Tongguo Bing soon brought him his food, which she could not carry alone and had to ask her fellow clerks to bring with them. Lin Mu generously allowed them to take some for themselves too.
It wasn't like they could eat as much as him anyway and thus he didn't mind it. He was grateful that he had a place to hide without suspicion. He simply ate his food and returned to practicing the mortal straightening scripture.
He opened the first pill bottle and ate a single pill. The pill melted in his mouth like sugar and he swallowed the medicinal liquid. Unlike the herbs, most of which were bitter, this pill had a slightly sweet taste.
After the pill reached his stomach, he quickly got to assimilating its potency. Guiding it into the circuit for the mortal strengthening scripture, Lin Mu resumed the process. It finally started moving again and he confirmed that it had only stopped due to the tolerance developed to the herbs.
One by one, he kept on eating the pills and three days went by. He would pause in the morning and ask Tongguo Bing to get some food for him and would then return to his practice.
Finally, on the fourth day, he had finished consuming all of the pills he had bought from the shop. He was now stuck at the very cusp of a breakthrough and only needed a little bit more to reach the fourth stage.
~Sigh~
"I need to get more pills…. But these ones won't work anymore…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He was just a small step away from the next step which felt a little frustrating to him, but he knew that he should just take it calmly. He took out the communication jade slip and looked at it for a few seconds before making up his mind.
He sent a message to the Shopkeeper of the Tri cauldron peony sect's shop and asked him if they had any pills of the earth attribute that were not on the catalog.
"Hmm… there are a lot more alchemical pills like that senior, but if you want them, they would have to be ordered first. The alchemist will then refine them for you. Since these pills are more expensive and hard to produce, we don't usually keep them in stock.
If you come by, we can discuss which specific pill you want." The shopkeeper explained.
Lin Mu didn't go there straightaway though. He first consulted Hei Wan and Wu Hei about his situation and asked if such pills could be available in other shops. He got the same answer from both of them that he had already taken all of the common pills of the earth element.
If he needed more of them, he would have to commission an alchemist to refine the pills for him. He also asked them if it was fine if he got them made from the Tri cauldron peony sect's shop. While Hei Wan was a bit apprehensive about this, Wu Hei said that he will suppress any excess information about him getting out from the city; if it so happens.
Right now, Lin Mu was not under any kind of surveillance, so he was fine. Hei Wan had been recording what the shopkeeper had said after Lin Mu had left, thus Wu Hei was aware about this and had acted in the background while keeping an eye on the actions of the Tri cauldron peony sect.
Thankfully, the shopkeeper had not gone overboard and had not sent anyone to spy on Lin Mu. This meant that the man was still fine to speak with and buy from. Thus having reached a decision, Lin Mu went to the shop where Hei Wan was already waiting for him at the door.
"The shopkeeper has asked the alchemist to be ready for your arrival. According to your requirements, he has picked out a few pills which can be refined. You can choose which one fits your fancy." Hei Wan informed.
"Thank you for this," Lin Mu said before walking in with her.
"Greetings, senior Wu Lian!" The Shopkeeper said, "the alchemist is waiting in the private room, please come with me."
This time a bigger room was taken by them and a middle aged man was sitting in the room. Lin Mu sensed his cultivation base and found that he was also at the peak of the core condensation realm. In fact, he seemed to be even slightly higher than that.
"The pseudo Nascent soul realm… he's waiting for his heavenly tribulation too…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Lin Mu was in the same situation as the man, but in his case he had no idea when it would be coming. While the other pseudo nascent soul realm cultivators knew the time would take for the tribulation to arrive. Not to mention their understanding of spirit Qi was also better than other core condensation realm cultivators.
"So this is the person who wants to commission a pill?" The Alchemist asked.
"Yes, this is senior Wu Lian." The shopkeeper introduced.
Lin Mu cupped his hands in a salute before sitting at the table.
"So what kind of a pill do you exactly want. I was told that it needs to be an earth elemental one, but that is a rather vast categorization which includes many pills with healing proprieties, defensive properties, offensive properties and much more." The alchemist asked.
Lin Mu thought over a bit and figured out what he wanted.
"I want an earth elemental pill that is used for cultivation and has the most amount of earth attribute spirit Qi." Lin Mu replied.
"Hmm… a pill for cultivation would be more expensive. The costs to refine it would include buying the herbs and then the refinement itself." The Alchemist spoke.
"I'm fine with that." Lin Mu replied straightaway.
"Okay. Then there are three pills that I can refine of that type. The first is the Dark Soil pill, the second is the five earths pill and the third one is the Earth resurgence pill."