When Qiu Jiusi returned, she had left Feng Guiyuan behind, and all ten storage bags on her were packed to the brim.
—For the sake of this transaction, Nan Zhi had specifically swapped in two other wood puppets to take over protecting the Ascension Tokens, freeing up Qiu Jiusi to negotiate with the authorities.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Qiu Jiusi and Feng Guiyuan would handle all future resource handovers from the Yellow River Secret Realm.
Even though she knew they were not living beings, looking at Qiu Jiusi—who was lifelike and indistinguishable from a real person—Nan Zhi could still sense that each wood puppet possessed a distinct personality.
After she issued her orders, Fu Laogou had gone straight to stake out famous mortal mountains and rivers, Daoist sects, and Buddhist holy sites.
Whenever he spotted someone who met the criteria, he casually tossed a token right into their arms from afar.
Qiu Jiusi was far more decisive; after careful selection, she distributed all ten Ascension Tokens without exception to “good people” who acted heroically, risking their lives to protect others.
As for Feng Guiyuan, perhaps influenced by the Hehuan Sect, he favored men and women who were pure-hearted by nature yet deeply ensnared in love and drowning in sensual pleasure.
Nan Zhi did not object to this.
When recruiting, the Demon Suppression Division sought those who were genuinely pure-hearted and morally unblemished.
A disciple’s personal experiences and trials were among the factors shaping their true self; so long as they met her criteria, they were naturally qualified.
“First-grade Jade Velvet Flowers, Blood Poria, Jade Toad Eyes; second-grade Camellia Seeds, Ink Jade Hibiscus, Ghost Sand, Life-Sorrow Flowers, elderberry; third-grade Eshou Blood Amber, Rising Moon Vines, Green-skinned Red-eyed Rock Snake Gallbladders...”
Rummaging through the storage bags to examine the resources, Nan Zhi could not help smiling.
“Not bad. None of it is substandard.”
The authorities were true to their word. The Three Great Sects had only left Feng Guiyuan behind to guard the Yellow River Secret Realm, and before even seeing results, they had already delivered the fifty percent share of resources.
A handful of spirit stones had traded for heaps of precious secret realm resources.
Naturally, this was a steady, long-term business.
The high-grade spirit herb habitats in the secret realm were all guarded by demon beasts.
The authorities’ exploration was progressing slowly, and they had yet to develop the higher-grade spirit medicine areas, but the storage bags were still full of pleasant surprises.
Hemostatic grass (used for refining Blood Supplementing Pills) and Fluorescent Grass (used for refining Qi-Supplementing Pills) had been accounted for through pill settlements, and while some spirit herbs were low in grade, they had matured for quite a long time.
For an alchemist, older herbs meant greater potency and higher pill yields.
Three-hundred-year Eshou Blood Amber could be used to refine Truth Serum Pills and True Intent Pills, which were very popular among sea race rogue cultivators in the sea market.
Five-hundred-year elderberry and Ink Jade Hibiscus were ingredients for refining Jade Bone Flesh-Growing Pills and Spirit Awakening Pills.
Thousand-year Jade Velvet Flowers, Blood Poria, and Life-Sorrow Flowers could be used to refine beauty-retaining pills and Face-Fixing Pills, while Jade Velvet Flowers were also the main ingredient in Marrow-Cleansing Pills.
Thousand-year Ghost Sand could refine Soul-Summoning Pills to treat those with deficient or congenital defects in their souls.
As for several ten-thousand-year herbs, they had all been stored with meticulous care in containers made of various materials according to Nan Zhi’s exact specifications.
Those harvested from demon beasts were sealed in earthenware jars.
The remaining Five Elements herbs were stored according to elemental counters and affinities.
For instance, Spirit Swallowing Grass, belonging to water and leaning toward yin, needed to be preserved in fire-roasted peach wood, whereas Life-Sorrow Flowers and elderberry, belonging to wood, had to be stored in sealed gold boxes.
Harvesting and preserving herbs was not a crude, one-size-fits-all process; there was immense skill and knowledge involved.
Managing tens of thousands of different preservation methods alone required vast amounts of manpower, resources, and multi-team collaboration.
—Yet in just a few short months, the Huaxia authorities had managed to cobble together a rudimentary spirit herb processing line.
Such efficiency would be considered utterly astonishing even in any super sect across the Four Provinces Continent.
After all, no sect under heaven possessed the cohesion of Huaxia.
Nor did any sect have such resolve and drive.
Such solidarity was like sand gathering into a pagoda, or ants building a nest.
When the collective wisdom of countless humans crystallized, even immortal cultivators would be left in awe.
“It hasn’t been that long, yet construction on the underground bridge in the Yellow River Secret Realm is already underway. It won’t be long before the secret realm’s resource output doubles again.”
Nan Zhi selected the materials she needed and tossed them into the two cauldrons before her, plotting her next steps in her mind.
She had harvested almost all the Mutated Spirit Swallowing Grass last time; it would take another hundred years for the next batch to mature.
