Investigation (1)

"It's so much stronger after being upgraded by one level?" asked an ecstatic Cheng Xu was ecstatic.

The original 256MB hard drive was instantly increased to 512MB, with an additional 256MB of storage space.

In the short term, this storage space was definitely enough.

The next step would be to consider upgrading the other configurations.

After a few days of fumbling around, Cheng Xu had a general understanding of the functions of different hardware configurations.

The first was the graphics card, which should correspond to the speed of reading external data, and the network card should correspond to the speed of downloading data into the immortal cultivation computer.

However, Cheng Xu had yet to figure out the use of this sound card.

Since the graphics card corresponded to the reading speed, upgrading the graphics card would be his priority.

Just like the hard drive, the graphics card's first upgrade also required 1000 spiritual stones. He definitely did not have enough spiritual stones on hand.

"I'll make money by refining potions first, and then I'll upgrade all my configurations."

Cheng Xu secretly formulated his next plan.

But before that, there was something more important, and that was to use the Qi-gathering elixir to raise his cultivation.

The original owner of his body had been in the Yunzhong sect for more than two years, and his cultivation level had reached the middle stage of Qi cultivation for more than a year, which meant he was only one step away from the late stage of Qi cultivation.

However, it wasn't that easy to cross this step.

He took out a pack of Qi-gathering elixirs and poured them into his mouth.

The bitter and fragrant medicinal powder quickly dissolved and turned into a hot medicinal power that surged into his limbs and bones.

Under the stimulation of the medicine, his body was like a dry sponge, and he began to absorb the spiritual energy around him.

"Is the medicine so effective?"

Cheng Xu didn't dare to be careless. He quickly circulated the cloud art to refine the spiritual Qi in his body.

Time passed by.

In his sea of Qi, true Qi continued to gather.

The effects of the Qi-gathering Elixir had a time limit. Cheng Xu took one packet after another, trying to break through the limit of the middle stage of Qi refining.

Finally, after consuming the seventh packet of Qi-gathering elixir, the genuine Qi that had been stored in his sea of Qi for a long time finally broke through its limit. It circled around the center of the sea of Qi and formed a genuine Qi vortex, compressing all the genuine Qi to become purer.

"Is this the feeling of the late-stage of Qi refining?"

Cheng Xu opened his eyes in joy and felt the changes in his body.

He continued to practice the art of cloud for a few more cycles, and his Qi cultivation stage gradually stabilized.

When he walked out of the quiet room to do the calculation, he realized that two days had already passed.

Looking at the bustling market, the corners of his mouth silently curled up into a smirk.

To him, who had 256MB of hard disk space, every stall in the market was a treasure.

Actions spoke louder than words, and he did as he said.

Starting from the stall at the entrance of the market, one by one, he patronized the stalls, picking out some books that he was interested in reading and loading.

The stall owners rolled their eyes at him for not buying anything.

Unknowingly, the hard disk space had expanded from 250.3/512MB to 305/512MB. However, most of the data was about alchemy, equipment refining, talismans, formations, and general studies.

There were a few books about cultivation methods and martial arts, but the quality was not very good.

After a round, many of the miscellaneous books and records had repeated data.

With the support of this data, Cheng Xu had successfully transformed from a noob immortal cultivator to an experienced one who had a deeper understanding of all aspects of the immortal cultivation world.

"The formula for the foundation establishment pill? Is that genuine?"

Cheng Xu looked at a piece of torn leather paper on the stall. Although he had read the pill formula, he was doubtful of its authenticity.

The stall owner was a man at the peak of the Qi refining stage. He looked to be in his thirties, and there was a shrewd gaze in his eyes. 

"Fellow Daoist, if you don't believe me, you don't have to ask."

"So it's genuine?" Cheng Xu was skeptical. "As far as I know, the formula for the Foundation Building elixir is a top secret no matter which sect it is. How could it be peddled in a market?"

"There are many different formulas for the Foundation Building elixir, and the ingredients and refining methods are also very different." 

