Nine Transformations of the True Spirit

In the alchemy room.

Chen Yuan closed his eyes and meditated, pinching the spell with his hands. In front of him, the blazing flames wrapped around the alchemy furnace, and a faint fragrance of alchemy floated out of the furnace.

Suddenly, Chen Yuan opened his eyes, the spell in his hand changed, the furnace cover was lifted, and six green pills flew out and fell into the jade bottle beside him.

Chen Yuan retracted his magic power, the flames dissipated, and the alchemy furnace slowly fell to the ground.

He waved his right hand, put the alchemy furnace into the storage bag, took the jade bottle, came to the practice room, took a green pill, closed his eyes and meditated.

Three days of practice passed in a flash.

Chen Yuan opened his eyes, felt the spiritual energy in his body, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth:

"Four years of hard practice, finally standing on the threshold of the late stage of Qi Refining..."

At this time, four years had passed since he mastered the alchemy technique.

After refining the Juling Pill, Chen Yuan did not immediately devote himself to practice, but continued to study the alchemy technique.

When refining the 80th furnace of Juling Dan, the success rate increased to 50%.

Later, Chen Yuan turned to refining Bailing Dan.

The difficulty of refining Bailing Dan is much higher than that of Juling Dan.

But Chen Yuan had a foundation, and his consciousness was constantly growing. He successfully refined the third furnace of Bailing Dan, with a success rate of 30%.

The success rate of the 10th furnace increased to 40%.

The success rate of the 30th furnace increased to 50%.

The success rate of the 50th furnace increased to 60%.

This is also the current limit of Chen Yuan's alchemy.

It takes five days to refine a furnace of Bailing Dan, and one plant of Biling Flower, Asparagus Grass, and Qingmu Root is required.

These three sixty-year-old spiritual herbs cost three spirit stones each, and one furnace costs nine spirit stones.

And the price of a Bailing Dan in the market is four spirit stones.

The success rate of ordinary alchemists refining Bailing Dan is only 20% to 30%, and they can only earn three spirit stones per furnace, and there is even the risk of losing money.

Chen Yuan's success rate is as high as 60%. He can earn 15 spiritual stones by refining a furnace of Bailing Pills.

However, Chen Yuan's goal is to improve his cultivation, so he will not sell all the Bailing Pills.

He also needs to perform starlight infusion, which also requires the help of Bailing Pills.

In the past, when pills were scarce, Chen Yuan could only absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to restore his mana.

Now that there is no shortage of pills, he will naturally not waste time on restoring mana.

If other cultivators knew that Chen Yuan used the Bailing Pills that can be used for a month of hard training to restore mana, they would definitely scold him for wasting heaven's gift.

But Chen Yuan felt his growing consciousness and felt that this was making the best use of everything.

Every time he refined a furnace of Bailing Pills, he would keep three for his own use. He only sold one bottle of Bailing Pills per month, and did not earn many spiritual stones.

It took four years to save up 275 spiritual stones.

But with the accumulation of pills, his cultivation reached the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refining and touched the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi Refining.

…

Chen Yuan finished his practice and came to the courtyard.

After mastering the alchemy, he no longer lacked spirit stones, but he did not change to a better cave.

Chen Yuan spent a lot of time on alchemy, and at least half of the month, his spirit veins were idle.

He simply stayed in the Dingdeng cave and practiced with elixirs. The speed was not slow, and he could save some spirit stones.

It was midwinter, the wind was howling in the air, the snow was flying, and everything was covered in silver.

Chen Yuan stroked his storage bag, summoned the Qingyun Sword, pinched the spell with his hand, and shouted softly:

"Quick!"

Zheng!

The Qingyun Sword made a cheerful sword sound, shot out, suddenly changed direction, and circled back and forth in the snow, as agile as a fish.

Chen Yuan took out the black iron shield and threw it in front of him.

The black iron shield immediately grew to two feet in size, emitting a faint black light, surrounding Chen Yuan, looking in front and behind, like catkins, floating unsteadily.

Two quarters of an hour later, Chen Yuan took back the Qingyun Sword and the black iron shield, and began to practice the Fireball Technique, Fire Snake Technique, and Quicksand Technique again.

He stopped only when most of his mana was consumed.

After each alchemy and meditation, Chen Yuan would take time to practice magic tools and spells.

When the cultivation level increases, the means of protecting the way cannot be neglected.

Just as Chen Yuan stopped, a voice sounded outside the courtyard gate:

"Brother Chen, are you in the mansion? Cao is here to visit."

Chen Yuan took out the cave jade card and opened the door. It was Cao You outside the door.

Chen Yuan led him into the main hall and sat down as host and guest.

Cao You smiled and said:

"Brother Chen, this month's Bailing Pill..."

Chen Yuan took out a jade bottle from the storage bag and handed it over.

Cao You took the jade bottle and stroked the storage bag, and a small pile of spirit stones appeared on the table.

Chen Yuan smiled, and with a sweep of his spiritual sense, there were exactly forty spirit stones. He raised his hand and flicked it, and put it into the storage bag.

After he refined the Bailing Pill, he no longer set up a stall to sell pills.

Most of the mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators who could buy a bottle of Bailing Pill at a time were regular customers of those pill shops, and rarely bought pills at the stalls.

Setting up a stall can only sell one or two pills in small quantities, which is too time-consuming.

