recklessly. Gu Xia was not mindlessly changing someone else's formula. He had decided to add these two herbs because of an accidental incident. Once, while cleaning medicinal dregs, he had accidentally treated the flowerpot containing a Narcissus Orchid in the alchemy room as the dregs pit and dumped it in...

Then something miraculous happened. The Narcissus Orchid, which had originally only been blooming with one flower, sprouted two more buds in a short time. Its fragrance also became richer, though its refreshing effect did not improve much.

But that remarkable phenomenon caught Gu Xia's attention. He remembered that the medicinal dregs he had dumped there were leftovers from when he had refined third-grade Beauty-Nourishing Pills... (Don't ask why he had such a bizarre formula as the Beauty-Nourishing Pill. Gu Cheng gave it to him...)

After eliminating and screening the possibilities one by one, he ultimately discovered that the petals of the Jade Muscle Bone Lotus could promote the evolution of the Narcissus Orchid...

After carrying out all sorts of physics, chemistry, and biology experiments, Gu Xia discovered that the Jade Muscle Bone Lotus and Narcissus Orchid could actually undergo symbiotic evolution! Although the time required for their evolution was absurdly long... that did not affect how well their medicinal properties fused. Moreover, after fusion, their properties became incredibly mild. It gave him the feeling that he could toss them into any formula and they would blend in perfectly, even if they were pretty damn useless...

Gu Xia had tried adding them to Qi-Nourishing Pills and later found a "friend" to test them on. The Qi-Nourishing Pill's effects had not improved much, but his "friend" really did become a little fairer! A muscular man nearly two meters tall had skin as pale and tender as a woman's!

Gu Xia had nearly burst out laughing on the spot. Later, that "friend" told him that the Qi-Nourishing Pill also had a long-lasting fragrance effect. For the past few days, he had been pale and fragrant, and even his farts smelled good! Whenever he went to the training grounds, which were filled with sweat stink, he was the flashiest one there. The man had not even arrived before his fragrance did, and he was also the most conspicuous. Among a crowd of big men tanned black and yellow by the sun stood a hulking chest-muscled man so pale he practically reflected light, as obvious as the gleaming white teeth of Black brothers when they smiled...

However, it only lasted for three days. Three days later, his unnamed "friend" returned to normal.

Still, that made Gu Xia realize the business potential of this thing! Wasn't it said that women's and children's money was the easiest to earn? But before he could put it into action, he got a girlfriend! Besides, the Jade Muscle Bone Lotus was indeed rather difficult to find, so his grand money-making plan was shelved...

But that did not stop Gu Xia from refining this improved version of the Heavenly Fragrance Pill. According to his speculation, if the pill could be successfully formed, the original medicinal properties of the Heavenly Fragrance Pill should stabilize the effects produced by the fusion of the Jade Muscle Bone Lotus and Narcissus Orchid, preserving them permanently...

Of course, the final result could only be known after testing. As for the test subject, Gu Xia already had an excellent candidate in mind. In any case, the priority now was to hurry up and refine the Heavenly Fragrance Pill. No matter how much he thought about it otherwise, it would be useless...

Time slowly passed, and in the blink of an eye, night arrived...

Xun'er had finished a day of cultivation and was preparing dinner for herself and Gu Xia. As her slender, graceful figure moved busily in and out, she truly carried the air of a virtuous wife and loving mother...

As for that bastard Gu Xia, he had finished refining all the Heavenly Fragrance Pills as early as evening. To his surprise, so-called fourth-grade pills were this easy to refine. It was absurdly simple. If extraction and purification had not consumed so much of his time, he estimated that refining a fourth-grade pill would not even take two hours...

Growing more excited the more he refined, Gu Xia continued trying slightly more difficult fourth-grade pills. Then he discovered that pills throughout the entire fourth-grade range were just as easy!

It gave him the illusion that he was capable again, but he ultimately calmed down. He did not attempt to refine fifth-grade pills. Never mind whether he could refine them—the main issue was that he had no spiritual herbs! After all, he was the poorest Dou Di in history. To refine fifth-grade pills, he would have to go out and rob someone first before he could afford the materials.

"Sigh, I'm probably the poorest Dou Di in history. No Heavenly Flame, no gold coins, not even spiritual herbs... What use is this damned handsome face? If Heaven could give me another chance, I'd rather exchange this ridiculous handsomeness for endless wealth!"

Just as Gu Xia was grumbling, Xun'er's sweet, slightly playful voice rang beside his ear...

"Brother Xia, dinner's ready~"

"Ah, coming!"

Gu Xia, who had been filled with righteous indignation just moments ago, instantly turned into a complete siscon...

"Ahem, Heaven, I was joking. I don't need another chance or anything. I'd better stay handsome. As for wealth, just give it to those who need it..."

After saying that, Gu Xia smugly flicked his beautiful hair and strode out of the alchemy room with high spirits...

Money? What was that? Gu "True Fragrance" Xia declared that girlfriends were the best!