Chapter 49
After practicing the Guide the Starlight Technique for a while, it was getting late, so Li Shiyin went back to her room to take her medicinal bath... No matter how powerful the techniques, they were still no match for her own cultivation level.
After Qin Ran had prepared the medicinal bath for her, he went straight to the study.
This time he carefully closed the doors and windows of the study, then went to the desk, took off his Universe Bag that was like a sachet, and placed it on the desk.
He was going to tidy up the gains and losses from last night's outing.
First he sat down, took paper and pen, and transcribed the pill formulas he had memorized.
The pill formulas were from the storage bags of those two men. Qin Ran had forcibly and quickly memorized the four most useful pill formulas from those pill formulas, relying on his memory and understanding of pills.
They were the Spirit Wind Pill that could make spiritual power go berserk, the Dragon Elephant Pill that could make qi and blood go berserk, the Ice Heart Pill that could protect the mind, and the Feed Beast Pill used to feed spirit beasts.
Of these pill formulas, the most useful was undoubtedly the Feed Beast Pill.
Ever since Chasing the Wind was picked up, he had been fed with spirit beast milk and meat, no different than what people ate. This was barely enough to keep him from starving and let him grow up, but it didn't help his growth and cultivation at all.
The appearance of the Feed Beast Pill could be said to make Chasing the Wind the biggest winner of Qin Ran's trip this time.
After writing down the pill formulas, Qin Ran began taking things out of his Universe Bag,
The first thing taken out, taking up most of the space in the Universe Bag, were spirit stones.
The spirit stones of those two men, and the spirit stones Qin Ran got from selling pills in the end.
Qin Ran examined the spirit stones carefully once more with his spiritual sense, and after making sure there were no problems, he opened the drawer under the desk and put these spirit stones in... A total of four thousand five hundred and twenty-one low-grade spirit stones, three hundred and two mid-grade spirit stones, and one high-grade spirit stone.
The spirit stones in the drawer were almost depleted originally. Now that these spirit stones were put in, the drawer, which had a space formation, almost overflowed.
Next taken out was the most important target of this trip, the Starlight Stone!
The spirit mineral that would be used as the core of the Lifebound Flying Sword he would forge for Li Shiyin.
Although the Starlight Stone was imprinted with a tracking mark by that emaciated man, the Starlight Stone itself had no problems.
Last night, after Qin Ran discovered the mark on the Starlight Stone, he did not rashly act, but instead turned the tables and transferred the tracking mark on the Starlight Stone to his clone with his spiritual sense...
This was why that emaciated man unhesitatingly chased after that clone.
Holding the Starlight Stone, Qin Ran examined it carefully once more, and found no more anomalies before putting it aside.
What was taken out next was the sword manual—Guide of the Shadow Sword—that he had bought at the auction, also prepared for Li Shiyin.
Actually those two men had some other techniques on them, but Qin Ran didn't dare take them, worried that there might be problems with the techniques themselves, and worried that practicing their techniques would make it easy for people from the "Karmic Organization" to recognize him.
After examining the sword manual as well and making sure there were no issues, Qin Ran finally took out the Tribulation Thunder Pill, the greatest consumable of this trip.
The pills for trading, the materials for the formations, all added up, were still not as expensive as the one Tribulation Thunder Pill that was detonated last night.
First, what was the Tribulation Thunder Pill?
Simply put, it was a crude pill created by sealing tribulation lightning with a certain pill concoction method, to be released against enemies when needed.
Second, how could there be such a bizarre thing as the Tribulation Thunder Pill?
The idea was provided by Qin Ran, and the method was perfected by his master, Wang Yuanyi.
Finally, how was the Tribulation Thunder Pill refined?
Obviously, Qin Ran couldn't refine it, only Wang Yuanyi could.
During Wang Yuanyi's final tribulation, he left three Tribulation Thunder Pills for Qin Ran.
The main job of pill masters was to refine pills, and pill refining had an extremely weak boost to combat power. Therefore, pill masters themselves had outstanding weakness in terms of strength and combat power.
Although due to the bizarre changes in the martial world, pill masters and cultivators of other occupations had run into each other in reality, and who would win was still a matter of probability, when it came to crossing tribulations, where one had to face the lightning tribulation head-on, the shortcomings of pill masters were exposed too obviously.
This was also an important reason why few people wanted to learn pill refining.
Pills were very important, and pill masters were highly respected, but... pill masters were very likely unable to withstand even the lightning tribulation at the Foundation Establishment stage.
Crossing tribulations was the calamity that pill masters could never escape, the curse of pill masters.
