Immortal Reincarnation Tribulation

Chapter 38 A Flash of Inspiration

Before the next batch of ripening powder can be purified, the high-efficiency fertilizer cannot be produced. We can now free up some time for the medicinal herbs and high-efficiency fertilizer.

With this in mind, Du Fan returned to the thatched hut and took out the Minor Five Elements Technique given to him by Ye Feng to study.

"The cultivation techniques for improving cultivation are similar to the one I bought, but the manual Brother Ye gave me contains several water-attribute spells. However, these spells can only be activated with one's own mana, so they are useless to me before I break through to the first level of the Qi Refining stage," Du Fan muttered to himself, sighing with great regret.

"If one's aptitude were better, breaking through to the first level of Qi Refining shouldn't be too difficult. Ruoxi and Xiaohu both broke through in just a few months, but my aptitude here..." Du Fan thought to himself, and after a moment of stunned silence, he could only manage a bitter smile.

Du Fan sat on the bed and began to close his eyes and regulate his breathing. When his body was in the best condition, he began to try to communicate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to absorb it and open up his meridians.

Time flies, and a month has passed.

During this period, apart from harvesting ripening powder every now and then to make high-efficiency fertilizer, Du Fan spent all his time cultivating, but progress was slow, and there was no sign of improvement in his cultivation.

He took Qi Refining Pills twice during this period. Under the influence of the medicine, although his cultivation progress was much faster than that of meditation and breathing exercises, it was still too slow overall. If he continued at this pace, it would take at least ten or eight years to break through to the first level of the Qi Refining stage.

"If I take one Qi Refining Pill every day, I should be able to forcefully break through to the first level of the Qi Refining stage after a year." Du Fan's eyes flashed as he thought to himself, and he planned to go to the Seven Star Merchant Alliance again sometime. Even if it meant taking some risks, he wanted to sell more spiritual herbs and exchange them for a large amount of spirit stones to support his consumption of pills during his cultivation.

In fact, the cultivation method Ye Feng provided also included a method for rapidly improving cultivation level: the Spirit Gathering Array. This array requires a large amount of spirit stones and is considered a fairly common small array in the cultivation world. It is arranged using several magical tools as components. After the array is set up, eight spirit stones are needed as energy to activate it. This array can then gather the spiritual energy of the four directions into the array, making the spiritual energy inside exceptionally dense. When a cultivator sits in it, their progress in cultivation is twice as fast.

However, this formation consumes a huge amount of resources. A cultivator at the Qi Refining stage needs to put in eight low-grade spirit stones, but the formation can only be maintained for about a day. The spirit stones will then shatter due to the exhaustion of spiritual energy, and new spirit stones will need to be put in to continue maintaining the formation. The spirit stone consumption brought about by this formation is simply beyond the capacity of ordinary Qi Refining stage cultivators. Even within the Kongsang Sect, it is likely that only the core disciples of the Central Garden could use this method for cultivation.

Du Fan decisively abandoned this method, not because he couldn't afford the spirit stones, but because even if the concentration of spiritual energy were hundreds or thousands of times higher, surrounding him completely, it wouldn't be of much help given his useless spiritual root aptitude. He would still absorb the same amount of spiritual energy as before, and the speed at which he absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth would not change with the increase in the concentration of spiritual energy around him.

After some consideration, Du Fan still felt that continuously taking Qi Refining Pills to increase his cultivation was more reliable.

"Du Fan".

A clear and melodious female voice suddenly rang out. Upon hearing this voice, he was not surprised. He put aside his thoughts for the moment, quickly got up, and went outside.

Qin Xiaoran, dressed in the robes of an inner disciple, stood there gracefully, her face beautiful and her long hair flowing.

"This is a list of the spiritual herbs Master needs. Take a look." Qin Xiaoran said crisply, handing Du Fan a list as she did so. Her voice was not as cold as when they first met. It was unclear whether this was because of what happened when they met in the alchemy office last time, or if it had something to do with Ye Feng.

"No problem, Senior Sister Qin, please wait a moment." Du Fan glanced at the paper, smiled slightly at the woman, and nodded.

After about half an incense stick's time, Du Fan took out a package and handed it to the other party. It was naturally filled with various spiritual herbs.

Qin Xiaoran released a wisp of divine sense, and after a brief inspection, nodded. She gently patted the storage bag on her slender waist with her delicate hand, and a beam of yellow light shot out. She grabbed it with one hand, revealing a yellow bag. The package containing the spiritual herbs that had been there earlier had disappeared.

"Here, your spirit stones." After tossing the yellow bag to Du Fan, the woman seemed to remember something, her brows furrowed slightly, and she couldn't help but speak again, "You shouldn't be short of spirit stones now. You could go to the sect's general store and buy a storage bag; it would be much more convenient."

