Following the opening of the martial arts tournament, various discussions, auctions, and trade fairs followed.

Li Mu sat in a corner of the venue, listening to the discussion session all morning. The guest speaker was Tan Li.

Tan Li obtained a large number of pills by chance in a blessed land in his early years. He benefited greatly from the pills in his decades of cultivation, but also almost died from pill poisoning. He is indeed qualified to explain his insights on the path of cultivation through pills.

In his previous life, Li Mu was a third-grade spirit-level alchemist. In this world, probably no one knew more about pills than him.

As Tan Li recounted his understanding of elixirs and his insights into consuming them during cultivation, Li Mu was truly impressed.

Although Tan Li's discourse on Taoism did not offer much help to Li Mu's path of alchemy, his insights into elixirs did prompt Li Mu to reflect.

This world has reached the end of its Dharma, and due to the limitations of the cultivation system, alchemists have also died out.

All the elixirs obtained came from blessed lands or ancient ruins, all left behind by predecessors.

As Vanden said, "We cultivators have long suffered from the reliance on elixirs." This single sentence encapsulates the bitterness of cultivators in this world.

When he showed the pills to Vanden earlier, Vanden's joy was genuine.

Li Mu believed that Vanden had already figured out the time frame for refining and storing the elixir.

Now, a big problem arises that Li Mu needs to pay attention to: possessing a treasure is a crime.

Although the Qi-replenishing pills that Li Mu took out could not be called elixirs, they were made according to the alchemy manual, making them several levels higher than the pills made in this world. Moreover, the two beauty pills were genuine elixirs.

If I were to reveal myself now as an alchemist, ninety-nine out of a hundred people would probably flatter or even fawn over me. But if even one person were to play dirty tricks behind my back, it would be a huge problem for me.

Could it be that hiding the pills now to avoid trouble goes against Li Mu's original intention for the martial arts tournament?

After some thought, Li Mu decided to follow his heart and let nature take its course.

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After the morning's discussion session ended, Li Mu and Lao Tan had lunch with more than ten Heavenly Realm experts staying at Juxian Tower.

When they returned to their rooms to rest, Huo Huanyu, the sect leader of the Thunderclap Sect, was checking in at the Gathering Sages Pavilion with two elders.

Huo Huanyu, the leader of a sect and a powerful expert in the Heavenly Realm, originally did not plan to come to the Martial Arts Tournament, but due to his son's disappearance, he had no choice but to come.

Because of a last-minute decision, Huo Huanyu arrived half a day late and did not attend the morning's discussion.

Currently, the others brought by Huo Huanyu, as well as members of the Chen family, are searching for Li Mu everywhere outside the martial arts tournament venue.

What led them to misjudge was that Li Mu, the rich kid they saw, was living openly in Juxianlou.

The Huo and Chen families were looking for Li Mu inside the venue, but Li Mu was completely unaware of it, as he was looking forward to the Tianshi Dao Yi Conference that afternoon.

The Martial Arts Association divides trades between martial artists into three levels: the Celestial Master Dao Trade Association, the Grandmaster Dao Trade Association, and the Martial Artist Trade Association.

All transactions proceed from top to bottom; items that cannot be traded on the upper level are then moved to the next level for trading.

The Celestial Masters' Daoist Yi Conference is supposed to be open only to those at the Celestial Realm level.

However, Heavenly Realm experts are usually the heads of sects, and are busy with sect affairs. Other influential members of the sect participate in these affairs. Therefore, many Earth Realm martial artists will appear at the Heavenly Master Dao Yi Meeting.

To make the transactions at the Celestial Masters Dao Trading Association more active, the Martial Arts Association also specially invited some Earth Sect or Earth Realm independent martial artists to participate.

At 3 PM, the Celestial Masters' Daoist Yi Gathering officially began, with nearly fifty participants, including eleven or twelve Celestial Masters and the rest being Earth Realm martial artists.

