An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

”Brother Luo Chen, here’s a wooden board I prepared for you. You can attach it to the stall; no one will mind.”

Chen Shuyi brought out a large wooden board from the back and firmly secured it to one side of the bluestone slab.

”Thanks, Little Shuyi! Here, have this.”

Luo Chen pulled out a handful of fried celestial beans from his pouch and handed them to the girl.

Chen Shuyi’s eyes lit up as she popped one into her mouth, crunching it loudly.

”Yum! Brother Luo Chen, your snacks are always so delicious!”

In the past, most of the snacks Luo Chen gave to Old Man Chen were actually taken home for his granddaughter. Otherwise, why would a sixty-something-year-old man keep craving Luo Chen’s mala beef jerky for no reason?

Seeing the girl’s satisfied and delighted expression, Luo Chen smiled.

As he arranged the jade bottles, he curiously asked, ”Business seems good recently? Can you sell all these talisman skins in a day?”

The mention of business immediately brought a spark of energy to Old Man Chen.

”Kid, you probably haven’t been going out much lately, huh?”

”What do you mean?”

”The crowd in Dahe Market has at least doubled!” Old Man Chen gestured to the bustling market. ”There are just too many visiting cultivators. The Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion even set up several trading points in both the inner and outer city. They’re calling it a trade fair involving the five major markets.”

After his explanation, Luo Chen finally understood how the recent changes in Dahe Market were impacting the local cultivators. Business was simply booming!

Perhaps due to its being close to the Great Million Mountains, the cultivation materials in Dahe Market were markedly different from those in the inland regions. Visiting cultivators often found the offerings here enticing and ended up buying a lot. Similarly, those visitors also set up stalls to sell goods they had brought along.

Old Man Chen’s business had been exceptionally thriving lately! Not his talisman business, but another of his specialties—talisman skins!

Talisman crafting involved many components: talisman brushes, cinnabar, beast blood, and talisman skins. Talisman paper is categorized into types such as parchment, wooden slips, and beast hides. Beast-skin talisman skins were particularly valued for their capacity to carry large amounts of spirit energy, making talismans crafted with them significantly more powerful. It just so happened that Old Man Chen specialized in crafting talisman skins from beast hides.

Seeing the bloodshot eyes of Old Man Chen, Luo Chen could tell the old man had been working obsessively on crafting talisman skins lately. So much so that their previously shared stall was now completely filled with talisman skins.

With his keen sense for spirit stones and business, Luo Chen instantly realized this was also a great opportunity for him.

”Shame I stayed cooped up too long and learned about this too late; otherwise, I would’ve pulled some all-nighters to refine more pills.

”Luckily, my Proficient level Myriad Wonders pill alchemy allowed me to succeed nine times in the past half month. I have as many as ninety Myriad Wonders pills on hand!”

Now, having adjusted his mindset, he laid out all his fasting pills and Myriad Wonders pills for sale. It had to be said, the board prepared by Little Shuyi was large enough. It easily allowed him to arrange nearly two hundred jade bottles with plenty of space to spare. However, this was only possible because of the current loosened market regulations; the Jade Cauldron Sword Pavilion wouldn’t intervene. Under normal circumstances, Luo Chen would have had to pay another spirit stone for the stall fee.

After arranging his pills, Luo Chen still felt it wasn’t enough. After some thought, he took out a brush and quickly wrote a few large characters on a piece of white cloth. As he hung it in front of his stall, Chen Shuyi read it aloud word by word.

”Divine Myriad Wonders pill, Unleash the Might of Men!”

”Get out of here, silly girl! Stop being shameless!”

Old Man Chen hurriedly pulled the little girl aside, his red-rimmed eyes glaring fiercely at Luo Chen.

Luo Chen didn’t care in the slightest. As the sun rose and more people arrived, he even began shouting loudly to promote his products.

”Come take a look, come check it out! Make your cultivation days truly brilliant!”

It had to be said, a cultivator as shameless as him, loudly hawking wares in such a conservative societal environment, was extremely rare. But it was precisely this audacity that quickly attracted a crowd of cultivators. Most of them were visiting cultivators.

”What kind of pill is this?”

”Unleash the Might of Men? Hmph, we cultivators... why would we ever need such a thing?”

”Is it really as good as you claim?”

”Ahem, it’s not for me, really. I have this friend... he had an issue in that area after a battle... you know. Ahem. Give me five bottles.”

”I’ll take one. I’m curious to see what makes Dahe Market’s specialty pills so special.”

After one group purchased their pills, Luo Chen didn’t even take a sip of water before shouting again.

”Come, take a look! The Myriad Wonders pills that used to sell for eight or nine spirit stones are now on sale!

”As a gratitude to my loyal customers and a welcome gift to fellow visiting daoist, we now offer mid-grade Myriad Wonders pills for just five spirit stones!

”Yes, you heard right. Our Myriad Wonders pills are upgraded in grade but not in price. Just five spirit stones – you won’t lose out, and you won’t be tricked!”

Another crowd gathered around!

The young girl, Chen Shuyi, who had been squeezed into a corner, stared in stunned silence. She used to think her grandfather exaggerated when he called his stallmate shameless due to his overly critical nature. But now, she wondered if she had been too biased against her penny-pinching grandfather.

She wanted to apologize to her grandfather. When she turned around, she saw her grandfather’s face flushed red, his lips trembling as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t.

Chen Shuyi had always been clever, sensible, and understanding. Seeing this, she immediately consoled him, ”Grandpa, don’t be angry. This is how business works; there’s nothing shameful about it.”

Old Man Chen’s eyes lit up as he gently ruffled the little girl’s hair.

”You’re right, my Little Shuyi. Business is about earning cultivation resources. There’s no shame in that.”

Then, to her astonishment, Old Man Chen gathered his qi in his dantian and shouted loudly.

”Don’t pass by without stopping!

”Premium talisman parchment here! ”Tanned from fresh beast hides, these talisman parchments can withstand at least three failed attempts by beginners – only ten spirit stones per bundle!

”Absolutely fresh, bloody, with traces of demonic beast meat!”

In no time, another crowd gathered in front of the bluestone stall. The two small stalls suddenly gave off the bustling atmosphere of a market hub.

Amidst the lively scene, Luo Chen turned his head, and Old Man Chen, as if reading his mind, turned his as well. The two exchanged a knowing smile – no words were needed.