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

Gu Chen lifted the unconscious Wei Zhong, humming a little tune, and left Xiao Heishan.

Back at the Cheng family home.

They saw Gu Chen covered in blood, with Wei Zhong unconscious on his back.

The guards at the gate immediately stepped forward to help Gu Chen take Wei Zhong from his back and asked, "Master Gu, what happened?"

"I rescued a brother from a group of enemies. Take him away and have the Cheng family find a doctor to treat him. I'm fine; the blood on me is from the enemy," Gu Chen explained.

"Yes, yes." The guard at the gate nodded hurriedly.

They handed Wei Zhong over to the Cheng family so that a doctor could treat him.

Tell him that he has left the Treasure Medicine Pavilion after he has regained consciousness.

He was asked whether he wanted to go back to the Treasure Medicine Pavilion to continue working as a guard, or to follow him to the Cheng family in the future.

Gu Chen returned to his courtyard.

I took off my clothes, took a shower, and changed into clean clothes.

Then they prepared to continue refining the elixir.

Alchemy was crucial to his grand plan of making money.

We cannot relax for even a day.

A short while later, Cheng Mengling arrived at his courtyard.

As soon as they arrived at the door, they saw Gu Chen, who had just finished taking a bath, looking refreshed and with a resolute face, diligently refining pills.

She couldn't help but become somewhat engrossed in watching.

So handsome, so manly.

This was her first assessment of Gu Chen.

Gu Chen was good-looking, and with his inherent aura of a strong person, he could easily fascinate a strong woman like Cheng Mengling.

Cheng Mengling blushed slightly as she realized what had happened.

I'm such a pervert, I actually reacted to Brother Gu and had inappropriate thoughts about him.

That won't do; she has to be reserved.

She composed herself and stepped directly into Gu Chen's courtyard.

"Brother Gu, I heard that someone sent two severed heads to the Cheng family today. It's aimed at you. Are you alright?" Cheng Mengling asked Gu Chen as soon as she entered the courtyard.

His tone was full of concern.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Gu Chen explained when he saw her come over to check on him, "Those people are from the evil cult Black Heaven Cult. I had some friction with them before, but I've already resolved the conflict."

"The Black Heaven Cult." Upon hearing this, Cheng Mengling was shocked. It turned out to be the Black Heaven Cult, a major cult active in several nearby prefectures.

The Black Heaven Cult was a major cult that caused headaches for the government and the Night Watch in Huoyun Prefecture and several nearby prefectures.

This group of people are ruthless and will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

The evil cultivation method is one that uses the blood and qi of young children as nourishment.

They have committed several heinous acts of massacring villages and sacrificing people as a form of sacrifice.

However, their movements were elusive, and they repeatedly evaded capture by the government offices and night watchmen of Huoyun Prefecture and several nearby prefectures.

Unexpectedly, it was them who delivered the first blow to Gu Chen today.

Cheng Mengling felt a little worried.

If Gu Chen becomes enemies with such a force, and the Black Heaven Sect takes its anger out on the Cheng family as a result, it's unclear how the Cheng family will respond.

Faced with a power of this caliber, the Cheng family had no power to resist.

Upon seeing Cheng Mengling and hearing him say that his enemy was the Black Heaven Cult, he began to worry.

Gu Chen immediately replied, "Don't worry, I've already resolved my conflict with them. They won't affect the Cheng family in the short term."

"Has it been dealt with?" Cheng Mengling's worry lessened upon hearing this, and she said, "That's good. These cultists are ruthless and unscrupulous. If you make enemies with them, you either don't take action at all, or if you do, you have to wipe them out completely, otherwise you'll face endless troubles."

"Mm." Gu Chen nodded.

In the days that followed...

Gu Chen was at ease refining pills at the Cheng family's home.

Wei Zhong regained consciousness the day after he was rescued.

After learning that Gu Chen had saved him, he immediately chose to leave Baoyaotang and join Gu Chen in seeking refuge with the Cheng family.

However, his strength was too low, and at most he could only work as a guard in the Cheng family.

Gu Chen then simply brought him to his side, making him his little brother who helped him add firewood when he was refining pills.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

Gu Chen refined all the medicinal herbs in his possession into pills.

Cheng Mengling also gave him all the medicinal herbs that the Cheng family had acquired from outside during this period.

This time, the Cheng family went to even more distant places to purchase medicinal herbs, directly crossing over to the cities of two neighboring prefectures.