Eighty percent of pill masters died under the lightning tribulation, another 19.9% would rather die of old age than be struck to death by tribulation lightning, and only a very tiny 0.1% would die due to other circumstances.
Wang Yuanyi was a pill master, so he couldn't escape this calamity.
His chances of successfully crossing the tribulation were low to begin with, and he went to cross it pushing his limit. So before he even started crossing, he already knew that he would certainly die.
It didn't matter if he couldn't form his Nascent Soul, it was just hard on Qin Ran, his disciple. After his death, there would be no one to teach Qin Ran pill refining, no one to protect Qin Ran, and no one to keep this Foundation Establishment stage cultivator company in this dangerous world of cultivation.
In the end, under the heavenly tribulation, he refined three Tribulation Thunder Pills for Qin Ran.
The Tribulation Thunder Pill, the lightning tribulation at the Golden Core stage, was currently Qin Ran's strongest trump card. Used well, it was enough to kill Nascent Soul stage cultivators whose cultivation was unstable.
Looking at the Tribulation Thunder Pill in his hand, memories slowly came back to Qin Ran. After a long time, he let out a sigh, held back the tears at the corners of his eyes, and put away the remaining two Tribulation Thunder Pills properly.
Spending one Tribulation Thunder Pill to exchange for these things, Qin Ran truly felt it wasn't worth it.
After putting everything away properly, he opened the window and sat in the study for half the night. He looked at the Spiritual Pagoda Tree outside the window, and thought to himself, this was probably the passing down of knowledge and inheritance of the master's enterprise to the disciple!
Only that, if judged by the standards of the Twenty-Four Paragons of Filial Piety, he, Qin Ran, would belong to the unfilial category...
After practicing sword flying for another two days, Li Shiyin could basically control the Guide the Starlight Technique freely. Plus she had been diligently practicing flying on her sword these past two days, and was very proficient at it now.
Thus, Qin Ran planned to go down the mountain to forge a sword.
On the morning before leaving, Qin Ran brought Li Shiyin to the study.
"After going down the mountain, the treacherous and dangerous rivers and lakes outside the sect gate are prone to accidents. Every time you go out, you need to be fully prepared," Qin Ran said to Li Shiyin.
He took out a red embroidered brocade bag and handed it to Li Shiyin, saying, "This is a Universe Bag, refined by myself, there will be no problems. The inner space is about the size of this study, you can use it first."
Li Shiyin took it and couldn't help but complain, "It's so ugly!"
Qin Ran looked at her silently.
He also took out some porcelain bottles and placed them on the table, introducing them one by one to Li Shiyin: "This is a top-grade Origin Recovery Pill that restores spiritual power. This is a top-grade Great Redemption Pill that treats external injuries. This is a Grain Pill that replenishes strength. This is a Spirit Wind Pill that makes spiritual power go berserk, temporarily gaining formidable combat power. This is a Bloodthirsty Pill that drives the mind berserk..."
To prevent his silly disciple from forgetting or mixing them up, he had also pasted labels on the outside.
After Li Shiyin had put away all the pills, Qin Ran took out some more strange pills and said to Li Shiyin, "These are pills to be used when confronting enemies. This Murdering Pill will confuse the mind and make one go into devil cultivation. This Earth Flame Pill has sealed earth fire within, its power is enormous. This Clear Water Pill contains heavy water..."
"Keep them all away, I'll teach you the unsealing method later."
Li Shiyin put them all away. Qin Ran also gave her some talismans: "This is a Divine Travel Talisman, for moving quickly. This is a Divine Thunder Talisman..."
He admonished, "Use talismans prudently, as their quality can't be guaranteed since they were bought. If in danger, prioritize using the confrontation pills, the pills were refined by myself."
After some hesitation, Qin Ran took out a pill and handed it to Li Shiyin, solemnly saying, "This is a Tribulation Thunder Pill, the only one in the world. Its power is enormous, try not to use it... If you must use it, also use it from a safe distance."
Li Shiyin looked at Qin Ran, feeling her master was too exaggerated, but still put away the Tribulation Thunder Pill.
"Master, we're just going out for a bit, is there a need for this?" she asked.
Qin Ran's expression became serious as he admonished,
"I have emphasized to you many times that there are extreme differences in strength within the cultivation world. Powerful cultivators can make the entire North Chu Country disappear with a snap of their fingers, while weak cultivators may not even be able to defeat ordinary martial artists. In such a chaotic world with fickle hearts, it is extremely dangerous. You must maintain an attitude of treading on thin ice and walking along the edge of an abyss at all times..."