Library of Heaven’s Path

“It’s the number one apothecary of the Firmament, Fu Jiangchen!”

’_Hey hey hey, hold on for a moment. He might be the most famous apothecary in the Firmament, but he_s still not number one, right? I heard that the Heaven Subjugation Monarch is a true maestro in pill forging as well, and there’s no one in history who has even come close to what he has accomplished!”

“What the hell are you thinking about, comparing a God King to a God Monarch? Of course, there’s no way a God King can compete with a God Monarch! But putting aside the God Monarchs, Fu Jiangchen’s skills are top tier. Even if he isn’t number one, he’s definitely ranked within the top five!”

“I guess I can’t disagree with that. Speaking of which, shouldn’t he be in the Sky of Linglong? Why’s he here?”

The crowd swiftly recognized Fu Jiangchen’s identity, and gossip ensued.

Putting aside the fact that he was a God King, just his identity as the most formidable apothecary was enough for him to be known all around the Firmament.

Zhang Xuan did not recognize Fu Jiangchen, but he could tell that the latter was no ordinary figure just by gauging the reactions of the crowd. So, he nodded and said, “Of course, you are more than welcome to do so.”

Without standing on ceremony, Fu Jiangchen raised his hand, and a young man behind him leaped down from the celestial beast and landed on the stage.

“He’s my grandstudent, Han Qi. He’s a high-tier God, and as it hasn’t been long since he reached that cultivation realm, I estimate the chances of succeeding if he attempts a breakthrough right now are around thirty percent,” Fu Jiangchen said.

Since his grandstudent was the one chosen to test the Breakthrough Pill, it was only right for him to explain everything clearly. Otherwise, it would ruin his reputation if others accused him of colluding together with the young man.

Right after Fu Jiangchen said those words, on the stage, Han Qi immediately displayed his cultivation to the crowd. He was indeed a high-tier God, but there were hints that his cultivation was still a little loose and had not been reinforced yet. This showed that it had not been long since he made his breakthrough.

“We trust Apothecary Fu’s integrity. Given his standing, there’s no reason for him to lie!”

“I trust him as well!”

“I have long heard of Apothecary Fu’s impartial character…”

Shouts of support for Fu Jiangchen swiftly filled the entire square.

The crowd would have harbored some doubts no matter who Zhang Xuan chose from the crowd. Given the Qi Clan’s influence, it was very possible for anyone to collude with them.

However, it was a whole different matter if the one who volunteered was Fu Jiangchen.

As one of the few God Kings in the Firmament, there was no need for Fu Jiangchen to intentionally suck up to anyone. Furthermore, in the thousands of years since he came to fame as the number one apothecary of the Firmament, he had been known to be a fair and impartial person. There were hardly any negative rumors about him, which made him a highly credible person.

Since he was getting involved, it should be safe to trust the results of the test.

“Let’s begin the test,” Zhang Xuan said.

He had thought that he would still have to spend a bit of effort in order to win the crowd’s trust, but Fu Jiangchen’s intervention had spared him the hassle.

With a flick of his finger, Zhang Xuan passed the pill in the container right over to Han Qi.

Han Qi grabbed the pill and swallowed it right away.

Hong long!

Rich spiritual energy immediately surged into his dantian.

Not daring to hesitate in the least, Han Qi immediately sat down and began assimilating the medicinal energy within the pill.

Meanwhile, the crowd beneath watched the scene with bated breaths. None of them dared say a word, fearing that they would interrupt his cultivation.

Fortunately, this did not continue too long. In less than three minutes, the crowd could clearly sense Han Qi’s divine energy accumulating at a swift pace, and a loud thunderous rumbling could be heard from his body. The sound grew louder and louder before reaching a climax…

Boom!

Everything cumulated into an explosion, and a powerful aura surged right into the sky. In that instant, Han Qi managed to overcome the bottleneck capping his cultivation.

“This… He made a breakthrough just like that?”

“It hasn’t even been five minutes yet!”

The crowd gulped in shock.

Nearly none of the cultivators in the Firmament thought of becoming a God King, making Celestial God realm the greatest trial of their life.

Many Gods struggle desperately their entire lives to reach this goal, only to find that their efforts had been futile. Yet, the young man in front of them had succeeded in less than five minutes!

Was that Breakthrough Pill really that remarkable?

Fu Jiangchen also narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

He was capable of forging pills that increased the chances of a God becoming a Celestial God, but the most effective pill that he could make would only increase the chances by twenty percent, and a person could only afford to consume one in their entire life or risk severe side effects.

