Chapter 31 - Gale Storm Talon (2/2)

“Sorry, were you looking for this?” Ye Chen asked upon noticing that the creature’s eyes were staring directly at the Heaven-Earth Pouch tied to his waist. Apologetically, he took the pouch down and handed it to the tanuki.

Together with some strange treatises on powerful techniques and cultivation systems, this pouch would have had great material wealth. However, it still belonged to the tanuki clan and hence, these things were Little Tanuki’s birthright; Ye Chen had no right to hoard them.

The critter rummaged through the Heaven-Earth Pouch for a while before taking one of the books out and hugging it with its furry paws. It was the book, ‘Celestial Scripture on Mystical Beasts’ Cultivation.’

The first few pages were written in human writing system, yet the proses were so obscure and difficult to understand. To Ye Chen, it was hardly more intelligible than pure word salad. However, the rest of the book was written in a very strange writing system that harkened to the same paw-print writing that Little Tanuki had used before.

After retrieving ‘Celestial Scripture on Mystical Beasts’ Cultivation’, Little Tanuki butted the pouch back to Ye Chen.

“Wait. All of this… for me?” Ye Chen said in disbelief.

It nodded.

The young man fell into a thoughtful silence. If Little Tanuki was adamant that the rest of the content belonged to him, then he would not have any reason not to accept them, right? Besides, Little Tanuki would probably find no use in them anyway.

As payment for its generosity as well as holding to the fact that the poor critter had lost its own family and home, Ye Chen would just as gladly assume the role of Little Tanuki’s guardian from now on.

With the book now in its possession, Little Tanuki dragged it to one corner of the bed and started to flip through the pages. The serious expression it wore while reading really resembled a human’s. More so, Little Tanuki looked like a graceful belle when it was further complemented by its beautiful white fur

‘Celestial Scripture on Mystical Beasts’ Cultivation’ was an esoteric book intended only for mystical beasts. Yet, the other two books — arguably for humans — were just as esoteric.

As an example, ‘The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy’ was a treatise on alchemy, or more specifically detailed on pill cultivations. Various methods to cultivate pills, as well as millions of pill formulae, were neatly divulged, ranging from the common Chi-amassing Pills, Chi Deposition Pills, Nexus Pills right down to Marrow Absolution Pills and even more unheard panacea.

In this world, being an Apothecary — one who cultivates and creates alchemical pills — was a profession of extreme prestige and wealth. Even a rookie Apothecary, whose only achievements may only include creating the most basic of all Chi-amassing Pills, could still net in yearly revenue rivaling the amount of money the House of Ye could make over several years. What more could one expect from Apothecaries of mid-, advanced- or even Master level?

However, becoming an Apothecary had always been borderline exclusive. Even a simple rookie Apothecary would need to attain at least Sixth Stage or above in their Celestial Chi, possess a prodigious level of mastery over their control of Celestial Chi, and be naturally attuned to Fire-styled Celestial Chi. Naturally, after all of these filters, only a selected few could pass for the profession. Accounting that, even less could eventually become advanced enough to be known as a Master Apothecary.

Hence, despite Donglin County boasting a population of a hundred million, the number of rookie Apothecaries alone had never been more than just a dozen.

In fact, should any member of the Ye family became an Apothecary, their status would easily skyrocket to a whole new prestige within the County!

Ye Chen was quick to explore the prospects of this profession. First, to him personally, pill cultivation did not seem like a very difficult thing to do in the first place. In fact, just by browsing through the book, it had allowed Ye Chen to remember every part of the generic procedure clearly enough.

Secondly, in term of talents, Ye Chen was confident that his acumen in controlling Celestial Chi should be up to par. The only conceivable hurdle would be the last requirement, which was the demand for Fire-styled Celestial Chi natural. As he had yet trained himself with the Fire-styled cultivation system recorded in Nine Astra Skies, he was not sure if he had any potential in it.

Then, he turned his attention to the pills in the Heaven-Earth Pouch as he wondered about the identity of the two maroon pills among them. With a quick look-up in the book, he was informed that those were Marrow Absolution Pills by the fifth page of the treatise. In it, the pill was described to be maroon in color, as large as a pigeon’s egg, and made from thirty-two types of advanced herbs.

Unless they had passed the Seventh Stage prior to that, most martial art practitioners would inadvertently suffer from meridian channels stasis after they had reached the age of eighteen; that was to sole reason to the unwitting stagnating of their cultivation. However, by ingesting a single Marrow Absolution Pill, one’s meridian channels would immediately rejuvenate as well as improve such that their meridian chi could return to the state that they were in when the practitioner was thirteen or fourteen-years-old.

‘So this is the legendary Marrow Absolution Pill, the pill that only big clan could ever afford to own?’

Ye Chen was taken aback by this realization. He was, of course, cognizant of the value of a single Marrow Absolution Pill. It was worth even more than a Nexus Pill, and most importantly, it could only be made by a Master Apothecary!

A Nexus Pill may be able to save someone from being crippled forever, but even then, the person may still suffer from a complete reset of their Celestial Chi stage. A Marrow Absolution Pill, on the other hand, could create a savant out from an average person in a family!

Ye Chen immediately thought of his two elder brothers, Ye Mu and Ye Peng. They were both beyond eighteen when their meridian channels had undergone stasis. With the aid of Marrow Absolution Pills, they would be given a second chance in the life of cultivation!

Reminiscing the brotherly solidarity between himself and his brothers, Ye Chen was more than happy that he could finally repay their kindness with something equivalent of worth.

Anyway, as anyone who wants to be a Master Apothecary would first have to master a Fire-Styled cultivation system. So, Ye Chen decided to place ‘The Grand Supreme Way of Alchemy’ aside for the moment.

Now, his attention was rested on the last book of the heap —’Palms Puncturing the Cosmos’.