Three days later, Zhang Ling rented a black-scaled carriage and arrived at the foot of a barren mountain on the south side of the Immortal City.
"Southern Departure Mountain"
Looking at the stone archway in front of him, inscribed with the three ancient characters for Southern Departure Mountain, he knew this was a volcanic mountain within the Immortal City.
A long, gray stone staircase extended into the mountain. A yellow light flashed in Zhang Ling's hand, and a circular jade token appeared.
He injected spiritual power into it, and a white light enveloped him. Then, Zhang Ling stepped onto the staircase.
There was a restriction here, making it a crucial area of the Misty Cloud Immortal City.
A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Ling arrived in front of a two-story building made of bluestone and stopped. Qing light flashed on the jade token in his hand, shooting into the stone building. Zhang Ling surveyed the stone structure before him.
The building seemed quite old, with several white stone pillars standing around it, adorned with beast patterns. The long stone pillars had faded somewhat due to years of wind and sun.
However, the entire building was still spotless, indicating excellent maintenance. Strange纹路 were visible on it, seemingly reinforcing the restrictions.
On the stone plaque were the three neatly written characters "Elixir Fire Residence," with a row of small inscriptions in the lower right corner.
Just as Zhang Ling was about to examine the inscriptions, a red-faced man emerged from the stone house, greeting him with a hearty laugh.
"So, it's Fellow Daoist Zhang."
"May I ask for this senior brother's esteemed name?" Zhang Ling's eyes flashed with spiritual light, discovering that the man was also at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, and he cupped his fist in greeting.
"You're too kind, my name is Gu Fei."
After exchanging a few more words, Gu Fei led him into the stone house and directly up to the second floor.
Upon reaching the second floor, a refreshing fragrance of elixir wafted over him. Zhang Ling was certain that the fragrance originated from at least a second-grade elixir.
The second floor appeared empty, with only a few large tables. Behind one of the stone tables, an elderly man with white hair seemed to be studying spiritual herbs and other things. The medicinal fragrance emanated from this area.
"Senior Brother Wang, this is Fellow Daoist Zhang Ling, who has come to take on the elixir refinement task," Gu Fei introduced Zhang Ling to the old man.
However, the old man didn't look at them, still focused on tinkering with the bottles and jars on the table. Seeing this, Gu Fei smiled helplessly at Zhang Ling and called out to the old man again.
"Senior Brother."
Zhang Ling also glanced at the old man, discovering that he was a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, seemingly at his peak. This Fellow Daoist Wang was the person in charge.
"Junior Brother Gu, arrange things for him. This old man doesn't have time for such trivial matters," the old man only slightly raised his head to glance at them before waving his hand.
"Then, I will take the liberty."
Afterward, the two left the stone building and headed towards another location in the mountain.
"Brother Zhang, please don't mind. Senior Brother Wang is one of the three elixir refinement masters here. It's just that his temperament is a bit eccentric."
"It's nothing. I wonder if I can accept the elixir refinement task now."
Along the way, Zhang Ling inquired about the situation here from Gu Fei. This man was quite talkative, introducing him to various things about the place.
Before long, they arrived at the mountainside and entered a passage built of black stone. The two sat down in a stone room, and Gu Fei said a few words before leaving.
"Junior Brother Zhang, please wait. I will inform Fellow Daoist Zhao."
"Alright."
After the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, Zhang Ling saw Gu Fei followed by a short-bearded, dark-faced man.
This man was burly and stood upright, with no smile on his face, exuding an imposing aura.
Zhao Geng was his name, and he was another manager here, responsible for assigning tasks to them, the elixir refiners. Gu Fei had mentioned earlier that this person was also an elixir refiner.
At first glance, Zhang Ling was shocked. This Fellow Daoist Zhao also had late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation.
The large man's eyes shifted, sizing up Zhang Ling before sitting firmly in a chair and saying expressionlessly:
"Fellow Daoist Gu, this is the fellow Daoist who has come to apply as an elixir refiner, right? My name is Zhao Geng. May I know your name?"
Whether in terms of cultivation or status, the other party was much stronger than him. Zhang Ling didn't act presumptuously and replied with a serious expression: "Zhang Ling."
"So, it's Fellow Daoist Zhang. We must make it clear beforehand that if you don't meet my requirements, then please return to where you came from."
"That's natural," Zhang Ling replied unassumingly.
"Good. Then please tell me what elixirs you can refine, and I can arrange a test for you."
"Although I can't refine many spiritual pills, I can refine some Spirit Gathering Pills, Light Spirit Pills, and Foundation Enhancement Pills."
"Oh, it seems Fellow Daoist is quite confident. In that case, let's use the Foundation Enhancement Pill for the test. As long as you can achieve a 30% pill formation rate, you will pass. What do you think, Fellow Daoist?"
"Then let it be the Foundation Enhancement Pill."
Zhang Ling thought for a moment and agreed. Then, this person summoned an eleven or twelve-year-old boy, leading him towards the Earth Fire Room.
……
Inside the Earth Fire Room!
