In early October, in the Market Ward on Northsky Island.
News spread through the places where cultivators came and went.
"Have you heard? Word from the Incense Accumulation Sect is that Sect Master Li Ling achieved something in seclusion and refined a brand-new incense called the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill!"
"Tsk, that sounds unusual. As far as I know, the Incense Accumulation Sect isn't a Pill Dao sect. Why are they neglecting their proper business to refine pills?"
"Well, the side paths all belong to the same family, don't they? Unorthodox arts exist to support the Great Dao, whether by providing protection or aiding cultivation. They have to offer some benefit. Besides, you got one thing wrong: the Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill is an incense product, not a medicinal pill."
"That works too? So what happened next?"
"Next? The Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill was found to restore youth and prolong life. It can even rival the Foundation Establishment Pill and help people reach Foundation Establishment..."
"Doesn't that mean they've struck it rich?"
"Exactly. The Incense Accumulation Sect deserves to make a name for itself, and Sect Master Li truly merits the title of master. Now he really is going to become a figure who commands the winds and clouds!"
Rumors circulating in the streets were always hard to separate into truth and falsehood. Before anyone knew it, each retelling made them more fantastical.
Curious rogue cultivators made inquiries and, almost inadvertently, confirmed quite a few things.
The Three Treasures Floating Incense Pill truly existed. It seemed closely connected to the Little Olive Island Incident that had caused such a sensation ten years earlier, involving the painstaking work of Shi Jizi, a renowned master and great authority on the Pill Dao.
Its ability to help people advance and