Sword Sect Outer Sect

Chapter 1 Stone Beads
Dongyuan Sect, Danfang.

Inside the alchemy room, a pair of clean hands held a white porcelain bottle, passing it over the alchemy furnace and pouring out a small amount of medicinal liquid made from ground spiritual herbs.

The flames inside the furnace shifted, and a piece of emerald green fruit pulp, transformed into mud by spiritual energy, was thrown into the furnace.

Song Yan's clear eyes suddenly opened amidst the misty fog, staring intently at the alchemy furnace before him, a ball of clear spiritual liquid floating in his right hand.

His spiritual energy was almost exhausted, and beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, but there was no trace of panic on his face.

His breathing was calm and long, as if he was afraid to disturb even the slightest airflow in the alchemy room.

The furnace fire suddenly surged, and the clear, spiritual liquid was poured into it. The aroma of the medicine wafted out, invigorating the mind and spirit.

Song Yan held the spirit stone in his left hand, and the spiritual power flowed slowly through his body like a thin stream of water. However, his fingertips did not stop moving, and the fire in the alchemy furnace continued to surge.

Ning Dan!

The fire in the furnace went out instantly. He was slightly out of breath, and the spirit stone in his hand was already ash and broken, with not a trace of spiritual power left.

He didn't rush, but slowly inhaled and exhaled to restore his spiritual energy. Only after the residual heat of the furnace had stabilized the pill did he get up.

The furnace was opened and the elixir extracted, all in one swift motion.

"Seven Qi-Nourishing Pills..."

Song Yan looked delighted and muttered to himself, "This time there wasn't a single useless pill."

Seven pale green pills hung above the alchemy furnace and were collected one by one into the pill bottle.

The alchemical texts state that spiritual substances such as pills and herbs will begin to dissipate their spiritual energy after the furnace is opened and they are harvested, even if they are placed in a storage bag.

It needs to be stored in a special container to prevent the loss of its spiritual energy.

"Even the worst alchemy room in this alchemy workshop doesn't have a significant impact on the formation of Qi-Nourishing Pills..."

Song Yan muttered to himself, pondering in his heart.

"I purchased the Dragon Liver Melon and the Tranquilizing Grass, which cost two low-grade spirit stones. That should be enough to refine two batches of Seven Pills. Renting a pill-refining room for a day costs four low-grade spirit stones. Adding in some miscellaneous costs, that's also two low-grade spirit stones."

"Two bottles of Qi-Nourishing Pills, each containing five pills, can be sold for twelve low-grade spirit stones."

"Refining pills for a day can earn four low-grade spirit stones. If you're lucky, you can keep the extra Qi-Nourishing Pills for yourself."

Although the earnings weren't much, it was far better than the meager income of a hermit cultivator in the mountains.

Previously, my alchemy skills were not yet mature, so I didn't dare to be careless with this most basic and simplest Qi-nourishing pill, and I chose a slightly better alchemy furnace.

Now we can finally reduce costs a little.

Because his alchemy skills had improved, he started using an even lower-grade alchemy furnace. If this got out, people would probably be completely baffled.

He nodded in satisfaction.

At 3:45 PM, Song Yan, dressed in a gray robe, walked out of the alchemy room.

The spirit stones had already been paid for. As I walked onto the street of the alchemy workshop, I looked up.

"What a wonderful world of immortals..."

In the distant sky, streaks of light occasionally streaked across the clouds, and he murmured to himself, his eyes filled with fervor.

Song Yan was originally an ordinary Chinese student on Earth. By chance, he transmigrated to this world of immortals and became an abandoned orphan in Shiliang Town by the Wuxi River.

More than a decade has passed in the blink of an eye.

Counting the days, it has been a year and a half since I joined the outer sect of Dongyuan Sect.

Unfortunately, his talent for cultivation with three spiritual roots is not good. Without spirit stones or pills, he has only reached the fourth level of Qi Refining. He is now barely managing to accumulate some cultivation resources by refining some entry-level pills.

"In another six months, I will be taking on a mission outside the sect. Before that, I need to improve myself properly."

"..."

On Danfang Street, one can often see disciples of various sects coming and going, some in green robes, some in white robes, with special patterns and designs on their sleeves.

