Lady Cultivator

Having solved the issue with those three unlucky souls, Mo Tiange went looking for a place to rest.

As expected of the Immortals Assembly, the streets were full of people. Several inns Mo Tiange visited were all full. With no other alternatives, she could only rent an expensive hut from Tiandao Sect.

Right afterward, she headed to a shop belonging to Tiandao Sect named Hall of Hundred Grasses.

With the Immortals Assembly approaching, the apothecary was jam-packed with people buying all kinds of medicinal pills. There was only one corner completely devoid of any guests. A second layer Aura Refining old man in the attire of Tiandao Sect part-time disciple was quietly dozing off there.

Mo Tiange observed her surroundings for a moment. After discovering that the quiet corner was the spot to buy and sell spiritual plants, she immediately headed for that corner and knocked on the counter.

The old man watching the counter opened his eyes and stared at her before asking lazily, “Are you buying or selling?”

His attitude was very indifferent. She remembered that when she hadn’t yet entered Yunwu Sect and had a low cultivation level, the clerks in Yunwu Sect’s shops still treated her courteously. Meanwhile, this Tiandao Sect claimed to be the greatest cultivation group in Kunwu, but its part-time disciples were this arrogant…

Nevertheless, she didn’t feel like arguing over this matter and simply said, “I want to buy a few spiritual plants to concoct medicinal pills.”

“Oh?” The old man said while sweeping his gaze over her. He probably thought she was a Concoctions Master as he asked, “What kind? How many?”

Mo Tiange answered, “All kinds needed for first-grade medicinal pills. How much will those cost?”

“Oh…” This “oh” was different from the previous one; it was a very long “oh.” A bright glint flashed through the old man’s eyes as he stared at her. He then asked, “Fellow Daoist, this must be your first time learning to concoct medicinal pills, right?”

Mo Tiange nodded. There were tons of people who couldn’t concoct pills, and there were plenty of people interested in learning the craft, so she didn’t feel she needed to hide this fact.

The old man said, “I have a few recipes for commonly used medicinal pills. Would Fellow Daoist perhaps be interested?”

Mo Tiange’s original plan was to buy a few pill recipes after she bought the spiritual plants. Since this man had taken the initiative to ask her, she naturally took the opportunity. “If Fellow Daoist has them, I’m willing to buy them.”

Upon hearing her answer, the old man’s indifferent attitude changed. He smiled and said, “Of course I do. I have the recipe for Aura-Nourishing Pill, Restorative Panacea, Aura-Purifying Pill, Refreshing Pill and so on. If Fellow Daoist wants them, I can give you a cheaper price. How about three spirit stones each?”

Those medicinal pills were the most common medicinal pills in the cultivation world. The recipes for them weren’t hard to find – they were available everywhere and were thus cheap. However, they were only considered relatively cheap when compared to other pill recipes that usually cost several hundreds of spirit stones. A cost of three spirit stones for disciples of cultivation groups wasn’t at all cheap since they were typically only provided with about five spirit stones each month. Even those who were diligent in their attempts to earn money only got about ten to twenty spirit stones, not to mention individual cultivators. Therefore, the old man immediately watched Mo Tiange’s expression after he finished speaking.

When the old man noticed that she didn’t immediately answer, he whispered, “Fellow Daoist, this isn’t the shop’s price. If you shopped around in other stores, they would all charge you about five spirit stones each. You’ll never be able to buy them this cheap.”

Mo Tiange’s momentary silence was simply out of habit. She wasn’t extremely rich, so whenever she bought things, she tried to save whatever spirit stones she could. Hence, instead of directly answering, she contemplated the purchase in her mind first.

Now she understood the old man’s meaning – she understood that this old man was making a private sale, so the spirit stones would enter his own pocket. That was the reason behind his behavior.

While being stared at by Mo Tiange, the old man didn’t feel embarrassed at all and simply smiled.

After thinking for a while, Mo Tiange said, “Alright, bring the pill recipes to me. I’ll choose some of them. In the meantime, you should go and prepare the materials I want.”

The old man smiled. He fetched a paper made of animal skin and handed it to her.

Mo Tiange chose three pills recipes listed on the paper.

The old man glanced at her and asked, “Fellow Daoist, how many materials do you need?”

After pondering it, Mo Tiange answered, “Give me 100 portions for each material. Additionally, add the materials needed for Aura-Nourishing Pill, Marrow-Repairing Pill and also Divine Pill. Give me a hundred portions of them each.”

