"It seems this Nine Dragon Ring holds quite a few secrets. What I've discovered so far is likely just the tip of the iceberg!"
Lin Chen mused as he planted all the spiritual herbs he had brought into the medicinal field.
"Then, I'll cultivate for now. After I exit seclusion, I'll check on things again."
After planting the herbs, Lin Chen had a plan. Now that the library in the Nine Dragon Ring was unlocked, he no longer had to cultivate sitting on the ground.
He directly entered the second floor of the library and sat down within the pavilion.
He had just obtained the Qian Yuan Burning Blood Divine Skill and the Spiritual Sword Art. Now was the perfect time to cultivate them and consolidate his current cultivation.
But before he began cultivating, Lin Chen once again took out the artifact alchemy furnace that Xiao Kui had given him and refined a batch of Third-grade Spirit Guiding Pills.
"Hmm? Why are there only four intact pills? The remaining six are all waste pills?"
Seeing that this batch of Spirit Guiding Pills yielded only four, Lin Chen's eyes widened in disbelief.
He had invested the medicinal ingredients for twelve Spirit Guiding Pills this time! And only managed to succeed with so few?
Previously, when he refined pills, each batch of Second-grade Spirit Guiding Pills usually yielded ten pills, with almost no waste.
But now? Refining Third-grade Spirit Guiding Pills resulted in six waste pills. How much medicinal material had been wasted?
"The alchemy techniques and materials are fine. Could it be that this alchemy furnace has such a significant impact on alchemy?"
After much deliberation, Lin Chen could only attribute the problem to the alchemy furnace.
His alchemy techniques were obtained from the ancient alchemy methods within the Nine Dragon Ring, so there absolutely couldn't be any issues. The medicinal materials were also personally collected by him, so there were no problems there either.
That left only the alchemy furnace as the cause.
"No wonder Master asked me to increase my remuneration for helping. So this alchemy furnace is this important to an alchemist!"
Understanding the crux of the matter, Lin Chen couldn't help but exclaim.
But he had already decided to negotiate with Long Yuling as his master advised. If it didn't work out, obtaining a mid-grade spiritual artifact alchemy furnace would be far better than what he had now.
"Then, I'll start cultivating now. I need to stabilize my Core Formation stage cultivation first, after all, I'm going up against the genius of the Liu family!"
With that thought, Lin Chen slowly calmed himself down and immersed his mind in cultivation.
It had to be said that the Qian Yuan Burning Blood Skill was indeed powerful. Lin Chen consumed the spiritual energy from four Third-grade Spirit Guiding Pills, and about a month passed within the Nine Dragon Ring.
In just one month, he had managed to stabilize his Core Formation stage cultivation, and the excess spiritual energy further enriched his sea of consciousness.
He could feel that if he continued cultivating like this for another three to five months, he might even advance to the middle stage of Core Formation.
However, the consumption of Spirit Guiding Pills was undoubtedly extravagant.
For an ordinary cultivator, consuming the medicinal power of one Third-grade Spirit Guiding Pill would take at least a month.
But now, he had consumed four in just one month. If it weren't for the fact that he was an alchemist, most people probably wouldn't be able to afford such consumption.
"Never mind, I'll get familiar with the Spiritual Sword Art first."
Although he felt a bit displeased, Lin Chen put his thoughts aside.
He didn't need to worry about sword techniques anymore. When he crippled Xiao Kui's cultivation, he had already obtained his mid-grade spiritual artifact sword. Now, he had a weapon to practice the Spiritual Sword Art with.
After cultivating the Spiritual Sword Art for another month within the Nine Dragon Ring, Lin Chen felt somewhat satisfied with his current combat strength.
As for the Golden Dragon Nine Transformations, he had familiarized himself with it in just a few days.
Ultimately, it was similar to the previous Silver Dragon Transformation. Both involved temporarily boosting one's cultivation using spiritual energy. As long as there was enough spiritual energy, combat power would increase.
In other words, as long as he had enough spirit replenishment pills, his combat power would be inexhaustible.
"I'll go check on the planted spiritual herbs first, and then I'll exit seclusion to meet Long Yuling!"
With this thought, Lin Chen made up his mind. If Long Yuling agreed to his terms, he would participate in the competition on behalf of the Long family. If she refused, he would participate in the Alchemist Competition and aim for first place. Even a low-grade spiritual artifact alchemy furnace would surely be better than the one he currently had.
However, when Lin Chen walked towards the medicinal garden, he froze.
"What's going on? These are the spiritual herb seedlings I planted, aren't they? Why do they all have sixty years of medicinal age now?"
Seeing the lush greenery in the medicinal garden, Lin Chen thought he was hallucinating.
But no matter how closely he examined them, these medicinal herbs indeed had sixty years of medicinal age and could be directly used for alchemy.
What's more, many of the herbs had propagated in the garden. He had only brought in a dozen plants before, and now they had grown to over a hundred.
If this were outside, it would be utterly shocking!
"Even if the time flow within the Nine Dragon Ring is different from the outside world, the herbs shouldn't grow this fast. Could it be because of this medicinal garden?"
Lin Chen then crouched down to carefully examine the medicinal garden. Indeed, the spiritual soil within the garden was completely different from that outside.
It was rich in spiritual energy and fertile, far superior to the outside world.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, I'm rich, I'm really rich!"
Upon understanding the key factor, Lin Chen became incredibly excited.
The Ghost God Sect's medicinal garden had so many herbs. If he could transplant them all here, wouldn't he be truly wealthy in a few months?
At that point, he would have no shortage of herbs for any alchemy he wished to perform.
Lin Chen grew more and more excited. He immediately withdrew his divine sense from the Nine Dragon Ring and, like a madman, rushed towards the medicinal garden.
At this moment, Zhang Ying and Zhang Yunlong were both in seclusion, so there was no one in the medicinal garden. But Lin Chen couldn't bother with that. He hurried to transplant the spiritual herbs into the spirit fields of the Nine Dragon Ring.
"Uh, there are so many herbs, but the Nine Dragon Ring's spirit fields are so few. There's not enough space to plant them!"
After several trips, Lin Chen felt a slight disappointment. He was only at the Core Formation stage, and the unlocked spirit fields were only the size of a basketball court. He couldn't plant any more herbs.
"It seems I can only cultivate these for now. Once my cultivation improves in the future, the scale of the spirit fields will likely change as well."
Based on his previous experiences, every time his cultivation advanced a realm, the Nine Dragon Ring's area would expand. He assumed the spirit fields would be no exception.