Chapter 41: Only Looking, Not Buying

  "Ti Qi Dan is the most commonly used dan by cultivators in the Refining Qi stage, and its price is also the most stable. Even the lower-grade dan are sold for seven ling stones per piece, while the poorer ones are six ling stones. The whole city sells them at this price, no need to ask me, I already know. Otherwise, bring your dan here and let me take a look at its quality, see how much it's worth?" Liu Kai may be poor, but he was very familiar with these low-grade dans commonly used by cultivators.

  "Never mind, let's wait a bit. I just want to ask the price, no rush to sell now. Let's take a look at others." Lin Feng heard Liu Kai's quote and thought that it was nothing out of the ordinary. The first-grade Dan, Tiqi Dan, can be said to be the most basic Dan medicine, which is a must for Qi-refining cultivators, just like the staple food for ordinary people. A stable price is quite normal.

  But after hearing this price, he was still very moved, because he immediately thought that all these years when he exchanged his own inferior elixir for Yang Zeshi's spiritual medicine, he had always given himself one seven-spirit stone per piece. With his current level of alchemy, the inferior elixirs he refined were considered good here, and selling them for seven-spirit stones was also normal.

  But when he first started refining the elixir, the quality of that Qi-gathering Elixir was probably not as good as the low-grade elixirs sold here for one Seven Spirit Stone. Yet Master Uncle calculated it as if it were a high-quality low-grade elixir, so the difference was huge. So when Lin Feng heard Baibao Tang's buying price, he suddenly felt a warm current flowing through his heart - Master Uncle had been secretly helping him a lot all along!

  "Ah, what is this? A dan furnace? Such a small dan furnace?" Lin Feng continued to walk forward and soon discovered that the shelves were lined with rows of furnaces about his own height, which looked like dan furnaces, but were much smaller than the one in the Yang family.

  "What, want to buy a dan furnace? The price of a dan furnace is not low, the worst dan furnace doesn't have thousands of spirit stones, don't even think about it. Think carefully before speaking." Liu Kai looked at Lin Feng's appearance and hastily reminded him, he didn't think Lin Feng could take out thousands of spirit stones, otherwise, he would ask and then not buy, losing face for no reason.

  Lin Feng knew what Liu Kai meant, but he didn't care at all. Not to mention that he had over a thousand spirit stones from the family reward, he currently had more than a thousand spirit stones on hand. He had refined so many pills in the past few months, and although he had spent a lot of money exchanging for many spiritual medicines later on, he still had nearly 130 bottles of low-grade pills worth tens of thousands of spirit stones. Buying a stove that cost around 1,800 spirit stones was not a problem at all. Moreover, he also had more than 30 bottles of medium-grade Qi-gathering pills, which were worth several thousand spirit stones when added together. It's just that Lin Feng didn't plan to sell the medium-grade pills for now. Medium-grade pills were different from low-grade pills, and if they really wanted to be sold, they couldn't be sold openly and honestly like this.

  "Trouble bringing this crucible over for me to take a look." Lin Feng didn't pay attention to Liu Kai's anxious gaze beside him, and instead called out to the female cultivator serving nearby, pointing at a reddish-gray crucible.

  The nun was still very polite and didn't look down on Lin Feng and the others just because their cultivation was low. She smiled and brought over the pill furnace that Lin Feng had specified, and explained its effects and characteristics very seriously.

  Lin Feng was not an old hand at Dan furnaces, but he wasn't a new hand either. Having been by Yang Zeshi's side for so long, he knew that the quality of a Dan furnace mainly depended on its material and the array carved on it. In terms of materials, those commonly used to make Dan furnaces were Xuanqing iron, Chiyan iron, Ziqing copper, Hongyan copper, etc., among which the worst was Xuanqing iron and the best was Hongyan copper. As for the arrays, ordinary Dan furnaces were more or less the same, with opening and closing furnace鼎arrays, rotating and shaking arrays being basic, the key was to look at the Ling array at the bottom of the furnace.

  There are many types of spiritual gathering arrays, all of which aim to gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for one's own use. However, the spiritual gathering array of a personal alchemy furnace mainly gathers the fire spiritual energy of heaven and earth to refine elixirs, often using fire-attribute spirit stones to enhance firepower. This is the difference between a personal alchemy furnace and a sect family's alchemy furnace. The large alchemy furnaces used by sect families usually do not have this array method because they generally use powerful earthly fire with sufficient heat that does not consume spirit stones. Otherwise, even a wealthy sect or family would be unable to afford using spirit stones for refining elixirs every day.

  Lin Feng immediately picked up a dan furnace made of crimson iron as the main material, and it can be seen that his psychological price is a mid-to-high-end furnace. Buying a dan furnace was Lin Feng's recent idea, and from the situation of collecting medicine in the past few days, carrying a dan furnace has many advantages, the biggest advantage being able to refine or directly turn the collected spiritual medicine into dan medicine in time, which will save a lot of time going back and forth between Yuguang City and Qilian Mountain. Moreover, he will inevitably have to go through many dangers when going out in the future, so carrying a dan furnace to refine some healing dan medicine is also convenient, so Lin Feng was so particular after seeing the dan furnace.

  "How much is this?" Lin Feng took a look at the material and thought it was pretty good.

