Fang Jinyu began to rise in fame.

Because his pill success rate was increasing day by day, and for pills taken by Qi Refining cultivators, it had already reached sixty percent. For this reason, even the Sect Leader took the initiative to summon Fang Jinyu once to encourage and praise him.

It wasn’t that the Sect Leader was treating Fang Jinyu with special regard; rather… this was part of the Sect Leader’s basic duties.

After all, a Saint-level Alchemist had a pill success rate of seventy percent!

Although Fang Jinyu had only displayed sixty percent publicly, and only for Qi Refining stage pills, even this success rate indicated that when Fang Jinyu refined Foundation Establishment stage pills in the future, he could also achieve such a high success rate.

And if his alchemy career continued long enough, he might just leap to become a Saint-level Alchemist!

Then, Fang Jinyu smoothly obtained the Foundation Establishment pill formulas, and was permitted to exchange for the spirit herbs for those formulas.

Unlike the Qi Refining pill formulas and herbs, everything related to the Foundation Establishment stage required obtaining qualifications first before one could rent, exchange, or purchase.

After all, the Qi Refining stage still belonged to the mortal world, while the Foundation Establishment stage marked the initial step toward transcendence.

Foundation Establishment cultivators were the backbone of every immortal sect.

Even if an immortal sect had a Nascent Soul stage ancestor in residence, once the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators fell too low, the decline of that sect would already be close at hand.

On this day, Fang Jinyu began refining Foundation Establishment stage pills.

Also on this day, Fang Jinyu blew up the alchemy furnace again.

This was a spirit-tool-grade alchemy furnace. Although only low-grade, its power was extraordinary, directly collapsing three alchemy rooms.

Because those three alchemy rooms were adjacent.

However, Fang Jinyu escaped the alchemy room the instant the furnace self-destructed—after all, what he cultivated was the Ten Directions Xunzhen Scripture, which could rank among the top hundred in the Nine Wastelands.

His escape technique could reach the extreme speed of the Foundation Establishment stage!

It was the two Foundation Establishment cultivators in the other alchemy rooms who suffered, running out covered in dirt and dust. If not for the fact that they were all fellow sect members, and that everyone was just starting to handle Foundation Establishment pills, meaning next time the furnace blowing up might be in their own alchemy room, those two Foundation Establishment cultivators would definitely have started a fight!

Nevertheless, Fang Jinyu had to pay a huge sum of spirit stones for this.

Most of the savings he’d accumulated during this period were wiped out in one go!

‘Only twenty thousand spirit stones left.’

Fang Jinyu sighed inwardly, somewhat reminiscent of returning to pre-liberation days after a hospital visit.

Fortunately, in the following days, Fang Jinyu didn’t blow up the alchemy furnace again—after all, he was a man with a cheat.

However, not until he’d raised his success rate for Foundation Establishment pills to thirty percent did he begin selling ten percent of the pills, so that people would know he could refine Foundation Establishment pills.

Apart from that, Fang Jinyu’s purse was embarrassingly empty, and he had no choice but to exchange some pills for spirit stones.

Foundation Establishment pills, though what Fang Jinyu refined wasn’t the Spirit-Summoning Pill, only the Little Entering the Dao Mysterious Spirit Pill suitable for the first layer of Foundation Establishment, still commanded high value—a single pill cost three hundred spirit stones.

A full fifteen times that of Qi Refining pills!

After selling seventy pills, Fang Jinyu received twenty-one thousand spirit stones.

It made Fang Jinyu sigh with emotion that earning spirit stones at the Foundation Establishment stage was truly easy!

‘I just wonder, regarding the spirit pearls that circulate only among Golden Core cultivators, how many spirit stones does it take to exchange for one?’

Fang Jinyu couldn’t help thinking. Because among those three magical treasures hidden in the Lingdu Secret Realm, if one didn’t have Golden Core mana to nourish them, they would need to use the spiritual power of spirit pearls as a substitute, just to barely refine them.

Spirit stones were the cultivator currency circulating among Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, as well as immortal sects and the mortal courts. They were usually mined from the mountain bodies near spirit veins, hence often appearing in irregular shapes.

And spirit pearls were said to be products condensed from the essence of heaven and earth. Common spirit pearls included Fire Spirit Pearls, Water Spirit Pearls, Earth Spirit Pearls, Wood Spirit Pearls, and Metal Spirit Pearls—that is, the Five Elements Spirit Pearls.

Because the spiritual power within spirit pearls was even purer than the mana of some Golden Core great cultivators, spirit pearls had been directly monopolized by the Golden Core stage.

Of course, there would always be a few that slipped through the net, collected by Foundation Establishment, or even Qi Refining cultivators.

Fang Jinyu had read in the book that there existed an exceedingly rare Thunder Spirit Pearl, currently in the hands of a first-layer Qi Refining cultivator. But that person wasn’t in the Nine Wastelands, rather on another cultivation continent.

As far as Fang Jinyu knew, in another ten years, another cultivation continent would suddenly appear near the Nine Wastelands, then crash straight into the Nine Wastelands.

The resulting various heavenly disasters would instantly annihilate two immortal sects!

Only the Golden Core great cultivators among them would escape, heavily wounded.

But these events were still too far away from him, so Fang Jinyu could only suppress these thoughts and begin preparing for closed-door cultivation. Although the Little Entering the Dao Mysterious Spirit Pill was far inferior to the Spirit-Summoning Pill, it was still enough for Fang Jinyu to raise his cultivation to the second layer of Foundation Establishment!

‘The Lingdu Secret Realm opens in one more month. I should be able to break through before then.’ As a cheater, Fang Jinyu was full of confidence in this.

But before going into seclusion, he still had one matter to attend to.

Strolling out of the alchemy room, Fang Jinyu didn’t need to extend his divine sense—the sensation from the Fate Calculation Art told him where that little girl was at this moment.

When Fang Jinyu went over, he happened to see that little girl surrounded by several Qi Refining disciples.

The little girl was being coaxed into great delight.

However, upon seeing Fang Jinyu approach, those Qi Refining disciples hurriedly paid their respects, then withdrew.

“I couldn’t tell, you’re quite popular,” Fang Jinyu couldn’t help but say.

But these words directly earned him a pair of rolling eyes.

“Are you stupid? You, Fang Jinyu, now possess the potential of a Saint-level Alchemist. It’s not me they like—it’s clearly you. They’re just trying to curry favor indirectly.” The little girl wore an expression as if looking at an idiot.

Fang Jinyu didn’t get particularly angry, mainly because he’d grown used to it. Perhaps that considerate greeting of his that day had struck too deep a chord, for after the little girl had grown familiar with him, at least three out of every ten sentences she spoke were very punchable.

Of course, apart from this, it was also because previously, when the little girl got angry, an ephemeral might had surged out from within her body.

And as coincidence would have it, even though that might was gone in an instant, Fang Jinyu had been fortunate enough to experience it three times before!

Mm, precisely the three Golden Core great cultivators who had been drawn over when he had fought earlier over the underground market scam and deliberately used the Borrowed Law Thunder from the Wind Thunder Attraction!

So, unless something unexpected happened, this little girl was a Golden Core cultivator who had met with an unexpected incident…

Regarding this, while Fang Jinyu marveled at how unfathomably miraculous the Fate Calculation Art was, he couldn’t help but feel a little excited inside. Even if something unexpected had happened, a Golden Core cultivator was still a Golden Core cultivator!

Then, if she recovered in the future, wouldn’t she be a ready-made powerful supporter?

Of course, if he was already in the Golden Core stage by then before she recovered, then just pretend he never said anything…