The harvest was plentiful.

They directly brought Gu Chen the medicinal materials for four portions of Xuan Tie Dan and four portions of Duan Gu Dan, as well as more than twenty portions of Cui Pi Dan and more than forty portions of Qi Xue Dan.

Gu Chen also packaged the pills he had refined during this period with the pills he had seized from the group of cultists and sold them to her.

There are a total of 109 Skin Tempering Pills.

Two hundred and thirty-one Qi and Blood Pills.

He received 19,100 taels.

Gu Chen did not sell her the Bone Forging Pills and Blood Qi Pills that he had seized from the group of cultists.

He kept the Bone Forging Pill for himself, but gave all sixty-odd Qi and Blood Pills to Wei Zhong.

Wei Zhong became his personal assistant for tending the fire during his alchemy process, effectively turning him into his henchman.

His strength is too low; he's only at the level of a third-rate expert. We need to help him improve his skills.

"The quantity of medicinal herbs we acquired this time is quite good. Keep up the good work," Gu Chen praised Cheng Mengling.

The ingredients for three portions of Bone Forging Pill and four portions of Mysterious Iron Pill cost an extra 7,600 taels of silver.

The ingredients for 41 portions of Qi and Blood Pill and 21 portions of Skin Tempering Pill were purchased at a fair price, costing 24,900 taels of silver.

Gu Chen gave her 32,000 taels of silver directly, with a few hundred taels extra as a reward for the Cheng family's caravan's hard work.

Gu Chen had swindled over 16,000 taels from the group of cultists and had just received 19,100 taels from selling pills to Cheng Mengling.

In an instant, only a little over two thousand taels remained.

However, Gu Chen was not disappointed.

Now that he has acquired so many medicinal herbs, once he refines them all into pills and then sells them, he can earn even more silver.

With these three Bone Forging Pills and Profound Iron Pills, his Profound Iron Body ability was directly upgraded to the Great Perfection, and his realm was able to break through to the Silver Bone level.

"I didn't do anything; it was all thanks to the family caravan." Cheng Mengling was a little embarrassed after receiving Gu Chen's praise, and her face turned slightly red.

However, Gu Chen didn't notice, as his mind was entirely focused on his grand plan to refine pills and earn money.

"For the medicinal herbs we'll acquire later, four more portions of the herbs for the Xuan Tie Dan will be enough. There are no restrictions on the rest," Gu Chen instructed.

"Okay." Cheng Mengling nodded obediently after making a note of it, and said, "Then I'll go down and make the arrangements."

"Go ahead," Gu Chen waved his hand.

After she left.

Wei Zhong stepped forward and said, "Brother Gu, I feel like Miss Cheng might like you."

"Ah." Gu Chen was taken aback for a moment, then laughed and said, "I'm so handsome and charming, isn't it normal for her to like me?"

"Haha." Gu Chen laughed: "Get to work."

"Oh, okay." Wei Zhong nodded, picked up some wood from the side, put it into the stove under the alchemy furnace, and started a fire.

His injuries have now fully healed, and he has received more than sixty Qi and Blood Pills from Gu Chen, which he consumes one a day for cultivation.

He has now broken through to the level of a second-rate master, and his strength has increased slightly.

With his help in tending the fire and refining pills, Gu Chen's pill refining speed could be increased even further, and he could refine a batch of pills half an hour faster.

With a little effort, Gu Chen can refine four batches of pills a day.

At the doorway, not far away, Cheng Mengling, who had overheard Gu Chen and Wei Zhong's conversation, pouted and muttered, "Who likes you? No way."

Thinking about it, she felt shy and quickly fled from Gu Chen's courtyard.

at this time.

The main branch of the Precious Medicine Pavilion in Huoyun Prefecture.

Nie Ke looked at the financial reports for the past few months that his manager had brought up.

"What's going on? The sales of pills in the eleven cities under the Fire Cloud Prefecture have dropped so much in just over a month." Nie Ke looked at the deputy manager of the main store.

"Especially the sales of Qi and Blood Pills and Skin Tempering Pills in Chiyang City are less than half of what they used to be. Do these aristocratic families no longer need pills for cultivation?" Nie Ke's voice turned cold.

If sales decline, he will be punished by the Dan Sect's envoy. The competition is so fierce now, if sales don't increase...

His position as the head of the Fire Cloud Mansion might be replaced.