Longzang

Chapter 614 Treating Everyone Equally

Wei Yuan sat upright in the alchemy room, not in a hurry to open the furnace, intending to make the alchemists outside wait a while.

Wei Yuan retrieved the medicinal materials for five batches of pills this time. He bought the materials for the last two batches himself, exchanging them for 1,000 merit points. Wei Yuan now has several hundred thousand merit points, and he no longer cares about the merit rankings. When other disciples of the Tai Chu Palace discuss who they want to surpass, they no longer pay attention to Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan devised a detailed plan: the first batch would be refined using only his own alchemy techniques, without the use of Qi Luck or Immortal Spiritual Energy. The second batch would utilize Qi Luck, followed by a one-hour rest period. During this time, the Human Realm would conduct a comprehensive comparison of the data from both batches to study the changes brought about by Qi Luck.

The third, fourth, and fifth furnaces involved gradually increasing the gas input from small to large quantities in order to find the optimal balance between input and output.

Once these five batches of pills were refined, Wei Yuan felt he could call himself a master of the Profound Breath Pill.

So he calmed himself down and arranged for three Dharma Aspect warriors to guard the four directions with him. Then, there were several Dao Foundation warriors above and below him. Every breath, several divine senses would sweep across the entire alchemy furnace to obtain data.

Half a day later, the first batch was finished. When the furnace was opened, golden light filled the opening and a fragrant aroma wafted out. Even Wei Yuan felt that the bottleneck was loosening. The alchemists guarding outside the alchemy room secretly thought that it was indeed true and took a deep breath of the aroma.

If the quality of the alchemical furnace is excellent, the first fragrance upon opening the furnace will aid in cultivation and enhance one's understanding of alchemy.

Although Wei Yuan did not change the pill formula or add any luck to this batch, he used some of the results of medicinal herb refining and pre-processing. As a result, the batch produced 120 pills, more than 10 of which had a single pattern. The entire batch of pills was worth 100,000, exactly 20 times the value.

Wei Yuan thus concluded that his skill in alchemy alone was comparable to Xu Henshui's.

Wei Yuan collected the pills, sat quietly for a moment, and then began the second batch. This time, it took a full two days for the pills to be completed. Once the Qi Luck was used, the changes became extremely complex; the amount of data recorded in the mortal realm was more than fifty times that of the first batch!
This unexpected event greatly increased the difficulty of comparative analysis.

When the furnace was completed, a reddish-gold light appeared at the furnace opening, and the fragrance of the elixir turned into a faint mist, which seemed to have a life force and spirit, drifting towards Wei Yuan, the Dharma Aspect Dao Foundation cultivators present, and the alchemists outside the door.

Wei Yuan's originally soulless Dharma bodies and Dao foundations absorbed the elixir fragrance and actually emitted a faint glimmer of spiritual light. This immediately gave Wei Yuan hope.

This batch of pills yielded 240 pills, 40 of which had the first-grade pattern and 10 of which had the second-grade pattern. One batch of pills is worth 250,000—a full 50 times the original value!
This batch of pills immediately caused a sensation among the alchemists waiting outside. When Wei Yuan opened his room to rest, the alchemists swarmed around him, each bringing up their unresolved problems and humbly seeking his advice. This attitude was completely befitting that towards their teacher.

This was the first time Wei Yuan had answered questions for his fellow disciple, and he was immediately invigorated and flattered. He patiently answered each question, spending the entire afternoon doing so before he was finally satisfied and his Dao heart became exceptionally clear.

Wei Yuan spent the entire night readjusting the plan for the next three furnaces, adding several more Dao Foundations to collect more detailed data, and then continued to open the next three furnaces of pills.

The three furnaces produced 240, 220, and 120 pills respectively. The last furnace produced a significantly smaller number of pills, but it still yielded 20 pills with two patterns and 5 pills with three patterns, with the majority of the remaining pills being one pattern.

The initial conclusion was that adding Qi Luck was similar to increasing the primordial energy of heaven and earth, and it would improve the quality of the medicinal ingredients in the alchemy furnace, thus increasing both the number and quality of pills produced. However, when more Qi Luck was added, while the quality of the medicinal ingredients continued to improve, some impurities began to be eliminated, ultimately resulting in a significant decrease in the number of pills produced and a significant increase in quality.

Besides being equivalent to a year of arduous cultivation at the Human Realm, the three-patterned Profound Breath Pill also increases the chance of sudden enlightenment. Wei Yuan estimated that each pill could sell for at least eight or nine thousand taels, nearly twenty times that of ordinary pills.

Afterwards, Wei Yuan completed the formalities at the Dan Guan, handed over 150 ordinary pills, and then left on his own.

The following morning, a message appeared on the notice boards in front of Yong'an City and the city lords' mansions: Starting today, Qingming has established a Celestial Treasure Vault, where one can exchange cultivation resources based on merit. The first item available for exchange is the Profound Breath Pill, with the highest possible exchange being a Two-Pattern Spirit Pill, totaling five hundred pills, on a first-come, first-served basis.

To exchange for cultivation pills, one must possess a status of at least a commoner in the Azure Netherworld, and their family must have a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Furthermore, the pills must be used for the cultivator's own cultivation and cannot be resold. There is another unmentioned condition, but Wei Yuan specifically sent someone to inform all cultivators of the Primordial Beginning Palace: any Primordial Beginning Palace cultivator who has been in the Azure Netherworld for more than six months can exchange for Profound Breath Pills based on their merits.

