Chapter 228 - 234: The Trade

Words : 1451 Updated : Oct 9th, 2025

Li Zhixuan gave him a Spiritual Medicine called the Millet Dream Fruit, which, although only a second-grade Spiritual Medicine, had a powerful function: it could construct a ’real’ dream world. For example, if Li Zhirui consumed this fruit, after falling asleep, he would be able to create any Spiritual Medicine he desired in the dream world, and even try his hand at refining Spirit Pills. Of course, due to its grade limitation, the higher the cultivation of the cultivator who consumed the fruit, the weaker the effect would be. If a Foundation Establishment cultivator took it, they might be able to maintain the dream for an hour, but for Golden Core Realm cultivators, it would likely only last for two or three-quarters of an hour. Moreover, if the cultivator’s will was not firm enough, it was very possible that they would be unable to distinguish between reality and the dream world. Besides these reasons, another reason why Li Zhirui did not accept this fruit was that the Millet Dream Fruit had no seeds and could not be cultivated artificially. To date, no one had figured out how the Millet Dream Fruit reproduced. If one wanted to obtain it, they could only stumble upon it by chance. And this was one of the reasons why it was so expensive. "This doesn’t have much use for me; you should take it yourself." Li Zhirui forcefully stuffed the Jade Box back into Li Zhixuan’s hands and said, "When your cultivation reaches Foundation Establishment Perfection, you can try using the Millet Dream Fruit to break through your bottleneck." Given Li Zhixuan’s temperament, it was unlikely that she would have trouble distinguishing between reality and the Illusionary Realm. Experience tales with novelhall.Côm "If you feel uncomfortable about it, you can give me a third-grade Spiritual Object after you break through to the Golden Core Realm." When Li Zhirui said this, he only meant to comfort her and lift her spirits, but he never expected that one day, he would receive an even greater surprise. "Go back, I still have things to do." Seeing that she remained silent, Li Zhirui helplessly shook his head and walked straight into his cave dwelling. For the next several months, Li Zhirui was immersed in comprehending those two third-grade Pill Recipes in his cave dwelling. At first glance, he had felt that the difficulty of refining the Spirit Pills was extremely high, as not only did the Spiritual Medicine require multiple refinements, but the Alchemy spells were also exceedingly complex. Especially the Essence-Enhancing Pill, which had to be made using the Nurturing Pill Skill, otherwise, it would not have such a potent effect. Li Zhirui simulated the process countless times in his Sea of Consciousness, until he felt somewhat confident, before he finally began the actual alchemy process. Over twenty kinds of Spiritual Medicine, including three precious third-grade Spiritual Medicines — just purifying the impurities from these medicines had taken over an hour! He then infused the essence of the Spiritual Medicine into the Pill Furnace. His ten fingers danced, merging the essences one after another. Simultaneously, he had to use his Divine Sense to monitor the process, to spot any trouble immediately. But even with such caution, Li Ruirui still made a mistake! While fusing a certain essence, because the speed was slightly too fast, it led to a conflict among the essences, causing them to scatter instantly. Facing this failure, Li Zhirui was quite composed. Honestly, making it to the last few Spiritual Medicines before failing was already beyond his expectations! Li Zhirui set aside the previously refined Spiritual Medicines, rested for a while, and then continued his attempts at the alchemical process. Yet, until a month later, after having used up all the Spiritual Medicines at his disposal, he was still a long way from successfully refining a Spirit Pill. Luckily, Li Zhirui consistently made progress. From initially merging the essences of Spiritual Medicines to now being able to combine all of them without error. Though he was still several steps away from successfully refining a Spirit Pill, and how many more attempts and how much more Spiritual Medicine would be needed to overcome those steps was unknown. He estimated that it would take at least nearly a hundred more attempts before he could possibly succeed! ``` "Ah, who knows how many Spiritual Medicines the family has managed to procure