Cultivation: Start From Simplifying Martial Arts Techniques

Baka looked on in surprise, scratching his head as the tendrils on top of it swayed gently.

With a gesture from Chen Fei’s right hand, the Snow Cloud Pill floated in front of him.

The structure of the Snow Cloud Pill remained intact, without the slightest damage, and due to the enhanced medicinal power, the surface now bore many more pill patterns.

When Chen Fei bought it previously, he had chosen a high-grade Snow Cloud Pill, potent in medicinal power yet easily absorbable.

Now infused with spiritual essence, the Snow Cloud Pill broke through its usual category of top-grade, reaching a position it shouldn’t normally achieve.

Chen Fei glanced at Baka. Baka’s talent was quite extraordinary; he could extract the medicinal properties without harming the pill in the slightest.

To think that a formed object like a pill could temporarily separate its medicinal properties, it gave Chen Fei the opportunity to add spiritual essence into it.

The spiritual essence of monsters was exceptionally pure and could be directly absorbed, naturally able to blend into spiritual materials.

It was precisely because of this that Chen Fei had previously thought of using these spiritual essences for alchemy.

Alchemy involved the sublimation of medicinal properties, but inevitably there were losses due to conflicts between them. It was impossible to completely merge all medicinal properties together.

However, with abilities like Baka’s, integrating spiritual essence caused no loss. It was akin to directly upgrading the pill, where quantitative changes triggered qualitative transformations!

The Snow Cloud Pill was a fourth-grade medium-grade pill, not cheap by any means. It was a primary pill used by mid-level cultivators in the Mountain Sea Realm.

Despite its cost, a single pill ultimately cost just a few high-grade elemental stones. Using Snow Cloud Pills emphasized gradual accumulation over time, unlike Dragon Breath Pills, which instantly enhanced cultivation. They were not comparable.

The Snow Cloud Pill in Chen Fei’s hand had surpassed top-grade, with extraordinary medicinal power, but its essence remained unchanged—it was still a daily cultivation pill and couldn’t be used for breakthroughs.

If sold, it might have fetched a dozen or so high-grade elemental stones, or at most, around twenty-some.

Because high-grade Snow Cloud Pills contained minimal toxic effects and did not induce resistance, there was no need to specially purchase top-grade or super-top-grade Snow Cloud Pills.

With Chen Fei’s limited spiritual essence, naturally, he couldn’t use it to enhance Snow Cloud Pills.

Dragon Breath Pills were also unsuitable because their medicinal power was already very strong, and the method of refinement had always been controlled by the Sacred Land.

Top-tier forces might have their own pill formulas, but they lacked the essential spiritual materials to consistently produce such high-level pills.

Chen Fei could change his identity and sell pills in the Green Cloud Market, but that would draw unnecessary attention—it wasn’tworth it.

It would be better to use other pills, process them to achieve a level close to Dragon Breath Pills, easier to sell without attracting too much attention.

Recently, many cultivators in the Mountain Sea Realm had Dragon Breath Pills because the Mission Hall offered exchanges for them; as long as the contribution points were sufficient, even sect-specific martial arts could be exchanged for.

Dragon Breath Pills were naturally not considered rare.

However, in the past, Dragon Breath Pills often appeared sporadically through auctions.

“Baka, I’ll need your help for a while,” Chen Fei looked at Baka and said with a smile.

“Oh, sure,” Baka nodded happily upon hearing that Chen Fei needed his assistance.

Five days later, Chen Fei transformed his appearance, looking weathered with rough hands and wrinkled cheeks, resembling an old farmer, and entered the Green Cloud Market.

“Customer, what can I help you with?”

The Rain Frost Pavilion, established by the Rain Frost Sect, was the first shop Chen Fei visited after inquiring about the Myriad Bamboo. However, with his current appearance, the shopkeeper of Rain Frost Pavilion naturally didn’t recognize Chen Fei.

“I’m an alchemist with some pills on hand. I wonder if you accept them here?” Chen Fei’s voice was hoarse.

“Pills? What kind of pills?”

The shopkeeper’s expression remained unchanged upon hearing about the pills, neither rejecting nor showing surprise.

Although the Rain Frost Sect had its own alchemists and sources of spiritual materials, they generally didn’t lack common pills.

Nonetheless, every visitor was a potential customer, and they needed to inspect the pills before making a decision.

“It’s the Nine Herbs Pill, but I’ve made some improvements to enhance its efficacy.”

Chen Fei smiled faintly as he took out a bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the counter.

The Nine Herbs Pill was used in the later stages of cultivation in the Mountain Sea Realm, requiring precious spiritual materials and offering a slight breakthrough effect. It was quite popular among late-stage cultivators in the Mountain Sea Realm.

As a fourth-grade medium-grade pill, its profit margin was thin, but higher grades meant higher profits. Hence, Chen Fei ultimately chose the Nine Herbs Pill.

Upon hearing about the Nine Herbs Pill, the shopkeeper’s gaze flickered slightly. Being able to refine a fourth-grade high-grade pill indicated that the alchemical skill of the person before him almost matched that of the peak alchemist in the Rain Frost Sect.

The shopkeeper opened the bottle. There was no medicinal fragrance, indicating that the pill had locked all its medicinal power within—a hallmark of a top-grade pill.

Glancing at Chen Fei and seeing no objections, the shopkeeper carefully took out the Nine Herbs Pill and examined it closely.

After just a few glances, the shopkeeper’s expression changed noticeably.

Initially, when Chen Fei mentioned improving the Nine Herbs Pill’s formula, the shopkeeper hadn’t paid much attention.

The formula for the Nine Herbs Pill had been passed down for thousands of years and had already undergone significant changes from its original version.