And selling directly to those shops would earn two or three less spirit stones for each bottle of pill.

At this time, Cao You volunteered to buy the Bailing Pill from Chen Yuan.

He had a wide range of friends in the market, and knew many mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators. With some effort, he could sell the pills.

All he had to do was to help Cao You refine a furnace of Bailing Pill every three months.

Cao You provided the spiritual herbs, and Chen Yuan was only responsible for refining the elixir. No matter how successful the elixir was, he only had to give him three Bailing Pills.

In this way, Chen Yuan saved time and energy and could concentrate on refining the elixir.

On average, Cao You can earn one spiritual stone every month, but it only takes a little effort, and he enjoys it.

…

Cao You put away the Bailing Pill, looked Chen Yuan up and down, and said with a smile:

"Congratulations to Brother Chen for his great progress in cultivation. I see that Brother Chen has a strong spiritual energy. He should have touched the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi Refining, right?"

Hearing this, Chen Yuan's smile faded and said:

"It's just that I just touched the threshold. It's unknown when I can cross it."

Cao You smiled and said:

"Brother Chen is an alchemist. He has no shortage of spiritual stones. If he buys a Xuepo Pill, are you worried about not breaking the bottleneck?"

Chen Yuan's heart moved and asked:

"What is Xuepo Pill?"

Cao You showed a look of surprise:

"Brother Chen doesn't know Xuepo Pill?"

Chen Yuan said:

"Chen is refining pills behind closed doors and rarely goes out. I am a little ignorant. I hope that fellow Daoist Cao can help me solve my doubts."

Cao You explained Shi Dao:

"This Xuepo Pill is a special medicine of Guiyuan Sect. After taking it, it can increase the chance of breaking through the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi Refining by 30%."

Chen Yuan frowned slightly:

"Only 30%?"

Cao You said:

"30% is already a lot. The chance of breaking through the bottleneck of the late stage for cultivators with four spiritual roots like us is only 10% or 20%. If the chance can be increased by 30%, there is a 50% chance of breaking through the bottleneck. Brother Fan has been stuck at the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refining for five years. He has been accumulating spirit stones and wants to buy a Xuepo Pill to break through the bottleneck of the late stage. Unfortunately, he failed to do so and was buried in the Huanyue Mountains..."

Two years ago, Cao You and his three people went into the mountains to hunt monsters. They encountered two first-level high-level monsters. Fan Yigang died on the spot, and only Cao You and Ren Man escaped back.

Since then, they can only try their luck at the edge of the Huanyue Mountains.

But a year ago, the two broke through the sixth level of Qi Refining one after another, and their strength increased a lot.

Joining forces, they re-entered the periphery of the Huanyue Mountains to hunt monsters.

Fan Yigang was a generous and righteous man, and Cao You and Ren Man were obsessed with him.

Chen Yuan also had a good impression of the fast-talking big man, and felt sorry for him.

Cao You sighed, shook his head, and said:

"Cao lost his composure. Brother Chen's cultivation has improved greatly, which is a happy event. If I spoil the fun, wouldn't it be a sin? Let's talk about the Xuepo Pill. This pill is extremely precious. It is only available at the annual auction. Twenty pills are sold at a time, and the transaction price is generally around four hundred spirit stones. With Brother Chen's financial resources, it should not be a problem."

Chen Yuan nodded:

"When will the auction be held?"

"The next auction will be in more than three months. If Brother Chen wants to participate in the auction, he must prepare now."

...

After sending Cao You away, Chen Yuan immediately went to the market to buy spiritual herbs.

In the past four years, he has been devoted to refining pills and practicing hard. Even when he came out to set up a stall, he was in a hurry. He had only heard of the auction and had not participated in it.

The auction at Huanyuefang City is held once a year, and the participants are mainly foundation-building cultivators, alchemists, weapon refiners, and wealthy cultivators in the late stage of Qi Refining.

Half of the pills that Chen Yuan refines are used for cultivation. He does not have many spirit stones in his hands. In addition to pills, he has no other needs and is not interested in the auction.

But the Snow Soul Pill can increase the chance of breaking through the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi Refining. He is determined to get it. This auction must not be missed.

Chen Yuan still has two furnaces of spiritual herbs in his hand, and he spent another 153 spirit stones to buy 16 furnaces of spiritual herbs.

In the next three months, Chen Yuan even stopped the starlight infusion and continued to refine pills every day.

Seven days before the auction, Chen Yuan refined the 19th furnace of pills, and accumulated 50 Bailing Pills in his hand.

Cao You also knew that Chen Yuan needed spirit stones, so he contacted more casual cultivators and bought 15 pills from him every month.

After three months, it was 180 spirit stones.

Together with Chen Yuan’s previous savings, there were a total of 302 spirit stones.

Selling these 68 Bailing Pills should be enough to buy a Xuepo Pill.

In the next six days, Chen Yuan set up a stall in the market, selling 34 pills at the price of four spirit stones per pill, earning 136 spirit stones.

The last 16 Bailing Pills were sold to Guiyuan Sect by Chen Yuan at the price of 60 spirit stones, with a small loss of 4 spirit stones.

At this point, Chen Yuan had 498 spirit stones in his hand.

It should not be a problem to bid for a Xuepo Pill.

He returned to the cave, meditated and practiced, waiting for the auction to arrive the next day.