Chapter 16: The Elixir Formula
Chapter 16: The Elixir Formula
"It seems that the Darkness Marrow plant dislikes light and requires decayed Spirit Wood for its growth environment," Lu Chen deduced based on the clues that appeared in his mind.
"Avoiding exposure to light should be simple. Although it's challenging to move it indoors due to the spiritual field and soil, I can build a simple shed to shade it."
"However, finding decayed Spirit Wood will be difficult. Spirit Wood is relatively common, but who would have decaying Spirit Wood in their possession?" Lu Chen thought to himself as he retrieved tools from his home and constructed a simple wooden shed around the Darkness Marrow plant.
As it was a second-grade spiritual herb, he wanted to plant it as soon as possible to hasten its growth. Without further delay, he decided to go out and search for the necessary materials.
He walked towards the central location of the courtyard and soon arrived at a massive courtyard after half a moment.
Beyond the stone wall, he could vaguely make out the dense and towering Spirit Wood cultivated within.
The owner of the courtyard was a cultivator named Zhou, possessing the cultivation base of a Layer 3 Qi Refining cultivator. Lu Chen had only heard of him before and rarely had the opportunity to interact.
It was said that this cultivator Zhou had close connections with a high-level Qi Refining cultivator in the center of the courtyard, which allowed him to occupy such a large courtyard and cultivate so many Spirit Wood trees.
Decayed Spirit Wood could result from pest infestations during the cultivation process, prolonged storage, or a lack of proper storage conditions, causing the nature of the Spirit Wood to change and decay.
With cultivator Zhou's vast collection of Spirit Wood, it was possible that he had some decaying wood among his collection.
As Lu Chen approached, a young cultivator came forward to greet him.
Lu Chen stated his purpose, and the young cultivator led him to cultivator Zhou.
The young man whispered a few words to his father, cultivator Zhou.
"I am Zhou Yuan. May I ask how I should address my fellow daoist?"
"Lu Chen," he replied.
"It's nice to meet you, fellow daoist Lu. My son tells me that you're inquiring about whether we have any decayed Spirit Wood. May I ask what you intend to use it for?" cultivator Zhou asked.
"I don't hide it from Brother Zhou. Recently, I've had some insights into cultivating spiritual herbs, and I want to test a hypothesis using decayed wood. I've heard that Brother Zhou has a high level of expertise in cultivating Spirit Wood, so I thought I'd come and see if you have any," Lu Chen replied, mixing truth with a little deception.
"I see," Zhou Yuan nodded, his expression unchanged, giving no indication of whether he believed Lu Chen or not.
"Due to various factors, we do have a few pieces of decayed Spirit Wood."
Zhou Yuan instructed his son, and they retrieved several pieces of Spirit Wood from the warehouse at the back of the courtyard.
The Spirit Wood was in a dilapidated state, emitting a putrid, decaying odor.
"If fellow daoist Lu wants them, they are yours," said Zhou Yuan.
"However, cultivating Spirit Wood requires more time and resources than regular spiritual herbs. Even though these pieces are decayed, they still hold some value. I ask for two spirit stones in exchange for these three pieces of Spirit Wood," he added.
Lu Chen frowned. "Since the Spirit Wood has already decayed and lost its original purpose, asking for two spirit stones in exchange for three useless pieces of wood seems a bit unreasonable, don't you think?"
He was well aware that the other party didn't know the real purpose of his request for decayed Spirit Wood. Lu Chen felt confident in his negotiation, leveraging this information gap.
"One spirit stone is more than enough to compensate for these useless pieces of wood, Brother Zhou. Consider it a favor from me in helping you dispose of this waste," Lu Chen asserted.
Zhou Yuan had only been testing Lu Chen's limits, and seeing his unwavering stance, he nodded in agreement.
Usually, these discarded pieces of Spirit Wood would be buried in a remote area outside the courtyard once a sufficient quantity had been accumulated. To receive a single spirit stone in exchange was already a favorable deal.
Lu Chen quickly took out the three decayed logs and carefully placed them around the Darkness Marrow spirit herb.
After performing a round of Spirit Rain Art, he returned to find noticeable changes in the Darkness Marrow plant.
At the base of the fungus, attracted by the unique scent of the decayed Spirit Wood, countless tiny dark red filaments had quietly sprouted.
As the dark red filaments crept into the decayed wood, Lu Chen noticed that the Darkness Marrow seemed to deepen in color, and within the vein-like passages, the flow of viscous liquid had increased.
With the successful cultivation of the Darkness Marrow, Lu Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief.
In the following days, he mostly stayed at home, spending most of his time meticulously nurturing his spiritual plants. The rest of his time was dedicated to cultivating his martial arts and techniques, familiarizing himself with the still-incomplete usage of the Silver Rift Blade.
During this period, he also visited the loose cultivator marketplace twice, hoping that with the return of cultivators from the newly opened secret realm, he might come across some unknown spirit herb seeds at the stalls.
Unfortunately, the stalls that occasionally sold spirit herb seeds only offered common varieties that Lu Chen was already familiar with.
His spiritual field in the courtyard was already packed to the brim, leaving no space for any additional spiritual plants.
Twenty Spirit Glowgrasses were in their rapid growth phase, and the two Eclipsing Moon Trees bore fruit, with over half of the Eclipsing Moon Fruits already ripe.
The single-grade Crimson Cloud Pine was undemanding in terms of spiritual energy, only requiring occasional stimulation with the Fireball Art.
The second-grade Sword Grass required nurturing with the Metal-Element Sword Technique and Spirit Rain Art, while the second-grade Darkness Marrow derived its nourishment primarily from the decayed Spirit Wood, needing no additional moisture from Lu Chen's Spirit Rain Art.
All Lu Chen needed to do was use the Spirit Rain Art and Earth Draw Art to maintain the decayed state of the wood.
Upon reviewing his collection, Lu Chen realized that he had the fewest single-grade spiritual plants—only the Crimson Cloud Pine—while the two spirit herb seeds he had obtained brought him unexpected joy as they were both second-grade.
During this period, he also harvested five more Eclipsing Moon Fruits.
Four were of good quality, and one was of superior quality.
From the five white orbs they produced, two contained fragments of the Silver Rift Blade, making the artifact more complete with only a few small gaps remaining.
Lu Chen estimated that there should be no issues with the remaining fourteen Eclipsing Moon Fruits.
He also obtained two first-grade talismans—the Sword Qi Talisman and the Exorcism Talisman—both of which were considered quite good at their grade.
As for the superior-quality Eclipsing Moon Fruit, after absorbing it, a stream of information appeared in Lu Chen's mind.
"The formula for the Peiyuan Pill, a first-grade pill, including its ingredients and refining methods."
"It's actually a pill formula; no wonder it's a superior-quality Eclipsing Moon Fruit," Lu Chen thought, surprised.
Previously, the white orbs had only yielded completed Peiyuan Pills, but this time, the pill formula itself had been revealed.
"Well, it's better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish," Lu Chen mused to himself. "I guess it's time to learn how to refine pills."
"However, without any prior knowledge, starting pill refining from scratch will likely result in a high failure rate."
"I wonder if the Eclipsing Moon Fruits will reveal more pill formulas, and if so, whether repeatedly absorbing them will automatically increase my pill refining experience, like it did with the Earth Draw Art and the Metal-Element Sword Technique."
Lu Chen gazed at the over a dozen round and ripe Eclipsing Moon Fruits hanging amidst the lush green leaves, his thoughts filled with optimism.
(End of Chapter)
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