Compendium of Beginner Alchemists (Grades 1-2)

A moment later, Ya Fei returned to the central platform.

The spotlight fell on her again, illuminating every delicate detail of her bewitching, captivating face.

That tantalizing smile still hung on her face, as if the interruption just now had been nothing more than an ordinary break.

"Hehe, everyone, Ya Fei paused the auction just now because the auction house received a new item."

Her voice was neither too loud nor too soft, carrying perfectly throughout the venue. "I believe everyone will be interested."

With a wave of her jade-like hand, an attendant hurriedly carried a jade tray onto the stage.

Dark red velvet covered the tray, and four small white jade bottles lay neatly arranged upon it.

The bottles were white as snow, gleaming softly under the lights. One glance was enough to tell that their contents were no ordinary items.

Ya Fei carefully picked up one of the white jade bottles and held it beneath the light.

Her fingers were long and fair, her nails painted a pale red. They complemented the jade bottle beautifully, forming a picture-like scene.

"This is—a Second-Rank medicinal pill."

As her sultry voice fell, the entire auction house went quietly still.

It was not dead silence, but the calm before a storm—everyone held their breath, and every gaze focused on the white jade bottle in Ya Fei's hand.

A moment later, a clamor erupted, like a pot of boiling porridge bubbling violently over.

Some widened their eyes, some craned their necks, some rose from their seats, and some began whispering among themselves. Discussions, exclamations, and doubts blended together, filling the entire hall with a buzzing hum.

No one could blame them for reacting so strongly.

On the Dou Qi Continent, the most sought-after things were not Dou Skills, cultivation methods, Magic Cores, or weapons—but the various medicinal pills refined by Alchemists.

A single pill could save your life at a critical moment.

A single pill could help you break through a bottleneck that had trapped you for years; a single pill could turn a mediocre person into a genius.

Medicinal pills were the hardest currency in this world.

And in a place like Wutan City, a Second-Rank medicinal pill already counted as a rare treasure.

Normally, if the Miter Auction House received even one or two bottles of Second-Rank medicinal pills, the three great Lineages would fight fiercely over them.

Today, four bottles had appeared at once. If word got out, even people from nearby cities would likely come rushing over.

"This item is called Foundation-Building Elixir. It is only effective on those below the Dou Practitioner level."

Ya Fei's voice was like a soft ribbon brushing gently past everyone's ears. "Using this elixir to soak one's body while cultivating can increase the cultivation speed of those below the Dou Practitioner level."

She paused, her red lips parting slightly as she spoke the words that sent the entire venue into a frenzy.

"Hehe, if you want your descendants to become young geniuses, then don't miss this opportunity."

Her sweet, seductive voice drifted through the air, making everyone's bones tingle. Yet this time, it was not just Ya Fei's charm that made them tingle, but the words "Foundation-Building Elixir."

It could increase the cultivation speed of Dou Zhi Qi?

The crowd immediately exploded into an uproar.

"Foundation-Building Elixir? It can actually increase the cultivation speed of Dou Zhi Qi? Miss Ya Fei, people at that stage can hardly withstand the impact of medicinal pills, can they?"

A middle-aged man with a goatee stood up, obvious doubt written across his face.

His question struck at the heart of the matter. It was also the shared concern in everyone's minds.

At the Dou Zhi Qi stage, one's meridians were as fragile as an infant's and could not withstand any violent external force.

This was an ironclad rule in the cultivation world, a consensus bought with the bloody lessons of countless people.

Anything claiming that it could increase Dou Zhi Qi cultivation speed was either a scam or a death sentence in the eyes of cultivators.

Doubts rose from every direction, yet Ya Fei's smile did not change in the slightest. She seemed to have anticipated this reaction long ago as she spoke calmly and confidently.

"Hehe, this elixir was personally appraised by Master Gu Ni of our auction house. It is a Second-Rank item of superior quality, with gentle medicinal effects. It will absolutely not harm the user's meridians. Everyone may rest assured."

Master Gu Ni.

Those four words were like a massive stone cast into a lake, and the ripples they stirred swiftly smoothed over every doubt.

Everyone knew that Master Gu Ni was a Second-Rank Alchemist, the most skilled alchemist in all of Wutan City.

His words were authority itself, a golden seal of approval.

Even the patriarchs of the three great Lineages had to treat him politely. Who would dare question his appraisal?

The noise in the hall immediately quieted. In its place came another kind of sound—the pounding of greedy hearts, the turning of calculating gears, the faint hum of weighing gains against losses.

