Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

Gu Chen chose to exchange.

In an instant, all the medicinal herbs in the copper bowl disappeared.

A massive amount of cultivation power, far exceeding any he had ever exchanged before, was poured into Gu Chen's body.

Gu Chen felt as if his body was about to explode.

The Earth Thunder Flesh Refining Technique was activated wildly.

A continuous stream of cultivation power began to temper Gu Chen's flesh and blood, and wisps of earth and lightning power were born in Gu Chen's flesh and blood, making him seem like a little lightning figure.

His flesh and blood were constantly being tempered and strengthened.

The cultivation transfer has ended.

A terrifying aura emanated from Gu Chen, with earth-yellow lightning flowing across his body. His subcutaneous muscles became as hard as rock, and his strength and speed were enhanced in every aspect.

He broke through to the early stage of the Flesh Refining Realm.

Gu Chen was excited. "Continue!"

He put the remaining 760 portions of medicinal herbs into the copper bowl.

[760 portions of common Blood-Strengthening Soup ingredients can be exchanged for 140 days of pure cultivation.]

The proportion is significantly reduced.

Having reached the Innate level of the Flesh Refining Realm, the Blood Strengthening Soup's effect on him was surprisingly weak; 760 portions of medicinal herbs could only be exchanged for 140 days of cultivation.

Never mind, I'll redeem it first.

Gu Chen chose to exchange.

All the medicinal herbs in the bowl disappeared, and his powerful cultivation surged into his body once more.

His flesh and blood underwent a terrifying tempering once again, making his body even thicker, doubling the lightning on his body surface, and multiplying his strength.

After 140 days of cultivation had been transferred, Gu Chen's realm broke through to the mid-stage of the Flesh Refining Realm!

"Awesome!" Feeling his own improvement, Gu Chen felt full of power, enough to defeat his previous self in just a few punches.

Within the Flesh Refining Realm, the differences between each minor realm are enormous.

A thousand doses of medicinal herbs allowed him to break through from the Blood Refining Realm to the mid-stage of the Flesh Refining Realm.

Although the effects of the blood-strengthening soup weakened later.

But if he were to receive another thousand portions, Gu Chen felt that he should break through another small realm to reach the late stage of the Flesh Refining Realm.

However, he currently doesn't have enough silver left to buy another thousand doses of the Blood-Strengthening Soup.

"This money comes quickly and goes quickly," Gu Chen sighed.

Having reached the first level of the Innate Realm, the power of his previously mastered sword techniques, such as the perfected Lightning Five-Strike Combo, became somewhat insufficient.

With his now tempered flesh and blood defense, it would be difficult for the perfected five-hit lightning strike to cause him much damage.

We need to go further.

The next level after mastering the Lightning Five-Strike Combo is unparalleled, capable of unleashing the power of the first level of the Innate Realm.

It costs fifty taels of silver to exchange for insights.

Gu Chen chose to exchange without hesitation.

Fifty taels of silver were placed in a copper bowl, and the silver disappeared after a short while.

[Spend fifty taels of silver to gain the ultimate understanding of the "Lightning Five-Strike Combo" technique.]

In an instant, countless insights into sword techniques flooded into Gu Chen's mind.

This caused his Lightning Five-Strike Combo to undergo a transformation and sublimation, elevating it to a completely new level.

Gu Chen gripped his treasured sword and unleashed his swordsmanship.

With a single slash, a burst of sword energy shot out, instantly cleaving a wooden training post in half in the courtyard, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

This sword technique has broken through to a superb level, and has even given birth to sword energy.

Looking at the sword energy that he had just unleashed, even a master at the first level of the Innate Realm would be injured if they didn't handle it well, let alone an expert below the Innate Realm.

They will likely be wiped out.

That's truly terrifying.

Once this sword technique reaches a level of unparalleled mastery, it can rival martial arts of the first rank of the innate realm.

This is the end of this sword technique.

Now, his skill in this sword technique is no less than that of Master Ma, who created it.

Of the six hundred taels of silver he obtained from Madam Liu, he now has one hundred and forty taels remaining.

Gu Chen gave up on using the silver to buy more Blood Strengthening Soup, as the amount he could buy wouldn't be enough to help him break through to the late stage of the Flesh Refining Realm.

Keep some silver on you; it will come in handy when needed.

In the days that followed, Gu Chen returned to his previous life as a guard.

Every day, collect two doses of Blood-Strengthening Soup to improve your cultivation level, while also trying to earn silver.

Having experienced the thrill of using silver to quickly improve his cultivation, he could not forget it.

However, he didn't have a good way to earn money in the short term.

That day, Li Linfeng approached Gu Chen.

"Headhunter Gu, because you previously purchased a large quantity of herbs for the Blood-Strengthening Soup from Baoyaotang, our pharmacy's stock of Blood-Strengthening Soup herbs is almost depleted. I'm preparing to organize a large-scale herb-gathering expedition to the Ninefold Ridge in the wilderness to replenish our stock. I hope you will take two guards with you to provide protection," Li Linfeng said.

"Escorting the laborers into the mountains to gather herbs? No problem," Gu Chen agreed.

Speaking of which, he also bears responsibility for the depletion of the medicinal herb inventory at Baoyaotang. Escorting the servants into the mountains to collect herbs is naturally no problem.

The mountains outside Qingping Town are the eastern part of the Jiuchongling Mountains, which are winding and serpentine, layer upon layer.

It's easy to get lost once you enter.