In fact, even if the other party’s pill was capable of increasing the chances of a breakthrough by fifty percent, the breakthrough should not have come so quickly.

Given his understanding of his grandstudent’s capabilities, his grandstudent should still have needed to circulate his divine energy several dozen times in order to refine it sufficiently, and that should have taken at least fifteen hours!

Yet, the duration taken was reduced to a mere five minutes…

It seemed like the Breakthrough Pill was even more powerful and frightening than expected.

He anxiously turned to his grandstudent and asked, “How do you feel?”

At this moment, Han Qi had barely managed to stabilize his cultivation. With a brilliant gleam in his eyes, he stood up and said, “It is even more amazing than I thought! Instead of fifty percent, it feels like the Breakthrough Pill has increased my chances… by at least sixty percent or more!”

Knowing his own condition well, Han Qi knew that the chances of him making a breakthrough at this very moment was extremely slim. Claiming that his probability of success was thirty percent was flattering him!

Yet, he managed to achieve a breakthrough so easily and so smoothly, as if there was no bottleneck at all. In his opinion, the Breakthrough Pill was far more effective than what the young apothecary had said.

In fact, he was willing to go as far as to say that the Breakthrough Pill had increased the odds of him making a breakthrough to one hundred percent!

“Is it really that remarkable?” Fu Jiangchen was stunned to hear how high an opinion Han Qi had of the Breakthrough Pill.

“I dare not lie to you, Grandteacher Fu! I swear on my pride as an apothecary and my own life that there isn’t the slightest falsehood in my words!” Han Qi replied solemnly.

Hearing how Han Qi was willing to even swear on it, the crowd, who were harboring some doubts after hearing his unbelievable claims, fell silent in shock.

This was exactly the effect that Zhang Xuan wanted to create through the demonstration, and he knew that he should strike while the iron was hot. So, he stepped forward and began speaking.

Thank you for your words, Brother Han. I believe that this should be enough to prove that there has been no exaggeration on my part regarding the effects of the Breakthrough Pill! Right now, I shall announce the price of the pill and the quantity that will be on sale today!”

Those words immediately snapped the crowd out of their daze, and they hurriedly shifted their attention back to him.

This was the main point of the show. No matter how formidable the Breakthrough Pill was, it would be meaningless if they could not afford it.

There was a brief pause at this moment, which caused the crowd to fidget anxiously, before Zhang Xuan began speaking. “As a pill that allows a cultivator to overcome his bottleneck, the price of the Breakthrough Pill is naturally even higher than that of the Beauty Pill. The sales price of the Beauty Pill is 1,500 Divine Coins, and the Breakthrough Pill happens to be ten times that. In order words… 15,000 Divine Coins!”

“15,000 Divine Coins?”

“Isn’t that daylight robbery?”

“That’s too expensive! Most cultivators wouldn’t be able to buy it even if they were to save a lifetime’s worth of fortune!”

“Even though it’s exorbitant, if the effects are really as amazing as we saw, it would indeed be worth that price…”

Bitter looks emerged on the faces of the crowd upon hearing the price.

15,000 Divine Coins… That was enough for one to buy a house near the heart of Drifting Specter Royal City, and to dump that humongous wealth on a single pill…

Then again, even though it might appear as if there was only the difference of a word between a high-tier God and a low-tier Celestial God, it signified a difference in the level of existence. If the Breakthrough Pill really allowed one to overcome this difference, it would be worth it no matter how much one spent.

The difference in terms of lifespan and standing could not be bought with any amount of money—until the launch of the Breakthrough Pill!

“Do you think that it’s too expensive?” Zhang Xuan asked as he looked at the faces amid the crowd.

Then, a smile appeared on his lips as he said, “I think so, too. It’s the first day I’m unveiling the Breakthrough Pill, and if I were to go with that pricing, most of you would probably be scared off. For this reason, just for today, you won’t need 15,000,12,000, or even 10,000… All you need is 9,980! Yes, you didn’t hear wrong! At just 9,980 Divine Coins, you will be able to buy a Breakthrough Pill! Make no mistake, what you will be buying here is not just a pill. At a price lower than 10,000 Divine Coins, you will be able to secure assurance for you or a loved one’s brighter future!”

“9,800 Divine Coins?”

“That’s not even 10,000…”

This is great! The price dropped a third just like that!”

The eyes of the crowd immediately turned fiery hot.

