“Smells so good~ It really seems delicious!” Mushuang praised Jiang Ke’er’s Pill Refinement skills like that.
Jiang Ke’er felt quite helpless about it.
No matter what kind of Dan she made, it always gave off a smell like a hearty stew, making the pills seem several times more tempting.
As a result, the Senior Sisters from other Pill Refining rooms couldn’t stay away.
One after another, they drooled as they pressed against the window of Jiang Ke’er’s Pill Refining room, eagerly competing to be her test subjects.
The first few batches of pills Jiang Ke’er made were just for practice, using some common tonic Dan.
Even if they weren’t perfected, swallowing them wouldn’t cause any serious harm.
So she simply distributed those pills…
This turned out to be a huge deal.
From then on, the Senior Sisters in Lingyin Valley couldn’t get enough, all clamoring for more and more, even voluntarily lining up in long queues outside her window!
“Pills are good, but you can’t eat too many!” Jiang Ke’er said helplessly.
“No worries! We won’t eat too many! We’ll just suck on them!” the Senior Sisters replied in unison.
With no other choice, Jiang Ke’er ended up refining dozens of batches in a row.
These pills didn’t have any special effects, only mildly boosting cultivation as tonics. The Senior Sisters wouldn’t experience any side effects eating them, treating them like candy for daily snacks.
“Thanks, Little Junior Sister~”
Jiang Ke’er never expected that her first pot of gold earned through Pill Refinement would come from selling snacks to her Senior Sisters.
The Senior Sisters were very considerate and wouldn’t let Jiang Ke’er take a loss.
While enjoying the snacks, they also gave her a large amount of Xianguo and Xianyao in return.
The value of these Xianguo and Xianyao was far beyond the cost of the materials Jiang Ke’er used—by at least an order of magnitude! Some were even precious items like century-old fruits, which instantly solved Jiang Ke’er’s pressing financial troubles!
Researching new Dan Fang was an extremely money-burning endeavor. The process was often accompanied by repeated failures that wasted a vast amount of refining materials.
Even though Jiang Ke’er had some savings—just under 30,000 Magic Crystal Stones—it was difficult to survive several rounds of experimental refining.
The two times she had helped the Taiming Sect through difficulties had earned her 2,000 Sect Points, but even if she exchanged all those points for herbs, it still wouldn’t be enough.
Therefore, she had to rely on Pill Refinement to create a stable income.
Refining snack-like sugar beans to make money definitely wouldn’t keep up with consumption; she needed to produce some truly powerful pills as well…
Practicing Pill Refinement and selling the products for profit, sweet~
For this plan, she had to secretly go down the mountain and check out the nearby cultivator auction… At least to figure out which Dan were the most profitable.
“The most profitable Dan?” Hearing Jiang Ke’er’s idea, Mushuang laughed, “Why even ask? It’s definitely those Dan whose formulas are monopolized by Danxiu sects!”
“Which ones?” Jiang Ke’er perked up.
“There are so many… Foundation Establishment Pills, Peiyuan Pills, Treasure-Avoiding Pills, Grade B and Grade A Hemostatic Pills. These all use cheap materials, but because the formulas are tightly controlled by certain sects, the prices are sky-high!”
As she spoke, Mushuang’s face showed admiration. “The lifelong ambition of us Danxiu is to develop a popular pill formula that’s difficult to decipher! Once you invent one, establishing a large sect just by relying on it is no dream! You know, that’s exactly how the Zhi Xue Sect came to be.”
Zhi Xue Sect… Hm, that name was concise and to the point.
Jiang Ke’er had heard of this sect before.
It was said to be incredibly wealthy! Its power was even stronger than the combined strength of all seven peaks of the Taiming Sect!
They achieved what other cultivators could only dream of by selling Hemostatic Pills alone!
The profits from monopolizing pill formulas spoke volumes.
