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

Upon seeing the hook-nosed man emerge, he charged at him without a word.

Gu Chen hurriedly gripped his treasured sword to prepare for battle.

He overheard their secret, and in this situation, they certainly wouldn't let him off the hook.

Today, either he dies, or these two perish!

Seeing his elder brother charge at Gu Chen, another bearded man also leaped down, gripping his knife and charging at Gu Chen.

The man with the hooked nose took three steps in two, leaped up, and directly attacked Gu Chen with his sword.

clang!

Gu Chen swung his sword to defend, and the swords clashed, metal clashing and sparks flying.

A nick immediately appeared on Gu Chen's blade, while the man with the hooked nose's sword remained undamaged.

His sword was of better quality than Gu Chen's saber.

Seeing that Gu Chen could easily block his sword strike, the hook-nosed man's expression turned serious.

"A master of innate talent!"

He was at the early stage of the Flesh Refining Realm, and his physical body had undergone a transformation. If he were a strong person below the Innate Realm, he would not have been able to withstand his sword strike just now.

Even top-tier experts below the Innate level cannot do it.

The difference between those born with innate qualities and those below them is like a chasm.

Gu Chen is undoubtedly a master of innate level.

He abandoned his underestimation and swung his sword again with incredible speed, unleashing his swordsmanship to strike Gu Chen from a tricky angle.

Gu Chen unleashed his Lightning Five-Strike Combo, slashing out with lightning and thunder intertwined on the blade, unleashing a terrifying burst of blade energy.

puff!

The hook-nosed man was sent flying backward by a single slash, his longsword falling from his hand.

It crashed into the cliff face behind it.

A deep, lacerated gash appeared on his chest, so deep that the bone was visible. The area around the gash was a bloody, charred mess.

He was injured by the sword energy and earth thunder power attached to Gu Chen's slash!

"Blade energy!" The hook-nosed man and the bearded man exclaimed in shock at the same time.

They never expected that Gu Chen was not only a master of innate level, but also had mastered a martial art to an extraordinary degree, giving birth to sword energy.

"Second brother, run! We're no match for him!" The two realized what was happening and tried to turn and run away.

Gu Chen was clearly no weaker than them in terms of cultivation level, and his swordsmanship was even better. He was injured in a single exchange. If they didn't flee and continued to fight Gu Chen, they would not gain any advantage.

However, the hook-nosed man was injured and his speed was greatly reduced, while the bearded man's cultivation level was not even at the Innate Realm.

He was just a top-tier expert at the peak of the Blood Refining Realm.

How could they possibly escape from Gu Chen's clutches?

"Where do you think you're going!"

Gu Chen stepped forward and slashed out with his sword. The sword energy was so powerful that the bearded man turned around and took only two steps before his head was severed by the sword.

Gu Chen then approached the hook-nosed man who had just gotten up and was preparing to flee, and pointed the knife in his hand at him.

"Let me go, let me go, I'll give you all the silver I have." Seeing the bearded man killed by Gu Chen with a single blow, the hook-nosed man panicked and hurriedly begged for mercy.

brush!

A flash of light, and the hook-nosed man's head fell to the ground.

"Foolish! Even if I kill you, the silver on you will still be mine." Gu Chen sheathed his sword.

He stumbled upon their secret, and the two tried to kill him as soon as they came out, so naturally he showed no mercy.

Gu Chen searched the two of them thoroughly.

They found quite a few good things: two bottles of pills, a secret manual, and more than 1,600 taels of silver!

"I'm rich!" Gu Chen exclaimed with joy.

With so much silver, these two thieves must have just robbed a wealthy merchant.

Now he's getting all the benefits.

If he were to use all that silver to buy Blood-Strengthening Soup, his cultivation level would probably be able to break through directly to the Perfection of the Flesh Refining Realm.

He put the silver away; there were sixteen silver notes worth one hundred taels each and over eighty taels of loose silver.

Gu Chen put it in his bosom.

Then he opened the two bottles of pills and poured out one pill from each to examine them.

However, he had no knowledge of elixirs and couldn't tell what kind of elixir it was, so he put it away and would study it later.

Next was that secret manual.

Gu Chen flipped through it and found a secret manual that combined footwork, body techniques, and lightness skills, called "Gecko Wall-Walking Steps".

Moreover, the manual indicates that this is a martial art of the second rank of the Innate Realm.

"It's actually a second-grade innate martial art!" Gu Chen was overjoyed. He knew that his Lightning Five-Strike Combo had been cultivated to an unparalleled level.

Its power is only comparable to that of a first-grade innate martial art.

A martial art of the first rank of the Innate Realm corresponds to the Body Refining Realm.

