"Greetings, Alchemist Zhou!"

"Good day, Alchemist Zhou!"

On the way to the Cyan Ape Hall, Zhou Xun encountered several acquaintances who all saluted him.

Zhou Xun smiled gently, cupping his hands in return.

"Husband has been away from the Immortal City for ten years, yet he remains so popular!" Song Yiqing remarked with a smile.

"They are all old friends!"

The two chatted casually along the way and soon arrived at the Cyan Ape Hall. Feng Tingli was still at the entrance to welcome guests.

"Alchemist Zhou has arrived, please have a seat inside!"

After saying this, he directly instructed a maid to guide Zhou Xun inside.

They didn't even check the invitation, but since it was personally delivered by him, there was no need for that.

"We'll meet again later, Brother Feng!"

After cupping his hands, he followed the maid into the Cyan Ape Hall.

This time, his booth number was A-eleven, six places higher than last time.

It showed how much White Cloud Immortal City valued him.

After an hour, the auction officially began, with Chief Steward Zhou Buqi presiding once again.

Zhou Xun watched the auction with great interest as piece after piece of rare items was auctioned off.

Soon, the Foundation Establishment Pills appeared, but Zhou Xun did not choose to make a bid.

A few days ago, he refined a Foundation Establishment Pill for Fairy Mingyue and Fang Tianlun, which he planned to give to Song Zhishu so he could earn a sum of Spirit Stones.

As for the price, it would naturally be based on the base price at this auction for the Foundation Establishment Pills.

This would also give an explanation to the Song Family.

The Song Family expended effort to secure a High-Grade Spirit Stone for him and only charged a rate of ten thousand Spirit Stones.

It should be known that typically, a High-Grade Spirit Stone transaction could be exchanged for at least a hundred and thirty Middle-Grade Spirit Stones, and even then, it might not be available, so Zhou Xun naturally wanted to reciprocate gesture for gesture.

Exchange and reciprocity are the guidelines for interpersonal relations.

Greedy demands will only estrange both parties further.

"The next auction item: Blue Spirit Lamp Flower, starting price: six thousand Spirit Stones!"

Finally, it was the item Zhou Xun was targeting.

The Blue Spirit Lamp Flower, similar in effect to the Foundation Establishment Pill, also increases the chance of advancing to the Second Realm.

However, one is used for Demon Beasts, and the other is for human cultivators.

Because it has the effect of enhancing bloodlines, its base price is much higher than that of the Foundation Establishment Pill.

"Six thousand Spirit Stones!"

"Six thousand one hundred Spirit Stones!"

There weren't many bidders, only three people besides Zhou Xun.

After all, there are very few cultivators willing to spend such a large sum just to enhance their Spirit Beasts.

"Seven thousand Spirit Stones!"

Zhou Xun didn't bother increasing the bid by just one hundred, directly raising the price by a large margin. Soon, the three others ceased bidding.

In the end, Zhou Xun won the Blue Spirit Lamp Flower for seven thousand Spirit Stones.

Zhou Xun called it a stroke of luck.

If this spirit medicine encountered someone who urgently needed it, ten thousand Spirit Stones would not be out of the question.

For the rest of the auction, Zhou Xun did not make any further bids until he needed the "Golden Meteorite!" and "Profound Flame Sand!"

Perhaps due to the news of the Beast Tide, the prices of these two materials increased significantly.

He spent over fifty thousand Spirit Stones in total to purchase them both.

This was after Zhou Xun had calculated an eighty percent discount on the price, with the actual auction price reaching sixty-three thousand Spirit Stones.

Of course, this number posed some risk.

Fortunately, the auction had high confidentiality, and only Zhou Buqi and select high-level members of the Immortal City knew his true identity.

Currently, Zhou Xun was a person of great interest to Master White Cloud, so he didn't have to worry about safety issues.

When Zhou Buqi learned that Zhou Xun had spent tens of thousands of Spirit Stones at this auction, he couldn't help but smile wryly.

He then issued strict orders not to disclose any of Zhou Xun's information, under penalty of faction expulsion for violators.

This helped eliminate some unwanted attention for Zhou Xun.

