Chapter 486: Chapter 486: Commission

He was, after all, still concerned about Immortal Arrival City.

Bai Mo found some spare time to refine a large batch of plague-warding Pills and had them sent back by messenger bird.

In less than half a month, a reply came from Wei An. The Pills had been snatched up in an instant; they were in extremely high demand. He hoped Bai Mo could refine another batch.

Through their correspondence, Bai Mo also learned of what had happened in Immortal Arrival City.

The plague had still managed to spread into the city. There were more than a dozen infected, all of them elders who had retired from Celestial Barrier Mountain.

Because of the numerous old injuries on their bodies, their constitutions were not what they used to be. The moment they were infected, their cases became severe.

Bai Mo’s batch of Pills, by a stroke of luck, had arrived just in time.

Wei An used just a few of the Pills, breaking them apart, to pull these people back from the brink of death.

Through inquiries, he followed the clues and, in just three days, traced the source of the plague’s spread. It turned out to be a deliberate act.

In the face of such a disaster, Immortal Arrival City’s response was quite simple.

Celestial Barrier Mountain was sealed for one month, with no one allowed to enter or leave.

As for the two who had intentionally spread the plague, before the Sect Disciples guarding Immortal Arrival City could even arrive, they were turned into pincushions by the enraged Cultivators of the Demon Hunting Teams.

It was said that the two had done it for a paltry sum of a few hundred Spirit Stones.

The two of them were outsiders who had moved to the area with their families and settled nearby after Immortal Arrival City’s rise.

Now that this had happened, it was impossible for their two families to remain in the area.

No one could say for sure why they had done such a thing.

’The plague is getting worse. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to get many medicinal ingredients from the city anytime soon.’

Bai Mo mused.

’Medicine Peak is a good place, but the prices aren’t low, and I don’t have many Spirit Stones on hand.’

The date calculated by that elder on Divine Dao Mountain was about a year away.

It wasn’t a long time. Bai Mo decided to take only a few large commissions, earning Spirit Stones while still leaving himself enough room to study Pills.

After this experiment with the Pills, Bai Mo pondered for several days and came up with a general concept for a Divine Techniques Outer Pill.

He was a man of action. He gave Li Wuji a heads-up, and once the other man arrived, Bai Mo piloted his Flying Ship out with Ah Er.

The market sometimes had people posting commissions, but these private requests that didn’t go through the Foreign Affairs Hall usually weren’t worth much.

As Bai Mo passed by, he went down to take a look.

There were indeed people gathered around the notices posted at the market entrance.

Most were for finding lost items or seeking assistance—the kind that didn’t pay many Spirit Stones.

The onlookers were either there for the excitement or happened to have the requested items to sell.

Ah Er belonged to the former category, craning his neck on his tiptoes to see.

Bai Mo scanned them for a moment before setting off again.

He made his way to the Foreign Affairs Hall.

He entered a large chamber that was packed with people, a wave of noise washing over him.

All four walls were plastered with commission notices. Below, staff members were tearing down notices for the disciples who had accepted the tasks.

The characters on the wall-mounted commissions were densely packed and no larger than a pinky fingernail, making Ah Er feel dizzy just by looking at them.

Anyone with poor eyesight would have found it very inconvenient, but luckily, no one present was an ordinary person.

A Foreign Affairs Hall disciple who recognized Bai Mo saw him and was immediately surprised.

"I heard Junior Brother isn’t short on Spirit Stones. What brings you here? Getting restless from all the peace and quiet?"

He squeezed over, pulled Bai Mo out of the crowd, and led him to a corner.

Ah Er, using his brute strength, shouldered past countless people to follow close behind.

Bai Mo let out a breath.

"We Alchemy Cultivators have many uses for Spirit Stones. I could hardly call myself ’well-off’."

"I’ve come because my funds are a bit tight, and I’d like to take on a couple of jobs."

The Foreign Affairs Hall disciple hissed, taking a sharp breath.

"Given your standing, Junior Brother, any commission that would catch your eye must be something special."

