Immortal Cultivation: Starting from a Pharmacy Apprentice

Chapter 304: Chapter 304: Coming Thick and Fast

"Well, kid, have you made up your mind?"

Uncharacteristically, the yellow-robed Daoist elder had taken the initiative to send someone to find Bai Mo.

He had then given Bai Mo a Pill Formula, telling him to comprehend it on his own.

According to the disciple who delivered the message, the old Daoist had caught him on his way out to eat and tasked him with fetching Bai Mo.

Unfortunately, that disciple wasn’t very sociable and had to ask around for a long time before finally finding Bai Mo.

Seeing the frustration on the disciple’s face, Bai Mo couldn’t help but chuckle. He slipped the man a cultivation Pill and then leisurely made his way to Stone Peak.

Bai Mo examined the Pill Formula for a long time before finally speaking.

"This... seems to be an auxiliary Pill for some kind of technique?"

"You have a decent eye."

The yellow-robed Daoist elder nodded.

"That’s right. I hear it’s rather complex to explain. Can you refine it or not?"

Having received such a huge favor from the elder, Bai Mo couldn’t say no, no matter how difficult the task.

Besides, this Pill was merely tricky, not impossible to refine.

"This disciple can do it. When does the Elder need it by?"

"There’s no rush. As long as you can deliver the Pill before the Jade Plate Secret Realm closes, that will be fine."

"Understood."

Bai Mo nodded.

He instinctively glanced at the Pill Formula one more time, and when he looked up again, the figure before him was gone.

’He did it again...’

Bai Mo leaped down from Stone Peak and saw An Caiwei waiting for him below.

"How did it go? The Elder gave you such a grand gift. What kind of troublesome Pill does he want you to refine?"

Bai Mo shook his head.

"It’s an auxiliary Pill for a cultivation technique."

"According to the Pill Formula’s description, this Pill can absorb Spiritual Qi. Once ingested, it gathers Spiritual Qi in the abdomen."

"Cultivation is a serious matter. If something goes wrong with the Pill, it could lead to disaster. I must think this through carefully before I begin refining."

An Caiwei listened, looking confused.

"Could it be something for one of his descendants?"

Bai Mo was also puzzled.

The Pills he refined, while they had their own special qualities, were hardly capable of helping a great Elder with his cultivation.

Thus, he agreed with An Caiwei’s guess.

"Let’s head back."

The two of them walked toward the valley, discussing medicinal ingredients.

Suddenly, An Caiwei brought something up.

"With the Jade Plate Secret Realm opening recently, many disciples are trying to reach Foundation Establishment, so all the sect’s Spiritual Apertures have been rented out."

"I’ve been asking around, trying to find a Spiritual Aperture that a successful disciple might have returned after their breakthrough, but I’ve had no luck."

"But for some reason, a batch of them suddenly became available yesterday—four or five in total..."

Bai Mo understood her unspoken meaning.

"Senior Sister, are you thinking we should secure them first?"

An Caiwei nodded seriously.

"If we miss this chance, it will take a lot of effort to find another, and there’s no telling how long we’d have to wait."

Bai Mo thought about the wealth he had earned recently and made a swift decision.

"In that case, let’s withdraw ten thousand Spirit Stones. We’ll secure two of the Spiritual Apertures first..."

Bai Mo returned to his Stone Lodge to wait for fellow disciples to come by with their orders.

In his spare time, he took out the yellow-robed Daoist’s Pill Formula to study. It wasn’t a copy, but a precious original from countless years ago.

It bore the handwriting of the Cultivator who had created the formula.

Touching the paper that held the Pill Formula, he felt a soft, cotton-like texture that was also extremely resilient.

Bai Mo was stunned that he couldn’t identify the material.

Rare paper, a rare Pill Formula... its mysteries were somewhat convoluted. Bai Mo would need more time to puzzle it out.

「Some days later.」

He had yet to see any disciples coming to test Pills, but he did hear a piece of news.

Yuan Chu and his two companions had succeeded in their scheme, causing quite a stir.

They had broken into a tomb, fought a bloody battle for half a day, slaughtered their way through a beast horde, and seized the essence nurtured within countless beast corpses.

Over the ages, the essence had fermented and transformed, long since becoming a treasure akin to a miraculous medicine.

In that same battle, Xiong Xin and Gong Gui suffered fatal injuries and died. They returned to the outside world with lumps of the essence held in their mouths.

