Chapter 113: The Silver Armor Reappears (Please Subscribe)
Chapter 113: The Silver Armor Reappears (Please Subscribe)
Spring arrived, and the grass grew long, with orioles flitting about.
Fang Xi arrived before the meticulously prepared acre of spirit field, inspecting it closely. He couldn't help but nod: "This plot of spirit field has the most abundant spiritual energy. I can plant some spiritual herbs and medicines here."
He surveyed the area once more, then with a flick of his finger, a sword qi appeared, dividing the field into two sections.
"This half will be for 'Blood-Stimulating Grass,' and the other half for Snake Orchid Fruit! !"
Both the 'Blood-Stimulating Grass' and 'Snake Orchid Fruit' are primary ingredients for a low-grade first-order medicinal pill – the 'Blood-Stanching Pill'.
The 'Blood-Stanching Pill' is only highly effective for external injuries and is considered one of the cheaper pills sold in cultivation cities.
Because they are common, their seeds are also easy to find.
Fang Xi then said to Lu Guo, who was beside him: "For this first year, I'll guide you in planting. In the second year, you'll have to rely on yourself."
Lu Guo watched Fang Xi's movements earnestly, secretly learning and memorizing.
"Master, let me lend a hand too! !"
Before long, another person appeared by the field's edge; it was none other than Widow Wang!
Having finished tending to her own spirit field, she came over to help.
Fang Xi didn't expose Widow Wang's little scheme, tacitly allowing her to come and lend a hand.
This technique for cultivating specific spiritual herbs, even in a rogue cultivator market, would be worth one or two spirit stones.
...
In the underground cavern.
Gazing at the demonic tree, which was now over three zhang tall, Fang Xi fell into contemplation.
Now, its canopy had already reached the cavern's ceiling. Further growth would be troublesome, so he planned to instruct it to primarily expand its roots.
"A decade to achieve a Green Wood Spirit Body? It seems it will take a century to cultivate the Wood Spirit Body?"
This speed was truly a bit slow.
Fang Xi didn't want to expend so much lifespan here.
"I must speed things up!"
To make the demonic tree grow faster, Fang Xi first looked towards the Taisui.
The Taisui's demonic qi had already reached the peak of mid-grade first-order. If it advanced another rank to become a superior-grade first-order demon beast, its flesh would undoubtedly become even more nourishing!
Besides that, Fang Xi also deactivated the formation on the underground water vein, allowing the demonic tree to go out daily to catch fish for a snack.
"That dead salted fish is also useless. . . If it could advance to become a superior-grade first-order Fish King, with the ability to command fish schools, it could herd large groups of wild spiritual fish to feed the demonic tree."
Fang Xi calculated for a bit and realized that the most suitable method right now was to quickly cultivate the Taisui to superior-grade first-order!
After cultivating his Divine Consciousness, he added another Divine Consciousness imprint to the Taisui, so he wasn't afraid of the demon beast pulling any tricks.
"The Taisui's foundation is good, it's just missing that little bit. . ."
He then went to the alchemy room, preparing to begin practicing the refinement of mid-grade first-order medicinal pills.
And within the jade slip containing the alchemy inheritance, Fang Xi selected a spiritual pill called the 'Beast Food Pill'!
Most spirit beasts loved this type of spiritual pill, and prolonged consumption had the effect of stimulating growth and development.
If he could refine it, both the Taisui and that salted fish might gain an extra chance to advance.
...
Spring passed and autumn arrived.
In the spirit fields, the Blood-Stimulating Grass was a vibrant blood-red, while the Snake Orchid Fruit was verdant green from root to branch, with coiled snake-like forms at the tips, bearing one or two blue, raspberry-shaped fruits in the center.
These two spiritual herbs were meticulously chosen by Fang Xi; a single year's growth was sufficient for medicinal use.
Of course, for maximum potency, five and ten years were optimal.
"For this harvest, only half of the spiritual herbs will be taken. The rest will be left to continue growing," Fang Xi decided after inspecting them.
