Chapter 29
Translator: T_Fan
The man who appeared carrying a flowerpot was an old man who seemed to be in late Qi Refining.
A clerk from the Spirit Materials Hall immediately led him to a table farther inside.
“Please set it down here.”
Thud.
The old man removed the cloth wrapped around the pot.
Whoosh–
A dense medicinal fragrance billowed out along with poisonous pollen like a thin mist. Several cultivators standing nearby stiffened and backed away, while the clerk immediately activated a small formation to contain the poisonous pollen.
Beyond the formation bloomed layer upon layer of ivory petals. It was the same species of Bone-Rot Flower that Lee Hyun was growing, but the concentration of poisonous pollen streaming from its stamens was incomparable to any Bone-Rot Flower he had seen before.
The steward in charge of the appraisal carefully examined the color and luster of the petals, the thickness of the stem, and the patterns on the roots. He took a little pollen and singed it over a flame, then examined the spiritual qi seeping from the roots as well.
After quite some time, the steward spoke.
“I would estimate its medicine age at around 220 years.”
“My family has cultivated it for 247 years.”
“Then there must have been a period when it lacked spiritual qi, causing its medicinal potency to accumulate somewhat more slowly.”
The old man frowned.
“Are you saying my family’s records are wrong?”
“Its actual age and medicine age can differ. Even if it has grown for 247 years, if its accumulated medicinal potency is only equivalent to 220 years, transactions are based on the latter.”
“That isn’t much of a difference, is it?”
“Three of the fine roots are damaged as well. It can still be replanted as a mother plant without issue, but it will need time to recover.”
The steward worked his abacus for a moment.
“We can offer you 158 low-grade spirit stones.”
“I must have at least 170.”
“I’m afraid that will be difficult.”
“It isn’t as though mother plants of this size come in every day, is it?”
“We can offer 160. Any more would be difficult.”
The old man hesitated briefly before finally nodding. When the clerk counted out the spirit stones, his expression brightened.
“If you bring us another well-aged mother plant in the future, we’ll make sure to give you a good price.”
“That is unlikely to happen before I die.”
The old man took the pouch containing his spirit stones and left the Spirit Materials Hall.
Lee Hyun quietly watched him go, then asked a nearby clerk.
“Bone-Rot Flower mother plants are quite expensive. If ingredients for Tier 1 spirit medicines cost that much, is there any profit left?”
“Ha ha, it isn’t an ingredient for a Tier 1 spirit medicine.”
The clerk replied.
“A Bone-Rot Flower with more than 200 years of accumulated medicinal potency is an ingredient for Tier 2 Bone-Forging Powder.”
“There is Tier 2 Bone-Forging Powder? Is it a spirit medicine for Foundation Establishment cultivators?”
“That’s right. Its medicinal potency is so strong that it would actually be dangerous for a Qi Refining cultivator to take.”
The clerk pointed toward the Bone-Rot Flower inside the formation.
“Besides, that one doesn’t have to be used as a medicinal ingredient right away. It can be kept and cultivated as a mother plant.”
“Is there someone capable of refining Tier 2 Bone-Forging Powder?”
“There is only one in our alliance. He is an alliance elder, a Tier 2 alchemist, and a Foundation Establishment cultivator.”
“I see. Then does Tier 3 Bone-Forging Powder exist as well?”
The clerk smiled and shook his head.
“I’ve heard that it does. But for Tier 3 Bone-Forging Powder, the Bone-Rot Flower used as an ingredient would need a medicine age of at least 500 years. Something of that caliber isn’t even traded at publicly quoted prices, and in the first place, it isn’t the sort of item our Qingchao Merchant Alliance could handle.”
“I see.”
Lee Hyun looked back at the wooden placard on the wall.
Medicine age 200 years, 120 low-grade spirit stones.
His storage pouch contained nearly six hundred Bone-Rot Flowers with medicine ages exceeding 135 years. Of those, the 116 he had dug up from Spirit Field No. 1-1 had medicine ages approaching 170 years.
‘If I assume that just five hundred of the six hundred reach a medicine age of 200 years before I sell them, that alone comes to sixty thousand low-grade spirit stones!’