Normally, unless there are special circumstances that cause the medicinal herb inventory to run out, Baoyaotang in Qingping Town will not send its servants up the mountain to collect herbs.

The Baoyaotang pharmacy in Qingping Town has only a dozen or so servants.

Gu Chen, along with Wei Zhong and another guard named Cui Jie, escorted the dozen or so laborers into the mountains to gather herbs.

However, the servants were all ordinary people and dared not go too deep into the mountains, so they could only gather common medicinal herbs on the outskirts.

Of course, preparing a low-level herbal decoction like the Blood-Strengthening Soup does not require many expensive medicinal materials.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible to sell it for only five qian of silver per serving.

The outer area is mostly filled with common medicinal herbs; to collect spiritual herbs, one must venture deep into the Ninefold Ridge.

Gu Chen thought for a moment and said to Wei Zhong and another guard, Cui Jie, "You two watch over these servants. I'll go deeper in and take a look."

He was short of money, and now that he had entered the Ninefold Ridge, he wanted to venture deeper to try his luck.

Let's also verify his guess.

If he succeeds, he will become rich.

That is to put silver into a copper bowl and exchange it for information about spiritual medicine.

If the amount of silver paid is less than the value of the elixir, he can keep doing this endlessly.

Even if he's unlucky enough to find one or two medicinal herbs, he'll still consider it a win.

Anyway, he now has the cultivation of the first level of the Innate Realm and a superb swordsmanship, so he should be able to go a little deeper without any problems.

Gu Chen headed deep into the eastern part of the Ninefold Ridge Mountains, searching for medicinal herbs along the way.

Unfortunately, elixirs are not so easy to find.

The blood lingzhi he had managed to find earlier, and the blood ginseng that Deng Xian had encountered, were purely due to sheer luck.

After wandering through the mountains deep within the mountains, Gu Chen couldn't find a single spiritual herb.

Gu Chen took out a copper bowl and put one tael of silver into it: "I want to exchange for information on the nearest spiritual herb."

Ancient dust communicates with the bronze bowl.

The copper bowl immediately provided feedback:

[Information unrelated to one's own safety and without any causal relationship to oneself requires a payment ten times the value of the information itself. The nearest spiritual herb is a forty-year-old ginseng, which costs four hundred taels of silver to exchange.]

Looking at the prompt, Gu Chen was disappointed.

This immediately extinguished his idea of ​​using the copper bowl to extract the medicinal herbs.

A serving of Blood-Strengthening Soup costs only five qian of silver, but four hundred taels can buy eight hundred servings of Blood-Strengthening Soup. A forty-year-old spiritual ginseng can at most be exchanged for forty days of pure cultivation with a copper bowl.

It's nowhere near as good as making 800 servings of blood-nourishing soup; the effort put in is disproportionate to the income.

Using a copper bowl won't work.

And they couldn't find the magic elixir.

As Gu Chen prepared to give up and retreat back to the outer perimeter, he discovered a valley.

Seeing that it was still early, Gu Chen went into the valley to take a look.

Upon entering the valley, he saw that it was full of herbs, but unfortunately, he still couldn't find the spiritual medicine he wanted.

These common herbs, if used alone, will not help him improve and cannot be exchanged for cultivation points in the copper bowl. They must be combined, like a formula for a blood-strengthening soup, otherwise they are useless.

Only spiritual herbs can be exchanged for cultivation points in a copper bowl.

Besides, these herbs weren't worth much money, so he was too lazy to collect them one by one.

At this moment, Gu Chen discovered a small cave two or three meters up the cliff face in the valley, and it seemed that someone was talking inside.

He was below the cliff and couldn't see what was inside the cave, so he could only approach and listen to what was happening inside.

Now that he has broken through to the mid-stage of the first realm of the Innate Realm, his hearing has greatly improved, and he can vaguely hear the content of the conversation inside.

"Brother, we've struck it rich this time. This amount of silver and resources will be enough for us to cultivate for a long time."

"The government of Xiling County is definitely hunting us down now. They would never guess that we have already escaped into Jiuchongling and are hiding in Cangshan County."

"Once we've used up all these resources, you should be able to break through to the mid-stage of the Flesh Refining Realm, then we can go to other counties and pull off a few more heists."

"Hmm, second brother, this cave is nice. Let's stay here and cultivate in peace for the time being. Go and cover up the traces of our arrival in the valley outside the cave."

"Yes, brother."

As the conversation ended, Gu Chen sensed footsteps approaching from inside the cave.

"This is bad." Gu Chen exclaimed in surprise.

He hurriedly tried to find a place to hide.

But he was surrounded by bare cliffs, with nowhere to hide.

The man walked out of the cave and, upon reaching the outside, saw Gu Chen eavesdropping.

The two stared at each other, wide-eyed.

The atmosphere froze instantly.

"Big brother, someone's eavesdropping outside." A burly man with a full beard came out and immediately realized what was happening when he saw Gu Chen, shouting into the cave.

Upon hearing this...

Immediately, a figure in black darted out of the cave; it was a thin-faced man with a hooked nose.

As soon as the man came out and saw Gu Chen, a murderous glint flashed in his eyes, and he jumped off the cliff.

Holding a long sword, he rushed towards Gu Chen.

Gu Chen overheard his conversation with his second brother: they had to die, otherwise their whereabouts would definitely be exposed.

Although Gu Chen may not have come specifically to track them.

But Gu Chen knew their secret, and he had to die!