After My Rebirth, I Ended Up Happily Ever After with the Saintess - Chapter 36

The tranquility of Yun Dan Peak’s small courtyard remained undisturbed by the outside rumors. Ye Li’s heart was like still water. By day, she studied ancient texts and practiced pill arrays, and by night, she focused on body tempering and cultivation, leading a busy and disciplined life. The minor conflict at Zhan Kuang Peak was an insignificant interlude, failing to stir any real ripple in her heart.

However, on the path of cultivation, the sequence of “Wealth, Companions, Techniques, and Location” places “Wealth” first. Whether it was for optimizing the Spirit Gathering Array, practicing alchemy, or later purchasing more advanced cultivation techniques and materials, a massive amount of contribution points was required. Relying solely on completing sect missions was too inefficient and prone to falling into others’ schemes.

It was time to open up a new resource channel.

On this day, she once again came to the Myriad Phenomena Hall. Unlike her previous visits, which were focused and direct, this time she slowly wandered through the bustling market, her gaze meticulously scanning the stalls like the most precise sieve.

The goods on the stalls were dazzling and varied: pills, talismans, materials, ores, demonic beast parts of various grades, and even some ancient objects of unknown origin. The sounds of hawking and haggling were non-stop. Genuine items were mixed with fakes, and pearls mingled with fish eyes, testing the eyesight and luck of the buyer.

Most disciples came here either to buy urgently needed items or to sell their gains. Few aimlessly wandered like Ye Li.

Her eyes skipped over the spirit-filled pills and talismans, over the cold-glinting weapons, and finally settled on the most inconspicuous corners, piled with junk, or even covered in dust.

The insight and experience of an esteemed existence from her previous life became her greatest reliance. Many things that seemed obscure and worthless to others might shine with a different kind of faint light in her eyes.

She stopped at a stall selling various low-grade herbs. The stall owner was a seemingly honest Outer Sect disciple, and most of the herbs on the stall were common and of average quality.

Ye Li’s eyes landed on a small bundle of “Withered Heart Grass” that looked droopy, with leaf edges even yellowed and dry. Withered Heart Grass was a low-grade Tier 1 spirit herb, commonly used to refine the most basic healing powders, and its value was low.

However, Ye Li keenly noticed a few extremely tiny, dark-red grains of sand, almost indistinguishable from the soil, adhering to the roots of this Withered Heart Grass. These sand grains emitted an extremely faint, yet unusually pure Yang Fire aura!

“Is this… Crimson Sun Sand?” Ye Li’s heart stirred. Crimson Sun Sand was a Tier 2 fire-attributed spiritual material, usually found deep underground near earth-fire or beneath certain special fire-element spiritual plants. It was an excellent auxiliary material for refining various Tier 2 fire-attributed pills and artifacts, and its value was considerable. Although these few grains were small, their purity was extremely high.

She remained outwardly calm, casually picked up the bundle of Withered Heart Grass, and selected a few other common herbs, asking, “How much for these?”

Seeing a potential customer, the Outer Sect disciple quickly said, “Withered Heart Grass is cheap, three contribution points a bundle. These few stalks of Dew Condensing Grass are five contribution points each. If you take them all, Senior Sister, twenty contribution points will suffice.”

Ye Li nodded, paid the contribution points without bargaining. The Outer Sect disciple beamed, clearly feeling he had sold this pile of “junk” for a good price.

As she put the herbs away, the few grains of Crimson Sun Sand had already quietly slipped into her fingertips. This single item’s value far exceeded twenty contribution points.

She continued on. She stopped at a stall specializing in various incomplete jade slips and ancient texts. The stall was piled high with tattered, illegible jade slips and beast skin scrolls, mostly containing fragments of cultivation methods or useless miscellaneous notes.

Ye Li’s spiritual power slowly swept over them. Most of the jade slips were indeed worthless, their spiritual energy completely dissipated. But as her Divine Sense passed over a dark yellow beast skin, almost crumpled into a ball and stained with oil, the fragment of the Wheel of Samsara Mirror deep within her soul trembled ever so slightly again!