However, these changes mainly focused on refining techniques and adjusting the combination of spiritual materials.

In terms of medicinal potency, the improvements were actually minimal, with little difference compared to the original version from centuries ago.

By now, the formula for the Nine Herbs Pill was highly refined, and no one bothered to make further improvements unless a necessary spiritual material disappeared or became difficult to obtain in the future.

At this moment, the shopkeeper couldn’t discern the specific spiritual materials used in this pill. However, what the shopkeeper could confirm was that the Nine Herbs Pill contained an unusually potent medicinal power.

Glancing at Chen Fei, the shopkeeper recalled his earlier claim that the pill’s efficacy had been enhanced “somewhat,” which now seemed like a considerable understatement.

“Sir, forgive my poor judgment. I’m uncertain about the true value of this pill. Could I trouble one of our alchemists in the shop to inspect it?” the shopkeeper murmured respectfully.

“Of course,” Chen Fei waved his hand and took a seat on a nearby chair.

“Thank you!”

Carefully placing the Nine Herbs Pill back into its bottle, the shopkeeper then used a spiritual tool at his waist to notify the Rain Frost Sect’s alchemist within.

Fifteen minutes later, two figures appeared at the Rain Frost Pavilion. The shopkeeper hurried forward upon seeing them—it was Feng Changde, the peak alchemist of the Rain Frost Sect, accompanied by his senior disciple Wu Xiangling.

“Where’s the pill?” Feng Changde glanced at Chen Fei, nodded in acknowledgment, and then turned to the shopkeeper.

Feng Changde happened to be nearby in the Green Cloud Market area when he heard about the shop’s need to verify a pill, so he decided to stop by.

“Here it is.”

The shopkeeper led Feng Changde and Wu Xiangling to the counter and pointed to the bottle.

“You go ahead and take a look,” Feng Changde instructed his disciple, Wu Xiangling.

Wu Xiangling was at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, a cultivation level that Feng Changde, a late-stage cultivator in the Mountain Sea Realm, clearly valued, indicating her exceptional skill in alchemy.

“Yes, Master!”

Wu Xiangling nodded and carefully took out the Nine Herbs Pill from the bottle. She first observed it closely with her naked eye before examining it meticulously with her spiritual senses.

Meanwhile, Feng Changde, standing beside her, furrowed his brow slightly the moment Wu Xiangling took out the Nine Herbs Pill.

Experts could discern many things from small details.

As a master alchemist, Feng Changde could already tell the extraordinary nature of this Nine Herbs Pill with just a quick glance.

“Master, this pill is amazing!”

After a moment, Wu Xiangling turned to Feng Changde, then glanced cautiously at the old farmer nearby, filled with astonishment.

Wu Xiangling had encountered many Nine Herbs Pills before. Although she couldn’t currently refine them herself, Feng Changde often tasked her with observing and understanding various pills. Thus, Wu Xiangling was quite knowledgeable about the Nine Herbs Pill.

But among all the Nine Herbs Pills she had seen, none had ever displayed such potent medicinal power, as if it were about to burst through the confines of the pill itself.

Typically, top-grade pills were characterized by a simple and smooth surface, but this pill seemed on the verge of bursting open at any moment, yet the intricate patterns on its surface tightly locked in its power.

This made the effects of this Nine Herbs Pill far surpass those of typical top-grade pills, providing immense benefits for cultivators in the late stages of the Mountain Sea Realm.

“Are you intending to sell this Nine Herbs Pill?” Feng Changde turned to Chen Fei.

“Naturally. Otherwise, what would I be doing here?” Chen Fei replied with a touch of mock arrogance, nodding his head.

“I wonder how many of these Nine Herbs Pills you have. We at Rain Frost Pavilion will buy them all!” Feng Changde’s face lit up with a smile.

Upon hearing Feng Changde’s offer, Chen Fei’s face mirrored the smile.

A few moments later, Chen Fei left Rain Frost Pavilion. After wandering through Green Cloud Market and changing his appearance, he continued to move about.

Close to ninety thousand high-grade elemental stones!

After deducting the original cost of the Nine Herbs Pills, and with the help of Baka and that cluster of spiritual essence, Chen Fei had earned an income equivalent to a high-grade spiritual treasure.

If he had sold just the cluster of spiritual essence alone, it might have fetched around thirteen to fourteen thousand high-grade elemental stones, reaching its peak value, or possibly even less.

But with this transaction, the value of the spiritual essence instantly skyrocketed.

Feng Changde of the Rain Frost Pavilion had his eye on Chen Fei’s improved formula for the Nine Herbs Pill. If he could obtain this formula, Rain Frost Pavilion could also produce such pills.

Feng Changde was confident in his abilities to achieve this.

However, Chen Fei had no such formula to offer, and he politely declined Feng Changde’s persistent inquiries.

Despite Feng Changde raising the price to a tempting level that almost swayed Chen Fei, he simply did not possess the formula.

In front of such an expert, any fabricated formula by Chen Fei would be quickly exposed.

Feng Changde attempted another approach, offering Chen Fei a position as an honorary elder at the Rain Frost Pavilion, which Chen Fei also declined.

Rain Frost Pavilion did not send anyone to track Chen Fei, recognizing his cultivation level was beyond the reach of most people in the mid-stages of the Mountain Sea Realm.

In the end, Feng Changde expressed his hope that if Chen Fei ever obtained new batches of the Nine Herbs Pill, he would consider selling them to Rain Frost Pavilion.

Entering a shop, Chen Fei sold the blade and earned a final sum of eighteen thousand high-grade elemental stones.

Next, Chen Fei walked into another small shop and inquired about the price of the Myriad Bamboo.