He was always envious when he saw disciples dressed like that.

Inner disciples receive a fixed amount of spirit stones and pills every month.

When he first joined the sect, there were geniuses with dual spiritual roots and single spiritual roots among the disciples who joined at the same time. They were immediately accepted into the inner sect and even became personal disciples of the elders.

"Simply having superior innate spiritual talent can save us from such painstaking efforts day and night..."

However, life must go on, and he is not a pessimistic person.

After calming himself down, he stepped into a small shop in a secluded corner of the market.

"The Troubleshooter's General Store".

There are probably no fewer than thirty or forty such small shops in the entire Lingyuanze Market.

The shop is open for business in the front and lived in the back. It sells trinkets that are not considered high-end. The best items on the counter are some basic talismans, and some are even half-finished products.

Anyway, Song Yan wasn't there to buy anything; on the contrary, he was there to sell things.

The shop owner is a pretty woman.

She lay languidly on the chair, her bare white feet crossed and resting on the edge of the counter, revealing glimpses of her snow-white calves.

She held a pipe in her left hand and fiddled with a small jade seal in her right, looking quite relaxed.

She glanced at it as she walked in.

"Ye Sheng is here."

Yesheng is Song Yan's courtesy name.

"Grandma Qin."

Since they were all acquaintances, he nodded as a greeting: "These are this month's pills."

He swiped his fingertip across the small leather bag, and six white porcelain bottles appeared on the almost dusty counter.

Storage bags, also known as Qiankun bags, are spatial bags used by cultivators to store various items.

"Six bottles, thirty pills in total, please take your order."

Granny Qin raised her eyebrows slightly, opened one of the porcelain bottles, poured out a pill, and pinched it between her slender, white fingers, examining it carefully.

When buying and selling elixirs, it is generally considered taboo to take the elixir directly from the bottle for identification. Usually, the aroma and color of the elixir are sufficient for assessment.

But this is Granny Qin. To Song Yan, she is someone who has raised a "vagrant" to life, so it doesn't matter to her.

"In just nine months, your alchemy skills have improved by leaps and bounds."

Granny Qin put the pill back, and with a flick of her jade finger, sealed the bottle.

"Seven spirit stones a bottle, I'll take them all."

A bottle of five Qi-Nourishing Pills costs about seven spirit stones on the market, but when selling to small shops, you have to leave them some profit, so it's usually bought for six spirit stones.

The same thing happened with Granny Qin in the past.

Song Yan frowned, then waved his hands repeatedly: "Granny Qin, the market price is what it is, there's no need to be so considerate of me." The Qi Nourishing Pill was one of the lowest-grade pills in this cultivation world that he knew of.

Although it is a pill intended for Qi Refining stage cultivators to enhance their spiritual power, its medicinal spiritual power is extremely low.

As its name suggests, Dan is usually a "Qi-nourishing" elixir given to cultivators who have just begun to draw Qi into their bodies and have not yet reached the first level of Qi Refining.

"Hahaha, Grandma, I'm not being polite with you. Your Qi-Nourishing Pill has a gentle yet powerful spiritual energy, almost reaching the level of a mid-grade pill."

Song Yan raised an eyebrow: "Really?"

An outer disciple who has only been in the sect for a year and a half would not have the opportunity to come into contact with any mid-grade pills, let alone the lowest-grade pills that yield almost no benefit from refining, which are extremely rare.

"Why would I lie to you if I had nothing better to do?"

Granny Qin rolled her eyes at him, then put away all the pill bottles on her own. With a flash of inspiration, a small bag of spirit stones appeared in front of the counter.

"Take the spirit stones and get out of here. Don't disturb my peaceful cultivation."

Grandma Qin is good in every way, except that she changes her mind faster than turning the pages of a book.

"Thank you, Grandma."

Song Yan took the spirit stones without counting them, bowed, and left the shop.

"This kid..."

After he left, Granny Qin lay on the old rattan chair. A pill flew out of the porcelain bottle in her bag and she held it in her hand, examining it closely.

"Leaving aside the spiritual energy contained in the pill, this pill is round and full with very few impurities. Even a true mid-grade pill is no better than this."

