Hearing the middle-aged cultivator say this, He Pingsheng immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Pill toxins?
I only take supreme-grade pills, so naturally I don't have to worry about that.
"No, thank you!" He Pingsheng said with a smile. "I don't take many pills anyway. If pill toxins really do build up in my body someday, I'll come buy it from you then. Money's tight, after all!"
"Huh?" The middle-aged cultivator's gaze shifted from He Pingsheng's face to the cloth bundle on his back. "You... money's tight?"
He Pingsheng hurriedly pulled the bundle off his back and hugged it tightly to his chest. "The spirit stones in this bag aren't mine. They belong to my master. I wouldn't dare spend them recklessly!"
"Oh..." The middle-aged cultivator nodded.
He Pingsheng put away the pills he had purchased, asked the middle-aged cultivator for two empty porcelain bottles, then sauntered out of the Horsehead Mountain market.
Three fierce-looking hulks immediately followed him.
The middle-aged cultivator shook his head and sighed. "A mere fourth-layer cultivator, and now the Blackwind Three Fiends have their eyes on him. That boy's chances look grim. Ah... he doesn't even understand that wealth shouldn't be flaunted. He can't blame anyone else!"
The Blackwind Three Fiends were notorious evil cultivators in this region of the Daoist Profound Alliance.
Rumor had it that the three committed murder and robbery, stopping at no evil.
But they had left no evidence behind, so the Daoist Profound Alliance could not convict them.
All the stories were merely hearsay.
There was no doubt, however, that these three were anything but good men.
"Brother..." After leaving the Horsehead Mountain market, the second brother said, "This way, hurry, hurry... catch him!"
"Let's go!"
With a whoosh!
A Paper Crane shot into the sky, heading through the wind and snow in the direction He Pingsheng had disappeared.
A Paper Crane's speed was not fixed; the higher the cultivation of the person controlling it, the faster it flew.
The Blackwind Three Fiends' reasoning was simple: how fast could a fourth-layer Qi Refining Stage disciple possibly go?
Even if we set off a little late, we can still catch him.
But they did not.
The three spent half a day flying frantically through the sky, yet never caught so much as a ghost of He Pingsheng's shadow.
He Pingsheng, meanwhile, landed on a hillside not far from the sect after two hours. He put away his Paper Crane and walked toward the outer sect's little town.
From beginning to end, he never knew anyone had been following him.
Rather than going straight home, He Pingsheng stopped by the Outer Sect Hall.
It was time to replenish his everyday supplies.
After buying some spirit rice with contribution points, He Pingsheng went to the counter at the very center of the hall.
It was a circular counter, with several disciples seated inside, ready to receive visitors.
"Junior Brother, what can I do for you?" Seeing He Pingsheng approach, one disciple stood up and asked him pleasantly.
"Greetings, Senior Brother," He Pingsheng said. "May I ask whether Spirit Medicine Valley has been recruiting disciples lately?"
"Spirit Medicine Valley?" The disciple nodded slightly. "Yes, it has... do you want to work there, Junior Brother?"
"Do you have a wood spiritual root?"
"No, no, no..." He Pingsheng hurriedly waved his hands. "I don't have a wood spiritual root, and I'm not looking to work in Spirit Medicine Valley. I just wanted to ask you a favor, Senior Brother. If anyone goes there, could they take a message to Senior Brother Wang Dun in the valley?"
"I have something urgent to discuss with him!"
He Pingsheng was not trying to recover his three spirit stones. Rather, he felt he should discuss using Wang Dun's Alchemy Furnace to refine pills.
After all, the Alchemy Furnace belonged to Wang Dun!
But the disciple before him shook his head. "That won't be possible. Haven't you heard, Junior Brother? A while ago, Senior Brother Wang Dun fought someone outside and was killed!"
"Huh?"
He Pingsheng's mouth fell open. "No way... he... he's... gone?"
"He's gone!" Sorrow appeared on the disciple's face. "Senior Brother Wang was a decent man!"
