Chapter 40: Selling: Alchemy Master?

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Selling: Alchemy Master?

The results of this alchemy session were very gratifying. He had successfully created three Qi Nourishing Pills in one go.

This remarkable improvement was thanks to him maintaining the inscription activation sequence from his seventieth attempt, which allowed him to finally figure out the heat control that suited him best.

After stumbling at the same step seventy times, Xiao Chen had finally built up enough judgment to tell whether the medicinal properties in the furnace had properly fused.

Riding this wave of momentum, Xiao Chen opened and lit the second bundle of Agarwood Incense.

After burning through the first bundle of ten incense sticks, he had felt it was too wasteful and had skipped this step.

But now, seeing a glimmer of hope, he decided to open the second bundle after all, hoping it would increase his success rate even by a little.

Seventy-second attempt: two pills.

Seventy-third attempt: five pills.

Seventy-fourth attempt: seven pills.

And on his final attempt, all ten pills formed successfully!

In the midst of these five alchemy sessions, Xiao Chen rested for only a single day before lighting more incense to focus his mind and continue practicing. He was so engrossed he didn’t even make time to eat, truly forgetting to eat and sleep.

Fortunately, he saw clear progress with each attempt, which kept him encouraged. Moreover, the Three-legged Refining Furnace was powered by Spirit Stones, so he didn’t have to worry about running out of Magical Power.

This allowed him to push through in one final effort and successfully refine a complete batch of Qi Nourishing Pills.

Thus, with the help of his "Buy One Get One Free" Augment, he had now accumulated sixty Qi Nourishing Pills.

What delighted Xiao Chen even more was that after so many failures, this string of successes made him feel as if all his previous experience had suddenly clicked into place, Integrating and Mastering the entire process.

A strong premonition arose within him. ’The next batch will definitely be a success, too!’

However, he was now out of Spirit Grass. Xiao Chen decided to get some sleep first to restore his mental energy.

He slept until Noon, then leisurely made his way down the mountain to the Marketplace.

"Sixty Spirit Stones? What’s the reason this time?"

In just six days, the price of Spirit Grass had skyrocketed by another twenty percent.

At this price for Spirit Grass, if an Alchemist refined ten portions’ worth of Qi Nourishing Pills and sold them at the original price of five Spirit Stones per bottle, they would end up losing ten Spirit Stones.

So, without waiting for an answer, Xiao Chen pressed on, "What’s the current price for Qi Nourishing Pills?"

The vendor gave a bitter smile. "It’s supposedly gone up to six Spirit Stones and five grains of Spiritual Sand per bottle. Everyone’s complaining, but there’s nothing anyone can do."

Hmm?

’That’s not right,’ Xiao Chen thought, his brow furrowing slightly.

Spiritual Sand was a type of Spirit Stone fragment, with ten grains being exchangeable for one Spirit Stone.

At that price, a Cultivator would only earn a profit of five grains of Spiritual Sand for refining one batch of Elixirs.

If an Alchemist refined one batch every day for a month, even with a perfect success rate of ten pills per batch, they would only earn fifteen Spirit Stones.

That might not seem like a small amount, but when you factor in the cost of using a Pill Furnace and the cultivation time lost...

...and then consider that not every alchemy session is guaranteed to produce a full ten pills, the income in Spirit Stones was clearly not worth the effort.

’Under these circumstances, why hasn’t the price risen to seven Spirit Stones? When did all the Alchemists suddenly grow a conscience?’

Pushing the question to the back of his mind for now, Xiao Chen spent another sixty Spirit Stones on ten portions of Spirit Grass and headed back to continue his alchemy.

’Once I’ve made a decent batch of Elixirs and try being a seller myself, I should be able to figure out what’s going on.’

「Ten days later.」

Ten new batches of Elixirs were ready, and his average Pill Formation Success Rate had reached a solid eighty percent.

To be fair, for a novice Alchemist, this success rate was already quite high.