"Hehe, the starting price for the elixir is eight thousand gold coins. Everyone, please begin bidding."

Ya Fei smiled as her gaze swept across the hall before finally settling on the patriarchs of the three great Lineages seated at the front.

A trace of shrewdness flashed through her eyes—she knew that these three were the true protagonists of this contest. Everyone else was merely supporting cast.

"Eight thousand five!"

"Nine thousand!"

"Nine thousand five!"

Bids rang out one after another as the price rose steadily.

Inside a private room on the second floor.

Xiao Yan sat in a soft chair, one arm casually draped around Xiao Xun'er's shoulders.

The girl leaned against his side, her dark eyes half-open and half-closed like a lazy cat basking in the comfort of afternoon sunlight.

The noise outside drifted in faintly through the thick walls and curtains, distant and unreal, like sounds from another world.

Xiao Yan's gaze fell upon the four white jade bottles before shifting to Ya Fei, watching her effortlessly control the rhythm of the entire auction from the stage.

This woman truly was formidable—not the kind of formidable that people could see through at a glance, but the kind that quietly emptied your pockets before you even realized it.

There was no expression on his face.

It was not because he did not care, but because what he cared about was not here.

A cold mechanical voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

[ Ding, detected that the host has intercepted Xiao Yan's opportunity: Foundation-Building Elixir. ]

[ Reward obtained: Beginner Alchemist Compendium (Ranks One to Two). ]

As the prompt ended, an enormous torrent of information surged into Xiao Yan's mind like floodwaters bursting through a dam.

It did not flow in gradually. It all flooded in at once.

All the knowledge required of a First-Rank to Second-Rank Alchemist, thousands of different pill formulas, hundreds of alchemy techniques, herb identification, medicinal property combinations, fire control, impurity separation techniques, standards for judging completed pills—every piece of information was like a key, opening one tightly shut door after another within Xiao Yan's mind.

The torrent of information was astonishingly vast. An ordinary person would likely have been left dizzy and disoriented, their soul shaken by this deluge.

Yet Xiao Yan merely closed his eyes slightly before steadily receiving it all.

His Soul Power was already like a bottomless lake. When this torrent poured into it, it did not create much turbulence. Instead, the water level of that lake rose slightly.

His Soul Power had actually improved under the impact of the information torrent.

Xiao Yan's breathing did not change, his heartbeat did not quicken, and his expression remained completely still.

He maintained the same posture, one arm around Xiao Xun'er as he calmly watched the auction below, as though nothing had happened.

But inwardly, he was bursting with delight.

The Beginner Alchemist Compendium—this reward was far more valuable than he had imagined.

The Alchemist Compendium was not merely a collection of pill formulas.

It contained all knowledge from the First Rank to the Second Rank—pill formulas were only a small part of it. More important were those alchemy techniques.

The status of techniques in alchemy was no less important than the status of Dou Skills in battle.

With the same ingredients and the same pill formula, different techniques could produce vastly different success rates, quality, and medicinal effects.

A good technique could allow a First-Rank Alchemist to refine pills close to the Second Rank; a poor technique could leave even a Second-Rank Alchemist unable to produce a First-Rank pill.

And what the system had given him was a "Compendium"—which meant that every pill formula, every technique, and every skill within the First to Second Rank stages was all here.

He did not need to search everywhere for pill formulas, secretly learn from others, or beg people for guidance.

The system had given him all of it at once.

But that was not what pleased him the most.

What pleased him most was that, while transmitting the information, the system had also included an explanation—Martial Dao Space could also be used to simulate alchemy and improve alchemy proficiency.

That piece of information was the true treasure.

For an ordinary Alchemist to advance from the First Rank to the Second Rank required daily practice and years of accumulated experience.

Take Lin Fei from Black Rock City in the original work. Her teacher was Otto, a Third-Rank Alchemist. She had guidance from a famous teacher, an ample supply of herbs, and a relatively complete alchemy system.

Even so, it had taken her a full three years to grow from an Alchemist Apprentice into a First-Rank Alchemist.

Three years.

But Xiao Yan did not need that long.

Time did not pass inside Martial Dao Space.

He could practice inside the space for ten years, even eight years, while only an instant passed outside.

As long as he had enough energy—Magic Cores—he could repeatedly practice alchemy in Martial Dao Space. It did not matter how many times he failed or how many herbs he wasted, because the losses inside the space would not carry over into reality.