By then, the authorities’ infrastructure would probably be mostly completed as well.
She wouldn’t need to micromanage everything herself either; having Feng Guiyuan keep an eye on things would suffice.
Before Nan Zhi, two cauldrons of varying heights and designs constantly billowed misty pill qi, spilling an endless white haze onto the hall floor as if someone were ascending to immortality.
—Indeed, she had discovered a cheat-like method of alchemy.
Unlike ordinary alchemists, Nan Zhi only needed to throw in the ingredients, regulate the spiritual energy fluctuations around the cauldrons, and wait for the progress bar to max out to harvest an entire furnace of (Immortal Grade) pills.
This meant she could tend to two cauldrons simultaneously.
When it came to exploiting bugs to grind proficiency, gamers knew no fear.
Nan Zhi had three cauldrons on hand.
One was the Danxia Cauldron, Purple Quality, an inheritance from Grandma.
Another was the green quality cauldron seized from Daoist Qinglong.
The last was a blue quality cauldron that Nan Zhi had dug up from a side hall in the Sect Grand Hall.
—By all appearances, this cauldron had been intended for decoration, but her stingy self as Sect Master had dragged it out to refine pills anyway.
【Origin-Restoring Pill (High Grade): Supplements qi and nourishes blood, clears meridians. After consumption, restores 1,000 Spirit Energy Points per second for 15 seconds.】
【Alchemy Proficiency +10】
【Current Alchemy Proficiency: 8,368】
【Clear Accumulation Pill (High Grade): Neutralizes toxins and disperses stasis, protects the clarity of the spirit platform. After consumption, restores 300 Blood Qi Points per second for 10 seconds.】
【Alchemy Proficiency +10】
【Current Alchemy Proficiency: 8,378】
As the cauldrons opened, the dense white mist was drawn into the pills at a near-uncanny speed.
Escaping medicine vapors gently suffused the hall with wave after wave of herbal fragrance.
“Awesome! Ten pills per batch, a hundred percent yield rate, and the pill quality has been successfully brought down as planned.”
Nan Zhi picked up an Origin-Restoring Pill and was overjoyed to find that its surface bore only three pill veins, signifying high grade.
Through repeated experiments, by deliberately adjusting the concentration of spiritual energy around the cauldrons, she had indeed managed to produce ordinary pills instead of Immortal Grade ones.
“Other people rack their brains to raise the quality of their pills, but I have to do everything I can to lower it. In the end, it’s all because my cultivation is too low and my strength isn’t great enough.”
Nan Zhi waved her hand, and a wood puppet stepped forward immediately, casting a spell to deposit the pills one by one into jade bottles for storage.
—In addition to the Qingjing Sect, Wuwei Sect, and Hehuan Sect—the Three Great Sects—countless other cultivation sects would participate in this Four Directions Assembly.
Golden Core cultivators would walk everywhere, and Nascent Souls would be beyond count.
As for bringing wood puppets to the competition?
That was out of the question.
Even though the wood puppets had been crafted by cultivators of the Three Great Sects ten thousand years later, there was no guaranteeing someone wouldn’t recognize the craftsmanship as belonging to the Three Great Sects.
A mere Foundation Establishment cultivator casually whipping out Immortal Grade pills and swaggering around with wood puppets possibly bearing the marks of the Three Great Sects...
Wouldn’t that just be begging someone to rob her?
The way of keeping a low profile was the eternal, unchanging truth of the cultivation world.
...
【You obtained Origin-Restoring Pill (High Grade) × 10, Proficiency +10】
【You obtained Clear Accumulation Pill (Low Grade) × 10, Proficiency +10】
【You obtained Spirit Beast Pill (Middle Grade) × 100, Proficiency +5】
Over these three months, as the outside world was thrown into turmoil and upheaval by the Ascension Tokens, Nan Zhi remained in the Great Hall of the Three Great Sects, refining pills day and night without pause.
When hungry, she swallowed inedia pills to stave off hunger.
When tired, she meditated to cultivate and restore her stamina.
Whenever her mental state was pushed to its limits and her taut nerves were on the verge of snapping, she chugged down a bottle of Qi-Augmenting Pills in one go and continued refining.
To achieve greatness, one had to go mad.
Finally, as the three-month deadline drew to a close, Nan Zhi reached the ten-thousand proficiency mark and successfully refined her very first batch of Detoxification Pills.
【Detoxification Pill (Immortal Grade): Developed by Basket-Carrying Immortal Nie Hongmei. Consumption eliminates Black Mist Poison from the body, Dao Heart +1 (This effect only applies to the first consumption).】
Nan Zhi rubbed her eyes—thanks to her formidable physical constitution, she did not feel tired.
“Hahaha! Immortal cultivation is fantastic! Alchemy is so much fun! Fun, love it, keep doing it!”
Having accompanied her and witnessed the entire process, Qiu Jiusi maintained a solemn expression and slowly took half a step back.
The Sect Master has probably lost her mind.
Rate on N.U.