"Brother Yi is familiar with these matters. Wait here a moment, Junior Brother, I’ll go get him..."

Bai Mo waited in the corner for a moment before Yi Xiang squeezed out from somewhere in the crowd.

"Junior Brother, you’re looking to take a job?"

Bai Mo nodded. "Does Senior Brother have any recommendations?"

Yi Xiang thought for a moment, said, "Wait for me," then turned sideways and squeezed off to some unknown location.

When he returned, he stuffed a stack of papers into Bai Mo’s hands.

"These are all Pill commissions."

"See which one you like, Junior Brother. Just pick it out."

Bai Mo raised an eyebrow and gestured at their surroundings.

"Is this appropriate?"

Yi Xiang waved his hand dismissively.

"It’s fine. I’ll just post the rest back up later."

"It’s too noisy in here. Let’s go outside and look..."

A short while later, Bai Mo and Yi Xiang were sitting together on a white stone by the road outside the Foreign Affairs Hall, pointing at and commenting on the prices of the commissions in hand.

"These are all from the major peaks or posted privately by other disciples."

"If it were official sect business, they wouldn’t bother with this. They’d just conscript people, unless it’s not urgent at all."

Yi Xiang said,

"Actually, when it comes to alchemy, Pill Peak controls the most resources, including orders from disciples and the various peaks."

"But if you were to go there, you’d be suspected of stealing their livelihood, which wouldn’t be worth the trouble."

The commissions he found for Bai Mo weren’t bad either; they were all major jobs worth several thousand Spirit Stones.

Bai Mo looked through them one by one.

They were all for refining difficult or miscellaneous pills, covering a wide range of needs, involving rare materials, or other complicated matters.

Suddenly, Bai Mo’s hand froze, his gaze falling upon a notice that looked rather old and worn.

Yi Xiang was very observant. Seeing Bai Mo’s interest, he explained,

"The Seven Orifice Pill."

"It’s a Pill Formula passed down from ancient times. It’s mostly used on creatures of low intelligence to make them like humans—opening their seven orifices and granting them spiritual wisdom."

Bai Mo’s gaze fell on the requester listed at the bottom: Sheqing Shan of Divine Dao Mountain.

If there wasn’t a disciple on Divine Dao Mountain with the same name, then it must have been posted by the old turtle on the mountain.

The reward was six thousand Spirit Stones, and the old turtle would provide the materials. It was a doable job.

"This senior is a Dharma Protector of Divine Dao Mountain, with vast connections and abilities. Does he really need to seek help from the Foreign Affairs Hall?"

Bai Mo asked.

Yi Xiang shook his head.

"Apparently, several disciples have accepted this commission before, but they all failed. Afterwards, they suspected the Pill Formula itself was flawed."

"So the job was left unfulfilled. Do you want to take it, Junior Brother? If the Pill Formula really is problematic, it could waste a lot of your time."

Bai Mo pulled the notice out, examined it closely, and after a moment of contemplation, decided to accept it.

Yi Xiang was a little surprised; he had originally thought Bai Mo would ignore it.

Bai Mo turned his attention to the next commission, asking casually,

"What does Senior She need this Seven Orifice Pill for? Does Senior Brother know?"

Yi Xiang did indeed know something about it.

It was said that Sheqing Shan was raising a decent junior, a "nephew" that it had brought back from the outside. The nephew was now over seventy years old.

Originally, it wanted this nephew to act as its agent in the outside world and, if necessary, even use his body of flesh and blood as a vessel to descend into.

Unfortunately, its young charge was not very bright.

He was slow-witted and could never manage to cultivate the proper channeling technique. On top of that, he disliked moving, preferring to spend all day lazing contentedly in a pond.

Sheqing Shan had expended a great deal of effort on him, but had yet to find a better solution.

Bai Mo decided that after he returned, he would go to Divine Dao Mountain to see this senior.

Having made up his mind, Bai Mo picked out three more commissions, the combined reward for which was nearly twenty thousand Spirit Stones.

He returned the rest to Yi Xiang.

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