For My Use

Zhou Ning withdrew his Divine Sense from next door, thoroughly satisfied.

He was in a fine mood.

He took out his brass Pill Furnace, then brought out the medicinal ingredients the Su Household had given him.

For pills such as Qi-Benefiting Pills, the Su Household supplied him with ingredients based on a twenty percent success rate.

Under normal circumstances, a twenty-five percent success rate was needed to break even when refining Qi-Benefiting Pills.

Now the cultivation war had made a major impact, and even at twenty percent, the Su Household still made a profit.

But they would never know that Zhou Ning's success rate for Qi-Benefiting Pills was a full seventy percent...

A single Qi-Benefiting Pill was worth twenty jin of spirit rice. For every furnace Zhou Ning refined, he wept tears as he pocketed a whopping hundred jin of spirit rice.

Now that I've become an Alchemist, I can raise my cultivation without worrying...

I must reach the Qi Refining Middle Stage before entering the Land of Wei.

By Zhou Ning's estimate, he should then be able to kill Late Qi Refining cultivators in the Cuiwei Lake region.

Let's see who dares underestimate my strength then, hehe...

These were troubled times. It was unsettled outside, and the fighting might reach Cuiwei Lake any day.

Evil Cultivators wouldn't show him mercy just because he was an Alchemist. If anything, they would bring even more firepower to bear.

One afternoon, a length of white silk came drifting over the lake.

Zhou Ning stood in his doorway and smiled. "Fairy, it's been a long time."

Over the past year, Su Youyou had eaten two meals at his place because of the array he rented from her. They were familiar strangers by now.

Su Youyou descended, her beauty as ethereal as ever.

She had already learned that Zhou Ning had become a guest Alchemist of the Su Household, which had come as quite a surprise.

He really is full of himself... He dares look me straight in the eye now.

Su Youyou did not look away. Her eyes shimmered like ripples on the lake as she gazed at Zhou Ning.

The two stared at each other for several breaths before Su Youyou finally turned her eyes away.

Has a taste of success made him forget himself?

Su Youyou was indifferent by nature and thought little of it. She spoke with her usual composure:

"A first-tier array, the Four Symbols Spirit-Locking Array. It provides defense and gathers spiritual Qi, and can hold off a Foundation Establishment cultivator for half a quarter-hour. Does it meet with your approval?"

Zhou Ning said, "As you suggest, Fairy."

Su Youyou brushed her fingertips over her eyes, and Zhou Ning faintly glimpsed a flash of lightning.

An array master's Qi-observing technique? he wondered.

It seemed more advanced than his Spirit Eye Technique, so Zhou Ning sent out his Divine Sense to secretly learn it.

Then Su Youyou took up a flagpole and swung it with a crisp, clean motion, her voice cool and clear:

"The five elements form the array, the eight trigrams form the gates. Spirit-locking flags, move! Hasten to obey this command!"

In an instant, light burst forth on all four sides, shifting and flickering.

Inside the array, Zhou Ning felt the spiritual power throughout his body seize up as immense pressure bore down on him.

Startled, Zhou Ning instinctively glanced at Su Youyou.

It must be this woman's doing. She really is petty!

Su Youyou held the array flag, looking straight ahead.

Meanwhile, she was thinking, Among the hundred arts of cultivation, arrays are king. Pill refining is nothing but a second-rate craft.

Zhou Ning was a man of propriety. Although the Su Household was covering the cost of this array, he had indeed received a favor when he rented the Bewildering Tracks Array from Su Youyou.

Zhou Ning made her a little dessert: mashed Chinese yam with strawberries.

Su Youyou left thoroughly satisfied. Before she went, she did not forget to mention, "Cuiwei Lake hasn't been peaceful lately. Make preparations."

Zhou Ning put on a carefree air. "With your array, Fairy, what do I have to fear?"

Su Youyou said, "..."

A month later.

Su Wen visited Bamboo Creek Island and collected twenty bottles of Qi-Benefiting Pills, sixty pills in total.

