Chapter 174: Chapter 173: The Half-Year Leap

A night of drunken revelry passed. When he awoke, his once treacherous Immortal Path had smoothed into a wide, open road.

Chu Mu washed up and changed into a fresh set of clothes.

He swallowed a Vein Nourishing Pill. A surge of Medicinal Power rushed through him, ultimately converting into nearly sixty points of Cultivation Progress for his Flame Decision.

After a short rest, Chu Mu sat cross-legged before his Pill Furnace.

Beside him were raw materials for Grain Avoidance Pills, worth four hundred Spirit Stones.

Before him, his battered Pill Furnace was already being heated by Spiritual Fire.

The consumption of several thousand Spiritual Radiance Value points had brought his Grain Avoidance Pill refining to the level of Refined Skill, granting him a success rate of about seventy percent.

Chu Mu had a clear plan for the four hundred Spirit Stones’ worth of raw materials.

He would use his own abilities to refine three hundred Spirit Stones’ worth. The remaining one hundred Spirit Stones’ worth would be refined with the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, allowing him to compare the process, identify his shortcomings, and further improve his skill in refining Grain Avoidance Pills.

If everything went perfectly, his final profit would be at least one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

Batch after batch of Grain Avoidance Pills were refined, some successfully, others not. Fifteen days later, the four hundred Spirit Stones’ worth of raw materials had been turned into three hundred and twenty-one Grain Avoidance Pills.

This time, since he hadn’t used the Spiritual Radiance Blessing for many batches, not many of the pills had Pill Patterns.

Chu Mu didn’t keep any for himself, handing all three hundred and twenty-one Grain Avoidance Pills to Wang Mazi.

In those fifteen days, he had consumed all eight Vein Nourishing Pills, and his Cultivation Progress in the second layer of the Flame Decision had leaped forward, nearly reaching the end.

Even with his Pseudo Spirit Root aptitude, with the help of sufficient resources, his cultivation had entered a temporary fast lane.

For the time that followed, Chu Mu returned to his monotonous routine, shuttling back and forth between the Magic Experiment Hall and his house each day.

He focused on his Flame Decision cultivation and practicing his Magic Blade Technique.

About ten days later, Wang Mazi once again stepped into his house.

He brought the same as before: four hundred Spirit Stones’ worth of raw materials for Grain Avoidance Pills and a sixty-percent cut of the profits—one hundred and fifty-six Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

In the days and months that followed, this pattern continued.

He would spend about ten days on Alchemy, then hand the pills to Wang Mazi to sell, earning a monthly income of around one hundred and fifty Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

He would buy five Vein Nourishing Pills, which cost fifteen Spirit Stones each, for a total of seventy-five. After factoring in rent and the cost of practicing magic, he could still save about fifty Spirit Stones a month.

This life continued for over half a year, until it was interrupted by another one of Wang Mazi’s visits.

This time, Wang Mazi stayed for much longer than ever before.

He arrived at noon and didn’t leave until dusk, when Chu Mu finally saw him to the door.

Wang Mazi had come in a hurry and left in one as well, quickly disappearing from Chu Mu’s sight.

Chu Mu glanced around. It was sunset, and the lingering rays of the sun cast a golden glow, bathing the entire Marketplace in a shade of dark gold.

Gazing at the distant mountains, the brilliant spectacle of peaks lit by the sun, combined with the bleakness of early winter, formed a magnificent panorama.

Despite the beautiful scenery before him, Chu Mu was clearly in no mood to appreciate it. He looked around, his mind heavy with thoughts.

After a moment, he looked at his Light Curtain Panel.

[Name: Chu Mu.]

[Skills: Basic Blade Technique (Peak of Perfection) 6238/10000.

Fireball Skill (Peak of Perfection) 2896/10000.

Flame Barrier (Peak of Perfection) 98/10000]

[Flame Decision Fourth Layer (156/2000)]

[Alchemy: Grain Avoidance Pill: Peak of Perfection (8953/10000)]

[Spiritual Radiance Value: 2356.7%]

(Useless skills like the Body Refining Technique and Dragon and Snake Soup are no longer listed.)

In just half a Spring and Autumn Period—half a year—the Light Curtain Panel had undergone an unprecedented transformation.

Propelled by five Vein Nourishing Pills per month and the expenditure of hundreds of Spirit Stones, his Cultivation, which had stagnated for years with minimal progress, had now leaped directly to the Qi Cultivation Fourth Layer—what was commonly known in the Cultivation Immortal Realm as the Middle Stage of Qi Cultivation!

Although his Fireball Skill and Blade Technique were still at the Peak of Perfection realm, their progress had taken a great leap forward.

His Defense Magic, Flame Barrier, had also reached the Peak of Perfection, becoming nearly instantaneous and greatly increasing its defensive power!

As for his Grain Avoidance Pill refining, fueled by thousands of Spirit Stones’ worth of resources, it had surpassed all his other skills, becoming the one with the highest Skill Level.

