Chapter 7: The Purifying Pill

Early the next morning, Old man Liu realized that Jing Yue had advanced.

At first glance, he thought he was mistaken. Although he did not know what Jing Yue’s cultivation level before this was, since he had taken down a desert wolf, he estimated Jing Yue to be at level 5 or 6 of Body Forging, but used some sort of method to conceal it.

Indeed, certain people were favored by the heavens and could attain Body Forging within ten or twenty years.

He merely assumed that Jing Yue had a blessed encounter, and even suspected that the body was possessed.

But… level 1 Qi Refining?

Not even an old monster could achieve such heights in such a short time!

In Old man Liu’s impression, children would generally start practicing at the age of 3, and even if they successfully completed the Body Forging in ten years, they would already be 13.

After that came the Qi Guiding stage, and this was greatly affected by the latent ability of the spiritual root. People with good talent could succeed in one month, otherwise, it could take 3 or even 5 years, not to mention going from Qi Guiding stage to Qi Refining stage.

Jing Yue only seemed to be about 10 years old, but he had already attained this level, what the hell was going on?

Old man Liu was absolutely plagued by curiosity, but he was also conscious that anything involved in other people’s cultivation was private and taboo, not be sought after so easily.

He accepted the reality with great difficulty, but could not help being envious, and also genuinely happy on Jing Yue’s behalf.

Jing Yue sensed the other party’s feelings and responded with a friendly grin.

He deliberately exposed his cultivation level today because he planned to refine the Purifying Pill. Once his spiritual energy was activated, Old man Liu would know his cultivation level anyway, so it was unnecessary to conceal it at all.

A few days ago, he had asked Old man Liu to prepare the materials for refining the Purifying Pill. When the other party knew the purpose, his dropped jaw could almost fit an egg in it.

As the Purifying Pill was a type of spiritual pill, most of the materials contained spiritual energy, and was made up of 6 types of spiritual herbs and 6 different parts from ferocious beasts.

Jing Yue extricated the spiritual herbs from a newly-bought Qiankun pouch. Using a combination of spiritual energy and hand-seals, he extracted the juice from the Celestial Lotus and Trumpet Flower into a bowl.

After that, he caught a few Moonblood Fish from the tank in the backyard and started to slaughter the fish and removed the bones, leaving behind a plate of transparent fish fillet tinged with red, and the meat was soaked in the juice of the herbs prepared earlier.

Jing Yue’s movements were swift, especially when he was slaughtering the fish, the level of skill and rhythm displayed would trick anyone in believing he was a seasoned fishmonger, or a trained chef of a restaurant.

After doing this, he boiled a pot of water, put a Tiger-head Snake gall into the pot, and sprinkled a few leaves of Malachite Stem and Mountain-mist and cooked everything.

When the water slowly turned green and produced a slightly bitter aroma, Jing Yue closed the lid of the pot. After about 15 minutes, he opened the lid and collected all the condensed water vapor that clung to the lid into a porcelain bottle.

Lastly, Jing Yue formed an invisible sharp knife using his spiritual energy, and minced all the intestines of the ferocious beasts, before wrapping the mince with Gemini Leaf and covered it with ordinary yellow soil.

Once the preparations were completed, Jing Yue finally lit up the furnace.

Old man Liu, watching Jing Yue, was awestruck. He did not expect the process of refining a Purifying Pill would be so complicated, a totally different method from refining the Blood Replenishment Pill and Hundred-turn Meridian Pill, and even involved some cooking techniques.

Was he refining a pill or cooking a dish?

No matter how shocked Old man Liu was, Jing Yue could not be bothered at this time.

He recalled that the Purifying Pill originated from the Hall of Aurora Pill, but this sect was exterminated during the Yao Catalyst. If he guessed correctly, the Hall of Fiery Pill had inherited some legacy from the Hall of Aurora Pill.

If that was the case, the most suitable hand-seal to refine the Purifying Pill should be the Mountain Aurora Plum technique invented by the Hall of Aurora Pill!

Jing Yue placed the wrapped innards of the ferocious beasts into the furnace, his fingers fluttered and ever-changing as he formed the hand-seals, and the sight was dazzling with indescribable rhythm and beauty to his movements.

