Book One: Days in the Shantytown - An Unexpected Batch of Pills

Xiao Xiangzi took the money and threw himself into the job. Young Master Du of Ningyao Mountain really did have a name that needed no boasting. Before long, a metal block glowing blue and red sat before Luo Qian. It looked a little like an "X-box." Luo Qian studied it and asked doubtfully, "That's it?" Du Lengning said, "That's right. Try it." Xiao Xiangzi caught his skeptical look and bristled. "That method you told me about was only an idea. It had flaws everywhere, and I corrected them one by one. I even made you a metal casing for free. What else are you unhappy with? If not for Young Master Du's sake, I'd charge you at least ten million standard Immortal Jade for this."

Luo Qian curled his lip. You paid only thirty million standard Immortal Jade for a plot of land on Ningyao Mountain, yet you'd charge ten million to make a box the size of my palm? Why aren't artifact makers on the Immortal Realm's list of the most outrageously profitable trades? If he had been capable of doing the work himself, he might have considered changing careers.

"Insert one standard Immortal Jade here. It'll provide a steady current for three days." Xiao Xiangzi tipped his nose toward the sky and looked down at him, as though speaking to him were a chore. Luo Qian did not make a fuss. You don't want to deal with me? I don't want to deal with a ghost like you either. This is business, pure and simple. If it weren't for the Immortal Jade, Grandpa Luo would take one look at your ghostly aura and walk the other way.

Click. Luo Qian inserted a standard Immortal Jade as instructed. Sure enough, blue electrical light rippled over the box, and a thread of current leaped between its two metal rods. With a sizzling snap, it made both his hands jerk.

Du Lengning broke into a delighted grin. "Ha! It worked!" Luo Qian waved a hand, tucked the box away, and said, "I'm going back to test it." He looked calm, but excitement surged inside him. Without even stopping to say goodbye to Xiao Xiangzi, he hurried off. Du Lengning tossed out a word of thanks and rushed after him. "Old Luo, wait for me..."

In Luo Qian's cave dwelling on Toad Mountain, his only electrical appliances were the Laptop he could not return, the rice cooker he had never managed to sell, and his Massage Chair.

The Massage Chair was Luo Qian's secret, and he did not want Du Lengning to know about it yet. Besides, testing the box on it would be a waste. He had gone to such trouble to bring it into the Immortal Realm. What if the current proved unstable and burned it out? Of the three appliances, the only sensible choice was the Rice Cooker.

Luo Qian carefully dismantled the Rice Cooker's plug and wound its two wires around the box's metal rods. A beep sounded, and the red light on the Rice Cooker came on. Luo Qian brightened. "Ha!" Beside him, Du Lengning clapped him hard on the shoulder. "Brother, we're going to be rich!"

Luo Qian's eyes flicked toward him. "Young Master Du, didn't you say you were only helping and wanted nothing to do with this?" Du Lengning gave an embarrassed laugh and played dumb. "Did I say that? How come I don't remember? Heh..." With profits practically rolling toward him, even a famously wealthy young master of the Immortal Realm could not help being tempted. Luo Qian had been in this line of work for years without being caught by the Immortal Apprehension Office. It was dangerous, yes, but he had managed it steadily enough. Du Lengning could not resist joining in.

"All right, Young Master Du. Since you think so highly of me, we'll do this shoulder to shoulder. But from now on, you and I are grasshoppers tied to the same rope!" Luo Qian held out his hand. Du Lengning hesitated, glanced at the box, and finally yielded to temptation. He clasped Luo Qian's hand to seal their pact. Luo Qian's little one-man workshop had finally grown into a criminal outfit, though the outfit still had only the bare minimum of members.

"Old Luo, hurry up and try it!" Du Lengning could hardly wait. After a moment's thought, Luo Qian brought out some Jade Ying Rice from his office. Immortals had to eat too. The tales about them eating no grain merely meant they did not eat ordinary grain. Jade Ying Rice was widely grown in the Immortal Realm, and every grain brimmed with Immortal Spirit Energy. Eaten regularly, its benefits to cultivation accumulated day by day.

Luo Qian poured the grains of Jade Ying Rice, each as lustrous as green jade, into the Rice Cooker and scratched his head. "Wait here. I'll fetch some water." Toad Mountain had only one spring, a trickle no thicker than a stream of ox urine, down in a deep valley behind the mountain. Luo Qian returned shortly with a bucket of water. He found the Rice Cooker's instruction manual, filled it to the marked line, and closed the lid. The green light came on.

