Chapter 62 - Exposed

Chapter 62 Exposed

Outer Sect, Elixir Peak.

Pei Ling consumed the Essence Enhancing Pill to recover his spiritual power in the square at the entrance of the Disciplinary Hall and went to the market to buy materials.

When the shopkeeper saw him, he could not help but ask with a smile, “Junior Brother Pei, have you used the materials from before?”

“I used them.” Pei Ling sighed and revealed a helpless expression. He cupped his hands at him and said, “Senior Brother is right. Refining pills is too difficult. Previously, when I saw how skillful lecturer Yan Gu was, I thought that it was very simple. Who knew that I would fail the moment I started. I lost everything.” He sighed and asked the shopkeeper to get him another 10 sets of materials. “But I went to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to sell something just now and found that the profits from the pills are quite high. I want to try again.” The shopkeeper chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, Junior Brother. That’s what all alchemists go through. How can one succeed in pill formation without refining dozens or hundreds of them?”

Pei Ling added a few more words and used the fact that he had just lost a sum of money to get the shopkeeper to give him a discount. Only then did he pack up the materials and go straight to the alchemy room.

This time, he rented it for the entire day and night.

After entering the alchemy room, he checked it as usual and got the system to start refining.

In order to ensure that everything was in order, Pei Ling specially placed the remaining Essence Enhancing Pills at the most convenient place for retrieval.

“Ding-Dong! The Smart Cultivation System is now cultivating the (Elixir Refinement Technique-Bone Tempering Pill] for you…” Accompanied by a familiar prompt, the system manipulated Pei Ling’s body and skillfully lit the Nine Nether Fire. It handled the medicinal herbs and added them to the furnace one by one… Soon a batch of Bone Tempering Pills was freshly made.

Pei Ling quickly took a look and was surprised to discover that, perhaps because the system’s alchemy skills had improved or because the materials were particularly good, there was actually an additional pill! There were 13 superior-grade Bone Tempering Pills!

This meant 75 inferior-grade spirit stones!

He was one step closer to paying the fine!

As his emotions fluctuated, the system was as stable as ever. It casually stored these pills and started the second batch without stopping.

However, the development that followed was different from what Pei Ling had anticipated. The system handled the materials step by step. Even though the feeling of the spiritual power depletion in his meridians was becoming more and more obvious, he had no intention of taking the Essence Enhancing Pill.

Not long after, accompanied by a puff of black smoke and a strange smell, the system withdrew its right to control Pei Ling’s body. “Ding-Dong! Detected that the host’s spiritual power is insufficient and the pill refinement has failed. This adjunct training session is over. Thank you for using the Smart Cultivation System. With One-Click Management, you can ascend without worries! I look forward to sharing your cultivation evaluation. If you’re satisfied, please give a five-star rating!”

Pei Ling moved his hands and feet with a surly expression. He looked at the charcoal at the bottom of the furnace and frowned in deep thought. In the past few cultivation sessions, the system had ‘smart-sent’ the pills he needed.

Especially when he was cultivating the Blood Malevolence Saber Art, the system automatically used the Essence Enhancing Pill on him.

So he had specially placed the Essence Enhancing Pills beside him this time but the system actually ignored them completely.

Could it be that to the system, pill refinement and technique cultivation are two separate projects that don’t interfere with each other? Pei Ling pondered. So when it’s entrusted with alchemy, it only does things related to alchemy. Even if the Essence Enhancing Pill is in front of it, it won’t automatically recover its spiritual power?

He frowned and gave a one-star negative rating.

Right on the heels of that, Pei Ling took out a Bone Tempering Pill and placed it in front of him, preparing to use it for his upcoming cultivation. As for the rest of the Bone Tempering Pills, he put them all into a jade bottle. He was going to sell this to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion later.

After finishing these preparations, Pei Ling said in his mind, “I want to cultivate! I choose the (Bone Forging Art], the (Smart-Cultivation System), and the (One-Click Management).”

He had no choice. Since the retarded system had such a bug, Pei Ling had originally wanted to save some spirit stones before cultivating but now, he could only cultivate first. Otherwise, it would delay the efficiency of refining pills.

