Cultivation Is Money-Grabbing C24

Chapter 24: The Secret to Getting Beaten Up – Blowing Up a Pill Furnace with One Punch

Lian Mu had recently become Murong Yi’s latest target.

For some reason, every time Murong Yi looked at her, his eyes were ice-cold, while Elder Xin’s gaze was always filled with sympathy.

She had completely become the number one punching bag among the Elders. Every day in class, she was beaten half to death by Murong Yi, ending up either crippled or severely injured. She had to spend a fortune on medicinal pills just to keep up with his relentless assaults.

Spending money on pills felt like slicing flesh off her own body. She had no choice but to improve as quickly as possible to avoid getting beaten so badly.

Even though she was suffering so much, someone actually envied her.

After class, Guan Shize sat beside her, his eyes full of admiration. “The Elders must have high hopes for you. Otherwise, they wouldn’t put in so much effort.”

Lian Mu, who had just reattached her broken hand and was sweating from the pain, asked, “You want this too?”

Guan Shize sighed. “Of course. Only in dangerous situations can one truly improve. It’s just a shame the Elders don’t bother with me.”

He had no idea how Lian Mu had gotten the Elders’ attention. Every lesson, she received special treatment.

Lian Mu: “…” This was the first time she had met someone eager to get beaten up.

“You should do what I do—skip sword practice every day and wander around other peaks instead. That’ll get you noticed.”

After all this time, Lian Mu had figured out why Murong Yi singled her out. She compared herself to the other disciples and found that the only real differences were these habits. That had to be the reason he targeted her.

Still, she wasn’t going to give up on practicing alchemy at Yinxiang Peak. Next time, she’d just be more careful.

She still had no idea which shameless person had ratted her out to the Elder.

“Wander around?” Guan Shize was shocked. “But wouldn’t that leave a bad impression on the Elder?”

Lian Mu instinctively concealed her alchemy studies. “That’s exactly the point. If you make a bad impression, the Elder will start paying attention to you. Walk around openly, don’t even wear your uniform, and act as relaxed and punchable as possible. That’s what I did.”

After speaking, she stood up and tested her legs. They had fully recovered, but spending a thousand spirit stones on healing pills made her feel like her legs were plated with gold.

If she didn’t improve soon, she wouldn’t even be able to afford medicine anymore.

“You should try it yourself. The Elders only value real strength, not appearances.”

Guan Shize suddenly had an epiphany. “I see now. I was focusing on the wrong thing.”

To leave a good impression on the Elders, he had to actually be strong. Otherwise, no matter how well he behaved, it was all for show. They weren’t Artifact Refiners; there was no need for pretentiousness.

After all, many legendary sword cultivators had unconventional ways of living.

Guan Shize looked at Lian Mu, and suddenly, she seemed to glow with wisdom. “I understand now. Thank you!”

He immediately went to put it into practice.

After passing on her “secret to getting beaten up,” Lian Mu dragged her aching body back to Qingzhu Courtyard for a bath.

Soaking in a medicinal bath, she felt like a new person. By the time she came out, her whole body was refreshed and her limbs agile again.

She had to admit, though people in this world fought fiercely, their alchemical pills were truly miraculous. Even if someone was completely crippled, a few high-grade pills could restore them.

The only downside? They were too expensive.

After a few days of Murong Yi’s beatings, she was broke.

Once she sorted out her house, Lian Mu climbed over the wall and snuck out.

It was broad daylight this time, and not a single patrolling disciple was in sight. No one would have expected that in the middle of the day, a disciple would be bold enough to climb over the wall.

After entering the Star-Plucking Tower, Lian Mu immediately went to check on her Magic beast materials. The Five-Tailed Red Scorpion had already been processed by her, leaving only the exoskeleton. She had sold the rest at a low price to those in need.

An eighth-rank earth beast wasn’t anything rare, so she had only managed to recover a bit of her costs—just enough to cover a month’s rent for the Artifact Refiners’ workshop.

She had been too busy to make time for this lately, so she had asked a body cultivator, Fang Ling, who was eighteen years old, to help her out. Now that she finally had a chance, Lian Mu planned to take on a few commissions to earn some money.

She went to the north wall of the hall where magic beast bounties were posted and picked out a few low-rank Magic beast tasks. After enduring Murong Yi’s high-intensity beatings, killing sixth-rank and lower Magic beasts was now as easy for her as eating and drinking.

