The Stone Bead

Dongyuan Sect, Pill Workshop.

Inside a Pill Chamber, a pair of clean hands held a white porcelain bottle, passed it over the Pill Furnace, and poured in a little medicinal liquid made from ground spirit medicines.

The flames in the furnace shifted. A piece of emerald-green fruit flesh, reduced to pulp by spiritual power, was dropped into the furnace.

Song Yan's clear eyes suddenly opened amid the swirling mist, fixing intently on the Pill Furnace before him. A ball of translucent Spirit Liquid hovered above his right hand.

His spiritual power had reached the end of its tether, and sweat dripped from his forehead, yet there was not a trace of panic on his face.

His breathing was slow and steady, as though he feared disturbing even the air in the Pill Chamber.

The furnace flames suddenly surged, and the translucent Spirit Liquid was cast inside as well. A medicinal fragrance drifted out, invigorating the mind.

Song Yan held a Spirit Stone in his left hand. Spiritual power flowed slowly through his body like a slender stream, but his fingertips never paused, and the furnace flames surged again and again.

Core Condensation!

The furnace flames went out in an instant. He panted softly, the Spirit Stone in his hand already dull and crumbling, without a shred of spiritual power left.

He did not rush, instead breathing slowly to restore his spiritual power. Only after the furnace's residual heat had stabilized the pills' shape did he rise.

He opened the furnace and retrieved the pills in one smooth sequence.

"Seven Qi-Nourishing Pills..."

Delight appeared on Song Yan's face as he murmured, "Not a single failed pill this time."

Seven pale-green pills hovered above the Pill Furnace before being collected into a pill bottle one by one.

Alchemy books stated that spiritual objects such as pills and spirit herbs began losing their Spiritual Qi once the furnace was opened or they were picked, even when placed in a Storage Bag.

They had to be stored in special containers to prevent the loss of Spiritual Qi.

"Even the worst Pill Chamber in this Pill Workshop doesn't affect the successful refinement of Qi-Nourishing Pills all that much..."

Song Yan spoke to himself, making calculations in his head.

"The Dragon-Liver Melon and Spirit-Calming Herb cost two low-grade Spirit Stones, enough for roughly two batches of seven pills. Renting a Pill Chamber for a full day costs four low-grade Spirit Stones. Add in miscellaneous expenses, and call those another two low-grade Spirit Stones."

"Two bottles of five Qi-Nourishing Pills can sell for twelve low-grade Spirit Stones."

"One day of refining pills earns four low-grade Spirit Stones. If I'm lucky, I can keep the extra Qi-Nourishing Pills for myself."

Though the earnings were modest, they were far better than those of Rogue Cultivators out in the wilds with scarcely any income.

Previously, his alchemy techniques had been immature. Even with these lowest-grade, simplest Qi-Nourishing Pills, he had not dared take chances and had always chosen a slightly better Pill Furnace.

Now, at last, he could reduce his costs a little.

Improving his alchemy had led him to use an inferior Pill Furnace instead. If word got out, people would probably be left scratching their heads.

He, however, nodded in satisfaction.

At a quarter to eight that evening, Song Yan walked out of the Pill Chamber in a gray robe.

He had paid the Spirit Stones beforehand. Stepping onto the Pill Workshop's street, he looked up.

"What a world of immortality..."

Occasional streaks of cultivators' flight light cut through the distant clouds as he murmured to himself, his eyes full of fervor.

Song Yan had originally been an ordinary Chinese student on Blue Star. By a twist of fate, he had transmigrated into this grand world of immortality and become an abandoned orphan in Shiliang Town beside the Black Creek River.

More than ten years had passed in the blink of an eye.

Counting the days, it had been a year and a half since he joined the Dongyuan Sect's outer sect.

Unfortunately, his aptitude with three spiritual roots could hardly be called good. With no Spirit Stones or pills, he had only reached Qi Refining, fourth layer. These days, he barely managed to accumulate some cultivation resources by refining entry-level pills.

"In another six months, I'll have to accept a mission outside the sect. Before then, I need to improve as much as I can."

"..."

Sect disciples could often be seen coming and going along the Pill Workshop's street, some in blue robes and others in white, with distinctive patterns and designs on their sleeves.

Whenever he saw disciples dressed that way, he could not help feeling envious.

