I Became the Alchemy Master by Picking Up Trash-Chapter 184 - 182: Xi Yuan Tournament (Part 8)
The westward black-gold sun sets, the sky gradually darkens, and the temperature of the Ruoye Desert drops rapidly, leaving a layer of white frost on the surface of the sand. But the temperature in the Earth Lungs Area, influenced by magma and high-temperature steam, doesn’t drop at all.
Li Xing wandered in the high-temperature area for a long time, not only collecting enough herbs for alchemy but also finding quite a bit of food. Seeing that it was getting late, she planned to return.
The last rays of the sunset shone on a large Star Beast skeleton not far from her, and a dazzling reflection caught Li Xing’s eye. Instinctively, Li Xing looked back and discovered among the pile of bones a grayish stone that resembled a crystal stone.
Leaving money unpicked is equivalent to losing it, so without a word, Li Xing walked over and pulled the stone out from the bone pile.
The stone was gray and seemed to be wrapped with a dense mist inside, lacking the transparency of a crystal stone, but its weight exceeded that of a crystal stone by many times.
"This is... oh my god!"
Seeing clearly the stone in her hand, Li Xing cried out in shock. Ancestors, she seemed to have discovered something incredible!
The stone she held was indeed a crystal stone, but it wasn’t a normal crystal stone; it was a waste crystal stone that only contained Chaos Qi.
If Heaven Rank crystal stones containing pure Elemental Power are considered the finest among crystal stones, then waste crystal stones are the complete opposite.
The conditions for forming waste crystal stones are extremely harsh. First, the Star Beast must die a natural death. Such crystal stones lose their purifying ability and only then have a chance to transform into waste crystals.
Secondly, the burial ground of the Star Beast must contain a large amount of Chaotic Power. Crystal stones sedimented in such an environment for hundreds to thousands of years, continuously soaked by Chaotic Power day and night, can eventually transform into waste crystals filled with Chaotic Power.
The people of Qianyuan don’t like Chaotic Power; in their eyes, waste crystals are a symbol of bad luck and death, and encountering them means spitting to ward off disaster. But to Li Xing, waste crystals are her "Heaven Rank crystal stones," holding energy equivalent to tens of thousands of low-grade crystal stones.
Heaven knows how much Li Xing yearned to own a waste crystal, but these things are rare and disliked, and even if someone does find one, they treat it like trash and kick it away. Li Xing had nowhere to buy them even if she offered money. Today she found one by chance—it’s as if she’s dreaming!
Overjoyed, Li Xing hurriedly tucked the waste crystal into her Spiritual Pendant.
The massive skeleton ahead had six curved, sharp long teeth, clearly the bones of a Desert Mammoth.
Desert Mammoths are highly social, herd-dwelling Star Beasts, huge in size, highly defensive, and have an average lifespan of five hundred years. When an elderly mammoth senses its life’s end, it leaves the herd and goes alone to a graveyard to await death.
Since this skeleton was of a Desert Mammoth, the area was likely the Mammoth Graveyard. Li Xing’s eyes instantly brightened, as if her analysis was correct, there would be more waste crystals nearby!
Li Xing dismissed the idea of leaving and pretended to look for herbs, continuing deeper inside. Sure enough, more and more skeletal remains appeared before her.
Some of these remains still had their skin and fur attached, evidently having died not long ago, while others had been appropriated by red and brown parasitic algae and moss, used as nutrient soil, weathered and eroded. Without closer inspection, you couldn’t even tell they were bones.
Li Xing didn’t move the recently deceased mammoth skeletons but specifically searched through the long-perished remains overgrown with parasitic plants, and sure enough, each had a waste crystal. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢
Throughout the ages, billions of Desert Mammoths have died in the graveyard, but due to magma eruptions, the oldest bones had sunk into the ground, never to be found.
In this Mammoth Graveyard, ninety-nine percent of waste crystals have sunk and burned away with the bones, causing Li Xing quite a pain. However, scattered on the earth’s surface were over a hundred pieces, all falling into her pocket.
With these waste crystals, Li Xing was definitely on track to enter the visceral forging stage before her eighteenth birthday.