The second-grade innate martial arts corresponds to the second stage of the innate realm, the Skin Tempering Realm.

"I'm lucky. I unexpectedly obtained a second-grade innate martial art." Gu Chen put it away and went back to exchange silver for proficiency.

Gu Chen then went to the cave where the two had just talked and searched it, but found nothing.

It seems the two of them carried all their valuables with them.

After picking up the two men's weapons, Gu Chen realized it was getting late and left the valley.

His sword had just been chipped by the hook-nosed man's sword. Having reached the Innate Body Refining Realm, the swords provided to his guards by the Treasure Medicine Pavilion were no longer strong enough for him.

The weapons of the bearded man and the hook-nosed man are quite good; they're his.

The bearded man used a knife, which was perfect for him.

This knife is made entirely of fine iron, far superior to the inferior ones he used before, which were carried by every guard in the Treasure Medicine Pavilion.

Even if it's not at the level of a treasure weapon, it's still a top-tier weapon among ordinary weapons, so you can use it for now.

He had no kerosene, so he couldn't burn the two bodies. He simply left them to rot in the wilderness.

Living deep in these mountains and forests, it probably won't be long before wild animals come to eat us.

That evening, he returned to his own residence at Baoyaotang.

Gu Chen tallied the harvest; today was a bountiful one.

Not only did they obtain a large amount of silver, but they also acquired a secret manual and two bottles of elixirs.

Gu Chen took out the two bottles of pills he had obtained that day. He hadn't had time to study them during the day, but now he had the time.

Gu Chen took out the copper bowl. He didn't recognize the pills, but the copper bowl could help him identify them.

Take one pill from one of the bottles and put it into the copper bowl.

Immediately, small golden characters appeared on the surface of the bronze bowl:

[A regular Qi and Blood Pill can be exchanged for two days of pure cultivation.]

"It's actually a Qi and Blood Pill, which is even more precious than the Blood Strengthening Soup. One pill can be exchanged for two days' worth of cultivation. Not bad." Gu Chen was delighted and put it away.

These Qi and Blood Pills are sold in the Baoyao Pavilion in Cangshan County, and the price is ten taels of silver per pill.

This bottle contains ten coins, enough to exchange for twenty days of cultivation.

Gu Chen then took out another pill from a different bottle and placed it into the copper bowl:

[Qi and Blood Pills can be exchanged for ten days of pure cultivation.]

"It's actually a top-tier pill exclusively used by innate Body Refining Realm experts—the Qi and Blood Pill!" Gu Chen was overjoyed. This pill sells for fifty taels of silver on the market.

Moreover, it's not sold in small places at all. For example, the Treasure Medicine Pavilion in Cangshan County doesn't have it; only the Treasure Medicine Pavilion in Chiyang City, which is at a higher level, does.

The Baoyao Pavilion in Cangshan County is just a branch of the Baoyao Pavilion in Chiyang City.

"One pill can be exchanged for ten days of cultivation. This bottle of Qi and Blood Pills also contains ten pills, which can be exchanged for one hundred days of cultivation."

"This was probably prepared by that hook-nosed guy for his own breakthrough to the mid-stage of the Flesh Refining Realm, but I didn't expect it to end up benefiting me." Gu Chen smiled.

"Now the Blood Strengthening Soup is helping me less and less. A serving of Blood Strengthening Soup costs five qian of silver. When I was in the early stage of the Flesh Refining Realm, I would need about five servings to exchange for a day's cultivation."

"Now that I've reached the mid-stage of the Body Refinement Realm, I'm afraid I'll need ten portions."

"Ten servings of Blood Strengthening Soup cost five taels of silver. Ten taels of silver can buy twenty servings, which is equivalent to the price of one Blood Strengthening Pill. One Blood Strengthening Pill can be exchanged for two days of cultivation, which is the same as the effect of twenty servings of Blood Strengthening Soup."

"I need to buy too much of the blood-strengthening soup. I have already bought up all the blood-strengthening soup ingredients in Baoyaotang in Qingping Town."

"How about I go back to the Treasure Medicine Pavilion in Cangshan County tomorrow and spend some of my silver on Qi and Blood Pills? That should be enough for me to break through to the late stage of the Flesh Refining Realm."

Gu Chen estimated that he would need at least 160 days of cultivation to break through to the late stage of the Flesh Refining Realm.

It is estimated that it will take 180 days of cultivation to break through to the Perfection of Flesh Refinement.

At the same time, he had to consider that after breaking through to the late stage of the Flesh Refining Realm, the proportion of cultivation that could be exchanged for with Qi and Blood Pills would decrease.

He needs to buy more.