Chapter 89 – Cultivate Hard
In fact, Lu Ping knew that the cultivators would go through a stage of familiarization and adaptation after the lifting of the sea ban.
In this stage, the cultivators would learn and understand the environment of the nearby seas, as well as the distribution, strengths, weaknesses, types, and habits of the monster beasts.
Only after familiarizing themselves with these matters would the real hunting and slaying begin. After all, this information could very well determine their life and death.
There was still half a year until Di Kun Island’s triennial Blood Condensation Realm auction. Lu Ping himself didn’t know whether he could recoup his costs before the auction. On the other hand, his cultivation base had recently entered a sudden phase of rapid progress.
Lu Ping had entered the Blood Condensation Realm for more than a year. He had experienced several life-and-death trials and entered the Second Layer three months ago. Having sufficient medicinal pellets played an important role in his speedy progress.
During this period of time, Lu Ping once again experienced the same thrill of a rising breakthrough in his cultivation, similar to his experience in the Blood Refining Realm. This was all thanks to the rewards from the sect, plus his own purchases, as well as Sheng Tao’s inheritance, the spoils from the Xuan Ling Sect cultivators, and the two mini spirit veins.
However, the lack of spirit stones still made Lu Ping a little unhappy. Although he had a high degree of certainty that he could earn spirit stones from the two shops, his own spending was also huge. Lu Ping was not the kind of man who liked struggling to make ends meet.
Initially, he planned to head out to the sea to hunt monster beasts, but he quickly gave up as he wasn’t familiar with the separation zone. He thought he would wait until the other cultivators explored the zone first.
Fortunately, Di Kun Island was holding a Blood Refining Realm auction next month. He had previously entrusted a number of items to the Multi-Treasure Pavilion, items that he didn’t need anymore after entering the Blood Condensation Realm. They should be able to be auctioned for some spirit stones.
Left with no choice, Lu Ping had to dive into the Emerald Sea Spirit Snakes’ lair again. He used half a day to excavate a hundred pounds of Spirit Stout Stone and returned to look for Chen Lian.
Chen Lian’s smith shop had begun taking piecemeal repair works for mystic instruments. These jobs were highly dependent on one’s smithery and experience, and they didn’t require any cost of investment. Hence, Chen Lian’s life was quite free and easy.
When Lu Ping walked into the smith shop, Chen Lian had just extinguished his fire array formation.
Chen Lian naturally couldn’t bring along his old man’s Pebbly Jade Fire with him. Hence, the fire he used was a family heirloom; a fire-ignition array formation. The array formation was fueled by spirit stones and controlled using his arcane energy.
Each piece of smith work consumed a round of his arcane energy. Thankfully, the fire-ignition array formation reduced his consumption. Otherwise, Chen Lian’s current cultivation wouldn’t be able to last long enough to work on high-difficulty mystic instruments.
Chen Lian was quite surprised to see Lu Ping’s Spirit Stout Stone. “These stone ores are spirit materials to forge the mid and high grade defensive mystic instruments of the earth element. They’re quite useful. Generally, ten pounds of ore can be refined into a pound of Spirit Stout Stone. A pound of Spirit Stout Stone is around 50 spirit stones. These hundred pounds of ores can be refined into ten pounds of Spirit Stout Stones. That means 500 spirit stones.”
Lu Ping thought, getting 500 spirit stones for half a day’s effort was not a bad return. The only downside was that he didn’t have time to excavate every day and so this would only work in the case of an emergency. So, he said, “How much more do you need? I can still get some.”
“I’ll need just another hundred pounds more at the most. Anything more than that will just sit in the corner collecting dust. If you need spirit stones urgently, I can lend you 5,000 first.”
Lu Ping knew Chen Lian’s old man gave him 10,000 spirit stones, in addition to his own savings, the most Chen Lian had would only be 15,000 spirit stones. He came to the island to start his own smith shop from scratch. He had to purchase his own tools and materials which were fairly expensive, not to mention that he had paid a full year’s rent for the shop.