100 portions of each material were more than enough. Although the old man was a bit surprised, he didn’t say anything and just turned around to retrieve another animal skin paper from the counter. From the medicine cabinet at the back, he selected the materials and wrapped them separately according to their type. Some types that had to be kept fresh were directly packed using a jade case.

“Here are 100 portions of medicinal pill materials according to the recipes. You better store them well.”

The countertop was completely covered with piles of objects. Several Jade Slips were placed on top of the jade case. Once she examined the Jade Slips and found that they were indeed the pill recipes she asked for, Mo Tiange directly asked, “How many spirit stones should I pay?”

The old man monitored the surroundings with glittering eyes. It was only after he was certain no one was paying attention that he said, “These materials… since you’re buying so many of them, I’ll make them a bit cheaper for you – 150 spirit stones. Three pill recipes cost nine spirit stones. The total is 159 spirit stones.”

Mo Tiange nodded. She took the spirit stones out from her Qiankun Bag and counted them several times before handing them over. Behaving a bit more cautiously showed people that she thought this amount of spirit stones was a lot. By doing this, she avoided inciting the greediness of others in case they saw her making this purchase.

This region was different with Yunwu Sect, where Second Uncle was close. With Second Uncle on her side, she didn’t need to be scared that people would be envious when they saw her spending several hundred spirit stones because spending that amount was normal for Foundation Building cultivators.

The old man beamingly accepted the spirit stones and said, “Thank you for the purchase.” He easily swindled nine spirit stones; this definitely wasn’t small business.

After storing all the materials in her Qiankun Bag, Mo Tiange proceeded to ask, “Do you perhaps sell Pill Furnaces here?”

Upon hearing her question, the old man once again revealed a friendly smile. “Fellow Daoist has good timing in asking this; I was about to put some up for sale. Although the quality isn’t great, they’re sufficient for people who’re just learning to concoct pills. But of course, if you want to buy a high-quality Pill Furnace, you may go to our Tiandao Sect’s exclusive material shop, ‘Hall of Thousand Tools.’ It’s right next door.”

Mo Tiange answered, “I’ve just started to learn, so there’s no need for a high-quality Pill Furnace. For now, let me see what kind of Pill Furnaces you have.”

The old man nodded and took out several Pill Furnaces from under the counter. As he arranged them on the counter, he said, “Please take a look at these.”

Among them, the smallest one was only about one square foot while the largest one was at least three feet tall. Mo Tiange recalled Qin Xi’s Pill Furnace she saw before; it seemed to be only about one foot tall but it brimmed with spiritual aura. Presumably, the size of the Pill Furnace ought to have no relation to the success of pill concoctions. Thus, she randomly chose the small one and asked, “How many spirit stones is this?”

“All of them are the same price – fifteen spirit stones.”

Mo Tiange nodded. She counted out fifteen spirit stones then stored the Pill Furnace in her Qiankun Bag.

Now that the goods were delivered and the bill was dealt with, both parties felt very satisfied. Mo Tiange left the Hall of a Hundred Grasses accompanied by the old man’s ‘We’ll be waiting for your next visit!’ farewell. Goosebumps appeared on her body. She didn’t know why, but when she heard the old man’s voice, she felt that it really resembled the solicitous voice used by pimps in secular world brothels when they sent their guests off.

Mo Tiange first laid a formation right after she returned to her temporary hut. She then took out the Pill Furnace she bought and cleaned it before arranging it in front of her. After that, she took out several books and started to flip through them.

Second Uncle once said that almost no one in Ye Clan ever learned to concoct medicinal pills. There were only a few Concoctions Masters, but this was also a very long time ago. As a result, they didn’t have many pill-concocting materials. The few that remained were lost when Ye Clan moved out of Mount Qingmeng.

Fortunately, she obtained several books a few years ago in Miwu Valley. Among them was one pertaining to the art of concocting medicinal pills. Since the other books were quite good, this book presumably wouldn’t be bad in comparison. Mo Tiange took it out and studied it.

The most basic medicinal pills for Aura Refining cultivators was the Aura-Nourishing Pill, so she naturally had to start concocting this pill.

She took out various kinds of materials before reviewing everything she required such as the Real Fire for concocting pills and the usage of various hand seals. It was only after she confirmed she thoroughly understood everything that she put the book down.

She then sat on a praying mat and gathered her aura into her dantian. A moment later, a thread of spiritual aura was automatically emitted from her palm. In an instant, that spiritual aura changed into a blazing fire.