"The factors that affect the shape of the elixir are nothing more than the quality of the alchemy furnace and the alchemist's spiritual consciousness."

Ye Sheng certainly couldn't afford a good alchemy furnace; she knew that all too well.

"..."

Qin Xijun pondered, a strange light flashing in her eyes: "This kid is clearly only at the fourth level of Qi Refining..."

……

After leaving the Relief General Store, Song Yan did not immediately return to the outer disciples' residence, but instead headed to another part of Lingyuanze Market.

Weapon forging workshop, fire-working village.

Similar to the alchemy workshop in a sect's alchemy academy, this weapon-refining workshop is a complex of buildings controlled and constructed by the weapon-refining lineage of the Dongyuan Sect.

It is mainly for disciples of both inner and outer sects, as well as some disciples of immortal cultivation families affiliated with Dongyuan Sect, to purchase magical artifacts and spiritual weapons, or to barter.

Compared to the city center, Huogongzhai is located in a remote area and rarely visited.

Because this is where garbage is dumped in various neighborhoods and markets.

Broken pills, malfunctioning magical artifacts, incorrectly drawn talismans, damaged array plates...

There are even some strange books that both male and female cultivators enjoy reading.

Whether it's something Song Yan could imagine or something he couldn't, he could see it all here, which certainly broadened his horizons.

The discarded pills are useless to him, and he currently knows nothing about magic tools and talismans.

So he was just there to collect some materials on formations.

"Manager Xu."

Manager Xu was a stern-faced middle-aged cultivator. When he saw the young man approaching, he nodded slightly as a greeting.

The work at Huogongzhai is not complicated; one person is enough. Therefore, there is only Manager Xu here.

Song Yan didn't say anything more polite, but simply handed over a spirit stone.

Xu Wenxuan accepted the spirit stones, watched the boy's retreating figure, and softly reminded him, "I remember there are some remnants of array formations in the area near the market."

He came here several times, each time picking out materials to set up basic formations, which is why Xu Wenxuan gave this suggestion.

He was overjoyed: "Thank you for your guidance, Manager Xu."

Once a certain amount of this garbage has accumulated, the steward will move it into the Jiangyan Furnace behind the Firework Village, which connects to the underground of the sect, and melt it all down.

For Xu Wenxuan, since everything was going to disappear anyway, he might as well do these low-level disciples who were suffering from a lack of cultivation resources a favor.

Within this outer sect, everyone is an ordinary person with no resources or background who has worked their way up step by step. If you can lend a hand, then do so.

Besides, he would get an extra spirit stone for cultivation.

"This is also a beginner-level array plate, and the copper corners are still intact... It's a pity that the array stones are damaged."

Song Yan rummaged through the garbage and found a broken array plate, the array beads of which were scattered somewhere.

"The remaining array stones for repairs... seem enough."

"The materials for the Small Spirit Gathering Array have been collected to a large extent. If we can barely form the array, we can try to break through the fourth level of Qi Refining and reach the fifth level of Qi Refining before going on a mission."

"Find the array beads."

This thing is really hard to find when it's mixed in with all this garbage.

There were too many round objects in the garbage dump; not to mention anything else, there was a whole pile of waste pills.

Wasted pills are nothing more than the black color of an exploding furnace and the white color of a pill after the loss of spiritual energy; array beads are generally also these two colors.

Huogong Village wasn't open to Song Yan alone, but there weren't many people coming and going today. At this moment, apart from Steward Xu, he was the only person in the entire Huogong Village.

However, some of the debris was sparsely piled up, indicating that someone had already rummaged through it before.

“Useless pills…”

"Another useless pill..."

Song Yan even went so far as to use his spiritual power to retrieve anything of roughly the same size within his sight.

Fortunately, both the discarded pills and the array beads are small items that don't consume much spiritual energy.

"Array Beads".

"Useless pills".

"Array Beads..."

Before his hand even touched the one in his hand, he had already made up his mind about it and casually tossed it into his storage bag.

"what?"

But the strange sensation stirred a sense of doubt within me.

He withdrew his outstretched hand.

He took it out of the storage bag again and examined it carefully in his hand.

This "array bead"...

Happy New Year everyone! New author, new book, already signed, please add to your favorites!
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(End of this chapter)