“The more diligently she cultivates, the faster the Thousand-Thread Vine grows. If she neglects her cultivation, she’ll remain stuck where she is until the vine drains all her cultivation dry.”
Mo Yu understood at once. Put simply, whether Gu Miao’er cultivated quickly or slowly, she would die in the end. If she cultivated quickly, the thing hastening her death would work all the faster.
If she cultivated slowly, her cultivation would stagnate, and the Thousand-Thread Vine would still grow in the end. But other people’s looks and comments would surely make that even harder for Gu Miao’er to bear.
“You said one side effect of Thousand-Thread Vine is that it makes people more and more beautiful. What will she look like in the end?” Setting aside her tiny flicker of sympathy, Mo Yu moved on to another question.
Jiang Chan rolled her eyes. “How would I know how beautiful she’ll become? However beautiful she gets, surely she won’t surpass that fox?”
“Don’t mention that flirtatious fox. Just thinking of him makes me furious. A male, yet prettier than the vixens.” Mo Yu rolled her eyes dramatically. Everyone in the forest knew she and the fox did not get along.
Unfortunately, the fox’s cultivation was higher, so Mo Yu could only avoid him. Now that she had left with Jiang Chan, she was in an excellent mood.
Jiang Chan could only sigh. How much resentment did Mo Yu harbor toward that fox? They were not even in the forest of magical beasts anymore, yet mentioning him still touched a nerve.
“If the Yunshui Sect weren’t so heavily guarded, I’d want to see what a great beauty Gu Miao’er becomes.” Mo Yu’s shoulders slumped. Knowing she could not get into the Yunshui Sect, she reluctantly abandoned the idea.
Gu Miao’er’s situation would come to an end sooner or later, so Jiang Chan stopped paying attention to her. She was connected to the Thousand-Thread Vine. Once it matured, she could control it from thousands of miles away. Gu Miao’er would then be utterly destroyed, and Xiao Jin would be avenged.
She had not the slightest sympathy for Gu Miao’er. In fact, after seeing Xiao Jin’s memories of its previous life, Jiang Chan had taken a strong dislike to her.
She already had so much: tremendous fortune and a devoted Dao companion, yet she still coveted someone else’s Treasure-Hunting Mouse. That showed just how greedy people could be. Jiang Chan did not object to ambition. What she resented was taking other people’s possessions through trickery and force.
Besides, Gu Miao’er seemed to have awakened memories of her previous life. In a sense, the Gu Miao’er of this life was the same one as before. Jiang Chan felt no guilt at all about acting against her.
In this world, debts owed to others had to be repaid eventually. In her previous life, Gu Miao’er had caused Xiao Jin’s soul to scatter. Now Jiang Chan would let her taste Xiao Jin’s suffering too.
If she were fortunate enough, she could find Qingyuan and ask her to carry out missions on her behalf. But Jiang Chan did not think Qingyuan would agree to help Gu Miao’er. Qingyuan was a principled person. The missions she arranged generally involved people with sound values, something she and Jiang Chan had very much in common.
“I’m going to cultivate. I’ve gained some insights from training with that little girl Feng Qiwu lately. I’ll enter seclusion for a while.” Mo Yu stood, her black clothes spotless.
“She really is talented. Before, she couldn’t last three moves under my pressure. Now she can hold out for the time it takes an incense stick to burn. You have a good eye.”
Jiang Chan wrinkled her nose. “How long will you be in seclusion? I’m planning to enter seclusion soon too. I’ll wait until you’re finished so we can look out for each other.”
Mo Yu casually put an arm around Jiang Chan’s shoulders. “I haven’t been wrong to call you a good friend. About a month, I think. By the time I finish, I should have reached the middle Nascent Soul stage.”
“Alright. Then I’ll wish you a successful seclusion in advance. I’ll spend this time consolidating my cultivation. There are a few pill recipes I still need to experiment with too.”
Jiang Chan was decisive as well. After watching Mo Yu enter her cave dwelling, she settled down and immersed herself in pill recipes again. She was now trying to refine Youth-Preserving Pills. As it happened, while traveling, a Sword Sect elder had found a few plants in a secret realm that were the principal ingredient for these pills. Jiang Chan wanted to try using them.
If she really succeeded in refining Youth-Preserving Pills, wouldn’t money come pouring in? Fortunately, the spiritual plants the elder brought back still had a little life in them. Jiang Chan planted them in Alchemy Peak’s medicinal fields. To protect the fields, she laid down layer after layer of restrictions, concealing them completely from outsiders.
By the time Mo Yu finished her seclusion, her Youth-Preserving Pills would probably be ready too. Whatever happened, she would give Mo Yu one once they were finished. That woman loved looking beautiful. She would be delighted with the gift.
Half a month later, major news shook the cultivation world. Someone had actually refined top-grade Youth-Preserving Pills. And they had not come from the Medicine Sect. They were being offered by the Sword Sect.
Cultivators everywhere took notice. Since when did the Sword Sect have its own alchemist? One who could produce top-grade Youth-Preserving Pills, no less? Now the Sword Sect would gain not only fame but a steady flood of spirit stones too.
As everyone knew, Youth-Preserving Pills were not quite so tempting to male cultivators. Female cultivators were another matter. Who did not want to remain forever young? Naturally, it was the female cultivators who went wild over them.
Jiang Chan left everything that followed to the Sword Sect. She was only responsible for refining pills. Besides, if she went out in public without a care, someone might recognize her true form.
With so little fighting ability of her own, it was better to remain behind the scenes.
This time, the Sword Sect elders were grinning from ear to ear. The launch of the Youth-Preserving Pills had made them a fortune. Let anyone try calling them poor sword cultivators now!
They had spirit stones in their pockets now. Money was no problem!
Sword cultivators were not unintelligent. In fact, anyone capable of becoming one was unlikely to be a fool. One Sword Sect elder, in particular, understood very well how to profit from a scarce commodity.
Jiang Chan gave them ten Youth-Preserving Pills at once. Instead of selling all ten together, the elder auctioned one off every so often, then another after some time, driving the price higher and higher.
Even Jiang Chan was surprised by his methods. There really were clever people everywhere. His approach was remarkably similar to the tactics used to generate hype in later times.
The Sword Sect had made an unexpected fortune, but the Medicine Sect’s alchemists were unhappy. It was not that they could not refine Youth-Preserving Pills. They simply could not produce top-grade ones.
The difference between ordinary and top-grade Youth-Preserving Pills was enormous. An ordinary pill could preserve someone’s appearance for at most ten years. A top-grade pill, however, could do so for up to a hundred years, without any side effects.
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