Mo Tiange smiled as she watched the fire in her palm. This was the fire from her dantian; people could release this fire even if they didn’t have fire spiritual roots. However, the quality of spiritual auras with fire attributes did have a huge influence on Dantian Fires.

Her spiritual roots weren’t considered good spiritual roots, but this was seen from total numbers of spiritual roots she had. If it was seen from the quality of each spiritual roots she had, Second Uncle, who once examined them, told her that each of her spiritual root was pretty good, which was why she could emit a Dantian Fire so easily.

As she increased the spiritual aura in her palm, her Dantian Fire also grew into a thin fire beam. Once it reached the bottom of the Pill Furnace, it quickly covered the entire furnace’s bottom, causing the Pill Furnace to heat up in an instant.

She emitted some spiritual aura through her free hand to open the furnace’s lid. With a series of rapid movements, she sent various kinds of materials into the furnace and quickly replaced the lid.

She also inserted a thread of her divine sense into the furnace so she could feel the fusing of the materials.

The power of her Dantian Fire far exceeded that of ordinary fire; it quickly dissolved all materials inside the furnace. At this moment, a ‘Pop!’ noise came from inside the Pill Furnace.

Mo Tiange stopped emitting her Dantian Fire then went to open the lid. She stared gloomily at the materials inside it.

Most of these materials already melted, yet instead of blending properly, they turned into a pool of steaming, sizzling, bubbling black liquid.

With a sigh, Mo Tiange threw away all of the dregs of this failed concoction. She used clean water to wash the furnace before placing it back.

Sure enough, concocting medicinal pills wasn’t an easy matter. Regarding the quantity of each material, it was written in the book that although the rough amounts were known, the specific amount had to be learned slowly by Concoctions Masters themselves. In that way, they would develop a grasp over the slightest details.

The reason the pill concoction in this furnace failed during the fusing step was because Mo Tiange still couldn’t sense the components of the medicinal pills and couldn’t be sure of the quantity needed.

After using extra portions of each material, she failed once again. However, this time, a smile appeared on her face. This time, when her divine sense was inserted into the Pill Furnace, she could already sense the subtle differences between each material. Therefore, after once again washing the Pill Furnace, she continued to attempt to concoct medicinal pills.

After speedily adding the materials and inserting her divine sense into the furnace, she could feel that the materials were melting. Soon, all materials inside started to intermix… After a quarter hour, she could already smell the pure fragrance of medicinal pills.

Mo Tiange swallowed several Restorative Panaceas and pulled her spiritual aura into her dantian, emitting an even fiercer Dantian Fire that completely covered the Pill Furnace.

Bit by bit, under high temperature, the liquid inside the Pill Furnace started to boil and become more concentrated.

Mo Tiange had to continuously swallow Restorative Panaceas to maintain her Dantian Fire. This was when she had to solidify the pills, so she had to keep the high temperature of the fire steady. However, the spiritual aura of Aura Refining cultivators was indeed too weak; she could only rely on Restorative Panaceas to maintain her Dantian Fire.

She didn’t know how long she worked or how many Restorative Panaceas she took, but eventually, the liquid inside the Pills Furnace slowly became more concentrated and turned into lumps which then started to solidify into pills…

When the liquid finished solidifying and formed pills, Mo Tiange stopped emitting her Dantian Fire and opened the Pill Furnace with delight.

In the next second, however, the expression on her face once again became extremely depressed. The medicinal pills had taken shape, yet in the split second after she opened the Pill Furnace, they burst. She knew that this must’ve happened because she opened the Pill Furnace at the wrong time.

Concocting medicinal pills was indeed not a simple matter. It was no wonder the book emphasized that people would have a bit of a grasp over the entire pills-concocting process only after attempting dozens of times.

Otherwise, if she always succeeded in concocting medicinal pills and each pill was priced at one or two spirit stones, while she spent only 150 spirit stones for approximately 700-800 portions of materials – 100 portions for each kind of medicinal pills – that would mean she would gain an enormous profit.

But the odds of success were extremely low. From 700-800 portions of medicinal pill materials, it would be considered excellent if she could successfully concoct and obtain 200-300 pills. Coupled with other costs, the profit really wasn’t that much.

Mo Tiange shook her head and threw the failed concoction away. After washing the Pill Furnace, she once again continued to try to concoct the pills.

Even if she didn’t have the talent, she definitely could succeed as long as she kept trying hard. Anyway, she had a lot of spirit stones at the moment. She would only consider giving up after she no longer had enough spirit stones.