Chapter 377: Pill Formulas and Demon Cores

The large, curly-bearded man waved his hand, speaking casually, “Although our Six United Palaces aren’t part of the Four Elements Merchant Union, we have quite a lot of prestige in the Scattered Star Seas. These two items are rare, but they are beneath our notice. Please allow our Six United Palaces to present the Spirit Snow Ice and Liquid Heavenfire to Fellow Daoist Crooked Soul as our early congratulations for your core formation.”

Han Li didn’t feel any excitement. Instead, he inwardly frowned, refraining from having Crooked Soul take them.

‘You would give such previous items as a gift? I am not convinced there is such a great thing in this world. Since Crooked Soul is at what they call false core stage, could it be that they have hidden intentions for currying favor in such an excessive manner?’ Han Li became increasingly cautious with that in mind.

Crooked Soul then shook his head and sternly said, “That won’t do. There is no reward without cost. These two items should be sold for what they’re worth. I have the spirit stones for them! Or is there something that you two are too embarrassed to say?” After saying this, Crooked Soul revealed a mysterious smile.

Seeing that Crooked Soul was so guarded against against such a great gift, Cao Lu and the curly-bearded man couldn’t help but give each other a mutual glance after a moment of astonishment.

After meeting each other’s gaze, Cao Lu dryly coughed and said, “It seems we’ve made fools of ourselves. Since Fellow Daoist Crooked Soul understands, I will tell it as it is! Our Six United Palaces do have a few matters that require your assistance. These two spiritual items are a kindly advance. If this affair is concluded, our stores will give you a great award.” Cao Lu spoke rather cordially while the curly-bearded man revealed embarrassment.

Han Li inwardly sneered and had Crooked Soul tactfully decline while wearing a faint smile, “I won’t conceal this form you two. Currently, I am entirely focused on forming my core and have no inclination for any other affairs. I am truly sorry, but it would be best for you to find someone else.

“Crooked Soul” didn’t have any interest in listening to the matter and put a stop to the conversation.

Cao Lu and the curly-bearded man didn’t take offense at his response and revealed smooth smiles instead.

“Hehe, since Fellow Daoist Crooked Soul’s Core Formation occupies his mind, he should definitely lend a hand! After this matter is concluded, our Six United Palaces will reward you with a Dustfall Pill. It is of great assistance towards Core Formation and will certainly increase the odds of successfully forming your core!” The curly-bearded man said with a chuckle.

“Dustfall Pill?” Crooked Soul muttered to himself with slight surprise.

Cao Lu replaced his smile with a solemn expression and said, “That’s right. This matter requires six cultivators at False Core stage, and we just need one more. Fellow Daoist’s arrival is extremely timely. All of the cultivators who participate will be given a Dustfall Pill as payment.”

The “Dustfall Pill” was an item of great renown in the Scattered Star Seas. However, Han Li, who had remained in isolation since initially arriving on the island, had no idea how wondrous the pill was rumored to be.

After muttering to himself for a moment, Crooked Soul solemnly asked, “Could you tell me the concrete details of the task I am to assist with before making my decision?”

“Of course we can. It isn’t a complicated matter. It is just that our stores have discovered a grade six demon beast and wish to acquire its demon core. As a result, we thought to invite some outsiders to assist in the hunt!” Cao Lu chuckled and played it down.

“Grade six demon beast?” Crooked Soul bitterly smiled. Han Li had nearly stood up to loudly curse at them. The grade four mantis demon beast had nearly claimed his life, and now, they wanted to fight a grade six demon beast. Did they want to send these cultivators to their deaths?

Having seen Crooked Soul’s doubtful expression, the curly-bearded man quickly gave an explanation, “Please be at ease, our stores have come up with a complete plan which significantly lowers the danger. Apart from having two of our store’s Core Formation elders act, we will also place down a “Six Flowing Ripples Formation”. Six False Core Formation cultivators will be enough to maintain the formation.”

“A Six Flowing Ripples Formation!” Han Li felt that the name of that formation sounded quite familiar, as if he had heard it before in formation spell insights that Xin Ruyin had previously given to him.

Han Li then willed Crooked Soul to delay his decision, “Because of the importance of this matter, please give me two days to consider. Will it be acceptable if I give you my answer then?”