After completing a few tasks, she came out with an extra 100,000 spirit stones in her Spatial Pouch. It seemed like a lot, but the moment she used it to buy Flame Gold, it was gone in the blink of an eye.

“You need that much Flame Gold?”

Inside the Star-Plucking Tower, there was a place where spiritual materials and spiritual plants were sold. Lian Mu found a shop that seemed reliable and went in to buy Flame Gold.

She counted her spirit stones—she had a total of 200,000. After scraping together everything she had, she had finally saved up enough to buy the Flame Gold needed for a sword.

“Mm, I’m going to forge a sword.”

The shopkeeper saw her young appearance and asked, “A newly minted Artifact Refiner? I suggest you start by refining spiritual tools first. Jumping straight into sword forging isn’t a good idea for you.”

Forging swords required the infusion of spiritual energy. Only those with a Heaven-grade spiritual root or a single spiritual root wouldn’t have to worry about it, but for Artifact Refiners with dual spiritual roots or lower, handling such an advanced task was extremely difficult—not to mention the enormous cost in spirit stones.

Lian Mu said, “No, I’m in a hurry. I need it right away.”

The shopkeeper: “?” What kind of urgency could be this pressing?

“If you need a sword, you could just commission one from another Artifact Refiner. The price isn’t too high—just over six million spirit stones for a decent one.” The shopkeeper’s apprentice had just walked over, overheard their conversation, and offered a suggestion.

Lian Mu’s expression remained blank. Seeing her reaction, the shopkeeper immediately knocked his apprentice on the head and told him to get lost.

“…He just has a clumsy mouth, don’t take it to heart.”

The person in front of him was clearly an Artifact Refiner. Asking an Artifact Refiner to buy a spiritual weapon from another Artifact Refiner—wasn’t that an insult?

The shopkeeper took out a Spatial Pouch specifically for storing spiritual materials from the cabinet behind him and handed it to her. “Here is the Flame Gold you wanted. If it’s not enough, you can come back and buy more.”

“Thank you.” Lian Mu handed over the payment. With a single raise of her hand, she spent two hundred thousand spirit stones, making her heart ache.

She carefully put away the Spatial Pouch filled with Flame Gold, tucking it into her robes, while hanging an empty, completely unoccupied Spatial Pouch on her waist for a bit of self-comfort.

Now that she had the Flame Gold, she still needed a set of Gold Beast Spiritual Armor.

Lian Mu planned to first make some qi-replenishing pills. The past few bounty missions had left her utterly exhausted.

In the most secluded area of the first floor of Star-Plucking Tower, there was an alchemy room available for rent at five hundred spirit stones per day, with free fire materials provided.

She brought along the spiritual plants she had gathered from the Gui Xian Sect’s spiritual plant garden and headed to the alchemy room in Star-Plucking Tower.

As for why she didn’t refine the pills in Gui Xian Sect beforehand… it was because she had discovered a new alchemy method that wasn’t quite suitable for testing out in Gui Xian Sect.

Lian Mu paid five hundred spirit stones to rent the alchemy room, shut the door, poured the alchemy ingredients into a basin, and then pulled out a smooth little bead—

It was the inner core of the Five-Tailed Red Scorpion.

Every Magic beast’s inner core was located in a different place. For the Five-Tailed Red Scorpion, it was in its lower abdomen, the softest part of its body. Extracting it hadn’t taken much effort.

Lian Mu ignited the fire material, tossing it into the base of the furnace. She then added the spiritual plants one by one in order. At the very end, she added one extra ingredient—the Magic beast’s inner core in her hand.

She had read about this method in The Feng Clan’s Secret Alchemy Supplementary Record—using Magic beast inner cores to refine pills.

She wasn’t sure if the method would work, but it was worth a try.

Surely, the Gui Xian Sect’s library wouldn’t collect any heretical or unscrupulous books, right?

Feeling slightly reassured, Lian Mu continued adding fire material to the furnace. The alchemy furnace wasn’t of a high grade, and the fire material was quite ordinary, but at least it had unlimited refills and didn’t cost extra—only time.

The flames in the furnace burned for a full hour. A whole bucket of fire material was used up, yet there was no reaction inside the furnace.