So, Lu Ping said, “It’s alright. I’m still fine for now. I’ll be sure to ask you when I really need the spirit stones. You can also come look for me whenever you need more Spirit Stout Stones.”
After returning, he calmed his train of thoughts and practiced alchemy. He concocted a cauldron of Blood Purification Pellets and succeeded with seven medicinal pellets. This meant that he had a breakthrough in concocting the Mid Blood Refining medicinal pellets.
However, his success rate for late Blood Refining medicinal pellets remained at 40%. According to the general guides of alchemy, when the success rate reached 50%, he would be qualified to try and concoct the simplest Blood Condensation energy regenerating medicinal pellets.
Lu Ping knew that alchemy required patience and no progress could be achieved overnight. Right now, he could only lay a solid foundation first.
He kept the Blood Purification Pellets in a jade bottle. They would be Dabao’s rations after it entered the Mid Blood Refining Realm.
Dabao was about to break through again after eating most of the Early Blood Refining medicinal pellets Lu Ping had concocted. The Third Layer Dabao slept beside the spirit spring in the cave-dwelling like a curled-up meat ball.
Yesterday, on a whim, Lu Ping used Dabao like a bench and sat on it. It was soft and wobbly and quite comfortable while Dabao was still sleeping sweetly without a trace of waking up.
Lu Ping also made a nest on a stone protruding from the spring pond and he placed the three Emerald Sea Spirit Snake eggs inside to incubate them. Every day, Lu Ping would nurture the eggs with his arcane energy, which was also the most gentle and effective way to make the monster beasts recognize their master.
The life force in the snake eggs grew stronger as days passed by, but the eggs didn’t seem to be hatching anytime soon. Lu Ping had no choice but to go back to Tian Ling Mountain’s Pavilion of Books and look up information about the Emerald Sea Spirit Snake. It was then he learned that the longer the hatching time, the higher the qualities of the monster beasts.
Therefore, Lu Ping had no choice but to wait patiently.
He also noticed that Junior Martial Uncle Xuan-Yuan was no longer in-charge of the Tian Ling Palace, which allowed Lu Ping to save ten spirit stones. It was rumored that Enlightened Master Xuan-Yuan would replace Enlightened Master Xuan-Yong as the side hall’s dean. Lu Ping couldn’t help but pity his side hall juniors when he thought about Junior Martial Uncle Xuan-Yuan’s weird habits.
A month later, Lu Ping went to Di Kun Island’s Multi-Treasure Pavilion. The Blood Refining Realm auction was triumphantly concluded. Thanks to the lifting of the sea ban, many of the items auctioned were sold at high prices.
Lu Ping consigned items were a few dozen Blood Refining Charms, both high and top grade, three sets of Parent-Children Warning Charms, three sets of Parent-Children Landmine Charms, six bottles of Blood Solidifying Pellets, and a couple of mid-grade mystic instruments.
The Blood Refining charms were collectively sold for 500 spirit stones; the Blood Solidifying Pellets were sold for a total of 1,000 spirit stones; and the mid-grade mystic instruments were sold for around 400 to 500 spirit stones each, accumulating to roughly 2,400 spirit stones altogether.
The Warning Charms and Landmine Charms were highly sought by cultivators thanks to their ambush and sneak attack capabilities, especially the Landmine Charms. So, each set of Warning Charms were sold for 250 spirit stones and each set of Landmine Charms were sold for 300 spirit stones.
In total, Lu Ping’s consigned items were sold for 5,500 spirit stones, which could support him for another month or two.
The Mid Xuan Ling disciples Lu Ping killed just had two or three thousand spirit stones with them. Lu Ping had earned more than double of their spirit stones in one auction and yet, it could barely support his cultivation for a month or two.
The situation at the auction reminded Lu Ping that there was still a market for Blood Refining Warning Charms and Landmine Charms. After he attained the divine sense, his charm-crafting mastery for Blood Refining charms had improved greatly. If he crafted some of the charms and placed them in his shop, he should be able to sell them for a good price.