Lingsu Pavilion was located at the heart of the Inner Market, a place where Spiritual Qi was exceptionally abundant, making every inch of land worth its weight in gold.
In the cultivation world, Elixirs were divided into nine grades, also known as the Nine Transformations. Elixirs of Grade 6 and above were referred to as Celestial Pills. At that level, even storing them required a significant amount of Spiritual Qi, to say nothing of the difficulty of the refinement process itself.
If Su Xuan remembered correctly, the Lingsu Pavilion in the Inner Market was backed by a certain alchemy sect. They had a Grade 6 Heaven-Mending Pill as part of their foundation, which was why they had chosen this prime location.
Lingsu Pavilion was the literal definition of wealthy and overbearing, possessing a truly venerable status.
Unlike the graphics of the game, walking into the Lingsu Pavilion in person offered a faint fragrance of medicinal herbs accompanied by decorations made of various types of sandalwood. An air of elegance and nobility radiated from the inside out.
Beyond selling Elixirs, Lingsu Pavilion also purchased various pills from alchemists. Their purchase prices were generally close to the actual market value, which allowed them to firmly secure the loyalty of many Loose Cultivator alchemists.
“What type of Elixir does Fellow Cultivator need? We have inner pills for consumption, Outer Pills for facing enemies, and various other types. We have everything you could possibly want!”
As soon as Su Xuan entered, an attendant stepped forward to greet him respectfully.
Unlike the shops where he had bought equipment and secret manuals, the attendant at Lingsu Pavilion did not care about his plain clothing at all, treating everyone with the same level of courtesy.
“I am here to sell Elixirs. I would appreciate it if you could lead the way,” Su Xuan said to the attendant.
“May I ask what grade your Elixirs are, Fellow Cultivator?” the attendant replied.
Then, fearing the guest might take offense, the attendant quickly added, “Lingsu Pavilion uses different verification and appraisal methods for different grades and qualities. We hope Fellow Cultivator can inform us in advance.”
“They should be… Grade 2 Elixirs, I think?”
Su Xuan was a bit uncertain. Based on the original owner’s experience, the Pill of Myriad Mysteries he had refined was certainly not an ordinary Grade 2 Elixir, but he didn’t know exactly how good it was.
He couldn’t help it; the original owner was self-taught, and Su Xuan hadn’t been able to observe things with extreme precision back when he was just playing the game.
“Please follow me.”
The attendant led him upstairs to a small room.
An old man in Taoist robes was lying leisurely in a rocking chair, squinting his eyes as he sipped tea.
“Master Meng, please appraise these. This Fellow Cultivator has Grade 2 Elixirs to sell.”
The attendant seemed to hold the old man in extremely high regard, speaking with great respect before bowing and withdrawing.
“Take them out.”
Master Meng scanned Su Xuan’s appearance and sat up slightly in the rocking chair, performing a polite but superficial gesture as he spoke.
Su Xuan looked at him, feeling that he was quite unfamiliar. In the game, he had reached the level of a Third-grade Alchemist, so it wasn’t as if he had never sold pills at Lingsu Pavilion before.
However, he remembered that for Elixirs below Grade 3, an ordinary shop manager would usually handle the transaction. He had never seen this old man before, who clearly did not seem like an ordinary person.
‘Is this another butterfly effect caused by my actions?’ he sighed inwardly.
“Hurry up! I have things to do later!” the old man urged when he saw Su Xuan hadn’t moved for a while.
Su Xuan took a porcelain bottle from his robe and placed it into a small box in front of him. Inside were three pills of the Pill of Myriad Mysteries. Naturally, he wouldn’t take them all out at once; he planned to test the old man’s reaction with these three first.
Facing the Elixirs, the old man’s expression became more respectful. He picked up the small box with both hands and took a light sniff.
“Hmm?”
His relaxed expression suddenly crumpled, looking as if he had smelled something incredible. He shot a glance at Su Xuan. Then, his expression grew even more solemn as he gently poured the pills out of the porcelain bottle.
Three sky-blue pills rolled out, and a pill fragrance with a faint hint of sandalwood filled the entire room.
“You… you’re sure you want to sell these as Grade 2 Elixirs?”