"Thank you for the reminder, Senior Sister Qin. However, if I had a storage bag hanging on my waist, wouldn't that be too conspicuous? Anyone who saw it would know that I'm not honest in my daily life." Du Fan was taken aback when he heard this, then touched his nose and explained awkwardly.

"Hehe...you're quite cunning and shrewd, while I was the one who didn't think things through." Qin Xiaoran smiled sweetly, looking at Du Fan, her beautiful eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Senior Sister Qin is teasing me." Du Fan coughed lightly, his embarrassment deepening.

"You seem quite honest and kind usually, but you actually have a lot of tricks up your sleeve. I'm leaving now. By the way, the sect is going to hold a grand competition soon, and after the competition, rewards will naturally be distributed. Among these rewards, pills make up a significant proportion. Therefore, in the coming period, Master is preparing to refine a large number of pills. Be prepared, because the next time I come to find you, I may be buying up a large number of spiritual herbs."

Qin Xiaoran teased Du Fan again, making him extremely embarrassed. Just as he was about to leave, she suddenly remembered something, gave him some more instructions, and then left with a smile on her face.

"A grand competition? Alchemy?" Du Fan was taken aback, then his eyes flashed with a sharp light. Just a moment ago, a flash of inspiration struck him, as if he had thought of something important, but then he couldn't remember it.

"Something very important!" After a long while, Du Fan let out a breath, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't find any clues and could only put the matter aside for the time being.

He glanced at the bag of spirit stones in his hand, a smile appearing on his lips. Just as he was about to return to his room to continue cultivating, he inadvertently glanced at the herb garden. Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, his mind buzzing. The flash of inspiration he had just experienced, as he looked at the spiritual herbs scattered throughout the garden, suddenly came to mind. In his excitement, his hands trembled, causing the bag of spirit stones to fall to the ground as if by accident.

"Alchemy? Yes, alchemy! Although I don't know how pills are made, broadly speaking, they must be made by several kinds of spiritual herbs undergoing a series of chemical reactions in an alchemy furnace, dispersing and then recombining, eventually condensing into pills. If that's the case, why must they be made into pills? As long as we know the ingredients of the pills and the proportion of each spiritual herb, and extract the essence of each herb and blend them according to this proportion, we can make something with the same effects as pills." As he pondered and muttered to himself, Du Fan's eyes occasionally flashed with a sharp light.

"It is said that alchemists are extremely rare and are classified into different levels. For me, becoming an alchemy master is basically impossible. Even for alchemy masters, according to others, there is a success rate issue in alchemy, and even the highest-grade pills have certain side effects. Using bioscience methods, creating a pill-like substance without side effects should not be difficult for me. If I succeed once with a similar substance, I will definitely succeed every time. At the same time, it is much easier than alchemy. As long as I have all the ingredients, I can make it whenever I need it and can also mass-produce it. There will be no success rate issue in this process."

Most importantly, the substances produced using this method are theoretically far more potent than elixirs.

Du Fan's eyes gleamed even brighter, his body trembled, and he seemed unable to contain his excitement.

"To put it simply, elixirs are medicines, but medicines aren't necessarily solid!"

Du Fan became increasingly certain of his idea, believing that if he could put this idea and hypothesis into practice, the chances of success were very high.

"Even spiritual herbs aren't necessarily all-encompassing. I need to extract their most essential components, even altering their internal structure. This process requires a catalyst, and the ripening powder produced from the fur of the gluttonous beast is the most suitable catalyst! What I need next is simply the so-called pill formula! With the formula, I will know the ingredients of each pill and the proportion of each ingredient, thus creating my own exclusive pills and pill essential oils!"

Du Fan had figured out all the problems, and the unwavering determination in his eyes was now at its peak, along with excitement. At this moment, the only problem for him was the pill formula.

Thinking of the prescription, he couldn't help but fall into deep thought again. After a while, his thoughts gradually became clear.

"There are only three options for obtaining pill formulas: one is to try your luck at the sect's general store or alchemy office; the other is to buy them from the cultivation shops in Sangcheng; and the third is to pay some price to exchange one from an alchemist in the sect."

Du Fan only considered the last option briefly before dismissing it; it was simply impossible. Alchemists held a special status, and he couldn't just meet them so easily, let alone negotiate with them given his position. The second option wasn't a problem; he could basically buy it. However, he was currently refining ripening powder day and night, and small business opportunities were frequently coming his way, making it difficult for him to find the time.

After pondering for a moment, he could only try his luck at the general store and the alchemy office inside the gate.

Having made up his mind, Du Fan took a deep breath, prepared a small bag of spirit stones, and stepped out of the spirit garden.