Ye Fan was full of depression as he floated in the sea. Ye Fan couldn’t help thinking: he just made a fortune. Millions of spirit stones were lying in his storage ring. He hadn’t had time to spend them yet, so he couldn’t die young. There was a saying, the most painful thing in life was that when a person died, there were still a lot of spirit stones that had not been spent.
What was more, if a cultivator drowned, this method of death was too shameful.
After the pagoda spirit hit Ye Fan, Ye Fan’s spiritual power became chaotic, so when Ye Fan fell into the sea, he couldn’t mobilize his spiritual power for a while.
It took Ye Fan a while to stabilize his spiritual power, and then he flew out of the sea.
Ye Fan broke free from the sea and found himself back to his original appearance.
Ye Fan took another face-changing pill, and sent a message to Bai Yunxi, asking Bai Yunxi to come and join him.
The area outside the Pill Pagoda was full of people, and all kinds of excited exchanges were mixed together.
Bai Yunxi was crammed into the crowd. Although it was hot, he was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat.
Bai Yunxi was almost ecstatic when he received Ye Fan’s message.
Bai Yunxi quietly left the crowd and walked away.
Half an hour after Ye Fan was sent out, the Pill Pagoda reopened.
As soon as the Pill Pagoda reopened, a large number of cultivators generously donated their money and bribed the puppet guarding the gate with spirit stones to enter the Pill Pagoda.
So within an hour, the Pill Pagoda received tens of millions of spirit stones.
Countless cultivators entered the Pill Pagoda to look for Ye Fan, but could not find him.
…
Bai Yunxi found Ye Fan by the sea. “Why are you here?”
Ye Fan said with a bit of depression, “I was sent here by the pagoda spirit in the Pill Pagoda.”
“I saw that you seem to have broken into the twelfth floor,” Bai Yunxi said.
Ye Fan nodded and said, “Yes. The pill techniques in the Pill Pagoda are all soul power techniques. The stronger the soul power, the faster they can be mastered. I was born with strong soul power, so there was absolutely no obstacle to mastering the techniques.”
Bai Yunxi nodded and asked, “How many spirit stones did you get?”
“After deducting the expenses, it is about nine million spirit stones,” Ye Fan said.
The Taotie ghost laughed maliciously and said, “That’s not right. Boss Ye, you lied. Are you trying to hide money from your wife?! Boss Ye, it’s not good for you to be like this!”
Ye Fan glared at the Taotie ghost and said, “Shut up, what do you know?”
The Taotie ghost snorted lightly, and argued with reason, “The tenth floor should reward 10 million, and the previous floors gave out at least six or seven million. Only nine million, who are you trying to fool?”
Ye Fan glared at the Taotie ghost and said, “What do you know?! I only got 3 million spirit stones on the tenth floor, and I paid an entry fee of 1 million.”
“I heard it’s 10 million!” Bai Yunxi said in confusion.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ye Fan nodded and said, “Yes, it should be 10 million, but the pagoda spirit of the Pill Pagoda gave me an IOU.”
Bai Yunxi said in surprise, “IOU?”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “Yes! That pagoda spirit used up all the spirit stones, so he didn’t have any spirit stones for me. So he gave me an IOU. It may not be that there are no spirit stones, but…”
“But what?” Bai Yunxi asked.
“It’s also possible that the pagoda spirit saw that I am only at Foundation Establishment, so he deliberately scammed me.” Ye Fan said with resentment.
The Taotie ghost nodded and said, “Well, yes, you look like someone easily taken advantage of. Maybe the other party thought so, and decided to cheat you!”
Ye Fan: “…”
Bai Yunxi looked at Ye Fan and said in confusion, “Your cultivation seems to have improved a little bit.”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “En. It’s probably because I stayed on the twelfth floor of the Pill Pagoda for two months.”
The spiritual energy on the 12th floor of the Pill Pagoda was very rich. He stayed on the 12th floor for nearly two months. He naturally ran his cultivation exercises, and absorbed the 12th floor’s spiritual energy. Absorbing the spiritual mist was much smoother than directly absorbing spiritual energy from spirit stones. Unconsciously, his cultivation base had also improved.
Ye Fan cultivated on the twelfth floor of the Pill Pagoda for two months, which was equivalent to two years outside.
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “I see!”
“That’s a good place! The spiritual energy is as thick as fog. If I knew earlier, I would have spent more time there.” Ye Fan said.
Bai Yunxi: “…”
The Taotie ghost looked at Ye Fan, shook his head, and said, “You are at ease inside, but your wife is going to worry to death outside.”
