Chapter 93: I, Mi Shuhua, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, Will Guard Luo Chen's Path! (II)

Today marked another day of alchemy within the Poshan Gang’s Alchemy Hall, and Luo Chen, as always, prepared to fire up the furnace.

But before beginning, he met with two stewards and three late stage Qi-Refining cultivators. They were experts selected from the three combat halls.

Their purpose was to lead teams responsible for transporting the Alchemy Hall's pills to designated selling locations.

It was a surprisingly large team of thirty cultivators escorting just a thousand Myriad Wonders pills. The scale of the escort felt absurd, like using a cannon to kill mosquitoes or wielding a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Still, it was a direct order from the gang leader. No one dared question it.

Luo Chen understood well that this personnel framework wasn’t built for the Myriad Wonders pill but for the future Jade Essence pill.

After handing over this batch of Myriad Wonders pills to the three, Luo Chen casually asked about their destination.

It turned out that the Poshan Gang had rented a small shop in the inner city. It served as a place to sell miscellaneous resources gathered from the Ancient Plains—items considered too niche or low-grade for the major sects or even the Lianyun Trade Alliance to bother with.

The Poshan Gang couldn’t make good use of them either, so they simply put them in the shop for sale. There were always rogue cultivators who would find them interesting.

Luo Chen’s Myriad Wonders pills would now be sold as a featured product in this humble shop.

In addition to the shop, the south city rogue cultivator market and a small store in the outer district were also destinations for the pills.

With the distribution team dispatched, Luo Chen strolled leisurely into the alchemy room. Gu Caiyi was already there, coordinating a group of apprentices who were busily moving crates of processed raw materials inside. The fire handlers were in place, ready at their posts. Luo Chen raised his hand in a flourish.

“Today’s alchemy begins!” he declared grandly.

The cultivators nearby watched him with undisguised envy. After a month of repetitive work, many of them had begun to feel numb. Every day, it was the same: prepare ingredients, handle flames, clean cauldrons. Even for cultivators, it was monotonous.

They didn’t realize that, in a modern society, they were assembly line workers, repeating monotonous tasks day after day.

As for the future? Becoming a revered alchemist?

Luo Chen had never heard of an assembly line worker becoming a CEO. In his case, it was impossible too. He had already taken the hard path—and now reaped the rewards.

Luo Chen didn’t concern himself with such matters. After all, even the famous Xiangxiang from Tianxiang Tower had once spent three years as a fire-watching apprentice in a sect. Success demanded endurance.

He simply focused on refining the pills.

Beside him, Mi Li flitted around, dutifully wiping the sweat from his brow and handing him his wine gourd when he reached for it. Technically, she was there to observe the alchemy process, but somehow she had ended up playing the role of an attentive attendant.

Mi Li herself wasn’t sure when this shift had happened. Maybe it had started the day Luo Chen asked her to go out and buy cucumbers?

The memory was faint, but the pattern had stuck.

Though she felt a strange conflict within—part student, part servant—Mi Li never slacked. She tried her best to watch, to learn, to mimic his every movement. But after an entire month, she hadn’t made the slightest bit of progress.

When another session of alchemy ended, she realized once again that she had learned nothing.

She sighed inwardly, disappointment settling over her—until the moment the furnace lid lifted.

A wave of incredibly rich medicinal aroma poured out, thick and sweet, immediately caught her attention.

Her eyes widened as she stared into the cauldron. “What is this?”

A pill the size of a longan, glowing with a deep crimson almost verging on purple, sparkled on Luo Chen’s fingertips!

"Top-grade Myriad Wonders pill!!!"

Mi Li’s expression was one of shock, and she exclaimed aloud. Her sudden exclamation drew the attention of every cultivator tending the flames nearby. All eyes turned to Luo Chen.

He stood calmly, a faint smile playing at his lips as he held up a top-grade Myriad Wonders pill. Though joy lit up his expression, his heart remained composed. After refining over a thousand Myriad Wonders pills last month, his proficiency had long since reached the Grandmaster level.

He hadn’t demonstrated it earlier because he felt the timing wasn’t right. After all, it would have been shocking to produce top-grade pills so soon after joining the Poshan Gang.

But now, there was no need to hold back.

For the sake of cultivation resources, sometimes it was necessary to be bold.

Without hesitation, he casually tossed the pill toward Mi Li. She barely managed to catch it, fumbling slightly, stunned by the weight of the moment. Before she could gather her thoughts, Luo Chen turned and strode gracefully into the stone house built exclusively for him.

"Today’s alchemy session has brought me inspiration. I must seclude myself for three days. Do not disturb me!"

The stone door slammed shut behind him with a deep echo. A soft ripple of spirit light pulsed outward—the activation of a first-tier formation that Mi Shuhua had specially left for the Alchemy Hall.

Mi Li stood frozen, the pill still cradled in her hand, staring at the sealed door in disbelief. Then, as if suddenly remembering something important, she spun on her heel and dashed out of the Alchemy Hall, taking to the sky in a streak of light as she flew straight toward the Mi family’s territory.

Inside the stone house, Luo Chen gazed deeply through the mountainside window, quietly watching the scene.

***

"Come in. Why are you in such a hurry to find me?" Mi Shuhua’s voice echoed as he stepped out of his meditative seclusion.