Of all the Earth Realm martial artists, Li Mu didn't recognize any of them, but he felt that an old bald man looked a lot like Cheng Yishi.

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The Celestial Masters' Daoist Yi Society was also held at the same venue as the morning's Daoist discussion, but the arrangements had changed.

Dozens of chairs were placed around the perimeter, leaving an open space of more than ten square meters in the middle.

The meeting was chaired by Zuo Yunsheng, the vice president of the Martial Arts Association. This vice president was about sixty years old, with a Taoist bun on his head, a ruddy complexion, a long beard hanging down to his chest, and stood as straight as a pine tree. His voice was clear and loud.

After Zuo Yunsheng briefly announced a few trading rules, the Tianshi Daoyi Conference began.

Two years ago, Huang Qi of the Wanyao Hall found some spiritual fruits on a cliff. These fruits have an extremely long growth period, roughly estimated to take ten years to mature. They are also extremely bitter, so they are temporarily named Bitter Fruit.

According to research by several pharmacists at my Wan Yao Tang pharmacy, adding a small amount of this fruit to various medicinal decoctions can enhance their medicinal properties. However, adding too much can cause the decoction to become extremely potent after consumption. I wonder if any fellow practitioners recognize this fruit.

After Huang Qi finished speaking, he placed two grayish-black fruits on a small porcelain plate and showed them to everyone.

Li Mu didn't expect that Dao Yi would be the first to step forward, not for the purpose of making a transaction, but to ask everyone to help identify the medicine.

When the two fruits were presented to Li Mu, he examined them carefully and felt that they were very similar to the bitter thorn fruit he had obtained.

The difference is that these two fruits were not ripe when they were picked, and the outer flesh had not been naturally dried.

Remembering what Huang Qi had said before, that it would take ten years to mature, Li Mu was shocked. Could this be the legendary ten years of hardship?

Next, Li Mu thought more and more that this kind of fruit would bring ten years of bitterness.

This also explains why the medicinal properties of pills and elixirs become more potent after I use bitter thorn fruit in medicine.

Previously, I had always suspected that the problem was caused by bitter thorns, but I never expected that I would receive ten years of bitterness without knowing it. How lucky I am.

Ten years of hardship, and the spirit of nature grows; ten years to take root, ten years to sprout, ten years to grow, ten years to blossom, ten years to bear fruit, ten years to mature.

In other words, to obtain this spiritual fruit, one must wait at least sixty years.

Moreover, this fruit tree only bears fruit once, hence its nickname "bitter fruit".

It is precisely because of its unique growth and maturation process that it has such a potent effect after being used in medicine for ten years.

Any prescription, when combined with bitter herbs for ten years, will have an extremely potent effect.

If the bitter fruit is harvested before it is fully ripe, it can be used in medicine for a short period of time, but its medicinal value is not high.

Moreover, over time, regardless of the method used for storage, the medicinal properties of these unripe fruits will dissipate, eventually turning them into bitter fruits with only a bitter taste.

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While Li Mu was still pondering the legend of the Bitter Ten Years Fruit, Huang Qi had already put away two Bitter Ten Years Fruits. No one present recognized what kind of fruit it was.

Huang Qi didn't specifically ask Li Mu, so Li Mu naturally wouldn't jump out to show off.

"Fellow Daoists, I am one of the Four Tigers of the Fierce Tiger Hall. Ten years ago, I obtained this piece of gold by chance."

This gold nugget is different from ordinary gold nuggets; it is of relatively large weight, and its most distinctive feature is that the weight felt by each person when holding it is different.

Fellow Daoists who are interested can hold it and try it out. If you want this gold nugget, that's also possible; just present me with a treasure that appeals to me.

Zong Sihu was of medium height and had an exceptionally fierce appearance.

After he finished speaking, he proudly displayed a fist-sized piece of golden metal in the room, looking like he was waiting for a high price to buy it.