Over the last two months, Fang Yun had drawn for a Life Talent a total of fifteen times.
He had 51 Talent Points remaining.
Of the fifteen draws, six had been for Alchemy Talent, four for Planting Talent, and five for Artifact Refining Talent.
With a thought from Fang Yun, the wheel on the translucent screen began to spin wildly.
He had used up twenty-three draws.
Seven Alchemy Talent fragments.
Nine Planting Talent fragments.
Seven Artifact Refining fragments.
His updated Life Talents were displayed as follows:
Alchemy Talent ★★ (16/24)
Planting Talent ★★ (15/24)
Artifact Refining Talent ★★ (13/24)
Fang Yun looked at the state of his Life Talents and couldn't help but think to himself.
'If my luck is good enough, I'll only need eight hundred Talent Points to get my Alchemy Talent to three stars...'
It was just a passing thought for Fang Yun.
With a one-in-three chance for each draw, the probability of hitting Alchemy Talent eight times in a row was close to 1.5 in 10,000.
'Wait... are these talent draws truly random, or are they pseudorandom?'
The question suddenly occurred to Fang Yun. If it was pseudorandom, it would be nearly impossible for him to get Alchemy Talent eight times in a row from his Life Talent draws.
He hadn't considered this before, mainly because the number of Talent Points required later on was so high. With a large enough number of draws, the frequency of each of the three talents would naturally approach one-third.
'Whatever, I won't dwell on it. Getting my Alchemy Talent to three stars next month is basically impossible anyway.'
The question came to him now because whether he got his three-star Alchemy Talent next month or the month after would have a significant impact.
If he obtained more than seven hundred and fifty Talent Points next month, he would have eight chances to draw for a Life Talent.
According to his plan, he was supposed to start refining a new type of pill next month.
A two-star Alchemy Talent was more than enough for the Qi Refining Stage, but a three-star talent would certainly be better.
A higher Alchemy Talent meant mastering the pill refining process faster and producing Upper Grade pills more quickly.
For this month, his main focus was still on refining Qi Nourishing Pills.
Currently, when he refined Qi Nourishing Pills, he kept the Upper Grade ones for his own use and sold the Lower and Middle Grade ones directly.
As his stockpile of Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pills grew and his Middle Grade ones dwindled, he was able to reach a dynamic balance between income and expenses without having to sell the Upper Grade pills.
For Fang Yun, having more Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pills, not fewer, was crucial before he broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.
Once he broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, he could sell any excess Upper Grade Qi Nourishing Pills to the Dan Cloud Pavilion.
...
「The fourth day of the fifth month.」
It was Fang Yun's eighteenth birthday.
That morning, he first made his way to the Dan Cloud Pavilion on Dan Cloud Peak.
Today, Senior Sister Wang Yourong was standing behind the counter at the Dan Cloud Pavilion.
"Senior Sister Wang."
"Well now, if it isn't Junior Brother Fang. Let's see how many Qi Nourishing Pills you're looking to sell this time."
Wang Yourong gestured for Fang Yun to place the small porcelain vials of Qi Nourishing Pills on the counter for her to count.
At her words, Fang Yun placed thirty small porcelain vials directly onto the counter.
"It's a total of one hundred and fifty Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills. You can count them, Senior Sister."
"All Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills, huh?"
Wang Yourong said as she began to count them.
'He's not selling any Middle Grade Qi Nourishing Pills, only Lower Grade. Junior Brother Fang must be keeping the Middle Grade ones to aid his cultivation.'
Wang Yourong naturally came to this conclusion.
"That's right, one hundred and fifty Lower Grade Qi Nourishing Pills. The purchase price is one hundred and thirty-five Lower Grade Spirit Stones."
Moving deftly, Wang Yourong quickly completed the transaction with Fang Yun.
"Senior Sister Wang, I'm not just here to sell Qi Nourishing Pills today. I'd also like to purchase a pill formula."
"Which pill formula do you need?"
"The pill formula for the Cyan Jade Pill."
The Cyan Jade Pill was one of three mainstream pills used by mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators in the Celestial Cloud Sect.
