Cultivation Begins with Skill Points-Chapter 219: Half a Year

Half a year’s time flashed by.

For a full half-year, Zhong Lin did not step out of the Fire Cloud Palace, spending each day meditating, practicing, igniting flames, and concocting elixirs.

With the support of the Purple Cloud Sect’s resources, Zhong Lin’s alchemy technology advanced rapidly. Apart from the Cold Marrow Pill, he also mastered the methods for refining many elixirs such as the Soul Strengthening Pill, True Essence Pill, Golden Rainbow Pill, Fire Spirit Pill, Purple Wood Pill, Water Cloud Pill, Thick Earth Pill, and others.

After all, with the assistance of the System Panel, once these elixir recipes were condensed onto the System Panel, a single point allocation could instantly achieve Full Level experience, giving an exhilarating sense of cheating.

Mastering such a variety of elixir crafting methods, Zhong Lin’s reputation quickly spread throughout Purple Cloud City. Besides Purple Cloud Sect disciples coming to request elixirs, people from other islands also brought Spiritual Medicine, hoping Zhong Lin would craft a batch of elixirs for them.

According to the Luoxing Islands’ Pill Master rules, if a batch of elixir is opened, then fifty percent belongs to the Alchemist; if a single elixir is opened, at least two portions of alchemy materials must be prepared.

Furthermore, one must bear the risk of success or failure on their own. This means that even if all the materials brought in are wasted, it has nothing to do with the Alchemist, and one can only curse their own bad luck.

After all, even the finest Alchemists cannot guarantee success in every batch, as the factors influencing alchemy are simply too numerous.

Temperature, humidity, timing, ingredients, the Pill Furnace... any of these could lead to failure in alchemy.

Due to the assistance of the System Panel, Zhong Lin’s success rate remained high, which was one of the reasons he could quickly gain fame.

Relying on his status as a Fifth Grade Alchemist, Zhong Lin rapidly acquired more resources for his personal use.

In half a year’s time, over half of the three hundred and sixty innate acupoints had been fully infused with Spiritual Origin.

If it weren’t for the fact that consuming elixirs cannot happen incessantly, as one must wait for complete digestion and elimination of dan poison before consuming the next, Zhong Lin would have already completed his Spiritual Origin Realm cultivation aided by elixirs.

The cultivation of the Dragon Elephant Golden Body had also not stopped; with the support of an Elder’s status, the supply of Treasure Fish never ceased. Coupled with some assistance from elixirs, the Dragon Elephant Golden Body had been cultivated to the fourth layer, possessing a physical strength of eighty thousand pounds with just his body.

No one in the same Realm could defeat him, at least during sparring with Xu Youde, who was at the perfection of the Spiritual Origin Realm, Zhong Lin could suppress him completely.

He hadn’t tried with Martial Artists of the Spirit Sea Realm yet, but if Zhong Lin were to use a Spiritual Artifact, he would be able to battle them, not to mention he could also fly.

Utilizing the advantage of the Purple Cloud Sect’s Cultivation Technique Pavilion, a large number of Five Elements Techniques were integrated by Zhong Lin into the "Five Elements Mixed Essence Skill" through the System Panel, and "Five Elements Mixed Essence Skill" was smoothly upgraded to version 2.0 by Zhong Lin, though unfortunately, the "Red Flame Technique" still couldn’t be integrated.

The publicly available techniques in the Purple Cloud Sect’s Cultivation Technique Pavilion mostly belonged to the Yellow Level, while Dark Level techniques were strictly guarded, incapable of enabling "Five Elements Mixed Essence Skill" to advance to version 3.0.

What a pity.

...

Zhong Lin retracted his Spiritual Origin, and the scorching atmosphere in the Alchemy Room gradually dissipated. With a flick of his fingers, a burst of energy caused the Fire Cloud Furnace’s lid to lift open, and a rich fragrance of elixir wafted out, instantly permeating the entire Alchemy Room.

Inside the Fire Cloud Furnace lay a golden elixir, the size of a thumb, brilliant all over, looking as if liquid gold flowed within.