Ye Fan glanced at Bai Yunxi, blinked, and said, “Yunxi, I’m sorry. If I knew, I would have come out earlier.”
Bai Yunxi shook his head and said, “It’s fine.”
…
Twelfth floor of the Pill Pagoda.
A pile of spirit stones appeared on the 12th floor of the Pill Pagoda. The Pill Pagoda had more than ten puppets that collected spirit stones. In the stomach of each puppet, there was a teleportation formation. The pagoda spirit could move the spirit stones with a thought. The spirit stones were all sent to the 12th floor of the Pill Pagoda.
The little pagoda buried its body in the pile of spirit stones.
“I haven’t been this rich for a long time. I didn’t expect that waste material to have the ability to attract wealth. So many spirit stones should be enough for a while.”
The little pagoda was full of excitement and burrowed into the pile of spirit stones while saying, “That guy has such a big appetite. He absorbed half of my spiritual mist without breaking through. A waste material is really a waste material.”
The little pagoda’s body shrank, and a large amount of spiritual mist floated out from the little pagoda’s body.
The little pagoda frowned and touched its forehead. A shallow crack appeared on the top of the little pagoda’s head. A lot of spiritual energy poured into the little pagoda’s body, and the crack on the little pagoda’s head was slowly repaired.
When the little pagoda kicked Ye Fan out just now, the soul imprint in his body suddenly activated and he suffered backlash.
“That old immortal thing still wants to control me even after ascending. I don’t want to recognize a waste as my master. It’s too humiliating.” The little pagoda said with displeasure. “However, it’s very rare that a Foundation Establishment cultivator can break into the 12th floor!”
The holy alchemist from the Immortal Pill Sect did leave a will, but the will only required him to recognize the person who could activate the twelve pill diagrams as a master, and it was not limited to those from the Immortal Pill Sect.
“A person who can comprehend the twelve pill diagrams is a peerless genius and is worthy of allegiance. Who is the old guy lying to? That guy is just a miscellaneous spiritual root cultivator.” The little pagoda rolled in the pile of spirit stones and muttered lazily.
…
After Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi changed their appearances, they returned to Pill Capital.
The news that all the pill diagrams on the 12th floor of the Pill Pagoda had been lit up had spread throughout the entire Pill Capital, and the people in Pill Capital were all discussing this matter.
Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi found a tea room and sat down.
“Who is the person who lit up the twelve pill diagrams? It’s amazing.”
“Maybe this person doesn’t exist. It was just the Pill Pagoda malfunctioning.”
“It shouldn’t be. When that person lit up the first pill diagram, many cultivators saw it. However, the strange thing is that although many cultivators have seen that person, they can’t tell what that person looks like.”
“Why is that cultivator so mysterious? Alchemist Lou Yuehua of Yuehua Pill Building said that he wanted to accept that guy as his disciple, but he didn’t show up.”
“Perhaps he’s not interested. Some people say that that person is also an old Nascent Soul monster.”
“I heard that there is a rumor about the Pill Pagoda. As long as the twelve pill diagrams are lit up, the Pill Pagoda will recognize that person as its master. It seems that it is fake. The Pill Pagoda is still there.”
…
Ye Fan drank his tea and secretly thought: The rumor that lighting up the twelve pill diagrams could make the Pill Pagoda recognize a master was originally no problem, but it was a pity! That pagoda spirit had rebelled. This damned pagoda spirit. These days, even pagoda spirits looked down on others. The world had really changed. What was wrong with that pagoda spirit, actually unwilling to recognize a peerless genius like him as its master.
The Taotie ghost giggled and said, “Boss Ye, don’t be angry. When you advance to Nascent Soul, you can obliterate that pagoda spirit’s mind. Look at that fool pagoda spirit. How dare it be so arrogant?”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “That’s right.”
However, there was no need to wait for Nascent Soul. Back then, the ascended God Transformation cultivator left a soul-controlling technique in the twelve pill diagrams. That person should have guessed that the pagoda spirit might rebel. As long as he activated the twelve pill diagrams and awakened the soul imprint in the pagoda spirit’s body at the same time, he could force that pagoda spirit to recognize him as its master.
However, with his current strength, he was still a little short. Even with the help of the soul imprint, it would be very difficult.
Bai Yunxi looked at Ye Fan and said, “We’ll talk about the Pill Pagoda later. There’s not much time. It won’t be long before the Heavenly Wood Secret Realm opens, so hurry up and prepare.”
Ye Fan nodded and said, “That’s right. We have to go shopping.”
With spirit stones, Ye Fan was a lot more generous. He bought two storage rings, one for himself and one for Bai Yunxi, looking like a nouveau riche.
