Poison Cultivation

After leaving Wen Ruan's house, Chen Luo had twelve low-grade spirit stones on him.

He didn't know how this girl earned so much money, but since she had already offered to help, it would be wrong of him to be coy.

So he accepted the spirit stones and headed straight for the pharmacy in the market.

Qingxia Market is one of the three large markets managed by the Sanxia Sect. Cultivators use medicine frequently, so many pharmacies have been opened in the market.

Large pharmacies often have a top-tier first-grade alchemist in charge, while small pharmacies, lacking that capability, only provide services such as dispensing medicine.

Independent cultivators also set up stalls to sell medicine, and the prices are even cheaper.

However, firstly, the variety of products is not as complete as in pharmacies, and secondly, there are many counterfeit products, so it is easy to be cheated if you don't have a good eye.

Chen Luo didn't have time to waste at those places, so he went to his usual pharmacy to get his medicine.

As soon as I entered the pharmacy, the shopkeeper, Sun Xi, greeted me.

"So it's Fellow Daoist Chen. I heard you sought treatment from a renowned doctor. I wonder if your condition is any better?"

Chen Luo did not hide his previous medical treatment, nor could he hide it; those who knew him were aware of it.

Sun Xi asked this question merely out of feigned concern and to exchange pleasantries.

Chen Luo replied casually, using the same old approach:

"The Meridian-Opening Pills from Shan'an Hall are somewhat useful to me, but they are too expensive for me to afford."

There was no other way, so I had to find some folk remedies myself.

"Folk remedies are good, they can be surprisingly effective." Sun Xi nodded in agreement, though he didn't really care.

Just like in the mortal world, the cultivation world is full of countless prescriptions and medical techniques, with a mixed bag of good and bad among them.

The genuine prescriptions, having stood the test of time and efficacy, are all held by powerful forces.

Folk remedies and folk cures are often touted as miraculous, but in reality, they are worthless.

In his view, Chen Luo was grasping at straws in his desperation, and the more he tried to treat the illness, the more chaotic things became, and the busier he became.

You never know, if one of the medicines goes wrong, you might suddenly die at home one day.

of course,

He would never say something like, "In business, harmony brings wealth."

Regardless of whether the folk remedy was effective or not, they just helped to get the medicine.

Chen Luo's original intention was to refine Gu poison, not to refine pills, so he wrote down what he needed on a piece of paper.

To prevent the leakage of confidential information, he added some other miscellaneous items to cover his tracks.

But when this chaotic prescription was presented to Sun Xi, it only made him more speechless:

"This kid has really gone mad; he even dares to prescribe poison."

Although medicine and poison are inseparable, the bone-corroding and heart-rotting herb is incompatible with other medicines, and mixing them together is a major taboo for doctors!

With that in mind, Sun Xi's hands were quick as he grabbed the medicine. Poison was still medicine, and he could earn spirit stones just as much by selling it.

"I'll give you eleven low-grade spirit stones and fourteen broken spirit stones. Fellow Daoist is a regular customer, so I'll round it down to eleven low-grade spirit stones."

He placed the packets of medicine on the counter, stacking them like a small mountain, and then looked at Chen Luo with a smile.

To allow for mistakes, Chen Luo bought three more doses of the same medicine, the most expensive of which was the Condensing Vein Grass, which cost one spirit stone per section.

Even so, eleven spirit stones are already quite expensive.

It seems like Sun Xi is deliberately trying to take advantage of him.

"Nine low-grade spirit stones? Old Sun, don't try to fool me. How can these medicines be worth eleven?"

He glared at Sun Xi with dissatisfaction, displaying a kind of resentment like a tiger fallen into the plains.

Sun Xi laughed and said, "My Qi-Condensing Grass is thirty years old, of superior quality, and has been processed using my Sun family's secret techniques. Besides, you bought so much..."

"The more you buy, the more discounts you should get!"

Chen Luo slapped the counter, and nine low-grade spirit stones landed on the table.

"And don't think I don't know that your Sun family's secret method is simply to air-dry and sun-dry, nothing more."

He emphasized the last four words with a heavy nasal tone, staring directly at the other person, giving off an air of "If you don't sell, I'll go somewhere else."

Seeing this, Sun Xi knew the situation was hopeless and sighed regretfully.