The shrewd man squinted and said with a smile, "This ancient pill formula has been in the market for decades. No one has been able to successfully refine it. It's not because it's difficult to refine, but because no one has been able to gather all the materials required."

Cheng Xu was slightly stunned. He secretly opened the formula of the Foundation Building elixir that he had just read.

Good Lord, he wouldn't have known if he didn't look, but he was shocked when he saw it.

The 17 medicinal herbs were all precious medicinal herbs without exception. Among them, three were rare medicinal herbs that were almost extinct in the cultivation world.

No wonder no one had been able to successfully refine it. Just those three rare medicinal materials were enough to make people chicken out.

"Eh? This is ..."

Just as Cheng Xu was secretly thinking of backing out, he suddenly noticed an additional option called [ data optimization ] at the bottom of the pill formula page.

In a state of confusion, he opened the other formulas to check, but there was no such option. Only the Foundation Building elixir's formula had this option.

"The reason for the ancient pill formula?"

He selected [ data optimization ] out of curiosity, and a small pop-up window popped up in front of him:

"Do you wish to use the current refinement database to optimize the pill formula? (Note: the current refining data is limited, so the optimization effect is limited.)"

Cheng Xu was both surprised and happy. He didn't expect that the cultivation computer could optimize ancient pill formulas. Wasn't this too powerful?

If he could optimize those three rare medicinal ingredients, wouldn't he be able to refine the Foundation Building elixir?

At this thought, Cheng Xu immediately confirmed it.

beginning data optimization. Countdown in 3 days 17 hours 42 minutes 55 seconds.

"..."

Cheng Xu immediately froze.

Optimizing a pill formula actually took nearly four days. He was simply speechless.

It was like bringing a girl home with great difficulty, only to be told that she was on her period and it would only be gone in four days.

Isn't that just frustrating?

"Eh ~ what are you thinking about, Fellow Daoist?" 

"If you want this pill formula, I can give you a discount," the shrewd man said, puzzled.

Cheng Xu laughed dryly as he came back to his senses. He politely declined the offer and turned to leave.

He had only taken a few steps when he heard a familiar voice behind him. 

"Junior Brother Cheng?"

He looked back in confusion and saw a familiar, handsome, and suave young man looking at him with a surprised expression. The young man was wearing the uniform of the Yunzhong sect's inner sect and had an inner sect waist token on his waist.

In a daze, memories came back to her.

His name was Yang Tianqi, and he joined the Yunzhong sect in the same batch as the original owner of his body. Unfortunately, they were in the same batch but had different fates. Yang Tianqi's bones were amazing, and his aptitude was outstanding. Soon, he was chosen by an inner sect elder and became an inner sect disciple.

As for him, he stayed in the outer sect because of his mediocre talent.

After a few years, Yang Tianqi's temperament had changed a lot. His cultivation level had reached the peak of the Qi refining stage and was about to reach the foundation building stage.

"I was wondering who it was. Turns out it's you, Fellow Daoist Yang." Cheng Xu cupped his fists and replied.

"It's really you?" Yang Tianqi walked forward in surprise. Feeling Cheng Xu's late-stage Qi refining aura, he nodded to himself.

"Not bad, not bad. I didn't expect Junior Brother Cheng to be in the late stage of Qi refining."

"I'm no longer a disciple of the Yunzhong sect, so you don't have to call me Junior Brother."

Cheng Xu was not the original owner of the body. He did not have a good impression of the Yunzhong sect, nor did he feel any sense of belonging to it.

"I've heard about what happened to you, Junior Brother," Yang Tianqi said awkwardly. it's not good to stay in the Yunzhong sect after offending that girl.

"Speaking of which, who is that girl?" Cheng Xu was rather curious about this.

"She's the granddaughter of the inner sect's Elder Hu. She's used to being spoiled and overbearing." Speaking of this woman, Yang Tianqi seemed to be a little afraid. "If you don't leave the sect, you will be tortured to death by her sooner or later."