After buying the storage rings, Ye Fan bought a lot of formation materials.
“This cold crystal stone is not bad!” Ye Fan looked at the cold crystal stone in the counter, and secretly thought: If they smelted this cold crystal stone into Bai Yunxi’s spiritual sword, the quality should improve.
“Customer, you really have insight. This cold crystal stone belongs to a Golden Core cultivator. If that Senior was not injured and urgently in need of healing medicine, he would definitely be reluctant to sell it.”
Bai Yunxi pulled Ye Fan and said in a low voice, “You should be more restrained.”
Bai Yunxi secretly thought: Ye Fan, this guy. As soon as he had spirit stones, he would spend them. In just two days, three million spirit stones had been spent.
The two of them were only in the Foundation Establishment stage, yet they took out so many spirit stones at once, which was really eye-catching. Fortunately, Pill Capital had a large flow of people and a lot of rich people. They spent this money in separate places, so it didn’t matter so much.
Ye Fan blinked and said, “This thing is really good!”
Bai Yunxi: “…” This guy, Ye Fan, saw something and thought it was a good thing. This idiot didn’t like to bargain.
“Yes! Customer, you can always earn more spirit stones, but good things aren’t always available.” The female cultivator said with a bright smile.
Ye Fan spent 150,000 spirit stones to buy the cold crystal stone.
Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi walked out of the store, and Mu Xue just happened to come in. Ye Fan pulled Bai Yunxi out with a normal expression, and Mu Xue stared at the backs of Bai Yunxi and Ye Fan for a moment.
The maid on the side looked at Mu Xue’s expression and said, “Miss, what’s wrong?”
Mu Xue shook her head and said, “It’s nothing, I seem to have seen it wrong.” Mu Xue quickly withdrew her gaze.
…
The matter of the twelve pill diagrams being lit up was noisy for a while in Pill Capital. The cultivator who lit up the pill diagrams never showed up, and the matter gradually cooled down. Many cultivators felt that all twelve pill diagrams lit up because of the Pill Pagoda malfunctioning.
The cultivators around the Pill Pagoda saw that there was nothing to see, so they dispersed. Soon, everyone’s attention was attracted by the upcoming opening of the Heavenly Wood Secret Realm.
There were many new things emerging in the cultivation world every moment, and the genius in the Pill Pagoda had become yesterday’s news.
There were many types of secret realms. Some secret realms were very barren and had little development value. Some secret realms were rich in spiritual energy and spiritual grass.
The Heavenly Wood Secret Realm obviously belonged to the latter. It originally belonged to the tree people. There were many exotic flowers and plants in the secret realm. If you just picked some spiritual grass casually and sold it outside, you could sell it for a lot of spirit stones.
As the opening time of the Heavenly Wood Secret Realm drew near, the competition for the teleportation tokens became more and more intense.
Ye Fan rented a cave residence* on the outskirts of Pill Capital and refined a lot of formation plates.
Bai Yunxi looked at Ye Fan and said, “I went out for a walk. It is said that one teleportation token can normally teleport two people, but if you set up a formation, it can be expanded to four people.”
Ye Fan blinked and said, “Oh, there are only two of us, so we don’t need that many.”
“There are people selling quotas outside. One quota can sell for 200,000 spirit stones,” Bai Yunxi said.
“200,000?” Ye Fan raised his head abruptly, then shook his head and said, “Forget it, there’s no shortage of money.”
The Taotie ghost gave Ye Fan a disdainful look and said, “You prodigal. Even if you have a lot of money, you still have to make more.”
Ye Fan shook his head and said, “It’s too troublesome to earn this money.”
Bai Yunxi nodded and said, “Indeed.” For the sake of 400,000 spirit stones, it would not be worthwhile to provoke Golden Core cultivators.
Two months later, a golden light lit up in Ye Fan’s cave residence, and Ye Fan and Bai Yunxi were teleported to the secret realm.
***
T/N: Ye Fan was in the Pill Pagoda for so long… it didn’t seem like it from the last chapter – made it seem like he breezed through all the floors because it went by so quickly (although it did say it took him more than a month to reach the ninth floor, so presumably the higher floors took him longer to pass). Poor Yunxi worrying for him outside.
*洞府 (dong fu): dong for cave. 府 (fu) is most often used in ancient novels as it is the term used for residences of royals, ministers, etc. and is often translated as “mansion” – that makes sense in ancient settings, but is weird here, so I’ve translated it as “residence” instead (which is also technically correct). If you’ve watched Chinese dramas or read any manhua or manhwa with a cultivation setting, you’ll know it’s common for cultivators to live and retreat in caves.
