Longzang

Chapter 426 Positioning
Since Xu Henshui started getting two hours of sleep every day, his eyes have become increasingly dark. Then he noticed that the disciples of the Creation Temple who came with him were the same, their spirits gradually weakening.

When Xu Henshui inquired, he learned that most of these disciples had also entered the dreams of immortals. However, they did not come into contact with the immortal formulas, but instead imparted knowledge of alchemy within them.

Although the people in the immortal's dream had little foundation, they learned very quickly. When asked questions again on the second night after the first day's lessons, everyone remembered everything perfectly.

Many people attended the lecture; some disciples of the Creation Temple said there were even more than a thousand. As he said this, his eyes shone, and he seemed to be savoring the moment.

If it weren't for the ancient elixirs that needed to be researched, Xu Henshui would have wanted to try them out.

However, after arriving in Qingming, Xu Henshui discovered that there was no shortage of teaching opportunities here. For example, the teenagers in the new city and those who were originally sacrifices needed a lot of instruction. Moreover, because Wei Yuan had already obtained authorization for six basic body-forging techniques, there were thousands of people practicing the other five techniques, except for the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon Diagram.

Xu Henshui had plenty of opportunities to give lectures, which immediately made this self-proclaimed know-it-all feel like he'd come to the right place. Back then, during intensive instruction sessions, he was dragged away by Ji Liuli, missing countless opportunities to give lectures.

On this day, Wei Yuan came to Xu Henshui's door and handed him a prescription for a pill: Jiamu Xiaonian Pill.

Xu Henshui was a master of alchemy and immediately recognized that this formula and the Kunyuan Longevity Pill were from the same source. It must have been improved by later generations based on the ancient immortal formula. He was overjoyed to have found a treasure.

Xu Henshui had all the ingredients for the Lesser Life Pill in his medicine storehouse. He immediately started the furnace, and three days later, the first batch of Lesser Life Pills was produced. This batch produced nine pills, each with full medicinal properties. Each pill could extend life by five years, and a person could take three pills in their lifetime. The effect of the last two pills would be greatly reduced, for a total extension of eight years.

After obtaining the Longevity Pill, Wei Yuan spread the word that a new batch of longevity pills had been discovered and that he planned to hold an auction in Qingming, inviting merchants from all over the world to participate.

While it's said to be an invitation to people from all over the world, in reality, considering the travel time, it's only enough for people from a few counties in western Ningzhou to get here. As long as they come, that's enough.

Half a month later, the auction was successfully held, attracting more than sixty merchants of all sizes. The Lesser Year Pill, being an unprecedented longevity pill and backed by the Taichu Palace, fetched a high price of two hundred taels of immortal silver per year. A total of fifty Lesser Year Pills were sold, raising a total of fifty thousand immortal silver.

Since so many merchant guilds were present, Wei Yuan naturally wouldn't just sell pills. So he also brought out many special products he had plundered from the Witch Domain for auction. These supplies weren't expensive individually, but there were large quantities of them.

Wei Yuan then auctioned off another batch of breastplates.

Wei Yuan's initial bottom line was twenty taels, but with the merchants driving up the price, it actually sold for thirty taels per pair, and he ordered ten thousand pairs in one go.

After the auction, Wei Yuan secretly sought out a merchant with whom he had a good relationship to inquire about the details. The man was very forthcoming and told him everything he knew, explaining that the Western Jin Dynasty had been at war for a whole year, and all kinds of military supplies were extremely scarce. This batch of armor, originally worth fifty taels of silver, could be sold for one hundred taels of silver with the help of connections!

Of course, most of these 100 taels were to be offered as tribute to various deities, a small portion was to be divided among the frontline generals, and the merchant guild itself could only earn 10 taels.

Wei Yuan was speechless. Such a suit of armor could cost a hundred taels of silver in the army. In the Zhao state, it would probably have been used to kill countless people.

Upon learning the inside story, Wei Yuan immediately decided to lower the price to 25 and offer an additional 10,000 sets. This brought in 550,000 taels of silver, and with the sale of other goods, the auction brought in a total of over 800,000 taels. The cost, however, was less than 50,000 taels. This was mainly because the Wu Clan's goods had no cost.

As the merchants left, Wei Yuan made an agreement with them to hold a second auction six months later, and a similar auction would be held every quarter thereafter. According to the standard price of the Creation Temple, each Xiaonian Dan pill costs around thirty taels. Pills made by Xu Henshui are more potent, and once mass-produced, they can fetch five hundred taels according to the standard price; currently, they cost one thousand taels.

The pills refined by ordinary disciples of the Creation Temple can extend lifespan by three to five years, and are worth at least three hundred taels of immortal silver at normal prices. In other words, even the most ordinary disciple of the Creation Temple, who refines the worst pills, can only earn ten times that amount with a heavy heart.

At this point, Wei Yuan finally had a direct experience of the money-making ability of the disciples of the Creation Temple.

After the auction, Wei Yuan began to seek instruction in alchemy from Xu Henshui. Xu Henshui, who had almost become Wei Yuan's teacher years ago, naturally did not hold back and imparted all his knowledge.

After several days of instruction, Xu Henshui unexpectedly discovered that although Wei Yuan had no foundation in alchemy, he learned extremely quickly, making rapid progress, and often had very profound insights that were completely inconsistent with his alchemy level.

Some of these insights were things that Xu Henshui had just grasped a day or two ago while studying the ancient immortal formula, and Wei Yuan actually understood them too!

As time went by, autumn arrived in the blink of an eye.

Wei Yuan has made great progress in alchemy recently and plans to find time to start his own alchemy practice. Besides studying alchemy, he hasn't been idle in other matters either.

The most important thing, of course, is cultivation.

Wei Yuan is currently in the Nourishing Spirit Realm, but he has absolutely no clue as to how to achieve spiritual perfection in the mortal realm.

Tens of thousands of mortals have made progress almost every so often. Currently, there are already five Dao Foundation cultivators who have advanced from mortals, and more than ten others have reached the Great Perfection of Body Tempering, ready to advance at any time.

Once mortals have established a foundation for their Dao, their spirituality naturally increases significantly, and they continue to cultivate. This process seems endless. Does it mean that every mortal must cultivate a foundation for their Dao, or even a Dharma form, to achieve spiritual perfection?
Mortals are only a part of the human experience; the majority of the power actually lies with the young girl, Yin Yang. She is currently only at the initial stage of spiritual awakening, a far cry from perfection. Who knows when she will be fully satisfied?

In addition, there were three Dragon Guards. Wei Yuan felt that they still had great potential to be tapped. They could serve as nodes for processing information, just like the immortal plants, and could also act autonomously in the outside world, just like real cultivators.

This characteristic alone makes the Dragon Guards incredibly versatile. Therefore, the True Dragon Dharma Aspect's offer of three more True Dragon Bloodlines was a generous gesture. It would not only send Wei Yuan directly to the mid-stage of the Dharma Aspect realm, the Myriad Transformations Realm, but also add three Dharma Aspect assistants.

Fortunately, every sentient being in the human world is a node that absorbs and releases the primordial energy of heaven and earth. In addition, being in the Azure Netherworld, the vast rivers and mountains also absorb and release the primordial energy of heaven and earth. Therefore, Wei Yuan does not need to worry about his magical power. Even without meditation, his magical power can naturally and slowly increase.

In achieving the Dharma form, magical power is no longer the primary factor; spirituality is.

However, the mortals in the Dharma Realm have now begun to form their own cycle and operate autonomously. In the terms of the outer world, what Wei Yuan can do now is to maintain and upgrade the hardware, essentially acting as a maintenance engineer.

(End of this chapter)