Chapter 1: Stone Bead

Dongyuan Sect, Pill Workshop. Inside a pill chamber, a pair of clean hands pinched a white porcelain vial, sweeping over the pill furnace and pouring in a small amount of medicinal liquid ground from spirit herbs.

The flames within the furnace shifted. A section of emerald fruit flesh, softened by spiritual energy into a paste, was cast into the furnace.

Song Yan’s clear eyes snapped open amid the swirling mist, fixed intently on the pill furnace before him. Suspended in his right hand was a sphere of translucent spiritual liquid.

His spiritual energy reserves were nearly depleted, beads of sweat dripping from his forehead, yet not a trace of panic showed on his face.

His breathing was slow and steady, as if even the airflow in the pill chamber dared not disturb a single breath.

The furnace flames surged suddenly, and the translucent spiritual liquid was cast into the furnace as well. Medicinal fragrance wafted out, invigorating the mind and spirit upon inhalation.

Song Yan gripped a spirit stone in his left hand. Spiritual energy flowed like a slender stream through his body, yet the movements of his fingertips did not cease. The furnace flames continued to intensify.

Condense the pill!

The furnace flames extinguished instantly. He panted lightly, the spirit stone in his hand already grayed and shattered, not a wisp of spiritual energy remaining.

He did not rush. Slowly he regulated his breath to recover his spiritual energy, waiting until the residual heat of the furnace had stabilized the pill’s form before rising to his feet.

Opening the furnace and retrieving the pills—done in one fluid motion.

“Seven Qi Nourishing Pills…”

Song Yan’s expression brightened with surprise. He murmured to himself, “Not a single failed pill this time.”

Seven pale green pills hovered above the furnace, each collected into pill vials one by one.

The alchemy texts had said that spiritual substances such as pills and spirit herbs would begin to dissipate their spiritual energy once the furnace was opened or they were harvested. Even stored within a Cosmos Bag, the same applied.

Special containers were required to prevent loss of spiritual energy.

“Even the lowest-quality pill chamber in this Pill Workshop doesn’t have too great an impact on the success rate of Qi Nourishing Pills…”

Song Yan muttered to himself, calculating silently.

“Purchasing Dragon Liver Melon and Spirit Calming Grass cost two low-grade spirit stones. That should be enough for two batches of seven pills. Renting a pill chamber for a full day requires four low-grade spirit stones. Adding in miscellaneous costs, that’s another two spirit stones.”

“Two vials of five Qi Nourishing Pills each can sell for twelve low-grade spirit stones.”

“One day of pill refining earns four low-grade spirit stones. If luck is good, the extra Qi Nourishing Pills can be kept for personal use.”

Though the earnings weren’t substantial, it was far better than a wandering rogue cultivator with no income.

Previously, his alchemy skills had not been mature enough. Even for these most basic, simplest Qi Nourishing Pills, he hadn’t dared to be careless, always selecting slightly better pill chambers.

Now he could finally reduce costs somewhat.

Because his alchemy technique had improved, he was actually beginning to use inferior pill chambers. If word of this got out, people would likely be bewildered.

He nodded with satisfaction.

At the third quarter of the Xu hour, Song Yan emerged from the pill chamber in his gray robes.

The spirit stones had already been paid. Walking onto the streets of the Pill Workshop, he looked up.

“What a magnificent world of immortal cultivation…”

In the distant sky, occasional streaks of light from cultivators’ flying swords crossed the clouds. He murmured to himself, his eyes filled with fervent desire.

Song Yan had originally been an ordinary Chinese student on Blue Star. Through a twist of fate, he had transmigrated to this grand world of immortal cultivation, becoming an abandoned orphan on the banks of Wuxi River in Shiliang Town.

More than ten years had passed in the blink of an eye.

Calculating the days, it had been a year and a half since he had joined the outer sect of Dongyuan Sect.

Unfortunately, his triple spiritual root cultivation talent was truly nothing to boast about. Without spirit stones, without pills, he had only reached the fourth level of Qi Refining. Now he barely managed to scrape together cultivation resources by refining some entry-level pills.

“In another half year, I’ll have to take the sect’s external missions. Before that, I need to properly improve my strength.”