"Alright!"
Lu Guo and Widow Wang both held jade bottles and jade boxes, collecting the spiritual herbs and fruits with specific techniques, while also employing spiritual power to seal their medicinal properties, ensuring each plant was in its most perfect state.
Even such farm work was beyond Little Hu's capabilities; he could only pick up stray rice grains in the spirit fields. . .
Once the medicinal fields were harvested, Fang Xi directly put the herbs into his storage bag and returned to his large residence to refine pills.
Lu Guo and Widow Wang watched Fang Xi leave. Widow Wang suddenly seemed thoughtful: "Is Master going to refine 'Blood-Stanching Pills' now? After all these years and so many resources poured in, it seems there's finally been some progress. . ."
Cultivators who could refine Grain Cessation Pills were numerous.
However, those who could refine 'Blood-Stanching Pills' were fewer; they could even serve as alchemist apprentices in the cultivation city's pill shops.
Widow Wang knew that Fang Xi had invested heavily in alchemy over the years.
She had even purchased spiritual charcoal for Fang Xi.
She hadn't expected him to actually achieve something.
Looking at it now, she couldn't help but feel envious: "Sigh. . . if only I had known, I would have had my Little Hu apprentice himself to Master. Even if he didn't learn the Longevity Art, learning alchemy would have been good. . ."
Upon hearing this, Lu Guo's face darkened involuntarily.
By now, he roughly knew what level of cultivation technique the Longevity Art he practiced was.
Widow Wang, realizing her slip of the tongue, quickly changed the subject: "Have you heard about the Mu family's situation?"
"The entire Peach Blossom Island is abuzz with it, of course I've heard," Lu Guo replied indifferently.
Mu Wen was determined to mortgage the family's spiritual land to purchase a shop in the Spirit Sky Island market.
Several elders, unable to dissuade him, angrily reported it to Ruan Xing Ling. Under the Island Master's arbitration, a few acres of spiritual land were divided, marking a formal separation of the family.
Then, freed from restraint, Mu Wen mortgaged the spiritual land, borrowed a large sum of spirit stones from the Feng family and Mo family, and invested it all into the Spirit Sky Island market. He actually managed to buy a shop, and recently, he has been throwing lavish banquets, proclaiming this "good news"!
"This Mu family head is truly decisive! "
Widow Wang couldn't help but sigh: "Nowadays, every inch of land in the Spirit Sky Island market is worth its weight in gold. Even if a single shop is rented out to outsiders, it can earn many spirit stones annually. With a little more effort, the annual repayment difference won't be significant. . . As long as they work hard for forty or fifty years, both the shop and the spiritual land will belong to the Mu family."
"Spirit Sky Island market. . ."
Lu Guo murmured, a hint of envy in his eyes.
He also wanted to try his luck in the cultivation city, but unfortunately, his identity was somewhat special. The Island Master and others might not be willing to let him leave.
At this moment, he could only think about it inwardly.
...
Inside the alchemy room.
Fang Xi lit the charcoal and then set up a fire control array beside it.
With these two, the spiritual fire for refining Qi Refinement stage pills was sufficient.
As for second-order pills?
If one didn't possess the innate true fire of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it was better to simply rent earth fire.
He took out the fresh 'Blood-Stimulating Grass' and 'Snake Orchid Fruit', grinding them into powder or pressing out their juice as per the pill recipe, preparing them for use.
Following that, he opened the pill furnace, added the materials, and began refining the pills.
His Divine Consciousness entered the pill furnace, swiftly grasping the various changes within the medicinal liquid, allowing Fang Xi's understanding of medicinal properties to advance by leaps and bounds.
If it were other Qi Refinement stage alchemists, they would only be able to ponder diligently over the pill furnace, inferring from the results of each refinement. The difference between them was simply immeasurable by reason.
Bang!
A faint explosion sound emanated from within the pill furnace.
Fang Xi's expression remained neutral as he opened the pill furnace and pulled out a quantity of black, foul-smelling debris.