She was very pleased. Looking at Zhou Ning's "exhausted appearance," she made a rough calculation.

Given Zhou Ning's success rate, he had probably stayed up all night refining pills.

Remembering how Zhou Ning had once strained his eyes until they bled while fishing, Su Wen was even more impressed.

He truly is a model guest elder of the Su Household!

"Excellent. I'll see that you're rewarded!" Su Wen painted him a big pie.

Zhou Ning couldn't be bothered to take a bite.

He recalled how Steward Su had recently been throwing his weight around on the lake again, pushing the exchange rate for Fuluo Eels and spirit rice to twenty to one.

The highly profitable fishermen in Yuan Dahu and Xu Qinghou's group had suffered a severe setback.

And Steward Su had been obstructing Zhou Ning's plans to exchange for eel blood, both openly and in secret.

Zhou Ning deliberately sighed. "How could I ever repay the Su Household's kindness? It's just that recently, Jiang Xi has been sending people to ask about me, whether intentionally or not. I don't know what she's plotting. Otherwise, my success rate could have risen another level."

Jiang Xi had set her sights on his Pill Furnace back then. That was a grudge born of obstructing his Dao.

Su Wen flew into a rage. "How dare that old dog Su!"

Zhou Ning hurriedly tried to calm her. "Fairy, please don't damage your relationship on my account!"

"Hmph, he's just a mangy old dog. How can he compare with me?"

With that, Su Wen mounted her Law Artifact and charged furiously into Steward Su's residence.

She hauled Steward Su out while he was leisurely sipping tea and unleashed a torrent of abuse on him.

Su Changhe was already advanced in years. His face twisted with rage, but he didn't dare utter a single word in response.

"Try any more crooked tricks, and I'll break your dog legs!"

Su Wen left him with those words and flew off arrogantly.

After Su Wen left, Su Changhe flew into a rage. He had spent his days in comfort and privilege; when had he ever suffered such humiliation?

Furious, he seized a teacup and hurled it down, scattering shards across the floor.

Jiang Xi quietly smeared a streak of blood across her face, looking utterly miserable.

Steward Su's face was full of menace. This Su Wen was relying on her bloodline to bully him too far!

He said bitterly, "Xi'er, refine. Keep refining. I'll shoulder everything. You must become an Alchemist!"

He had to turn things around!

Jiang Xi obtained another large batch of medicinal herbs and was beside herself with joy.

Time flew.

The warm winter sun hung overhead. A full year and a half had passed since Zhou Ning became an Alchemist.

Zhou Ning opened his eyes. His vision blurred for half an instant, then returned to normal.

He breathed out a golden thread and looked into the bottle, where a mass of molten gold had gathered.

Zhou Ning was in a good mood. "I've finally collected another portion."

Ever since returning from the Land of Wei, he had understood how scarce True Yang Metal Qi was. Over the past four-plus years, even while immersed in pill refining, he had continued gathering Qi on and off.

I wonder how much this stuff could sell for in the Land of Wei?

Still, recalling that even the blazing sun seemed to have been sealed off in the Land of Wei, he feared the matter was of great importance. Unless circumstances required it, he had better not bring it out.

If he ended up creating someone who cultivated the same Dao Path, they might even fight each other for spiritual materials.

Zhou Ning took out the jade stone. Only a corner at the lower right remained white; the rest had turned black. It would be fully charged in just half a month.

At the thought of entering the Land of Wei again, Zhou Ning couldn't help looking forward to it.

He had now broken through to the Qi Refining Middle Stage, and the magic power throughout his body had grown much more condensed.

He felt he could kill his former self with a casual wave of his hand.

To make the breakthrough, Zhou Ning had first taken a Three Flowers Pill, but its medicinal power had been too dispersed, and he had failed to force his way through the bottleneck. In the end, he had used the Primordial Origin Pill from Chai Dingchun's Storage Bag to break through in one attempt.