"Alright, alright, fellow Daoist, if you have a next time, please remember to come again."

His words had a double meaning, implying that Chen Luo's habit of taking medicine like this was unlikely to continue.

Chen Luo ignored him. He had seen enough of the fickleness of human relationships today and was too lazy to waste any more words.

I packed all the medicine into a storage bag and went straight home.

Upon arriving at his residence, Chen Luo immediately found a furnace and attempted to refine the "Thread-Connecting Vein Gu".

He poured some spiritual spring water into the alchemy furnace. When the spring water began to boil and gurgled softly, he took a drop of his own blood essence and slowly dripped it in.

After doing all this, add another section of Vein-Gathering Grass, and simmer it slowly over a low flame, neither too fast nor too slow.

During the process, Chen Luo's ten fingers moved gracefully, manipulating the secret techniques of the Gu formula, creating endless variations.

The alchemy of cultivators is completely different from that of ordinary people:

It looks like a collection of herbs and spiritual materials on the outside, but what it is actually refined inside is a wisp of pure medicinal energy.

Before long, the spring water began to steam, and the power of the condensing herbs transformed into a misty green vapor that rose gently, condensing and gathering above the alchemy furnace.

Chen Luo calmed his mind, plucked three strands of his own hair, and gently dropped them into the wisp of emerald-green medicinal mist.

Wisps of green mist seeped into the hair, blending seamlessly with the medicinal aroma, making them indistinguishable from one another.

His expression remained unchanged, his mind clear, and he added the auxiliary medicinal materials one by one according to the prescription.

As each medicinal herb was added to the furnace, the jet-black hair gradually lost its ink color, turning frosty white and becoming even finer.

Later, they became as fine as dust, and were no longer visible to the naked eye.

Chen Luo could only guide the silver threads with hand gestures, like an ordinary craftsman weaving rope, by carefully twisting and binding them into a thin thread.

Qi-refining cultivators cannot easily separate their divine sense from their bodies, nor can they perceive with their eyes; they rely entirely on their mental techniques to sense things, and dare not make the slightest mistake.

This focused and arduous effort lasted for a full half hour.

When he felt he had almost succeeded, Chen Luo made a hand seal to guide the Gu worm into his body and examined it closely using the method of internal vision.

It would have been better if I hadn't looked at it; once I did, my heart sank.

It turned out that there was only a faint trace left in the body, as short as stardust, so weak that it was almost impossible to find.

He sighed inwardly, feeling a pang of regret.

"With just this tiny bit of Gu thread, it's not even enough to reconnect severed meridians, let alone prolong life."

He frowned and pondered deeply, carefully recalling every step of the Gu refining process, including the timing, techniques, and order of adding materials, trying to figure out where the mistake had occurred.

After a while, he calmed his mind, collected his breath, and reopened the alchemy furnace to start refining from the beginning.

And so, seven days passed slowly.

On this day, the quiet room remained undisturbed by any noise or disturbance.

Chen Luo sat cross-legged, focused his mind and gathered his energy, slowly circulating the true energy in his dantian, carefully opening up the old broken meridians, circulating it throughout his body, repeating this process several times.

I felt the true energy flowing smoothly through the meridians, without any stagnation or obstruction. Compared to my previously intact meridians, they were even more supple and solid.

He was secretly delighted:

"Excellent! This time, the Gu meridian has been replaced, and its resilience far surpasses that of the original meridians."

If all the meridians in my body were replaced and connected with Gu meridians, wouldn't my cultivation level and true energy increase several times over in the future?

The thought suddenly ignited a burning desire within me, but I quickly realized that this thought was far too insane and terrifying.

I remember scientists estimating in a past life:

If all the nerve fibers in a human body were laid out, they would stretch for about 400,000 to 500,000 miles, or even nearly a million miles, enough to circle the Earth's equator more than ten or twenty times.

Although the meridians in the human body are not as intricate and long as the nerves, they are still intertwined and complex throughout the body.

If one were to replace all the meridians in one's body with Gu meridians, the sheer scale of the project would be no less than building the Great Wall by a single person—truly astonishing.

"Forget it, man-made things are never as good as natural ones. I should change my internal energy first and switch to the Ten Thousand Poisons Sect's cultivation method."