Undoubtedly, this alchemy attempt had failed.
Even with the aid of Divine Consciousness, alchemy was not an easy task!
Fang Xi's expression was calm as he noted down this lesson: "Operations too hasty, too focused on achieving the perfect manifestation of medicinal properties. . . Continue!"
The spiritual fire burned ceaselessly.
Three days and nights later, Fang Xi stared at the purple-bronze pill furnace before him, forming a pill-collecting hand seal: "Open!"
Buzz!
The pill furnace lid opened, and this time, a rich medicinal fragrance wafted out.
The next moment, several pills flew out, landing in Fang Xi's hand.
Fang Xi stared at them expressionlessly. He saw that these pills were pearl-sized, perfectly round, with a flowing crimson surface, and there were exactly seven of them!
But the next moment, the color of two of them continuously darkened, turning pitch black.
Among the remaining five pills, one had a faint gray pattern appear on its surface.
"A batch yields seven pills, two duds, one sub-standard. . ."
Fang Xi muttered to himself, then used a jade bottle to store the four genuine 'Blood-Stanching Pills'.
Such a pill-forming rate was already considered quite good among low-grade first-order alchemist apprentices.
Only by practicing to this extent did he have the confidence to challenge the more difficult 'Beast Food Pill'!
However, now was clearly not the time.
After all, he had been refining pills for a long time, and both his Divine Consciousness and body were extremely fatigued.
Fang Xi walked out of the alchemy room, bathed and changed, and rested well. Feeling refreshed, he went out for a stroll.
Lu Guo was sitting idly by the field. Seeing Fang Xi approach, he quickly stood up: "Master!"
"What's going on over there?"
Fang Xi pointed towards Widow Wang's home.
From Widow Wang's home, Little Hu's mournful cries continuously drifted out.
"Widow Wang hasn't been in a good mood these past two days, and Little Hu just happened to make a mistake, so he got a beating," Lu Guo explained, his heart filled with complex emotions, unable to tell if it was envy or something else.
"Hmm, so it's 'beating a child on a rainy day,' since there's nothing else to do anyway. . . Why isn't Widow Wang in a good mood? " Fang Xi stroked his chin.
"Aunt Wang, greedy for a few more spirit stones, didn't put the spiritual rice she had saved up into Peach Blossom Island's exchange fair. Instead, she entrusted someone to take it to the Spirit Sky Island market for sale. There were no problems the previous few times, but this time, it was robbed, and she lost both her goods and her money. . . " Lu Guo replied.
"Ran into bandit cultivators? That's normal. . ."
Fang Xi nodded. It was quite normal for bandit cultivators to operate around cultivation cities, not to mention that the Spirit Sky Island market's business was so booming.
"Hmm, a few cultivators on Peach Blossom Island also died, but no bounty was issued," Lu Guo added.
"That's strange. Who could it be?"
Fang Xi found it a bit odd. Could this bandit cultivator be a ruthless individual? One even Ruan Xing Ling feared?
"It's said that the bandit cultivator wore silver armor and used a black iron sword artifact. . . Their methods were extremely brutal," Lu Guo recounted everything he had heard.
"Silver armor, black sword?"
Fang Xi gasped, his first reaction being that he hadn't made a move, and then he felt a huge black pot being thrown his way!
"Master, have you heard of this person? " Lu Guo immediately became interested.
"About ten years ago, when you were still young. . . " Fang Xi sighed: "There was a ruthless individual who ambushed the previous Grand Elders and family heads of the Mo family and Feng family, even severely injuring the Golden Tooth Old Freak. At that time, someone saw this ruthless assailant wearing silver armor and wielding a black sword. . . I didn't expect this assailant to have been hidden for ten years, only to come out and cause trouble again now!"
As he spoke, Fang Xi also understood in his heart.
This time, the appearance of a silver-armored bandit cultivator either meant that a former enemy was slandering him.
Or. . . it was someone deliberately using his former reputation to stir up trouble and fish in troubled waters!
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