Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 301-Chapter 400)

As long as the four crucial elements of cultivation—wealth, companionship, method, and environment—were all present, the first few layers were relatively easy to break through.

In a martial arts hall, Li Qingshan’s fist whistles through the air, flying towards Han Tieyi’s face. Han Tieyi’s body swiveled like a screw as the spear in his hand swept towards Li Qingshan’s legs like a black dragon that crawled along the ground.

Li Qingshan sniggered. Completely ignoring the attack from below, his fists moved about and conjured a series of blurs. To the military disciples on the side, it seemed like he had thrown several dozen punches at the same time, engulfing Han Tieyi’s face. Who said I couldn’t touch your face? He yelled, “Time to pay back your debt!”





Chapter 355: Refining True Spirit Pills | Legend of the Great Sage




Han Tieyi abandoned the spear without hesitation. He managed to catch Li Qingshan’s fists accurately among the blurs.

Both of their legs suddenly sank deeply into the ground, causing it to crack loudly.

After a few clashes, they parted. Both of them heaved gently.

Li Qingshan could not help but admit that the school of the Military was truly a school for actual combat, and Han Tieyi deserved his position as the primary disciple. Li Qingshan had already unleashed the battle skill of Ocean Brawling to the limit, but he still failed to touch Han Tieyi’s face. He was able to counter or nullify the attack every single time with ingenious moves.

And, in human form, even his abilities as a Body Practitioner paled in comparison to Han Tieyi, a tenth layer Qi Practitioner, and his abilities as a Qi Practitioner were even less worth mentioning. When they clashed, he would endure relatively more of a beating. His brother-in-law was quite the opponent.

Meanwhile, Han Tieyi felt even more shocked. Every single layer was a huge difference for Qi Practitioners. In particular, the tenth layer was worlds apart from the previous nine layers. His moves that should have been able to vanquish the enemy would only cause slight wounds to Li Qingshan. Moreover, his endurance was shocking. Although Han Tieyi had never suffered a defeat, he would be dragged into an arduous struggle every single time.

Li Qingshan rested up a little and caught his breath. Seeing the midday sun, he said, “Hey, it’s time to eat!” The military disciples all agreed with him. “It’s time to eat! It’s time to eat!”

After a free lunch in the school of the Military, Li Qingshan casually made conversation with Han Tieyi. Nowadays, Li Qingshan would come to the school of the Military every morning for training so that he could gain a better grasp over the usage of battle skills. The two of them admired one another, and combined with their connection through Han Qiongzhi, they had quickly become friends.

“It’s already quite late. I need to go to Benevolence island.” Li Qingshan checked the time and stood up. The afternoon was for learning alchemy. Arriving on Benevolence island, Ru Xin said she wanted to focus on cultivation for the next few days, so she told him to refine a cauldron of pills alone.

Ever since he received the Jade Sculpted Cauldron of the Coiled Dragon from Han Qiongzhi, Li Qingshan’s success rate for pills had increased drastically. His ability to refine pills improved with each passing day, but it would still take more than just a few days if he wanted to gain the ability to refine a high level pill like the True Spirit pill. Though, Li Qingshan was in no hurry. He went to Contention island and accepted a few alchemy missions before beginning to refine pills.

Around dusk, Han Qiongzhi finished her day’s worth of work and cultivation. She turned down the invitation from a few colleagues to go out with them and instead spent some time with Li Qingshan as he refined pills. She brought him some food, and they talked about love.

Alchemy was very time-consuming, but it was not like artifact forging, which required concentration at all times and not even the slightest distraction. Most of the time, they played the role of a stoker, which was why impressive alchemists would often recruit a few lads to help watch over the cauldron. Li Qingshan did not have that privilege, but he did not find it boring either with the company of a beauty.

At night, Han Qiongzhi left, and Xiao An returned. She mentioned that Qian Rongzhi had broken through to the seventh layer. She had come to find her today, speaking with her for a while.

The cold stars embellished the night sky, but very soon, they were expelled once more by the red sun rising up from the east. This continued on as an endless cycle. In the blink of an eye, winter snow fell once more.

……

Li Qingshan’s alchemy ability constantly increased, but he instead began to run out of patience.

The deeper his understanding of alchemy became, the more he understood its profundity. It was definitely not like what he had originally imagined, where he could casually learn it for a year or two and then refine True Spirit pills en masse, which he could then use to exchange for cultivation pills.

In reality, the process was riddled with difficulties.

Just the first step of gathering spiritual herbs was an obstacle. Even though the other spiritual herbs for refining True Spirit pills were nowhere near as uncommon as the Blue Butterfly flowers, they were still extremely rare, which would cost him a tremendous amount of spiritual stones at the start. If he wanted to turn all the Blue Butterfly flowers into True Spirit pills, its cost would be calculated in the tens of thousands at the very least.

One or two of them basically had no market either. They were basically all in the possession of master alchemists, used to refine other high level pills. If he wanted to purchase them, he would have to pay an astronomical sum of one or two times their regular price at the very least. And, if he created such a disturbance purchasing these materials, everyone would know what he was up to. He could never afford to underestimate the intelligence of other cultivators.

Afterwards would be the second step, refinement.

Alchemy was not that simple. Even though he was in possession of something as powerful as the Jade Sculpted Cauldron of the Coiled Dragon, it would take him several months at the very least to learn how to refine True Spirit pills. And, once he did learn how to refine them, he would just barely be able to refine them. The success rate would be pitifully low. In other words, he would have to waste large quantities of precious materials.

If he wanted to increase his success rate, it would be very simple—spend another two or three years learning! However, whether his success rate could even exceed fifty percent was a whole different story. If he could easily learn how to refine high level pills like True Spirit pills in just two or three years, such that he could pump them out cauldron after cauldron, the streets would be filled with alchemists.

The last step, sale.



Even if he ignored the other problems and managed to refine True Spirit pills en masse, how was he supposed to sell them and exchange them for pills used for cultivation? This was not a game; he could not sell them just by finding a store, dragging and dropping them in followed by a click of the mouse. He had to conceal his identity first, but that would definitely result in others trying to force the prices down; they might even try to rob him by force.

Wealth begets trouble. A batch of True Spirit pills that could nurture a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators meant that even many Foundation Establishment cultivators who normally seemed very friendly could possibly change all of a sudden.

……

“Can I trust you?” Li Qingshan asked casually.

In Ru Xin’s alchemy room, Ru Xin was teaching Li Qingshan how to refine a cauldron of Fragrance pills. It was a relatively high level pill, but it was not for cultivation. Instead, ingesting Fragrance pills would imbue the body with an exotic fragrance. It had become extremely popular among female cultivators recently.