I Am Shocked That You Call This Cultivation

The Spirit Gathering Pill formula!

Chen Pingan studied the words with extreme devotion, as if he was handling an extremely precious treasure.

“To refine the Spirit Gathering Pill, one needs to prepare the following ingredients beforehand: 1 tael of Vermillion Bird Grass, 1 tael of Lingzhi Grass, 5 tael of Licorice Grass, 1 tael of Peony Petal, 1 tael of Ginseng.”

Chen Pingan felt his liver ache as he looked at the list of ingredients. There were many of them that were not cheap. He could barely even afford one tael of ingredients.

The original Chen Pingan did not have any savings so the current Chen Pingan also could not afford to fork out so much money. He didn’t even have a hundred yuan and was absolutely penniless.

“Sigh, I just got out of one predicament and now I am stuck with another problem, it is so difficult!”

Chen Pingan’s face fell. He put the issue of money aside and continued reading the formula for the Spirit Gathering Pill.

In order to refine the Spirit Gathering Pill, other than preparing the ingredients in advance, an additional pill furnace is also needed.

Pill furnaces were not troublesome to get and could be easily purchased on the Internet. After all, this was the world of cultivation. It wasn’t difficult to purchase materials for pill refinement. There were even many ways to do so.

“After all the preparations are done, warm the furnace first. You can use fire-attribute Spirit Qi flames or bright flames. The chances of the latter failing are relatively higher.”

Chen Pingan nodded as he read on. His Spirit Qi wasn’t of the fire attribute, so he didn’t have an innate advantage. He could only rely on the bright fire.

The process of refining pills was actually very simple. After preparing the ingredients and materials in advance, the first step was to get the fire going. Once the temperature in the pill furnace rose to a certain degree, the first ingredient could then be added.

The temperature of the pill furnace also needed to be different according to the type of medicinal pill that was being refined. Using one temperature for all the pills was not recommended.

For example, for the Spirit Gathering Pill, the fire in the pill furnace couldn’t be too high, and the temperature had to be maintained at around 40 degrees. If the temperature was too high, it would easily cause the first medicinal ingredient of the Spirit Gathering Pill, which was the Vermillion Spirit Grass, to lose its unique medicinal effect.

Only after the first ingredient was completely melted and turned into energy could the second ingredient be added. The fire of the pill furnace would also need to change according to the new ingredients that were added. Repeat the process for the third and fourth ingredients.

The formula for the Spirit Gathering Pill also had detailed records of different temperature changes for the pill furnace. Every step was extremely detailed and even included descriptions of the color of the flames and the changes caused by the melting of new medicinal ingredients.

After Chen Pingan finished reading the contents of the book, his scalp went numb. No wonder alchemists were so rare.

If even an ordinary Spirit Gathering Pill had such a complicated refinement process, then just how hard must it be to refine those incomparably precious medicinal pills?

Chen Pingan did a rough calculation. In the refinement of the Spirit Gathering Pill, one needed to change the temperature 16 times just for adding the ingredients into the pill furnace!

This didn’t even include the merging process of the medicinal ingredients. According to the book, the pill furnace’s heat also needed to be adjusted when the medicinal ingredients were merged together.

“Even with the pill formula, one would still need to have a good control of the fire in order to successfully refine the pill.”

Chen Pingan rubbed his temples as the insane amount of information flooded into his mind. As there was too much information, he felt a little dizzy for a moment.

After looking through it once, the refinement process of the Spirit Gathering Pill had already been deeply engraved into his mind.

He was now extremely familiar with the steps required to refine the Spirit Gathering Pill. It was as if he had obtained the experience of a pill-refiner who had refined the pill more than a hundred times.

“Refining pills is not as simple as I thought. Even if you are familiar with the refinement process, it would still be different when you start refining it yourself.”

Chen Pingan had a grave expression. Refining pills was not easy. However, he could always practice and get better.