With his divine consciousness, he observed the materials in the furnace. When an acrid burnt smell was produced, Jing Yue drew a shred of spiritual energy and shattered the mud on the surface, revealing a big ball of black elixir, which was transformed from the innards of the ferocious beasts that had fully absorbed the Gemini Leaf!

The spiritual energy continued to compress the ball, until it became the size of a fist, before Jing Yue put the marinated fillet of the Moonblood Fish into the furnace, controlled the fire with his spiritual energy, and kept on refining.

He started the pill refining process before the day was bright until the sun disappeared into the horizon. The elixir that had fully absorbed the fish fillet exuded an eerie cold light, and there was a faint stench of blood in the air.

When the time was ripe, Jing Yue took the porcelain bottle and dripped the liquid contents into the furnace.

The slightly bitter aroma immediately diluted the bloody stench, and the two materials slowly merged.

Jing Yue turned his hand over and his spiritual energy surged. The lid of the furnace flipped open and 8 green pellets of pills sat quietly in the furnace, a sheen of red light on the surface, and the room was soon permeated with the medicinal fragrance.

“It’s… it’s done?” Old man Liu, who was waiting by the furnace, asked with trepidation.

“It’s done.” Jing Yue took a brief look at the pills and found all of it to be of high-quality Purifying Pills. He gave one pill each to Old man Liu and Lil Pebble, and told them to try out the effects.

The duo swallowed the pill without any hesitation. Their stomachs that were starved for a day instantly filled with warmth, and both of them sat cross-legged on the spot and started to refine the pill.

After two hours, both of them opened their eyes simultaneously. Lil Pebble just felt that his body was lighter than before, but Old man Liu felt as if his body had undergone a total rebirth.

Jing Yue explained, “That’s normal. The higher your cultivation level, the more detritus you have in your body, so the difference you feel will be more obvious.”

Old man Liu was extremely thrilled. He had lost count of the number of times he was blown away by Jing Yue’s ability.

Jing Yue, “We’ll sell the rest of the pills at the marketplace, but this time, we’ll only accept spirit-stones. And another thing, from tomorrow, shall we move to Minisun Town? We’ve enough money on our hands, and moreover, the Chen family has already found you.”

Naturally, Old man Liu did not have any objections. Even though Lil Pebble’s cold syndrome was cured, staying in the town was definitely more convenient than the village.

The next day, they moved into a tavern in Minisun Town.

At noontime, the town was full of hustle and bustle.

Liu Yi and his brothers loitered at the market. Ever since he accidentally bought the highly effective Blood Replenishment Pills the previous time, he had gotten used to walking around the market whenever he was free, trying his luck to see if any good fortune would fall from the sky again.

Unfortunately, there was none.

Perhaps it was due to his ‘realistic playacting’, but when he returned the next day to stalk the seller, he did not manage to grab even one pill. Instead, he was ruthlessly squeezed out from the crowd.

Thereafter, there were always people waiting around the stall regularly. He was unable to compete with people who were stronger than him, or those with a bit of background, so he had no choice but to give up.

Today was no different than any other day, the sun was scorching with hot air fumigating.

Liu Yi’s back was already drenched with sweat. He stopped walking, took the water bottle from his waist, and was about to take a drink, when he heard a childish voice rang out, “Please make way, thank you.”

Liu Yi was unfazed and merely gave a snide glance. However, in the very next second, he once again acted out of character.

His hands extended in a move as swift as lightning and snatched the bundle that was carried by a young man.

Jing Yue, “…”

Liu Yi, “…”

‘Who am I? Where am I? What are my hands doing? Why are they not under control?’

Liu Yi roared violently in his heart. His returning consciousness told him that the situation was unfavorable, and people might have misunderstood that he was trying to cause trouble. But this was the marketplace, and it was under the protection of important people, so how could he harbor evil thoughts?

The youngster had left a very deep impression on him, so when he saw that the other party was setting up a stall, he subconsciously acted without thinking.

Alas, without waiting for an explanation, he was already being misunderstood…

The bundle was only in his hands for a few seconds before it was snatched away by an elderly man.

