Immortal Mortal

“Uncle Sun, why are so many porcelain vases of spiritual pills?” A plain looking youth in linen robes walked in; his skin was pale white, making him look a little delicate. When he saw the table full of porcelain vases, he asked that question in shock.

One must know that Nine Moons Pill House prided itself in its pill quality. Its pills were all stored in jade vases, who would use porcelain vases?

The middle-aged man stood up, “Shao Ke, you’re here. These are some pills our store purchased today.”

The linen robed youth asked astonishedly, “Uncle Sun actually bought pills from someone else? Don’t tell me that it’s from some great pill refiner? But that’s not right…”

The linen robed youth knew that if these were pills concocted by a great pill refiner, they wouldn’t have come in porcelain vases but in jade vases.

“I didn’t purchase these pills. Come, Shao Ke, come take a look at these pills.” As he spoke, the middle-aged man passed the pill in his hand to the linen robed youth.

The linen robed youth smiled and accepted the pill. In reality, no matter how good this pill was, it was nothing more than a Tier 1 Mortal Pill.

He first took a whiff at the pill, and his eyes revealed a hint of astonishment. He immediately examined the pill’s colour and quality. After some time, he suddenly popped the pill in his mouth and closed his eyes.

After a few seconds, the linen robed youth suddenly opened his eyes and asked in shock, “Uncle Sun, exactly what pill is this? It’s also made for Channel Opening Stage cultivators, but its effects are multiple times higher than Energy Gathering Pills?”

The middle-aged man shook his head, “I’m also not sure. According to the person who procured them, these are Energy Gathering Pills. You can take a look at the other pills.”

He did not need to wait for the middle-aged man’s invitation, the linen robed youth had already started to grab the various porcelain vases on the table and opened each and every one of them.

“These are all high grade Tier 2 spiritual pills? Poison Cleansing Pill, Jasper Pill…” After putting down the porcelain vases, a look of shock had already occupied the youth’s face.

The middle-aged man nodded, “That’s right. I have already tested these pills. Although they are high grade pills, the retained medicinal properties are not much lower than top grade ones. Furthermore, the quality of the pills could actually be a lot better, but it’s being limited by the refiner’s cultivation level. I guess that this pill refiner must be a peak Tier 2 Mortal Pill Refiner, or even a Tier 3 one.”

“How many spirit stones were all these pills bought for?” The linen robed youth eyes glimmered; it was unknown what he was thinking about.

The middle-aged man sighed and lamented, “That man must have been in an urgent need for spirit stones. These pills wasn’t even properly appraised before they were brought here. We got them for a total of 1070 spirit stones “

The linen robed youth furrowed his brows and immediately said, “Uncle Sun, that price is far too low. Our Nine Moons Pill House can be established for so long isn’t only because of our higher pill quality, but also our integrity. Even at the usual market price, these pills would already be worth at least 2000 spirit stones. Now, we’re really bullying our patrons by only giving him half the price.”

The middle-aged man nodded, “I know, but by the time I arrived, the manager had already collected all the pills. I wanted to find the person of interest, but he had ready rushed off somewhere.”

The linen robed youth flatly said, “Fire that manager then. If he could scam our patrons today, he could scam our store in the future. Our Nine Moons Pill House wasn’t established on this sort of small schemes…”

After pausing for a moment, the linen robed youth continued, “If we can find that pill refiner, find some way to reimburse him. At the same time, I want to have a chat with him.

The middle-aged man said, “Shao Ke, you want him to represent our Nine Moons Pill House for the Five Elements Desolate Domain Pill Competition?”

The linen robed youth sighed, “This is just a one-sided wish. If this person could concoct such exceptional pills, I believe that he would have already promised someone else his service.”

The middle-aged man smiled faintly, “That may not be true. If he was really going to represent someone else, he would not have sold his pills at such a cheap price. I guess that there’s a good 80 to 90% chance that he’s a rogue pill refiner.”

The linen robed youth’s eyes flashed briefly, but he did not say anything.

...

Fringe City Pill-Smith Workshop.

This was Fringe City biggest renter for pill concocting rooms and weapon smithies. After Mo Wuji received his spirit stones, the first place he did was to rush to the Fringe City Pill-Smith Workshop and rent a pill concocting room. Thereafter, he prepared his drug refining equipment within the pill concocting room. He didn’t rent the room to concoct pills, but to purify the spiritual herbs.

After igniting the fire, and carefully cleaning the pill furnace, Mo Wuji added the new ingredients for the channel opening solution into the pill furnace. Mo Wuji also opened the wooden box containing a Treasured Blood Lotus, and carefully plucked out a ruby-like lotus root and added it to the pill furnace. Compared to typical lotus roots, the Treasured Blood Lotus Roots were tougher and thicker.

Actually, Mo Wuji knew that purifying each spiritual herb individually would definitely have better results. However, there were limits to his capabilities, so he could only throw all the ingredients together and purify them using his hand techniques.

After a whole three hours, Mo Wuji expelled the medicinal dregs and sent the medicinal essences into a porcelain vase.

