"How many would you like, Fairy Su?"
After several pleasant collaborations with Su Shuangjiang, Lin Changheng asked her directly.
"However many you have, Brother Lin, I can take them all."
Su Shuangjiang pursed her red lips slightly as she spoke.
Clearly, the pills Lin Changheng refined had earned recognition outside, and their reasonable prices had rogue cultivators clamoring for them. That was why Su Shuangjiang dared make such an offer.
Lin Changheng gave the female cultivator a long, searching look. Rather than speak, he tapped his fingers against the table, weighing something in his mind.
In less than two months, he would withdraw to the clan with everyone from the Xu Family Alchemy Shop. Selling the pills he still held would be even harder then.
He might as well sell them all now. With Su Shuangjiang acting as a shield in the open, and the major powers all beginning to plan their withdrawals, their attention might not fall on this matter...
After some deliberation, he made his decision.
"I still have around fifty pills. Would you be able to take that many, Fairy Su?"
"Fifty?" Su Shuangjiang's eyes lit up. "Of course."
Inwardly, however, she clicked her tongue in amazement. Could someone who had only just become a Pill Master really have so many?
Her estimation of Lin Changheng rose another few notches.
"Please forgive me for speaking out of turn, Fairy Su, but once these pills are in your hands, I suggest selling them in batches. Otherwise... an ordinary man is innocent, but carrying a precious jade makes him guilty."
After giving the female cultivator this solemn warning, Lin Changheng chuckled. "After all, I wouldn't want to lose such a good neighbor just like that."
"I understand."
"Good. Please count them."
With a wave of his hand, Lin Changheng took out wooden boxes containing fifty pills.
A long while later, Su Shuangjiang looked up. "Brother Lin, there's nothing wrong with the pills."
"Mm. The adult Fire Crow essence blood from earlier was fifty measures of spirit sand per bottle, with three bottles from juveniles counting as one adult bottle, for a total of ten Spirit Stones. Fifty [Crimson Flame Pills], at eighty percent of market price, come to eighty Spirit Stones. Have I calculated anything incorrectly?"
"No." Su Shuangjiang shook her head, briskly took out seventy Spirit Stones, and pushed them toward Lin Changheng.
Lin Changheng pushed five of them back. "I'd also like to ask you to see whether you can obtain essence blood from Greenwood Snakes or other Demon Beasts. I'll need fairly large quantities, though. There's no need for anything rare for now."
"Certainly!"
Su Shuangjiang agreed without hesitation, but pushed the five Spirit Stones back toward him. "You've placed your trust in me, Brother Lin, and doing these little tasks already gives me an extra source of income. How could I accept another gift from you? Wouldn't that make me insatiably greedy?"
After seeing the female cultivator out of his cave abode, Lin Changheng returned and gazed thoughtfully at the Spirit Stones before him.
Earlier, he had found an opportunity to disguise himself and sell twenty-five [Crimson Flame Pills] to another pill shop at seventy percent of their market price.
Together with the two batches sold to Su Shuangjiang over the past four months, that finally cleared out his accumulated pills.
His aim had been to spread the sales out as much as possible.
And now, he had more than a hundred and fifty Spirit Stones in his pouch!
It was a fortune he had never possessed, nor even imagined possessing!
Once again, he sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness.
The Origin Cauldron stood there as before, steady and secure.
Cloudlike radiance churned at its mouth, revealing three illusory treasure seeds: one gold, one crimson, and one emerald.
The emerald Treasure Seed was the faintest.
[Greenwood Snake Treasure Seed · First tier] [Spirit Seizure: 13/100]
That was because the [Greenwood Snake Treasure Seed] had successfully undergone spirit seizure a month and a half earlier and had been refined into Lin Changheng's body.
He had also obtained [Poison Transformation Art · First glimpse]!
[Effect: The body gains initial resistance to poisons and can rapidly refine low-grade toxins]
Immediately afterward, Lin Changheng had purchased some mundane poisons and Low-Grade First-Tier poisons from rogue cultivator stalls not far from his home.
Of course, cautious as he was, he bought only poisons that inflicted limited harm, causing at most a little swelling or numbness.
He absolutely did not dare touch lethal poisons.
The results of his tests delighted him.
Mundane poisons now posed virtually no threat to him. Without him needing to do much of anything, his body automatically resisted them.
The Low-Grade First-Tier poison, meanwhile, had been refined from venom collected from various poisonous insects in the cultivation world. A drop on the skin would cause an entire patch to ulcerate.
If left untreated long enough to seep into the body, it would taint his magical power with poison, making its circulation sluggish and uneven.
But after he activated the [Poison Transformation Art], the venom was refined away within a few breaths. Not only did its harmful effects vanish, but the venom itself became pure spiritual power he could absorb.
It had been transformed away entirely!
His ability to protect himself had grown stronger yet again!
Lin Changheng even wondered whether pill toxins, being poisons as well, could also be transformed away.
But pill toxins were dispersed and difficult to detect. Without concrete evidence, it was hard to judge.
In addition, the spirit resonance of his wood spiritual root had increased from six strands to seven!
Now, Lin Changheng was rubbing his hands in anticipation of the crimson treasure seed.
"Two bottles of adult Fire Crow essence blood give one point of spirit seizure! This time, there's definitely enough!"
"Absorb it!"
Drip, drip, drip... Lin Changheng poured all the Fire Crow essence blood into a copper basin, then immersed his hand and connected with the [Origin Cauldron].
Whoosh!
Only a thin layer of clear water remained in the copper basin.
Not a trace of blood remained!
Nor any bloody smell!
At that moment, azure radiance rose and fell within the cauldron in his sea of consciousness, as though nurturing life.
Then a crimson treasure seed, solid once more, bobbed at the cauldron's mouth, its scarlet light dazzling.
[Fire Crow Treasure Seed · Second tier] [Can continue refining the Demon Race's innate talent: Fire control]
Looking at the seemingly unchanged treasure seed, Lin Changheng willed it to move, and it immediately slipped into his mind.
A sensation of blazing heat and warmth coursed through his soul and swept across his entire body.
[Refined: Fire-Control Art · Fluid mastery]
Lin Changheng saw that after he refined the treasure seed, another identical illusory seed formed where the crimson seed had been.
This was a new treasure seed condensed as the excess Fire Crow essence blood continued to undergo spirit seizure.
"The Fire-Control Otherworldly Art went from [First glimpse] to [Fluid mastery]. Does that signify a transformation of the art?"
This was Lin Changheng's first [Second-tier treasure seed], and a conjecture immediately arose in his mind.
[Effect: Steadily controls ordinary flames and moderately enhances fire techniques]
"I'll know once I test it later, but my spiritual root..."
He cast the [Spirit-Sensing Technique] directly on himself. A wondrous sensation instantly arose within him, but he knew this was-
[Fire spiritual root, eleven strands of spirit resonance]!
Once the spirit resonance of any one of a cultivator's elemental spiritual roots exceeded ten strands, it became a low-grade spiritual root!
That also meant Lin Changheng's aptitude had broken through the limits of a mixed spiritual root and transformed into a low-grade spiritual root!
"Whew! That feels great!"
His spiritual root had finally undergone its first transformation, a crucial milestone on his Dao Path. With a brief examination, he could clearly sense that his affinity for fire spiritual power was higher than before, with a lively, fluid quality to it.
As the saying went, dripping water pierced stone!
Accumulation, drop by drop, might show no obvious results in the short term, but given enough time, the gap it opened would become immense!