Chapter 1437: The Value of a Pill Formula
Chapter 1437: The Value of a Pill Formula
Blue Star Island.
Qin Sang put on his mask, located the Pill Cauldron Guild, and released the aura of a Spiritual Infant cultivator outright.
The guild's steward showed him into a meditation chamber with every courtesy, asked what he had come for, and hurried away.
Before long, an azure-robed old man at the late stage of the Golden Core Realm came in, bowed to Qin Sang first, and spoke respectfully, "Reporting to Senior, if you wish to have the Hidden Fragrance Pill refined, only our grand elder can undertake it with any confidence. Unfortunately, he returned to Pill Cauldron Mountain not long ago to enter secluded cultivation. Word is that he sensed an opportunity to break through, and he won't be back in Boundless Sea for at least half a year. If you need it urgently, you would have to seek out another senior instead."
Facing a Spiritual Infant grandmaster, he did not dare conceal the slightest thing, and laid out the relationship between the Pill Cauldron Guild and Pill Cauldron Mountain in full.
Secluded cultivation for a breakthrough?
The sect leader of Pill Cauldron Mountain was at the middle stage of the Spiritual Infant Realm, and would hardly stoop to putting to sea himself to manage guild affairs. More likely this was an early-stage Spiritual Infant cultivator from Pill Cauldron Mountain, preparing to advance to the middle stage.
Pill Cauldron Mountain is quite strong! Qin Sang thought idly.
Those born into a sect skilled in the Dao of alchemy always had an easier time cultivating and breaking through than others.
Even Taiyi Core Sect, which had merely gone through a weaker span in Daoist Master Chongyi's generation, had produced two Spiritual Infant cultivators immediately afterward and was flourishing now.
"Would the one with the deepest attainments in alchemy on Pill Cauldron Mountain be Daoist Yinquan?" Qin Sang asked with a light cough. Sage Yinquan was precisely the Pill Cauldron Guild's grand elder.
"Indeed. The grand elder was the one who pushed for the guild's founding," the old man answered, reverence written across his face.
Half a year... Qin Sang deliberated briefly and decided to wait. He had only one Spirit Cup Flower, and it was better to play it safe.
He nodded. "Arrange a cave dwelling for me on this island. I'll wait here for Daoist Yinquan. And gather these spiritual herbs for me."
With that he produced a jade slip and tossed it to the old man along with a pouch of spirit stones. Listed on the slip were the secondary ingredients the Hidden Fragrance Pill required.
The Spirit Cup Flower was the sole primary ingredient and the hardest herb on the formula to obtain. The secondary ingredients were worth nowhere near as much, and only two of them presented any difficulty, which the Pill Cauldron Guild would surely have some way of resolving. For a Spiritual Infant cultivator, anything spirit stones could settle was no problem at all.
That said, in the immortal cultivation world even high-grade spirit stones counted as rarities, and no Spiritual Infant cultivator carried many of them.
Top-grade spirit stones were rarer still. Qin Sang, for all that he headed a sect, did not have a single one, and when Sin Abyss had surrendered, not one had appeared among the reparations they handed over.
As for what he would pay Sage Yinquan to refine the pill, that could be discussed when they met.
The old man read through the jade slip, and a flicker of surprise showed in his eyes, though he did not presume to ask about it. He counted out the spirit stones in front of Qin Sang and replied, "These are more than sufficient, Senior. I'll have someone prepare a cave dwelling at once."
A while later, the old man had settled Qin Sang into the finest cave dwelling on the island.
From then on, Qin Sang did not walk a single step from it. He spent nearly all his energy during this period refining the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells, pushing the Fire Seed Golden Lotus as far as he could so that not the slightest trace of medicinal energy would go to waste when he took the Hidden Fragrance Pill.
After seven months of waiting on Blue Star Island, Qin Sang finally met the grand elder of the Pill Cauldron Guild.
Daoist Yinquan wore Daoist robes and had a somewhat gaunt frame, but his eyes were extraordinarily bright and arresting. His aura had not yet settled, and Qin Sang saw at a glance that he had broken through to the middle stage of the Spiritual Infant Realm.