That person bellowed, “What are you doing? Are you trying to commit robbery in broad daylight?”

Liu Yi felt the suppression from Old man Liu’s Qi Refining cultivation level, and his knees instantly turned to jelly. It was the first time he realized the old man’s strength!

“No… It’s not me…” Liu Yi swallowed a mouthful of spit and spoke incoherently.

Jing Yue could not hold back his laughter, “Forget it. He just wants to buy some Blood Replenishment Pills.”

On the account that the other party had solicited a lot of business for them, Jing Yue said, “It seems to be fate. I can bump into you whenever I have new medicine for sale.”

Liu Yi saw that the boy did not pursue the matter, and was relieved, before he exclaimed in surprise, “New pills?”

“Yes. The Purifying Pill, 50 spirit-stones each. It’ll be good for you.”

“Fifty… spirit-stones?”

And what the hell was a Purifying Pill? It sounded quite familiar.

Liu Yi stared at his surroundings in a daze, and saw some people, who overheard their conversation respond with shocked expressions, and thought, ‘Who cares what the hell it is, it must be something good!’

“I’ll buy it!” Liu Yi declared decisively, endured his heartache while digging out his spirit-stones.

He placed an inexplicable trust in the teenager. Even though he had spent decades to save up a hundred spirit-stones that were still insufficient to purchase a handy weapon, he was willing to take a chance with the teenager!

Jing Yue set up the stall before he took out a small wooden box from his cloth bag. Liu Yi accepted the item and was about to return home before refining it when he suddenly noticed many people staring at him expectantly. Afraid that he was unable to protect the pill, he decided to take it on the spot.

He closed his eyes and meditated.

After two hours, Liu Yi woke up from his meditation. He clearly felt the cleansing effects of the pill!

Liu Yi laughed gallantly at the sky, turned around, and left.

His brothers remained on the spot, looked at each other in astonishment, they felt once again…

The wind was a little cold.

Nobody knew what happened that night, but the next morning, when Jing Yue and Old man Liu turned up at the marketplace again, they found the place deserted.

There was not a vendor in sight, only a few well-dressed people, and among them, the head steward of the Chen family.

Jing Yue was quite positive that they were here for the Purifying Pill. Yesterday, he listened to the blue phoenix’s suggestion and only sold one pill. According to Ji-ji, this was a concept called ‘hunger marketing’, and it could drastically increase the price of the pill. Now, it certainly seemed that it was time to raise the price?

Sure enough, these people were the head stewards of the four great families, and all of them wanted to get their hands on the Purifying Pill. After all, this pill had never appeared in Megasun City, it would be good if one could be purchased and examined.

But Jing Yue also suspected that they had another motive, to investigate him.

“May I find out from the little friend, are you the one who refined the Purifying Pill?” The head steward of the city mayor from the Zhao family spoke on behalf of everyone else.

Jing Yue, “Would you believe it if I said yes?”

The Zhao’s head steward merely responded with a smile, but his eyes were full of disbelief. The young man seemed to have no cultivation skills, even if he concealed his skills deliberately, he would be at the Body Forging stage at the most. Refining a Blood Replenishment Pill did not require any spiritual energy, so the young man could easily produce one, but how could someone with no spiritual energy refine a Purifying Pill?

Jing Yue, “If that is so, you may assume that it was produced by the sect.”

The head stewards turned to look at each other. They heard from the Chen family about the suspicious origins of the boy. If he was indeed a disciple of the Hall of Fiery Pill, why would it be strange for him to have Purifying Pills?

However, was he truly one? There was no answer to this question now, and there was no way for them to find out.

In the end, the four families got a pill each, and Jing Yue made an absolute killing from raising the price. He was in a pretty good mood after that, so he gave all the Blood Replenishment Pills he had to the Chen family head steward, as a reward for the materials last time.

The head steward saw his perfunctory attitude that was obviously taking advantage of the Chen family, and he was infuriated, but he did not dare raise any objections. He was even more convinced that the young boy came from the Hall of Fiery Pill.

Besides, he had another mission today.

“What did you say? The Chen family would like Lil Pebble to return as a member of the side branch?”

Old man Liu stared at the head steward in surprise, as if he just heard the most amazing thing.