Chapter 211 Cultivation Path A (Part 5) Path A's combat power is maxed out...

"You, Song Ce! You're really asking for trouble!" Mu Qingdai bit her lower lip hard until she tasted a trace of blood before slowly letting go.

Once the figure in the distance had completely disappeared, she quickly calmed down. Anger wouldn't solve anything in this situation. The colder and more indifferent Song Ce was, the more it showed he wasn't easily seduced by beauty.

Such a person is either as firm as a rock or has greater goals. Once he falls for her, he will definitely become her greatest support and help.

Thinking this, Mu Qingdai gently straightened her sleeves, a soft smile playing on her lips. "There's plenty of time. We'll see."

Since Song Ce's approach is not working out for the time being, she can find other ways. In any case, someone like her will never put all her eggs in one basket.

Meanwhile, when Song Ce returned to his residence, it was already dark. After a brief rest, he went straight to the Spirit Plant Valley in the back mountain of the Jade Balance Sect.

Lingzhi Valley is located on Baizhang Peak of Yuheng Sect. It is a place where spiritual energy is abundant within the sect. The surrounding mountains envelop Lingzhi Valley, the highest of which is about 100 zhang high, hence the name Baizhang Peak.

Thanks to the power of the Heart of Herbs and Trees, he can recognize all the medicinal plants and spiritual plants in the back mountain. Now, in addition to cultivation, he also needs to strengthen his alchemy skills, which he was not very proficient in before.

With a flick of his finger, Song Ce immediately retrieved three orchids with blooming flowers from the valley.

The petals of the Orchid Flower are a deep, purplish-blue color, with a subtle shimmering light on them—this is the main ingredient for refining the Qi Condensation Pill, with fifty-year-old ones being the best. Its function is to allow mortals to skip the step of drawing Qi into the body and directly enter the first stage of Qi Refining, without any side effects.

After storing the Orchid Flower in the jade box according to its characteristics, he didn't rest. He immediately activated his spiritual power in his palm to catalyze the growth of the three Orchid Flowers that were now only roots. After restoring them to their original state, he moved on to the next patch of spiritual plants.

...

After seven days of refining, Song Ce's storage bag was almost half full of pills.

All auxiliary pills in this world are extremely expensive. Take the Rejuvenation Pill, which is essential for cultivators, for example. The cost of the medicinal materials is about 15-20 low-grade spirit stones, while a single Rejuvenation Pill can be sold for over a hundred low-grade spirit stones. The profit is enough to make all cultivators envious.

The reason for this is simply that all cultivators in this realm cannot generate "real fire" within their bodies. If they want to refine pills, they can only seek the power of external fire. These "external fires" can only be generated by some mutated demonic beasts and natural fires nurtured by heaven and earth. This is why the price of pills has always remained high. The value of pills such as the Marrow Cleansing Pill, which is used to cleanse the marrow and bones, eliminate impurities in the body, and enhance cultivation potential, as well as the Barrier Breaking Pill, which helps cultivators break through bottlenecks and advance to higher realms, is self-evident.

Unlike cultivators in this world, Song Ce's dantian can naturally generate a companion spiritual fire. With the assistance of the Heart of Grass and Wood, his success rate in refining pills can reach almost 95% or more.

Alchemists like Song Ce, who can refine half a bag of pills in just seven days, are practically unique on the entire continent.

Most of these pills were Rejuvenation Pills, with the remainder being Marrow Cleansing Pills and Qi Gathering Pills. Refining these pills would allow him to exchange them for a considerable amount of spirit stones and materials needed for his cultivation.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Song Ce headed to Tianshui City, the closest city to the Yuheng Sect.

Tianshui City covers an area of ​​nearly a thousand miles and is the largest town south of Cangzhou on the continent. In the eastern part of the city lies the Yunqi Sect, one of the six lower sects. In addition, there are more than a hundred sects and cultivation families scattered around it. The Yuheng Sect is a rather insignificant small sect among these sects.