Inner sect disciples received a fixed allotment of Spirit Stones and pills every month.

When he entered the sect, there had been geniuses with two spiritual roots or a single spiritual root among his fellow recruits. They had immediately been admitted into the inner sect, and some had even become elders' personal disciples.

"Simply being born with excellent spiritual roots spares them all the painstaking effort we put in day and night..."

Still, his own life had to go on. He was not a pessimistic person.

After composing himself, he walked into a small storefront in a secluded corner of the Market Ward.

"Worry-Relief General Store."

There were probably no fewer than thirty or forty such little shops throughout Lingyuan Marsh Market.

The front served as a shop, while the back was used as living quarters. It sold little odds and ends that could hardly be presented in polite company. The best items on the counter were some basic talismans, some of which were not even finished.

In any case, Song Yan had not come to buy anything. Quite the opposite-he had come to sell.

The shopkeeper was a pretty, delicate-looking woman.

At the moment, she lay languidly in a chair, her fair bare feet crossed on the edge of the counter, revealing a glimpse of calves as white as lotus roots.

She held a smoking pipe in her left hand and toyed with a small jade seal in her right, utterly at ease.

When he entered, she merely glanced at him.

"Here you are, Yesheng."

Ye Sheng was Song Yan's courtesy name.

"Granny Qin."

They knew each other well. He nodded in greeting. "These are this month's pills."

He brushed his fingertips over a small leather pouch, and six white porcelain bottles appeared on the counter, which looked almost ready to gather dust.

Storage Bags, also known as Heaven and Earth Bags, were spatial pouches cultivators used to store all sorts of items.

"Six bottles, thirty pills altogether. Please count them."

Granny Qin's brows stirred slightly. She opened one porcelain bottle and tipped out a pill, pinching it between slender, pale fingers to inspect it closely.

When buying and selling pills, taking one directly out of its bottle for appraisal was generally frowned upon. Its fragrance and appearance were usually more than enough.

But this was Granny Qin. To Song Yan, she was the person who had kept a "vagrant" alive, so naturally he did not mind.

"In just nine short months, your alchemy has grown more and more refined, boy."

Granny Qin put the pill back and brushed her fingers over the bottle, sealing it.

"Seven Spirit Stones a bottle. I'll take them all."

A bottle of five Qi-Nourishing Pills had a market price of roughly seven Spirit Stones. Selling to a small shop, however, meant leaving the other party some profit, so the usual purchase price was six Spirit Stones.

That had always been the case at Granny Qin's as well.

Song Yan frowned, then repeatedly waved his hands. "Granny Qin, just pay the going rate. You don't need to give me special treatment."

As far as he knew, Qi-Nourishing Pills were among the lowest-grade pills in this cultivation world.

Though they were pills for Qi Refining Stage cultivators to take to increase their spiritual power, their medicinal spiritual power was extremely low.

True to their name, they were generally used to "nourish Qi" for cultivators who had only just drawn Qi into their bodies and had not even reached Qi Refining, First Layer.

"Hahahaha! I'm not doing you any favors. The spiritual power in your Qi-Nourishing Pills is gentle, but by no means weak. They're almost at the level of mid-grade pills."

Song Yan raised his brows. "Really?"

An outer sect disciple who had only joined a year and a half ago had no opportunity to encounter mid-grade pills, much less these lowest-grade pills that yielded almost no profit when refined and were already exceedingly rare.

"Have I got nothing better to do? Why would I lie to you...?"

Granny Qin rolled her eyes at him and put away all the pill bottles. With a flash of spiritual light, a small bag of Spirit Stones appeared before the counter.

"Take the Spirit Stones and scram. Don't disturb my quiet cultivation."

Granny Qin was good in every way, except that her mood changed faster than the pages of a book could turn.

"Thank you, Granny."

Song Yan took the Spirit Stones without counting them, bowed, and left the shop.

"That boy..."

After he left, Granny Qin lay in her old rattan chair. A pill flew out of a porcelain bottle in her bag, and she caught it between her fingers, examining it closely.

"Leaving aside the spiritual power it contains, this pill is round and full, with very few impurities. Even a genuine mid-grade pill would be no better."

"The factors affecting a pill's shape are nothing more than the quality of the Pill Furnace and the Alchemist's Divine Sense."