during this time," Li Zhirui sighed helplessly. Without Spiritual Medicines, he had to give up on producing and turned to start deducing in his Sea of Consciousness. He had waited half a month before finally receiving a batch of Spiritual Medicines, but there were only ten Golden Earth Fruits, which were critical. Li Zhirui only took a few days to use them all up. When Li Zhizhun heard that the Spiritual Medicines were used up again, a bitter smile appeared on his face, "No wonder Zhirui specifically insisted on the difficulty of producing a third-tier Spirit Pill." However, they had no choice but to arrange for clan members to go to Green Mountain State to buy the lacking Spiritual Medicines. —— "Senior must be a member of the Li family from Da Rong Island, right?" said a potbellied Foundation Establishment cultivator respectfully in the Southern Edge Hall. Li Shiqing, who had already purchased Spiritual Medicines and was preparing to return to Da Rong Island, frowned slightly. He had deliberately concealed his cultivation level and appearance, so how did this Foundation Establishment cultivator recognize his identity? "Information about the Li family isn’t hard to come by. Previously, your noble clan purchased a Pill Recipe for the Essence-Enhancing Pill, and, indeed, the Golden Earth Fruit is one of the main ingredients," the Foundation Establishment explained. With an unflustered expression, Li Shiqing asked, "You’re telling me all this because you need something from me, right?" "It is said that there is a genius Alchemist in the Li family, and I presume he is currently producing Essence-Enhancing Pills? We can provide Spiritual Medicines without charge until he produces the Essence-Enhancing Pills. However, from then on, any Essence-Enhancing Pills produced can only be sold to our Southern Edge Commerce Association." The Southern Edge Commerce Association is an outside force. If all Spiritual Objects had to be transported from other continents, then the cost would be too high and the profit would greatly diminish! Faced with this situation, their solution was to form alliances with nearby forces as much as possible, to be self-sufficient within the East Continent, and to reduce dependence on the headquarters of the commerce association. Above all Spiritual Objects, Spirit Pills are of paramount importance! And in the vicinity of Green Mountain State, Li Zhirui, a second-tier Alchemist in the Golden Core Realm, was someone they were strongly eager to win over. "This matter is of great significance, I need to discuss it with my family before I can give an answer," Li Shiqing thought for a while. He didn’t immediately refuse, nor did he directly agree. The conditions offered by the Southern Edge Commerce Association were very tempting, potentially saving the family nearly a million Spirit Stones, but the promises of Shen Leishan and Xuanfa Pavilion were colossal entities that the Li family couldn’t ignore. "Then, I will wait for the Senior’s good news!" Having said that, the Foundation Establishment cultivator bowed and slowly withdrew. After Li Shiqing returned to Da Rong Island, he immediately called together Li Zhirui, Li Shilian, and others, and laid out the promises and conditions of the Southern Edge Commerce Association. "What do you think, should we agree?" Li Shilian was the first to speak, "As long as this matter isn’t leaked, it would be an exceedingly beneficial deal for the family." It was clear that he was in favor of it. Li Zhizhun, however, was much more cautious, worried that if Shen Leishan and Xuanfa Pavilion found out, it could lead to a disaster for the family! These two colossal entities surely wouldn’t notice the Li family, but Yuanming Sect in the vicinity might have arranged countless eyes to spy on the Li family. "Let’s agree to it," Li Zhirui shook his head, "The difficulty of producing a third-tier Spirit Pill is too high. To produce Spirit Pills, I’ll need over a hundred batches of Spirit Materials, and it’s impossible for the family to supply that many Spiritual Medicines for me to practice with." "However, my older brother also makes sense, we must be extremely careful with this matter and not give Yuanming Sect the slightest handle!" Although Li Zhirui practiced Water Refining Alchemy, when Southern Edge Commerce Association starts selling the Essence-Enhancing Pills, they would undoubtedly become suspicious of him. ```

Chapter 228 - 234: The Trade

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