Chapter 11: Exploring the Uses of the Tablet

Ever since he discovered the presence of the blood red tablet in his sea of consciousness, he had always been looking into it.

After the tablet improved on the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, Shang Xia tried several methods to use the tablet, but to no avail.

As one of the four largest clans in the Tongyou City, the library of the Shang Clan wasn’t lacking in secret manuals.

He entered the library and dug out every single manual on martial intents suitable for cultivators in the Martial Realm and looked through them one by one. He tried to create a new and improved version, but the tablet refused to budge.

“What’s going on? Is this a one-time use item or something?! Is there no way to improve on the other manuals?” Shang Xia was more inclined to believe the second possibility, but he couldn’t be sure without doing more experiments. “Looks like I have to look for a way to activate the tablet.”

He had half a mind to transfer his inner qi into the tablet before using his soul to look for clues, but that was something he could only do after breaking through the Martial Extremity Realm to enter the Martial Extremity Realm. Learning that the Martial Realm was used to classify cultivators in the First Order of the Primary Realm, Shang Xia had to enter the Second Order Primary Realm in order to do anything substantial.

“I can’t possibly restart my cultivation to test it out, right?” Shang Xia laughed bitterly before shaking the thought. However, a shocking discovery came to mind. The blood red tablet could probably only affect techniques and secret arts he had learned!

In order to activate the blood red tablet once again, he had to personally cultivate another martial intent!

A despondent expression soon appeared on his face. “I’m afraid that I can only try it after breaking through to the Martial Extremity Realm.”

Once the thought of giving up formed, a shocking change occurred. The roll of silk he obtained from Shang Xi earlier trembled, and rows of words started to form on the surface of the blood red tablet.

Staring intently at the roll of silk, Shang Xi thought that Shang Xia was experiencing some sort of freakish mood swing. After all, he agreed just a second ago!

Shang Xia couldn’t be bothered with her at the moment, and he quickly inspected the blood red tablet.

It finally moved… Wait a minute, this doesn’t seem to be the way to comprehend a martial intent. It’s a recipe to refine medicinal powder!

In order to avoid arousing Shang Xi’s suspicion, Shang Xia quickly calmed himself. He found an excuse to chase her away before examining the recipe on the tablet.

He soon came to a conclusion. In order to activate the blood red tablet, the item or technique Shang Xia was trying to investigate had to belong to himself!

He might have studied the secret manuals in the library, but he didn’t possess the relevant cultivation experience! He found a recipe similar to the one he was looking at previously, but the tablet didn’t react in the slightest. Now that he obtained the roll of silk, it finally showed something.

Medicinal Powder to Advance into the Martial Extremity Realm: Powder of Purification

Prerequisite: Martial Realm

Main Herb: Soul Clearing Jade x1, ?Mysterious Yang Stone x1

Assistive Herbs: Rootless Dew x9, Mysterious Yang Milk x9

Accompanying Herbs: White Deer Jade Powder x2 taels, Seventh Ginseng Root x3 taels, 100 Year Rose Bark x3 taels, ?Hibernation Seaweed x2 taels, Blue Shell Powder x1 taels

Supplementary Herbs: Sweet Soul Grass x1

Remarks: Dry ingredients in the shade for three days, sun for three additional days. Ingest Powder of Purification when cultivating at the crossroads of purification. Requires sudden insight

Compatibility: 90%

Success Rate: 85%

Those were the words on all four faces of the tablet.

Unlike the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, the formula on the tablet revealed the optimal way to create the medicinal powder. The compatibility and success rate reached a sky-high level.

With his heart trembling slightly, Shang Xia started to make changes to the formula.

Medicinal Powder to Advance into the Martial Extremity Realm: Powder of Purification

Prerequisite: Martial Realm

Necessary Medicine: Soul Clearing Jade x1, ?Mysterious Yang Stone x1

Assistive Herbs: Rootless Dew x9, Mysterious Yang Milk x9

Remarks: Dry ingredients in the shade for three days, sun for three additional days. Ingest Powder of Purification when cultivating.

Compatibility: 70%

Success Rate: 70%

That was the original recipe recorded for the Powder of Purification he had seen before.

