"I happened to discover it tucked inside a low-tier cultivation manual sold at a street stall while I was out sightseeing down the mountain," Chen Mu casually made up an explanation.
For him, this sort of thing was already a well-traveled road; he could do it effortlessly.
He took out paper and a brush, wrote down the pill formula, including precise ingredient quantities and details of heat control, and handed it to Chen Xiao.
"This..."
"Brother Xiao, there's no need to stand on ceremony with me." With his other hand, Chen Mu took Chen Xiao's hand and pressed the formula into it.
Giving the formula to Chen Xiao was the same as giving it to the Sun Family.
An insignificant pill formula could earn the goodwill of a top pill-making family, expand his connections, and add another trump card to his hand.
For Chen Mu, it offered a hundred benefits without a single drawback.
Besides, he also had that heaven-defying unlimited hundredfold rebate function.
[Ninth-Rank Beauty-Preserving Pill Formula successfully gifted! Hundredfold rebate triggered. Congratulations, host! You have received Longevity Pill Formula +1!]
Only +1?
Chen Mu could not help wondering why a hundredfold rebate had only returned one pill formula.
Even if it were a hundred identical formulas—a slapdash reward—surely it should have been Longevity Pill Formula +100?
Could I have already milked the system dry?
The very next second after that thought crossed Chen Mu's mind, something happened.
The system hurried to explain: [Host, the hundredfold rebate is randomized. The hundredfold increase can apply to quantity, but it can also apply to quality!]
[If you would prefer increases primarily in quantity, this system can remove the quality enhancement setting!]
Once he realized it had been a misunderstanding, Chen Mu told the system to leave things as they were. There was no need.
Afterward.
Chen Mu saw Sun Yu and Chen Xiao off.
After coming up the mountain, they had headed straight to Chen Mu's Qingyun Prefecture without visiting any of the other elders in the family.
Clearly, now that everything they had come to say and do was finished, it was time to visit those family elders...
"Sun Yu, Xiao, come by whenever you have time." Chen Mu waved and watched the two turn and walk away, then closed the courtyard gate and returned inside.
He lay down.
"Phew..." He exhaled. "Good thing they didn't see through me. Getting along with people really isn't easy."
If possible, he really wanted to find somewhere quiet and live in seclusion alone.
But when he considered his position, then the relatives around him...
He decisively shook his head and abandoned the idea.
That would only turn something simple into something more complicated.
He opened the system panel.
He quickly found the Lifespan Pill.
Chen Mu was very curious. Just how outrageous would the effects of a pill be if its quality was a hundred times greater than that of a ninth-rank formula?
"A Lifespan Pill can increase your lifespan by at least ten years after you take it?!"
Chen Mu had never imagined that this pill could actually extend a person's life!
Although raising one's cultivation could also increase one's lifespan, that only offered a few tens of thousands of years at most.
Pills were different. You could simply keep eating them, with no upper limit!
He studied it further.
A low-grade Lifespan Pill could add ten to thirty years to one's lifespan, a Middle-Grade Lifespan Pill could add a hundred years, a high-grade Lifespan Pill could add two hundred years, and a top-grade Lifespan Pill could add five hundred years.
A Veined Longevity Pill could add a thousand years!
Combined with One-Click Alchemy and the setting that let him freely choose a pill's grade...
Chen Mu had only one thing to say: absolutely heaven-defying!
Because as long as Chen Mu wanted to, he could easily build an immortal lineage!
If he succeeded, then what every cultivator in the Great Cang World pursued would no longer be the hollow word "immortality."
Instead, it would be: enter the Tianyuan Holy Land, and attain immortality!
True immortality! No longer something vague and elusive.
At that thought, Chen Mu decisively used the Sound Transmission Art to summon several elders from the Alchemy Room, along with Chen Xiang, the overseer of all the Tianyuan Holy Land's pill resources and its strongest Alchemist.
Beyond those roles, her closest relationship to Chen Mu was that of his third aunt.
He had originally wanted to summon Chen Tianlin, but his father was in seclusion, cut off from the outside world.
Chen Mu himself did not want to expend the effort and mental energy needed to build some immortal lineage.
Yet he understood very well that the stronger his lineage became, the more freely he could indulge himself and laze around like a salted fish.
So he decided to entrust this important task to his third aunt, Chen Xiang.
"Little Mu! Your aunt is here!"
Before long, the courtyard gate banged open, and a hearty voice reached his ears.
Chen Xiang strode straight in with several elders from the Alchemy Room.
"Third Aunt..."
Before he could finish, Chen Xiang spread her arms and pulled him into a tight embrace. "What a rare occasion! You actually sought me out yourself. Have you finally started missing your third aunt's pampering?"
"Third Aunt, I—I can't breathe..." Chen Mu struggled to lift his head.
"Sorry, sorry." Seeing that Chen Mu's face had turned bright red, Chen Xiang quickly released him and stepped back half a pace. "I got too excited."
The elders all had the same thought after watching them: the two were still as close as ever.
"So, Little Mu, why did you specifically ask me to come?" Jokes aside, Chen Xiang knew where to draw the line.
Otherwise, Chen Tianlin would never have entrusted her with the important responsibility of managing pill resources and overseeing all of Tianyuan's Alchemists.
"Actually, I happened to gain insight into a pill formula. I'd like to ask you and the elders to refine it as a cultivation resource for all Tianyuan disciples to claim according to their contributions," Chen Mu said, getting straight to the point.
There was a reason he claimed to have gained insight into the formula himself.
Primarily, throughout the Great Cang World's hundreds of millions of years of history, Lifespan Pills had never existed.
Gained insight into a pill formula?
They were stunned by the sheer breadth and strength of Chen Mu's talents!
"What kind of pill formula?" Chen Xiang asked the question on everyone's mind.
"The Lifespan Pill." Chen Mu took out the formula he had written beforehand and handed it to Chen Xiang.
"The Lifespan Pill?" Chen Xiang looked puzzled.
She accepted the formula and glanced at it, immediately overwhelmed by the astonishing contents on the page. Disbelief filled her expression.
"Yes, a pill that can extend one's lifespan without any side effects," Chen Mu explained.
"Extend one's lifespan?!"
"Young Master, surely you aren't joking with us?"
"I've been refining pills for nearly a thousand years, and I've never heard of a pill that can extend someone's lifespan!"
The old fellows finally lost their composure and clamored to ask their questions.
"I'm not joking. I can guarantee that every word I've said is true."
"Low-grade adds ten to thirty years, Middle-Grade a hundred years, high-grade two hundred years, top-grade five hundred years, and Pill Veins grade a thousand years."
Those few simple words stunned them into silence.
A single pill could add a thousand years to someone's lifespan!
They had never heard of or seen anything like it!
Even as they doubted it, they did not think Chen Mu was someone who would joke about such a thing.
They were conflicted, utterly conflicted.
They kept bouncing between belief and disbelief, wrestling with themselves.
"..." Chen Xiang, meanwhile, stared intently at the formula in her hands, deep in thought.
[These people actually dare to doubt the host! They look down on others through a dog's eyes! They don't know their own limits!]
The system sounded deeply displeased, its voice brimming with fury.
[Checking in...] [Check-in successful! Congratulations, host! You have received Veined Longevity Pill +10000!]
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