Xiao Chen, on the contrary, had more free time than ever. He didn’t have to do any work.

Every day, he stayed in Cuiwei Valley, focusing on his cultivation.

Of course, he hadn’t forgotten to inspect the Storage Bags he had taken from Ding Sanlei and Ding Silei.

It was a bit strange; between the two Storage Bags, there were only a mere three hundred and thirty-nine Spirit Stones.

It was a pitifully small amount.

So much so that Xiao Chen suspected they might have deliberately spent all their money before coming to Li State.

And, unlike other people’s Storage Bags, which were usually filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items,

these two were relatively clean. They contained no raw materials like Spirit Grass or Spirit Ore, nor any daily necessities like clothing or food.

The only survival supplies were Fasting Pills.

In addition, they had many Elixirs and Talismans for combat.

For example, there were Spring Pills to restore Magical Power, Fire Spirit Pills to temporarily boost Fire Spirit Power, and several stacks of Talismans for various Five Elements Magic.

The Talismans mostly came from Ding Silei’s Storage Bag.

However, he was finished off by Xiao Chen before he could use them, so they all became spoils of war.

Fortunately, besides the Talismans, Ding Silei also had a bottle of Mutton Fat Jade Dew.

Mutton Fat Jade Dew was an incredibly rare treasure. Only a small cluster could accumulate inside a Mutton Fat Jade Ore every hundred years.

Moreover, after being extracted once, even if the Jade Ore was repaired, it would take another decade or more before it could start to condense again.

To collect such a small bottle would take at least three hundred years.

Even for major powers with several Jade Ores in their territory, it would take at least several decades to produce a single portion.

.

This item could be used as a Spirit Medicine or consumed directly.

It could enhance the cultivation of Cultivators with different Spiritual Roots.

Furthermore, Mutton Fat Jade Dew had another special characteristic: its beneficial effects were not limited to those with Five Elements Spirit Roots; it was also effective for Cultivators with Mutated Spirit Roots.

As a result, its price on the market was perennially high.

Of course, Xiao Chen had no intention of selling it. He planned to keep it for his own use.

Now he had another top-tier Spiritual Liquid. He no longer had to worry about the resources needed for the next two months of rapid cultivation.

Besides all that, all that was left were two small booklets, one Array Map, one storage box, and one Pill Formula.

Xiao Chen inspected them one by one, first flipping through the two books.

But unfortunately, they were two books on Profound-rank Magic, and not the Demon Techniques of the Yellow Springs Dao.

Next was the Array Map, which turned out to be the deployment method for the Eight Demons Blood Refining Array.

The back of the Array Map even recorded the refinement requirements for the Array Flags and the materials needed for the Array Formation.

The only problem was that activating this Array required consuming Essence Blood, and strengthening it also required Essence Blood.

Although it was possible to use other people’s Essence Blood as a sacrifice, and Xiao Chen did have the Blood Collection Technique, it was generally not a good thing.

He put away the Array Map and opened the storage box to take a look.

Generally speaking, things specially preserved in here wouldn’t be too bad.

Sure enough, inside was a Tier Two Summer Withered Grass, a plant rarely seen even once in a hundred years.

It was light purple with a bell-shaped calyx.

According to the records in a Pill Book, this grass withers after the summer solstice. It is endowed with Pure Yang Qi, and withers upon contact with Yin Qi, hence its name.

The Summer Withered Grass contained Pure Yang Qi, but it also possessed a trace of yin nature, preventing it from being too overwhelmingly potent.

It was generally used as a supplementary ingredient in certain special Pill Formulas.

’Strange, why would they specially preserve a Spirit Grass like this? Could it be related to the Pill Formula?’

Xiao Chen picked up the last item, a hand-copied Pill Formula, and looked at it.

This Pill Formula actually recorded an extremely potent cultivation elixir called the Three-Turn Profound Yuan Pill.

Its effect was extremely simple and brutal—assisting with breakthroughs.

For a Cultivator below the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment, taking this pill for the first time would allow them to directly break through a Minor Realm.

Theoretically, this item was best used to break through the minor bottlenecks at the fourth or seventh layers of Foundation Establishment.

It could directly save a Cultivator several years, or even more than ten years, of hard work.

Using it at the eighth layer of Foundation Establishment wasn’t bad either, as it would allow one to directly reach the ninth layer, Great Perfection.

Of course, elixirs with similar effects all shared the same two drawbacks.

First, if you took a second pill, its overall effect would be greatly diminished. While it still contained abundant Spiritual Qi, it wouldn’t be nearly as potent as the first.

Second, such elixirs were extremely rare, and even the Spirit Grass required for their refinement often had very high requirements.

Xiao Chen looked at the formula. Most of the supplementary ingredients were not complicated and could be sourced from the Li Huo Market.

However, the three main ingredients required were truly a bit outrageous.

The first main ingredient required a "Unity of the Five Elements," meaning a Spirit Grass that simultaneously contained all Five Elements Attributes.

The second main ingredient’s requirement was "Yin within Yang," meaning a Spiritual Object that was primarily yang in nature but naturally contained a trace of yin.

The third main ingredient’s requirement was "Yang within Yin," the exact opposite of the second.

Xiao Chen drew a sharp breath. ’Aren’t these requirements a bit too high?’

Looking at the three requirements, Xiao Chen felt a bit numb.

However, he did a quick calculation in his mind.

If he were to prepare to refine the Three-Turn Profound Yuan Pill, it seemed he had already gathered two of the main ingredients.

Mutton Fat Jade Dew contained spiritual essences of all attributes, which naturally meant it possessed the Five Elements, so it could serve as the first main ingredient.

As for the second main ingredient, the Tier Two Summer Withered Grass he had just found was quite suitable and could be used directly.

’Hmm, from this perspective, it seems worth a try.’

After all, by this calculation, he only needed to find the last "Yang within Yin" Spiritual Object to have all the main ingredients.

Suddenly, Xiao Chen saw a glimmer of hope once more.