9,980 Divine Coins was still an exorbitant price for a single pill, but it was much better than the previous offer of 15,000 Divine Coins. To secure a chance to make a breakthrough to the Celestial God realm at a price less than 10,000 Divine Coins… was there a better deal than this?

As long as one had the financial resources to do so, one would be a fool not to buy the pill!

“I want it!”

“Apothecary Zhang, I’ll get two pills!”

“Four pills for me, four pills for me!”

The crowd was immediately provoked into action.

Seeing how the brainwashing television advertisement tactics from his previous life had managed to rouse the crowd into action, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief. He raised his hand and said, “Please calm down for a moment.

“It’s not that I am unwilling to sell the pills to all of you, but the forging process is extremely complex. Due to the limitations I have as a result of the ingredients and my own energy, I don’t have enough Breakthrough Pills to satisfy everyone. Right now, I only have one hundred Breakthrough Pills with me, and once they are all sold out, I can’t guarantee when there will be a second batch or whether there will even be a second batch at all!”

Scarcity marketing!

Even if he could produce Breakthrough Pills easily, he knew better than to take his whole stockpile out at once. Otherwise, its value would plummet, and the crowd would swiftly forget about him. If so, he would not be able to receive a steady stream of Anima of Yearning from them anymore.

“Did you hear that? There are only a hundred pills! Hurry up and get our family to prepare the money! What? Are you seriously asking me how we are going to raise the money? Use your brains! Sell our house, sell our beasts… Just raise the money needed right now! As long as I can make a breakthrough to Celestial God, we’ll be able to buy as many houses as we want in the future!”

“Hey, handsome fellow. Won’t you buy me a Breakthrough Pill? If you can get me one, I’ll be yours for tonight…”

The hell! Even if I have to pawn away everything in my home, you can be darned sure that I will be getting one of those Breakthrough Pills!”

“Oi, stop trying to jump the queue. Do it again and I’ll slit your neck!”

Everyone went crazy in an instant. There was nearly no one who could keep their cool in the face of this massive temptation.

Watching this entire scene, it took Fu Jiangchen a long while before he was finally able to close his agape mouth.

He was the most prestigious apothecary in the entire Firmament, and his pills were greatly sought after by all cultivators. There were many who would kneel before him just to get him to forge a pill for them…

But none of that came close to being as crazy as the chaos happening right before him.

The Breakthrough Pill had not even started selling, but people were already so inflamed that they looked as if they would come to blows with one another!

“Everyone, I haven’t finished speaking yet!” Zhang Xuan quickly raised his hand as an indication for the crowd to keep quiet.

Then, with a nod, he continued. “There’s no need for you to worry about where you can buy the Breakthrough Pills. Later, when this event is over, you can proceed to where Qi Ling-er is to make a reservation with her. As long as you are within the first hundred registrants, you will be given priority in the purchase of the Breakthrough Pill. Aside from that, I’ll also be lowering the price of the Beauty Pill from 1,500 Divine Coins to just 998 today. There will be three thousand of them on sale, and it will also be on a first come first serve basis. After today, the prices will revert to normal.”

Those words caused another flurry of excitement amid the crowd.

Those who had not managed to buy a Beauty Pill thus far trembled in excitement.

The Breakthrough Pill costs 9,980 Divine Coins whereas the Beauty Pill costs 998 Divine Coins. I know that this price might be far beyond what some of our less privileged friends here can afford. However, worry not. The last pill that I have prepared today is just for you!”

Zhang Xuan gestured to Qi Ling-er, and the latter immediately took out a jade bottle and poured out the tablets inside onto her hand.

“Aren’t those God Essence Tablets?”

“Ah, I know them. They are incredibly cheap. With just a single Divine Coin, you can buy ten of them…”

“They might look like God Essence Tablets, but there’s bound to be more to it…”

Curious, the crowd’s attention swiftly focused on Zhang Xuan once more.

Standing at the center of the stage, Zhang Xuan intentionally left a moment of silence for the crowd to talk among themselves and build up anticipation before introducing what it was.

“This tablet is known as the Spirit Channeling Tablet. It looks identical to a God Essence Tablet, but its effects are much more than that. Not only does it heal one’s expended energy, it also has the effect of gathering one’s focus and revitalizing one’s spirit, thus enhancing one’s rate of cultivation. However, it’s only effective on cultivators who are at the God realm or lower. As for the price… it’s just 9.98 apiece, which is less than ten Divine Coins!”