Sixty thousand low-grade spirit stones were roughly equivalent in value to six hundred mid-grade spirit stones. That surpassed not only the wealth of a Qi Refining cultivator, but even that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
And Lee Hyun also had Yin Soul Grass, Purple Poison Orchids, and Earth Vein Flowers.
He still did not know whether there was any demand for Earth Vein Flowers, but at the very least, Yin Soul Grass and Purple Poison Orchids would fetch high prices somewhere in the cultivation world.
‘More importantly, there’s no reason to sell them all the moment they reach 200 years. I only need to sell a few whenever I need money, while the rest keep accumulating medicinal potency. There’s no reason to dump everything on the market at once, drive down the price, or invite people to tail me.’
‘The Bone-Rot Flowers, Purple Poison Orchids, and Yin Soul Grass are basically my Qinghe Valley retirement pension. The living principal accumulates medicine age on its own, and even after I sell part of it, the value of what remains keeps rising.’
The corners of Lee Hyun’s mouth rose on their own.
‘But a great retirement pension alone isn’t enough. My retirement has no end… I’ll have to invest in new spirit plants too. I still don’t know what the Yin Water Lotus or Stone Honey Peach can be used for, but… if I come across any promising planting stock, I’ll try planting a little at a time.’
…
Lee Hyun stayed another day at Nanya Market and visited a number of medicinal ingredient shops.
Perhaps because the cultivator market was so large, six of the eight ingredients used in the Barrier-Breaking Pill were actively traded there: Essence-Condensing Fruit, Clear Void Seed, Meridian-Piercing Flower, Origin-Returning Vine, Triple-Layer Leaf, and Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk.
However, he could not find a single merchant selling Spirit-Storing Ginseng or Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi, so he would have to pray that those two spirit plants grew well in Tunnel No. 2.
Of course, Nanli Kingdom likely had other cultivator markets besides Nanya Market, so there was no need to start worrying already.
‘Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi is a mushroom, in other words a fungus, so there’s a good chance it won’t have much trouble growing underground. Spirit-Storing Ginseng is a type of ginseng too, so it should probably be fine in a sunless, shaded environment….’
For now, Lee Hyun carefully memorized the merchants and shops that dealt in the six ingredients used in the Barrier-Breaking Pill recipe. He also checked the market prices of ingredients that met the conditions specified by the pill recipe.
He took out a small wooden tablet and recorded the prices he had investigated that day. He wrote in Korean from his past life, so no one would be able to understand it even if they looked.
「At age 573.
Nanya Market, prices for one furnace batch of Barrier-Breaking Pills.
In low-grade spirit stones.
Meridian-Piercing Flower, 3 blooms: 15
Essence-Condensing Fruit, 3 fruits: 18
Origin-Returning Vine, 3 nodes: 8
Triple-Layer Leaf, 9 leaves: 6
Clear Void Seed, 12 seeds: 4
Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk, 3 drops: 10」
‘The prices of those six ingredients add up to sixty-one low-grade spirit stones… If I add Spirit-Storing Ginseng and Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi of the proper medicine age….’
Lee Hyun suddenly remembered Wen Shenghe’s words.
– If you were to buy all the ingredients needed for one furnace batch, you should expect to spend around seventy to one hundred and twenty low-grade spirit stones.
‘Adding the remaining two ingredients would put it around the same price I heard in Yunze Kingdom. If I’m short on anything, buying it here won’t mean I’m getting ripped off.’
‘To secure fifty low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills, I’d need to refine at least twenty-five furnace batches… If I bought every ingredient, that would come to roughly twenty-five hundred low-grade spirit stones… Huh? That’s not that much.’
‘I’ll try cultivating the spirit plants in Tunnel No. 2 first, and if that doesn’t work, I can simply buy whatever ingredients I’m missing.’
Until recently, twenty-five hundred low-grade spirit stones had seemed like an astronomical sum to Lee Hyun. But after discovering the value of the spirit plants he already possessed, it suddenly felt like a manageable expense.
…
After finishing his tour of the cultivator market, Lee Hyun emerged onto a secluded cliff and gazed out at the sea.
‘It’s time to build Tunnel No. 2!’
He spread out a map of southern Nanli Kingdom.
First, he crossed off areas containing well-known spirit veins or mines. He also excluded places near mortal highways or cities, strategically important gorges, and lowlands at risk of river flooding.