Crooked Soul’s vague words left Cao Lu stunned, but he soon agreed with a wide smile.

But when Han Li and Crooked Soul left, Cao Lu and the large, curly-bearded man had them take the Spirit Snow Water and Liquid Heavenfire along with them. With a few polite words, they said that even if Crooked Soul later refused, it wouldn’t matter, and that they were to be treated solely as gifts.

Crooked Soul faintly smiled in response to his coaxing words, but he didn’t refuse, taking the jade boxes with him. After a few polite words, he then left the palace pavilion with Han Li.

After leaving the White Water Pavilion, Han Li turned around to take a look at the pavilion. He lightly shook his head before finding his way out of the plaza.

Since these six palace pavilions formed a single group, Han Li naturally wouldn’t visit the other stores to haggle over any prices. After all, he had already taken the items they had given him for free. As a result, he bluntly intended to visit the surrounding shops for a few other items he wished to acquire.

Apart from the Spirit Snow Water and Liquid Heavenfire for Core Formation, he also wanted to purchase a few materials to create grade two puppets. Although he had already grown the most important material, the several-hundred-year old ironwood, he still needed to buy large quantities of secondary materials such as source iron and cloud essence stone.

He also needed a few materials to refine the “Spirit Feed Pill”. After refining these pills, he would be able to formally train the white spiders.

With these thoughts in mind, Han Li entered a small store with miscellaneous goods, managing to buy a majority of what he needed. The rest of the items he required were rarer and would require visiting several other stores to acquire them.

As he was browsing through the many stores, he mostly focused on the stores that sold ancient records of medicine pills and cultivation arts. After all, he had nearly used all of his pill formulas and wished to acquire one or two more.

As for cultivation arts, although their prices were unreasonably high, they would provide him with an explanation of the types of cultivation arts used in the Scattered Star Seas.

After completing a round trip, Han Li felt amazement!

While having Crooked Soul wait outside, he entered a medicine pill shop, asking if they had any Foundation Establishment stage pill formulas for sale. The shop assistant unexpectedly showed him several tens of pill formulas, causing Han Li to nearly bite his tongue in shock.

Although he couldn’t bring himself to believe it, he still carefully examined the pill formulas and the outcome was complete shock.

Regardless of whether the pill formulas used rare or common materials, they all required demon beast cores instead of spiritual herbs. The rarer medicine pills even required the inner core of sixth and seventh grade demon beasts.

While these pill formulas also required spiritual herbs that were several hundreds of years old, the spiritual herbs used in the formulas were only auxiliary ingredients; they could be replaced with other spiritual herbs instead.

As such, Han Li acquired a thick stack of pill formulas and remained dumbfounded for a long while.

Under the baffled gaze of the store assistant, he had casually bought several usable formulas at a low price and walked out in a daze.

A short moment later, he felt somewhat unsatisfied and ran over to several other medicinal pill shops, discovering that apart from low grade Qi Condensation pill formulas, all other pill formulas required demon beast cores.

Finally, Han Li’s couldn’t help but make a careful inquiry to a shopkeeper about whether there were any high grade pill formulas that didn’t require demon beast cores. The shopkeeper looked at Han Li as if he were an idiot for a long while before saying, “What else would you use to refine a high grade medicine pill, if not a demon core beast?”

Han Li then dejectedly walked out of the store and completely gave up on the matter.

It seems that the Pill Dao of the Scattered Star Seas followed a different path than that of the Heavenly South Region. They used the cores of demonbeasts as the central ingredient of medicinal pills rather than spiritual herbs.

After some careful thought, Han Li found this to be quite reasonable. The sea was vast and without end, containing a countless number of demon beasts. With their ancestors incapable of causing a complete extinction of resources, the circumstances in the Scattered Star Seas was far better than that of the Heavenly South Region. It seems that these pill formulas had been passed down since ancient times!

As Han Li was thinking while standing on the remote corner of some road, he carefully looked through his collection of recently purchased pill formulas for one with the name of “Foundation Establishment Pill”.

The pill formula was mostly the same as the one as Han Li had remembered. However, the heavenly spiritual medicines that were found only in the blood-red forbidden area were instead replaced with grade five demon cores.

When Han Li saw this, he put away the pill formulas and folded his arms before entering deep contemplation.