At the age of one hundred, I inquired about the Dao, awakening the supreme spiritual root that shatt

Ling Xiu immediately noticed a small, inconspicuous stall on the side of the street, displaying a few scattered items.

Those shattered ores, beast cores, and several ancient artifacts exuding an ancient aura.

There was one seemingly ordinary stone mixed in with the pile of junk.

The stall was guarded by an elderly man at the Qi Refining Realm.

The stone is covered with cracks, is gray in color, and has faint patterns on its surface.

This mark is not a trace left by an array; rather, it seems to contain some kind of fossil sealed inside.

Ling Xiu walked over slowly, pretending to casually rummage through the broken ore, secretly diverting a wisp of true essence and slowly injecting it into the cracked gray stone.

As expected, he gained something. The moment his true energy seeped into the stone, it was as if he were probing into an endless abyss. He could clearly sense a faint wisp of life lurking inside the stone.

This vitality is full of ancient charm and exudes an indescribable mystery.

"Old friend, how much for this stone?"

Ling Xiu picked up the stone and examined it closely.

Seeing that Ling Xiu was interested in the stone, the old man quickly struck up a conversation.

"Fellow Daoist, this stone costs seventy mid-grade spirit stones. If you are sincere, you may take it."

"Oh? Just a broken stone full of cracks costs seventy mid-grade spirit stones?" Ling Xiu looked surprised.

The old man laughed heartily: "Sir, you may not know this, but this stone has quite a history."

If you look inside along the crack, you can vaguely see the fossil patterns inside.

This is an ancient fossil of a mythical insect, obtained from a sacred and mysterious place; it has extremely high collectible value!

Ling Xiu nodded thoughtfully.

"Ancient insect fossil? Fellow Daoist, is this really as miraculous as you say? I can't see any strange phenomena, and the stone doesn't have any spiritual energy. I only asked about the price out of curiosity."

Even if I bought it, I'd only use it as a table corner prop at best. I'll offer three mid-grade spirit stones. Is that acceptable?

"What?! A precious ancient insect fossil, and you're only offering three spirit stones? Absolutely not! At least twenty spirit stones, not a single one less!"

The old man looked displeased and waved his hand to refuse, clearly thinking that Ling Xiu didn't know his worth and too lazy to waste any more words.

"In that case, I'll offer a maximum of ten mid-grade spirit stones. Consider it money spent to gain some experience. Are you willing to participate?"

As Ling Xiu spoke, he made a move to turn and leave.

The old man looked helpless, but finally relented.

"Fine, I'll take the loss. I'll sell it to you for ten spirit stones!"

Ling Xiu eventually bought the stone for ten mid-grade spirit stones.

The old man looked pained, but Ling Xiu calmly put away the stone, his heart filled with anticipation. He planned to explore the mysteries of the strange stone in detail when he returned, and the Qiankun Xuan Gourd should be able to identify its origin.

As he turned to leave, Ling Xiu was unaware that all the supplies he had purchased that day had already been targeted by someone with ulterior motives.

Five cultivators followed them from the shadows, their movements extremely secretive.

These five people were all cultivators at the Condensation Realm, three at the mid-stage and two at the early stage. They followed Ling Xiu at a distance, their eyes filled with greed, constantly exchanging glances.

"Second brother, keep a close eye on this kid. It's been a long time since we've encountered such a fat sheep! He was just spending money like water at the spirit talisman shop and spirit herb pavilion, browsing through several shops. But he's only at the early stage of True Condensation; we absolutely cannot let this piece of meat slip through our fingers!"

A scarred man with a sinister look in his eyes whispered to his accomplice beside him.

"Don't worry, brother. This kid is very generous. He spent hundreds of spirit stones just now, and also spent dozens of spirit stones to collect a bunch of seemingly useless talismans. He's either a bit dim-witted or he's very wealthy."

The group whispered amongst themselves, not in a hurry to act, planning to wait until a secluded and deserted place before striking to kill and steal the treasure.

Private fights are strictly prohibited within Qingyang Holy City. Making a rash move would surely attract the city's guardian cultivators to surround and annihilate them. They suppressed their killing intent and patiently followed.