A find!

She suppressed the excitement in her heart, pretending to casually flip through the incomplete jade slips, finally picking up the dirty beast skin. She unfolded it and looked. It was drawn with some ancient pigment, depicting blurry lines and symbols, most of which were illegible. It seemed to be an incomplete map or perhaps a formation diagram for some ritual, lacking any spiritual energy fluctuations.

“Boss, what is this useless thing?” She frowned, putting on a look of disdain.

The stall owner, an Inner Sect disciple with a sharp face, glanced at it and said impatiently, “Who knows what garbage was dug out of some ruin, I just bought it because it looked old. You want it? Five contribution points and it’s yours.”

Ye Li pursed her lips, seemingly very reluctant, but still put down the beast skin along with the two cheapest incomplete jade slips she had picked up (as a cover): “These three, ten contribution points.”

The stall owner seemed too lazy to haggle over such a small amount, waving his hand, “Fine, fine, take them.”

Ye Li paid the contribution points and tucked the items away. The moment her fingertip touched the beast skin, she could feel the faint yearning transmitted by the Wheel of Samsara Mirror. This item was definitely extraordinary!

Next, at a stall selling ores, she bought a piece of “Submerged Silver Ore,” which had been mistaken for “inferior iron ore,” at an extremely low price. Submerged Silver Ore was soft in texture but had excellent spiritual conductivity, making it a high-quality material for crafting the base of formation plates.

In just one hour, Ye Li had spent less than fifty contribution points but had found the Crimson Sun Sand, the mysterious beast skin, and the Submerged Silver Ore, potentially worth over five hundred points!

This was the immense profit brought by the disparity in insight and knowledge!

Not satisfied, she took these “odds and ends” directly to “Hundred Treasures Pavilion,” a reputable shop within the Myriad Phenomena Hall specializing in appraisal and auction.

Upon entering the pavilion, a steward greeted her with a courteous attitude, “What do you need, Senior Sister?”

Ye Li directly took out the few grains of Crimson Sun Sand: “Please help me see how much these are worth.”

The steward took the Crimson Sun Sand, carefully examined it, and a look of surprise appeared in his eyes: “Oh? Crimson Sun Sand of such pure quality is rare, though there are only a few grains… How about eighty contribution points, Senior Sister?”

This price was even higher than Ye Li had estimated. She nodded, “Agreed.”

The transaction was completed, and the contribution points were in hand. She then took out the Submerged Silver Ore.

The steward examined it again and smiled, “Senior Sister has good eyes, this is excellent Submerged Silver Ore, with very few impurities. One hundred twenty contribution points.”

“Agreed.”

In the blink of an eye, her cost of one hundred contribution points (including the small items bought earlier) turned into two hundred points of revenue! A net profit of one hundred points!

Finally, Ye Li hesitated for a moment but still took out the dirty beast skin. She couldn’t decipher it for now; perhaps a professional appraiser could see something. Even a slight clue would be worthwhile.

“This item… where did Senior Sister obtain it?” The steward frowned slightly upon seeing the beast skin, observing it carefully for a long time, and even injecting spiritual power to probe, yet got no reaction.

“Found it in the market, it looked old, just curious,” Ye Li said calmly.

The steward shook his head: “The material seems somewhat special, but the pattern on it is blurry and unclear, and there’s no spiritual energy fluctuation. I can’t discern its origin either. Perhaps it’s some discarded draft from ancient times. This item… holds little value. If put up for auction, I fear no one would bid on it.”

This result was within Ye Li’s expectations. She hadn’t expected to crack it immediately. She put the beast skin away: “No matter, thank you, Steward.”