The endless affairs of the family and gang had long begun to interfere with his own cultivation time, and only after painstakingly establishing the Alchemy Hall’s structure had he found the opportunity for a short retreat. And now, barely two days into his long-awaited respite, someone had used a sound transmission talisman to summon him.

Thus, his expression was rather irritated at the moment.

Mi Li, unaware of her grandfather’s foul mood, knelt respectfully before him and presented a crimson-purple Myriad Wonder pill in both hands.

Her voice trembled slightly, filled with excitement. “Top-grade pill! It was refined by Hall Leader Luo—just today!”

With a wave of his hand, the pill flew into his palm.. The rich crimson hue, the faint purple sheen, and—most importantly—the three flawless pill lines etched into its surface left no doubt. This was a top-grade Myriad Wonders pill.

How long had that boy been involved in alchemy?

At most ten or twenty years, yet he had managed to refine a top-grade pill!

The alchemical talent of this boy is truly terrifying!

"Hall Leader Luo mentioned he had an insight into alchemy, so he decided to seclude himself for three days," Mi Li reiterated.

At this, Mi Shuhua could no longer remain seated.

“An alchemical insight? Seclusion for three days?” he muttered, half to himself. “Could it be? Could he emerge capable of refining the Jade Essence pill?”

He began pacing more rapidly, muttering under his breath. “Yes... yes, he definitely can. The Myriad Wonders pill and the Jade Essence pill are both first-tier. If he can produce a top-grade version of the former, then even a low-grade Jade Essence pill should be within reach.”

Mi Shuhua paced back and forth in his meditation chamber, murmuring to himself. His aged face, overwhelmed with excitement, continuously shifted in expression.

"A low-grade pill is enough. It doesn’t need to be priced too high—set it at a dozen or so spirit stones, and it will surely cause a buying frenzy among early and mid-stage cultivators.

"A bottle of qi-nourishing pills costs a hundred spirit stones; ordinary people can’t afford it.

"As long as the Jade Essence pill can be refined, my path to the Great Dao will be within reach!"

His steps halted suddenly. His voice turned sharp and decisive.

“Go! To the Alchemy Hall! No one is permitted to disturb Luo Chen during these three days of seclusion.

"I shall guard his path!"

With those words, he unleashed his escape light, sweeping Mi Li along as he flew out of the Mi family’s territory.

Meanwhile, in the secluded stone house tucked into the side of the mountain, Luo Chen sat cross-legged in silence.

Regret tinged his thoughts.

Three days in a sealed chamber—it sounded simple enough, but he already felt restless. Cultivators were said to spend decades, even centuries, in isolated cultivation. But ever since his transmigration into this world, Luo Chen had never managed more than a single day of true seclusion.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t diligent.

Rather, as a low-tier cultivator, both his physical endurance and spirit consciousness placed strict limits on how many times he could circulate his cultivation technique each day. Overdoing it led to exhaustion, mental fog, and other unpleasant side effects.

This predicament would only change after reaching at least the Foundation Establishment Realm.

"Forget it. With the formation concealing me, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s spirit consciousness can’t detect what I’m doing inside.

"I’ll find something else to do!"

Luo Chen retrieved a piece of beast hide from his storage pouch.

It was the second-tier alchemical recipe for the Blood Fiend pill that Wang Yuan had given him. He had had this for days and occasionally perused it, but progress was minimal.

After all, it was a second-tier recipe.

"The main ingredient must be substituted. Otherwise, once I start refining it, being discovered would mean certain death. So, what material would work?

"Essence blood of cultivators? I wonder if demonic beast blood could work instead."

"Netherworld Yin Fiend, this is something that's hard to find. Moreover, I don't have the method to collect malevolent energy. I’ll need to think it through..."

For a while, Luo Chen became engrossed in studying the second-tier alchemical recipe.

Whenever he snapped out of it, he would eat a fasting concoction.

When tired, he would switch to another activity.

He would either read

The Treatise on Green Origin pills,

the alchemical treatise by Qing Yuanzi or practice the Spirit Suppression.

Occasionally, he would even self-inflict minor injuries! He would make a small cut on his hand and then heal it with the Heal, treating it as practice for spell proficiency.

As for Mi Shuhua’s most pressing concern, the "Jade Essence pill"?

Luo Chen didn’t care in the slightest. It was a first-tier recipe—he could learn it at any time using achievement points! In fact, he planned to learn it on the very day he emerged from seclusion.

And so, the three days passed in the blink of an eye.

When the formation dissipated, Luo Chen stepped out of his room slowly.

Seeing the old man waiting quietly outside, Luo Chen felt an inexplicable sense of time’s fleeting nature.

So this is what a cultivator’s seclusion feels like?

Merely three days felt like a long time had passed. If I reached a higher cultivation realm in the future, would true seclusion feel like the world had turned upside down?

While he was lost in thought, a hoarse voice reached his ears.

"Meeting a friend after three days requires a fresh perspective."

"Young friend, you’ve broken through to the sixth stage of Qi-Refining."

Before Luo Chen could say anything polite, the other party impatiently asked: "Can you refine the Jade Essence pill now?"

Luo Chen’s expression froze!

Old man, can’t you give me some face? Don’t be so blunt.

Besides, I just had a breakthrough—shouldn’t there be a congratulatory gift?

Some enchanted artifacts or pills—I wouldn’t mind those either!