'It's time to practice concocting fourth-grade pills. Before advancing in my cultivation, I could only concoct a couple of them before going out of Qi.'
Ken went through the same process as when he tried the third-grade pills. At first, he was careful and concocted the same way he did before. He gradually sped up his pace until he could make them nearly as fast as he could make the third-grade pills.
He needed around 7 minutes to finish making one perfect pill after improving its formula, and he could make up to 10 pills simultaneously, although it took its toll on his mind.
If he wanted to do it without feeling the stress, he could easily make 7 pills at the same time, meaning he could concoct 1 pill per minute on average.
Not only his Qi reserves were incredibly larger now, but just the usage of Alchemy Qi was making the process far easier and more efficient.
'Time to check out my idea.'
He started experimenting on his pills, making a certain change in them. Instead of using only his Alchemy Qi, he also added some of his Bloodlust Qi to the mix.
It wasn't the same as inserting one's aura into the pill; he had no way of tracing the pills after sending them away. He still couldn't figure out how to remove the aura from the luck pills.
He also couldn't understand the manual for luck cultivation; the concepts weren't the same as normal cultivation, so it was like having a book of a different language without any dictionary or other books to compare it to.
No matter what he tried, the final product would still result in him losing his luck capacity. He only managed to reduce heaven's wrath, minimalizing the loss of luck capacity.
But it wasn't a good solution; judging from the shitty things that happened to him since his sixth birthday, he could infer his luck wasn't that good anyway.
He assumed that he was safe from its effects until lately because of God's promise to take care of him until then. Once God's promise to keep him safe until age 6 expired, the troubles from bad luck poured in coupled with the way he left Sol behind. Luck was simply a way to minimize or maximize the potential of your mistakes and plans, depending on how lucky one you are.
Instead, he managed to create one eye technique that helped him discern others' luck. It was a completely different energy system and wasn't included in cultivation, so it didn't add anything to his core.
Going back to his concocting, he easily grasped many concepts that eluded him previously, things he needed the Alchemy Qi to perform. He even perfected some of his formulas on the spot, making them more effective.
Overall, his training with fourth-grade materials cost him nearly 100,000 medium Qi stones. He didn't have any formulas for fifth-grade pills, and although he could invent them himself with some experiments, it wasn't the time for it yet.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThe pills with the highest consumption rate were fourth-grade or lower. Even elite families couldn't afford to buy fifth-grade pills or higher in stocks, so those of higher stages used the fourth-grade pills to support their cultivation or bought a few higher pills.
His plan for chaos worked best with the fourth-grade pills; those pills were consumed in large quantities by the young generation which was typically aggressive and impatient when coming to a conflict.
He spent over 150,000 Qi stones, and he only had slightly over 50,000 left after buying materials for his alchemy. He was concocting pills the whole month until it was time to go outside and give Nick his three Chill Pills before he dies of the poison in his body.
He visited the Mission Hall again and picked a random mission to slay some beasts in the forest before leaving the sect again.
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"Are you near the place where we met last time?"
Ken talked into the communication device he shared with Nick.
"Yes, Young Master. 2 kilometers south from there."
Ken jogged in that direction while activating his Blood Sense technique as he left the sect. He chose to be cautious; when he checked his luck after developing the relevant technique, he found out his luck was quite poor. It was much lower than the luck of the random disciples he checked.
He clearly felt a few people fighting a fourth-rank beast in the direction he was running to and took a detour to avoid unnecessary trouble.
After forming his core and using Bloodlust Qi, as well as reaching the Small Success mastery realm with his Bloodlust Sense technique, he could sense killing intent from a distance 10 times longer than before, around 500 meters.
He soon found Nick and threw him one Chill Pill.
"Eat it now."
Nick quickly swallowed the pill and the burning sensation in his heart calmed down gradually. After giving him enough time to absorb the pill and recover, Ken gave him two other Chill Pills.
"Those are for the next two months; we will meet again three months from now."
He gave him the first pill specifically because he inserted a truth drug into it. after what happened to him with Sol, he didn't plan to take any risks and raise a backstabber.
"Thank you, Young Master. Here are all the manuals and techniques I managed to collect."
Ken took them without looking and placed them in his storage ring. He will have enough time to read them later after he separated from Nick.
"Good job. I have another task for you for those next months. Do evil cultivators have a safe place to make exchanges?"
"Yes, there's a black market under the control of evil cultivators where everyone can enter for fixed fees of 5 medium Qi Stones."
It wasn't a low price at all. Lone cultivators under the fourth stage could afford to enter the place only once a year or less.
"I see, and you have access to there, right?"
"Yes. I can take you there too if you want."
"No need. Do the righteous sects trade there as well?"
"Not the sects themselves, but clans from all the righteous sects often come there to buy treasures from lone cultivators as well as searching for trade opportunities."
"I see, then they will have a trade opportunity soon."
A smile adorned Ken's delicate features, and Nick felt a shiver when he knew that there were no good intentions in this seemingly innocent smile of a beautiful child.
Ken handed Nick a storage ring filled with the pills he had concocted this past month. With his new Qi reserves and his specialized Qi, he could now make hundreds of them before having to replenish his Qi.
Overall, there were a few thousand pills in the storage ring. It included Qi Absorbing Pills, which was a popular pill that could help one to replenish their Qi faster, making it possible to train more intensively or recover faster after a long fight. It was also good to take when one wanted to break through.
There were a few Body Strengthening Pills that made it possible to strengthen the body further even for practitioners in the fourth stage or above, although the effect wouldn't help their core anymore.
That was the reason Ken maximized his foundation first; the effect would multiply with every breakthrough, unlike those who maximized it later. Besides, they'd need better pills to strengthen their bodies at higher stages.
There were also pills for strengthening the meridians and the soul. There were pills with specific materials that contained elements; those could even be used to strengthen the core's affinity with those elements.
Overall, the ring storage was a treasure trove. Nick felt his heart rate rises to the extreme when he looked at the contents of the ring. The pills came in packs; each pack had 200 bottles, and each bottle had 5 pills of the same type.
"Young Master, what should I do with all those pills?"
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Do you know who the five top sects in our continent are?"
"Yes."
"Any of them attends the black market you mentioned earlier?"
"Yes. I know of at least one elite family who attends the black market from the Divine Sword Sect. They are ranked 4th, and their power is unfathomable. They sell swords to lone cultivators and purchase anything valuable they can sell back in their sect and make a profit."
"Good, then you can sell those pills to them. You can offer them one bottle for testing the effects. If they don't want to buy the pills after consuming them, they won't have to pay for what you gave them."
"Young Master, shouldn't you use those pills to strengthen yourself and your subordinates?"
"Do you want some of those pills?"
"Yes, Young Master."
"Did you think of a way to run off with them?"
"No. I tried but couldn't think of a way to solve the poison problem after stealing the pills."
"Did you think to smuggle some of them for yourself?"
"Yes, I thought to sell for a lower price and steal 10% of the pills."
Nick answered truthfully every question Ken asked him. After hearing that he wasn't a reliable subordinate, Ken shrugged and chose to give him some of the pills.
"You can choose 100 pills from the ring and take them after you finish the transaction. if I find out you took more than that, I will kill you the next time we meet."
He radiated the single target version of his Mind-Poisoning Domain, making Nick freeze in his spot with fear written in large letters all over his face.
"Yes, Young Master. I will not betray your expectations."
He stuttered fearfully and bowed to appease Ken.
"Make sure to sell all those pills to that sect, things are going to be interesting."
Ken smiled and left the place to complete his mission.