After leaving the Jade Orchid Tower, Liu Yu planned to sell all his Spirit-Gathering Pills.
These pills, meant for early Qi refining cultivators, were now of negligible use to him.
People came and went through the square, which formed a hollow rectangle. Lamps around its edges drove away the darkness, lighting it as brightly as day.
Liu Yu set up a stall in the square and sold twenty-four Spirit-Gathering Pills for twenty-three spirit stones in total.
One "wealthy" rogue cultivator bought an entire bottle outright, so Liu Yu gave him a discount of one spirit stone.
He now had thirty-two spirit stones in his Storage Bag again, finally easing his financial straits.
Rather than hurry back to the sect, Liu Yu spent three spirit stones to rent a small two-story lodge for a month at an inn called the Welcome Immortal Inn.
He intended to raise his cultivation to the qi refining fifth layer and attune his magical artifacts before leaving.
Upon reaching the lodge, he took out the Welcome Immortal Inn's jade token and activated the formation's restrictions using the method the innkeeper had explained.
Rumble...
A faint rumbling sounded, and grayish-white mist gradually enveloped the entire building, leaving the lodge dimly visible within it.
Liu Yu sat cross-legged on the wooden bed, his eyes closed as he emptied his mind.
Gulp.
Only after the stray thoughts in his mind slowly faded did he take a Pure Spirit Pill from its jade bottle, open his mouth, and swallow it.
As soon as the pill reached his stomach, it dissolved into a stream of pure spiritual energy that spread through his meridians, limbs, and bones.
Though abundant, this spiritual energy was relatively gentle.
Not daring to be careless, Liu Yu rapidly formed hand seals and circulated the Wood Spirit Art to refine the pill's medicinal power.
A faint green glow appeared on his face as he completed one greater celestial circuit after another.
He refined the medicinal spiritual energy into his own magical power, gradually filling his dantian to capacity.
At a certain moment, as though some boundary had been broken, his magical power-which had stopped increasing-began to grow again.
And its rate of growth suddenly became extraordinarily fast.
Qi refining fifth layer!
Like water flowing into a channel once it was ready, Liu Yu broke through to the qi refining fifth layer.
His magical power increased rapidly, only approaching saturation when it reached roughly a third more than the total he had possessed at the qi refining fourth layer.
He continued absorbing the Pure Spirit Pill's medicinal power and only stopped cultivating once his newly attained realm had stabilized.
At the outset of cultivation, one had to refine one's own vital essence and expel impurities from the body.
Generally, twelve was the most suitable age to begin cultivating.
Before twelve, one's vital essence was insufficient and one's meridians had not fully developed. Forcing cultivation could instead result in serious injury.
The best time to attempt foundation establishment, meanwhile, was before forty.
After forty, the body's functions began to decline, and the chances of successfully achieving foundation establishment gradually diminished as well.
By sixty, virtually all hope of achieving foundation establishment was lost.
"The feeling of growing stronger, little by little, is truly intoxicating."
Feeling the surging magical power in his dantian, Liu Yu showed a trace of delight.
With this, his confidence in reaching qi refining perfection before forty increased a little more.
Liu Yu opened his Storage Bag, and with a thought, four brocade boxes appeared on the bed.
He opened the boxes, revealing the pale golden Golden Dragon Sword, the small brown Black Tortoise Iron Shield, the Black Bird Flame Talisman, and the Earth Escape Talisman, one after another.
The Golden Dragon Sword was about four inches long and pale gold from end to end.
Liu Yu placed the Golden Dragon Sword in his palm, held both hands against his lower abdomen, and infused it with magical power to begin attuning it.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
Liu Yu had finished attuning the Golden Dragon Sword and the Black Tortoise Shield. After some practice, he could now wield them proficiently.
However, the Golden Dragon Sword was a Superior-grade Magical Artifact and consumed too much magical power to activate.
With his cultivation at the qi refining fifth layer, he could only use it for a short time. Any longer, and his magical power would run short.
Still, with the Golden Dragon Sword and the Black Tortoise Shield in hand, Liu Yu was confident he could put up a fight against a late Qi refining cultivator.
As long as his opponent lacked a high-grade magical artifact, he had nothing to fear.
In battles between cultivators, provided the gap in cultivation was not too great, magical artifacts, spirit talismans, and other such means produced an immediate increase in fighting strength and were important factors in determining victory or defeat.
