Chapter 63

Over the past few years, Ding Qi has been continuously taking elixirs to enhance his martial arts skills. Although his skills have improved rapidly with the help of the elixirs, the consumption of various herbs has been astonishingly high.

The batch of herbs he initially seized was enormous, representing the entire Qingyun Sect's accumulation over more than a hundred years. However, with Ding Qi cultivating the Innate Skill, the herbs were rapidly consumed.

Especially after he cultivated the tenth level of the Innate Skill, the consumption rate increased even more.

The small box of century-old herbs, which Ding Qi had been using to continuously refine Spirit-Gathering Pills over the past year, was gradually running out.

Recently, without finding another source of century-old herbs, Ding Qi has been hesitant to casually refine and take Spirit-Gathering Pills.

He now only refines one or two pills at a time, every so often.

Most of the time, he refines the other two types of elixirs.

Although these two elixirs are less effective after Ding Qi reached the tenth level, given the current situation, he has no choice but to continue using them.

Fortunately, the amount of herbs Ding Qi used to refine these two elixirs and advance to the tenth level of the Innate Skill was much less than he had initially anticipated. He still has a batch of herbs for refining these two elixirs.

This way, during the period when his supply of century-old herbs is running low, Ding Qi can continue to cultivate by taking these two elixirs while searching for ways to obtain more century-old herbs.

Thinking about this, Ding Qi narrowed his eyes and looked towards the horizon, where the evening glow was beginning to appear: "Finding a way to obtain century-old herbs is indeed the most urgent task at the moment, but I also need to continuously collect other herbs that might be useful in the future. It seems I need to visit Old Wu and check if the batch of herbs I asked him to get has arrived."

Although refining Spirit-Gathering Pills requires four types of century-old herbs, it also needs many other herbs that are several decades old. These herbs are also quite expensive and can be considered precious.

Ding Qi doesn't want to be in a situation where he has century-old herbs but can't refine the elixirs because he lacks the other necessary herbs. Therefore, over the past few years, he has been actively collecting various decades-old herbs that he might need.

However, Ding Qi is well aware that century-old herbs are extremely difficult to find. He has little confidence in being able to obtain them again.

"However, speaking of century-old herbs, in the past few years, I have only found some in that place. But that place..." Thinking about the century-old herbs, Ding Qi felt troubled and couldn't help but recall an incident from a year ago, his face showing a thoughtful expression.

But then he seemed to think of something else and ultimately shook his head.

The next few days passed with Ding Qi continuously taking elixirs to cultivate. On a clear, sunny day, he decided to check if the batch of herbs he had asked for had arrived, as he had planned a few days earlier.

This time, when he arrived in Liangcheng, Ding Qi went straight to a pharmacy in the eastern part of the city without stopping anywhere else. However, strangely, the pharmacy he was heading to was not one of the few he frequently visited in the past. It appeared to be a newly opened pharmacy in Liangcheng.

Pushing open the slightly ajar door, Ding Qi entered the pharmacy as if he were a regular customer.

"Boss Wu, I wonder if the batch of herbs I asked for has arrived," Ding Qi called out after entering.

The person Ding Qi addressed was clearly the owner of the pharmacy. At that moment, he was organizing his ledger and looked up when someone pushed the door open.

However, if someone who frequently moved around the Seven Rainbow Mountains area were to see this, they would recognize the pharmacy owner as none other than the former bandit chief, Boss Wu, who had once clashed with Ding Qi.

Hearing Ding Qi's voice, Boss Wu immediately knew who it was. Seeing Ding Qi, he smiled bitterly and said, "Hehe, Brother Ding, don't joke. I'm no longer a bandit chief; I'm just a law-abiding businessman now. Please don't use that title anymore."

From the look on Boss Wu's face, it was clear he didn't want to bring up the past.

Ding Qi was quite moved to see the former bandit chief now running a pharmacy. He felt the vicissitudes of life.

Ding Qi knew that the reason Boss Wu, now the pharmacy owner, had transformed from a bandit chief to a pharmacy owner was related to the incident where the bandits were wiped out.

After the bandits were slaughtered, the surrounding bandit camps in the Seven Rainbow Mountains area were in turmoil, and two camps disbanded. At that time, Boss Wu, perhaps moved by the incident and realizing the dangers of his actions, suddenly handed over his position to someone else and left the camp.

In the end, he opened a pharmacy in Liangcheng and became a law-abiding businessman.

In fact, this was fortunate because the government's influence in Jingzhou was very weak, and the government had little authority in the entire region. Otherwise, it would have been extremely difficult for Wu Zheng to transform from a bandit chief into a legitimate pharmacy owner.

Even so, Ding Qi estimated that Boss Wu must have spent a lot of money to smooth things over with the government and ultimately whitewash himself to live safely in Liangcheng.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Ding Qi.

Over the past few years, as Ding Qi frequently searched for herbs in various pharmacies in Liangcheng, his interactions with Wu Zheng gradually increased. Moreover, because Wu Zheng could often obtain many precious herbs that other pharmacies couldn't, Ding Qi often made this place his first choice when searching for herbs in Liangcheng. Over time, the two became quite familiar.

In the following time, Ding Qi and Boss Wu discussed in detail the batch of herbs he needed, which he had entrusted to Wu Zheng a month ago.