Chapter 101: Upgrading the Drug Formula

Mo Wuji ignored the shocked looks on these people's faces, calmly retrieving his jade slip, and proceeding downstairs past the group.

The moment he reached the first floor, loud bouts of laughter burst out behind him. Following that, someone said, "Did he choose the lightning tempering room to shock others with his ability, because he heard that it's cool to train in it?"

"I really got a shock from his performance, hahaha..."

"You don't say, everyone knows that there was someone in the lightning tempering room for six hours, but sadly, everyone also knows that he sat at one side, watching the lightning strikes in the room. Perhaps he was afraid of wasting too many spirit stones, so he turned off the lightning in the last two hours. I really want to know how long he managed to endure the lightning bolts..."

"If he knew that others could see that he turned off the lightning in the room, perhaps he would not have cared about wasting some spirit stones."

"Don't care about these people, I'm going in to train now. Mi Yue, wait for me outside..."

...

Mo Wuji did not take these comments to heart. He could recognise the owner of the attractive voice that said the last sentence: the dashing youth that gave away three spirit stones. Once he heard that he spent a whole six hours in the lightning tempering room, Mo Wuji panicked, sprinting towards to first floor.

He had a total of 100 spirit stones, subtract the charges for these six hours, how many were left?

"I'm here to check out of the tempering room..." Mo Wuji frantically pushed his jade slip through the counter window. The slip was received, and out of the window a pile of 30 spirit stones came, "Training for six hours, total cost: 70 low grade spirit stones. You have 30 spirit stones left..."

As expected it was six hours, and Mo Wuji could only recoup 30 spirit stones. But perhaps his biggest worry now was not the amount of spirit stones that had been spent. It would be the problem that he could only open 36 meridians.

Once he returned to the North Water Inn, Mo Wuji quickly took out the refining equipment to begin refining drugs. He still held on to a last shred of hope: the channel opening solution was rendered ineffective by the lightning strikes. A short half an hour later, the first bottle of channel opening solution was ready. Without even transferring the solution into a bottle, Mo Wuji gulped it down. Unfortunately, there was no difference from before. A slight burning sensation appeared in his throat, then any effects of the solution disappeared completely. The line of fire sensation no longer existed.

Sigh, I guess this channel opening solution will not have any effect on me any more.

However, Mo Wuji did not choose to check out of his room immediately to return to the Formless Blade Sect. Instead, he sat in the room, thinking hard. Determination was one thing that he did not lack, but with mortal spirit roots, he would be nothing without the channel opening solution to help him to open his meridians. What could he do if he couldn't cultivate? Rely on his neverending drive and passion? Or his never say die attitude?

These things would be a joke in front of true power. No matter what drive or attitude he had, it was all for one goal: to get stronger. After many rounds of pondering, the conclusion he had was that his only advantage was in the channel opening solution. Because this solution could open up his meridians one after the other, thereby increasing his potential time after time.

For him to rise up in this era where immortal masters could be found aplenty, he had to rely on the channel opening solution. It might have been born out of an accident on Earth, but there information from an incomplete drug formula that he bought for a high price was incorporated in too. Earth had few spiritual herbs due to the lack of spiritual energy. But the place he was at now was rich in spiritual energy, and spiritual herbs could be found everywhere.

Could he simply adjust the channel opening solution's formula, and change some of the normal herbs into spiritual herbs?

After all, he was a Channel Opening Stage Level 4 cultivator, so perhaps some of those ordinary herbs were not strong enough to open the meridians of a cultivator in the intermediate Channel Opening Stage.

At this point, Mo Wuji very invigorated with energy, and quickly began to write the formula for the channel opening solution on a piece of paper.

The main ingredients of the channel opening solution were Longyan Grass, Cai Fruit, Milletia, Dark Yellow Ginseng, Vein of Thousand Year Pine Tree, Fire Essence Stone, Night-Purple, Hundred Year Old Lingzhi...

Longyan Grass that were ten years old and below were ordinary herbs; those between 10 to 100 years old were considered valuable; and only those over 100 years old were considered a Tier 1 Spiritual Herb. Previously he chose Lonyan Grass that were 10 years old or younger, but for the new formula he would use those 100 years or older.

