Half a month later at Yuehu Market.
Zhou Clan's Pill Shop, Pill Refinement Room A.
Xu Chuan emerged from the pill room and had someone summon the shopkeeper.
"Guest Elder Sansu, you summoned me?" Shopkeeper Zhou cupped his hands in greeting.
He appeared to be in his forties or fifties. Though also an immortal cultivator, he was only at fourth layer of Qi Refining. Because he had the lowest pseudo spiritual root aptitude, he was essentially abandoned by the family and could only help manage the pill shop business in the market.
There were quite a few in the Zhou family like him.
Fortunately, among his dozen or so children, one had miscellaneous spiritual root aptitude. Though also without hope of Foundation Establishment, under family cultivation, reaching late-stage Qi Refining should pose no major problems.
He now followed by Elder Zhou Sen's side, learning the art of pill refinement.
"This is the Qi Recovery Pill I just refined. Please take a look."
"High-grade pill?!"
Shopkeeper Zhou cried out in shock, abruptly raising his head to look at Xu Chuan with an expression of disbelief.
"Just a small improvement in pill Dao skills."
"No wonder Elder Zhou Sen has always praised your pill Dao talent as surpassing his own. It's truly so!"
"That's just Elder Zhou Sen's excessive praise. It shouldn't be taken seriously."
"You there, come record the pills refined by Guest Elder Sansu. Including these three middle-grade Qi Recovery Pills, you may take one."
Xu Chuan nodded lightly and took one.
The matter of Xu Chuan refining a high-grade pill was reported by Shopkeeper Zhou that very day, sending someone back to the Zhou family to inform Zhou Sen.
Zhou Sen came through the night to congratulate Xu Chuan.
Pill Dao was difficult. Many alchemists could never refine high-grade pills in their lifetime, all due to insufficient talent.
Spiritual herb resources could be obtained through other means.
Fire control techniques could also be practiced over a great deal of time. However, only the mastery of medicinal property changes related to one's own talent and was the key to refining high-grade pills.
And this was precisely Xu Chuan's forte, also the reason why he had improved so greatly in pill Dao in just a year or two.
As for the two guest elders Ding Ming and Zuoqiu Fu, even now they could only stably refine low-grade pills, occasionally producing one or two middle-grade pills.
Their pill Dao talent compared to his was as different as clouds and mud.
"Fellow Daoist Sansu, your pill Dao talent truly makes Zhou deeply envious. When you can stabilize high-grade pills to one per three or four furnaces, I will definitely apply to the family to raise your monthly salary to fifteen spirit stones."
"Then I'll trouble you." Xu Chuan cupped his fists with a smile.
"The Bone Strengthening Pill's difficulty is not low. With only three portions of materials total, it's more prudent to improve pill refinement skills further before attempting to refine it."
"After this matter is concluded, I should also consider gathering materials to refine pills for myself, so I can earn some spirit stones to purchase magical artifact pill furnaces."
Relying solely on the Zhou family's monthly salary to gather the spirit stones needed by himself and Xu Mingxian would take who knows how many more years.
And if pill refinement attainment was too low, all low-grade pills, there wouldn't be much profit either.
Only middle-grade and high-grade pills were what the various pill shops in the market needed.
Xu Chuan also considered whether to sell the high-grade pills he refined to the Zhou family in exchange for their protection.
He didn't believe that if he mass-produced pills and sold them in the Yuehu Market, affecting the Zhou family's pill shop business, they would still treat him with such courtesy.
Unless, one day, the Xu family had the confidence to contend with the Zhou family.
Like if Xu Mingxian could set up grand arrays to protect the family so that even Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn't break through, combined with Xu Mingwei entering the Dao through martial arts and, after stepping onto the immortal path, cultivating to great circle Qi Refining.
Of course, going to other markets to sell pills was also a viable path.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
All things gradually revived. In the mountain forests around the Yuehu Market, numerous trees sprouted new branches and buds.
Xu Chuan stabilized high-grade pill production to one per four furnaces.
Not just Qi Recovery Pills, he had also refined high-grade pills for Essence Recovery Pills, Qi Accumulation Pills, and Qi Gathering Pills.
However, the difficulty of refining Essence Recovery Pills and Qi Gathering Pills far exceeded that of Qi Recovery Pills and Qi Accumulation Pills, yielding one high-grade pill only after seven or eight furnaces but for Zhou Sen, this was already sufficient.
