Under Luo Zhenren's "coercion and enticement," Bai Cang ultimately chose to compromise.

After a heated exchange, the two reached an agreement "happily".

Bai Cang offered to supply Luo Zhenren with a sufficient quantity of "Nourishing Essence and Spirit Pills" in exchange for Luo Zhenren's assistance once.

Special Note: Unless permitted by Master Luo, Bai Cang shall not "sell" the Nourishing Essence Pill to anyone for any reason or in any form. It must be exclusively distributed by the Pill Academy.

Thus, under the watchful "escort" of Master Luo, Bai Cang plunged into the alchemy room and refined pills non-stop for half a month.

During the past two weeks, Bai Cang delivered 405 "Nourishing Essence and Spirit Pills" to the Pill Academy at a fixed frequency of three batches per day.

His exquisite alchemy technique, with a 100% success rate in producing pills, astonished the entire alchemy academy.

The name of the alchemy genius once again resounded throughout the Crimson Dragon General Temple.

Master Luo was so shocked that he was completely disoriented. On the tenth day, he could no longer sit still and hurriedly left the house, heading straight for the Northern Yin Mountains.

As the saying goes: comparing people will only lead to ruin, comparing goods will only lead to discarding them.

He was afraid that if he continued watching, he wouldn't be able to suppress the urge to pinch Luo Jin on the spot.

That's fine, he can have another son, he doesn't lack sons anyway.

Master Luo was even more afraid that he might not be able to resist the urge to fight Han Qinhu to the death, which would be like lighting a lantern in a latrine—asking for death!

To this, Bai Cang could only say: Look at how ignorant you all are.

Even though he had a "change of heart" this time and almost "unreservedly" revealed his "trump card", the "Nourishing Essence and Spirit Pill" he actually handed over to the Pill Academy was only one-third of the finished spirit pills he had refined.

In fact, in the past two weeks, Bai Cang had used up almost half of the spiritual herbs in the Pill Academy that could greatly replenish vital essence, and had refined a total of 1,260 "Nourishing Essence and Spirit Pills".

If this were to be exposed, wouldn't it shock many alchemists to death?

However, it's also possible that this will trigger Master Luo's rampage once again.

While it's true that "if the cook doesn't steal, the harvest won't be good," and there's no such thing as an "honest person" who doesn't take advantage of spiritual herbs and pills, taking away more than half of them is just too inhumane, isn't it?

Even the most heartless person wouldn't be this ruthless. Amputating him from the chest down would be much better.

However, Bai Cang also had something to say: At first, I refined ten spirit pills and only gave you one. Now, I deliver one for every three pills. The "production" has "skyrocketed" more than three times. Why do you say I'm heartless?

Why can't the elixir I embezzled through my own abilities be considered a legitimate and normal "income"?

However, compared to the smooth sailing he made money through alchemy, his cultivation progress was far from satisfactory, or rather, quite disappointing.

For a full half month, with an almost unlimited supply of elixirs and a total amount of essence that had been increased multiple times, they had only managed to open one aperture, which was incredibly slow.

If this pace continues, wouldn't it take him four years to advance to the level of a two-hundred-aperture immortal master?

For ordinary cultivators, advancing from one hundred apertures to two hundred apertures in just four years is an unimaginable speed, like leveling up by rocket.

But for Bai Cang, this was simply an unbearable "tortoise speed".

"Alchemy has not affected my cultivation, which means that even if I go into seclusion with all my might, my cultivation progress will not be much faster."

Bai Cang put away the last batch of spirit pills, his brows furrowed as he thought to himself, "No wonder it's so difficult to obtain a high-grade Dao Foundation. Even a mid-grade Dao Foundation is already quite rare."

"The difficulty of opening the mind after reaching the hundredth level is completely different from that before reaching the hundredth level."

The biggest problem limiting people from cultivating a superior Dao foundation is probably lifespan, in addition to the scarcity of top-tier cultivation methods.

People like Master Luo are incredibly wealthy. If they were willing to pay any price, could they really not acquire a superior martial arts technique?

He clearly has no shortage of resources, yet he has only condensed a low-grade Dao foundation. Is it because he doesn't like it?

It's not that I'm unwilling, but that I simply can't!

Bai Cang summarized that there were three reasons why his cultivation progress was slow after reaching the Hundred Apertures stage.

Firstly, because the difficulty of opening the Mysterious Aperture has increased dramatically!

If the barrier of the mystic apertures before reaching the Hundred Apertures stage was as fragile as tofu, then the barrier after reaching the Hundred Apertures stage is like refined steel, completely incomparable.

The second is the Mysterious Aperture after the Hundred Apertures, where the stored magical power increases dramatically, at least three times that before the Hundred Apertures.

In this way, while the increase in magical power is three times that before opening a hundred apertures, the difficulty of accumulating enough magical power for a single aperture also increases threefold.

Especially since Bai Cang already possessed immense magical power and a solid foundation, this further slowed down his cultivation progress.

It should be noted that after refining the Taiyin Dharma Nature and transforming the Five Elements Yin Demon Qi into the Primordial Profound Netherworld Cold Qi, Bai Cang's magical power not only far surpassed that of ordinary people in quality, but the total amount of magical power in each of his apertures was also astonishing.

If we take the superior technique "Five Elements Yin Magic" as a comparison, Bai Cang's magic power is three times that of an ordinary superior technique, ten times that of an ordinary middle technique, and thirty-six times that of an ordinary inferior technique.

The superiority of total magical power becomes a significant increase in the difficulty of cultivation after reaching the Hundred Apertures stage.

Bai Cang's current one-aperture magic power is equivalent to cultivating a low-level technique. How can it be compared to the magic power of an ordinary cultivator's 108 acupoints before reaching the hundred acupoints?

Even if he could cheat, almost unlimitedly absorbing the essence of the stars and moon as resources, and maxing out his progress in using drugs to cheat, even his own essence had increased dramatically.

However, the limitations of his own essence still severely restricted his "cheat code," and the daily increase in magical power was insufficient to meet his needs for cultivation progress.

The third is that after the Hundred Apertures, all the mysterious apertures have become perfectly round, forming a whole, and becoming part of the construction of innate minor supernatural powers.

The subsequent opening of the profound apertures requires forcibly "squeezing" this proposal in, and ensuring its stability without conflict is not a simple matter.

The combination of these three factors is the real reason why Bai Cang's cultivation speed "plummeted" by more than ten times.

This is only the transition from one hundred to two hundred apertures, limited to the predicament of a mid-grade Dao foundation.

If one were to progress from two hundred to three hundred acupoints and enter the realm of attempting to break through to the upper-grade Dao foundation, the difficulty would likely increase exponentially.

No wonder Han Qinhu, who was expected to be a high-grade Dao Foundation cultivator, could be so arrogant, almost treating low-grade Dao Foundation cultivators like Luo Zhenren as nothing, and not even taking mid-grade Dao Foundation cultivators like Yuan Tiangang seriously.

The reason is simply that they are not playing the same "game" at all; the gap between them is like an insurmountable chasm.

It's only natural that the highest-ranking players look down on those in Gold and Silver ranks, isn't it?

Putting everything else aside, the three minor innate abilities alone have already bridged the gap between Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment, making it easy for anyone to fight or even kill someone at the Foundation Establishment stage.

"Looks like we still need to find a way to increase the power of cheating!"

Thinking this, Bai Cang pushed open the door to the alchemy room.

But then he saw Master Luo walking towards him with a sheepish look on his face!

[Thanks again to "Candle Dragon Lord", please give me a free gift!]