Leaving the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, her contribution points were considerably more abundant. But she didn’t stop her “gold panning.” Over the next few days, whenever she had free time, she immersed herself in the Myriad Phenomena Hall market. Relying on her extraordinary eyesight and the occasional sensation from the Wheel of Samsara Mirror, she successively picked up a few more bargains at extremely low prices:

A stalk of “Centennial Blood Ganoderma” mistaken for “Ten-Year Purple Cloud Ganoderma” (their disguised forms were extremely similar);

A small piece of “Void-Essence Stone” scrap that contained faint spatial fluctuations (mistaken for ordinary decorative stone);

And even an incomplete animal skin scroll recording a less common Breath Concealment Technique, tucked away among waste books…

She wasn’t greedy; each time, she only chose the one or two most valuable items, acted decisively, and never lingered. She kept some of the treasures she acquired for her own study (such as the beast skin, Void-Essence Stone, and the concealment technique) and sold the rest to the Hundred Treasures Pavilion or other reputable shops for contribution points.

After several such instances, she had unknowingly accumulated nearly a thousand contribution points of “initial capital”! This process was much faster and safer than her diligently completing missions.

Of course, she was extremely cautious with every transaction, trying to change her attire and conducting transactions at different stalls and shops to avoid attracting attention. But nothing is secret forever. The reputation of a Yun Dan Peak female disciple who was “keen-eyed and skilled at finding bargains” gradually spread among some of the seasoned stall owners and in a small circle within the Myriad Phenomena Hall.

Some admired her eyesight, calling her “sharp-sighted”; others were jealous, secretly nicknaming her “Bargain Li,” and even suspected she possessed some special treasure-identifying method, starting to discreetly monitor her actions.

Ye Li was aware of this but didn’t care. As long as they didn’t openly offend her, a little attention was harmless.

With sufficient contribution points, she could finally begin to implement her next plan.

She once again spent a large amount of contribution points, exchanging for a quantity of high-quality alchemy materials from the Merit Hall (including several auxiliary herbs for body tempering), as well as a batch of basic materials for crafting formation plates (such as jade powder, spiritual ink, and array core blanks).

Returning to Yun Dan Peak, she first utilized the Void-Essence Stone scrap and Submerged Silver Ore, combined with her newly acquired knowledge of arrays, to successfully create two “Minor Spirit Gathering Array Plates,” whose effects far surpassed the simple Spirit Gathering Array. One was for her own use, and the other was prepared for Liu Yiyi or for future sale.

Then, she began her seclusion, focusing entirely on refining the “Jade Marrow Tempering Pill”!

Inside the Earth-Fire Chamber, Ye Li’s expression was solemn. The earth fire beneath the pill furnace burned steadily. She adjusted her state to the best possible and then, according to a strict ratio and sequence, one by one, she threw the Jade Marrow Ganoderma and over a dozen other precious auxiliary herbs into the furnace.

Her Divine Sense was highly concentrated, precisely controlling every change in the heat. The medicinal liquids boiled and fused within the pill furnace, emitting a peculiar medicinal fragrance.

With her previous practice and solid theoretical foundation, this time, she felt unusually smooth. Her understanding of the medicinal properties, her control over the heat, and her grasp of the timing for pill formation had all reached a new level.

Several hours later, when a crisp hum sounded from within the pill furnace, and a dense medicinal fragrance broke through the lid and permeated the air, Ye Li slowly opened her eyes, a look of relief curving her lips.

Lifting the lid, five pills the size of longans, completely white as jade, with two clear cloud patterns circling their surface, lay quietly at the bottom of the furnace!

The Jade Marrow Tempering Pill was successfully refined, yielding five pills, all of medium quality!

Looking at these five hard-won pills, Ye Li’s eyes were filled with a sense of achievement. This not only signified a leap in her alchemy skills but also meant that the final piece of the puzzle for her breakthrough to the Meridian Condensation Realm was now in place!

The accumulation of initial capital had finally transformed into real, powerful motivation to push her cultivation forward!

She put away the pills and walked out of the Earth-Fire Chamber, looking towards her small courtyard.

It was time to enter secluded cultivation and break through to the Meridian Condensation Realm!