But where was he supposed to get the money to buy the ingredients and pill furnace?

“I wonder if I can advance my salary?”

Chen Pingan thought about it and felt that it probably wouldn’t work.

It was only his first day at work, after all. It was still too soon and would be inappropriate for him to ask for an advance salary from the finance department.

Besides, with Uncle Xun’s personality, he would probably be pissed if he found out Chen Pingan wanted to get an advance on his first day of work.

Chen Pingan felt uneasy. Although his cultivation progress was slow and he was still an insignificant cultivator in the Qi Refinement Stage after such a long time, Uncle Xun still treated him well and seemed to have high hopes for him.

Suddenly, he pictured an old man rushing to the dormitory from the neighborhood with a stick. In his imagination, this old man picked him up with one hand and was using his other hand to beat him with a stick.

He didn’t dare to keep imagining. That scene was just too much for him.

Chen Pingan shuddered and quickly dismissed this thought. He did not want to disappoint Uncle Xun!

“Who else can I get money from?”

Chen Pingan was in a dilemma. Not only did he need money, he also needed to find a way to get the rare ingredients. Just how was he supposed to get all of this done?

He had just used his phone to search for the ingredients needed to refine the Spirit Gathering Pill. Aside from the four ingredients that were listed earlier, he also could not find the Flower Goblin Thorn, the Golden Buddha Finger Bone, the Ice Dragon Tendon, and the Flame Dragon Scale on any of the major pharmacies online. Moreover, he could not even find the most basic information about the ingredients.

Suddenly, a person flashed across Chen Pingan’s mind. A tall and omnipotent figure!

He immediately took out his phone and scrolled through his chat with Brother Xiong and found many transactions coming from Brother Xiong’s side. It seemed that his original body had borrowed a lot of money from Brother Xiong in the past.

Since there was such a tradition, then he could not be the one to break it. Chen Pingan could only reluctantly let the tradition live on!

In his chat with Brother Xiong, he quickly typed with his fingers and clicked send without hesitation.

[Brother Xiong, do you have money? Can you lend me 10,000 yuan?]

After he sent this message, he didn’t stay idle. He added a middle to high grade pill furnace and the medicinal ingredients he could find on the Internet into his online shopping cart. Just as he finished doing this, a new message popped up on his phone.

[…]

Brother Xiong replied with a series of dots as well as a smiling emoji.

[I really need money now. I’ll pay you in installments when I get my salary, okay?]

Chen Pingan typed on his phone. After he finished editing his message, he also sent Brother Xiong a few emoticons.

This time, he didn’t wait long before the other party replied.

Brother Xiong did not say a word of nonsense and directly sent a transaction.

At the same time, Chen Pingan received an additional 10,000 yuan in his account.

“Indeed, Brother Xiong is already used to this tradition.”

Chen Pingan looked at the message sent by his phone bank and instantly beamed with joy. He had solved half of the problem and there was just one thing left.

[Brother Xiong, do you know where to find the Flower Goblin Thorn, Golden Buddha Finger Bone, Ice Dragon Tendon, and Flame Dragon Scale? A friend of mine urgently needs these four ingredients. Please ask around and let me know.]

After sending this message, he quietly waited for the other party’s reply, but the chat page kept showing that the message had not been read.

After a while, the light on the cell phone finally flashed.

Brother Xiong was still in the competition, so it wasn’t convenient for him to look at his phone for too long. He replied with a brief message.

[Yue Qing knows. Ask her. Number: 17833944976.]

When Chen Pingan read the message, he was stunned. Yue Qing?

Wasn’t that the female teacher he met this afternoon?

Chen Pingan was still unable to understand how a cultivation teacher like Yue Qing would be able to help. After all, those medicinal ingredients were extremely rare and couldn’t be bought on the market. What method could Yue Qing possibly have?

With this thought in mind, he dialed the series of unfamiliar numbers.. He hoped that Yue Qing would be able to help him out!