Qi Refining Perfection

[Your suggestion drew Yun Shu's serious attention, and the other senior figures in the Market District also felt it made some sense.]

[Outsiders could only speculate about whether Shopkeeper Ouyang could nurture a new successor in the Foundation Establishment Realm, but the Ouyang Family knew the truth.]

[If the Ouyang Family was not making a move, why should they?]

[Besides, relocating its businesses and holdings out of the Market District at this point would also mean enormous losses for the Yun Clan Pill Workshop.]

["Uncle Wang is right."]

[Yun Shu nodded in agreement.]

[You offered no further explanation.]

[In truth, your suggestion was entirely based on judging the process with knowledge of the outcome.]

[It was not that the Ouyang Family did not want to sell its core businesses, but that it could not.]

[In such a delicate situation, the moment the Ouyang Family chose to sell its own businesses, Black Mountain Market would face a complete collapse within a very short time.]

[When that happened, the prices of every business and shop in the Market District would plummet catastrophically, and the Ouyang Family would not get many spirit stones for them either.]

[Moreover, the Ouyang Family had not reached a dead end. Market Master Ouyang Shen was still trying to nurture a new successor in the Foundation Establishment Realm.]

[In the forty-ninth year, you were sixty-four. The Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit awakened again and transformed your sinews and cleansed your marrow. You could sense that doing this came at a great cost to the artifact spirit.]

[You also noticed that more and more crimson threads had appeared across the originally sky-blue Mountain Sea Ring. They now occupied one-twentieth of the entire ring's surface.]

[In the fiftieth year, you were sixty-five. Market Master Ouyang Shen still had not nurtured a successor in the Foundation Establishment Realm, and the situation within the Market District grew increasingly chaotic.]

[Yun Shu came to you repeatedly to ask about the Pill Workshop's future.]

[You told her frankly that it was already too late to relocate. Even selling the businesses would not bring in many spirit stones. They might as well grit their teeth and weather the storm alongside the Ouyang Family.]

[Yun Shu sighed. That was their only option.]

[In the fifty-first year, you were sixty-six. With the Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit repeatedly transforming your sinews and cleansing your marrow, you felt you had already covered most of the distance through the eighth layer of Qi Refining.]

[In the fifty-second year, you were sixty-seven. More and more Rogue Cultivators lurked outside the Market District, leaving fewer and fewer unaffiliated cultivators within it.]

[Business at the Yun Clan Pill Workshop grew steadily worse, and everyone there felt lost.]

[Yun Shu was also deeply shaken. She had never expected something like this to happen just after she inherited the Pill Workshop.]

[You comforted Yun Shu and told her not to despair. Perhaps an unexpected turn of events would come in a few years.]

[In the fifty-second year, you were sixty-seven. Through the connections you had built, you learned that the Pill Alliance wanted to sell the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.]

[The Spirit Medicine Pavilion was one of the Pill Alliance's core businesses, situated in the Market District's most prosperous location.]

[But as the Market District grew increasingly unstable and fewer cultivators came and went, the Spirit Medicine Pavilion naturally could no longer stay in business.]

[You sank into recollection.]

[During your first simulation, the Pill Alliance had also sold the Spirit Medicine Pavilion at this time. A mysterious cultivator had eventually bought it.]

[You now suspected that mysterious cultivator had ties to the Ouyang Family.]

[You sought out Vice Alliance Leader You Rou.]

[She was the one responsible for selling the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.]

["Pill Master Wang, are you interested in the Spirit Medicine Pavilion?"]

[You Rou gazed at you with her blue-green eyes and asked softly.]

[This matter had left her scrambling in desperation lately. With Black Mountain Market in its current state, who would dare take over the Spirit Medicine Pavilion?]

["How many spirit stones are you asking?"]

[You asked calmly.]

["Five thousand spirit stones."]

[You Rou named her price, her gaze unreadable.]

["Alliance Leader You, that price hardly shows much sincerity."]

[You shook your head slightly. Given the Spirit Medicine Pavilion's location and size, several decades ago it could have sold for twenty or thirty thousand spirit stones, let alone five thousand.]

[But now? There were hardly any cultivators left in the Market District. What use would buying it serve?]

