Chapter 172: Chapter 171: The Source of Wealth Is Open
At the doorway, Chu Mu watched as an excited Wang Mazi departed, disappearing from his line of sight.
He scanned his surroundings. The illusory long saber above his Divine Soul gave no warning.
Apparently, for now, Wang Mazi was a reliable agent. Their business was still in its honeymoon phase.
Closing the door, Chu Mu returned to his room. He had acquired this two-story loft by bribing someone under the identity of Li Gang.
Anyone who investigated would find that he was Li Gang, renting a house in the Marketplace. As long as they didn’t confront him face-to-face, the identity was solid—not the least bit fake.
However, based on his understanding of Wang Mazi, the chances of being investigated were very low.
He was a Loose Alchemist Cultivator, one with extremely high talent in Alchemy. With forty percent of the profits going to Wang Mazi, any Cultivator with a working brain would do their best to maintain this relationship and business deal.
Of course, that was all premised on the fact that no opportunity for treachery had presented itself.
After all, controlling a Loose Alchemist Cultivator was a business with no startup costs.
For now, he hadn’t given Wang Mazi any such opportunities. If nothing unexpected happened, this relationship should last for a long time.
His plan to generate wealth could also continue uninterrupted.
He just needed to wait until he had the power to protect himself and was no longer a paper tiger that could be punctured with a single poke. Then, everything he was currently planning would reach Perfection.
After a moment of distraction, Chu Mu’s gaze shifted and finally settled on the Light Curtain Panel in his vision.
[Name: Chu Mu.]
[Skill: Basic Blade Technique (Peak of Perfection) 3156/10000.
Fireball Skill (Peak of Perfection) 353/10000.
Flame Barrier (Beginner’s Practice) 124/1000]
[Body Refining Technique (1000/1000)]
[Second Layer of Fiery Flame Technique (326/1000)]
[Alchemy: Dragon and Snake Soup: Refined Skill (1300/2000)
Grain Avoidance Pill: Refined Skill (238/5000)]
[Spiritual Radiance Value: 323.7%]
Over the past few months, the Light Curtain Panel had changed somewhat. The Flame Barrier was a Fire Attribute Defense Technique he had bought from Wang Mazi when he returned to Jade Emperor Valley.
However, he had been so busy generating wealth with the Grain Avoidance Pills that it was still only at the Beginner’s Practice stage.
And what was once "Medicine Refining" was now categorized as "Alchemy" after he officially began refining Grain Avoidance Pills.
Furthermore, after consuming several hundred Spirit Stones, his Skill Level with Grain Avoidance Pills had leaped directly to the Refined Skill realm.
Now, even without using the "Spiritual Radiance Blessing," his success rate for refining Grain Avoidance Pills was around seventy percent.
Evidently, given this success rate, when one considered the selling price of Grain Avoidance Pills and the cost of their raw materials, the shady dealings involved were clearly immense.
And it was only his Refined Skill in refining Grain Avoidance Pills that could guarantee a seventy percent success rate.
Based on the current prices he knew for the raw materials and the final selling price of the pills, a seventy percent success rate didn’t yield much profit.
By this calculation, Chu Mu estimated that the source price for ordinary Spirit Grain was at most five Broken Spirits per pound. Other raw materials like Spiritual Charcoal and Spirit Oil were likely even cheaper.
Only that would make sense. If it were really one Spirit Stone per pound, then unless every Alchemist had a one-hundred-percent success rate in Alchemy, they’d basically be running a charity.
After a moment of thought, the Light Curtain Panel faded away. Chu Mu turned and walked into the room.
A new identity and a new home naturally meant a new layout.
The Alchemy area had also been moved from the second floor to the first.
The furnishings were simple, with almost everything visible at a glance.
Scanning the room, Chu Mu leaned against the head of the bed and picked up the Magic book for Flame Barrier to flip through it.
It was a Tier One Lower Grade Defense Magic. A defensive Magic Model was formed from five Fire Attribute Inscriptions. When cast, it could condense into a Fire Barrier roughly the size of a person.
At its current Beginner’s Practice stage, this Fire Barrier could block Attacks below 0.5 degrees of Spiritual Power. However, each block consumed a massive amount of Magical Power.
If the Attack power exceeded the Fire Barrier’s Defense capability, it would instead weaken the Attack’s intensity. If it exceeded it by too much, the barrier would shatter directly.
From his experiments, the Magical Power required to cast the Fire Barrier was low, and the upkeep was not much either. But over time, the continuous drain of Magical Power was certainly not a small amount.
With his current Magical Power at the Qi Cultivation Second Layer, he could maintain it for three minutes at the absolute most.
And that was without considering casting other Magic. However, there was another extremely interesting aspect to this Magic.
As long as he had enough Magical Power and his Divine Sense could control it, he could cast the Fire Barrier infinitely and even manipulate it to stack them.
However, with his current Magical Power and Divine Sense, maintaining two Fire Barriers while reserving enough energy to fight was pretty much his limit. Any more and he’d just be hiding in a turtle shell, waiting to die.
After reading and pondering for a good while, Chu Mu closed the book. As his eyes flickered, a Flame Barrier materialized before him.
