Cultivating in Online Games

Chapter 46 - Alchemy Medicine

Dugu Zhuo gradually realized that he was different from players.

Although “Nine Heavens” had high freedom and lifelike NPCs, there was still a subtle difference in attitude towards players and Dugu Zhuo.

Like the red-clothed woman in the previous instance, she would only say some program-regulated lines to players; anything extra, she wouldn’t say. However, when Dugu Zhuo revealed the aura of the Profound Sword, the red-clothed woman showed some fear towards him.

The NPCs here were too lifelike. Important NPCs behaved like real people. The subtle changes in their attitudes were naturally imperceptible to other players.

Being in the midst of it, Dugu Zhuo felt deeply moved. Logically, after the main quest ended, he shouldn’t be able to enter the Tan Ye Monastery. Sneaking in at night like this would surely result in receiving a “lesson” from the guards and monks.

Yet, when Dugu Zhuo arrived at the Tan Ye Monastery, the night guard monk rushed over fiercely. However, upon seeing that it was Dugu Zhuo, he suppressed his fierce expression and very respectfully called him “layman” before leaning against the wall and pretending to sleep, as if he hadn’t seen anything.

In the eyes of players, he was just a player, but in the eyes of NPCs, Dugu Zhuo seemed to have a different identity.

He found a side hall and walked in, pushing the door open. No one stopped him.

Dugu Zhuo knew that monks rarely came to this side hall, so he loudly said, “I’ll borrow this.”

No one responded to Dugu Zhuo, but no one came to drive him away either.

Dugu Zhuo assumed that the monks had agreed, so he took out the alchemy furnace and decided to first refine a furnace of Foundation Establishment Pills as a test.

Although there were enough materials for nine Foundation Establishment Pills, the probability of success for alchemy pills was extremely low. If he could produce four pills from these materials, it would already be considered excellent alchemy skills. This was Dugu Zhuo’s first attempt at alchemy in this world, so it was experimental. He thought it would be good if he could produce one pill from this furnace.

Alchemy also required spiritual techniques. After igniting the alchemy fire with True Yuan, one had to use spiritual techniques to draw in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the alchemy furnace. It would be even better if there was a Gathering Spirit Formation nearby.

The Tan Ye Monastery naturally had a Gathering Spirit Formation, with abundant spiritual energy. In theory, it would take forty-nine days to refine the pills.

Dugu Zhuo wasn’t sure if refining pills in an online game would also take this long. He felt it shouldn’t be that long, as it had only taken him a few days to advance from level 0 to Foundation Establishment stage. Perhaps alchemy would be faster.

After casting the spiritual technique, Dugu Zhuo sat by the door to guard the alchemy furnace. He thought even if it went smoothly, it would still take three to five hours, so he planned to rest for a while.

After all, it was already the hour of the tiger (3 AM). Dugu Zhuo had only reached the Foundation Establishment stage, and he hadn’t reached the realm where he could do without rest. He needed to rest for one or two hours a day.

When he sat down to meditate, he accidentally touched the Gathering Spirit Formation of the Tan Ye Monastery. Just as Dugu Zhuo’s True Yuan had circulated one cycle in his body, he felt something was wrong. The Gathering Spirit Formation of the Tan Ye Monastery was extremely powerful. How could his True Yuan absorb only such a small amount of spiritual energy?

Dugu Zhuo woke up from his meditation in a hurry. He saw all the surrounding spiritual energy being absorbed by the alchemy furnace in front of him, and the furnace that was supposed to take forty-nine days to refine was about to produce pills in front of his eyes!

Alchemy had three important steps. Firstly, at the beginning, one had to ignite the alchemy fire and cast the correct spiritual technique. The speed, posture, and size of True Yuan when casting the spiritual technique couldn’t be wrong by half a point, or else the pills couldn’t be refined.

Secondly, during the alchemy period, one had to continuously inject stable spiritual energy. Neither too much nor too little, and the alchemy furnace needed to be constantly monitored. Therefore, in myths and legends, experts in alchemy like the Supreme Elder would have an alchemy disciple. The disciple wasn’t just someone who could light a fire but was someone who could continuously maintain the Gathering Spirit Formation, injecting spiritual energy into the alchemy furnace. Often, this would take several years or even decades.

Thirdly, it was the moment when the pills were successfully refined. The pills contained medicinal power and spiritual energy from heaven and earth. When collecting the pills, one must use the correct method to suppress the power of the pills, lock the pills firmly with True Yuan, and place them into the already prepared pill bottles.

This bottle was also not an ordinary item. It needed to have some formation patterns carved on it to prevent the medicinal power inside the bottle from leaking out.

This was just for ordinary pills. If they were Immortal Pills or Divine Pills, they would need to withstand the calamity of heaven. If there was any carelessness, the alchemist would also suffer.

Dugu Zhuo glanced at the time. It had only been five minutes since he ignited the alchemy fire, and the pills were about to be produced from this furnace.

If he didn’t collect the pills soon, the newly acquired alchemy furnace would explode!