A strange look could be seen on Shang Xia’s face when he saw the compatibility and success rate. Soon, the words changed once again.

Medicinal Powder to Advance into the Martial Extremity Realm: Powder of Purification

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Prerequisite: Martial Realm

Necessary Medicine: Soul Clearing Jade x1, ?Mysterious Yang Stone x1

Assistive Herbs: Rootless Dew x9, Mysterious Yang Milk x9, White Deer Jade Powder x2 taels, 100 Year Rose Bark x3 taels, ?Hibernation Seaweed x2?taels

Remarks: Dry ingredients in the shade for three days, sun for three additional days. Ingest Powder of Purification when cultivating

Compatibility: 77%

Success Rate: 77%

That was the recipe the chemist he knew came up with, and it seemed to be an improvement on the original one.

Since the start of the cultivation era 800 years ago, there have been great improvements to cultivation techniques and medicine formulas.

Even though there were only minute changes to the techniques and formulas, there were great changes to their effects. It was also the reason behind the elevated status of chemists in the world.

The creation of recipes could be done by anyone, but accomplished chemists had the ability to improve on them, making them more effective than before! When cultivators used such formulas to increase their strength, they would benefit more than before! In order to bring out the greatest effect of the medicine on certain cultivators, they would have to customize their recipe to fit different individuals.

That was also the reason behind their exalted status. They held an in-depth understanding of every cultivator who they helped, and they could easily discern their weaknesses.

The moment one’s opponent obtained their weaknesses from the chemist they hired, they were as good as dead. Because of that, there was no lack of stories where cultivators killed their chemists as soon as they served their purpose.

Cultivators relied heavily on chemists, but neither side trusted the other. In the end, chemists started to work with great powers in order to receive protection. They could also avoid a lot of cultivators requesting medicine, giving others less reason to kill them.

As one of the greatest factions in the city, the Shang Clan naturally had chemists loyal to them.

With his status as the third generation heir of the clan, the medicines used by Shang Xia were produced after a ton of research.

That was also the reason behind the reward given by the institution. They knew that the Shang Clan had their own chemists, and the treasures they gave out were general herbs that would greatly assist in the medicine creation process. They had no idea what would be useful to Shang Xia, and they picked out some that might be of use.

With the blood red tablet, Shang Xia verified the compatibility and success rate of the medicine created by the chemists of the Shang Clan. It was too bad they weren’t up to his standard now that he noticed the optimum version produced by the tablet! Since the upgraded version had a much higher compatibility value and success rate, it went without saying that Shang Xia was planning to use that instead.

Of course, the difficulty of creating the medicine was much higher than the ones produced by the chemists of the Shang Clan.

There were four different types of herbs, and the recipe came from Shang Xia’s original world!

Seeing the different types of herbs required, Shang Xia didn’t think too much about it and ordered for them to be brought to him.

The only problem was obtaining Sweet Soul Grass. It might not be as precious as the Soul Clearing Jade and Mysterious Yang Stone, but it was close enough.

Shang Xia grunted, but when he thought about the treasury in the Shang Clan, he heaved a sigh of relief. They definitely had some of the herbs he needed. Even if they didn’t, it would be easy for him to look for some.

With nothing left for him to do, Shang Xia decided to see how important the Sweet Soul Grass was when crafting the medicine.

Removing the herb from the recipe, both the compatibility rate and the success rate dropped by 10 percent!

Without a doubt, the Sweet Soul Grass was extremely important!

Shang Xia’s doubts decreased after learning what he did. However, there were still 2 more giant questions in his mind.

He didn’t know what the crossroads of purification and sudden insight meant!

Additionally, he didn’t know what compatibility had to do with anything. From what he could tell, it was probably as important as the success rate.

From the recipe given by the tablet, the compatibility rate was high, but the success rate seemed to be slightly compromised.

Tossing away the crossroads of purification and sudden insight, the success rate shockingly increased to 95 percent! However, the compatibility rate decreased by 10 percent.

“Ha!”

Shang Xia jumped in joy and he seemed to have discovered something new.