Who would have thought that Cui Tianxiao’s unpredictable kick would lead to such bountiful riches for her? Had she known, she wouldn’t have kicked him so hard.
With her pockets heavy with "wealth," Li Xing walked back contently. This trip to the Earth Lungs Area was hardly in vain; she earned a hefty sum, but she also couldn’t forget the contest.
While Qi Ming was searching for the Transmission Array, Li Xing secretly used her Divine Sense to monitor it. It wasn’t that Qi Ming lacked the skill to find it but that there were indeed no traces of a talisman array.
The reason Li Xing chose to enter the high-temperature area was due to a faint hope; what if it really existed here?
Unfortunately, reality is cruel. Li Xing almost roamed the entire high-temperature area without discovering a trace of the Transmission Array. It seems that the array that brought them here only allows entrance and not exit.
Given the situation, she needed to think of another way to leave. But before leaving, Li Xing had to solve the problem of heatstroke. Using temperature-regulating talismans consumes too many energy stones; it’s better to refine some cooling elixirs with longer-lasting effects.
Li Xing was pondering whether to refine Summer Heat Avoiding Pill or Clear Heart Pill when a cluster of dazzling red plants in the crevice of the ground caught her attention.
Carefully pulling aside the surrounding Spirit Plant, Li Xing revealed the scarlet plant and once again marveled at the extravagance of the Qianyuan realm.
These bright red, ear-like things are exceedingly rare Spirit Grass in the cultivation world—Red Essence Ginseng.
Red Essence Ginseng thrives in heat and fire, growing within the magma Earth’s Fire, serving as the primary herb for refining Clear Wind Powder.
Red Essence Ginseng grows incredibly slowly, requiring at least a thousand years to reach the size of a fingernail. The Red Essence Ginseng before her was plump and full, with over a hundred clustered stocks looking like blossoming flowers. It was unclear how long it had grown on the Qianyuan Continent.
With just one stocked offspring of Red Essence Ginseng, Li Xing could refine Clear Wind Powder with better effects than both Summer Heat Avoiding Pill and Clear Heart Pill, capable of neutralizing all fire toxins. Thinking of this, Li Xing didn’t hesitate to reach out, preparing to pluck one for medicine.
Just as she was about to act, a large tail sting suddenly extended from the ground crevice, fiercely jabbing towards Li Xing.
Li Xing was shocked, dodging the tail sting by falling to the ground. But the sting didn’t want to let her off easily, continuing its relentless jabs.
Li Xing rolled continuously on the ground, the sting brushing past her body. The sting was highly toxic; each thrust into the ground caused the soil to be corroded black and foul by the venom, sizzling and oozing stench.
Li Xing moved swiftly and dodged the sting’s attack, quickly rolling to a safe area, flipping over and leaping up, ready to fight.
At this moment, the owner of the tail also began to climb slowly out from the ground crevice, revealing a massive body, sheltering the Red Essence Ginseng beneath.
This Star Beast was entirely scarlet, shaped like a scorpion but thousands of times larger. Its body was covered with hard armor, its large pincers opening and closing, its scorpion tail raised high, the point of the black venomous sting aimed at Li Xing, ready to attack at any moment.
Li Xing snorted coldly, a mere level twelve Red Armored Scorpion daring to show off in front of her?
This Red Armored Scorpion was the Guardian Beast of the Red Essence Ginseng; defeating it would be necessary to acquire the ginseng. She intended to use the Heavenly Wolf Saber for a quick battle but suddenly had a stroke of insight, putting the saber away.
Li Xing rubbed her chin, scrutinizing the Red Armored Scorpion like she had found treasure, muttering to herself:
"Its legs are strong and powerful, with a low stance; it should run fast and steady... the back is flat and wide, setting up a thousand-mechanism tent on it would be perfect... I want, I want; I should give it a try!"
Thinking of this, Li Xing lowered her stance with a "ho," one hand guarding her chest and the other beckoning to the Red Armored Scorpion, settling her energy in her Dantian, shouting:
"Come over here—!"
