A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

’How did Lady Butterfly get her hands on this? Could it be... related to her origins?’ Information about the Demon Cultivator surfaced in Lü Zhong’s mind.

Lady Butterfly’s appearance had been quite abrupt.

It was as if she had materialized out of thin air.

The very first time she made a name for herself, she already possessed Mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation. She wiped out an entire thousand-year-old Foundation Establishment Clan and turned its hundreds of thousands of mortal subjects into living corpses.

The incident sent shockwaves throughout the entire Changchun Domain.

What followed was even more shocking. The Demon Cultivator repeatedly managed to escape the Changchun Valley cultivators sent to hunt her down. She would either use her superior strength to fight her way out of their encirclements or rely on a Secret Technique to slip away.

Even a Golden Core Master who personally took action returned in defeat.

After some time, someone finally identified Lady Butterfly’s Cultivation Technique: the Butterfly Transformation Technique. It was the legacy Secret Technique of the Diehua Sect, a major Demon Dao sect from the Western Realm.

Because of this, some cultivators suspected she was a Demon Cultivator who had fled from the Western Realm.

However, the Western Realm did not connect to the Southern Barbarian lands. Between them lay the brutally harsh Celestial Punishment Snowfield and a Vast Forest Sea teeming with Demon Beasts. The only feasible route was to travel through Central Earth and then take the East Sea Route to reach the Changchun Domain in the Southern Barbarian lands.

But this explanation was frankly absurd.

Central Earth was an absolute no-go zone for Demon Cultivators. Breaking through the many blockades set by the Central Earth Sects to reach the shores of the East Sea was a feat beyond even the Nascent Soul Old Demons of the Demon Dao. It was unthinkable for a mere Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator like Lady Butterfly. She likely would have been captured for a bounty the moment she stepped out of the chaotic Western Realm.

Thus, everyone preferred to believe that Lady Butterfly had simply received the inheritance of a deceased Old Demon.

’Now that I have this Teleportation Order, I can’t help but wonder... Is it possible that Lady Butterfly used a Long-distance Transmission Array to teleport directly from the Western Realm to the Southern Barbarian lands?’

Lü Zhong felt it was necessary to investigate this in detail.

’If I can really get my hands on the Long-distance Transmission Array connecting to the Western Realm, I could earn enough resources for Core Formation, and maybe even Nascent Soul Formation! The Western Realm is rich with Spiritual Objects that are desperately needed in the Southern Barbarian lands. With that Transmission Array, I could make a fortune just by buying low and selling high.’

’I can’t be hasty. This requires a slow and careful approach.’

Lü Zhong had already made a plan. He would wait until after he successfully achieved Core Formation, or perhaps even after he forged his Lifebound Treasure and had enough power to protect himself. Only then would he search for the Transmission Array. Otherwise, finding it now would just be preparing a prize for someone else to claim.

He put the items away separately.

Lady Butterfly’s Storage Bag was too conspicuous; it was likely stolen from some major power. To be cautious, he went back to using his original Storage Bag. As for this Hundred Directions Storage Bag, he would keep it for now. Storage Bags of this capacity were extremely rare, and it would be too much of a waste to sell it for Spirit Stones.

Lü Zhong got up, walked out of the thatched cottage, and his gaze fell upon the small grave.

After today, the three-year period would be over.

For short-lived mortals, three years is a long time, enough to hold many events. But for cultivators, who have a detached sense of time, it all felt as if it happened yesterday.

He stood there until the first light of dawn.

Lü Zhong sighed softly, placed a fresh stick of incense before the grave, and then turned to leave.

At the foot of the mountain, a carriage convoy was already waiting.

Yu Feng’Er sat in the carriage, the corners of her eyes slightly red as if she had just been crying. Seeing Lü Zhong board the carriage, she wiped her eyes with the corner of her sleeve and said:

”I’ve made the arrangements. As long as the Yu Family’s lineage endures, Sister will not be disturbed.”

”Mm. You’ve worked hard.”

...

The following days were plain and dull.

Lü Zhong made a trip to Dongbu House. He didn’t pay the thousand Spirit Stone fee, instead using his old method of direct scene regression to ”learn” the remaining lessons. Then he holed up in Lintao Pavilion to slowly digest it all.

He had more or less mastered the fusion and transformation parts of Alchemy.

Next came Spirit Infusion and Pill Splitting.

Pill Splitting was straightforward. It was just dividing the refined Original Pill into appropriately sized pieces. The process was somewhat similar to how mortals make pills, the only difference being the technique used to divide them.

The difficult part was Spirit Infusion.

Spirit Infusion is the process of injecting Spiritual Qi into a Pill, which can enhance its effects. If the previous fusion and transformation stage was not done well, this could remedy some of it, allowing some inferior pills to be converted into Middle-grade Pills, slightly raising the Pill Formation Rate.

This process had no theory to speak of; it all depended on personal experience and observation.

The common belief among outsiders that one could learn the Alchemy Dao simply by practicing alchemy many times originated from the Spirit Infusion step.