“…”

On the streets of the Pill Workshop, one could frequently see sect disciples coming and going—some in green robes, others in white robes, with distinctive patterns and designs on their sleeves.

Every time he saw disciples dressed this way, he felt a pang of envy.

Inner disciples received fixed allocations of spirit stones and pills each month.

When he had first entered the sect, among the same batch of disciples, those with dual or single spiritual roots—true geniuses—had been immediately admitted to the inner sect, even taken as personal disciples under elders.

“Just having superior innate spiritual root talent allows them to be spared from the painstaking efforts we endure day and night…”

However, his life had to go on. He was not a pessimistic person.

Adjusting his mood, he stepped into a small shop tucked away in a quiet corner of the market.

“Worry-Free General Store.”

In the entire Spirit Source Marsh market, there were probably no fewer than thirty or forty such small shops.

The front of the shop conducted business while the back served as living quarters. They sold all manner of insignificant trinkets, the best items on the counter being some basic talismans, with even those being half-finished products.

In any case, Song Yan hadn’t come to buy anything. Quite the opposite—he had come to sell.

The shopkeeper was a pretty young woman.

She lounged lazily in her chair, a pair of pale, bare feet crossed over the edge of the counter, revealing a glimpse of calf as white as lotus root.

Her left hand held a pipe, while her right hand toyed with a small jade seal, the picture of leisure.

When he walked in, she merely glanced up.

“Young Master Yesheng is here.”

Yesheng was Song Yan’s courtesy name.

“Granny Qin.”

They were old acquaintances. He nodded in greeting. “Here is this month’s pills.”

His fingertip brushed across a small leather pouch, and six white porcelain vials appeared on the nearly dust-covered counter.

“Six vials, thirty pills in total. Please count them.”

Granny Qin’s eyebrows twitched slightly. She opened one of the vials, shook out a pill, and held it between her slender fingers, examining it carefully.

When buying and selling pills, it was generally taboo to take pills directly from the vial for inspection. Usually, the pill’s fragrance and appearance were sufficient.

But this was Granny Qin. To Song Yan, she was the one who had kept a “vagrant” alive through sheer force of will. Naturally, there were no such concerns.

“In just nine months, your alchemy skills have improved remarkably.”

Granny Qin placed the pill back, her jade finger brushing the vial sealed.

“Seven spirit stones per vial. I’ll take them all.”

A vial of five Qi Nourishing Pills had a market price of approximately seven spirit stones. But selling to a small shop, one always had to leave them some profit margin, so it was usually six spirit stones.

It had always been this way with Granny Qin.

Song Yan frowned and waved his hands repeatedly. “Granny Qin, market price is market price. There’s no need to look after me like this.”

Qi Nourishing Pills were among the lowest-grade pills he knew of in this immortal cultivation world. Though they were pills meant for Qi Refining cultivators to enhance their spiritual energy, their spiritual potency was extremely low.

The pills were true to their name—they were typically used by cultivators who had just drawn qi into their bodies but had not yet reached even the first level of Qi Refining, to “nourish their qi.”

“Hahaha, I’m not being polite with you. Your Qi Nourishing Pills have gentle yet potent spiritual energy, nearly reaching the quality of medium-grade pills.”

Song Yan raised an eyebrow. “Truly?”

An outer disciple who had only been in the sect for a year and a half would have no opportunity to come into contact with medium-grade pills, let alone such low-value basic pills that almost no one bothered to refine.

“Do I look like I have nothing better to do? Why would I deceive you…”

Granny Qin rolled her eyes at him and began collecting all the vials. A flash of spiritual light, and a small pouch of spirit stones appeared on the counter.

“Take the spirit stones and scram. Don’t disturb my cultivation.”

Granny Qin was great in every way, except that her temper turned faster than flipping a page.

“Thank you, Granny.”

Song Yan took the spirit stones without counting them, bowed, and left the shop.

“This boy…”

After he departed, Granny Qin reclined in her old rattan chair. A pill flew from one of the vials into her hand, and she held it up, examining it closely.

“Setting aside the spiritual energy within the pill, the pill’s form is perfectly round and full, with minimal impurities. Even a true medium-grade pill would be no better than this.”

