Chapter 26: Multiple Versions of Cultivation Techniques

Each of these four sword techniques was no inferior to Chen Fei's Green Mountain Sword; in fact, they were even slightly superior.

"Fuse!"

The Green Mountain Sword and the Gale Sword vanished, replaced by the Mountain Gale Sword.

"Simplify!"

"Simplifying Mountain Gale Sword... simplification successful... Mountain Gale Sword $\rightarrow$ Green Mountain Sword!"

Just as Chen Fei had expected, after simplification, practicing the Green Mountain Sword would increase its proficiency. Next, it was time to grind for experience.

As for the recipe for the Light Spirit Pill, Chen Fei considered it for a moment and decided to inquire with the vendors in the black market.

During the day, Chen Fei went to the North City Medical Clinic as usual. Now that Sun Shu had met with trouble, Chen Fei had actually become the person with the most power in the clinic. If it were anyone else with strong ambitions, they would likely be trying to win over people and build a faction at this moment.

But Chen Fei had no interest in this whatsoever, because he knew that regardless of factions, as long as the Zhang family issued a single command, everything could be overturned.

Ultimately, the clinic belonged to the Zhang family; how things functioned here was entirely up to them.

Liu Jun stepped forward to greet Chen Fei with great enthusiasm. After a moment's thought, Chen Fei transferred Liu Jun to a new position. It was a minor promotion: less work for more money.

Chen Fei still possessed this much authority.

"Thank you, Manager Chen!"

Liu Jun's face flushed with excitement as he bowed to Chen Fei, drawing envious glances from those around them. In their eyes, as one of the first to follow Chen Fei, Liu Jun was destined for a bright future.

Chen Fei patted Liu Jun on the shoulder in encouragement, then returned to the pill room to continue refining Blood Qi Pills.

The proficiency of the Grass Return Pill was nearing Great Perfection. Chen Fei planned to push it over the limit today, so that in his spare time, he could focus on grinding other cultivation techniques.

With full concentration on the refinement, a hint of a smile finally appeared on Chen Fei's face by evening.

[Alchemy: Grass Return Pill (Great Perfection)]

He decided to have the clinic sell all the Blood Qi Pills he had refined. Through his recent efforts, Chen Fei had intentionally showcased the Great Perfection quality of the Blood Qi Pills.

One reason was to display his talent; the other was that the current Blood Qi Pills were no longer useful to him. As for selling them in the black market...

The value of a Blood Qi Pill wasn't particularly high; selling a single Grass Return Pill at his leisure would be worth many Blood Qi Pills.

As night fell, Chen Fei disguised himself and headed to the black market.

This time, Chen Fei was serious about his inquiries. Having already learned the ins and outs of the black market, he managed to uncover quite a bit of information.

He had previously thought the black market only sold basic pill recipes, but this time he discovered that high-level recipes were indeed available—they were just extremely rare, and they weren't traded for silver alone; other items were required for exchange.

However, the conditions were quite harsh. Even the "easiest" one required two thousand taels of silver plus one hundred Light Spirit Pills at half price.

Chen Fei thought to himself, *Good grief, these people clearly have no intention of selling.* No matter how he looked at it, the price felt wrong, almost like they were fishing for a sucker.

Chen Fei had originally intended to change into his usual persona as a medicine seller to ask around the stalls. Now, it seemed there was nothing to ask; everyone guarded their recipes as if they were guarding their very lives.

"With my current alchemy level, I wonder if I can reverse-engineer the recipe for the Light Spirit Pill."

Standing in the middle of the black market, Chen Fei's brow furrowed.

Chen Fei had consumed the Light Spirit Pill before. Some of the medicinal ingredients were actually the same as those in the Grass Return Pill. Only certain parts were swapped, and there were differences in the alchemy techniques.

Now that his Grass Return Pill proficiency was at Great Perfection, he attempted a brief deduction of the Light Spirit Pill, and many inspirations flashed through his mind. However, relying solely on these inspirations to refine the Light Spirit Pill would be somewhat wishful thinking.

"I'll check the book stalls."

Chen Fei walked into a shadow, and when he emerged, his facial features and physique had slightly changed. He walked down a small street and arrived at Chi Defeng's stall.

"Eh? Why are you here today? The medicinal herbs won't be ready so soon," Chi Defeng said with some surprise, leaning against a long bench as he looked at Chen Fei.

Having cooperated for so long, they were quite familiar with each other, and their speech had become much more casual.

"Do you have the recipe for the Light Spirit Pill?" Chen Fei asked.

"I do. Let me look."

Chi Defeng rummaged through his stall and finally pulled it out from between the pages of a book in a corner. It seemed no one would buy recipes here, as the recipe looked quite old.

"I also have a recipe for the Constant Float Pill. Do you want it?"

Chi Defeng pulled out another recipe from somewhere and handed it to Chen Fei along with the first.

"That Thunderous Sword Qi manual from last time was quite good, but it had too many errors. Do you have a more complete version?" Chen Fei glanced at the recipe without looking closely, instead asking about the manual from last time.

"You actually noticed something?"

Chi Defeng looked at Chen Fei in surprise. *This guy hasn't actually started practicing, has he?* He knew his own business; the manuals at his stall were all wholesale from elsewhere, and calling the contents "nonsense" would almost be an understatement.

Most people only bought basic manuals here; high-level techniques were just read for amusement to pass the time. That was how Chi Defeng usually operated, occasionally browsing through them himself.

If someone actually tried to practice them, would they be tired of living?

"I just felt that some of the wording made a lot of sense," Chen Fei said with a smile.

"You'd better be careful."

As Chi Defeng spoke, he began rummaging through his stall and eventually handed a manual to Chen Fei.

Chen Fei looked down: *Annotated Thunderous Sword Qi.*

The corners of Chen Fei's mouth curled up. Who was bored enough to make an annotated version?

"Are there other versions?" Chen Fei asked curiously.

"Of course. The Thunderous Sword Qi is the top-tier introductory technique of the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect; so many people yearn for it. Do you want the other versions too?"

Chi Defeng looked at Chen Fei strangely. *Is this guy really practicing? And is he so obsessed that he plans to piece together a complete version of the Thunderous Sword Qi himself?*

"How many versions do you have? Give them all to me," Chen Fei said with a nod.

While it was impossible to simplify specific content from every single manual, with enough quantity, there might be unexpected gains.

Chi Defeng did not refuse. He searched the book stall and even went back into his room for a round, eventually placing over a dozen manuals in front of Chen Fei.

"That's basically all of them. If you want them, I'll sell them to you cheaply."

It wasn't in Chi Defeng's character to pass up money. Since Chen Fei wanted them, Chi Defeng naturally gave them all.

"Alright, thanks!"

Chen Fei stuffed the manuals into his bag, haggled slightly, and laid down a few taels of silver.

"Fine, but don't actually try to practice them," Chi Defeng couldn't help but say as he watched Chen Fei.

Chen Fei waved his hand with a smile and turned to leave the black market.

A moment later, Chen Fei appeared in his courtyard, looking at his haul. There was so much to do; Chen Fei realized that his time seemed to be running short.

He had to fuse and practice the sword techniques, bring the Suspended Qi to Great Perfection, and then integrate all those different versions of the Thunderous Sword Qi. On top of that, he couldn't neglect the reconstruction of the Light Spirit Pill.