"Congratulations on advancing another step along the Great Dao." Qin Sang gave a fist-and-palm salute as he offered his congratulations.
Daoist Yinquan could not hide his delight, though he demurred at once. "I received the message the moment I left seclusion and learned that you wished to have a Hidden Fragrance Pill refined. Not wanting to keep you waiting, I stabilized my cultivation only briefly before hurrying over."
The name Ming Yue was no longer safe, so Qin Sang was using his real name now. Yinquan had certainly never heard of anyone by it, since no cultivator at the middle stage of the Spiritual Infant Realm could possibly be a nobody. He glanced at the mask on Qin Sang's face and had the tact to ask nothing further.
Qin Sang came straight to the point. "What are your conditions for refining the pill?"
Sage Yinquan smiled, and his answer was unexpected. "Daoist Qin, you may not be aware of this, but Pill Cauldron Mountain also holds a formula for the Hidden Fragrance Pill among its treasures. But ours is incomplete with a success rate under one in ten.
"I had my doubts at first, and it was only when I saw the herbs you were purchasing that I dared to conclude you really possess a more complete ancient formula. Can you tell me where you obtained it, and whether you hold any other ancient formulas? Not only will I take nothing for this refinement, but should you have need of me in the future, I will refine pills for you at any time."
Ancient Immortal Battlefield really is a treasure trove! That was the only thought in Qin Sang's mind when he heard it.
Before he had set out to travel, Qin Sang had used some of Yuanshen Sect's array texts to trade with Jinglin of Taiyi Core Sect for a number of pill formulas he considered useful, the Hidden Fragrance Pill among them.
He had done it so that he would not find himself holding a spiritual herb out in the world with no one able to refine it. Preparing early had clearly been the right call.
Jinglin had agreed to the trade because the primary ingredients of these ancient formulas were vanishingly rare in the present age, so letting them out did little harm.
Finding a Spirit Cup Flower in the Pure Sea Sect had been an unexpected stroke of fortune, and once the formula was carried to the North Sea, its value climbed sharply.
Qin Sang knew he could not reveal where it had come from. The two domains had been cut off from one another for a long time, but with both great cultivators of Beichen Realm having ascended, the situation was hardly secure.
"I came by two formulas by chance, and this is the other one. If you are interested, then whenever I acquire an ancient formula of this kind in the future, I'll have it sent to the Pill Cauldron Guild for your appraisal."
Qin Sang answered vaguely and casually selected a formula that was far more complex, one whose ingredients were all but impossible to assemble, and handed it over. This was the real payment. The Hidden Fragrance Pill formula was something he had to surrender regardless.
He did not mind Sage Yinquan suspecting that he held more, since only that would demonstrate his value and ensure Sage Yinquan took him seriously. He intended to negotiate the rest of the formulas slowly once there was time.
Yinquan put the formula away and gave Qin Sang a long, searching look. "Then I shall await good news from you!"
After that, they waited another month for the last supplementary ingredient to arrive, and Sage Yinquan opened the furnace.
By the time Qin Sang had finished a pot of spiritual tea in the meditation chamber, Sage Yinquan pushed the door open. Seeing Qin Sang rise and turn toward him, he said with a smile, "I'm pleased to say I didn't fail you!"
He produced a jade vial and handed it over. Inside lay a spiritual pill of dull yellow, its medicinal energy forming a thin layer of mist across the surface, from which the shadowy outline of a spiritual flower surfaced now and then. It was the Spirit Cup Flower.
Qin Sang opened the stopper and caught a fragrance much like the flower's own. His mind cleared at once, and he was greatly pleased.
Pill in hand, he meant to take his leave and return immediately to refine it, but Sage Yinquan called him back.
"I was just going through the news the guild has collected recently. I hadn't imagined so much had happened in Boundless Sea while I was away. Daoist Qin, you have been on Blue Star Island all this time, so you likely haven't heard yet?"
Qin Sang thought. It's just about Pure Sea Sect, right? You have no idea the Spirit Cup Flower was dug out of Pure Sea Sect itself, do you?
He asked what it was, without much interest, and Sage Yinquan said, "The biggest of it is that the Myriad Devil Assembly will be held half a year from now!"