As the trading city for spirit items of the top 100 sects, Tianshui City is very prosperous. Various shops are scattered on both sides of the bluestone-paved streets. From the first light of dawn to the end of dusk, it is always bustling with people.

Song Ce strolled leisurely through the crowd and headed straight for Yun Jian Lou, the largest auction house in Tianshui City.

The Cloud Pavilion has nine floors. The first three floors sell ordinary goods, which anyone can browse and shop on. However, to go further up, one must be a cultivator or accompanied by a cultivator. Above the sixth floor are auction houses that only sects or aristocratic families can participate in.

He paused for a moment, then went straight to the fifth floor, the Pill Shop. This place both sold and bought pills, and the prices for buying them were relatively fair.

When the steward of the alchemy shop saw him enter, he quickly put down what he was carrying and greeted him with a smile: "Esteemed guest, what can I do for you?"

Song Ce smiled. "Can you take back Yuan Dan here?"

"Of course we accepted it."

The steward of the alchemy workshop skillfully took out a jade plate. "Guest, please place the medicinal herbs here."

Song Ce nodded and placed the pills from his storage bag one by one on the counter. "There are a total of eighty-five Rejuvenation Pills, sixty-two Qi Gathering Pills, and fifty-eight Marrow Cleansing Pills."

Upon hearing this, the head steward of the alchemy shop was taken aback. Such a large quantity of pills was beyond the authority of a mere steward like himself. After briefly examining the two bottles of pills, he immediately stood up and smiled, saying, "Please wait a moment, sir. I will go and consult the manager."

Before long, the steward of the alchemy workshop returned. He bowed slightly, and his tone became much more respectful: "Young friend, please come with me."

When Song Ce followed the head steward of the alchemy workshop to a separate meeting hall, a middle-aged man dressed in purple was already waiting inside.

"May I ask your name, young friend?" the middle-aged man asked with a friendly chuckle.

"My surname is Song," Song Ce replied succinctly, his gaze calmly fixed on the man in purple.

This person was dressed in luxurious clothes and had a calm demeanor, clearly indicating that his cultivation level was not low.

The man in purple clapped his hands and laughed, "So it's young friend Song. I am Qin Kang, the manager of the Cloud Pavilion Pill Shop. It's truly impressive that you have so many high-grade pills at such a young age."

Song Ce nodded, "Manager Qin is too kind."

Qin Yikang smiled, gestured for Song Ce to sit down, and then had a maid serve him some spiritual tea. "Just now, Steward Wang examined the pills. Young friend, the quality of your pills is excellent, all of them are top-grade. But I wonder, what do you intend to do with these pills?"

Song Ce picked up his teacup and took a sip. "Naturally, I'll sell everything. I wonder what price Manager Qin is willing to offer?"

A glint flashed in Qin Yikang's eyes. He tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice before smiling and saying, "One Rejuvenation Pill costs seventy low-grade spirit stones, one Qi Gathering Pill costs ninety, and one Marrow Cleansing Pill costs two hundred. What do you think, young friend?"

Song Ce paused for a moment. This price was indeed fair in Tianshui City; ordinary pill shops would only charge 60% of that at most.

"Yes, I need three more medicinal herbs: Dew-Gathering Grass, Crimson Blood Flower, and Orange Heart Wood. I wonder if the alchemy shop has them in stock?"

Qin Yikang glanced at the steward, and seeing him nod, he smiled and said, "What's so difficult about that? I dare not say anything else about Yunjianlou, but we can certainly say that our medicinal herbs are complete. Young friend, please wait a moment, and I will have someone prepare the spirit stones and herbs."

After saying this, he gestured to the steward to give the order, and soon two shop assistants came in carrying two wooden boxes. After Song Ce counted the spirit stones and spirit herbs and confirmed that everything was correct, he put these items into his storage bag.

