"Is there something bothering you?" Qin Lei asked during their dinner. As someone older than Chen Tu by a few years, he naturally sensed something in Chen Tu's head. He had no reason to dig into his matters unless Chen Tu was willing. Anyway, there's a limit to being helpful to his junior.

Furthermore, he hates guessing. If there's something he wanted to know, he would simply ask.

"It is something related to pill refinement. I am thinking about asking the teacher the next time we're called to help." Chen Tu politely replied and brushed over the topic. Although there's nothing wrong with sharing things with Qin Lei, Chen Tu feels it was slightly irrelevant to share this with Qin Lei.

As a matter of fact, there's a reason for this.

While sharing what he experienced over these two days with Qin Lei wouldn't hurt him, Chen Tu felt that he shouldn't bother Qin Lei too much concerning Alchemy. After all, the latter did share with Chen Tu that the study in Alchemy wasn't his priority.

To him, Alchemy was a second profession that acted like a different form of self-enlightenment. His main focus would still be cultivation. There's also nothing wrong with having such a mindset.

After all, cultivation and occupation had a link in between, like Yin and Yang.

They could support one another as well as compliment wherever they were lacking. Furthermore, Qin Lei wasn't the only special case here. Out of the ten thousand disciples in this Outer Grotto, about ninety percent had their mind set on this path.

Hence, Chen Tu's decision to not bother Qin Lei with his matter was wise. At the same time, he couldn't tell Qin Lei that he's been wasting money lately from visiting the Worldly Treasures Pavilion and purchasing Spiritual Ingredients, correct?

"Heh... Even if you don't say, I could still guess it. You're sneakily trying to concoct some pills, am I correct?" Qin Lei flicked a grain of rice on Chen Tu to tease him.

As this fellow's senior brother, how could he be oblivious to what Chen Tu has been going lately? He simply didn't disclose everything he knew as a form of respect to this junior brother.

"Listen to my advice. Although Alchemy is important, you shouldn't neglect your cultivation. And without a solid cultivation level to protect yourself, you're nothing but a sitting duck in many situation outside." Qin Lei said.

"Try thinking this... Could you go out to harvest any Spiritual Herbs if that area you're going belonged to a Middle or Peak-Stage Body Tempering Later Beast? I doubt you'll even have the money to hire some protection, let alone going there." He added.

There was a portion of fact in Qin Lei's words. Chen Tu's future would be bleak without sufficient cultivation to protect himself.

Furthermore, his ambition didn't merely end at simply learning about Alchemy. This means that he would be climbing the ladder continuously. And in Alchemy, being incapable of moving forward and stagnating at one spot would translate to limited future prospects.

If this happened, Chen Tu would eventually come to a day when his creativity and competitiveness dried out like his vitality.

"I'll make sure to remember senior brother's words." Chen Tu returned a smile back to Qin Lei as a reply. He naturally had an answer to back his confidence. But it also wasn't necessary to disclose the truth to Qin Lei.

After their meal, the two made their way to the Worldly Treasures Pavilion.

Knowing how to read now allows Chen Tu to browse the merchandise himself. It also gave him a reason to stop following Qin Lei around.

Of course, there's always an exception here and there.

For example, when Chen Tu came to a display podium with a root of ginseng shining in jade luster and black exterior. On the label, the word "Blackjade Ginseng" was written.

To Chen Tu's surprise, this treasure cost five hundred Contribution Tokens. In a direct conversion, that's equivalent to five thousand Spiritual Coins.

How many people in this Outer Grotto can take out five hundred tokens to purchase the Spiritual Herb? Furthermore, they can't expect to eat this Blackjade Ginseng like this, correct?

Even if they don't, who knows what can be refined from this treasure? And most importantly, there's not even a line of explanation for its medicinal effect!

Other than the Blackjade Ginseng, plenty of oddities are available for purchase. For example, a clamshell that could produce a certain essence extract and a regular rucksack that had twice the holding capacity it appeared to be. Naturally, Chen Tu knew a few uses, but not everything.

Coming here to browse their wares also allowed Chen Tu to open his eyes to the treasures here. While being able to afford it was an entirely different concern, it was always better to open his mind to what this world had to offer.

As usual, Qin Lei's destination was the counter selling the Pure Spiritual Beast Essence.

In Chen Tu's case, he returned to the ground level to browse their merchandise. And once again, he refilled the ingredients necessary to refine additional Grain Pellets.

He was about to leave the pavilion, but something caught Chen Tu's attention. This made him feel curious about its origin. And without delay, Chen Tu approached the stall owner to get an answer to his curiosity.

"This stall owner. What you can tell me about that rock?" Chen Tu pointed at the rock about the size of an ostrich egg. It had a very odd shape with a few uneven surfaces. There was a sword mark on its widest surface, and this marking revealed a hint of the obsidian crystal inside.

Chen Tu naturally had no idea what material it was. 

"This stone? I found it outside of the grotto. Someone once told me there's a small amount of True Essence Obsidian Ink Inside. As for how much it had, I really have no idea." the stall owner replied. He appeared to not have enough understanding on this item too.

"What is your selling price for this item?" Chen Tu continued. He had no reason to buy this, but subsequently, feeling that there would be something good if he did.

"What about five Spiritual Coins?" the owner quickly came up with a price he considered fair. But what kind of reasonable price is this?

"No!" Chen Tu openly rejected and prepared to leave.