Master Meng observed the Pill of Myriad Mysteries for a long time before carefully putting them back into the porcelain bottle. Only then did he look up at Su Xuan, a flash of disdain appearing in his eyes as if he were looking at a fool.
As a Third-grade Alchemist and a distinguished guest of Lingsu Pavilion in the Marketplace, he could naturally see the details of the pills before him.
Although the grade was indeed Grade 2, the medicinal properties of these pills were abundant and perfectly formed, possessing a nearly flawless quality. Even with his own skills, he estimated he would have to refine several batches just to produce one pill of this caliber.
Furthermore, the ones in front of him were identical, meaning they had clearly come from the same batch.
“Senior, then what grade are these Elixirs?” Su Xuan asked humbly. He truly didn’t understand the specifics.
“They are indeed Grade 2,” Master Meng stroked his beard and praised sincerely. “However, the quality is perfect, making them even more precious than Grade 3 Elixirs. Tsk, tsk.”
After finishing, he lamented again, “I expect the creator’s level of alchemy is not below my own. I wonder which master’s work this is!”
‘Am I really that good?’
Looking at the old man’s amazed expression, Su Xuan felt a bit embarrassed despite his thick skin.
“Then how many Spiritual Stones is one pill worth?” He coughed lightly and asked the question he cared about most.
“The average price for a Grade 2 Elixir is 10 Spiritual Stones, and the average for Grade 3 is 25. For these… I’ll give you 30 Spiritual Stones each. What do you think?”
The old man pondered for a moment before giving a price.
‘It really is three times the price!’ Su Xuan noted silently. This was different from the urgent situation with Shangguan Xiushen; the standard average price for Grade 2 Elixirs was indeed 10 Spiritual Stones each.
Seeing that he didn’t respond, the old man thought Su Xuan had concerns. After all, in his experience, it was impossible for someone this young to have refined these pills.
He waved his hand and said dominantly, “Young friend, you needn’t worry. Lingsu Pavilion never asks about the source of the pills we buy, because no one has a greater background than we do.”
As he spoke, he pulled a deep blue, shimmering Spiritual Stone from his robe and placed it on the table.
“I truly like these. If you are willing to sell, this High-grade Spiritual Stone is yours.”
One High-grade Spiritual Stone was worth 100 ordinary Spiritual Stones, which was equivalent to 10,000 spiritual crystals—a sum of money the original owner had never seen before.
“Sold!” Su Xuan said decisively. “However, I have one condition.”
The old man was slightly stunned and gestured for him to continue.
“Exchange it for 100 ordinary Spiritual Stones for me,” Su Xuan said with a smile.
He needed to use the stones for cultivation right now and wasn’t worried about portability. While a High-grade Spiritual Stone and 100 ordinary ones contained the same amount of Spiritual Power, once he crushed the high-grade one, it would be gone, effectively wasting a huge amount of its potential.
“Heh, fine by me.”
The old man chuckled lightly as if this small amount of wealth was beneath his notice. He waved the attendant over and signaled for him to fetch the stones.
“The transaction is complete. You can collect the stones in a moment. If you have more, young friend, you can come find me again. The price will be the same.”
With a smile on his face, he impatiently grabbed the small porcelain bottle from the table. However, his heart was filled with skepticism. Elixirs of such high quality were things that could be sought but not easily found. Looking at Su Xuan, he figured the lad had probably just stumbled into some dumb luck to get these few. How could he possibly have more to sell?
Master Meng carefully tucked the bottle into his robe, his heart itching to hurry up and study the refining techniques of the “master” who made them. Seeing the High-grade Spiritual Stone still on the table, he instinctively reached out to take it back.
Just as his hand touched it, Su Xuan pinned his hand down.
“Fellow Cultivator, are you trying to rob me in Lingsu Pavilion?” Master Meng was taken aback.
“I’m not finished selling yet,” Su Xuan said with a smile.
“What? Sell what?” Master Meng frowned, his mouth hanging open slightly as he failed to react.
“I have better ones.”
As Su Xuan spoke, under the old man’s ghost-seeing gaze, he placed down another porcelain bottle.
Then, another.