Naturally, Ye Sheng could not afford a good Pill Furnace. She knew that better than anyone.

"..."

Qin Xijun pondered, a strange look flashing through her eyes. "That boy is clearly only at Qi Refining, fourth layer..."

After leaving the Worry-Relief General Store, Song Yan did not immediately return to the outer sect disciples' quarters. Instead, he headed to another part of Lingyuan Marsh Market.

Artifact Refining Workshop, Fireworker Stockade.

Much as the Pill Workshop stood in relation to the sect's Pill Academy, this Artifact Refining Workshop was a complex built and controlled by the Dongyuan Sect's Artifact Refining lineage.

It primarily served as a place where inner and outer sect disciples, along with members of certain cultivation aristocratic clans affiliated with the Dongyuan Sect, could purchase Law Artifacts and Spirit Artifacts or barter goods.

Compared with the center of the Market Ward, Fireworker Stockade was remote and seldom visited.

That was because this was where the various markets piled their rubbish.

Ruined pills, botched Law Artifacts, incorrectly drawn talismans, damaged Formation Disks...

There were even some strange books that both male and female cultivators enjoyed reading.

Whether Song Yan could imagine it or not, it could be found here. If nothing else, it certainly broadened his horizons.

Failed pills were useless to him, and he currently knew nothing whatsoever about Law Artifacts or talismans.

So he had only come to collect some formation materials.

"Steward Xu."

Steward Xu was a solemn, unsmiling middle-aged cultivator. Seeing the youth approach, he gave a slight nod by way of greeting.

The work at Fireworker Stockade was not complicated. One person was enough, so Steward Xu was the only person stationed here.

Song Yan offered no further pleasantries and simply handed over a Spirit Stone.

Xu Wenxuan accepted it and, watching the youth's retreating back, quietly reminded him, "I remember some formation remnants in the section near the Market Ward."

On his past several visits, he had always picked out materials for setting up basic formations, hence Xu Wenxuan's tip.

Delight stirred in his heart. "Thank you for the guidance, Steward Xu."

Once this rubbish accumulated to a certain volume, the steward would move it all into the Borderflame Furnace behind Fireworker Stockade, which connected to the ground beneath the sect, and melt it away completely.

To Xu Wenxuan, these things would disappear anyway. Better to use them to do a favor for low-ranking disciples struggling without cultivation resources.

Who in the outer sect had not made their way up step by step from an ordinary person with neither resources nor backing? If he could lend a hand, he would.

Besides, he would gain another Spirit Stone for his own cultivation.

"This is another elementary Formation Disk. The copper corners are still intact... too bad the formation stones are damaged."

Song Yan dug a broken Formation Disk out of the rubbish. Its formation beads had scattered somewhere unknown.

"Repairing it with the remaining formation stones... should be enough."

"I've gathered most of the materials for the Little Spirit Gathering Formation. If I can just barely get it working, I could try breaking through the Qi Refining, fourth layer bottleneck and reaching Qi Refining, fifth layer before heading out on a mission."

"Let's look for formation beads."

Those things were truly hard to find mixed in with all this rubbish.

There were far too many round objects in the rubbish heaps. Failed pills alone made up a whole pile.

Failed pills were either black from a furnace explosion or white after losing their Spiritual Qi, and formation beads generally came in those same two colors.

Fireworker Stockade was not open to Song Yan alone. There simply had not been many visitors today, and at the moment, apart from Steward Xu, he was the only person in the vast stockade.

Some piles of remnants were sparsely scattered, however, so someone had probably already rummaged through them.

"Failed pill..."

"Another failed pill..."

Song Yan even went so far as to circulate his spiritual power, drawing over every similarly sized object within sight nearby.

Fortunately, failed pills and formation beads alike were small objects and did not consume much spiritual power.

"Formation bead."

"Failed pill."

"Formation bead..."

Before his fingers had even brushed over the one in his hand, he had already judged it in his mind and casually tossed it into his Storage Bag.

"Huh?"

But the strange feel of it sent a trace of doubt rising in his heart.

He drew back his outstretched hand.

Taking it out of the Storage Bag again, he held it between his fingers and examined it closely.

This "formation bead"...

Happy New Year, everyone! A new author with a new book, now under contract-please add it to your collections!