["Ah..."]

[You Rou sighed softly. "How many spirit stones would you be willing to offer, Pill Master Wang?"]

["Two thousand spirit stones."]

[You answered directly.]

["Impossible!"]

[You Rou's eyes widened. "Even if I agreed, the alliance leader would never accept..."]

["Pill Master Wang, raise your offer a little..."]

[You Rou pleaded in a soft voice.]

["Two thousand five hundred spirit stones."]

[You deliberately showed a look of hesitation.]

["Two thousand five hundred spirit stones..."]

[You Rou lifted her skirts and moved her supple body closer to you.]

[Then she gently sat on your lap, draping her slender arms around your neck as she said softly, "Pill Master Wang, raise it just a little more..."]

["A little more?"]

[You rose with your arms around You Rou and lifted her up. Feeling the beauty's softness against you, you smiled. "That will depend on your performance."]

[Half a day later.]

[Several articles of a female cultivator's intimate clothing lay scattered beside the bed.]

[White silk stockings, an exquisite bellyband, embroidered shoes, a dress...]

[On the bed, You Rou opened her blue-green eyes and looked at you beside her with a hint of reproach. "I never imagined you would be so vigorous in this regard, Pill Master Wang..."]

[You said nothing, resting with your eyes closed.]

[You cultivated the "Mountain Sea Body Refining Art," so your prowess in this regard naturally needed no questioning.]

["Pill Master Wang, will you buy that Spirit Medicine Pavilion for three thousand spirit stones...?" You Rou rested against your chest, her tone plaintive.]

["Three thousand spirit stones... fine."]

[You glanced at You Rou. It was not that this brief affair was worth five hundred spirit stones, but that you had realized the bottom line the Pill Alliance's leader had given her was to sell the Spirit Medicine Pavilion for three thousand spirit stones.]

[Even without this brief affair, you would still have had to spend three thousand spirit stones to buy the Spirit Medicine Pavilion.]

[You Rou would not sell for anything below three thousand spirit stones.]

[Once she confirmed your agreement, You Rou immediately got up, took out the deed she had prepared long ago, and completed the transfer of the Spirit Medicine Pavilion with you.]

[In the fifty-third year, you were sixty-eight. You were still a little short of the peak of the eighth layer of Qi Refining.]

[Worry welled up within you. Would you fail to reach the ninth layer of Qi Refining before the critical threshold of seventy?]

[In the fifty-fourth year, you were sixty-nine. You still had not reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining, and despair had already begun to take root in your heart.]

[The Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit had remained asleep throughout these years and had not awakened.]

[In the fifty-fifth year, you were seventy. You had already

completely abandoned the idea of reaching the ninth layer of Qi Refining and attempting Foundation Establishment.]

[Yet the decline of old age that should have arrived that year did not appear. Your vital energy and blood had not weakened, and you remained in peak condition.]

[In the fifty-sixth year, you were seventy-one. There was still no sign of this supposed decline of old age.]

[That year, you finally cultivated to the peak of the eighth layer of Qi Refining.]

[In the fifty-seventh year, you were seventy-two. With the decline of old age still refusing to arrive, you did not hesitate and immediately began attempting to break through to the ninth layer of Qi Refining.]

[You successfully reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining.]

[Several months later, the Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit awakened. Upon discovering that you had reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining, the artifact spirit finally breathed a sigh of relief.]

[Repeatedly transforming your sinews and cleansing your marrow required the Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit to continually expend the artifact spirit's own essence. The cost was by no means small.]

[Now that you had reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining, the Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit finally knew those sacrifices had not been in vain.]

[The ninth layer of Qi Refining was also known as Qi Refining Perfection. You could attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm at any time.]

[You took the opportunity to voice your confusion. You were already seventy-two, so why had the decline of old age still not arrived?]

["Boy, did you really think the 'Mountain Sea Art' was some ordinary cultivation method? The 'Mountain Sea Art' is difficult to cultivate, but naturally, its benefits are plentiful..." A trace of pride colored the Mountain Sea Ring Artifact Spirit's aged voice.]

["Among them is delaying the decline of old age..."]