"Beep, beep, beep..." Steam billowed out, and a delicate fragrance curled through the cave dwelling. Du Lengning drew a deep breath and swallowed. "That smells wonderful. I never knew the cheapest Jade Ying Rice could make such fragrant food." Jade Ying Rice was indeed the cheapest immortal rice in the Immortal Realm. As the young master of Distant Hall, Du Lengning normally ate nothing below Cloud Ying Rice, which stood two grades higher.

The Immortal Realm's cooking was far inferior to the Mortal Realm's. China might be called a kingdom of fine food, but how many people who ascended had time to indulge their appetites when their minds were fixed on cultivation? If eating grain rich in Immortal Spirit Energy did not aid cultivation, perhaps no one in the Immortal Realm would grow it at all.

When it came time to eat, most immortals simply blasted the grain with immortal fire until it was cooked, then swallowed it without much care. Families like Du Lengning's had dedicated cooks, but even the Immortal Realm's cooks were far less skilled than those in the Mortal Realm. Any immortal with ambition was busy cultivating. Who would become a cook?

"Old Luo, why isn't it ready yet?" The aroma had Du Lengning's stomach growling, but half a day had passed, and the Rice Cooker's indicator stubbornly remained green: it was still cooking.

Streaks of blue lightning darted over the Rice Cooker. At this point, it looked less like an electrical appliance and more like a cauldron refining Elixirs. Its ingredients came from the Immortal Realm, as did the lightning that powered it. Only the vessel doing the cooking came from the Mortal Realm.

Du Lengning grew hungrier by the moment, while the Rice Cooker continued its unhurried work without ever finishing. He looked helplessly at Luo Qian. Luo Qian spread his hands. How was he supposed to know?

One day passed.

Two days passed.

Three days passed...

Just as Luo Qian was about to replace the standard Immortal Jade in the power box, the cooker gave a sudden beep. Its red light came on. Du Lengning nearly wept with relief. "Finally..."

Luo Qian meant to lunge forward and take the first bite. Truth be told, he was ravenous too. Whoever said immortals never got hungry had clearly never had delicious food sitting before them. But how could Luo Qian's pitiful first-rank Sky-Leaping Vault compare with Young Master Du's third-rank Drifting Duckweed Step? A dark blur crossed Luo Qian's vision, and Du Lengning had already opened the Rice Cooker.

Blue and red light flashed inside the pot, and a rich fragrance rushed out. Du Lengning froze. A drop of half-transparent liquid slipped unnoticed from the corner of his mouth...

"Old... Old Luo. We really are going to be rich..." Du Lengning stared in a daze. Luo Qian hurried over. "What, did it cook something incredible? Are you saying we should open a restaurant instead?" Their two heads crowded over the small Rice Cooker. When Luo Qian saw what was inside, he froze too. He reached in with two fingers, picked out a blue-green pill the size of a longan, and held it up to the light. "What is this?"

Du Lengning smacked him on the back of the neck. "Old Luo, it's an Immortal Pill. We refined Immortal Pills..."

As with artifact making, not every immortal could refine pills. Those who did not specialize in it had a low chance of success, and even when they produced a pill, it could not compare with the work of an expert. Artifact making and pill refining were two trades that brought in money in the Immortal Realm.

Luo Qian was overjoyed. "Really?" "My eyes work just fine. Of course it's real!" There were around ten blue-green Medicinal Pills in the Rice Cooker. Du Lengning snatched the one from Luo Qian's hand. "I'll take this to my uncle and have him appraise it. Then we'll know exactly how potent it is."

Du Lengning's uncle, Du Bo'an, was obsessed with pill refining. Years ago, he had left Distant Hall to establish himself independently, which was how the succession to Distant Hall had fallen to Du Lengning's father.

After years of painstaking research, Du Bo'an might not have been among the very best pill refiners in the Immortal Realm, but he could certainly rank in the top twenty.

"Good, good. Hurry back!" Neither of them had cultivated far enough to judge the pills' quality. Luo Qian urged him on, and Du Lengning shot away through the air.

"Uncle! Uncle..." Beneath Du Lengning stretched a vast sea of green. Giant trees formed a forest canopy that hid every inch of the ground. Du Lengning had no way through his uncle's Wild Wasteland Maze. Whenever he could not find Jiefang Alchemy Cottage, he shouted from the sky. If luck was with him, his uncle soon came out to fetch him. If his uncle happened to be refining pills, however, Du Lengning would get no answer after a dozen calls and have to slink home.

Today, luck favored him. After Du Lengning called twice, a funnel of blue light rose and swept him down into the Wild Wasteland Maze.