Compared to the other two pills, the Cyan Jade Pill's main advantage was that it could be absorbed and refined faster. For Fang Yun, who practiced a Wood Attribute Cultivation Technique, the pill had another benefit: it produced less medicinal resistance.
For any Outer Sect Disciple in the middle Qi Refining Stage who practiced a Wood Attribute Cultivation Technique, the Cyan Jade Pill was always the first choice to aid their cultivation.
Fang Yun was naturally no exception.
"One Cyan Jade Pill formula costs twenty-eight Lower Grade Spirit Stones."
As Wang Yourong stated the price, she turned to retrieve the Cyan Jade Pill formula.
It seemed perfectly normal to Wang Yourong that Fang Yun, now at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, would be seeking better pills to aid his cultivation.
Fang Yun swept one hundred and seven of the Lower Grade Spirit Stones off the counter and into his Storage Pouch, then waited for Wang Yourong to return.
"You're doing so well. When I was at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, I could only refine Qi Nourishing Pills and Grain Avoidance Pills," Wang Yourong said as she returned, collecting the twenty-eight Lower Grade Spirit Stones from the counter and placing the Cyan Jade Pill formula in Fang Yun's hand.
Wang Yourong knew Fang Yun's Alchemy Talent was far superior to her own.
She had been able to roughly gauge his Alchemy Talent from the very first time he came to sell Qi Nourishing Pills.
With his level of Alchemy Talent, he had a chance to become an Inner Sect Disciple on his own merits, even without taking on alchemy assignments from Dan Cloud Peak.
With the Cyan Jade Pill formula in hand, Fang Yun first glanced at the required materials.
Primary Spirit Medicine: One Cyan Spirit Flower.
Auxiliary Spirit Medicines: one stalk of Wood Spring Grass, two stalks of Qi Nourishing Grass, two White Luo Fruits, three taels of Salvia Miltiorrhiza, and one catty of Eight-corner Root.
One primary and five auxiliary Spirit Medicines, for a total of six types required to refine the Cyan Jade Pill. That was one more type of auxiliary Spirit Medicine than was needed for the Qi Nourishing Pill.
Among the auxiliary ingredients, the Eight-corner Root was a Half-Spirit Medicine, while the rest were all Tier One, Lower Grade Spirit Medicines. The primary ingredient, the Cyan Spirit Flower, was a bona fide Tier One, Middle Grade Spirit Medicine.
Typically, a Tier One, Lower Grade Spirit Field could not be used to grow Tier One, Middle Grade Spirit Medicine.
'Qi Nourishing Grass is the primary ingredient for Qi Nourishing Pills, and Eight-corner Root is used in them too.'
Fang Yun glanced at the pill formula again. In the list of auxiliary ingredients, he immediately noticed the familiar Qi Nourishing Grass and Eight-corner Root.
The Cyan Jade Pill and Qi Nourishing Pill were the same type of medicine, so it was common for their required Spirit Medicines to overlap.
Since Qi Nourishing Grass was the primary ingredient for Qi Nourishing Pills and an auxiliary ingredient for Cyan Jade Pills, it was in very high demand.
After bidding farewell to Senior Sister Wang, Fang Yun left Dan Cloud Peak and headed for the Disciple Marketplace.
'First, I need to buy a few sets of Spiritual Materials to refine the Cyan Jade Pill.'
"Senior Brother, what's the price on this Cyan Spirit Flower?"
"Oh, it's Junior Brother Fang! Qi Refining Fourth Layer... I was wondering why you were looking to refine Cyan Jade Pills. So you've already reached the middle stage of Qi Refining! Congratulations on your breakthrough to the Fourth Layer!"
Fang Yun had broken through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer over a month ago, but no one in the Disciple Marketplace knew about it yet.
Although he had bought Spirit Medicine in the Disciple Marketplace several times recently, none of the other disciples had probed his aura.
He wouldn't deliberately reveal his aura just to let others know he had broken through.
Showing off intentionally wasn't a good habit, nor did it suit his personality.