Only Yuan Chu was left to wander the Secret Realm alone.

Gong Gui, in particular, had been swallowed by an enraged, reanimated beast corpse. The corpse worms dormant inside its flesh had devoured him, leaving nothing behind.

It was said that after Gong Gui returned, his Dao Heart suffered considerable trauma. However, the Money Turtle he served was greatly pleased and prepared to invest heavily in cultivating him.

On the afternoon this news reached Bai Mo’s ears, the Cultivators seeking Pills swarmed in.

Amidst the clamor of everyone talking at once, Bai Mo had no chance to refuse. The disciples left their deposits and orders before departing.

The bamboo tallies recording the orders once again stuffed the bamboo tube to the brim.

Renting the Spiritual Apertures required a massive amount of Spirit Stones, so Bai Mo no longer had the energy to pay attention to matters within the Secret Realm.

So, Bai Mo sought out An Caiwei.

"Help me keep an eye on things inside the Secret Realm. For the foreseeable future, I’m afraid I won’t have a moment’s rest."

An Caiwei nodded emphatically.

"Don’t worry, I’ll definitely keep watch for you."

"Right now, with Brother Yin’s help, Qin Zheng and the others are making a big name for themselves. They’ve already breached two underground palaces, though both turned out to be decoy tombs."

"Everyone is saying that Brother Yin is a man of great destiny..."

A smile appeared on Bai Mo’s face.

"That’s excellent."

BOOM!

The door to the Stone Lodge slammed shut, and the roar of ignited Earth Fire echoed from within.

An Caiwei shook her head.

’Success in the Alchemy Dao is glorious, it’s true, but who can know the toil involved?’

’I wonder what’s so profound about this path that it attracts so many to devote themselves to it.’

She found a few disciples from the An family, had them stand guard in the valley, and then went to the area beneath the light screen herself.

As An Caiwei walked, she saw the yellow-robed Daoist elder talking with a long-bearded old man.

They were in the sky while she was on the ground; she couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Shifting her gaze to the light screen, she saw Yuan Chu again. His master’s orders were complete, and he now appeared relaxed, wandering about freely.

Yuan Chu met up with other disciples from Divine Dao Mountain, and they gathered at the edge of a cliff.

Those few disciples took out a perfectly round Pill and ignited it with Spiritual Fire.

A moment later, vast plumes of Spiritual Mist rose from the bottom of the cliff. The mist churned as if a behemoth were stirring up a storm within it.

And beneath the Spiritual Mist, several chains were dragging a wooden coffin with a decaying surface.

The light screen shimmered. In the distance, a four-legged, shriveled beast corpse the size of a mountain charged toward them.

Amid the terrified expressions of Yuan Chu and the others, the image on the light screen suddenly switched to a group of disciples trembling in the middle of a beast pack.

An Caiwei thought for a moment. She remembered Bai Mo mentioning that group of disciples from Divine Dao Mountain in his free time.

The Pill they had just ignited was also from Bai Mo’s hand, capable of summoning something unpredictable.

It seemed they had indeed baited something incredible.

She continued to walk, watching the many scenes on the light screen. Occasionally, she would see the senior brothers Bai Mo had mentioned to her.

They were all impressive people. When faced with dangers they couldn’t handle, they would swallow a Pill to deal with it.

Sometimes it was to break a curse, other times to turn their bodies into metal.

Compared to the Minor Creation Golden Core, the scenes she was witnessing were undoubtedly a step down, but they had their own wonders.

’Is this why Junior Brother Bai is so immersed in the Alchemy Dao?’

An Caiwei was lost in thought.

That feeling of swallowing a Pill and receiving its miraculous aid was truly wonderful; she herself had experienced it deeply.

And as the refiner, Bai Mo probably had an even more wondrous experience.

An Caiwei arrived at a place where disciples were gathered.

Looking up, she saw Qin Zheng’s group charging into battle alongside Yin Zhen. After a bloody fight, they once again breached another decoy tomb.

It wasn’t without reward; there were some scattered odds and ends related to the Alchemy Dao, such as notes and miscellaneous writings, which Qin Zheng and the others carefully collected.

As for that Junior Brother Jin, his body was tattered like a torn sack. In many places, only sinew and bone remained, connected by mere threads of flesh, making him look absolutely horrifying.

It looked like he wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer.

But the expressions on everyone’s faces were excited.

With the decoy tomb breached, they were now very close to the opportunity Bai Mo was looking for...

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!