Chapter 87: Rushing for Progress Requires Protecting the Meridians

The moment Xu Yu entered, she began to gush with praise. “Brother Haoxuan, you’re amazing! The Qi-Circulating Powder you made is even better than the Qi-Circulating Pill I refined…”

Before she could finish, both Qin Haoxuan and Pu Hanzhong urgently gestured for her to be quiet, cutting her off. Realizing she had been too loud, Xu Yu stuck out her tongue and gave an embarrassed smile. As the saying goes, one should not flaunt their wealth. If others were to find out that Qin Haoxuan could make such an incredible powder, it would surely bring him trouble.

Lowering her voice to a whisper, she continued, her eyes sparkling, “But it really is amazing. Even the pill Senior Sister Luo gave me isn’t as good as your powder. After I took it, I broke through to the Second-Leaf Realm in just three hours! Without it, I would have needed to take pills for seven more days!”

“Then congratulations are in order, Little Sister Yu!” Qin Haoxuan smiled. He had given her the powder in the hopes that it would help her, and he was genuinely happy for her success. “But you must keep this to yourself,” he warned, his expression turning serious. “If anyone asks how you broke through so quickly, tell them it was because of Senior Sister Luo’s pills. Don’t mention me at all. If people found out, they might just kidnap me and force me to make powder for them day and night.”

Xu Yu giggled. “Don’t worry,” she said earnestly. “I won’t tell a soul. Not a single person!”

Looking at her earnest, charming face, Qin Haoxuan felt a pang of guilt. The two people in this room were the ones he trusted most in the world. He wished he could share his secrets with them, but he knew he couldn’t. It would bring them no benefit, only danger. If his secrets were ever exposed, their knowledge would surely implicate them as well.

After a moment’s thought, Xu Yu tilted her head. “But Brother Haoxuan, you have to agree to one condition!”

“What condition?”

“You have to tell me how you made a powder that’s even better than a pill. It’s just too incredible!” Having just learned alchemy herself, she knew how difficult it was to refine a single pill. To make a powder that surpassed a pill in efficacy was surely a feat of immense difficulty.

At her question, Pu Hanzhong tensed. He knew the two were close, but his junior brother was shrouded in too many secrets. He had always suppressed his own curiosity, and now that Xu Yu was asking, his guard went up immediately. After thirty years in the sect, he knew all too well that one could never be too careful.

Sensing the sudden tension, Qin Haoxuan just smiled and patted Pu Hanzhong’s shoulder reassuringly. If anyone else had asked, he would have been wary as well. But looking at the innocent, trusting face of Xu Yu, who treated him like family, he couldn’t be. Still, he couldn’t tell them the truth. He decided a well-intentioned lie was in order. He pretended to think for a long time before finally saying with an air of grim determination, “I’ll tell you. But you must not tell anyone else!”

Xu Yu nodded solemnly. His dramatic display only made her more curious. “Hurry up and tell me, Brother Haoxuan! The suspense is killing me!”

He gave another mysterious smile, then slowly pointed to the bottles of milky-white essence on the table. “I used this,” he said, his voice a mixture of truth and falsehood. “This, plus the Qi-Circulating Grass. I extracted this essence from ruined pills myself, using the Art of Essence Extraction.”

Xu Yu picked up a bottle and uncorked it, taking a sniff. It was just essence from a low-grade pill, nothing special. “Essence from this can make such a powerful powder?” she asked, confused.

“That’s what I used,” Qin Haoxuan said, playing dumb. “I don’t know why the effect was so good either.” Relying on her complete trust in him, the deception worked perfectly.

“Wow, Brother Haoxuan, you’re amazing!” she exclaimed, her awe genuine. “You even know how to extract essence from ruined pills. Senior Sister Luo told me that the Art of Essence Extraction is a unique art of the Nature Hall. She said that their… their Art of Essence Extraction is very impressive!” She had gotten so excited that she had nearly quoted Luo Jinhua verbatim. What her senior sister had actually said was, “The Nature Hall is weak in everything, but the Art of Essence Extraction they invented is very impressive.”