Zhong Lin, seeing the elixir, also displayed a satisfied smile on his face, and with a gentle grasp of his right hand into the void, he dropped it into the already prepared jade bottle.

On the table beside him rested two other jade bottles, each containing an identical elixir.

This is the Sea Expansion Pill, a protective elixir needed for Martial Artists of the Spiritual Origin Realm to advance to the Spirit Sea Realm, capable of expanding the Dantian.

A few days ago, Xu Youde brought three complete sets of Spiritual Medicine for the crafting of Sea Expansion Pills, hoping Zhong Lin would help him with alchemy.

Now, all three sets had been successfully crafted; only one needs to be handed over, and the remaining two naturally became Zhong Lin’s personal possession, while Xu Youde still had to offer another reward for Zhong Lin’s hard work in successfully refining them.

See? This is the universal appeal of skilled professionals.

In merely half a year, Zhong Lin’s current net worth directly surpassed Xu Youde’s accumulation of several decades.

The key is that everyone still feels it’s the Alchemist’s rightful due.

After putting the other two Sea Expansion Pills into his Storage Bracelet, Zhong Lin stood up and pushed the door open.

...

Outside the door, Xu Youde had been anxiously waiting, pacing back and forth, face full of worry.

"Seventh Junior Brother, can you stop pacing? You’re making me dizzy."

Lei Jun, full of vigor, leaned lazily against a stone pillar by the square, helplessly curling his lips.

"Exactly, the last time I saw you this nervous was when your wife was giving birth. It’s just alchemy; what’s there to be nervous about?"

Tong Ming sat idly on a bluestone, with a pile of pebbles beside him, occasionally picking one up and throwing it into the distant lake, creating ripples.

Xu Youde, exasperated, laughed and said, "If it were truly my wife giving birth, it wouldn’t matter. After all, I have over a dozen wives and concubines, but right now it’s alchemy, affecting my future Martial Arts. Can you say I’m not anxious?"

"Getting anxious won’t help; it’ll either succeed or it won’t."

Tong Ming sneered, flicking another pebble into the pond.

"Heh, so why are you and Senior Sister Five still here with me?" Xu Youde complained, "Don’t think I don’t know what you’re after; you just want to see if Elder Zhong can craft the Sea Expansion Pill successfully. I’m telling you, once you’ve made up your mind, don’t regret it. Even if it doesn’t work this time, I’ll just take another ten years collecting Spiritual Medicine again."

Lei Jun stood up and sneered coldly, "Easy to say. The Dragon Transformation Ginseng is easy to find and the Green Spirit Liquid isn’t hard to obtain, but the hard part is the Demon Core. Those three Demon Cores almost bankrupted you, nearly forcing you to sell your backside at Minghua Building. Back then, I was severely wounded hunting for Demon Cores, almost perishing in the sea, barely surviving and taking three years to recover."

Xu Youde shivered at the memory of his former predicament, unable to help but tremble.

Tong Ming sighed and said, "Elder Zhong has never crafted the Sea Expansion Pill, and we’re worried that the collected Spiritual Medicine would merely become his accumulated experience; mainly, we actually have no confidence in sourcing two more sets."

Xu Youde also understood that what the two said was true; the primary ingredient for the Sea Expansion Pill is the inner core of a Demon Beast, and acquiring the inner core requires venturing into the deep sea to hunt ancient beasts. Even with their Spiritual Origin Realm cultivation, it was incredibly perilous, essentially betting on Nine Deaths and One Life.

Squeak!

Along with the sound of the door opening, the three of them simultaneously looked up, and Xu Youde even activated his Spiritual Origin, appearing at the door like a bolt of black lightning.

"Elder Zhong..."

Zhong Lin smiled, shaking the jade bottle in his hand, and said, "Glad not to fail the mission."

Xu Youde looked at the golden elixir in the jade bottle, completely dazed in place, his whole body trembling with its flab shaking.

With quivering hands, he took it, continuously expressing his gratitude.

"Thank you, Elder Zhong, thank you, Elder Zhong."