Thud. Du Lengning landed on his backside and complained, "Uncle, can't you find another way to bring me in?" Du Bo'an leafed through an old thread-bound book without lifting his eyes. "What have you come to me for this time, little rascal? Out of money again and here to steal my Spirit Pills to sell?"

Du Lengning had done exactly that plenty of times. Du Bo'an lived alone and had no children, and he doted on his nephew. Though he knew what Du Lengning got up to, he never punished him. Du Lengning grinned and presented the blue-green pill in both hands. "Uncle, take a look. What grade is this Elixir?"

Seeing how carefully Du Lengning held it, Du Bo'an frowned. "Du Lengning, if you need an Elixir, just come and ask me. You're treating this one like a treasure. Don't tell me you paid a fortune for it somewhere else. I hope you weren't cheated..." He picked up the pill between two fingers and studied it closely, then rubbed it firmly against his palm. He returned it to Du Lengning, brought both hands to his nose, and sniffed. "Not bad. A top-grade Spirit Pill."

As with Immortal Artifacts, not every Magical Artifact made by an Immortal reached the level of an Immortal Artifact, and not every Elixir an Immortal refined reached the level of an Immortal Pill. Elixirs had many ranks, including Spirit Pills, Treasure Pills, Immortal Pills, and Divine Pills. Each rank was further divided into lower, middle, and top grades.

"Really?" Du Lengning was delighted. Du Bo'an nodded. "Yes. It won't increase your cultivation, but it's quite good for replenishing spiritual power." Du Lengning asked, "So if someone's Immortal Aura is badly depleted, this Elixir can restore it quickly?" "That's right..."

What would happen if you suddenly ran out of strength at a critical moment in battle? What would be the consequences if your Immortal Aura gave out while you were making an artifact or refining pills?

Now there was no need to worry about any of that. This top-grade Spirit Pill could rapidly replenish Immortal Spirit Energy. It might not look especially valuable at its low rank, but in truth, it was an Elixir everyone needed. The market was enormous, and the prospects were bright!

Du Lengning somersaulted into the sky and called, "Thank you, Uncle! Next time, your nephew will bring you some good wine..." Du Bo'an shook his head. "Hmph. You say that every time. When have you ever followed through?"

Back in his cave dwelling on Toad Mountain, Luo Qian was testing the Immortal Artifact Power Generator. Xiao Xiangzi had said that one standard Immortal Jade could supply steady electricity for three days, but that was only an average. A Laptop used very little power, so one standard Immortal Jade could run it for a long time. By Luo Qian's estimate, it would last at least nine days. The Massage Chair, which drew much more power, might last only a day and a half. But who would leave a Massage Chair running for a day and a half straight? One standard Immortal Jade would still go a long way.

"Old Luo..." The call swept closer. Du Lengning burst in, flushed with excitement and carrying two enormous sacks on his back. "Old Luo, these are for you." He tossed the two cloth sacks, each taller than a man, at Luo Qian. Their weight knocked Luo Qian off balance. "What's in them?"

"Two hundred jin of Cloud Ying Rice and a hundred and fifty jin of Azure Sea Millet. I emptied Distant Hall's kitchen. Hurry up and refine more pills for me!" Du Lengning said eagerly. Luo Qian could only smile wryly, but Du Lengning's enthusiasm did not flag. "Old Luo, we've struck it rich! Do you know what these are? Top-grade Spirit Pills! In the Immortal Realm, one sells for a hundred standard Immortal Jade. Ha! We're rich..."

Rice was expensive in the Immortal Realm, but Jade Ying Rice of this quality cost only one standard Immortal Jade per jin. Luo Qian had refined ten top-grade Spirit Pills from three jin of rice. Including the one standard Immortal Jade consumed by the Power Generator, he had spent four standard Immortal Jade and gained pills worth a thousand standard Immortal Jade. It was an investment with a hundredfold return.

"Let's try better ingredients next," Du Lengning said. "Maybe we'll refine even better Medicinal Pills. Hahaha..." That was why he had emptied Distant Hall's kitchen.

(First, I offer my deepest apologies for the mix-up with Shi San's name... I imagine everyone who reached these lines spat out their food. Heh. Just picture Shi San slipping and landing flat on his back, and have a laugh at his expense.)

(As for updates, Shi San will try to post around noon and six in the evening. His daily target is six thousand characters. If he falls short, please don't take away his votes, all right? Writing a new book is one of the rare times he gets to rest. Heh. That sounds a little shameless, but never mind. It's hardly the first or second time Little San has been shameless...)

(Begging for votes through a flood of tears...)