Chapter 40: Selling Pills, Forging a Master?

Chapter 40 Selling Pills, Forging a Master?

The refining results this time were exceptionally promising—three Nourishing Qi Pills succeeded in one go.

Such a clear outcome stemmed from Xiao Chen maintaining the inscription activation sequence he’d used during his seventieth refining attempt, allowing him to finally master the temperature regulation best suited to his style.

After stumbling seventy times in the same spot, Xiao Chen had finally accumulated enough experience to instantly judge whether the medicinal properties inside the furnace had fully fused.

Riding this momentum, he unwrapped the second bundle of Agarwood Aloes and lit them.

After burning through the first ten sticks of agarwood, he’d felt it was wasteful and skipped this step. But now, seeing the glimmer of success, he reopened the second bundle, hoping to boost his success rate just a little more.

Seventy-second attempt—two pills succeeded.
Seventy-third—five.
Seventy-fourth—seven.
By the final attempt, all ten succeeded in one sweep!

During these five refining sessions, Xiao Chen only rested a single day before reigniting the agarwood to focus on practice. He didn’t even have time to eat, working with the dedication of someone forgetting sleep and meals.

Thankfully, each refining session showed clear progress, constantly motivating him. Plus, the tripod furnace ran on spirit stones, so he never had to worry about mana depletion.

Finally, he forged a full batch of Nourishing Qi Pills in one breath.

With the [Buy One Get One Free] ability active, he now held sixty Nourishing Qi Pills in total.

Even better, after so many failures, all his accumulated experience suddenly clicked together, fusing into true understanding.

A strong premonition rose in his heart—next furnace’s batch would definitely succeed too!

But now he’d run out of spirit herbs. Xiao Chen decided to sleep first, restoring his energy.

He slept until noon, then slowly descended the mountain to the bazaar.

“Sixty spirit stones again? What for this time?”

In just six days, the price of spirit herbs had spiked another twenty percent.

At this rate, even if a pill master sold ten bottles of Nourishing Qi Pills at five spirit stones each, they’d still lose ten spirit stones in costs.

Xiao Chen didn’t wait for an answer before pressing, “What’s the current price for Nourishing Qi Pills?”

The vendor sighed, shaking his head. “They’ve risen to six spirit stones plus five grains of spirit sand per bottle. Everyone’s grumbling, but what can we do?”

Hmm?

Something’s off, Xiao Chen frowned.

Spirit sand was a fragment of spirit stones—ten grains equaled one stone.

At this pricing, a cultivator forging one furnace daily would earn only five grains of spirit sand per batch.

Even if they succeeded ten times in a row, forging daily would yield just fifteen spirit stones monthly.

That might sound decent, but factoring in furnace usage costs and lost cultivation time, it barely made sense.

Considering that not every pill forging attempt would yield ten perfect pills, this income clearly wasn’t worth the effort.

So why hadn’t the price risen to seven spirit stones? Why had pill forgers suddenly grown consciences?

Tucking this question away, Xiao Chen spent sixty spirit stones to buy ten portions of spirit herbs and returned to refining.

Once he gathered a batch of pills, he’d sell them himself and uncover the truth.

Ten days later, ten furnaces produced fresh batches, averaging an eighty percent success rate.

Honestly, for a novice pill forger, this was an exceptional rate.

Only veteran pill masters with decades of experience could achieve one hundred percent consistency.

This meant Xiao Chen now held eight bottles of Nourishing Qi Pills, worth fifty-two spirit stones and four grains of sand.

Compared to his sixty spirit stone investment, he’d even suffered an eight-stone loss.

...

Thankfully, his [Buy One Get One Free] ability granted him an extra eight bottles of identical pills.

After deducting costs, he’d still made a profit of forty-four spirit stones!

Stunned by his calculation, Xiao Chen paused.

Forty-four spirit stones?

He recalculated—yes, exactly forty-four!

Ten days netted forty-four spirit stones. At that rate, a month could yield up to one hundred thirty-two!

Steward Chen’s monthly income probably didn’t reach that figure.

Rounding up, this was practically printing money!

Adding the six previously forged bottles, Xiao Chen now carried twenty-two bottles to the bazaar.

This time, he donned his Cloak of Hidden Tracks, arriving at the Treasure Pavilion as a seller.

According to the Treasure Pavilion Manager, they offered not just sales but also resale services.

This meant cultivators could directly sell their pills or magic artifacts to the Pavilion.

The items needed to be crafted within six months and pass quality checks.

The Pavilion bought at ten percent below market price, paying immediately.

Convenient and hassle-free—no need for cultivators to struggle with open-air stalls.

Xiao Chen swiftly produced the pills. “Please help me resell these.”

The manager handed him a contract. “Certainly, here’s our consignment agreement—ah? You want to resell Nourishing Qi Pills?”

Mid-sentence, the manager glanced at the pills and suddenly looked shocked, staring wide-eyed at Xiao Chen’s dark cloak.

At current market rates, reselling pills meant pure loss.

After three stunned breaths, the manager confirmed, “Esteemed guest, are you certain you want to resell Nourishing Qi Pills?”

Xiao Chen nodded. “I’m certain. Please just calculate the spirit stones.”

Without his Hex ability, he might have considered selling at his own stall for a few extra stones. But now, time was precious. Reselling was simpler.

The fastest way to obtain spirit stones and resume herb purchases was this method.

Yet Xiao Chen’s decisiveness raised the manager’s suspicion.

The manager opened a bottle, detecting a faint medicinal fragrance—these were fresh, no more than two or three days old.

This mysterious cloaked figure suddenly producing so many fresh pills and willingly selling at a loss? Definitely suspicious.

“Guest, please wait. We need to inspect the pills’ quality.”

The manager quickly summoned an appraiser.

“These pills… how could this be…”

The white-haired appraiser frowned immediately.

The manager asked, “Is there a problem?”

The two guards at the entrance tensed. Anyone causing trouble at the Treasure Pavilion would regret it.

“No, no,” the appraiser shook his head. “These pills are… too similar.”

He turned to Xiao Chen. “Esteemed guest, might I ask which Pill Forging Master crafted these?”

Pill Forging Master?

This question stumped Xiao Chen.

Aren’t these the pills I forged myself?

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end