Starting this month, his monthly salary also increased to fifteen spirit stones.
Don't look at it as not much, it was already enough to purchase a slightly better quality low-grade magical artifact.
Xu Chuan also finally began refining the Bone Strengthening Pill.
The first time was mainly to familiarize himself with the entire refinement process's heat control and medicinal property changes, so he didn't feel the slightest regret over a furnace of waste pills.
The second time, absorbing the experience from the first attempt, he refined with full effort.
Unexpectedly, he produced two low-grade pills.
The third time, Xu Chuan already had a sense of increasing proficiency, refining one low-grade pill and one middle-grade pill.
This truly surprised him greatly.
"It seems fortune is on my side."
Xu Chuan stored away the pills. After cleaning the pill furnace, he went out to the Hundred Refinements Weapon Workshop.
Workshop Master Wu had been waiting for Xu Chuan for quite some time. Seeing him, he was particularly excited, hastily pulling him to sit down and asking, "Fellow Daoist Sansu, how did it go?"
Xu Chuan cupped his fists with a light smile, "Fortunately, I've lived up to your trust."
He then slapped his storage bag, and a porcelain bottle flew out, landing on the table.
"Three low-grade pills, one middle-grade pill."
"Four pills? And one middle-grade pill!"
Workshop Master Wu was greatly delighted, but immediately after showed a distressed expression, "Previously I promised Fellow Daoist forty spirit stones per pill, and even calculating the middle-grade pill at sixty spirit stones wouldn't be excessive."
"Calculating this way, Wu would actually owe Fellow Daoist twenty spirit stones."
Previously, when Workshop Master Wu forged weapons for Xu Chuan, although the complete set of treasure bow and arrows was quoted at two hundred spirit stones, the actual materials only cost fifty to sixty spirit stones.
However, weapon refinement didn't always succeed in the past, occasionally failing once or twice, so when custom-making magical artifacts, if the client didn't provide materials, a high asking price was normal.
"The spirit stones aren't necessary. I do have a small favor I'd like to ask Fellow Daoist to help with."
"Please speak, Fellow Daoist Sansu."
"I have a good friend who studies array formations and plans to forge array disks and array flags himself, but unfortunately his talent in this area is limited and he has no one to teach him. Therefore, I'd like to trouble Fellow Daoist to guide him for a period of time. Would that be acceptable?"
"This matter is easily said. Fellow Daoist refined the Bone Strengthening Pill, saving my grandson's life and allowing my Wu clan bloodline to continue. This is already a great kindness. How could I not help?"
Workshop Master Wu grinned and waved his large hand magnanimously, "Have him come tomorrow."
"Though I dare not say I can make him highly proficient, at least forging low-grade magical artifacts will pose no problem."
"Many thanks."
Compared to teaching weapon refinement techniques, those mere twenty spirit stones were nothing but immortal cultivators were no different from mortals, they also needed reciprocal relationships.
And for someone like Xu Chuan, a pill Dao master, how precious was his favor? In the future, he might well need his help again.
Unless it involved matters concerning one's own Dao path, few people would easily offend him.
Xu Chuan knew of Xu Mingxian's troubles these past days and had a flash of inspiration to propose this at this time.
After returning, he told Xu Mingxian about this matter. Xu Mingxian was extremely excited.
"Father, I will definitely study weapon refinement techniques well with Workshop Master Wu."
"Mm. Though refinement techniques are also useful, array Dao is the most crucial. Without guardian arrays that can protect the family, your father doesn't dare rashly have our Xu family compete with other Qi Refining families."
"Mortals value wealth, and immortal cultivators are the same. Though we have pill Dao and array Dao in hand, large-scale sales would attract the attention of Qi Refining families, even Foundation Establishment families."
"If we were rogue cultivators, those families might not care, and might even vigorously recruit us."
"But competition between families is competition for resources, competition for talent. Who knows how many deadly traps lie hidden behind it all."
"This child understands. I will definitely devote full effort to studying array Dao and not disappoint your painstaking efforts." Xu Mingxian solemnly cupped his fists.
The next day, Xu Mingxian arrived at the Hundred Refinements Weapon Workshop.
"Is senior here to purchase magical artifacts or have them custom-made?"
Xu Mingxian smiled lightly, "This humble one is Yunming. Thanks to Fellow Daoist Sansu's recommendation, I've come to learn the Dao of weapon refinement from Workshop Master Wu."