With a wave of his hand, Zhang Ling took out the bag that Zhao Geng had given him. Inside was a portion of spiritual herbs for refining the Foundation Enhancement Pill, enough to refine ten Foundation Enhancement Pills.
He gently patted the storage bag with his left hand, and a cyan elixir furnace landed on the earth fire formation inside the stone room.
This elixir furnace wasn't his previous one. Instead, he found it in a storage bag while checking his gains. It must have belonged to some unlucky fellow's magical instrument.
The cyan elixir furnace was a top-grade magical instrument. An elixir furnace like this was at least three times the price of an ordinary top-grade magical instrument. It was much better than his previous human-grade furnace.
Zhang Ling calmed his mind and began refining the Foundation Enhancement Pill. As long as he passed this test, he could stay here.
Regarding this, Zhang Ling had great confidence.
……
More than an hour later, Zhang Ling walked out of the Earth Fire Room, a white jade bottle in his hand.
Under the lead of the boy from before, he returned to the previous stone room, where Gu Fei and Zhao Geng were chatting.
"How was it, Junior Brother Zhang?" Gu Fei asked with concern when he saw Zhang Ling.
"I've kept you both waiting. Please take a look."
With a wave of his hand, the jade bottle flew to Zhao Geng. This person grabbed the jade bottle, and with a flash of spiritual light, four milky white Foundation Enhancement Pills flew out of the jade bottle.
Then, the two pinched a few Foundation Enhancement Pills and carefully examined them, then nodded to each other.
A gleam flashed in Gu Fei's eyes, and he stroked his chin. "Brother Zhang, your elixir refinement talent is indeed not bad. The Foundation Enhancement Pill has a pill formation rate of about 40%, which is enough to be competent for the elixir refinement task."
"You two are too kind. It's just good luck."
Zhang Ling just shook his head and didn't say much.
In fact, his pill formation rate for the Foundation Enhancement Pill was roughly around 50%. He had refined a total of six Foundation Enhancement Pills just now and handed in four. He didn't want to arouse suspicion from these two.
After all, the Foundation Enhancement Pill was a second-grade spiritual pill. Being able to refine it with a 30% pill formation rate could already be said to be quite talented in elixir refinement.
However, Zhang Ling knew that this was because he had been refining the Foundation Enhancement Pill for many years, using a large number of spiritual herbs for practice, which had resulted in a pill formation rate of around 50%.
While Zhang Ling was rapidly calculating in his mind, Zhao Geng, after inspecting the Foundation Enhancement Pill in the jade bottle, also softened his expression and said:
"Not bad, Fellow Daoist Zhang, you have passed the assessment. You can immediately receive the elixir refinement task."
"You can successfully refine the Foundation Enhancement Pill, and the pill formation rate is around 40%. As for the treatment, it will be determined based on the pills you hand in later. Is that okay?" Zhang Ling nodded and agreed without much consideration.
Zhao Geng then introduced him to the specific matters to pay attention to and left.
Gu Fei led Zhang Ling to a stone cave halfway up the mountain, gave him a restriction token, and took his leave.
The stone cave was his cave dwelling here. Zhang Ling walked in and saw that the space inside was not large, with only two stone rooms, each only ten feet or so in size.
However, it was enough for rest. There were no restrictions on their travel here, and it was up to them whether they lived in the cave dwelling or not.
The only mandatory requirement was to refine pills once every seven days. If they failed to complete the task three times in a row, then they would have to leave this place.
Zhang Ling chose a stone room, sat down on a chair, and with a wave of his hand, a jade slip appeared in his hand. This jade slip was much larger than ordinary jade slips. Every seven days, the elixir refinement task would automatically appear on it.
At the moment, it recorded his elixir refinement task for the next seven days. Zhang Ling probed it with his spiritual sense and found that it only contained one sentence.
"Ten bottles of Spirit Gathering Pills, five bottles of Light Spirit Pills, and three bottles of Foundation Enhancement Pills."
Spirit Gathering Pills were pills used by late-stage Qi Refinement cultivators, Light Spirit Pills were healing pills, and Foundation Enhancement Pills, of course, were pills used by Foundation Establishment cultivators to increase their spiritual power.
Then, Zhang Ling waved his hand and placed a storage bag given by Zhao Geng on the table. With a flash of spiritual light, the spiritual herbs inside piled up on the table.
There were fifteen portions of spiritual herbs for Spirit Gathering Pills, thirteen portions of spiritual herbs for Light Spirit Pills, and about twelve portions of spiritual herbs for Foundation Enhancement Pills.
Each bottle of pills contained ten pills. Zhang Ling calculated that, with his current level, it would take him three days to refine these pills.
Moreover, with his pill formation rate, after refining all these spiritual herbs, the quantity of pills would be roughly the same as the task required. Even if there were more, there would only be a few more of each type of pill.
It seemed that Zhao Geng was quite thoughtful and had basically guessed his elixir refinement level.
Zhang Ling waved his hand, put away the jade slip and spiritual herbs, and considered his future plans.
Now that he had secured the elixir refinement task, his life could be considered to have some guarantee. This was also the reason he came here.