Lian Mu found this odd. She rang the bell to call for more fire material, refilling it three times in a row. But even after burning through three full buckets, there was still no response.

By this point, even the black-robed attendant replenishing the fire material couldn’t hold back. “What exactly are you refining? You’re not deliberately wasting Star-Plucking Tower’s resources, are you?”

Thick-skinned, Lian Mu accepted the fourth bucket of fire material. She sat in front of the alchemy furnace, pondering what had gone wrong.

The book had clearly stated that the refining process should take only half an hour.

Could it be that something else was needed?

An idea popped into Lian Mu’s head. She raised her hand, gathered spiritual energy, and slowly injected it into the alchemy furnace.

Finally, the furnace reacted. Through the narrow openings, she saw the spiritual plants inside gradually melting, so she continued adding fire material while injecting more spiritual energy.

Before long, she began to feel depleted. She attempted to pull her hand back, only to find she couldn’t—the alchemy furnace was actively absorbing her spiritual energy.

Lian Mu: “???”

She struggled in vain. As she watched the last of her spiritual energy being drained, she panicked and, in desperation, punched the alchemy furnace.

The next moment, a deafening explosion echoed throughout Star-Plucking Tower.

“Boom—!”

The black-robed attendants outside were startled. They hurried to the alchemy room and found that one of the rooms had been blasted apart—the door was gone, and the interior was pitch black. Only one figure stood inside.

Lian Mu was momentarily stunned before realizing she had blown up the alchemy furnace. Fortunately, she had instinctively formed a protective barrier with her spiritual energy at the last moment.

However, her face hadn’t been spared—it was covered in soot.

The black-robed attendants were dumbfounded. “What did you do?!”

Lian Mu looked at the remains of the alchemy furnace. In the center of the wreckage lay a white jade-like pill, standing out starkly against the surrounding destruction.

Without hesitation, Lian Mu quickly snatched up the pill and stuffed it into her pocket, maintaining a calm expression. “Alchemy.”

Black-robed attendant: “???”

Who refines pills by blowing up the entire alchemy room?!

“Why did you destroy the alchemy room?” This black-robed attendant clearly didn’t recognize her.

“I told you, I was refining pills. Your alchemy furnace wasn’t very good—it exploded with just one punch. You should consider getting a new one.” Lian Mu patted him on the shoulder before casually walking away.

The black-robed attendant: “…?”

A taller black-robed attendant had also rushed over upon hearing the commotion. When he saw the destroyed alchemy room, he was shocked. “What happened?”

“She punched the alchemy furnace and blew it up,” the shorter black-robed attendant pointed at Lian Mu’s retreating figure.

The slightly taller black-robed attendant had been wondering who could punch an alchemy furnace to pieces. When he saw Lian Mu’s back, he immediately recognized her and understood.

“Oh, it’s her.”

That cultivator who had fought a Gold Beast barehanded.

He reassured the other black-clothed man and said, “Find an Artifact Refiner to fix it. Maybe she just wanted to pat the alchemy furnace a bit. Our furnace is too fragile—we should replace it.”

The other black-clothed man was once again dumbfounded: “…”

Around the corner, two figures walked toward them.

One of them wore a silver mask with a silver snake design, while beside them stood a man. If Lian Mu were here, she would recognize him as the body cultivator, Eighteen Years Old.

Eighteen Years Old saw the mess ahead, frowned, and said, “The alchemy room of the Star-Plucking Tower… is this shabby?”

The person in the silver snake mask crouched down and picked up a snow-white pill from the ground. After examining it for a moment, a faint green light slowly emerged from their fingertips.

Eighteen Years Old asked, “What’s wrong?”

The silver snake mask retracted their fingers and put the pill into their Spatial Pouch. “…I’ve long heard that the Star-Plucking Tower is full of hidden talents. I didn’t expect someone this formidable to be on the first floor.”

They couldn’t discern what spiritual herbs had been used to refine this pill. However, just from the lingering spiritual energy, it was clear that the Alchemy Cultivator who made it was definitely not inferior to a single spiritual root cultivator, possibly even approaching the level of a Heaven Spiritual Root.

“There are indeed many powerful individuals,” Eighteen Years Old said. “I even met a strong Sword Cultivator here. I haven’t seen her around recently, but I’ll introduce you if I get the chance.”

—