Seeing that Song Qingming seemed to have recognized him, Qin Zhen looked at the wooden sign in front of the stall and continued, "I see your sign says you need elixirs. I happen to know a friend who often sells elixirs, but he doesn't want anything else, just spirit stones. I wonder if you are interested?"
"Fellow Daoist Qin, I'm here to help my clan collect elixirs that can help us improve our cultivation. If someone can provide them on a long-term basis, that would be great. It would also save my family from having to go to the market frequently to buy them."
It turned out that he was a cultivator from a nearby family. No wonder he was so young, but he could always take out dozens of talismans to sell at every gathering. It turned out that most of these talismans were refined by the elders of his clan.
Pills, a scarce cultivation resource, are basically controlled by the major immortal cultivation families in Qinghe County. Most of them have a complete inheritance of elixir formulas accumulated over several generations, and it is easier for them to train alchemists than independent cultivators.
Even if there are a few talented people among the independent cultivators, who rely on their own opportunities to obtain some alchemy inheritance and become alchemists, if they want to obtain more alchemy recipes to improve their alchemy skills, they can only choose to join them and become the worshippers of these immortal cultivation families, helping them to make pills for their whole lives.
Qinghefang, the only market town in Qinghe County, was jointly established by the large and small immortal cultivation families in Qinghe County. The elixirs made by independent cultivators cannot compete with those immortal cultivation families in Qinghefang.
Of course, there are still some alchemists who are unwilling to collude with these immortal cultivation families and choose other ways of survival. However, the pills they refine can generally only appear in these small gatherings.
The pills sold here are generally cheaper than those sold in the market. It is not uncommon for nearby immortal cultivation families to come here to purchase pills for the sake of a few spirit stones."
After listening to Song Qingming's words, Qin Zhen finally felt relieved and said, "I was wondering if you, Daoist friend, would need so many pills since you are so young. It turns out you are buying them for your family."
"If you can introduce me to a way to buy talismans from me in the future, I will give you a 10% discount on the market price, is that okay?"
After saying that, Song Qingming took out a few of this person's favorite Qingxin Talismans from the pile of talismans in front of him and stuffed them into Qin Zhen's hands.
"It's OK, it's OK. After the meeting, fellow Taoist, please wait for me here for a while."
Seeing that Song Qingming was so sensible, Qin Zhen happily agreed. A casual cultivator like him often hangs out in various gatherings. Apart from going out to adventure and hunt monsters, he can only rely on buying and selling information in the market gatherings in exchange for some cultivation resources.
Not long after Qin Zhen left, a beautiful woman wearing a veil came to Song Qingming's stall.
The woman had delicate eyebrows and eyes, white teeth and red lips. She was wearing a light pink palace dress, with a delicate and exquisite figure. The hem of her skirt was embroidered with light blue butterflies with wings spread out, ready to fly, and she was wearing a layer of white gauze on the outside. Her cultivation was slightly higher than Song Qingming's, having reached the fifth level of Qi Refining.
This was the first time Song Qingming had seen such a stunningly beautiful female cultivator in the few months he had been in Caolu Mountain, and he couldn't help but look at her a few more times.
The man stopped in front of Song Qingming's stall, carefully looked at the sign on the table, thought for a moment, and then said, "Would you like to take the mid-grade silverleaf grass?"
Song Qingming only felt the sound, which was as clear and pleasant as a wind chime. After coming to his senses, he quickly replied: "I won't accept the middle-grade ones, but the lower-grade ones are fine."
Silverleaf grass is also one of the spiritual herbs needed to make blank talismans. However, Song Qingming is only a low-grade talisman maker now, so it is a bit of a waste to use medium-grade materials. He does not have many spiritual stones on hand, so he naturally will not waste spiritual stones to purchase this.
Seeing Song Qingming's refusal, the pink-dressed woman showed a hint of displeasure on her face. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "I still have some low-grade elixirs that can improve my cultivation. Can I exchange them for all the Qingxin Talismans on your table?"
"A pill that improves your cultivation? Let me see what kind it is first."
Hearing that the girl wanted to exchange pills for his talisman, Song Qingming was a little surprised. He didn't know what was going on today. In the past, there were few people in this market who took pills to exchange for talismans. How come he met two people who could exchange pills for talismans today?
After hearing Song Qingming's words, the woman in pink did not answer, but took out a small bottle and placed it on the table.
He took the purple bottle handed to him, opened the jade bottle, poured out a pill, lowered his head and carefully smelled the medicinal properties.
"This is the 'Qi-Nourishing Pill'."
Song Qingming took out a small bottle of his own and put three pills in it. He then placed the remaining pills in the bottle along with a dozen Qingxin talismans on the table in front of the other person.