“Ding-Dong!” The system immediately began operating. “The Smart Cultivation System is at your service!”

Then something that left Pei Ling speechless happened again! System: “Ding-Dong! Detected insufficient spiritual power from the host. Continuing cultivation will cause damage to the meridians…

Ding-Dong! Essence Enhancing Pill detected… Ding-Dong! I’ve already taken the Essence Enhancing Pill for you. The system will continue to cultivate for you…”

The system operated in Pei Ling’s body and poured the rest of the bottle of Essence Enhancing Pills into his mouth. Not long after, the system started the “Ding-Dong” notification again. “Detected that a Bone Tempering Pill is needed for cultivation…”

The system grabbed the pill in front of it. “Ding-Dong! Bone Tempering Pill detected…”

The system operated Pei Ling’s body and swallowed the Bone Tempering Pill he had prepared. Then it took out the bottle of Bone Tempering Pills that he was going to sell to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion and poured all of them into his mouth. “Ding-Dong! I have already taken the Bone Tempering Pills for you. The system will continue to cultivate for you…”

“…” Pei Ling was speechless.

My spirit stones!

The system was indifferent to the host’s heartache. According to the Bone Forging Art, it diligently crushed all the bones in the body, eliminated the impurities and toxins, extracted the surrounding spiritual aura to strengthen and reorganize… As the cultivation progressed, the alchemy room was gradually filled with a strange smell.

Meanwhile, Pei Ling was unconsciously immersed in the pleasure of becoming stronger. After an unknown period of time, the system finally stopped. “Ding-Dong! This cultivation session has been completed. Thank you, host, for using the Smart Cultivation System. With One-Click Management, you can ascend without worries! I look forward to sharing your cultivation evaluation. If you’re satisfied, please give a five-star rating!”

Pei Ling stood up. He could feel that the spiritual energy in his body had clearly become stronger. He was probably not far from reaching the fifth level of Qi Refinement. However, he did not feel happy at all. This retarded system! It actually used up all the pills it had refined every time it cultivated a new batch of pills.

Fortunately, he found out early. Otherwise, if he were to use all his earned spirit stones to buy medicinal herbs to refine pills, only to have the system use these pills when it was cultivating, wouldn’t he lose everything?

With this in mind, Pei Ling decisively gave the system a one-star rating. Seeing that there was still some time, he called out in his mind, “System, I want to refine pills. I choose the (Elixir Refinement Technique] Bone Tempering Pill, one-click management.”

System: “Ding-Dong! Smart Cultivation System is sincerely at your service…”

After his cultivation level increased, the effects were immediate. This time, the system refined three cauldrons of pills in one go. When he refined the fourth cauldron, he failed because he lacked spiritual energy.

Looking at the materials that had been abandoned in the fourth furnace because it was only half done, Pei Ling gave the system a one-star rating.

Immediately after, he carefully put away the three cauldrons of superior-grade Bone Tempering Pills and left the house. As he was leaving the Pill Chamber, he was stopped because he had exceeded the time limit by a few hours and had to pay for it.

So after paying a few dozen spirit stones, he rented a Corpse Cloud and casually found an unfamiliar mountain. He went to the market to buy some items to disguise himself. He found a corner to disguise himself and deliberately adjusted his voice. After passing through several mountains, he returned to Shady Sophora Peak.

Pei Ling’s main purpose in coming to Shady Sophora Peak was to look for Pei Hongnian. To be precise, he wanted to test the effectiveness of his disguise with Pei Hongnian.

As it turned out, he had been hanging around Pei Hongnian for a while but the other party did not recognize him at all.

Pei Ling was relieved. After passing through a few more mountains, he reached the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to sell his pills.

The appraiser of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. He was taciturn and had a malicious expression.

After he finished appraising the pills, he did not ask anything. He only looked intently at Pei Ling and instructed the person beside him, “Give him 2,145 inferior-grade spirit stones.” Pei Ling frowned.

He had made a total of 39 superior-grade Bone Tempering Pills out of the three batches of herbs.

According to the transaction price with the Hundred Treasures Pavilion previously, it was 2,145 inferior-grade spirit stones.

Disguising his identity was not useful for dealing with the Hundred Treasures Pavilion!