He quickly extinguished the alchemy fire, used a technique to open the alchemy furnace, and took out a porcelain bottle. This bottle was given by the system when obtaining the Foundation Establishment Pills in the Temple of the Sun, and it happened to be suitable for storing the pills.

As soon as the alchemy furnace was opened, a pill flew out, attempting to escape the room.

Dugu Zhuo used a technique to stabilize the pill and then collected it into the porcelain bottle.

Subsequently, the second pill, the third pill… until finally, all nine pills had successfully formed!

After waiting for the spiritual essence of the pills to stabilize and prevent them from flying around, Dugu Zhuo took out one pill from the porcelain bottle and inspected it with his divine sense. It was indeed an excellent quality Foundation Establishment Pill, even better than the ones the system gave in the level 20 dungeon.

He consumed one of the Foundation Establishment Pills he had refined. Soon, the system prompted him that he had established his foundation and asked if he wanted to convert the pill into experience points. Dugu Zhuo chose to do so and gained sixty thousand experience points.

Dugu Zhuo: “…”

His experience points increased again. If he had known, he would have tested with other players tomorrow. It wasn’t sustainable for his experience points to keep rising like this.

In this world, players leveled up extremely fast, and everyone practiced cultivation. It was likely that the world was filled with an incredible amount of spiritual energy, which explained the high success rate in pill refining. With this in mind, he could really mass-produce pills and sell them for money.

The number of pills that could be produced by the alchemy furnace was limited. Dugu Zhuo divided the herbs suitable for refining Foundation Establishment Pills into three portions and consecutively refined three batches of pills, each containing forty-nine pills.

With too many pills, he couldn’t find enough containers for storage, so he used a large porcelain jar in the side hall of the Tan Ye Monastery, which was used as a decoration, and drew a formation pattern with cinnabar to prevent the dispersion of medicinal power. He temporarily used the large porcelain jar to collect the pills and planned to buy more pill bottles later.

Fifteen minutes later, he obtained 147 excellent-quality Foundation Establishment Pills. After placing these pills into the large porcelain jar, Dugu Zhuo felt a surreal feeling in his heart.

He could be considered an alchemy master now, but he had never seen so many Foundation Establishment Pills produced from one furnace, and in such a short time. If there were so many Foundation Establishment Pills in the cultivation world, disciples of the Qingtian Sword Sect wouldn’t have to fight over a single pill.

Since it was still early, Dugu Zhuo took out all the herbs he had and began refining more Foundation Establishment Pills. Although he had run out of herbs suitable for refining Foundation Establishment Pills, he could still refine some blood-replenishing pills, qi-replenishing pills, and pills for beauty preservation and facial transformation.

In the game, although there were herbs for blood replenishment and qi replenishment, the game followed the model of traditional keyboard MMOs, where the herbs were in the form of plants, and the taste was very realistic, even bitter.

Most players adjusted their taste perception to 100% to enjoy food, but when it came to taking medicine, they would have an extremely bitter experience and protest why the game company didn’t produce pills. The feeling of chewing raw herbs was too unpleasant.

However, players also knew that there were simple and fast blood-replenishing pills in the game, but these were introduced in the later stages of the game, and currently, players were at low levels, so such pills hadn’t appeared yet.

Dugu Zhuo successively refined 200 blood-replenishing pills and qi-replenishing pills. These two types of pills were much easier to refine than Foundation Establishment Pills, and there were more of them.

There were also pills for beauty preservation and facial transformation, which were supposed to enhance appearance and change one’s appearance. Dugu Zhuo hadn’t tried them before, so he wasn’t sure about their specific effects.

Dugu Zhuo quickly made fifteen furnaces of pills in a row, and only an hour and a half had passed. Seeing that there was still plenty of time, he wondered if he should go to the pharmacy in the Eternal Day or Eternal Night district to buy more herbs and refine new pills.

Although nighttime in Penglai Town was under curfew, it wasn’t the case in the Eternal Day or Eternal Night districts. There were pharmacies there too, but the variety wasn’t very comprehensive. They didn’t have enough herbs to refine Foundation Establishment Pills and beauty preservation and facial transformation pills, but luckily, there were enough herbs for blood-replenishing and qi-replenishing pills.

Just as Dugu Zhuo was about to go buy herbs, he saw an old monk standing with palms together in front of the side hall door, followed by a row of monks holding Zen staffs behind him, probably from Zen One to Zen Ten.

Seeing this lineup, even Dugu Zhuo felt a little guilty, but he still calmly said, “Today, I borrowed the side hall of your temple. Thank you, Master, for your understanding.”

The old monk said, “Amitabha, there is the virtue of benevolent heaven, and if the layman has no fixed residence or is attacked by demons, helping the layman is the blessing of the Tan Ye Monastery. However, if the layman refines pills in the temple, refining one furnace after another, one furnace after another, one furnace after another, one furnace after another…”

As Dugu Zhuo listened to the old monk’s endless repetition of “one furnace after another,” his patience was about to run out. Only then did the old monk continue, “Although the Tan Ye Monastery is abundant in spiritual energy, it cannot be squandered like this. After the layman finishes refining these fifteen furnaces of pills, the spiritual energy of our Tan Ye Monastery for today will be almost depleted.”