The ones with a hundred-percent success rate were all Elder Alchemists with decades of experience; the two couldn’t be compared.

But this meant that Xiao Chen had only produced a total of eight bottles of Qi Nourishing Pills this time, worth fifty-two Spirit Stones.

Compared to his sixty-Spirit-Stone investment, he had actually lost eight Spirit Stones.

...

Fortunately, thanks to his "Buy One Get One Free" Augment, he received an additional eight bottles of identical Qi Nourishing Pills.

After subtracting his costs, he was left with a profit of forty-four Spirit Stones.

Hmm?

Xiao Chen did a double-take after calculating the result.

’How much?’

He ran the numbers again. That was right—a profit of forty-four Spirit Stones!

Forty-four Spirit Stones in ten days! At that rate, he could earn up to one hundred and thirty-two Spirit Stones a month!

Steward Chen’s monthly income probably didn’t even reach that figure.

’This is basically a license to print money!’

Adding in the six bottles of pills he had refined previously, Xiao Chen returned to the Marketplace with a total of twenty-two bottles.

This time, however, he wore his Stealth Cloak and went to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion in the guise of a seller.

According to the steward at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, in addition to selling their own goods, they also offered a resale service.

This "resale" service was for Cultivators who wanted to sell their self-made Elixirs, Magical Artifacts, or other items directly to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

The items had to have been crafted within the last six months and be of verifiable quality.

The Hundred Treasures Pavilion would purchase such items for ten percent below market price, with payment settled on the spot.

Its main selling point was convenience; Cultivators didn’t have to go through the hassle of setting up their own street stall.

Xiao Chen swiftly took out the Elixirs. "Please handle the resale of these Elixirs for me, then."

The man skillfully handed over a contract. "Certainly. This is our consignment Spirit Contract... huh? You want to resell Qi Nourishing Pills?"

The steward stopped mid-sentence. He looked down at the Qi Nourishing Pills as if he had just seen something utterly unbelievable.

His head snapped up, eyes wide, and he stared intently at Xiao Chen’s dark Cloak.

’With the current market for Elixirs, reselling them is a guaranteed way to lose money, isn’t it?’

After a few moments of stunned silence, the steward finally asked, "Sir, are you certain you wish to resell these Qi Nourishing Pills?"

Xiao Chen nodded. "I’m sure. Please just calculate the Spirit Stones for me."

If he didn’t have his Augment, he might have considered setting up his own stall to earn those few extra Spirit Stones.

But with his Augment, his time was now incredibly valuable. Setting up a stall was far less efficient than this simple and convenient option.

Getting his hands on the Spirit Stones as quickly as possible so he could buy more Spirit Grass and get back to alchemy was the optimal strategy.

However, Xiao Chen’s eagerness only made the Hundred Treasures Pavilion’s steward more suspicious.

The steward opened one of the bottles. He could even smell a faint Pill Fragrance; these were definitely new Elixirs, freshly refined within the last two or three days.

’This mysterious cloaked figure... offloading so many new Elixirs at once, and taking a loss without a second thought? He’d better not be a swindler.’

"Please wait a moment, sir. We need to verify the quality of these Elixirs."

With that, the steward immediately summoned an Appraiser.

"These... these Elixirs... how can this be..."

The white-haired Appraiser’s brow furrowed almost immediately.

The Hundred Treasures Pavilion’s steward asked at once, "Is there something wrong with the Elixirs?"

Seeing this, the two guards at the entrance grew vigilant. If anyone dared to cause trouble in the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, they would make sure that person learned the meaning of regret.

"No, no." The Appraiser quickly shook his head, then added in a puzzled tone, "It’s just that... many of these Elixirs are remarkably similar to one another."

He looked toward Xiao Chen. "Sir, if I may ask, which Alchemy Master produced these Elixirs?"

Alchemy Master?

The question completely stumped Xiao Chen.

’Aren’t these the Elixirs I refined myself?’