The pills at Cuiwei Lake are such trash! Zhou Ning couldn't help thinking.

It was easy to imagine that when he faced the bottleneck to Late Qi Refining, a Spirit Condensation Pill from this world might not do the job.

To succeed in one attempt, he would need to refine a Sea-Filling Pill from the Land of Wei.

The pill's medicinal power was immense. It could fill the sea of Qi in a spiritual Dantian, providing an endless supply of spiritual power when breaking through a barrier. It was no useless embroidery needle like the Three Flowers Pill.

The Sea-Filling Pill's formula was recorded in the He Household's pill-refining inheritance. Ingredients such as jujube-lotus seed hearts and mica fat could all be found at Cuiwei Lake, but Calamity-Severing Grass alone had never been recorded in this world.

It was probably added by an Alchemist in the Land of Wei after improving the formula, Zhou Ning mused. He would have to buy more of it on this trip to the Land of Wei.

As he was thinking, the array flags in the courtyard gave off specks of white light.

"All right, it just so happens I'm handing over the pills today. I'll go out and clear my head."

Zhou Ning beckoned, and the courtyard gate opened without a breeze. Several Su Household retainers were waiting outside, and they all bowed in greeting when they saw him.

A young retainer in a dark-gray brocade jacket spoke respectfully:

"Alchemist Zhou, I'd like to buy a bottle of Jade Skin Pills."

Zhou Ning recognized him. He was known as Little Li, one of the fishermen in Yuan Dahu's circle, with a cultivation of the Third Layer of Qi Refinement.

He nodded. "Three pills to a bottle, fifty-two jin of spirit rice."

Outside, Old Jia glanced at the dark circles under the man's eyes and the bloodshot veins in them. He gave a derisive laugh. "Little Li, if you have money for Jade Skin Pills, you'd be better off buying yourself some Clear Eyes Powder."

Jade Skin Pills nourished the skin, protected it from wind, cold, and sun, and kept it smooth and delicate. They were an extremely low-grade version of a Youth-Preserving Pill.

Li Ji pulled out several talismans and smiled sheepishly. "Little Die has been working too hard lately. I'm buying them for her."

Old Jia shook his head. "You really have no prospects!"

Beside him, Yuan Dahu, dressed in a short hemp tunic, sneered. "You think she'll be grateful if you buy her pills? Ridiculous!"

Ever since the Spirit Lotus Root Woman Jiang Xi married Steward Su, she had received betrothal gifts including a Storage Bag, a flying Law Artifact, and a Three Flowers Pill, and had even been supported in learning pill refinement...

What female cultivator on Cuiwei Lake hadn't turned red-eyed with envy? They had all raised their standards for marriage.

Little Die and Little Li had originally been in love with each other, but over the past two years, it was as if she had awakened, and her demands of him had shot sky-high.

After scolding him a little, Yuan Dahu said, "Alchemist Zhou, could you sell me three packets of Clear Eyes Powder? The brothers on the lake need it."

Zhou Ning said, "Sixty jin of spirit rice."

Yuan Dahu's face lit up.

When he first learned that Zhou Ning had become an Alchemist, he had thought little of it, assuming that a lucky fellow had simply risen to fortune.

Later, someone had asked Zhou Ning whether he sold Clear Eyes Powder. After all, fishermen used the Spirit Eye Technique all day, which was especially hard on their eyes.

As it turned out, that person had bought it from Zhou Ning at a low price.

Word had spread from then on. Now, with pill prices rising outside, retainers were charged only the cost price for Clear Eyes Powder.

Yuan Dahu knew Zhou Ning cared about his reputation, but he admired him somewhat all the same. After all, he really was giving up profit.

After receiving the Clear Eyes Powder, Yuan Dahu said gratefully, "Alchemist Zhou, be careful lately. I heard that at the front, the Guo Household suddenly defected to the Lei Household, and the Su Household cultivators were routed!"

Zhou Ning was slightly startled to hear it. Could the Su Household be on the verge of collapse?