Dugu Zhuo was originally feeling very guilty, but when he heard the old monk say “today’s portion,” he couldn’t help but ask, “Is it just for today? What about tomorrow?”

The old monk replied, “No matter how much spiritual energy is consumed during the day, at the four quarter-hours of each day, the spiritual energy of the Tan Ye Monastery will be restored to its original state.”

Ah, so that’s how it works, Dugu Zhuo thought to himself, nodding silently to the old monk and saying, “Then I won’t come today.”

He would come back after the midnight reset of spiritual energy tomorrow.

Sigh, it’s troublesome not having a sect and relying on others. Dugu Zhuo thought somewhat desolately.

He packed up the alchemy furnace and was about to leave with the large bottle from the Tan Ye Monastery when the old monk smiled faintly and a row of warrior monks behind him blocked Dugu Zhuo’s path.

Dugu Zhuo looked at the old monk and asked, “Is there something, Master?”

The old monk replied, “The layman has stayed in the Tan Ye Monastery. Shouldn’t he offer some incense money as alms?”

As he spoke, he continued to gesture with his eyes towards the large bottle containing the pills, evidently indicating that the “incense money” he wanted wasn’t actual silver coins.

Dugu Zhuo said, “What does the monk want to do with pills, sell them to players? Can temples sell things? Such mundane items would defile the Buddha.”

“It won’t flow into the hands of the young heroes. The poor monk only needs some blood-replenishing and qi-replenishing pills to be placed on the free clinic stall, to be given to the common people in case of accidents. There are also Foundation Establishment Pills. Our temple still has some disciples who haven’t established their foundation. Recently, there have been more and more young heroes coming to burn incense, and the Tan Ye Monastery is short-staffed, so we also need to train some new disciples,” the old monk explained.

As long as the Tan Ye Monastery didn’t affect his money-making plan with the players, Dugu Zhuo didn’t mind.

In the end, the old monk took away 10% of the blood-replenishing, qi-replenishing, and Foundation Establishment Pills, but didn’t ask for the beauty preservation and facial transformation pills.

However, it wasn’t a complete loss, as the old monk would tell Dugu Zhuo the properties of each pill he took.

“This Foundation Establishment Pill has excellent quality. Even if you have already established your foundation, you can still use it for experience points, but you can’t use it after reaching level 30.”

“The blood-replenishing pill can instantly replenish 400 health points, with a cooldown time of 20 seconds, and no level restriction.”

Currently, the maximum health points of a level 20 player were only around 800, so the blood-replenishing pill could replenish over 50% of their health, making it the best blood-replenishing pill available.

“The qi-replenishing pill can instantly replenish 300 spiritual energy points, with a cooldown time of 20 seconds, and no level restriction.”

Although the maximum spiritual energy points of a player were slightly lower than health points, at around 700, the qi-replenishing pill could still replenish nearly 50% of their spiritual energy, making it extremely useful. Moreover, players with healing skills could only restore their teammates’ health points. Currently, apart from taking medicine, there was no way to restore spiritual energy, and the herbs sold on the market could only replenish up to 150 spiritual energy points at a time.

“The beauty preservation pill… Although I don’t often use it, I also know that it can increase the young heroes’ charm by 10%, with an effect duration of 15 seconds.”

“The facial transformation pill, this… seems to be able to briefly change into the appearance of a same-race opponent during battle, confusing the opponent, and can only be maintained for 10 seconds.”

The old monk explained the usage of each pill, balancing Dugu Zhuo’s feelings somewhat.

Nine Rivers City was not under curfew at night, so Dugu Zhuo went to the city overnight and bought many pill bottles from the store where alchemy items were sold, finally no longer needing to carry the large bottle.

With still plenty of time, Dugu Zhuo went to the bandits’ stronghold to continue refining pills, but unfortunately, the spiritual energy there was not as abundant as in the Tan Ye Monastery, resulting in pills with poor quality. The Foundation Establishment Pill could only increase experience points by forty thousand. After refining one furnace of Foundation Establishment Pills, Dugu Zhuo disdainfully left.

The bandits naturally didn’t dare to force Dugu Zhuo to leave behind 10% of the pills, so they could only reluctantly offer up the silver they had looted recently, which amounted to only seven thousand taels. Dugu Zhuo reluctantly accepted it.

Having refined many pills, Dugu Zhuo wanted to share them with Ye Zhou. From the hour of Chen, he paced back and forth where Ye Zhou had logged off yesterday, waiting for Ye Zhou to log back in.

With the Foundation Establishment Pills, he could help Ye Zhou level up. Then their experience points wouldn’t be too different.

When Ye Zhou accumulated enough experience to reach level 30, Dugu Zhuo would sell the Foundation Establishment Pills. As for how to sell them… he would find someone even poorer than the bandits, who should have connections.

To conceal his impatient mood, Dugu Zhuo put on his straw hat and patiently waited.

However, by nine o’clock, Ye Zhou hadn’t logged in.

Dugu Zhuo waited like a statue, waiting until noon when Ye Zhou usually logged off, but Ye Zhou still hadn’t logged in.