Chapter 17 : Alchemy
Chapter 17: Alchemy!
Time passed in a blur, and in the blink of an eye, three months had gone by.
During these three months, Gu Yan consecutively took on several missions that required leaving the sect.
Such missions often carried high risk and high reward.
He had not originally wanted to travel about like this, but he had no money left.
The independent courtyard he lived in required five hundred sect contribution points per month.
Previously, his half-year seclusion had nearly drained all his savings with the prepaid amount.
If he wanted to continue living there steadily, he could only find ways to earn contributions—or use silver to offset the cost.
Converted, it amounted to about five hundred taels of silver per month.
During the missions, as he traversed mountains and rivers, it was inevitable to encounter injustices along the way.
Gu Yan casually wiped out several groups of bandits occupying key routes.
Among them, one group’s leader had late-stage Third Revolution martial dao cultivation.
This would already be considered a skilled expert among ordinary martial practitioners, yet Gu Yan merely used his fingers as a sword—an invisible strand of spiritual power pierced through the body, killing him instantly on the spot.
Afterward, he routinely looted the corpses, sweeping up all the gold, silver, and valuables from both the bandit leader and his subordinates, packing everything away.
While acting, he naturally concealed his identity and never wore the attire of the Taiyi Dao Sect.
It had to be said, this was the convenience directly brought by great strength.
Many things he needed could simply be taken with a reach.
As for the origin of this wealth?
Those bandits were steeped in evil—his actions could be considered enforcing justice on behalf of the heavens, leaving him with no psychological burden whatsoever.
What he obtained from fencing the stolen goods were large-denomination banknotes circulated by the Great Qian Dynasty, accumulating to tens of thousands of taels.
Gu Yan had no concern over whether these notes could be redeemed in the future.
The Great Qian Dynasty had stood for thousands of years, with a deep foundation and an extremely stable financial system.
At this point, although his sect contribution points were only three to four thousand—
his silver wealth was already abundant, and for the time being, he no longer needed to worry about rent.
On this day, Gu Yan came to Evergreen Market and purchased a decent-quality pill furnace along with a large quantity of low-grade medicinal herbs, all paid in silver.
The reason he did not buy them outside the sect was because the materials circulated within the sect had more reliable quality.
Moreover, it saved him the effort of searching everywhere for trustworthy channels, making it more cost-effective instead.
Returning to his quiet courtyard with the pill furnace and herbs, Gu Yan began attempting alchemy.
This time, he refined a pill called the Scarlet Blood Warm Sun Pill, specifically used to nourish a martial practitioner’s vitality and blood, promoting the growth of internal force.
The formula came from 《Complete Explanation of Taiyi Basic Pills》.
Although it was his first time refining it, relying on his knowledge of alchemical principles and the fine control unique to a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s divine sense, he succeeded in one attempt.
Moreover, the flame he used was not ordinary fire, but spiritual fire condensed directly from his own spiritual power.
With his current cultivation, maintaining such spiritual fire was negligible consumption.
After forming the pills, Gu Yan took one himself and carefully sensed the flow of its medicinal effects.
After confirming the pill was correct and quite effective, he began attempting to refine more complex, slightly higher-grade pills of the same type.
Thus, after another seven days of closed-door alchemy,
all the purchased herbs had been turned into pills, stored separately in jade bottles.
Gu Yan stepped out of his courtyard and casually made his way to the peaks where the outer sect disciples resided.
Familiar with the route, he quickly found the C-Grade Herb Garden.
Old Chen, who was guarding the herb garden, was quite surprised to see him, then revealed a look of relief and joy.
Gu Yan did not engage in much small talk. He directly took out five jade bottles and handed them over, each containing three round and smooth pills.
He said that these pills had some benefits in nourishing vitality and blood, as well as increasing strength.
He did not explicitly state that this was the Scarlet Blood Warm Sun Pill, which required three hundred sect contribution points per bottle, only saying that he had obtained them by chance.
At first, Old Chen declined, saying that he was already advanced in age and need not waste such items.
But Gu Yan did not care and directly stuffed them into his arms.
He also said that if anything happened in the future, Old Chen could come to the inner sect to find him.
In the end, Old Chen accepted. After chatting a bit more about everyday matters, Gu Yan took his leave.
On his way back to the inner sect, Gu Yan suddenly thought of someone else—Elder Zhao.
Back when he had been promoted to the inner sect, it was Elder Zhao who had guided him.
Coincidentally, he still had a few bottles of pills left, so Gu Yan changed direction and went to the Ascending Sky Hall.
Elder Zhao was on duty. Seeing Gu Yan’s visit, he appeared slightly surprised.
Upon learning that Gu Yan had come specifically to gift pills, a smile immediately appeared on his face.
This time, however, the pills Gu Yan gave Elder Zhao were of slightly inferior quality compared to the others.
Elder Zhao occasionally went to the inner sect and was well-informed. If he were given top-quality pills, he might recognize them at a glance and refuse to accept them.
Even so, the pills personally refined by Gu Yan still far surpassed the quality and efficacy of those made by ordinary inner sect alchemists.
With all matters settled, Gu Yan returned to his courtyard and entered seclusion once more.
His mind sank inward, where he could see three hundred sixty-five acupoints shining like stars across the heavens.
Among them, one hundred fifty acupoints were already filled with liquid spiritual power.
The remaining two hundred fifteen still required continuous and diligent cultivation.