A few days ago, during his conversation with Zhou Yuantong, he had also gained an understanding of the current situation in Misty Cloud City.
Now, the Immortal City had entered a state of preparation for war, and many sects had sent their second batch of cultivators.
Taking their Vast Origin Sect as an example, more than thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators and a Golden Core elder, Senior Uncle Lin Wenshan, had arrived.
Other sects were roughly the same. The number of cultivators gathered in Misty Cloud City was two or three times greater than before. There were as many as thirty or forty Golden Core experts.
There were also nearly a thousand Foundation Establishment disciples, and the number of Qi Refinement disciples had reached as many as fifty or sixty thousand. Seventy percent of them were disciples from various sects, and the rest were some rogue cultivators.
The City Lord of Misty Cloud Immortal City, "Old Man Yunxian," had also met with two Nascent Soul elders and announced the news that the Otherworldly Demons were about to officially invade.
Although this Old Man Yunshan had started as a rogue cultivator, he was a powerful cultivator with genuine mid-stage Nascent Soul strength. It was said that he had lived for more than nine hundred years.
At the same time, Zhou Yuantong also talked about the situation of the remaining eleven Immortal Cities, saying that their Misty Cloud City was attacked by the Otherworldly Demons relatively less.
Several other Immortal Cities had gone through several major battles. Although Nascent Soul experts had not yet participated in the war, eight or nine Golden Core cultivators had already died in battle.
This was recorded on the Merit Stele in the Immortal City, and the names of these experts were all on it, which was quite eye-catching.
This sounded the alarm for the cultivators, indicating that the war was about to begin.
During this period, Misty Cloud Immortal City had many demon-hunting teams composed of cultivators leaving the city to kill Otherworldly Demons every day.
It could be said that it was full of dangers. There were also some cultivators urgently repairing some small strongholds that had been breached. This was the place where the Otherworldly Demons focused their attacks.
The Immortal City would naturally not let them, the disciples who came to support, idle. Every day, many people patrolled around the Immortal City or participated in some operations to encircle and suppress the Otherworldly Demons.
It was not easy to stay safely inside the Immortal City. Now that Zhang Ling had returned, the Immortal City would also assign him tasks.
However, neither patrol tasks nor forming demon-hunting teams with other fellow disciples were the tasks that Zhang Ling wanted to do.
After learning this information from Zhou Yuantong, he was originally going to be assigned these tasks as well. But he also learned from him that there was a type of task that did not require leaving the city.
That was the task of refining pills, making talismans, and other technical skills. Now was a time of war, and there were not many tasks that could be done inside the city.
The elixir refinement task was also the only task that Zhang Ling could think of to stay in the Immortal City.
Due to the large increase in the number of cultivators gathered in the Immortal City, the daily consumption of pills, talismans, and magical instruments was very fast.
Therefore, the demand for these types of tasks had greatly increased, and the Immortal City was currently recruiting cultivators in this area.
After thinking about it, Zhang Ling revealed to Zhou Yuantong that he knew how to refine pills. With the recommendation of Senior Brother Zhou, he came to Southern Departure Mountain to apply.
The rewards for refining pills here were also not low. Not only did he not have to directly face danger, but he could also accumulate a large number of Immortal City merit points. This was another reason why Zhang Ling came here.
After resting in the cave dwelling for most of the day, Zhang Ling walked towards the Earth Fire Room. Under the lead of a boy, he began the elixir refinement task in Earth Fire Room No. 31 of Block C.
……
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, Zhang Ling had been in Southern Departure Mountain for half a year.
During this period, after a large number of Foundation Enhancement Pills were refined, his pill formation rate had also greatly increased. Now he could refine five or six Foundation Enhancement Pills at a time, greatly speeding up the refining speed.
The pill formation rate had roughly increased to about 70%.
Of course, in addition to the Foundation Enhancement Pill, he also had to refine two types of pills used by Qi Refinement cultivators and another second-grade pill, the "Lesser Revitalization Pill."
He had refined the Lesser Revitalization Pill before, but the pill formation rate was only a pitiful 20%, but now it had also increased to 40%.
This was because, as the war became more and more fierce, pills that could quickly restore spiritual power were the most scarce spiritual pills recently.
Basically, cultivators who went out would buy some.
The requirement for the Lesser Revitalization Pill was also that each portion of medicinal herbs could refine four pills, which was considered completing the task.
These spiritual pill materials were all provided by the Immortal City. As long as the task was completed, the Immortal City would default to the remaining pills becoming the property of these elixir refiners.
Of course, they could also hand in more pills to exchange for merit points. This was also a benefit for the elixir refiners.
Each time Zhang Ling completed a task, he would gain a dozen or so more of each type of pill.
As for the mandatory task that Zhao Geng mentioned every seven days, it wasn't actually that strict. As long as they completed the monthly quota of pills to be handed over, those in charge wouldn't say much.
After all, being an alchemist was a technical job, and such talents were still in short supply.
……
(Thank you for the support of all book lovers. This chapter has four thousand words.)