"Who killed him?" He Pingsheng asked.
Looking at He Pingsheng, the disciple hurriedly lowered his voice. "They say it was an Inner Disciple from Bamboo Peak. I don't know exactly who. Someone like Senior Brother Wang Dun, with no master and no protection-once he's dead, he's dead. No one cares!"
"Ah..."
"Cultivating to become an immortal... that's all it amounts to!"
"Right, what did you need Wang Dun for?" the disciple asked.
He Pingsheng shook his head. "Senior Brother Wang borrowed a few spirit stones from me earlier... never mind. Death wipes the debt clean. Thank you for clearing things up, Senior Brother!"
He Pingsheng bowed to the disciple, then left.
Wang Dun was dead!
In theory, that meant the Alchemy Furnace now belonged to him.
But He Pingsheng felt no joy at acquiring it. On the contrary, his heart was filled with desolation.
Bamboo Peak again. An Inner Disciple again.
In those Inner Disciples' eyes, perhaps Outer Disciples like us really are worth less than ants.
Killing Hao Yun only earned seven days of Reflection Punishment.
I wonder how many days they got for killing Wang Dun?
He Pingsheng shook the snow from his clothes and returned to his room.
He shut the door tight.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, He Pingsheng frowned deeply, unable to calm his heart for a long time.
Could it have been that vicious woman Linglong again?
Are Outer Disciples' lives really worth so little?
Then are the countless mortals in this little town no more than grass and weeds in cultivators' eyes?
He Pingsheng turned these thoughts over and over, unable to stir for half a day.
Only after half a day had passed did he shake his head, casting those tangled, dismal thoughts from his mind. With a stir of his divine sense, he took the Treasure-Gathering Basin out of his dantian.
The basin was three feet across, and its contents were a jumble of all sorts of things.
The most plentiful were spirit stones.
He had spent twenty on pills and fourteen on medicinal ingredients, for a total expenditure of fifty-four. He now had five hundred and forty-six left.
Besides the spirit stones, there were four jade boxes containing [seven-leaf spirit herb], [Immortal bamboo shoot], [Vermilion fruit], and [spirit apricot], respectively.
These were the raw ingredients for refining Qi-Gathering Pills.
There were twenty portions of each.
Apart from these herbs, there were also four porcelain bottles, two of which held a total of twenty-four low-grade [Qi-Gathering Pills].
The rest were miscellaneous odds and ends.
"Ah..." Looking at the things filling his room, He Pingsheng could not help sighing. "If only I had a Storage Bag!"
With a Storage Bag, he could put everything inside. Unlike now, whenever he wanted to enhance something with the Treasure-Gathering Basin, he had to take everything else out and dump it on the floor or the bed.
It really was inconvenient.
But just thinking about it!
Even the most basic Storage Bag cost over two thousand spirit stones.
Forget it!
He Pingsheng shook his head and tossed all twenty sets of the four herbs into the Treasure-Gathering Basin.
Enhance them!
Over the next few days, He Pingsheng went out several more times to ask around. Once he confirmed that Wang Dun had indeed died, he tossed Wang Dun's Alchemy Furnace into the Treasure-Gathering Basin as well.
Ingredients!
Alchemy Furnace!
Porcelain bottles!
Pills!
He enhanced them one by one.
He Pingsheng did not sit idle either. He picked up the [Thirty-Six Alchemy Formulas] and studied it for several days.
During those days, he read only the basics of alchemy and the [Qi-Gathering Pill] formula among the thirty-six formulas.
He was about to start refining pills, after all.
Those were not the only preparations needed for alchemy. He also needed wood!
Different pills required different kinds of firewood.
Even for the same pill, different stages of simmering and refining required different kinds of firewood.
The size specifications differed as well.
With all these requirements, he needed quite a lot of wood.
He Pingsheng picked up his axe again and went up the mountain to chop firewood himself.
Before you continue