Seeing this, Qin Yikang narrowed his eyes and said, "Young friend Song's alchemy skills are so exquisite, may I ask where you learned them? If you are interested, how about we cooperate with Yunjianlou for a long time? We are willing to buy your pills at 70% of the market price, what do you say?"

Song Ce shook his head slightly and said calmly, "No need. If there are any pills in the future, I will send them to Yun Jian Lou first."

Qin Yikang did not press the matter upon hearing this, but simply smiled and handed over a jade token: "This is a VIP token of my Cloud Pavilion. With this token, you can go directly to the sixth floor and above. It will make things easier if you want to auction some items in the future."

Song Ce took the jade token, put it away, and got up to take his leave.

Qin Yikang watched the direction he left, twirled his fingers, and chuckled softly: "Go investigate."

"Yes, Master."

When they left Cloud Tower, it was nearly noon, and the streets were even more crowded than in the morning. Just as Song Ce was about to leave the city, he suddenly heard someone call out from behind, "Senior Brother Song?"

He turned around and saw Mu Qingdai again.

She brought two female disciples with her today, and they were walking gracefully toward him.

"We saw our senior brother on the road just now, and we thought we had mistaken him for someone else! What a coincidence!"

Song Ce frowned slightly, not wanting to get entangled with her any further, and simply said, "Junior Sister Mu."

Mu Qingdai seemed oblivious to his coldness, and stepped forward to say softly, "I just saw that you just came out of the Cloud Pavilion, Senior Brother? May I ask what brings you here?" Her gaze fell on the storage bag at Song Ce's waist, with a hint of secretive inquiry.

"It's none of your business," Song Ce said, turning and leaving.

Mu Qingdai watched his cold back, a hint of anger flashing in her eyes, but she quickly put on a smile and said to the disciple beside her, "It seems that Senior Brother Song is indeed a cold person."

One of the female disciples, seeing her changing expression, quickly tried to smooth things over: "Senior sister, why get angry with someone who doesn't understand manners? You are a member of the Mu family, while he is just a wild man from the mountains. In the time of the inner sect competition, he will have his turn to learn a lesson."

"That's right, that's right!"

Mu Qingdai chuckled softly upon hearing this, and tidied the stray hairs at her temples. "It's nothing."

At this moment, Song Ce did not dwell on the incident of encountering Mu Qingdai on the road. He walked quickly through the bustling street, and as he passed the entrance of a quiet and dark alley, he suddenly heard a crisp "snap".

Immediately afterwards, a dog barked from inside the alley, interspersed with the faint sounds of boys jeering: "Go! Go! Bite him to death! Let's see if he dares to do it again..."

Song Ce was taken aback, then frowned and strode inside.

Three boys, around ten years old, came into view, one of whom was holding a black dog about half a person's height on a leash. Not far from them, a little beggar of indeterminate gender was huddled tightly in the shadows against the wall, holding a half-eaten coarse grain bun in his hand.

Hearing the noise at the alley entrance, the three little boys turned around at the same time.

"What are you doing..."

Before Song Ce could finish speaking, the three boys burst into tears, crying, "Mom! Mom! Dad! Save me!" Then they covered their heads and ran quickly out of the alley, disappearing in an instant.

Song Ce: "..."

This is the world of cultivation. To cultivators, the mortals of Tianshui City are nothing more than ants that can be crushed at will. No matter where you are, the law of survival is always the same: the strong are respected and the weak are eliminated. No wonder these children are so afraid of him.

Song Ce sighed, then walked towards the little beggar not far away.

Sensing someone approaching, the little beggar looked up warily. Seeing the newcomer dressed in plain white robes with a long sword at his waist, his face immediately turned pale. He trembled and took two steps back. When he had nowhere left to retreat, he pressed himself tightly against the corner of the wall and knelt down in fear.

"Immortal... Immortal..."

-----------------------

Author's Note: Oh my god, I was six characters short! My fafa [crying][crying][crying][crying][crying]