Chapter 29 (2/2)

“Oh, oh! Understood. I will go right away.”

He then returned to his bed, a smile hanging across his face, thinking, “It is near now, Ye Shaochong… Just you wait… Lv 2 Qi Refining Realm is in my grasp now…”

Lil Ruo finally returned at sundown, her forehead doused with sweat as she returned with packages of medicinal herbs. Xiao Chen received the bags from her and told her, “All right. Go have some rest now. There shall be no more work for you today.”

Xiao Chen went back to his room. He would then begin brewing three different elixirs: Qi-refining Pills, Energy Pills, and Energy-fortifying Pills. Qi-refining Pills, as the name suggested, helped disciples of the Body Refining Realm and the Qi Refining Realm enjoy huge increases in their powers; a supplement which has always been popular amongst the students of the arcane arts in the Sunset Peak.

Energy Pills were used to restore one’s True Energy — a most commonly-used elixir among the disciples. Energy-fortifying Pills were used to strengthen one’s mastery of their present realm, being used mostly in conjunction with the ingestion of Qi-refining Pill for better efficacy.

For one entire night, Xiao Chen busied himself with brewing dozens of Energy Pills and more than ten Energy-fortifying Pills, along with three Qi-refining Pills. He held in his hand a pearly-white elixir and studied it as if the pill had a rapturing allure.

It was one of the Qi-refining Pills. One could quickly rise to Lv 2 Qi Refining Realm within two hours of ingestion. One might even consume a little more to rise up to Lv 3 swiftly.

He shook his head, as if waking up from a trance, and filled the elixirs into three different jade flasks. The words of his master, Ling Yin, echoed in his mind from his memories from thousands of years ago, “Remember, Chen’er. Elixirs may increase your powers tremendously for a short time. Then again, these are foreign supplements nonetheless. They will never be as effective and potent as the powers that you obtain on your own through painstaking training and meditation. You will understand me fully when you reach certain levels one day.”

Elixirs such as Qi-refining Pills, Foundation Building Pills, Core-forming Pills, Nascent Soul Pills, Nirvana Pills, and Apotheosis Pills were all widely acclaimed as the rarest and most potent of all elixirs, for they could instantaneously increase one’s levels of power. This was precisely the reason that they were most popular among Cultivators of the arcane arts.

However, be it a Foundation Building Pill, or even a Core-forming Pill, Xiao Chen would never consume any of them.

With his wares packed and ready, Xiao Chen brought the items with him to the Sky-gazing Gorge, where he found the three princes already there meditating. They saw Xiao Chen coming and immediately left him space.

An hour later, Xiao Chen peered around and found that most disciples of the Sunset Peak were already present. He turned and whistled to the three princes and motioned them to him. Feeling curious, they crept to him and whispered, “What is it, Senior Brother Xiao?”

Xiao Chen looked around to make sure no one was looking and quietly produced the three jade flasks. He snuck the bottles to Prince Zhao and breathed quietly to him, “Take and sell these.”

Prince Zhao almost jumped with shock, his eyes wide as ever, “You are smuggling forbidden medicines!”

Xiao Chen scowled at him and hastily motioned for silence, “To hell with your forbidden! These are common Qi-refining Pills, Energy Pills, and Energy-fortifying Pills!”

Prince Zhao shook his hand, “No, no, no, no! I am a Prince! You want me to go peddling elixirs? My father will kill me if word of this travels back to the State of Zhao!”

Xiao Chen’s face turned dark, “So you’d have me, a Young Master of a wealthy family, to sell them instead?”

Prince Zhao gulped hard.

“Are you going or not?”

“All right then! I’ll go!,” Prince Zhao roared, vexed, as he threw the other two flasks to his companions, “You two! Come with me!”

Hence, Prince Zhao found an old and battered pot and began beating on it with a branch as he moved into the crowd of disciples huddled together, yelling, “Everyone, everyone! Come and have a look and not miss our offer of the day!”

“Silence! Be quiet!”

He then moved to another group of disciples.

“Hi there! Come, have a look…”

“Begone!”

“Ahem. Very well…” Prince Zhao continued wandering around before he moved to the deserted area at the center of the gorge. He took out a Qi-refining Pill and called out loud, “Everyone! Elixirs freshly-brewed from the Elixir Room of the Black Dragon Peak! We have anything that you could possibly need: Qi-refining Pills, Energy Pills, and even Energy-fortifying Pills! Reasonable and honest prices!”

He yelled for quite some time, but only a few people raised their heads to looked at him before returning to their meditation with their heads shaking.

It was until close to noon, when the three princes returned to Xiao Chen, their throats hoarse from all the yelling. Still, none of their wares were sold.

“What an embarrassment! Nobody is buying anything!” Prince Zhao grumbled as he threw the broken pot to the ground.

Xiao Chen frowned, the three elixirs he had brewed were supposed to be selling well, especially the Qi-refining Pills. Why were his fellow disciples not interested?

Just then, a young man came to them and asked quietly, “Are you selling Qi-refining Pills?”