This was fine for ordinary people, but the Qingming cultivators were extremely excited. They carefully studied all the terms and conditions and then discovered one thing: the terms did not limit the grade of the Dao Foundation, which meant that those cultivators who had cultivated the template Dao Foundation could also exchange for it.

Template-level Dao Foundations have always been regarded as second-class Dao Foundations, and even those at the Human Rank look down on them. They also know that their Dao Foundations have little combat power. Seeing and hearing about the various divine deeds of Realm Lords, Bao Yun, Zhang Sheng, Ji Liuli and others when they were at the Dao Foundation level, they have come to realize the reality and dare not compete or fight, and dare not put on airs of being high-level Dao Foundation cultivators.

However, after the establishment of the Immortal Treasure Vault this time, it seems that no separate threshold was set for the template Dao Foundation, but rather everyone was treated equally.
At this moment, all the cultivators in the weapon forging workshop received the news and began discussing the Immortal Treasure Vault. Ren Suxing sat alone in a small workshop, took out his merit jade book and looked at it. He was surprised to find that with his merits, he could actually exchange for ten ordinary Profound Breath Pills or three One-Pattern Profound Breath Pills!

Ren Suxing then discovered that, based on his monthly merits, he could exchange one Profound Breath Pill every three months. He immediately looked somewhat surprised. If calculated this way, working in the Azure Netherworld seemed to be faster than occasionally going out to train on the main mountain? Moreover, this place could also cultivate spirituality and improve aptitude.

Ren Suxing had already reached the peak of his Dao Foundation and no longer needed cultivation pills, but he still had his nephews, nieces, and close friends. Thinking of this, Ren Suxing couldn't help but pick up his pen and write to several close fellow disciples who were still in the Azure Palace, asking them to come to Azure Netherworld as soon as possible.

Then he wrote a letter to his family, asking them to select fifty talented young men to come to Qingming and establish a branch of the Ren family.

Thus, Qingming finally had a path to improve his cultivation, even if it only led to the breakthrough of the Dharma Aspect. But at least he had one, and it gave thousands of cultivators hope.

As a result, Wei Yuan gained more than five hundred streams of deep blue-green luck.

The starting point for the Qi contributed by Dao Foundation cultivators is deep cyan, while for mortals it starts from light cyan, then cyan, and finally deep cyan, ending in the cyan range. Once cultivators reach the Yujing stage, they can contribute purple Qi, which is more powerful and effective than cyan Qi.

Wei Yuan hadn't expected that simply announcing a system, without even distributing a single pill, would already have over five hundred cultivators contributing their fortune. Cultivators are different from mortals; basically, every cultivator's foundation has fortune to contribute. Furthermore, Wei Yuan couldn't discern any difference in the fortune contributed by those with Heavenly Foundations and Human Foundations.

Perhaps the fortune granted by a Celestial Foundation is different, but those with the talent of a Celestial Foundation are all proud and arrogant, and no one would contribute fortune to Wei Yuan. Zhang Sheng did want to reward him, but unfortunately, he couldn't give it to him.

This experience of refining the Profound Breath Pill gave Wei Yuan a deeper understanding of the Dao of Luck and made him realize how attractive it is to cultivators. It seems that mass production of the Profound Breath Pill should be put on the agenda in the future.

As Wei Yuan was pondering this, his entire body suddenly trembled, his sea of ​​consciousness shone brightly, and a purple pill descended from the sky, appearing out of thin air amidst the smoke and fire of the mortal world. Within this pill was a small, wandering dragon, constantly moving within the pearl, which was quite mystical.

Wei Yuan hesitated for a moment before realizing that this was actually purple fortune, which must have come from a cultivator. However, the fortune he had previously obtained from several great masters was only like a hazy mist, but this fortune had actually condensed into a pill with a dragon swimming inside. Clearly, the person who contributed the fortune was not only devoted but must also be a famous figure in the region.

As the pearl slowly fell, before it even hit the ground, the three-eyed bird head in the moon opened its mouth wide and inhaled forcefully, swallowing the fortune in one gulp!
In the end, Wei Yuan only had time to take a peek from afar before the Danzhu's fortune completely vanished.

Wei Yuan then realized that the shadow in the moon also collected luck, but the luck it required was extremely high-level, and ordinary purple luck was not even worth considering.

After swallowing the fortune, the three-eyed bird shrank back, turning into a shadow and falling asleep. Once it was completely asleep, a small head peeked out from the sea of ​​clouds, furtively looking around. Only then did Wei Yuan remember that there was another shadow dragon in the world of his mind… this thing looked somewhat like a dragon.

The full moon gradually shone brightly, casting its cool, clear light. The moonlight, like frost, clung to the gates of Jade Mountain. The ancient wooden door slowly opened, and the night before twisted, revealing a bottomless vortex, seemingly a passage to another world.

Wei Yuan immediately appeared before the gate and looked inside. He saw only broken walls and ruins everywhere, resembling a wasteland. Faint shadows moved within, appearing and disappearing so quickly they were almost impossible to detect. All matter seemed to be distorted by some unknown force, exhibiting bizarre forms; he wondered what kind of world it was.

(End of this chapter)