Of course, if the gap exceeded a major realm, practically no means would help. One had better think about how to preserve one's life instead!
Liu Yu could hardly be blamed for being so cautious. Cases of murder and robbery in the cultivation world were simply too numerous to count.
Apart from cultivators who passed away naturally after exhausting their lifespans, more than half of those who died lost their lives this way.
Were fighting not strictly forbidden within Jiatai Market, with a Golden Core Cultivator nominally overseeing it and squads of cultivators patrolling at all times,
a minor cultivator like him would never have dared come here.
I don't have many spirit stones left. It's time to ripen more spirit herbs and keep refining pills.
With a thought, Liu Yu touched the emerald speck of light in his Niwan Palace, and his primordial spirit instantly entered the Immortal Mansion.
He placed his remaining twenty spirit stones on the black spirit field to replenish what had been consumed when he accelerated the growth of the medicinal herbs earlier.
Then he took some seeds from the small wooden cabin on the left, all belonging to spirit herbs and medicinal plants needed to refine Pure Spirit Pills.
He planted the seeds in the black spirit field and used the Immortal Mansion to ripen fifty sets of ingredients.
For the time being, he did not replenish the black spirit field's expenditure. He was a little short on spirit stones and could only wait until he had more to spare.
He packed up each set of spirit herbs, brought them out of the Immortal Mansion, and put them into his Storage Bag.
Liu Yu entered the Alchemy Room, set up a miniature formation, and activated its flames.
He took out the Purple Copper Cauldron, lit the fire to preheat it, and began refining pills again, strictly following the pill formula.
Lighting the fire, preheating, extracting the essence, Pill Condensation, opening the cauldron...
Day after day passed. At first, Liu Yu succeeded only once in every five batches, producing six or seven pills.
As he grew more practiced and gained experience, he gradually succeeded once in every four batches, producing eight pills each time.
By the final few batches, he actually succeeded once in every three, and his yield had reached nine pills.
Once he had pills available, Liu Yu took one every day to cultivate, and with their support, his cultivation grew rapidly.
After fully refining the Pure Spirit Pill's medicinal power, Liu Yu would take a Fasting Pill whenever he felt hungry.
Fasting Pills were ordinary pills known to everyone in the cultivation world. Taking one could keep hunger at bay for ten days to half a month.
They were refined from the extracted essence of spirit grain, together with several common supplementary ingredients.
Moreover, their refining method was extremely simple, with both a high success rate and a substantial yield, so their price had always remained low.
Thus, a bottle of ten Fasting Pills cost only two spirit stones-one spirit stone was enough to buy five.
Time slipped by, and a month passed in the blink of an eye.
With sufficient pills to support him, Liu Yu took a solid stride forward along the path of the qi refining fifth layer.
"My cultivation has reached the qi refining fifth layer, and I have two magical artifacts, one for attack and one for defense."
"The Black Bird Flame Talisman is my trump card, and the Earth Escape Talisman is for escaping with my life."
"At last, I have some small measure of ability to protect myself in this cruel cultivation world."
Facing the bronze mirror, Liu Yu murmured to himself, determination flashing in his eyes.
Then he left the lodge, with no intention of staying any longer.
Cultivation had never been a matter of building a cart behind closed doors. He had some pressing questions about his cultivation and needed to discuss them with fellow cultivators.
After returning the Welcome Immortal Inn's jade token, Liu Yu wandered around the Market Ward before finally choosing a shop called the Azure Pill Hall.
Its shopkeeper, Zhang Chunming, was an elderly man in his fifties or sixties.
Since childhood, he had enjoyed reading texts and commentaries on pill refining and the use of pills.
Although he was not an Alchemist himself, he possessed an extremely comprehensive understanding of pill refining and the effects of all manner of wondrous spirit pills and medicines.
The owner of the Azure Pill Hall had therefore hired him as its shopkeeper, a position he had held for over forty years.
Noon.
Zhang Chunming held a cup of tea in one hand and a book on pills in the other, reading with relish.
Just then, a cultivator walked in wearing a bamboo hat, a black veil over his face, and the gray robes of an outer sect disciple of the Primordial Yang Sect.
Cultivators placed great importance on privacy. Over the years, Zhang Chunming had seen plenty who concealed themselves this thoroughly, so he found nothing strange about it.
"May I ask whether your shop purchases Pure Spirit Pills?"
A low voice sounded within the small shop.
The visitor was, naturally, Liu Yu.
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