“The factors affecting pill form are nothing more than the quality of the pill chamber and the alchemist’s divine sense.”

Yesheng certainly couldn’t afford a good pill chamber—she knew this all too well.

“…”

Qin Xijun pondered, a strange light flickering in her eyes. “This boy is only at the fourth level of Qi Refining…”

…

After leaving the Worry-Free General Store, Song Yan did not immediately return to the outer disciple residences. Instead, he headed toward another part of the Spirit Source Marsh market.

Forge Workshop, Fireworks Settlement.

Much like how the Pill Workshop was managed by the sect’s Pill Hall, the Forge Workshop was a complex of buildings maintained by Dongyuan Sect’s artifact refining lineage.

It primarily served inner and outer disciples, as well as some children of cultivation families allied with Dongyuan Sect, allowing them to purchase magical artifacts and spirit artifacts or trade by barter.

Compared to the market center, Fireworks Settlement was remote and seldom visited.

Because this was where each market dumped its refuse.

Failed pills from botched refining, flawed magical artifacts from failed crafting, incorrectly drawn talismans, damaged formation disks…

There were even strange books that both male and female cultivators enjoyed reading.

Whether it was things Song Yan could imagine or things he couldn’t, all could be found here. Apart from everything else, it certainly broadened one’s horizons.

Failed pills were useless to him. He knew nothing of magical artifacts or talismans.

So he only came to scavenge materials for formations.

“Steward Xu.”

Steward Xu was a stern middle-aged cultivator. Seeing the youth approach, he nodded slightly in greeting.

Work at Fireworks Settlement was not complex—one person was sufficient. Thus, Steward Xu was the only one stationed here.

Song Yan wasted no time on pleasantries. He merely offered a spirit stone.

Steward Xu accepted the spirit stone and, watching the youth’s departing back, offered a quiet reminder: “The area near the market, I recall, has some formation remnants.”

Song Yan had come several times now, always selecting materials for basic formations. That was why Steward Xu offered this hint.

A thought of joy sparked in his heart. “Thank you for your guidance, Steward Xu.”

These refuse items would, once accumulated to a certain quantity, be moved by the steward into the Blazing Furnace connected to the sect’s underground network behind Fireworks Settlement, where they would be melted clean.

To Steward Xu, these were things destined to vanish anyway. Better to sell them as favors to those bottom-rung disciples who struggled for cultivation resources.

In the outer sect, who hadn’t walked the path from an ordinary person without resources or connections? If he could help, he might as well help.

Besides, he could earn an extra spirit stone for his own cultivation.

“This is also a first-tier formation disk. The copper corners are still intact… it’s just that the formation stones are damaged.”

Song Yan fished out a damaged formation disk from the pile of refuse. The formation beads were scattered somewhere unknown.

“Remaining formation stones to repair… seems sufficient.”

“The Minor Spirit Gathering Formation materials are nearly complete. If I can barely get the formation running, I might be able to attempt breaking through the fourth level of Qi Refining to reach the fifth level before the mission.”

“Let me look for formation beads.”

Mixed in with all this refuse, these things were truly difficult to find.

There were too many spherical objects in the pile. Among them, failed pills alone numbered a considerable amount.

Failed pills were either black from furnace explosions or white from spiritual energy loss. Formation beads were typically these same two colors.

Fireworks Settlement wasn’t open only to Song Yan. It was just that there weren’t many visitors today. In this vast Fireworks Settlement, aside from Steward Xu, he was the only one present.

However, some piles of remnants were sparsely arranged, indicating that others had come to sift through them earlier.

“Failed pill…”

“Another failed pill…”

Song Yan even channeled spiritual energy, using it to retrieve all objects of similar size within his line of sight from a distance.

Fortunately, whether failed pills or formation beads, they were small items that consumed little spiritual energy.

“Formation bead.”

“Failed pill.”

“Formation bead…”

His hand hadn’t yet touched the one in his grasp, but his mind had already reached a conclusion. He tossed it casually into his Cosmos Bag.

“Hm?”

But a strange sensation sent a flicker of doubt through his mind.

His reaching hand pulled back.

He retrieved it from his Cosmos Bag and held it up for careful examination.

This “formation bead”…

(End of Chapter)