“How could I not understand?”
Gu Ni huffed and puffed, carefully placing the Third-Grade Pill he had been observing for a long time back into the jade bottle.
“When I first started refining medicine, just refining the medicinal Materials took me a long time.
I can’t even remember how many Materials I wasted before I barely managed to extract the medicinal liquid, only to end up with a semi-finished waste pill.”
“This kid, on the other hand, is a true Genius!
Not even ten years old!
A Dou Zhe under the age of ten, and he managed to refine a first-grade pill on his first attempt after only three failures, and the quality isn’t bad at all.”
“You have to understand, the consumption of Spiritual Power during pill refining is something an ordinary One-star Dou Zhe simply cannot withstand.”
At this point, Gu Ni suddenly lowered his voice, his cloudy old eyes flickering with a sharp light:
“Young Miss, tell me the truth.
Does this kid have some high-level expert guiding him from behind?
That technique of refining medicinal liquid is definitely not something one can learn just by reading a few books!”
Ya Fei set down her teacup, her slender fingers lightly stroking the rim.
The smile on her face gradually faded, replaced by a lazy yet shrewd expression.
“Uncle Gu Ni, who in this world doesn’t have a few secrets?”
Ya Fei turned around and leaned against the edge of the table, crossing her arms.
Her peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly as she looked out at the bustling street outside the window.
“I picked Lu Heng up myself.
In these three years, he hasn’t had contact with anyone besides me.
If there really were some high-level expert, could they have hidden from our Mite’er Family’s scouts?
Could they have hidden from me?”
“Then this…”
Gu Ni pointed at the pill Lu Heng had refined earlier, his face full of disbelief.
“Could it be that some people are truly born with knowledge?”
“Does it matter if he was born with it?”
Ya Fei gave a light chuckle and tilted her head to look at Gu Ni.
“What matters is that he is Lu Heng.
He is the younger brother I, Ya Fei, watched grow up.”
Gu Ni was stunned for a moment, then shook his head with a bitter smile.
He looked at the woman before him, dressed in a red dress as fiery as a flame, and for a moment, he felt she had changed.
The old Ya Fei, though shrewd and capable, always carried an air of anxiety, as if treading on thin ice.
But now, Ya Fei had gained a bit more confidence.
It was the kind of confidence that came from having someone to rely on…
In the backyard, inside the small room.
Sunlight spilled through the window frames onto the wooden floor, dust motes dancing quietly in the beams of light.
Lu Heng sat cross-legged on the bed, his hands forming a strange seal, his breathing steady and long.
The clamor outside seemed isolated in another world; the room was so quiet that only the faint heartbeat within his chest could be heard.
Although he had acted nonchalant in front of Ya Fei just now, even cracking a few jokes, in reality, his body was currently experiencing an indescribable sense of emptiness.
“The Fighting Qi of a One-star Dou Zhe is still too strained,” Lu Heng slowly opened his eyes, a flash of helplessness appearing in his black pupils.
He inspected his internal state; the vortex at his lower abdomen appeared somewhat listless.
The originally thick, liquid Fighting Qi had now become much thinner.
Although the Five Elements Chaos Art granted him a recovery speed far exceeding that of ordinary people, and the Azure Wood Body gave him freakish self-healing abilities, the continuous consumption of Fighting Qi during pill refining was simply too great.
“At this rate of efficiency, refining three batches of pills a day would be the limit.”
Lu Heng sighed and reached up to rub his brow.
This wouldn’t do.
Although Lu Heng was a transmigrator and possessed a powerful Cheat like the Book of Destiny, this Cheat wasn’t the kind of System that would ‘ding’ and instantly max out his level.
It was more like a rigorous mentor, showing him the way and providing resources, but the path still had to be walked step by step by himself.
To rapidly increase his strength, resources were an unavoidable hurdle.
And resources meant money.
“Living off a woman is nice, but the pressure on Ya Fei is also great.” Lu Heng shook his head.
Although Ya Fei now managed the Auction House, most of the liquid capital belonged to the Family; the personal savings she could mobilize were limited.
To get him that Qi Gathering Powder earlier, she had likely emptied her coffers.
As a man determined to make Ya Fei a queen, how could he keep letting a woman pay for his upkeep?
“Make money…
I must make money.”
Lu Heng took a deep breath and closed his eyes again, the scroll of the myriad realms pharmacopoeia slowly unfolding in his mind.
Since mass production was impossible, he could only take the high-end route, or…
‘differentiated competition.’
In this Dou Qi Continent, although Medicinal Pills were precious, the types of first-grade pills were actually quite stagnant.
They were mostly Rejuvenation Pills, qi recovery pills, force accumulation pills, Blood Coagulation Pills, and the like.
But within the myriad realms pharmacopoeia, there were countless strange and unique formulas.
Lu Heng’s consciousness rapidly flipped through the pharmacopoeia, finally settling on a first-grade formula.
“beast power pill.”
This was a pill that could significantly boost physical strength for a short period, allowing the consumer to possess brute strength comparable to a Demonic Beast for the duration of an incense stick.
The most crucial point was that there were no side effects when taking the first pill!
However, if one were to take several pills directly, that would be another story.
One must know that most pills that amplified strength carried powerful side effects.
For those mercenaries at the Dou Zhe or Dou Shi level who lived life on the edge, this thing was practically a life-saving Divine Artifact.
Most importantly, its main material wasn’t expensive; it only required a common medicinal material called ‘ironwood root,’ combined with special extraction using Lu Heng’s wood-attribute Fighting Qi.
“Low cost, fast results, large market.”
Lu Heng opened his eyes, the fatigue in them swept away and replaced by a merchant’s shrewdness.
Among the basic medicinal Materials Gu Ni had given him, there happened to be ironwood root.
He rolled out of bed, walked to the table, poured himself a glass of cold water and gulped it down.
The icy sensation flowed down his throat into his stomach, clearing his head significantly.
As long as he could refine a batch of beast power pills and put them in the Auction House to test the waters, he would have his first pot of gold.
But before that…
Lu Heng glanced out the window; the sky had already darkened.
He walked to the door, checked that the bolt was secure, and pulled the curtains shut.
Only after doing all this did Lu Heng return to the bed to sit cross-legged.
“I won’t sleep tonight.”
Since his Fighting Qi wasn’t enough, he would train.
The circulation route for the Dou Practitioner Chapter of the Five Elements Chaos Art clearly surfaced in his mind.
If the Green Wood Chapter was just about drawing Qi into the body, then the Dou Practitioner Chapter was the true beginning.
It required the practitioner to construct a small heavenly cycle of wood and fire circulation within the body.
The Five Elements generate each other; Wood generates Fire.
Lu Heng closed his eyes, his mind sinking into his Dantian.
At the center of that slightly thin vortex, a wisp of red Fighting Qi and green Fighting Qi were intersecting, yet they did not merge.
As Spiritual Qi from the surroundings was continuously absorbed into his body, the Dou Qi Vortex began to accelerate its rotation.
As time passed, a faint red light began to glow on the surface of Lu Heng’s body, and the surrounding temperature rose accordingly.