To save Spirit Stones, Lü Zhong practiced Spirit Infusion using Yellow Bud Pills. This pill was the current flagship product of the Chengde Commerce Association. Its main ingredient, the Yellow Bud Flower, was simple to plant and easy to raise, so its yield was enormous. It was perfect for practicing Spirit Infusion, as the cost of failure was extremely low.

At first, Lü Zhong failed with every single batch he refined.

Hundreds of Spirit Stones went down the drain just like that.

Most of his failures happened during the Spirit Infusion stage, and even his powerful Divine Sense was no help. At other times, slight errors would occur while melting and transforming the Medicinal Spiritual Qi. Either mistake resulted in pills of extremely poor quality, the kind with more Pill Poison than active ingredients. Sometimes, he simply produced a cauldron of charcoal cinders.

But gradually, he began to produce one or two Lower-grade Pills in a batch of Yellow Bud Pills.

Alchemy was extremely time-consuming; the higher the tier of the Pill, the longer it took.

For a low-tier pill like the Yellow Bud Pill, he could only manage five batches a day.

Half a year later, his Pill Formation Rate for Yellow Bud Pills reached ten percent for the first time!

Although this was still a far cry from the break-even point for Yellow Bud Pills, for a novice Alchemist, this was already an incredible achievement.

This result was not only due to the help of the Gray Mist Space’s scene regression but also had a great deal to do with Lü Zhong’s own hard work.

Everything was developing in a positive direction.

Another year passed, and Lü Zhong finally refined his first profitable batch of Yellow Bud Pills.

A seventy-percent Pill Formation Rate.

This was slightly higher than the sixty-five-percent break-even point for Yellow Bud Pills.

One batch of Yellow Bud Pills produced thirty-six pills. The extra five percent yield meant he refined two more pills. At the market price of two Spirit Stones per pill, that was an extra four Spirit Stones, not to mention the income from selling the Lower-grade Pills at a discount.

By a conservative estimate, Lü Zhong could profit seven to eight Spirit Stones from this batch of Yellow Bud Pills.

’Compared to Talisman Making, Alchemy really is a high-investment, high-return profession. Even a self-taught alchemist without a complete legacy can rely on a few familiar pills to earn a fortune unattainable by ordinary cultivators. And that’s to say nothing of talented alchemists with proper legacies...’

Lü Zhong felt a surge of emotion before continuing his Alchemy to deepen his theoretical understanding.

He wasn’t learning Alchemy just for Spirit Stones.

’Spirit Stones are great, of course, but how can they compare to an increase in cultivation?’

Right now, Lü Zhong had two paths to rapidly increase his cultivation. The first was to master the Second Layer of the Jade Vein Technique, further improving his aptitude and solving his slow Spiritual Qi refinement. The second was to use low-age Spirit Medicine to concoct Creation Spirit Liquid, which would indirectly solve the problem of his stagnant cultivation, a problem caused by the scarcity of High-tier Pills.

He continued refining Yellow Bud Pills.

Gradually, his Pill Formation Rate for Yellow Bud Pills grew higher and higher.

It rose from seventy percent to seventy-five, then slowly grew to eighty, and even eighty-five percent...

Thanks to batch after batch of Yellow Bud Pills being produced, Lintao Pavilion’s main products shifted from Talismans and Arrays to primarily selling Yellow Bud Pills, becoming known for its large quantity and stable quality.

After continuous refinement of his process, Lü Zhong produced his first High-grade Yellow Bud Pill.

By this time, another year and a half had passed.

He gazed at the Yellow Bud Pill in his hand, which resembled a piece of Yellow Jade. The feeling in his heart could only be described as a flood of emotions. He had poured more than just a little blood and sweat into refining this High-grade Yellow Bud Pill.

For three whole years, he had refined thousands of batches of Yellow Bud Pills to finally produce a single High-grade Yellow Bud Pill.

After examining it for a long while, Lü Zhong tossed it into his mouth.

He closed his eyes to savor it and found that it tasted quite good, like eating a piece of candy.

He stood up.

Lü Zhong planned to rest for a while.

Prolonged Alchemy placed a great burden on the Divine Soul. If not relieved in time, it could lead to unforeseen consequences, and over time, even affect one’s progress in cultivation.

Pushing the door open, he could see a small, lightning-sparked grass planted in the courtyard.

After so many years of cultivation, the tenth branch of the Thundering Grass had already grown halfway. He expected that in another ten years or so, the tenth branch would be fully grown.

’I’m really curious what kind of metamorphosis it will undergo.’

Lü Zhong had tried to look it up in ancient texts regarding this, but unfortunately found nothing.

A fish-shaped Jade Pendant at his waist suddenly began to buzz and vibrate.

The Jade Pendant was the Yin Yang Fish Pendant that Yu Feng’Er had given him. It was a pair; he had the Yang Fish, and Yu Feng’Er wore the Yin Fish. It was a short-range communication Magical Artifact.

The Jade Pendant was now vibrating incessantly, which meant Yu Feng’Er had arrived.