"Your Qi-nourishing Pill is worth about three spirit stones on the market. These dozen or so talismans of mine are only worth three of your pills. If you agree, we can exchange."
The woman in pink didn't hesitate, nodded readily, quickly put away the pills and talismans, glanced at Song Qingming, turned around and left.
After completing this business deal, Song Qingming's good luck seemed to have run out, and he never encountered such a good opportunity to exchange for elixirs again.
However, the sales of the talismans he displayed have been very stable. Most of them are sold out in a day, and he also received some materials for making talismans. Only the black stone that Uncle Jiu left with him remained untouched and no one was interested in it.
——
At dusk, the sun was setting in the west. On the west side of Caolu Mountain, Song Qingming looked at the person who was selling elixirs introduced by Qin Zhen and smiled bitterly.
The familiar figure in front of him was the pink-dressed woman who had traded pills for talismans with him today. However, he had never thought that the woman would sell the remaining pills.
It’s a pity that those heart-clearing talismans he worked so hard to make were wasted.
The woman in pink was still wearing a white veil. Although Song Qingming had not been able to see her face clearly, he quickly confirmed from her clothes that she was the stunning woman he had traded with half a day ago.
The pink-dressed woman was somewhat surprised to see Song Qingming. She then asked Qin Zhen, "Fellow Daoist Qin, is this the person you mentioned wanting to buy the elixir?"
"Fairy Gao, this is Fellow Daoist Song, also a cultivator from a nearby family. He has a good reputation in Caolu Mountain. He came here to purchase some medicinal pills for the elders in his family."
Qin Zhen seemed somewhat respectful to the woman, and his tone showed that he was a little afraid that she might not be satisfied with Song Qingming as her trading partner.
After hearing Qin Zhen’s introduction, the woman in pink asked Song Qingming another question.
"Are you from the Song family of Funiu Mountain?"
"Funiu Mountain, Song family, Song Qingming."
When Song Qingming saw that the woman knew his origin immediately, he thought that she must be someone who had been practicing in this area for many years, so he no longer concealed it and told her his name generously.
After hearing Song Qingming's answer, the woman in pink thought for a long time, and finally seemed to have made up her mind and threw a yellow cloth bag at Qin Zhen.
After Qin Zhen took the cloth bag, he opened it and took a look. He nodded happily at the two of them and quickly left.
It wasn't until Qin Zhen was out of their sight that the woman in white slowly spoke, "Fellow Daoist Song, what kind of elixir do you need?"
"I want pills like the Qi-nourishing Pill, which can increase my mana. The more the better."
"I only want spirit stones, nothing else."
"That's natural."
After the pink-dressed woman finished speaking, she took out several identical purple jade bottles and placed them in Song Qingming's hands. Song Qingming took them and looked at them. He saw that all three bottles contained the Qi-nourishing Pills he had always dreamed of. He was shocked and couldn't help but have more guesses about the pink-dressed woman.
Being able to produce so many Qi-nourishing Pills at once, this woman's alchemy skills must be very advanced. She is not comparable to the junior alchemist like my second sister. She is at least a mid-level alchemist, and there are not many such people in Qinghe County.
"My pills are all of high quality. If you want a whole bottle, I can give you two less spirit stones."
Song Qingming nodded in agreement, accepted a bottle of pills, and took out a bag of spirit stones and handed it to the woman.
"I came out in a hurry this time and didn't bring many spirit stones with me. One bottle is enough for today. For the rest, you can find me next month at the place where we had our last gathering. I set up a stall here every month. As long as the quality is guaranteed, I can buy from you on a long-term basis."
"As long as you have spirit stones, the quality of the pills I refine is guaranteed. However, if you want long-term cooperation, I have one request."
"Fairy, please speak."
"You must not reveal our deal to your people. This shouldn't be difficult for you."
Song Qingming was a little puzzled about the pink-clothed woman's strange request, but after thinking about it carefully, he thought that perhaps her alchemy inheritance came from Qinghefang, so she didn't want the family cultivators like them to know her identity.
"Can!"
Compared to her, Song Qingming didn't want his clan to know the secret of how he was earning spirit stones. For him, the most important thing now was to be able to exchange them for elixirs steadily to improve his cultivation.
He only dared to take a few of these pills to the family's treasury to exchange for materials for making talismans. If he took all of them, how could he explain clearly when the Fourth Elder asked him where he got the spirit stones to purchase the pills? In the eyes of other members of the Song family, he had no more than twenty or thirty spirit stones on him.
The woman in pink nodded at the spirit stones, put them into her storage bag with satisfaction, and was about to leave.
"Dare you ask the fairy for her name?"
"Gao Yuyao."