He could travel in just a few days a path that other Alchemists needed years, or even more than a decade, to complete.

Just as Xiao Yan was immersed in the lingering joy of the system reward, the bidding on the central platform below had already reached a fever pitch.

"Twenty thousand gold coins!"

Someone in the crowd called out the number, like a stone thrown into a lake, stirring faint ripples across the surface.

Yet before those ripples could spread, they were drowned out by a new bid.

The price of the Foundation-Building Elixir climbed rapidly—from the starting price of eight thousand gold coins, to ten thousand, then fifteen thousand, and then twenty thousand. It rose so quickly that representatives of the smaller Lineages, who had originally been eager to bid, all shrank back.

Their hands were still in the air, not yet raised completely, when the price had already been pushed beyond their reach.

After breaking through the twenty-thousand-gold-coin mark, the pace finally slowed.

It was not because the Foundation-Building Elixir was unimportant.

On the contrary, every bidder present with children or younger descendants clearly understood the value of this bottle of elixir.

Increasing cultivation speed at the Dou Zhi Qi stage without side effects meant that their children could gain an advantage right from the starting line, break through to Dou Practitioner earlier, and enter higher levels of cultivation sooner.

One step ahead meant every step ahead. Everyone understood that principle.

In a sense, what Foundation-Building Elixir increased was not cultivation speed, but the upper limit of a child's future.

Someone who broke through to Dou Practitioner at eighteen and someone who did so at fifteen were destined to follow different paths in life.

The former might spend an entire lifetime circling around the Dou Practitioner and Dou Master levels, while the latter could hope to challenge the Great Dou Master, Dou Spirit, or even higher realms.

How could such a thing possibly be unimportant?

Then why had the auction slowed down?

It was not because they lacked money.

Wutan City was small, but who among those seated in the front rows of the Miter Auction House was not wealthy?

They could still afford several tens of thousands of gold coins.

What truly made them hesitate was another question—how effective was this elixir, exactly?

No one had used it.

This item had never appeared in Wutan City. No one had personally seen its effects, and no one could pound their chest and say, "I've used it. It really works."

All the bidders had to go on were Ya Fei's words and Master Gu Ni's appraisal.

But the appraisal could only prove that this medicinal pill was Second Rank, that its medicinal effects were gentle, and that it would not harm the meridians—it could not prove how much cultivation speed it could increase, whether the increase was great or small, how long the effect lasted, or whether there were any hidden side effects.

All of those were unknowns.

Spend twenty thousand gold coins on something with unknown effects? No one present was a fool.

They could grit their teeth and accept spending a few thousand gold coins to lavish money on Ya Fei for a smile, buying some worthless item just to please a beauty.

But this was several tens of thousands of gold coins—an amount that was not small for any Lineage. Taking it out to buy a bottle of elixir with unclear effects carried too much risk.

They needed a period of verification.

Once the first people to buy the elixir saw its effects, once the facts proved that it was truly worth the price, then even if its price doubled, it would not be a problem.

But before that, no one wanted to be the first to take the risk.

Xiao Yan watched the scene from above, his face expressionless.

This was within his expectations.

An elixir like Foundation-Building Elixir had never appeared in a small place like Wutan City.

People were naturally suspicious of unfamiliar things—an instinct carved into their bones, unrelated to whether they were clever or not.

Their hesitation, caution, and retreat were all normal reactions.

Once the first batch of elixir was bought and taken home, once their children genuinely increased their cultivation speed with the help of Foundation-Building Elixir, and once the news spread—only then would its value truly be recognized.

If it was auctioned again at that time, its price would only be higher than it was now, never lower.

For now, this was merely a warm-up.

"Twenty-five thousand gold coins!"

The price of the first bottle of Foundation-Building Elixir finally stopped at the bid of a portly middle-aged merchant.

"Twenty-five thousand gold coins, going once!"

Ya Fei raised the small wooden hammer in her hand and lightly struck the bronze bell before her.

With a clear clang, the bell rang through the auction house like a heavy hammer striking everyone's hearts.

"Twenty-five thousand gold coins, going twice!"

No one answered. Ya Fei's eyes swept across the crowd. The faces that had been eager to bid moments ago now lowered their gazes or turned elsewhere.

That seductive smile remained at the corner of her lips, but deep in her eyes was a trace of anxiety that was difficult to detect.

Ordinary Second-Rank medicinal elixirs could fetch at most around thirty thousand gold coins on the market. The current price was still far below Ya Fei's expectations.