"These two materials turned out to be so abundant that even perfecting the Fifth Layer of the Body Refining Technique would leave a substantial amount remaining!"

"At that time, I can also use it for the Sixth Layer Cultivation!"

Generally speaking, using auxiliary materials of a lower tier for Body Refining Technique is acceptable, though the auxiliary effect would be significantly diminished.

...

Five days later, Zhou Xun left White Cloud Immortal City and returned to Wangchuan Lake Daoist Field.

Before leaving, he found Song Zhishu and handed him the Foundation Establishment Pill for five thousand Spirit Stones.

"Alchemist Zhou, five thousand Spirit Stones is too little. As far as I know, the cheapest one at the auction was sold at a high price of seven thousand two hundred Spirit Stones!"

Song Zhishu seemed a bit embarrassed.

They befriended Zhou Xun not to take advantage of him.

"This Foundation Establishment Pill wasn't acquired from the auction,"

"A few days ago, someone requested me to refine a Foundation Establishment Pill, offering the third pill as payment. Since I already had a Foundation Establishment Pill, I naturally didn't make a bid at the auction!"

"That High-Grade Spirit Stone was thanks to the Song Family, this kind of kindness Zhou Mou won't forget, thus if I were to charge seven thousand Spirit Stones for this Foundation Establishment Pill, wouldn't that be putting Zhou Mou in a position of ingratitude?"

Zhou Xun spoke slowly.

Seeing Zhou Xun speak this way, Song Zhishu nodded.

His resolve to maintain a good relationship with Zhou Xun was reinforced even further.

Such a promising, and both loyal and righteous cultivator is someone every noble family would strive to befriend.

He also felt wise for his decision to have Song Yiqing marry Zhou Xun as his concubine.

Seeing Song Yiqing now, already at Fifth-Layer Qi Refining Cultivation.

With her Low-Grade Spirit Root talent, she would never have achieved her current accomplishments without marrying Zhou Xun.

"Then as Alchemist Zhou has said, it shall be!" Song Zhishu did not insist further, taking out fifty pieces of Middle-Grade Spirit Stones and handing them to Zhou Xun.

Afterward, he bid farewell.

...

Returning to Wangchuan Lake, Zhou Xun re-entered his solitary cultivation.

By now, he was already a Fifth-Layer Foundation Establishment Cultivator, not far from the peak, according to his estimations.

He had a great hope of breaking through to Late-Stage Foundation Establishment within ten years.

After all, his current Spirit Root Sensitivity was already at fifty-nine points.

The better the Spirit Root Talent, the smaller the chance of encountering bottlenecks, and even if he did, the likelihood of breakthroughs would be greatly enhanced.

With his current talent, he could be regarded as a genius even in the Cloud Light Sect where talents abound.

A genuine True Pill Seed.

Soon a year passed.

Wangchuan Lake welcomed two visitors.

It was none other than Fairy Mingyue and Fang Tianlun, who had Foundation Establishment Pills refined by Zhou Xun in the past.

"Rumeng, Fang Tianlun greets Alchemist Zhou!"

In Jingxin Pavilion, upon seeing Zhou Xun, the two bowed deeply.

"There's no need for such a grand courtesy, fellow cultivators!" Zhou Xun immediately stepped forward to help them up.

By now, both of them were Early-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

Zhou Xun hadn't expected the two Foundation Establishment Pills to create two Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

Originally, he thought Fang Tianlun, nearing his sixtieth life limit, would have little chance of breaking through, but he turned out to be wrong.

Fang Tianlun had exceptional talent in Artifact Refining, and Zhou Xun had sought him out in the past for Magical Artifact repairs.

With his current Artifact Refining attainments, his status had instantly elevated, nearing that of Middle-Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

"We owe our breakthroughs entirely to the Foundation Establishment Pill refined by Alchemist Zhou. We've come today to express our gratitude!"

Fang Tianlun spoke extremely politely, taking out a Top-Grade Defensive Spiritual Artifact:

"This is a Defense Shield Token I refined, incorporating the treasured Magical Treasure Material, Profound Silver Essence. In terms of defense, it's absolutely a premium among Top-Grade Spiritual Artifacts, please accept it, Alchemist Zhou!"

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