The Rogue Cultivator Alliance

According to Lin Dao's cultivation notes, alchemists had always suffered from low pill success rates. Aside from cauldron explosions caused by unstable fire control, another major reason was the large number of waste pills produced during refinement.

Although waste pills also contained spiritual energy, their toxicity was far greater. Taking them did cultivators more harm than good, hence the name.

There were many reasons waste pills formed, including a cultivator's proficiency, the strength of their Divine Sense, and their handling techniques.

One of Xu Yan's reasons for testing whether the Green Pearl could devour Poison Pills was to prepare for dealing with these waste pills.

Now, the prospects looked very promising. If it truly worked, it could greatly increase his pill success rate. Although waste pills certainly contained less spiritual energy than normal pills, a high success rate would still allow him to build a good reputation and earn Spirit Stones.

Watching the Snow Monkey leap about his cave abode, Xu Yan felt deeply gratified. To be safe, however, he kept the Snow Monkey inside, intending to observe it for a few more days.

Five days later, the Snow Monkey still showed no abnormalities. Its body had grown to over four feet in length, and it was brimming with wild vigor. Its limbs were sturdy and powerful, and the aura it exuded was already a match for that of tigers and leopards.

Seeing this, Xu Yan opened his cave abode and released the Snow Monkey. After giving him a lingering look, it leaped away and vanished into the swirling snow.

Inside the cave abode.

Xu Yan sat cross-legged and began preparing for his next move.

"If I want to earn Spirit Stones as an alchemist in Fufeng Commandery, my only option is the Rogue Cultivator Alliance."

Xu Yan murmured to himself as the information he had read about the Rogue Cultivator Alliance began surfacing in his mind.

The Rogue Cultivator Alliance was an alliance of forces in the Jade Radiance Kingdom independent of the Immortal Sects. It had branches in all seventy-two commanderies of the kingdom.

Rumor had it that the Rogue Cultivator Alliance had been founded by three rogue cultivators in the Nascent Soul Realm from the Jade Radiance Kingdom. One purpose behind its establishment was to counterbalance the influence of the Immortal Sects. At critical moments, they could gather rogue cultivators and bind them together like a single rope, giving themselves a greater say over certain resources.

The other purpose was to use the vast numbers of rogue cultivators to gather all manner of information and obtain various cultivation resources.

It could be said that these three Nascent Soul Realm rogue cultivators had not founded the Rogue Cultivator Alliance to do charity, nor to protect the interests of the countless rogue cultivators.

From the very beginning, their aim had been to cultivate more effectively, using every means available to seize as many resources from the Cultivation World as possible.

The rogue cultivators of the Jade Radiance Kingdom all knew the Rogue Cultivator Alliance's purpose, yet many still joined without looking back. The reason was that the alliance was managed very loosely and placed few restrictions on its members. They could come and go as they pleased.

Qi Refining cultivators could register with the Rogue Cultivator Alliance simply by paying three Low-Grade Spirit Stones. Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators paid nothing to join. Golden Core cultivators reportedly even received Spirit Stones for joining, displaying the Cultivation World's obsession with hierarchy to the fullest.

After joining the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, a cultivator gained an identity within it. With that identity, they could commission and post various tasks, as well as accept them.

In addition, to attract more rogue cultivators, the Rogue Cultivator Alliance offered cultivation arts, spells, and various inheritances as incentives to join.

Xu Yan planned to join the Rogue Cultivator Alliance next.

First, the Rogue Cultivator Alliance was very casual about registering identities. Unlike the Immortal Sects, it did not place a wisp of a cultivator's Divine Sense into a jade token, binding them to the sect from that point onward.

That meant he could leave at any time if he felt it did not suit him.

Another reason was the wondrous mask he had obtained from the Lin Family's inheritance. It would allow him to fabricate an identity as an alchemist.

For one thing, he could use the properties of the Mysterious Green Pearl to earn Spirit Stones as an alchemist. For another, he would not have to fear being discovered by the Short Young Man or Scarface.

With this false identity, he could remain in the shadows and gather information about the two. When the time was right, he could strike with thunderous force and kill them both.

Both men were rogue cultivators and were highly likely to have joined the Rogue Cultivator Alliance. It was one of the main channels through which rogue cultivators earned Spirit Stones and exchanged resources.

As long as those two appeared at the Rogue Cultivator Alliance, Xu Yan would be able to quickly gather intelligence on them.

His final reason was his desire to increase his strength. He needed to switch to a different cultivation art and hoped to find a suitable one in the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.

Moreover, the Rogue Cultivator Alliance encompassed all the hundred arts of cultivation, with all manner of materials appearing in an endless stream. Once he mastered alchemy, he intended to try making the kind of Pill recorded in Lin Dao's cultivation notes.

His cultivation resources were nearly exhausted. Unless he continued earning Spirit Stones, it would be difficult to maintain his cultivation speed.

Thus, whatever his reasons, the time had come for Xu Yan to visit the Rogue Cultivator Alliance.

Of course, before going there, he had to fulfill one major prerequisite: he needed to grasp the basics of the Complete Guide to the Pill Dao and truly become a first-rank alchemist.

According to Lin Dao's cultivation insights, alchemists were divided into nine ranks, each further divided into upper, middle, and lower grades. The most accomplished alchemists in the present Cultivation World were only lower-grade fifth-rank alchemists. Those above the fifth rank existed only in rumors, with no trace of them to be found in the Cultivation World today.

Pills from the first through fifth ranks corresponded precisely to the cultivation realms from Qi Refining to Spirit Transformation.

Fufeng Commandery currently had only a single third-rank alchemist, reportedly the supreme elder of Medicine King Valley.

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Xu Yan slowly stood and headed toward a stone chamber beside his cave abode.

He had excavated five stone chambers on Golden Summit Peak. One served as his cultivation abode, three as storerooms for medicinal herbs, and this final chamber was the alchemy room where he intended to learn pill refinement.

After moving aside the boulder blocking the entrance, Xu Yan walked slowly into the alchemy room.

He would study pill refinement here until he became a First-Rank Alchemist.

At the center of the stone chamber stood a stone platform roughly a meter high. Xu Yan approached it, then took the Complete Guide to the Pill Dao and Lin Dao's alchemy insights from his Storage Bag and placed them on the platform.

Before attempting to refine pills, he needed to study the texts word by word and sentence by sentence, lest mistakes in his methods delay his progress toward becoming a First-Rank Alchemist.

As for the cauldron explosions mentioned in Lin Dao's alchemy insights, Xu Yan was not particularly worried. Lin Dao had possessed a low-grade Wood Spiritual Root and had not practiced fire spells, relying instead on Earthfire or formations to refine pills. As a result, he could not keep the flames stable.

Xu Yan, however, practiced the Redfire Burning Art. Although he had yet to master it fully, he had already reached the point where he could conjure three masses of flame at once. Furthermore, ever since developing Divine Sense, he had been able to compress those three flames together, unleashing several times the power of a single flame.

Once he became familiar with the handling techniques, he would be able to greatly reduce the likelihood of a cauldron explosion. This was also why most alchemists possessed a Fire Spiritual Root. Alchemists with other types of spiritual roots did exist, but advancing was far more difficult for them than for cultivators with Fire Spiritual Roots.

These thoughts merely flashed through his mind before he turned his attention to the two alchemical inheritances before him.