Chapter Thirty-Six

The Value of Pills

Saturday, Dec 19th, 2015

With the participation of the large sects and cultivator clans, the rogue cultivators held little hope of acquiring treasures at the treasures trade fair tomorrow. Therefore, they paid more attention to the stalls in the marketplace, and this is also why the plaza was so lively so early in the morning.

Lin Xuan’s main objective was to acquire the Spiritual Control technique, which is simply impossible to be found in these simple and crude stalls. So he did not worry and instead slowly wandered the market to increase his knowledge of the marketplace.

Rogue cultivators generally had lower level cultivations, most of them being in the second or third Spirit Condensation layer. So Lin Xuan’s current cultivation was quite good. But because of that, they generally did not have any precious items. But there were still many cultivators, so all the items needed by low-level cultivators for various tasks were still all being sold. This was truly an eye opener for Lin Xuan.

For example, items used for storage. Lin Xuan saw a young woman peddling them. There were many different variations such as storage rings, storage bracelets, storage hairpins, storage necklaces, and virtually any kind of woman’s jewellery. They were all exquisitely made and very eye catching.

Of course, there were also items for men such as storage belts, storage bags, and even storage boots. They were all very dazzling and drew Lin Xuan to the stall.

“Fellow cultivator, would you like one? They are of good quality and very cheap, only two low grade Purified Essence pills.”

It was so cheap. If Lin Xuan was not such a discrete person and had a habit of not wearing his heart on his sleeve, he definitely would have been shocked beyond belief. Although he was not too clear on the value of goods in the cultivation world, but two low-grade Purified Essence pills, even low levelled disciples in the Floating Cloud Valley could acquire two a month. This kind of price was simply too low.

In fact, this was a misconception on Lin Xuan’s part. Although he had no spiritual roots, had a slow cultivation speed, and had to suffer the glares of the other disciples, compared to rogue cultivators, he was still more fortunate. Other than the incident where Elder Ma was trying to cause trouble¹, he could still get two low grade Purified Essence pills a month without fail.

And after gaining the ability to purify, he had an unending supply of pills, so these low-grade pills did not even matter to him. Be he had forgotten that two pills a month was the kind of treatment only disciples of a sect could get.

But there were too many rogue cultivators, who had no support and no one to rely on, in the cultivation world. But just think, sects had people dedicated alchemy and the concoction of pills, but what can a low levelled rogue cultivator do? They did not have the ability to concoct or perform alchemy, nor could they find any medicinal herbs. Therefore, although they did not acquire many pills a month, sect disciples still had the support of these pills, but rogue cultivators can one rely on their own efforts to cultivate.

This was why, under the same circumstances, sect disciples would be more powerful than rogue cultivators. This was also the reason why high-level rogue cultivators were so rare since most rogue cultivators were only in the Spirit Condensation stage.

Of course, with the guidance of the elders, they would walk a straighter path, and the fact that sects had better cultivation techniques was also a factor. But the most important was still the fact that they had no pills to help with their cultivation.

After all, to the path of cultivation, determination, spiritual roots, and pills and medicines were all very important. But spiritual roots and pills could make up for the lack of each other. For example, Lin Xuan, he was an ordinary mortal. But after consuming pills, his cultivation speed became much faster than that of his senior disciples. And conversely, a genius with excellent spiritual roots would not need pills to achieve the same results.

But how many heaven-defying genii were there in the world? Most of the rogue cultivators only had average aptitude and therefore would stay in the Spirit Condensation stage their entire lives.

And because of this, pills were truly treasures to rogue cultivators and were worth a lot. But in the eyes of Lin Xuan, it was very cheap, when in fact, is was a very reasonable price.

“Fellow cultivator, pick one, these storage items a definitely exquisitely made, high quality, and cheap.” Seeing Lin Xuan’s interested expression, she quickly started to persuade him.

“May I see it?” Lin Xuan asked as he picked up a sack-like object.

“You may”

Getting a positive response, Lin Xuan circulated his spiritual power and inserted his spiritual sense into the item but then quickly withdrew it. See his lack of interest, the young lady asked anxiously: “What’s wrong, you are not satisfied with it?”

“It’s a bit small.”

Lin Xuan was being honest trying to be as polite as possible. This storage sack was simply rubbish. The space inside was small, only one square foot. It could at most only accommodate some pills or seals, slightly large items like spirit tools would probably not fit.

It could never compare to the storage items he had acquired from Zhou Yan and Zhang Yu. The bracelet had a space of five square metres. and the belt was a Foundation Establishment experts item, it had as much room as a regular bedroom.

The young lady blushed hearing what Lin Xuan said. She was at the second layer of the Spirit Condensation stage and had learned a technique suitable for crafting, so she made some of these items to sell. But since she had low cultivation, she could obviously not create high-level items. These storage items looked exquisite on the outside but were actually pretty useless. So even though she had peddled here items the whole day, she did not manage to sell any of them.

“Fellow cultivator, please purchase one, how about I give you a discount, only one pill each.”

Lin Xuan shook his head and, without hesitating, walked away. Although he had quite a few Purified Essence pills, but they were not to be randomly wasted. Even if he did not regret spending them, it would still be easy to attract the attention of others. Lin Xuan was not some good Samaritan, he would not do things that had no benefits for himself.

After leaving the young lady’s stall, Lin Xuan continued to stroll about. He often stopped to browse or ask for the prices of things, however, he did not purchase anything. Firstly, even though there were many items at the stalls, they were all either low-grade items or they were useless to him. Secondly, Lin Xuan did not want to randomly expose himself. Since he was pretending to be a rogue cultivator, the he needed to look like one by appearing poor. Looking rich and powerful would bring him trouble.

Time flowed like water, four hours had unknowingly passed by. The sun was already straight overhead, it was time for the midday meal.

High-level cultivators can fast, absorbing spiritual power was enough to fulfill their bodies needs. But low-level cultivators could not do this, so Lin Xuan prepared to go back to his cottage and restore his strength. Although he did not purchase anything, but strolling around the whole way, he had no shortage of benefits. He now had a pretty good idea of the market price of all the items.

Pills and medicines were worth more than he had originally thought. Even Purified Essence pills were valuable. Especially the mid grade pills, although it would not raise a sensation, but it would definitely be shocking.

After discovering this, Lin Xuan mind came to a decision. He had enough pills to purchase the mid grade technique he wanted, but he would not pull out his mid grade pills except as a last resort.