  "Two thousand four hundred low-grade spirit stones."

  "It's so expensive!" Lin Feng hadn't even spoken yet, but Liu Kai had already exclaimed beside him. As soon as the words left his mouth, he quickly covered it with his hand. His outburst immediately drew the attention of several nearby customers, and even someone with a thick skin like him felt a little flushed.

  Lin Feng calmly asked the female cultivator, "Can we try the Spirit Gathering Formation?" Liu Kai suddenly felt inferior in front of Lin Feng, it seemed that this newly acquainted rookie cultivator was not ordinary after all!

  "Of course." The monk quickly took a few flame stones and placed them on the spiritual gathering array disc that came with the Dan furnace, then put the Dan furnace on it and said to Lin Feng: "Just inject spiritual energy into the array disc, if you want a big fire, just inject more vigorously."

  Huoyan Stone is a first-class fire-attribute spirit stone. As soon as Lin Feng infused his spiritual energy into it, the fire spiritual energy of heaven and earth converged with the spiritual power in the Huoyan Stone to the bottom of the furnace. Lin Feng increased the infusion of his spiritual energy again, until he reached the maximum, which was only about two-thirds of the family's land fire. It seems that the firepower is still a bit low.

  Lin Feng shook his head and pointed at another dark purple furnace on the shelf: "How much is this one?"

  "Five thousand five hundred pieces of low-grade spirit stone." The female cultivator still smiled as she changed the dan furnace and reported a price that made Liu Kai's jaw drop in shock.

  "I'll try the firepower." Lin Feng had already mentally prepared himself, as the alchemy furnace was also a magic tool, but it was even more precious than ordinary weapons. Among magic tools of the same rank, an alchemy furnace was normally three to four times more expensive than a weapon. For example, the low-grade magic tool alchemy furnace made of crimson iron from earlier was already over three times more expensive than the usual low-grade magic tool price of nearly a thousand spirit stones, and this dark purple alchemy furnace was a mid-grade magic tool, so its price was naturally even higher.

  The spiritual energy was injected, and it turned out to be much stronger than the previous one. The heat absorption of the dan furnace also accelerated significantly. However, Lin Feng still felt that it wasn't satisfactory, so he asked the cultivator to put it back and exchange for another one. A good dan furnace is a crucial element in refining excellent dan, and once purchased, it can be used for a long time. Therefore, most cultivators are very particular about selecting a dan furnace, with extremely strict standards. The cultivator also seemed to recognize that Lin Feng was an expert, so he didn't show any dissatisfaction. He brought out whatever Lin Feng asked for and even took the trouble to explain the characteristics of each furnace.

  Liu Kai had also calmed down, and Lin Feng's selection of the dan furnace didn't seem to be just for fun. It was clear that he was preparing to make a purchase. From this, Liu Kai also determined that Lin Feng's family background was indeed not low, and it was probably far beyond what a poor loose cultivator like him could compare to.

  He tried five or six dan furnaces in a row, and Lin Feng roughly understood that these dan furnaces were all about the same, definitely not as good as the earth fire, but enough to refine the dan. In terms of quality, the lower-grade law device was much worse than the middle-grade law device, while the higher-grade law device was not much better than the middle-grade law device. Theoretically speaking, choosing a mid-range law device dan furnace had the best cost-effectiveness. However, in order to improve the success rate and quality of the dan, it seemed that spending more money was also worth it.

  Lin Feng was weighing the pros and cons of various pill furnaces in his mind, deep in thought. Liu Kai stood beside him, both excited and nervous, anxiously awaiting his decision. After a while, Lin Feng lifted his head, smiled at the female cultivator and said: "Thank you, I think I need to consider it again, please put the pill furnace away."

  "The woman smiled and said: 'You're welcome, come back next time.'"

  Lin Feng nodded and continued walking forward, Liu Kai's expectant expression turned gloomy for a moment, and he quickened his pace to catch up with Lin Feng, saying: "I thought you were really going to buy the dan furnace, it scared me." The tone of his words undoubtedly revealed his disappointment.

  Lin Feng smiled faintly and said, "You know I don't understand the market, so I won't ask too much. Today, I'm just looking and not buying, that's all to understand the situation." Lin Feng didn't know why Liu Kai's emotions fluctuated so greatly, but after thinking about it for a moment, he vaguely understood the reason.

  A dan furnace costs at least two to three thousand spirit stones, Liu Kai initially thought that Lin Feng was like himself, a loose cultivator or a low-level disciple of a small family, and it was basically a joke to take out so many spirit stones at once. Later, seeing how serious Lin Feng's inquiry was, he then speculated that Lin Feng was a disciple from a wealthy major family, and as long as he bought the dan furnace worth several thousand spirit stones, this speculation would become reality.

  As a loose cultivator who didn't have much going for him, the benefits of befriending a wealthy cultivator were obvious, so he was naturally excited and tense, to the point where he felt a little disappointed in the end. It couldn't be said that Liu Kai's influence was at play here; this was just human nature.

  "Yes, you're new to the city of Yuguang, it's always good to ask and observe more." Although the pie in the sky didn't come true, the monk's will was firm, and he emphasized the word "yuan" (fate) in everything, so Liu Kai quickly recovered from his disappointment.