Chu Yunfan grinned, examining the paper bags full of pills. In total, he had concocted 92 Body Refining Pills— the first five or so sets, he'd only made 8 or 9 pills rather than a perfect 10.
"Judging by it's luster, the purity of the pills are all above 90%."
"Pretty good for my first time, eh?" Yunfan chuckled, his chest puffing with pride. However, he suddenly doubled over as a wave of overwhelming nausea swept through his body.
"I see… with the miraculous effects of the Divine Idol allowing you to perform superhuman feats… you're also causing damage to your body."
Chu Yunfan coughed, some dark fluid spattering across his hand. It was bitter and viscous. He smelled iron.
"…Guess it was too good to be true to use it without consequences."
"Well, it doesn't seem to have negative effects when you're cultivating. The drawbacks only seem to happen when you're performing other tasks and surpassing your physical limits."
"We don't know that… we need to use it more to see whether or not it has adverse effects." Yunfan's expression hardened. "And what's even more worrying is that I didn't have control over it both times I summoned the Idol's power…"
The Emperor nodded in agreement while rubbing his chin. "That's definitely concerning. If it has severe consequences and you can't control when it activates, then that would be troublesome for your future."
The plain boy shook his head, clearing his mind of such dark thoughts. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
***
He sold all the pills to the Association— it was more convenient than finding a store to accept his bulk sale. This convenience that the Alchemy Association offered meant that they could recieve pills from their large customer base of alchemists, allowing them to dominate the alchemy economy. After all, why would anyone buy mediocre pills from a normal shop when you could buy the same thing for market price at the Association stores?
Either way, Chu Yunfan didn't plan on overturning the economic landscape of the alchemy world; he just wanted cash. In the end, he received a sum of a little more than 100,000 credits in return.
Since selling the pills didn't require identification, nobody raised an eyebrow about how an apprentice level alchemist had concocted One Star pills. As he lounged in the center atrium, he was completely blown away by the number in his account.
Holy shit.
"Is that a lot?"
It's more than I've ever had before…
"I promise the number will only ever grow bigger," the Alchemy Emperor bragged.
The boy laughed. With multiple millennia more of experience and recipes, that's all I expected.
Chu Yunfan grinned as the number on his holo-watch, before hopping on the bus to return home.
***
"How curious…"
"Concocting One Star products with Half Star materials… is he perhaps a prodigy?"
"Either that, or he's found a hidden secret."
"What should we do about him?"
"For now, let's wait."
***
As Yunfan walked from class to class the next day, he was wracked with indecision. Should he spend his money on his own alchemy equipment? Should he spend it on buying better techniques? He had never had this much money before, so he wasn't sure.
When he finally sat down in cultivation class, he was thoroughly stressed out. Yunfan was so nonplussed by the sudden windfall, he barely paid any attention to class. However, he came to his senses when Instructor Qin spoke at the end of class:
"Next week, we're going to start learning weapon techniques!"
Just like Yunfan, everyone else was also excited. He barely heard the rest of the announcements as he realized exactly what he was going to spend his money on. Meanwhile, the class was bubbling with conversation. Even after dismissal, many of the students stayed around to talk more about what weapons they would pick on Monday next week.
He didn't stick around like them; he bid Gao Hongzhi goodbye. This wasn't unusual, since he frequently had to leave earlier to help tutor Young Miss Yonghe. He still found it uncomfortable to call her by her given name-- such a level of intimacy, he felt, was a bit too soon.
However, Young Miss Yonghe was the furthest thing from his mind at that point. As he hopped on the bus, he was simultaneously conversing with the Emperor with an excited expression.
What kind of weapon techniques do you have?
"I have just about everything honestly; I frequently received techniques as a form of compensation for the medicines I concocted. Since they came from Kings and Emperors, I'm sure they're top tier martial arts."
You say that like you don't actually know if they're good...
The Emperor coughed in embarrassment. "I was the Alchemy Emperor, not the Martial Emperor. I never... I never actually learned any of the techniques they gave me."
Yunfan mentally facepalmed. Then, how did you even last that long during the Divine Idol War?
"People wanted to kidnap me rather than kill me, since I could make miraculous medicine..."
You were just a coveted golden goose... Yunfan chortled on the inside.
"When you say it like that..."
By this point, Chu Yunfan arrived home. He entered his home, helped prepare dinner with his sister, and then retreated to his room. He began researching the pros and cons of traditional weapons.
Ever since the Catastrophe Era, the abundant Qi that made cultivation much smoother for humans had also made the usage of firearms too dangerous for practical usage. Thus, humanity was forced to rely on cold weapons: swords, axes, daggers, and spears. However, with the engineering techniques provided by the Ancient Zenith civilization, these weapons were nothing to scoff at!
Although weapons produced by Earth's craftsmen did not have their own cultivation bases like many historians and material scientists theorized that some weapons from the Kunlun Realm might have once had, they still boasted incredible strength and some even exhibited special abilities.
When Chu Yunfan first learned of such high-quality weapons, he coveted something like an ancient sword of myths that could call lightning from the sky, but reality was too cruel; even the greatest blacksmith that currently lived was unable to produce something like that. At best, they'd probably be able to create something that was more conductive of Lightning Qi or generated small amounts of electricity.
Yunfan knew that even those weapons would be out of his reach for a long, long time. Despite that, he still wanted to get a good weapon that would stick with him for a long time-- it might cost him quite a lot right now, but it would save him more money in the long run than always replacing his weapon. Furthermore, in the future, he'd be rolling in money from his alchemy skills!
"You mean my alchemy skills," the Alchemy Emperor harrumphed, still clearly irritated about how Chu Yunfan had called him a "coveted golden goose," but unwilling to admit it.
"Yes, yes," Yunfan spoke aloud, since there was no one there to overhear him talking to himself. His voice was tinged heavily with sarcasm. "You're so special and wonderful and great."
The Emperor frowned at his tone but made no comment. "If it matters, I primarily used a dao when I was alive."
"Does that mean you have more advice in that area?"
"Not particularly."
"Useless."
"Why are you so mean?!?"
Chu Yunfan ignored the blustering Alchemy Emperor, only chuckling under his breath with a smile. I guess I can use dual daos. They're pretty light, so that means I can control them well and move them quickly; it fits well with my current fighting style, since I primarily focus on parrying blows and following up by punishing my opponents.
He grinned quietly to himself as he placed his order.