He Pingsheng looked in the direction the third-level Qi Refining Stage disciple had pointed and indeed spotted a stairway in a corner of the hall.
"Thank you, junior brother!"
He Pingsheng cupped his hands in thanks, then headed toward the stairs.
He climbed the stairs and reached the second floor.
First, he entered a room.
An old man in gray robes sat inside. He Pingsheng could not discern his cultivation level.
But the old man's sharp gaze swept over He Pingsheng. "Fourth level... is this your first time here?"
He Pingsheng replied respectfully, "Yes, senior. This is my first time here!"
"No need to address me that way!" The gray-robed old man waved a hand. "You're at the fourth level of the Qi Refining Stage, and I'm at the ninth. Though there's a gap between us, we're both still at the Qi Refining Stage. Just call me senior brother from now on!"
"I hardly deserve to be called senior!"
"Yes, senior brother!" He Pingsheng hastily corrected himself.
"Go on in!" the gray-robed old man said.
With that, he had passed this checkpoint.
He Pingsheng breathed a sigh of relief, politely bowed to the gray-robed old man again, then turned and entered the hall on the second floor.
The second floor was the same size as the first.
But it lacked the bustling crowds downstairs.
Only a dozen or so disciples moved among the various shelves.
"Junior brother..." A fifth-level Qi Refining Stage disciple approached He Pingsheng with a faint smile. "Are you here to shop?"
"Please follow me!"
"No... it's my first time up here," He Pingsheng said. "I'll just look around for now!"
"All right!" the man said. "Feel free to browse. If anything catches your eye, you can buy it. The price is marked beneath each item!"
He Pingsheng thanked him, then began wandering alone around the spacious second floor.
There were other cultivators on this floor, but not many.
For He Pingsheng, the ideal outcome would have been to buy some failed pills at rock-bottom prices, improve their quality with the Treasure-Gathering Basin, and then use them.
But he knew that was a fool's dream.
The Trade Pavilion would never sell failed pills.
Low-grade Qi-Gathering Pills, then!
Hopefully the price won't be too outrageous!
He Pingsheng searched along the display shelves and soon reached the [Pill Display].
A huge display shelf stood there, covered with all sorts of pills.
Qi-Gathering Pills, Golden Bone Pills, Foundation-Nourishing Pills, Marrow-Washing Pills, Grain-Avoidance Pills!
And so on...
The most plentiful were the Grain-Avoidance Pills.
He Pingsheng took a look. A batch of Grain-Avoidance Pills cost 800 contribution points.
Each batch contained twelve pills.
Grain-Avoidance Pills could not aid cultivation.
But they had one advantage: they eliminated the need to eat.
Qi Refining Stage disciples still had to attend to mundane matters such as eating and drinking while cultivating, preventing them from fully concentrating. Grain-Avoidance Pills spared them those chores.
Taking a single Grain-Avoidance Pill allowed someone to go without food or water for a month.
One batch could sustain a cultivator for a year.
But after looking at the price, He Pingsheng knew he could not afford it.
It was too expensive.
He only had a little over a thousand contribution points in total.
He looked at the others.
Low-grade Qi-Gathering Pills!
These were far more expensive than Grain-Avoidance Pills.
They were pills used for cultivation and could improve one's cultivation level, putting them leagues above something as crude as Grain-Avoidance Pills.
They were sold not by the [batch], but individually.
One low-grade Qi-Gathering Pill cost two low-grade spirit stones.
So they did not want contribution points, only spirit stones.
This...
He Pingsheng did want to buy some Qi-Gathering Pills, but unfortunately, he had no spirit stones.
Of course, as a disciple from a "cultivation aristocratic clan," He Pingsheng could hardly be ignorant of what spirit stones were.
Spirit stones were a special kind of stone. Each low-grade spirit stone was roughly the size of a jujube. They came in five attributes-metal, wood, water, fire, and earth-and contained the corresponding spiritual energy of the five elements.
They could aid cultivation and serve as an energy source for formations.
Of course, they could also power certain flying treasures.
Their wide range of uses had made them the universal currency of the cultivation world.
He Pingsheng had seen them before. After his parents died, there had been several dozen at home, but those unidentified people had later stolen them all.
Not a single one remained.
"Senior brother..." Spotting the disciple assisting customers, He Pingsheng went over and asked, "How many contribution points does it take to exchange for one spirit stone?"
"Heh..." The blue-robed disciple smiled. "You may not know this, junior brother, but contribution points and spirit stones can't be freely exchanged!"
"Some items can be bought with contribution points alone, but certain precious items must be purchased with spirit stones!"
"Understand?"
"I understand!" He Pingsheng was no fool; a hint was all he needed.
He Pingsheng continued examining the shelves.
Low-grade Qi-Gathering Pills: two spirit stones each.
Low-grade Golden Bone Pills: one spirit stone each.
Low-grade Marrow-Washing Pills: five spirit stones each!
All these pills required spirit stones.
He Pingsheng shifted his gaze and noticed some herbs near the shelves.
[Seven-Leaf Spirit Herb], ten stalks: one spirit stone.
[Spirit Apricot], ten fruits: two spirit stones.
[Immortal Bamboo Shoot], ten shoots: one spirit stone.
[Vermilion Fruit], ten fruits: three spirit stones.
He Pingsheng narrowed his eyes.
Seven-leaf spirit herbs, vermilion fruits, immortal bamboo shoots, and spirit apricots were all first-grade spiritual herbs. Together, these four herbs formed the ingredients needed to refine [Qi-Gathering Pills].
In other words, the quantities listed above were enough for ten batches of [Qi-Gathering Pills].
Buying them would cost only seven spirit stones altogether.
If all ten batches were successfully refined, even if every pill was low-grade, there would still be a hundred and twenty pills.
At two spirit stones per pill, that amounted to two hundred and forty spirit stones.
Hiss...
Compared to seven spirit stones for the ingredients, that was a markup of over thirty times?
Of course!
The success rate for pill refinement was very low. Some alchemists could often produce only one batch of pills from ten sets of ingredients.
Even then, those twelve pills could sell for twenty-four spirit stones.
By that calculation, the markup was still more than threefold.
However, pill refinement was not that simple.
Besides buying ingredients, one also needed an Alchemy Furnace, pill formulas, a flame, and so forth.
Ordinary Outer Disciples had no opportunity to enter the Alchemy Hall to refine pills.
And if they refined pills at home, their success rate would drop more than tenfold again.
Thus, He Pingsheng immediately abandoned the idea of buying ingredients to refine pills.
The crucial point was that he had no spirit stones anyway.
He Pingsheng shook his head and left the shelf selling pills.
I'll look around elsewhere.
[Basic Flying Sword]: first-grade magical artifact, priced at sixty spirit stones.
[Greenwood Shield]: first-grade magical artifact. When deployed, it could defend against spell attacks from cultivators of the same level. Priced at a hundred and thirty spirit stones.
[Ice Needle Talisman]: first-grade talisman. When used, it could summon ice needles, delivering the equivalent of an all-out strike from a seventh-level Qi Refining Stage cultivator. Priced at sixty spirit stones.
These really were good things.
Unfortunately, I couldn't afford them!
I truly couldn't afford them.
Before you continue