Medicinal Materials Repository

As the place where the Inner Academy stored its precious medicinal ingredients, the Medicinal Materials Repository was heavily guarded. Not only was there a Dou Wang-level elder stationed there year-round, but over a dozen instructors also patrolled it around the clock.

Ordinary students were forbidden from entering such an area. Fortunately, although Xiao Yun had entered the Inner Academy through the selection tournament, he was fundamentally still a student of the Alchemy Department, so he was qualified to exchange for the medicinal ingredients he needed here.

Dressed in an alchemist's robes, with exquisite patterns embroidered across his chest and three silver ripples gleaming upon them, Xiao Yun was not driven away when a patrolling instructor stopped him. After confirming his identity, the instructor instead brought him before the Dou Wang stationed at the Medicinal Materials Repository.

"Hehe, you must be Old Fire's disciple, Xiao Yun?" An old man reclined in a chair, flipping through an ancient book in his hands. Upon hearing that an alchemist had come to borrow medicinal ingredients, he instructed the instructor to bring him in. The moment he saw Xiao Yun's childlike appearance beneath the robes of a Third-Tier Alchemist, he guessed Xiao Yun's identity.

After all, there were many alchemists in the Inner Academy, and plenty of children as well, but there was only one child alchemist in the entire Inner Academy: Xiao Yun.

The old man waved the instructor away, then said with a smile, "My surname is Hao. You may call me Elder Hao. Xiao Yun, tell me, what medicinal ingredients have you come to exchange for? For the sake of my friendship with Old Fire, I'll give you a ten percent discount."

"Thank you, Elder Hao." Xiao Yun bowed to Elder Hao and said with a smile, "I've come mainly because I wish to refine some pills that can accelerate cultivation, such as the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill. However, I currently have no ingredients on hand, so I came to the Medicinal Materials Repository to see whether I could find some."

"Oh? The Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill is a Fourth-Tier Peak Pill. You're already confident in refining it?" Elder Hao's face was full of shock. He saw only three ripples on Xiao Yun's alchemist robes, so how could he already be setting his sights on the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill?

"I know. I only have a thirty percent chance of refining it, but I've already broken through to a Nine-Star Da Dou Shi. If I don't take it now, I'm afraid I won't have much opportunity to do so later. Besides, even if I fail, it doesn't matter. I'll just treat it as practice."

"...Practice, huh? You really are rich. Then again, those pills you've been making to remove Fire Poison have earned you a fortune, so you're not short on Fire Energy." Elder Hao nodded, recalling that the Xiao Yun before him was a little business genius. "Wait, didn't Old Fire prepare pills for you?"

He suddenly remembered Xiao Yun's teacher. Fire Elder was a Fifth-Tier Peak Alchemist, yet he had not prepared a pill like the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill to raise Xiao Yun's strength?

"Uh, perhaps Teacher didn't expect my strength to advance so quickly, so he didn't prepare any?"

Xiao Yun smiled awkwardly. In truth, Fire Elder had intended to refine some for him, but Xiao Yun had obtained several Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pills while he was with the Law Enforcement Team. Once Fire Elder learned of that, he stopped preparing pills for him.

"Mm, that's possible. Your cultivation really has advanced quickly." Stroking his grizzled beard, Elder Hao casually tossed him a snow-white object and said with a smile, "This is the token for the repository's rare medicinal ingredients. Go in and look for what you need yourself. Just register what you take when you come out."

Xiao Yun hurriedly caught the white object. With a glance, he saw that it was a token carved entirely from white jade. All kinds of lifelike herbs were engraved upon it, and a faint medicinal fragrance even seemed to seep from within.

This token is a fine treasure too. I wonder what kind of jade it was made from. It's extremely suitable for preserving the vitality of medicinal ingredients. Too bad I can't just take it.

Smelling the medicinal fragrance, Xiao Yun clicked his tongue inwardly. He did not linger, instead turning and heading toward the rooms inside where the medicinal ingredients were stored.

When he reached the room, Xiao Yun pushed open the door. Behind it was a pitch-black passageway, with only a faint light emanating from its end.

Xiao Yun walked straight toward it. A faint energy barrier covered the way, and after looking around, he spotted a recess in the wall that was exactly the same size as the token. He stepped forward and placed the jade token into it.

As the token made contact, the light on the energy barrier before him gradually faded. A moment later, the passageway fell completely dark.

Whoosh!

A small cluster of flame emerged from Xiao Yun's fingertip. By its light, he retrieved the jade token, pushed open the wooden door behind the energy barrier, and entered the repository filled with rare medicinal ingredients.

Beyond the wooden door was a spacious chamber bathed in a faint glow. Extinguishing the flame in his hand, Xiao Yun slowly walked in. His gaze swept across the room, and amazement gradually appeared on his face.

The walls of the entire room were covered in a layer of white jade, and even the floor beneath his feet was no exception. He had just been thinking that this white jade could be made into jade boxes to preserve medicinal ingredients, yet the Inner Academy had actually used it to build an entire medicinal repository!

The room's layout resembled the convenience stores from his previous life, with several aisles and goods lining both sides. The difference was that the goods here were precious medicinal ingredients, and the shelves displaying them were also made entirely from white jade.

"What an extravagant display. My horizons really are too narrow." Xiao Yun was stunned, like a country bumpkin entering a city for the first time, finding everything novel.

"Dragon Whisker Grass, Golden Thunder Flower, Soulheart Grass, Greenwood Vine..."

He casually entered an aisle, his eyes constantly sweeping over the ingredients on both sides. The shock on Xiao Yun's face grew ever stronger. The medicinal ingredients he had seen so far were all at least fifth-tier, and some had even reached seventh-tier or higher.

His throat bobbed as Xiao Yun swallowed hard. The medicinal ingredients here were simply too tempting. If he could sweep them all away, then...

"Forget it. I'd still like to live a few more years."

He tried hard to set his mindset straight, took a deep breath, and forced himself not to look at those precious medicinal ingredients. Instead, he began searching for what he needed.

He was like a robber who had entered a bank vault. The only difference was that a robber could take as much as he wanted, while Xiao Yun could only stare.

The Medicinal Materials Repository was divided into several sections that stored ingredients of different grades. The area Xiao Yun had just examined held high-tier ingredients, but after turning into the low-tier ingredient section, he quickly found some of the ingredients he needed.

"Purple Spirit Flower, Purple Spirit Flower, come out already."

After nearly ten minutes, Xiao Yun had found every other ingredient except the Purple Spirit Flower. The Purple Spirit Flower was a fourth-tier medicinal ingredient and the key to refining the Purple Heart Barrier-Breaking Pill. Without it, the pill simply could not be refined.

Xiao Yun passed through aisle after aisle, thoroughly searching for the medicinal ingredient he needed, but even after searching several times, he still did not see a Purple Spirit Flower.

"Huh, could there really be none here? That shouldn't be possible." Xiao Yun stopped and pondered. The Purple Spirit Flower was not some high-tier ingredient, and it was fairly common as well. By all reason, the Inner Academy's medicinal repository should have some.

"Could it be outside? Forget it, I'll go ask Elder Hao."

There was no point continuing to search like this. Even if the repository truly did not have one, Xiao Yun could place a bounty for Purple Spirit Flowers throughout the Inner Academy. He refused to believe that the entire Inner Academy had none.

"Kid, what are you doing here? Are you here to get medicinal ingredients too, like me?"

Just as Xiao Yun was pondering and turned to leave the medicinal repository, a crisp, childish voice suddenly sounded behind him.