This furnace of ingredients filled a total of six porcelain vases.

After resting for half an hour, Mo Wuji did not continue to purify the spiritual herbs but started to clean his drug refining equipment. To concoct this new channel opening solution, he simply replaced the old medicinal herbs with the superior spiritual herbs. However, he did not actually know whether it would actually work.

If it didn’t work, then there wouldn’t be any point in purifying the spiritual herbs. Moreover, these six vases of medicinal essences were enough for him to have six attempts at brewing the channel opening solution.

Now, Mo Wuji could even concoct the channel opening solution with his eyes closed; he was already far too familiar with it. Even though the ordinary ingredients have been replaced with spiritual ones, the methods remained the same.

Each medicinal ingredient got crushed into pieces with the drug refining equipment, and the juices were all squeezed out. These juices and the medicinal essences mixed together under the drug refining equipment and they slowly reacted.

In two hours, a thick, rich channel opening solution was brewed and it flowed into a small jade vase.

Clenching the jade vase tightly, Mo Wuji exhaled strongly. He had a little apprehensions in his heart; if this channel opening solution did not work, the difficulty of meeting Granny Linglong would be multiplied several times. Even if he found a new way to cultivate in the future, Yan’Er would already be long gone.

After a long pause, Mo Wuji poured the channel opening solution into his mouth.

A line of fire extended from his throat. At the next moment, the line of fire became like a thin needle, piercing through Mo Wuji’s entire body. An intense pain pervaded, but Mo Wuji seemed to completely ignore the pain. He agitatedly grabbed the drug refining equipment, his eyes wet and moist.

Mo Wuji was so excited, not because of the success of the new channel opening solution, nor because he could scale greater heights, but because he now had a chance to advance to a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner. Once he became a Tier 3 Mortal Pill Refiner, his chances of meeting Granny Linglong would be much higher.

As long as he could meet Granny Linglong, Yan’Er would have some hopes of living.

It took a whole half an hour before Mo Wuji’s agitation subsided.

The success of his new channel opening solution demonstrated that his previous channel opening solution lost its effects due to his body. With the increasing number of open meridians in his body, ordinary ingredients no longer worked on him. He could only continue by utilising spiritual herbs.

This also granted Mo Wuji a new path. If this new channel opening solution lost its effects, he wouldn’t have been as helpless as he was previously.

...

Three days later, an ash covered Mo Wuji left Fringe City Pill-Smith Workshop. However, only his outer appearance was messy, his heart was not. When he first came, his heart was unsettled, and he moved with hurried steps. Now, however, his steps became more carefree.

In these three days, he concocted a total of 49 bottles of channel opening solution. After drinking one, he had 48 bottles left. However, Mo Wuji could tell that the efficacy of this new channel opening solution far surpassed the previous one; this 49 bottles of channel opening solution should help him open 30 meridians at the very least.

With more than 60 meridians, he could cultivate to the late levels of the Channel Opening Stage. With that cultivation level, he should no longer face as much difficulty with concocting Tier 3 pills.

When he returned to North Water Inn, he did not even bother to clean himself. He also put the drug refining equipment down and immediately departed for the Immortal Training Tower.

…

“Give me a jade slip for the Lightning Tempering Room.” Mo Wuji was already familiar with the procedure as he passed a hundred pieces of spirit stones into the window. Compared to the cautious expression he had during his first visit, he was far more magnanimous now.

If he runs out of spirit stones, he just needed to return to the sect and complete some tasks. Pill refiners were truly enviable jobs, but all this was on the premise that you could even become a pill refiner.

After receiving the jade slip, Mo Wuji did not wait and rushed up.

He soon reached Lightning Room 1 which was on the ninth floor and inserted the jade slip into the door groove. The stone doors of the Lightning Tempering Room creaked out slowly.

“Wait…” Just as Mo Wuji was about to enter the room, a voice called out to him.

Mo Wuji turned to see the incomparably handsome man. This fella was really a thorn in the ass. When he first came to get a jade slip, he met this fella. When he left the tempering room, he saw this fella. Now, when he was entering the tempering room for a second time, he still saw this fella.

“What is it?” Even though Mo Wuji was in a rush to open his meridians, he still patiently responded.

“I am Jade Net Sect’s He Jianting. As I have something on, I would request this friend here to let me use this Lightning Tempering Room first. Of course, I will not ill-treat you. I’m willing to offer you…”

“I also have something on…” Mo Wuji did not wait for the other party to finish speaking. He just threw out that sentence, turned his back and entered the Lightning Tempering Room. Thereafter, the doors closed shut.

He Jianting’s handsome face revealed an ugly expression. He saw Mo Wuji as a person who was stingy even with three spirit stones. If he offered a few spirit stones, Mo Wuji would not hesitate to offer him the Lightning Tempering Room. What he did not expect that that Mo Wuji did not even wait for him to finish and immediately closed the doors.

Furthermore, the Jade Net Sect was a Quasi-Heaven Sect. To think that a rogue cultivator in this small city would not give him face, and that was after he reported his sect’s name.