Chapter 477: Alchemist Bilao

Lin Mu was interested in these pills and tried to see if there was information about them in the records he had collected till now. He quickly found the information about it and knew that these pills were not common at all.

These were actually pills that Nascent Soul realm cultivators would use and refining them was a difficult task too. Not to mention that the ingredients required for them were hard to get as well.

If Lin Mu were to compare any of these three pills with the other pills, then he could say that any one of these pills was more potent than all of the other pills combined.

'But wait if this is a pill used by Nascent Soul realm cultivators, how is he going to refine it?' Lin Mu wondered.

He knew that some alchemists that were more talented could do so, but seeing one in this world was rare. Even Lin Mu had only seen such people in the memoirs of the lost immortal till now.

"You can still try asking, who knows this person may really be talented at it." Xukong spoke.

Lin Mu reckoned that there really wasn't any drawback to this and thus decided to go ahead with it.

"I'm fine with all three pills. If you can refine them all it would be good, but I don't know how long that will take." Lin Mu spoke after thinking for a bit.

Lin Mu had a probable deadline and would have to leave the city when Wu Hei was done gathering information. There were about ten days left but it could be delayed, Lin Mu just hoped that the pills could be refined before that.

"Hmm… I can refine all of them but each pill would take me around fifteen to twenty days of time." The Alchemist spoke.

~Sigh~

"Fifteen to twenty days… that would be a bit too late for me…" Lin Mu replied.

"Well… the reason why it is taking me so long is because these pills are meant of Nascent Soul realm cultivators and I'm still not there. I can still refine them but to make sure I don't fail, I need to take it slow and carefully. 

Though there is a way by which I can speed up the process. But this will only work for one of these pills the Dark Soil pill." The alchemist replied.

"Oh? You can do that? How many days it would take you if you use that method?" Lin Mu questioned.

Lin Mu was fine with even just one pill as he reckoned it would be enough to push him into the fourth stage of the mortal strengthening sutra. Senior Xukong had already told him that reaching the fifth stage was incredibly difficult and would take a massive amount of resources to do so. 

Lin Mu would be content and his defenses would increase by quite a bit even if he was just in the fourth stage. He had not tested his defensive ability to the full extent when he reached the third stage and knew that it would only be good if it progressed further.

"I can shorten the time required to refine the Dark Soil pill to ten days if I use some catalysts. But this would involve using multiple mid grade spirit stones and would only increase the cost of the pill. For a comparison, you would be able to get two Dark Soil pills for the price of this one." The alchemist replied.

"I see…" Lin Mu responded before thinking over it.

Currently, he didn't really care for the spirit stones as much if he couldn't convert them to his personal strength. While they would be helpful in replenishing his spirit Qi in the time of need, if he didn't bolster his abilities now, it would not make it worth, when he went on the mission if he just ended up getting hurt or worse, dying.

"So do you still want to buy them?" The Alchemist asked again.

"Yes, I'll take them. How much will it cost for the Dark Soil pill?" Lin Mu replied.

"It will cost 250 mid grade spirit stones." The alchemist replied.

This was the first item Lin Mu was spending such a large amount of spirit stones on something, but he knew it was worth it.

'If I think about it, I've spent way more collectivity on other things…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

"Alright, I'll take it." Lin Mu answered.

He then took out a pouch filled with the exact number of spirit stones and handed them to the alchemist, who looked at the pouch apprehensively. He counted the spirit stones and was surprised.

'Did he already prepare before this? Seems like he was pretending to not know the price of the pills huh… a cautious person just like they told me.' The alchemist thought.

"Everything is here, I can start the process as soon as I get back to my abode." The alchemist spoke.

But just as the alchemist was about to stand up, Lin Mu had a thought and he spoke up.

"Ah, I forgot to ask, what is your name?" Lin Mu asked.

"Oh look at me, I forgot my manners at work. You can call me Alchemist Bilao." He answered.

"Alright then, goodbye alchemist Bilao." Lin Mu said farewell to him while thinking, 'where did I see this name before?'

Alchemist Bilao left the shop and went to do his work while the shopkeeper exchanged some more pleasantries with Lin Mu. He couldn't help but feel happy with such a good customer who was high paying. After all, he would be getting a cut from this too, as he was the one who recommended alchemist Bilao. 

'Good, that I spent extra effort in getting Alchemist Bilao. Thankfully, he was free from other jobs since he was preparing for his breakthrough. I wonder though… will alchemical Bilao be doing his breakthrough at the sect or someplace else… maybe we'll get to observe and learn from it.' The shopkeeper thought to himself.