The site needed to be utterly worthless to cultivators and somewhere even mortals had no reason to visit, while still having soil and water underground for cultivating spirit fields, along with solid bedrock capable of supporting the facilities. A suitable aquifer would make it perfect.
“Shall I start choosing a site?”
Lee Hyun’s finger stopped over an unnamed mountain range stretching north from Nanya Market.
***
165 years later.
Five thousand li (about 1,960 km) north of Nanya Market.
There was a small mountain range there that did not even have a name marked on maps of Nanli Kingdom.
It had no famous spirit veins or mines. It was of little use even to mortals, and one had to travel all the way to the riverside beyond the mountain range to find the nearest village. Even herb gatherers entered only occasionally to collect wild greens and never ventured far into the depths.
Among that small mountain range stood one peak lower and more unremarkable than all the rest.
Rustle–
Something swept through the undergrowth.
It moved so quickly that only the surrounding blades of grass swayed as though a gust of wind had passed through. A tiny insect clinging to a grass stalk raised its antennae, then soon resumed moving as though nothing had happened.
…
Fifteen li underground.
Tap.
Lee Hyun’s foot touched the smoothly polished floor of a stone chamber.
On the wall before him were characters he had carved himself.
「Tunnel No. 2」
“Phew… It feels good to be home.”
Tunnel No. 2 had been constructed far more systematically than the old Tunnel No. 1.
Along the central passage were separate chambers for resting, cultivation, training, experiments, and storage, with thick stone doors installed between them.
The walls of the training cavern bore marks left by technique tests, while the shelves of the laboratory were packed with jars containing samples of soil and medicinal ingredients.
Beyond the residential area lay Spirit Fields No. 1-1 through No. 1-7.
One hundred and sixty-five years ago, Lee Hyun had hurriedly built those seven spirit fields first, before the spirit plants he had brought in his storage pouch could spoil. Afterward, he gradually expanded the passages and facilities outward one by one so that he would not disturb the existing spirit fields, eventually completing Tunnel No. 2 in its current form.
Drip.
The sound of a water droplet falling echoed through the silent underground.
Drip. Drip.
Each spirit field had watering vessels connected to an axle. One level above the spirit-field area was a wide, shallow reservoir as large as all the fields combined, and droplets flowed from it through bamboo pipes into each watering vessel.
One of the differences between Tunnel No. 2 and Tunnel No. 1 was that Lee Hyun used bamboo pipes instead of bronze ones.
Lee Hyun had realized there was no reason for him to insist on bronze pipes. The automatic irrigation device merely used gravity to move water, so bamboo pipes were more than sufficient.
If he hollowed out the bamboo with techniques, fired it, and coated it with lacquer, it could serve as piping for decades.
By varying the height of the pipe openings and the diameter of the holes, he could also adjust the watering intervals for each spirit field. In many respects, it was a more advanced version of the automatic irrigation device in Tunnel No. 1.
After filling the reservoir again with the Spirit Rain Art, Lee Hyun headed toward Spirit Field No. 1-1.
Grrrk.
As the stone door opened, a dense medicinal fragrance and toxic qi flowed out.
Ivory Bone-Rot Flowers, violet Purple Poison Orchids, and deep blue-black Yin Soul Grass filled the field. Between them, the slender stems of Earth Vein Flowers crept along the ground.
Buzz, buzz–
Several fuzzbees flew over and landed on Lee Hyun’s shoulder and sleeves.
Lee Hyun lightly stroked the back of one fuzzbee with a finger, then examined the Bone-Rot Flowers.
Most of the spirit plants moved from Tunnel No. 1 had survived without issue. However, Tunnel No. 2 also had no spirit vein to speak of, so their medicinal potency was still accumulating slowly.
Although 165 years had passed in the outside world, their medicine ages had increased by only around fifty-five years on average.
The Bone-Rot Flowers growing in the oldest field, Spirit Field No. 1-1, had reached medicine ages of around 225 years.
Lee Hyun inspected the other spirit fields in turn. The Yin Water Lotus had flowered several times and produced lotus seed pods, while all three Stone Honey Peach trees had completely taken root in their new home.
