With the Eight Immortals' magical treasures in hand, even a mortal like myself! Ha!

As Gu Qing recited the words, the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea image in his mind came to life. The last one, a middle-aged man wearing a headband and with an unusual appearance, floated out of the image and entered the body of the Qin family patriarch.

"Fellow Daoist, I've arrived." It was Tieguai Li's soul possessing him, entering the body of the Qin family patriarch, and then the iron crutch and gourd appeared in his hands.

The two magical artifacts originally belonged to Tieguai Li, so it's perfectly normal that he could easily control them.

"Fellow Daoist, greetings. May I ask your current cultivation level?" Gu Qing asked with delight.

Tieguai Li, leaning on his cane, opened the gourd, took a sip of water, and then laughed, "Hehehe, to my shame, the cultivation level I inherited from this body is only at the early stage of Core Formation."

"Early stage of Core Formation!" Gu Qing was somewhat disappointed upon hearing this.

Upon seeing this, Tieguai Li continued, "As long as I have spirit stones, my cultivation level can increase."

Gu Qing was delighted upon hearing this and immediately asked, "How many spirit stones do you need to advance your cultivation to the early Nascent Soul stage?"

You should know that Gu Qing doesn't have much of anything except spirit stones. He currently has five thousand mid-grade spirit stones, which is equivalent to five hundred thousand ordinary spirit stones.

Even ordinary Core Formation cultivators are not as wealthy as Gu Qing, and he also has a lot of thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, which would be worth hundreds of thousands of spirit stones.

Therefore, the thing Gu Qing has in abundance is spirit stones.

After hearing this, Tieguai Li did not hide anything and said directly, "Each level of Core Formation requires ten high-grade spirit stones, and from Core Formation to Nascent Soul, one top-grade spirit stone is required."

"Wow! So many!" Gu Qing was slightly surprised. One top-grade spirit stone was equivalent to one million ordinary spirit stones. He had thought he was rich, but he was still a bit poor.

Improving cultivation during the Core Formation stage is relatively easy, requiring only ten high-grade spirit stones, which is equivalent to a thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

Since one cannot reach the Nascent Soul stage, then the late Core Formation stage, or even the Pseudo-Nascent Soul stage, would be quite good.

"Then let's raise our cultivation to the Pseudo-Nascent Soul stage for now," Gu Qing said.

"Alright, I'll use the spirit stones inside the gourd to improve my cultivation." With that, Tieguai Li sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.

Tieguai Li shook the gourd and took a sip of water. The gourd then poured a stream of pure spiritual energy into his mouth, which transformed into pure spiritual liquid that continuously irrigated his current body.

Seeing that Tieguai Li had begun his cultivation, Gu Qing did not remain idle either. He began to process the medicinal herbs he had planted. There were more than ninety thousand-year-old medicinal herbs, of which one or two dozen had attributes. The value of this batch of medicinal herbs could reach two or three hundred thousand spirit stones.

If Gu Qing were to use these spirit stones to purchase pills that would enhance his Foundation Establishment cultivation, it would be enough for him to advance from the mid-Foundation Establishment stage to the late-Foundation Establishment stage.

I wonder if the effect will be even better after it is refined into a pill.

Because it was the first time Gu Qing had used thousand-year-old medicinal herbs to refine pills, he was extra careful. He first spent a month processing the spiritual plants into medicinal materials before starting the furnace to refine the pills.

Foundation Establishment cultivators can generate their own internal fire, so they do not need to rely on earth fire.

Gu Qing first put a set of seven medicinal herbs into the alchemy furnace and refined them into a viscous liquid, and then combined the liquid together.

Because the medicinal materials were scarce, Gu Qing handled them with extra care. It took three days to condense the elixir, seven days to separate the pills, and a full twenty days to finally condense them into a complete pill.

It took Gu Qing two months in total, but fortunately, the pill refining was quite successful, producing twelve pills in one go.

This output is more than half more than before. I don't know if it's because of the use of thousand-year-old medicinal herbs that so many pills were produced.

After the pill was completed, Gu Qing did not rush to absorb it, but instead spent time refining the other medicinal materials into pills.

This process took Gu Qing a year in total, but the result was good; in the end, he successfully produced one hundred and thirty pills.

If a pill were sold for 2,000 spirit stones, it would definitely be a losing proposition, because it would only fetch 260,000 spirit stones.

That's roughly equivalent to the value of the medicinal herbs, not even including labor costs, so this alchemy attempt was somewhat of a failure.

What a waste of such excellent medicinal herbs! If they were given to a Core Formation cultivator to refine, the success rate might be even higher.

However, none of this mattered to Gu Qing. If the medicinal herbs ran out, he could use his flute playing to get another batch.

Having obtained the elixir, Gu Qing did not rush to cultivate. Instead, he looked at Tieguai Li, who had a faint aura flowing around him. A year had passed, and Gu Qing still could not discern the other party's cultivation level.

Seemingly sensing Gu Qing's gaze, Tieguai Li opened his eyes, a smile appearing on his lips, and said, "Hehehe, I haven't let you down, fellow Daoist. I'm now at the Nascent Soul stage."

"Congratulations, fellow Daoist, you are only one step away from reaching the Nascent Soul stage." Gu Qing stood up and congratulated him. With a pseudo-Nascent Soul stage expert by his side, many things could be done openly.

"Since I am here to help you cultivate, I will put you first. I wonder what your thoughts are now?" Tieguai Li asked.

Gu Qing fell silent for a moment, feeling somewhat lost and unsure of which way to go.

But his hesitation was only momentary. Gu Qing remembered his previous plan, which was to cultivate to the late stage of Foundation Establishment and then go to the Chaotic Star Sea.

Isn't this the perfect target? What else is there to think about?

"Then I'll trouble you to nurture the pill for me, and then we'll go out and see if there are any ways to earn spirit stones." Gu Qing's eyes found a direction, and his gaze became more determined.

Tieguai Li nodded after hearing this, a smile appearing on his face: "In that case, let's go out and take a look."

As he spoke, Tieguai Li tied the gourd around his waist, put his other hand on Gu Qing's shoulder, and turned around to get onto the ground. Unlike Gu Qing, he did not need to tap the ground again every time he opened up the cave to leave.

Upon reaching the ground, Tieguai Li said with a smile, "It seems there's someone nearby watching you, and their cultivation level isn't low."

"Ignore him, let's just leave," Gu Qing said directly. Tieguai Li was his trump card, and he didn't want to reveal it so soon, otherwise the next time he would encounter a Nascent Soul cultivator instead of a Core Formation cultivator.

Upon hearing this, Tieguai Li nodded, ignoring the old monster Cangqiong hiding in the shadows. He tapped his cane and then took Gu Qing away on a cloud.

Only the old monster of the Azure Sky remained, guarding the empty mountaintop.

With Tieguai Li by his side, Gu Qing's first stop was the Star Dust Pavilion. Knowing the importance of spirit stones, he wanted to acquire more spirit stones there.

Tieguai Li has now used three thousand mid-grade spirit stones, leaving two thousand mid-grade spirit stones remaining. Of these, one thousand mid-grade spirit stones were seized from the Qin family patriarch. In addition to these one thousand mid-grade spirit stones, the Qin family patriarch also left behind a magical bronze bell.

The bronze bell is now in Tieguai Li's possession, which means that if he collects another eight thousand mid-grade spirit stones, he will be able to raise his cultivation to the Nascent Soul realm.