“Grade A Hemostatic Pills are insanely expensive! Those black-market dealers sell them for a million times the cost of materials!” Mushuang’s tone was full of envy.
“Some Grandmasters have analyzed the materials needed—just common herbs found everywhere in the market. But Zhi Xue Sect has a secret method of preparation that they never reveal, so they can charge exorbitantly… Of course, other pills behave the same way.”
Mushuang sighed, “I’m not against the researchers making a big profit, but they’ve gone too far by making common emergency pills unaffordable for anyone… The entire pill market is like this, it’s sick! In the end, the real trouble falls on us low-cost Medical Cultivators in the Medical Halls. Many patients who could be easily treated end up with worsening injuries because they can’t afford emergency pills. By the time they come to the Medical Hall, it’s extremely difficult to handle!”
Jiang Ke’er understood Mushuang’s anger.
Having worked as a Medical Cultivator for a few days, she knew that saving lives was a race against time. When fighting Death Gods, even the slightest delay could mean failure.
Huh? Wait a moment… Didn’t she happen to be the leader of the Death Gods?
“……”
Jiang Ke’er looked at her Lingyin Valley outfit, then glanced at the distant broad banner that read “Healing the world, fighting Death Gods to the end!” and was momentarily speechless.
Got off track, got off track!
Setting aside those trivial matters, she continued to contemplate her money-making plan!
Since monopolizing pill formulas allowed one to control the market, they must have some formidable advantage—not something a little newcomer like her could easily crack.
So it was necessary to sneak down the mountain and see the pill market for herself to decide.
Jiang Ke’er resolved to take advantage of today’s free time and head down the mountain soon.
“If Lingyin Valley disciples want to go down the mountain, they must bring along a Senior Brother or Senior Sister skilled in combat from another peak; otherwise, your safety cannot be guaranteed,” Mushuang said.
“It’s a strict sect rule. If you want to go down, you should report to Shifu early so arrangements can be made for Senior Brothers or Sisters to accompany you.”
“Can’t I just sneak out?” Jiang Ke’er felt awkward about having bodyguards.
Mushuang smirked, “If you could handle our Taiming Sect’s Nine-rank Sect Guarding Formation, you could sneak out however you want… That’s my dream.”
Helpless, Jiang Ke’er could only bring up her plan to go down the mountain with Yiqin Shifu.
Yiqin frowned tightly. “The assassins from the Hall of the Wild Dragon are probably already waiting for you down there. Your current fame hasn’t faded; going down now might invite a fatal calamity…”
“Shifu, I’ll have to face this sooner or later. Even in the Secret Realm, they won’t spare me. Better to face it early than late,” Jiang Ke’er argued.
“That’s different!” Yiqin’s expression was stern, clearly unwilling to yield.
“The enemies inside the Secret Realm only reach the Five Elements Realm, but going down the mountain now means they could kill you with a single slap!”
“Shifu…” Jiang Ke’er pouted.
“If you lack Magic Crystal Stones, Lingyin Valley can advance them to you for expenses. If you lack herbs, the medicinal herb field behind Lingyin Valley has no shortage of precious herbs! But about going down the mountain…”
Jiang Ke’er could feel Yiqin’s care between the lines.
She was even willing to lend Magic Crystal Stones in advance and open access to the back herb fields—obviously doting conditions.
But Jiang Ke’er already felt a little guilty towards Lingyin Valley and couldn’t accept such generosity so easily.
She sighed quietly. It looked like she would have to take out the Underworld Province Cauldron.
Originally, Jiang Ke’er wanted to avoid using the Ding as much as possible since the Sect Protecting Array was quite peculiar.
If the entrance could detect the Ding’s fluctuations, it would cause trouble.
Suddenly, Yiqin froze as if she’d received some news.
“…You can go down the mountain now.”
“Huh?” Jiang Ke’er hadn’t yet registered the meaning.
“But you have to bring a few fellow disciples with you, disguised as merchants… I’ll call them here right now.”