"Elder Hu?" Cheng Xu was slightly shocked. He finally understood what had happened.

Elder Hu was the only alchemist in the Yunzhong sect, and his status was second only to the sect master. No wonder he was expelled from the sect. It turned out that the girl was Elder Hu's granddaughter.

"Speaking of which, why are you at the market instead of cultivating in the sect?" Cheng Xu's tone changed.

Yang Tianqi shook his head helplessly and said, "A few days ago, two outer sect disciples went missing near the Yuntai Mountain, and their soul jade slips were also broken. Several of us inner sect disciples were ordered to come and investigate."

Hearing this, Cheng Xu's heart beat wildly.

However, Yang Tianqi did not seem to suspect him.

"Who is so bold to kill the disciples of the Yunzhong sect?" Cheng Xu pretended to be surprised.

"I'm not too sure yet, but from the condition of the corpse, the person should be at the late-stage of Qi refining, although they're only two outer sect disciples, " Yang Tianqi said helplessly, "We still have to do some investigations. Otherwise, the outside world will think that the members of Yunzhong sect are pushovers." 

"..."

Cheng Xu silently shook his head.

So the death of two outer sect disciples was not a big deal?

Tsk, tsk. It was a good thing he had left the Yunzhong sect. Otherwise, no one would be able to avenge him even if he died.

"By the way, Junior Brother Cheng, have you been in the market of Yuntai Mountain these days? "

"That's right."

"Did you encounter the two outer sect disciples? Or did you notice anything unusual?"

Cheng Xu put on an act and shook his head. "I've been in closed-door cultivation for the past few days, trying to reach the late-stage of Qi refining. I just came out of the quiet room over there today."

Yang Tianqi didn't ask any further and patted Cheng Xu's shoulder in encouragement.

"I still have to visit Perfected Yuntai on behalf of my master." Yang Tianqi seemed to have thought of something. "How about this, Junior Brother, come with me and get to know Perfected Yuntai. It'll be more convenient for you to stay in the market."

"I appreciate your good intentions." Cheng Xu declined Yang Tianqi's kind offer.

He was going to visit Yuntai on behalf of his master, why would he, a guy without a sect, follow?

What was that saying again?

Don't try to force your way in if it's not your circle.

However, Yang Tianqi was a good person.

"Alright, then I'll take my leave first." Yang Tianqi did not insist and left.

After watching Yang Tianqi walk away, Cheng Xu did what he had to do without any nervousness.

On one hand, Yang Tianqi and his gang of inner sect disciples were just going through the procedures to show the outside world. It was fine if they could not find anything in the end.

On the other hand, if he were to panic now, it would be more likely for him to give it away.

After that, he continued to stroll around the stalls, collecting data and buying some alchemy materials.

At night, he rented the familiar quiet room again, and the hard disk space was used up again.

The only pity was that there were no cultivation methods or martial arts techniques that could attract his attention. 

After thinking about it carefully, it made sense. How could really good things be displayed so casually?

'Let's make money first. We'll talk about it after we upgrade the computer's configuration.'

After he finished speaking, he devoted himself to refining the medicine.

Since the hard drive had been upgraded to a certain extent, Cheng Xu could now produce three batches of Qi-gathering elixir in one go before resting.

But even so, it was still a time-consuming task.

It was worth mentioning that after a day of data collection, the [potion refining] application had expanded to 23.8MB. At the same time, the [potion refining] application had also undergone some changes:

[Alchemy]

[Pharmacology Level: Level 2]

[Refining ability: elementary]

[Formula: Qi-gathering elixir, Qi-exploding pill, mind-clearing pill, small reversion pill, Foundation-building Elixir]

The Qi-gathering elixir that he had concocted was obviously of a much better quality than the last one, and had completely reached the standard of a mid-grade Qi-gathering elixir.

This way, the price could be raised a little more.

In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.

This time, Cheng Xu had refined 62 packets of Qi-gathering elixirs in one go, ready to make a fortune.