Ling Xiu turned through several streets and alleys, and his powerful divine sense quickly caught the trail of the five people behind him. He even heard every word of their private plan.

"Trying to treat me like an idiot? You'll find out soon enough."

Ling Xiu curled a cold smile at the corner of his mouth, deliberately slowing down his pace so as not to lose track of the pursuers behind him, and continued to walk toward Jinmo Residence as if he had not noticed anything.

Upon entering Jinmo Residence and returning to his dwelling in Zhenxu Pavilion, Ling Xiu immediately activated the gate array to completely isolate himself from external detection.

Seeing this, Scarface and his group outside the pavilion whispered among themselves.

"So this kid lives here. He must be from a wealthy family."

"A cultivator in the early stage of the Condensation Realm who can rent a residence in Jinmo Residence—regardless of his background, this deal must be secured."

"Brother, what do we do now? He's entered the True Ruins Pavilion, but the residence has a security array, so we can't detect what's going on inside."

"What's the rush? We can afford to wait. I refuse to believe he'll never step out the door!"

Scarface cursed under his breath, his expression fierce.

Inside his residence, Ling Xiu completely ignored the people watching him outside the door and went straight up to the second-floor attic.

He first took out more than four hundred low-grade Xuan-level spirit talismans and the Chess Soul Blood Drinking Blade Talisman, and put them into the Qiankun Xuan Gourd. Then he took out the strange stone he had found at the street stall and began to study it.

He urged his powerful divine sense to repeatedly probe inside, and a full quarter of an hour passed, but the stone remained unchanged.

"Even divine sense can't penetrate and investigate it? Why not try putting it into the Qiankun Xuan Gourd? Perhaps it can trigger a change and reveal the details of this thing."

Since it only cost ten mid-grade spirit stones, even if it wasn't a supreme treasure, it wasn't a huge loss.

Ling Xiu then sent the strange stone into the Qiankun Xuan Gourd, intending to observe the changes the next day.

Afterwards, Ling Xiu went up to the third floor of the pavilion and entered his private alchemy room.

The stone platform in the center of the room is connected to pipes made of a special material, which lead directly to the underground veins. Crimson earth flames burn quietly under the furnace, with a stable fire.

Ling Xiu took out several spiritual herbs needed to refine the basic Qi and Spirit Pill, and based on the records in the "Mysterious Origin Creation Pill Canon" in his mind, he officially began refining the pill.

First, they sorted and processed the medicinal herbs, and then they began to warm the furnace.

Although the alchemy furnaces equipped in the True Ruins Pavilion are of the most basic type, they are more than sufficient for refining basic spiritual pills.

The key to alchemy lies in controlling the heat and adjusting the order in which the spiritual herbs are added to the furnace. His technique is still unfamiliar, so this is a good opportunity to gradually improve.

Having previously studied basic alchemy techniques under Master Seventh Night, and now further supplemented by the supreme alchemy classic "Mysterious Origin Creation Alchemy Classic", he felt extremely confident.

Ling Xiu activated the Earth Flame Furnace and became completely absorbed in alchemy, ignoring all external noises.

This was his first time refining pills independently in a true sense. Due to improper control of the heat, the first batch of Qi and Spirit Pills were completely burned and turned into a batch of pill ash.

Ling Xiu was not discouraged; this was within his expectations.

Based on the experience taught by Master Seven Nights, he continuously deduced the steps of alchemy in his mind and began to try again.

Every process and every detail is precisely controlled. The temperature inside the furnace is constantly sensed, and the strength and method of transmitting true essence are finely adjusted. The formula of the Qi and Spirit Pill is repeatedly studied.

Failure is a process of accumulating experience. With the lessons learned from the previous attempt, the second batch was much more stable.

He cleaned away the ash and continued refining in the furnace.

He tirelessly experimented with batch after batch, his alchemy skills becoming increasingly proficient. After consuming five or six portions of spiritual herbs, a batch of pills finally emitted a faint, elegant fragrance, giving him hope of success.

In the subsequent refining process, he would promptly summarize his gains and losses after each failure, and his understanding of alchemy became more and more thorough.