Eternal Life Begins with Learning

Chu Mu picked up a single grain of Spirit Rice. It was Spring Breeze Rice, a Tier One Lower Grade variety that cost one Spirit Stone per pound. It was the most common type of Spirit Rice in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace.

Spirit Rice was rich in Spiritual Qi, and its benefits to Cultivators were self-evident.

In fact, in Chu Mu’s opinion, Spirit Rice—or more broadly, Spiritual Food—was one of the most indispensable resources for a Cultivator.

The reason it was indispensable was because mundane grains, meats, and vegetables could no longer satisfy the needs of a Cultivator’s body. One could only try to make up for the lack of quality with sheer quantity.

But this led to a rather awkward problem.

Mundane food was full of impurities, yet a Cultivator’s body had extremely high requirements for nutrients.

Therefore, when a Cultivator ate mundane food to fill their stomach, they had to eat a great deal but absorbed very little. And then...

The problem was quite awkward...

After all, no one wanted to be constantly running to the latrine, not to mention...

Spiritual Food, however, could perfectly solve this awkward problem. The Spiritual Qi within it could even increase a Cultivator’s Cultivation, making it beneficial in more ways than one.

It was a perfect product, with only one flaw: he couldn’t afford it.

Of the six types of Spiritual Food in the Wooden Box, besides the Tier One Lower Grade Spring Breeze Rice, there were three other Tier One Lower Grade Spiritual Foods: Qiushao Grain, Bai Xie Beans, and Jade Emperor Corn.

The three Tier One Lower Grade Spiritual Foods each had different effects. For example, although Bai Xie Beans were an edible Spiritual Food, their main purpose was for pressing oil.

While this oil was edible, its primary use was to increase the temperature of flames. Cultivation Immortal Techniques like Alchemy and Artifact Refining sometimes had extremely high temperature requirements, which necessitated the use of oil pressed from Bai Xie Beans.

According to the information Chu Mu had gathered, this oil could also be used on certain special Fire Attribute Spiritual Artifacts, though he had never seen such a thing himself.

Jade Emperor Corn was a local product of Jade Emperor Valley. It could be eaten or used to brew wine. It was said that the Jade Emperor Wine sold in the Marketplace was brewed with Jade Emperor Corn as the main ingredient.

Qiushao Grain wasn’t too different from Spring Breeze Rice, belonging to the most basic category of Spirit Grain.

The remaining two were the Tier One Middle Grade Sheep Milk Fruit and the Tier One Upper Grade Cold Frost Rice.

As its name suggested, the Sheep Milk Fruit tasted like sheep’s milk. It was also worth noting that besides the fruit itself, the trunk, branches, and leaves of the Sheep Milk Fruit tree were all classified as Spiritual Food and were edible.

The Cold Frost Rice was the most unique type of Spirit Grain. It possessed a Cold Ice Attribute, had a calming effect on the mind, and could stimulate the flow of Magical Power, providing great support for Cultivation.

And these were just the Tier One Spirit Rice varieties.

Clearly, the uses of Spiritual Food in the Cultivation Immortal Realm had been explored to an incredible degree.

And the Spirit Plant Masters who cultivated these Spiritual Foods and Spiritual Plants were clearly sitting on a Treasure Basin.

Chu Mu carefully studied each type of Spiritual Food before him, getting a feel for its properties.

He had been studying the Alchemy Inheritance left by Elder Li for a long time. Although his progress was painstakingly slow due to his financial constraints, even that sluggish pace had been greatly beneficial in building his foundation of knowledge.

This was evident from his progress with the Dragon and Snake Soup. Even though he hadn’t deliberately studied the techniques of the Dragon and Snake Hall, as his general understanding and foundational knowledge deepened, his comprehension of the Dragon and Snake Soup naturally improved as well.

From Chu Mu’s current understanding, the so-called Grain Avoidance Pill didn’t have a single, rigid Pill Recipe.

Its main purpose was to extract the essence of Spiritual Food and refine it into something that could sate a Cultivator’s hunger.

There weren’t many restrictions on the Spiritual Food that could be used.

Strictly speaking, any Spiritual Food could be used as a raw material for the Grain Avoidance Pill. In fact, if Spirit Medicines were added, the Grain Avoidance Pill could even gain other Attributes beyond simply satisfying hunger.

Evidently, much like a mundane physician must know their medicines, to refine Grain Avoidance Pills, one first had to know Spiritual Food by heart!

The six types of Spiritual Food before him were just a drop in the bucket. He needed to buy many more to accumulate and broaden his foundational knowledge and experience. Only when all preparations were complete could he attempt to refine the Grain Avoidance Pill.

As long as he succeeded in refining the Grain Avoidance Pill, the catch-22 he currently faced would finally be broken.

He had already found out long ago that Grain Avoidance Pills were not cheap!

Strictly speaking, he was lucky. At the very least, he had an inheritance, which allowed him to bypass the most fatal form of monopoly: the monopoly on knowledge.

Otherwise, what could a mere Qi Cultivation First Layer cultivator like him do, even if he knew Alchemy was profitable? In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, what Cultivator didn’t know that every one of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal was a Treasure Basin?

Everyone knew it, but how many could actually get access to them?

If you couldn’t, you only had two choices.

Either you obediently wasted your life away in the Marketplace as he was doing now, scraping together a pittance of Spirit Stones.

Or you cast aside your morals and embraced survival of the fittest. The law of the jungle, red in tooth and claw, reigned just outside the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace.

Having been in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace for so long, Chu Mu had heard many stories of the bloodshed outside, especially recently. With the expansion of the Marketplace, it seemed to have become even more frequent.

He figured the only reason he’d been lucky enough to travel safely to and from the Marketplace back then was largely due to his low Cultivation and the fact that he was penniless.

Chu Mu pressed his lips together, pushing those thoughts aside. He focused his full attention on the Spiritual Food before him.

For the next several months, Chu Mu devoted himself entirely to the task of refining the Grain Avoidance Pill. He poured every bit of the Spiritual Radiance Value he accumulated each day into the Cultivation Immortal Technique of Alchemy.

To this end, Chu Mu even set aside his Sword Technique practice for a while. Without the massive influx of Spiritual Radiance Value, the once-rapid progress of his Sword Technique slowed considerably.

Still, with steady daily practice, it was gradually approaching the peak of Refined Skill.

This continued for six months, until Chu Mu’s daily routine came to an abrupt halt.

This time, however, it wasn’t by his own choice. Instead... he had lost his job.

Even as he carried his belongings out of Li’s Ore Materials, Chu Mu still hadn’t fully processed what had happened.

Day after day of research and study had completely absorbed his focus in the path of Alchemy; he had even stopped visiting the Marketplace.

He basically just holed himself up at Li’s Ore Materials, working to earn money, then studying Spiritual Food and doing a bit of Cultivation after his shift.

Lost in his intense focus, time flew by.

’But then, first thing in the morning, I was suddenly told that Li’s Ore Materials was gone?’

Chu Mu frowned, carefully replaying the recent events in his mind.

Early in the morning, the Shopkeeper, whom they rarely saw more than once every few months, had appeared. He had gathered all the employees and told them that Li’s Ore Materials was closing down and that the property had been leased to the Longevity Sect.

Then, he had paid them their Monthly Stipend and added three Lower Grade Spirit Stones as severance pay.

"Longevity Sect?"

Chu Mu subconsciously scanned the Marketplace. He had lived in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace for so long but had never seen any sign of the Longevity Sect’s presence.

’No shops, no outposts, not even a single disciple from the Longevity Sect.’

’And now they’d just shown up out of nowhere...’