Windless Canyon, Bailuogou.

This is a small-mouthed, big-bellied, conch-shaped valley that is thirty to fifty miles long. The valley is named Bailuogou because it is full of white snakehead flowers, which bloom all year round and are as white as snow.

The snakehead flower tree is a relatively precious medicinal tree. It can clear away heat, remove toxins, dredge meridians and blood vessels, and purify the internal organs. It has a great tonic effect on monks in the Anshen Realm and Liming Realm. In the past, Bailuogou was often frequented by herbalists from the Wufeng Valley.

But ever since the alchemy master Master Qiao took a fancy to Bailuogou six hundred years ago and built a house here, Bailuogou became Master Qiao's private territory, and ordinary people dared not approach it easily.

Amidst the aroma of medicinal herbs and thick smoke, deep in the Bailuo Valley, beside a swift and clear stream, Mr. Qiao, a short man with a huge forehead and a bald scalp without a single hair, was squatting on a large rock with a frown on his brow, staring blankly at a few small fish in the stream.

"What's wrong with this recipe? Well, if you say there's something wrong with the recipe, that's not right. After all, two of the past one hundred batches succeeded! But if you say the recipe is intact, how come the other ninety-eight batches were ruined?"

"Damn, cheap stuff doesn't come cheap, these damned grave robbers, from whose grave did they dig out this recipe?"

"But looking at this secret text, it is indeed an ancient elixir recipe. Those local masters are good at forging things, but they can't make such an ancient artifact."

"This pill is so powerful! One pill can increase the body's dragon power by 20. Of course, you can only take nine pills at most, which is 180 dragon power. Tsk tsk, for the sake of the younger generation in the clan, those family heads and elders will break their heads to grab it."

"But this cost... a full one hundred furnaces! Haha, my heart... hurts so much!"

Master Qiao sighed with a grin, and shook his head with a deep look in his eyes: "No, the price has to go up. The materials for the ninety-eight furnaces of waste pills are fine, but the cost of each of the three exploded high-grade pill furnaces is more than thirty million spirit crystals... The price has to go up, even the most ordinary fasting pills have to go up by 30%!"

Pulling out a dark blue mushroom from his sleeve, Master Qiao carefully broke off a piece of the mushroom and with a touch of his finger, the mushroom fragments turned into wisps of dark blue cold mist, which slowly seeped into Master Qiao's skin.

Master Qiao's body trembled slightly for a while, and a layer of white cold sweat seeped out of his forehead, which soon turned into wisps of hot air and dissipated.

"The fire poison in the body is also a problem, hmph!" Master Qiao carefully stuffed the mushroom back into his sleeve, grabbed a thumb-thick beard on his chin and pulled it hard, his eyes rolling rapidly: "The price of this deep-sea blue ice mushroom is getting higher and higher. It's not easy to buy it. What if it's out of stock? What should I do with the fire poison?"

"We need to stock up on some, but the price is high. We need to figure out how to get the money."

With a heavy sigh, Master Qiao shook his head and said, "It's so hard to be an alchemist!"

Light footsteps were heard, and a beautiful young woman in a light blue dress walked over quickly. She smiled and bowed to Master Qiao: "Master!"

Master Qiao extended his hand to the woman: "Is this the price I mentioned?"

The young woman nodded vigorously and said with a light smile: "Of course it's according to Master's price. Hee, among the several spiritual places around the Windless Canyon, you are the only one who can refine the 'Da Huang Dan'. Naturally, it's your price!"

Smiling triumphantly, the woman took out a bracelet and put it into Master Qiao's hand.

Master Qiao took the bracelet and pointed his finger. A beam of spiritual light flooded the bracelet. He quickly counted the number of spiritual crystals in the bracelet and nodded vigorously: "Well, I hope you can understand that the alchemy path... is not easy to walk... the price increase... is also forced!"

He casually stuffed the bracelet into his sleeve and started to scold her while pinching his fingers and making gestures.

"Look, to refine the Rhubarb Pill, it takes an average of three batches for my master to produce one batch of good pills. The cost of the two batches must be added in, right?"

"When refining the elixir, all of my disciples have to run around and assist as much as possible. Not to mention the effort it takes, how much physical energy does it consume? How much time will it take to practice?"

"Not to mention, in order to better benefit the people of Windless Valley, your master has been researching various recipes. How much does it cost to verify these recipes every year?"

"It's okay to have the cost of medicinal materials, but every now and then, my alchemy furnace explodes... Damn, the price of alchemy furnaces is rising all the time, and the price is getting more and more expensive! Not to mention that you brothers and sisters were all injured when the furnace exploded, do you think I have to pay for the soup?"

With a heavy sigh, Master Qiao said in a low voice: "So, I have heard some rumors recently. Those people all say that I am greedy. But if I am not greedy, I am afraid I can't even make a living!"

The young woman rolled her beautiful eyes and snorted coldly, "Master, please don't be angry with those idiots. Anyway, you have so many unique elixirs. If they think they are too expensive, they don't have to buy them! We didn't force them to buy them!"

Master Qiao smiled. He took the young woman's hand, placed it between his hands and stroked it gently: "That makes sense, that makes sense. Du Juan, you are the smartest. If they think it's too expensive, they don't have to buy it. I didn't force them."

The young woman Du Juan giggled and was about to speak when another beautiful young woman walked over quickly.

Because she walked too fast, the woman's face was slightly flushed, and a few drops of sweat were faintly visible on her forehead. She ran to Master Qiao, quickly glanced at Master Qiao and Du Juan's hands, and said hurriedly: "Master, there is another alchemist named Hu Xiaotian in the Windless Valley! Hey, he's a pretty handsome pretty boy!"

Du Juan's eyes spun as she smiled softly, "Senior Sister Haitang, why are you in such a hurry? A handsome pretty boy makes you so... distracted? Hehe, there are quite a few alchemists in Windless Valley, but how can they compare to the methods of our master?"

Master Qiao smiled, patted Du Juan's hand with great satisfaction, and said to Hai Tang gently, "Haitang, don't be in a hurry, tell me slowly, what is the ability of the newcomer Hu Xiaotian? Why did he make you so out of breath?"

Haitang narrowed her beautiful eyes and said very quickly and nervously, "Hu Xiaotian just sold a bottle of twelve thousand-year pills to Hu Qianshan of the Hu family and Guan Linsen of the Guan family, and received 1.2 billion low-grade spirit crystals. Both families paid with high-grade spirit crystals, a total of... 12 million!"

"Hurry!" Master Qiao jumped up, his face becoming extremely ugly: "How dare this kid ruin the market like this? This price is too low!"