Blazing fire constructed a barrier that moved as he willed, circling his body.
Using Magic was strictly forbidden in the Marketplace, but that prohibition obviously didn’t extend into private residences. Offensive Magic wasn’t suitable for use indoors, but defensive Magic was naturally fine.
As for the Spiritual Qi pollution caused by using Magic...
The numerous Alchemy sessions in this house had already polluted the Spiritual Qi here long ago.
He had also observed that the polluted and agitated Spiritual Qi would basically quiet down again after a few days.
This was perhaps because his Cultivation was low, so the effects didn’t last long.
With no worries about the consequences, he naturally had few reservations.
Here in his house, he cast Flame Barrier again and again, comprehending the essence of the Magic with each cast and recording the experimental data as he went.
On the Light Curtain Panel, the Skill Level for Flame Barrier slowly increased with this practice.
Time trickled by as he practiced.
On the thirteenth day, someone knocked on the door. Wang Mazi was already standing at the entrance.
Once the door was closed, Wang Mazi handed over a Storage Talisman.
"I sold them for six hundred thirty-six Lower Spirits."
"Same as usual, I bought four hundred Lower Spirits’ worth of raw materials. That left two hundred thirty-six. I spent five Spirit Stones on a Storage Talisman with a one-day time limit."
"That leaves two hundred thirty-one Lower Spirits for us to split."
As he spoke, Wang Mazi handed over a Spirit Stone Bag.
"Your sixty percent is one hundred thirty-nine Lower Spirits. Go ahead and count them."
Chu Mu took the heavy Spirit Stone Bag and couldn’t help but ask, "Was there any trouble?"
"Just minor stuff. I didn’t handle it here. I went over to the Sun Family’s territory. I still have a few connections."
Wang Mazi waved his hand, looking nonchalant.
Chu Mu didn’t ask any more questions. ’Just as a snake has its path, a rat has its own way.’ Wang Mazi had been navigating the Cultivation Immortal Realm for decades. His Cultivation might not be impressive, but he clearly had plenty of connections.
"Let’s stick to the old routine. Come back to pick them up in half a month."
"Alright. You get back to it."
Wang Mazi nodded. Then, as if he’d thought of something, he looked at Chu Mu and said, "After a while, how about we partner up and buy a Pill Recipe for the Vein Nourishing Pill?"
"I’ve been asking around these past few days. The Spirit Medicines needed for the Vein Nourishing Pill are quite common. It’s just that the difficulty of refining it is much higher than for other Pill Recipes. Are you confident you can handle it?"
"Shouldn’t be a problem."
Chu Mu nodded, but added cautiously, "When starting to refine a new Pill Recipe, I’ll waste a lot of materials. You need to be mentally prepared for that."
"No problem, no problem."
Wang Mazi immediately waved his hand. "I know that. As long as it’s possible, I’ll start keeping an eye out for it."
After acknowledging him, Chu Mu asked, "What about the Vein Nourishing Pill? Will it attract attention?"
Wang Mazi pondered for a moment before replying, "It shouldn’t be a big deal. If worst comes to worst, I’ll just have to travel to a few more places. It’ll only take a few extra days, that’s all."
"Alright. In any case, I’m only responsible for the Alchemy. You handle the other matters as you see fit, Brother Wang."
"Don’t you worry. I’ve been around the Cultivation Immortal Realm for many years. I have my ways."
After a brief exchange, Wang Mazi hurriedly left. Once the door was closed, Chu Mu finally looked down at the Spirit Stone Bag in his hand.
It was bulging and quite heavy.
A total of one hundred thirty-nine Lower Grade Spirit Stones!
Even though he had been mentally prepared, staring at the Spirit Stone Bag before him, Chu Mu still found it hard to suppress the excitement in his heart.
One hundred thirty-nine Lower Grade Spirit Stones in less than a month, and this was after giving away forty percent.
With his current Cultivation, if he were to look for work, a month’s Monthly Stipend would be four or five Lower Grade Spirit Stones at most.
These one hundred thirty-nine Lower Spirits... even calculating at a rate of five Lower Spirits a month, it would take him nearly twenty-eight months to earn this much!
And this was just from the most basic, most common Grain Avoidance Pill in the Cultivation Immortal Realm!
"It hasn’t been easy..."
At this moment, Chu Mu couldn’t help but feel a little emotional.
’The Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal... every single skill is a Treasure Basin. It’s not an exaggeration in the slightest!’
’But getting your hands on that Treasure Basin is not easy at all.’
He was lucky. He had inherited knowledge and the heaven-defying Spiritual Radiance Blessing, allowing him to skip the two most difficult hurdles.
But even so, it had still cost him over a thousand Spirit Stones, all told, just to raise his skill with the humble Grain Avoidance Pill to its current Refined Skill level with a seventy-percent success rate.
If it were an ordinary Cultivator, let’s not even talk about whether they had talent for Alchemy. Even if they did, without an Alchemy inheritance and without the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, they would have to rely entirely on their own trial and error.
’They’d need at least three or four thousand Spirit Stones to reach my current level...’
...