The Cai Fruit was simply an ordinary ingredient, without any difference for how old it was, so no changes were required.

The Vein of Thousand Year Pine Tree could be changed to a Vein of Ten Thousand Year Pine Tree, but a Vein of Ten Thousand Year Pine Tree was considered a Tier 3 Spiritual Herb, and was difficult to obtain. There were also good and bad quality Fire Essence Stones. The best ones did not have any spots of impurities in them, and looked as red as chicken blood. When he refined the solution previously, he used Fire Essence Stones regardless of quality, so for the new formula, it would include only pure ones.

Dark Yellow Ginseng and Lingzhi would also be changed to those 1000 years old and above, as only then would they be barely considered spiritual herbs. The new formula would have to use herbs of at least 1000 years old. The older, the better.

It took a good half a day to completely overhaul the drug formula. While the list of herbs was not altered, but most of the herbs were changed to equivalent spiritual herbs.

As for the Lotus Strips, Mo Wuji decided to use Treasured Blood Lotuses instead. They were excellent spiritual herbs, and could definitely take the place of ordinary Lotus Strips.

...

In Fringe City, the place with the greatest human traffic was neither the Pill Chamber, nor the Equipment Chamber, but the area where herbs were transacted. In Fringe City, the hottest place for herb transactions was not at a merchant house, but at a large hall, which locals called the Fringe City Herb Transaction Hall.

Everyone that came to Fringe City bought and sold herbs there, or went there to put up requests for particular herbs.

Once Mo Wuji arrived at the Herb Transaction Hall, he almost thought that he had returned back to Earth. It was a near replica of a stock exchange, or rather a herb exchange on Earth.

Large monitors hung from the four walls of the hall, and information of the herb prices changed furiously on the screens. Both purchase price and selling prices were included. The human traffic within the hall was extremely heavy, as people streamed in and out continuously, each carrying a large bag. A myriad of smells from different types of herbs wafted through the hall, causing a heavy herb smell to linger around the whole hall.

Other than some large signages, Mo Wuji could see many other handwritten signs hanging all around. These signs were all requests to buy a particular herb, or to sell a particular rare herb, without any exceptions.

The amount of spiritual herbs that Mo Wuji needed was quite sizeable, the only problem was that he did not know the market prices, and there were simply was too many people around. As a result, he just spent five spirit stones to put up a request for the spiritual herbs that he required, and at the same time place the address of the North Water Inn underneath it, before returning to the Inn to wait for responses.

...

The price of five spirit stones as an advertising fee did not seem cheap to Mo Wuji, but these five spirit stones was money well spent.

Within two hours, many people came rushing to the North Water Inn with the spiritual herbs that he required. Mo Wuji's original plan was to purchase one to two sets of the spiritual herbs for a preliminary attempt. But on the day itself, he received over ten offers to sell him the spiritual herbs, and more people were still coming to the North Water Inn to do trade with him.

Initially, he could still purchase the spiritual herbs with spirit stones, but eventually he had to start paying with pills. Fortunately his pills were the high in demand Tier 1 Mortal Pills, which were more valuable to cultivators than spirit stones.

Thankfully his purchase advertisement expired after half a day, and he finally found some peace and quiet on the next day. By that point he had already bought over 30 sets of the spiritual herbs, and spent all of the spirit stones he had left. Even half of his pills were gone.

The only thing was that he managed to buy all other herbs but the Treasured Blood Lotus. At first, Mo Wuji thought that since the Treasured Blood Lotus could be cultivated in the Formless Blade Sect, it would be easy to procure, but in reality, he did not receive a single one. He even specially went to the various merchant houses around town, just to discover that while the Treasured Blood Lotus was merely a Tier 3 Spiritual Herb, it's price was astronomical. He simply could not afford it.

Recalling that his home, the Lotus Sword Summit, was previously where Elder Guan Li grew Treasured Blood Lotuses, Mo Wuji decided to return to ask if the Formless Blade Sect had any of them.