…
Beyond the original seven spirit fields stretched the newly constructed Spirit Fields No. 2-1 through No. 2-5.
Spirit Fields No. 2-1 and No. 2-2 each contained three hundred roots of Spirit-Storing Ginseng, for a total of six hundred. Spirit-Storing Ginseng was a spirit plant that died once its root was harvested. For that reason, Lee Hyun had allocated fields twice as large as those of his other spirit plants.
Spirit Field No. 2-3 contained six hundred Triple-Layer Leaf plants. The pill recipe required the leaves, but medicine age was measured by the age of the underground rhizome. As long as the roots and young shoots were left untouched, the leaves would grow back, though the plant needed several years of rest to recover the medicinal strength it had expended.
Spirit Field No. 2-4 contained two hundred logs Lee Hyun had acquired. Each log had been inoculated with Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi spawn, and mature caps had sprouted from them. The medicine age of Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi was determined not by its cap, but by how long the mycelium within the spirit tree had lived. If he cut a mature fruiting body off at the base and harvested only the cap, the mycelium would survive and push up new caps several years later.
In Spirit Field No. 2-5, three hundred Origin-Returning Vine mother plants wound around stone pillars and wooden trellises. If he cut no more than two nodes from a single mother plant and sealed the cut with clean mud, new shoots could sprout again from the remaining vine.
The Triple-Layer Leaf, Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi, and Origin-Returning Vine he had originally planted had already exceeded the upper limits of the medicine ages required by the pill recipe. For that reason, Lee Hyun staggered their propagation times so that he would always have plants within the proper medicine-age range for the recipe. He planned to let everything beyond what he needed for Barrier-Breaking Pills continue aging.
Earth Vein Flowers had been planted around the borders of every spirit field to draw in the faint spiritual qi from outside. With the fuzzbees around, there were no problems with controlling spirit insects either.
The results of 165 years of experimentation were clear. Spirit-Storing Ginseng, Triple-Layer Leaf, Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi, and Origin-Returning Vine could all grow underground without issue.
On the other hand, Meridian-Piercing Flowers, the Clear Void Grass needed to obtain Clear Void Seeds, and the Essence-Condensing Trees that bore Essence-Condensing Fruit had ultimately failed to adapt to the underground spirit fields. Including the mineral spirit liquid, Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk, four ingredients still had to be purchased from cultivator markets.
Because of that, over the past few months Lee Hyun had altered his appearance and traveled between different cultivator markets, selling ten Bone-Rot Flower mother plants with medicine ages exceeding 220 years in separate transactions. In total, he had obtained sixteen hundred low-grade spirit stones.
When he returned to Nanya Market this time, he purchased thirty-five furnace batches’ worth of Meridian-Piercing Flower, Essence-Condensing Fruit, Clear Void Seed, and Spirit-Stabilizing Stone Milk, allowing extra for failed alchemy attempts and the breakthrough itself. Even after 165 years, market prices had barely changed, and the purchase cost sixteen hundred and fifty low-grade spirit stones.
The low-grade spirit stones he had on hand fell from 670 to 620.
“Now it’s time to harvest the other four ingredients in the pill recipe.”
…
Lee Hyun returned to Spirit Field No. 2-1.
He dug up thirty-five Spirit-Storing Ginseng roots, then transplanted young seedlings he had raised in advance into the empty spots.
He also took out 315 Triple-Layer Leaf leaves, thirty-five Meridian-Protecting Lingzhi caps, and 105 nodes of Origin-Returning Vine that he had harvested and stored away in stages recently.
He divided the four harvested ingredients and the four ingredients bought at the cultivator market into portions for one furnace batch each, placed them into thirty-five medicine boxes, and stored them inside his storage pouch.
“Done.”
Lee Hyun left the spirit fields and activated the Earth Escape Art, descending another ten li beneath Tunnel No. 2.
…
Twenty-five li underground.
A small, artificially carved cavern appeared between layers of solid bedrock. Waves of hot air flowed from within.
It was Tunnel No. 2’s alchemy chamber.
A bronze pill furnace stood in the center of the cavern, with nine red formation stones embedded beneath it. The Nine-Fire Flame-Storing Formation was connected to an earth-fire vein running below the floor.
