Beneath the Sky Screen.
Chen Linjian had received an invitation from the City Lord's Mansion and was on his way there.
His father, the head of the family, had also sent him a message, telling him to build a good relationship with Nie Li.
Chen Linjian shrugged indifferently. That had been his aim all along.
Still, he probably would not be able to visit the Gulan City Ruins anytime soon.
Even if he could go, he could no longer make a grand affair of it.
He had originally wanted to bring a group along to explore. What a shame.
Nie Li had also said that he had gone there in his previous life and reaped a rich harvest.
But there was actually something there that could tempt even him. What was it?
At the City Lord's Mansion.
Nie Li said, "Looks like I'll have to make a trip out in a while."
Lu Piao asked, "Huh? Nie Li, are you planning to go to Gulan City?"
Nie Li nodded helplessly. "Yes. I originally planned to quietly bring those things back, but now it's all out in the open. There'll probably be plenty of people heading to Gulan City over the coming days."
Du Ze looked thoughtful. "That's right. It said up there that a trip to Gulan City yielded a rich harvest. People must already be organizing teams to head there."
Nie Li rested both hands behind his head. "Then I'll have to go too. At worst, I'll change my face and disguise myself."
Wasn't it just a matter of changing his face? In his previous life, how could he have traveled the world without a trick or two to keep himself alive?
On the Sky Screen.
At the Alchemist Association.
Director Yang Xin of the Alchemist Association was reading letters. People were supposed to be encouraged to send suggestions or methods to the association, yet someone had slipped in a love letter confessing his feelings for her.
"Didja know? Alchemists are angels whose wings were broken in their previous lives. Would you be willing to be my angel, and let me be yours?"
Yang Xin promptly crumpled the letter and tossed it onto the floor. "Your wings are broken! Your whole family's a bunch of broken-winged angels!"
After kicking the letter away, Yang Xin could only sigh helplessly. With her outstanding figure and beautiful face, receiving love letters like these was nothing new.
Then she picked up another letter.
"Hmm? On the sixty-three uses of Purple Mist Grass in alchemy."
Only then did Yang Xin understand why someone had bought up vast quantities of this mosquito-repelling herb a while ago. So this was what they had been aiming for-a huge profit.
She crumpled the paper and tossed it away too.
But on second thought, if an herb used only to repel mosquitoes really had so many uses...
She picked the paper back up and told her herbal assistant, Yonggang, to bring over five jin of Purple Mist Grass.
A young man dressed in an alchemy apprentice's clothes ran in carrying a bucket of purple herbs.
The buying spree had been so thorough that there were only three jin of Purple Mist Grass left, let alone five.
Yang Xin had thought the person intended to drive up the price of Purple Mist Grass. She had not expected the fellow to be aiming for a monopoly.
She took the Purple Mist Grass and first tried refining a batch of Soul-Gathering Pills.
Several pitch-black pills dropped into a small jade bottle.
Yang Xin was delighted. The yield was actually fifty percent higher than usual!
Yonggang, who had been dozing behind her, jolted awake and instinctively blurted out, "That's great-"
Before he could finish, Yang Xin flicked a finger, sending a Soul-Gathering Pill into his mouth so he could try it.
Yonggang hurriedly sat down and circulated his soul force to digest the pill.
"How does it feel?"
Yang Xin rushed straight up to him, nearly frightening him to death.
"Director, please don't scare me while I'm circulating my soul force."
Once he finished, Yonggang could tell that it was even stronger than the high-grade Soul-Gathering Pills he had taken before.
Overjoyed, Yang Xin told Yonggang to take the paper and find people to verify all sixty-odd uses of Purple Mist Grass.
She herself picked up the bucket containing the Purple Mist Grass.
The second use.
Inside her own room.
Steam rose from the bathtub, which also contained a scattering of medicinal herbs.
An extraordinarily fair, long leg and a delicate foot rose above the water.
"Following that list and bathing with Purple Mist Grass, dittany bark, mulberry leaves, and broom cypress seeds really does nourish soul force. Even my skin has become fairer, cleaner, and smoother."
Beneath the Sky Screen.
Quite a few people could not stop blood from spurting out of their noses.
That... that was outrageously fair skin!
Wait, why did the picture stop at her neck? Why wasn't it showing anything below that?
Quite a few men hurled filthy remarks at the Sky Screen.
Still, they were also astonished. A mere mosquito-repelling herb could actually have so many effects.
There seemed to be nothing this reborn Nie Li did not know how to do.
Meanwhile, quite a few women saw and heard only one thing.
Bathing with Purple Mist Grass, dittany bark, mulberry leaves, and broom cypress seeds could make their skin fairer, cleaner, and smoother.
For a time, countless noblewomen from prominent families opened their purses and bought up Purple Mist Grass throughout the city.
At the Alchemist Association.
Yang Xin looked at the scene of herself bathing on the Sky Screen, then at the paper in her hand, delivered from the City Lord's Mansion: On the sixty-three uses of Purple Mist Grass in alchemy.
The corners of her mouth twitched.
This damned Sky Screen! It blurred things out when Xiao Ning'er was getting a massage before, so why had it turned into this now?
At least it had not revealed anything below her neck.
At the City Lord's Mansion.
Ye Ziyun and Xiao Ning'er were so embarrassed that they hurriedly covered their faces.
But a girl's natural curiosity about such things compelled them to peek through their fingers.
Nie Li sighed. "I was hoping to make a fortune off Purple Mist Grass. Forget it."
He glanced at the Space Ring on his finger, a gift from Ye Zong.
It contained plenty of pills, and even a Demon Crystal Card worth two hundred million.
Spending money.
On the Sky Screen.
Nie Li led several people through physical training beside the farmland outside the city.
The bamboo baskets on their backs held stones of different weights to increase their loads.
"All right, today's morning training is over. Actually, the main reason I'm having everyone train their bodies is that, in the later stages of cultivating top-tier techniques, your bodies will contain immeasurable amounts of soul force. If your flesh can't bear it, your bodies will explode, you know."
Nie Li's words frightened Lu Piao so badly that he sprang up from where he had sat down to rest.
"Resting after this little bit of exercise? Heh, how hopeless."
Everyone laughed when they saw Lu Piao regain his fighting spirit.
With their morning training over, the group returned to Glory City.
At the city gate, a somewhat long-faced man from the Alchemist Association approached and asked whether they had any Purple Mist Grass at home.
The Alchemist Association was willing to pay thirty Demon Spirit Coins for each jin of Purple Mist Grass.
Lu Piao and Du Ze exchanged a glance. Didn't Nie Li have some?
Thirty Demon Spirit Coins per jin-that was a price they would never have dared imagine before.
Nie Li stopped Lu Piao before he could speak, then put on an innocent expression and asked about it.
The man glanced around and decided that they were only a few children, so there was no harm in telling them.
And just like that, he spilled everything that had happened yesterday.
He could not help turning away to grumble, either. Those noblewomen were really something. Instead of using Purple Mist Grass to refine pills, they used it for baths. Honestly...
When he turned back, he discovered that the group had already slipped away.
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