Chapter 18: The Pavilion of a Hundred Treasures

In front of the stall, Hong Miaomiao gave a sweet smile and looked at Ye Qingxuan, saying

"So, Junior Brother wants to refine Qi-Inducing Pills?

The herbs for Qi-Inducing Pills are basically three low-grade spirit stones per portion in the market. Senior Sister can give you a discount! How about twenty-five low-grade spirit stones for ten portions of Qi-Inducing Pill herbs?"

Hearing the price, Ye Qingxuan did some mental calculations.

One portion of Qi-Inducing Pill herbs could normally produce five to ten pills, and the market price for a single Qi-Inducing Pill was one low-grade spirit stone.

There was profit, but not much.

The main reason was that the difficulty of refining Qi-Inducing Pills was too low, and since the materials were extremely common and cheap, the price had been driven down significantly by competition.

However, he was only using them for practice, so he didn't care about profit in the early stages.

The herbs at this stall were very fresh and the price wasn't expensive, so he didn't plan to go to other stalls to inquire about prices. Thus, Ye Qingxuan spoke up

"Give me thirty portions of Qi-Inducing Pill herbs!"

"Alright, Junior Brother!"

Not hearing the title "Senior Sister" from Ye Qingxuan again, Hong Miaomiao called him "Junior Brother" with a heavy, slightly unhappy tone, as if she were trying to remind him of something!

On the surface, Ye Qingxuan seemed not to have realized, but a hint of a smile flickered in his eyes.

After handing over seventy-five low-grade spirit stones, Ye Qingxuan took the herbs and inspected them, noticing they seemed to have been freshly harvested.

Curious, Ye Qingxuan inquired

"Senior Sister, where did these herbs come from? They are so fresh."

Hearing him call her "Senior Sister," Hong Miaomiao's eyes narrowed happily, and she thought to herself

"I don't want to say where the herbs came from, but he called me Senior Sister! I'm so conflicted!"

Seeing Hong Miaomiao staring blank into space with squinted eyes, Ye Qingxuan felt it was a bit strange and called out softly

"Senior Sister? Senior Sister? Are you alright?"

Hearing Ye Qingxuan's voice, Hong Miaomiao snapped back to her senses instantly. Her face flushed slightly with embarrassment, but she still responded

"Ah! Junior Brother, I'm fine!"

Then, she looked around surreptitiously. After confirming no one was paying attention, she beckoned Ye Qingxuan over.

Ye Qingxuan blinked and walked up to her with curiosity.

Seeing him approach, Hong Miaomiao leaned into his ear and whispered

"These herbs! I gathered them from some small peaks within the Xuantian Mountain Range. Senior Sister is only telling you, so don't tell anyone else!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Qingxuan's eyes widened.

"That works? Isn't that just fleecing the sect?"

Thinking this, the look in Ye Qingxuan's eyes toward Hong Miaomiao became quite peculiar.

Sensing his gaze, Hong Miaomiao hurriedly defended herself

"The sect hasn't made any rules forbidding me from picking spiritual herbs in the Xuantian Mountain Range! Besides, the sect has set up restrictions or stationed disciples at the true resource points in the mountains.

The rest are things the sect looks down upon. What's wrong with me making use of them? Hehehe!"

By the end, Hong Miaomiao couldn't help but feel proud.

With a slight curl of her lips, she felt that people as clever as her were rare.

Ye Qingxuan was momentarily speechless. Thinking of the many peaks near the Fuxiu Academy, he felt a slight urge to take action.

However, after glancing at the herbs on Hong Miaomiao's stall, he calmed himself down.

Most of these materials barely met the threshold for spiritual herbs and weren't worth much. Going out of his way to search for them would be more trouble than it was worth.

After putting away the spiritual herbs Hong Miamiao gave him, Ye Qingxuan cupped his hands in thanks

"Thank you for telling me, Senior Sister. I have other matters to attend to, so I shall take my leave."

Seeing him prepare to leave, Hong Miaomiao hurriedly called out

"Hey, Junior Brother! How about we exchange transmission marks? That way, if you need spiritual herbs in the future, you can look for me!"

After a moment of thought, Ye Qingxuan agreed

"Alright, Senior Sister!"

It cost him nothing, and he might find a use for it someday.

After the two exchanged transmission marks using their disciple tokens, Hong Miaomiao introduced herself happily

"Junior Brother, my name is Hong Miaomiao, remember? But you can only call me Senior Sister, not my name!"

As she spoke, she brandished her small fist as if threatening him.

Looking at the child-like Hong Miaomiao, Ye Qingxuan couldn't help but smile and nod

"Alright, Senior Sister! Then I'll be going! Farewell!"

With that, Ye Qingxuan left her stall and headed deeper into the market.

He had bought the materials for the Qi-Inducing Pills for practice, but he had yet to secure materials for other pills.

Since he had finally made it to the market, he naturally wouldn't purchase materials for just one type of pill.

However, Ye Qingxuan hadn't yet decided which types of pills to refine.

His initial capital was limited, and if he wanted to accumulate resources quickly, he had to choose pills with high profit margins.

As for the difficulty of refining? Over the years, Ye Qingxuan had become quite confident in his own comprehension.

The question was, which pill had the largest profit margin?

In his family's alchemy inheritance, although there were many Tier 1 pill recipes, most of their effects overlapped.

Ye Qingxuan had four main candidates in mind

Tier 1 Detoxification Pill: Can neutralize most toxins at the Qi Refinement stage.

Tier 1 Qi-Replenishing Pill: Can accelerate the recovery of spiritual power for Qi Refinement cultivators.

Tier 1 Grass-Returning Pill: Can treat injuries sustained at the Qi Refinement stage.

Tier 1 Qi-Gathering Pill: Can increase the spiritual energy absorption speed of Qi Refinement cultivators by fifty percent—only slightly better than the Qi-Inducing Pill!

However, Ye Qingxuan was not satisfied with these four.

Most Qi Refinement disciples of the Xuantian Sect were responsible for sect tasks. Except for those who specifically applied to go out for training, others wouldn't have many opportunities for intense combat.

Therefore, the market for Tier 1 Detoxification, Qi-Replenishing, and Grass-Returning pills within the Xuantian Sect was not very large.

And while the Qi-Gathering Pill was better than the Qi-Inducing Pill, the improvement was limited, and the profit wasn't significant.

While lost in thought, Ye Qingxuan was suddenly drawn to a shop that caught his eye.

"Hundred Treasures Pavilion?"

His eyes lit up at the sight of the shop's sign.

The Hundred Treasures Pavilion covered an area of about three hundred square meters and had five floors.

Upon entering, Ye Qingxuan found that the interior space was about ten times larger than it appeared from the outside.

Clearly, the Hundred Treasures Pavilion had deployed a spatial formation to expand its internal space.

The place was crowded. As soon as Ye Qingxuan entered, a clerk dressed in the pavilion's uniform approached him with a smile and asked

"Greetings, valued customer. How may I help you?"

Though just a clerk, the individual was at the Foundation Establishment stage. Yet, even when facing Ye Qingxuan, who was only at the Qi Refinement stage, the clerk's attitude remained extremely respectful.

This greatly increased Ye Qingxuan's favor toward this newly discovered establishment!

Thus, Ye Qingxuan replied with a slight smile

"Hello, I would like to learn more about medicinal pills."