Qin Haoxuan just smiled mysteriously and reminded her again, “You can’t tell anyone. Only you, me, and Senior Brother Pu know about this.”

Both of them nodded solemnly, promising to keep his secret. Seeing their serious faces, Qin Haoxuan felt another twinge of guilt for lying to the two people who were like family to him here. But it was for their own safety. Senior Brother, Little Sister Yu, I’m sorry, he thought. When I am strong enough not to fear the prying eyes of others, I will share all my secrets with you. You are the ones most worthy of sharing in my joy.

“Oh, right,” Xu Yu said, turning a bottle over in her hands. She was completely enamored with the idea that this simple liquid could produce such a miraculous powder. “Brother Haoxuan, can I have a bottle of this? If I use it to refine a Qi-Circulating Pill, do you think the effect will be even better?”

Her words struck both Qin Haoxuan and Pu Hanzhong like a great temple bell. An image instantly formed in their minds: a golden Qi-Circulating Pill that, when consumed, would create five basin-sized spiritual vortexes above one’s head, an effect five times more powerful than even his miraculous powder.

“If I could make a pill like that and give it to you, Brother Haoxuan,” Xu Yu said, her eyes shining, “your cultivation speed might not match a Purple Seed’s, but it definitely wouldn’t be slower than a Gray Seed’s!” Her words touched him deeply. From start to finish, she was thinking of him, wanting to give her creation to him so he could catch up.

Though the essence in her hand could never produce such a pill, her words gave him an idea. She can’t make it, but I can! If I use my golden essence, I could make a pill like that. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about my cultivation anymore. I might not catch up to the Purple Seeds, but I could at least be on par with the Gray Seeds! For someone with no other heavenly treasures to consume, it seemed like an excellent solution.

Just as they were lost in this wonderful fantasy, Pu Hanzhong, who had also been swept up in the idea, suddenly thought of a fatal flaw. He threw a bucket of cold water on their excitement. “There’s a very serious, deadly problem with that plan,” he said, frowning. “Both of your cultivation times are still very short. Your meridians and Dantians haven’t been fully developed yet. The powder alone is already terrifyingly fast. If you increase that speed by five times… your meridians definitely won’t be able to handle it. It could lead to a tragedy, like ruptured meridians or an exploding Dantian.”

He looked at them calmly. The idea was brilliant, but reality was cruel.

Xu Yu’s brow furrowed. She had experienced the terrifying flood of energy firsthand. Even as a Second-Leaf cultivator, the memory was unnerving. If not for her strong foundation, she could have been seriously injured. If a powder was that intense, what would a pill five times stronger be like?

Qin Haoxuan also realized the danger. He had withstood the power of the One-Leaf Golden Lotus, but that energy had been stored throughout his body, not funneled directly into his meridians. The energy from the powder, however, went straight to his meridians and Dantian. Even with his body tempered by his special cultivation, he doubted he could withstand five basin-sized vortexes at once.

They both sighed, about to dismiss the idea, when Pu Hanzhong spoke again. “There is one way to make it possible,” he said. “You would need to protect your meridians and ensure they aren’t damaged. But getting your hands on something like that… is extremely difficult.”

“What is it?” they both asked in unison.

“Meridian Protecting Powder,” he said, a look of longing on his face. “Don’t be fooled because it’s a powder. It’s incredibly expensive. It’s normally only used by cultivators at the Forty-Ninth-Leaf Realm when they are about to break through to the Spirit Tree Realm. They consume massive amounts of spirit pills to force the breakthrough, and the Meridian Protecting Powder is the only thing that keeps their bodies from being destroyed in the process. It ensures their meridians are completely safe.”

“A powder? Not a pill?” Xu Yu asked in disbelief. It was the first time she had ever heard of a powder being more valuable than a pill.

“That’s right, a powder. A single packet costs ten low-grade, second-tier spirit stones.”

“Ten low-grade, second-tier spirit stones…” Xu Yu was stunned. “One second-tier stone is worth a hundred third-tier stones. So ten of them… that’s one thousand low-grade, third-tier spirit stones.”

(End of Chapter)