Lee Hyun took the thirty-five medicine boxes out of his storage pouch, opened them, and once again checked whether the medicinal ingredients inside matched the conditions recorded in the pill recipe.
“Let’s do this.”
Humm–
Primordial True Qi flowed into the Nine-Fire Flame-Storing Formation.
Whoomph!
Earth fire surged from the nine burners.
…
Two full days later.
The earth fire beneath the pill furnace slowly died away after the thirty-fifth alchemy attempt.
“Phew…”
Three kinds of jade bottles stood before him.
One high-grade Barrier-Breaking Pill.
Ten mid-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills.
Seventy-seven low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills.
Eighty-eight pills in total.
Over the course of the thirty-five alchemy attempts, he had obtained only two pills per furnace batch at first. But as he learned through trial and error, his pill-refining success rate improved, and from the middle onward, some batches produced three pills or more.
‘If my guess that I have around fifty times as much spiritual power as other people is right, eighty-eight pills should be enough for the breakthrough. Besides, I’m already at the very edge of Qi Refining Stage 3, so I should only need a small push.’
Lee Hyun cleaned up the pill furnace and cavern, then returned to the cultivation chamber in Tunnel No. 2.
He closed the stone door and lay down, resting until the focus drained by the alchemy had recovered.
Once his breathing grew calm and the Primordial True Qi throughout his body stabilized, he opened his eyes.
From then on, Lee Hyun began taking the Barrier-Breaking Pills one at a time and refining their medicinal strength. Since he would have to consume dozens in succession, he started with the high-grade and mid-grade pills, which contained fewer pill toxins.
…
Several days later.
He had absorbed all the medicinal strength from one high-grade pill, ten mid-grade pills, and thirty-nine low-grade pills, but the wall of his realm remained.
Lee Hyun took out another low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pill.
Gulp.
The instant the pill dissolved and its released medicinal strength mingled with the Primordial True Qi throughout his body…
Crack.
Along with the sensation of an invisible wall splitting open, the spiritual power throughout his body surged violently.
A moment later.
Boom!
A wave of spiritual power erupted from Lee Hyun’s body and spread in every direction.
Whoooom–
At last, Lee Hyun opened his eyes.
“I did it!”
His voice could not conceal his joy.
Lee Hyun brought over the wooden tablet resting at one side of the cultivation chamber. As he performed inner inspection and contemplated his essence, qi and spirit, he revised the numbers on his handmade status screen.
【Age: 738】
【Realm: Qi Refining Stage 4】
【Spiritual Power: 206 → 233】
【Constitution: Primordial Body, 4th Stage】
The increase in his spiritual power might have looked small, but that was because the original value of 206 had not represented the midpoint of Qi Refining Stage 3. It had already been close to the limit of the stage.
His current value of 233 was still clearly more than fifty times the amount of spiritual power possessed by a cultivator who had just entered Qi Refining Stage 4.
Moreover, the spiritual power value on his handmade status screen had been converted based on how many times he could use the same technique. Since the quality of his spiritual power had changed along with his breakthrough, the increase in his actual combat strength could not be expressed by numbers alone.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t updated the proficiency levels of my techniques in a long time either.’
【Techniques (Minor Attainment): Telekinesis Art, …】
【Techniques (Major Attainment): Sword Control Art, Poison-Discerning Art, Wood Binding Art, Earth Spike Art, …】
【Techniques (Perfection): Aura-Concealing Art, Fireball Art, Lightness Art, Distance-Shrinking Step, Spirit Rain Art, Soil-Turning Art, Yang Metal Art, Germination Art, Earth Escape Art, Qi Sphere Barrier, Spirit Light Shield, Aura-Reading Art, Night Vision Art, Ground-Sense Art, Keen Hearing Art, Cleansing Art, Air-Clearing Art, Breath-Sealing Art, Detoxification Art, Faint Light Art, …】
Most of his basic techniques had reached a level of proficiency where there was hardly any room left for improvement.
‘Listing every technique I’ve learned is starting to make this wooden tablet feel cramped. From now on, I probably don’t need to record every basic technique.’
‘Still, I didn’t expect to have thirty-seven low-grade Barrier-Breaking Pills left over. I could make a decent amount selling these too….’
‘Anyway… now all I need is time, and I can reach Qi Refining Stage 6!’
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