Zhang Yu chuckled. It seemed he would need to educate another customer on the basics of alchemy—something he was always happy to do. He explained patiently: "Sub-grade pills are also sometimes called waste pills, though this shop certainly doesn't see them that way. A sub-grade pill is a byproduct of a failed batch—it happens when the alchemist's timing or temperature control is slightly off, and some of the pill's spiritual energy escapes during the process. These pills contain less spiritual power, so their effectiveness is minimal at best. Still, something is better than nothing, and quite a few cultivators are willing to pick up a batch at a low price. I've heard some say they noticed a reasonable effect after taking a few. Interested?"
"Doesn't a failed batch produce toxins? Are they safe to take?" the grey-robed man asked, clearly not entirely ignorant of alchemy.
"Ah, you're thinking of a different kind of failure—those are the true waste pills. They come from serious errors during refining, or from excessive heat that alters the medicinal properties of the raw ingredients. Those are not only useless but mildly toxic—harmful to consume, with no benefit whatsoever. But rest assured, true waste pills and sub-grade pills are very easy to tell apart. Waste pills differ visibly in shape and color, and carry a sharp, pungent odor entirely unlike the fragrance of a proper pill. A brief inspection will confirm everything I've said." Zhang Yu produced a few Spirit Clarity Sub-grade pills and handed them to the cloaked man for examination.
The grey-robed man studied them carefully, then held them under his nose and sniffed hard. He nodded. "The proprietor speaks true—there is indeed still a trace of spiritual power in these. Very well, I'll take five Spirit Clarity Pills and twenty sub-grade pills, as you proposed." He produced a dark brown, slightly translucent stone—a common earth-attribute mid-grade spirit stone.
"Here you are, fellow cultivator." Zhang Yu divided the pills into two bottles and handed them over.
After the grey-robed man had walked some distance away, Zhang Yu allowed himself a knowing smile and turned to the shop assistant at his side. "Another fool taken in. It's true that sub-grade pills aren't toxic and won't do any harm—but the spiritual power in them is so weak that even swallowing twenty at once would be meaningless. A complete waste of spirit stones. But since he can afford mid-grade spirit stones, I suppose a few low-grade stones wasted won't trouble him. You see? I was right—that huge batch of sub-grade pills I bought cheap from the Yun clan's alchemist last time has been turning a tidy profit, sold off a little here and a little there."
The assistant, a young man in his twenties, nodded eagerly. "Naturally. You're the most respected pill authority in all of Liuyun Market. Who would dare doubt your word? Even if this fool finds the sub-grade pills useless, I doubt he'd have the nerve to blame you. If I could learn even half of what you know, I'd never have trouble finding good work in the cultivation world."
But over the following months, customers kept coming in to buy sub-grade pills. One of them—a middle-aged cultivator also wearing a hooded cloak, this one in black—spent thirty spirit stones in a single visit to buy over a hundred Spirit Clarity Sub-grade pills. Zhang Yu began to wonder. Could there actually be something to these sub-grade pills? He even tried taking more than a dozen himself, but felt absolutely no effect. He couldn't fathom what those fools wanted with so many.
……
The "fool in grey" was of course Andy, who was hardly short on spirit stones. Buying a few sub-grade pills to experiment with cost him nothing he couldn't spare.
Before taking any of the Spirit Clarity Pills, Andy placed one of them inside the Heaven and Earth Bowl on a whim, then swallowed another. A cool, soothing current of spiritual energy rose from his belly, slowly spreading through his meridians to every part of his body. Following the fifth-layer incantation of the Art of the Chasing Wave, Andy guided the energy through his meridians in cycle after cycle, drawing it steadily into his dantian. Again and again he repeated the process, bit by bit absorbing the pill's spiritual power, until finally, a full day and night later, the Spirit Clarity Pill was completely refined.
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Before taking his next pill, Andy remembered to check on the one in the bowl. The result sent him into raptures all over again. The pill inside had undergone a dramatic transformation—its spiritual energy had multiplied several times over, it had become semi-transparent, and it radiated a rich, intense medicinal fragrance.
Struck by sudden inspiration, Andy ran further tests with another Spirit Clarity Pill and several sub-grade pills.
Through repeated experimentation, he discovered that the bowl could enhance a Spirit Clarity Pill's spiritual power to roughly six or seven times its original level, requiring about two days and nights. It could also upgrade a Spirit Clarity Sub-grade pill to something just short of an ordinary Spirit Clarity Pill in about one day—though once it reached that level, no further enhancement was possible.
Andy didn't dare take these bowl-enhanced pills right away. Who could guarantee there were no side effects? He procured a few wild rabbits and ground up small amounts of the enhanced pills into powder, feeding it to them while observing closely for any adverse reactions.
The result: apart from the rabbits seeming noticeably more energetic and lively than before, he observed nothing harmful whatsoever.
With that, Andy began using the bowl to nurture pills in earnest, and consuming the results.
From that point on, at the start of every month when Liuyun Market was at its busiest, an unremarkable cloaked cultivator in a black veil could be seen visiting the various pill shops, purchasing a few Spirit Clarity Pills and occasionally a batch of sub-grade pills. Since cultivators dressed this way were common as dirt and his purchases perfectly ordinary, no one paid him any mind.
Before long, this same cloaked cultivator began purchasing Marrow-Washing Pills as well—a superior elixir that not only advanced the cultivation of those at the ninth layer of Qi Refinement and above, but also carried a marrow-cleansing and tendon-refining effect that purged impurities from the body and improved a cultivator's innate aptitude. At sixty or seventy spirit stones per pill, they were far from cheap and not always in stock. The cloaked cultivator could only manage two or three at a time.
It wasn't just pills, either. The cloaked cultivator's purchases expanded to include various magical artifacts, cultivation texts, talismans, blank talisman paper, and other supplies. Each purchase was modest—two or three hundred spirit stones' worth—but the cumulative total was staggering. With eighty to a hundred black-veiled cultivators moving through the market at any given time, ranging from the third to the thirteenth layer of Qi Refinement, there was no way for anyone to single Andy out from the crowd.
This pattern repeated itself again and again, month after month, year after year. Liuyun Market welcomed wave after wave of newcomers and watched batch after batch of cultivators advance in their practice and make their way into the wider cultivation world.
As for Andy, who hadn't set up his talisman stall in a very long time, he had been all but forgotten. Low-level talisman makers like him were never in short supply at Liuyun Market.
The only person who still remembered him was probably Old Yun at the Cloud Immortal Lodge. Five years later, the old man, mindful that the lease had expired, came to check on Andy's pavilion. He found the protective barrier still active, making it impossible to see inside, and spent some time calling out through the barrier without receiving any response. Left with no choice, he used a backup control disc to deactivate the barrier and entered.
The pavilion was empty. Apart from scraps of ruined talisman paper scattered across the floor, there was no sign of Andy at all.
Low-level cultivators disappearing without a trace was something that happened at Liuyun Market nearly every month. The vast majority of them were never seen in the cultivation world again. In all likelihood, they had met with foul play and lost their lives.
Old Yun clearly assumed Andy had suffered the same fate. He let out a quiet sigh and left the pavilion. Before long, it had a new tenant, and soon enough, Old Yun had forgotten its previous occupant entirely.