Now, his success rate for refining Grain Avoidance Pills was nearly one hundred percent!

He could even occasionally refine a One-Patterned Grain Avoidance Pill using only his own power.

Gazing at the uniform list of skills at the Peak of Perfection on his Light Curtain Panel, Chu Mu’s slightly agitated heart gradually calmed.

He closed the door, once again shutting himself off from the world.

He took a Storage Talisman from his robe, and from it, he retrieved a Jade Scroll.

These two items were the purpose of Wang Mazi’s visit.

Setting the Storage Talisman and Jade Scroll aside, Chu Mu took out a bag of Spirit Stones.

Over the past half year, he had saved up three hundred and twelve Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

But now, only twelve Lower Grade Spirit Stones remained.

Three hundred of them had been given to Wang Mazi just now.

In exchange, he had received the Storage Talisman and Jade Scroll before him.

The most important item was the Jade Scroll, worth six hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones, which contained the Pill Recipe for the Vein Nourishing Pill.

According to Wang Mazi, the Vein Nourishing Pill’s Pill Recipe itself was worth around four hundred Spirit Stones. This Jade Scroll was valued at six hundred because it also contained the detailed refining experiences of an Alchemist from the Longevity Sect.

The Storage Talisman contained raw materials worth six hundred and eighty Spirit Stones.

This included one hundred Spirit Stones’ worth of materials for Grain Avoidance Pills, with the remaining five hundred and eighty being for Vein Nourishing Pills.

In other words, this time, neither of them took a profit. They had invested all the Spirit Stones earned from selling the Grain Avoidance Pills and even chipped in three hundred Spirit Stones each to afford this Pill Recipe for the Vein Nourishing Pill.

A Storage Talisman and a Jade Scroll, worth a total of one thousand two hundred and eighty Lower Grade Spirit Stones. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The initial investment for a new Pill Recipe alone was over a thousand Spirit Stones.

Staring at this enormous expense, Chu Mu couldn’t help but smile wryly. Not long ago, he had been struggling just to get his hands on one or two Broken Spirits.

Now, he barely felt a thing when spending over a thousand Spirit Stones.

After a moment of reflection, he collected himself. Once his mind was calm, Chu Mu picked up the Jade Scroll.

He sent his Divine Sense into the Jade Scroll, and the knowledge recorded within flooded into his mind.

His "Spiritual Radiance" plummeted. Under the effect of his enhanced intellect, the influx of knowledge was rapidly sorted and organized, forming a new framework in his mind.

It was late at night when Chu Mu slowly opened his eyes. A residual glint of Spiritual Radiance remained in them as he set the Jade Scroll down.

"Monarch, Minister, Assistant, and Envoy..."

Chu Mu murmured. At this moment, memories of his arduous studies in the mortal world seemed to resurface.

After a moment of daze, Chu Mu gathered his thoughts. He pondered for a bit before looking at the Storage Talisman nearby.

With a flicker of his Divine Sense, he took out the various raw materials from the Storage Talisman one by one, arranging them neatly on the floor.

The Vein Nourishing Pill was clearly different from the grain-based refining method of the Grain Avoidance Pill. Instead, it was identical to the system of understanding people and medicine he had studied in the mortal world.

The principle of Monarch, Minister, Assistant, and Envoy, involving thirteen different Spirit Medicines.

The most precious among them was a thirty-year-old Vein Grass, which was precisely what gave the Vein Nourishing Pill its name.

The remaining twelve Spirit Medicines were, without exception, all herbs that had grown beyond their natural limits.

His knowledge of such Spirit Medicines was undoubtedly extremely limited.

The Pill Recipe was clear, and the refining experience recorded in the Jade Scroll was very detailed.

But actually refining it was clearly not something that could be accomplished overnight.

He needed to know the medicinal properties of each of the thirteen Spirit Medicines by heart before he could even attempt it.

Otherwise, it would be a complete waste of Spirit Stones.

As his thoughts churned, Chu Mu selected the thirteen medicinal ingredients and sat down at his table.

Paper and pen were laid out. In that moment, it felt as if he had returned to the mortal world, back to the days when he was studying the Dragon and Snake Soup.

He took a stalk of Vein Grass and carefully picked off half a leaf. His Divine Sense focused as he observed, tasted, perceived, and recorded his experiments.

The night deepened into dawn, then dusk fell, and dawn broke once more.

Day and night cycled, sun and moon trading places.

The figure at the table remained just as focused.

When he got hungry, he ate a Grain Avoidance Pill. When he grew tired, he rested his head on the table for a light nap.

With his new identity, he had no interactions with anyone besides Wang Mazi, and no one came to disturb him.

Time trickled by, bit by bit, amidst his intense concentration.

The experimental records of the medicinal properties on his table grew day by day.

Nearly two months passed by quietly in this state of focus.

Outside his house, the world changed from blizzards and endless white snow to melting ice and the reawakening of all living things...

...