Xiuxian: But It's Not a Game

Chapter 36 Mustard Seed Concealment Technique: A Deception
The five chatted for a while, then parted ways and went home.

Su Yu then returned to Qianyu Pavilion and spent 30 taels of gold to buy 30 Grade 3 Dao Heart Pills. She also sold the snake dragon bones she obtained in the secret realm for 5 gold.

He returned to his residence and began refining the Dao Heart Pill.

However, when he refined the seventh Dao Heart Pill in one go, he was shocked to find that the amount of Dao cultivation he gained from each Dao Heart Pill was decreasing.

Normally, with the help of the Golden Finger, one Grade 3 Dao Heart Pill can grant 60 points of Dao cultivation, and seven pills should grant 420 points of Dao cultivation. However, in reality, it only increases by 380 points of Dao cultivation, which is 40 points less.

"Did drug resistance develop so quickly?"

Although Su Yu frowned, she did not show any doubt or confusion.

This situation was within his expectations, but he didn't expect it to happen at this time.

The concept of drug resistance has always existed. I've heard before that the overuse of antibiotics can lead to resistance, reducing or even eliminating their effectiveness.

The same saying exists on the other side: all elixirs and rare herbs have drug resistance and cannot be used indefinitely.

Even the thousand-year-old Vermilion Fruit is only effective for the first three fruits; subsequent consumption will not increase attributes. The same applies to elixirs.

Therefore, the claim that one can accumulate tens or hundreds of thousands of cultivation points by endlessly consuming Dao Heart Pills is unfounded.

In the early stages, you can quickly accumulate a large amount of cultivation points using Dao Heart Pills. However, once you develop resistance, the effects of Dao Heart Pills will decrease until they become ineffective. After that, you can only gain cultivation points by adventuring and defeating bosses.

Of course, there are still many pills in the Other Shore that are more advanced than the Dao Heart Pill for gaining Dao cultivation, but these pills are both expensive and rare, so don't count on them too much.

After a moment of silence, he sent a message to Wei Xia:

"Has your Dao Heart Pill developed resistance?"

Wei Xia, still in Thousand Feather City, quickly replied:

"You're only developing drug resistance now?"

"Ah."

"I'm useless now."

Su Yu was surprised:
"So fast?"

“My father prepared a batch of the highest grade five Dao Heart Pills for me long ago, which accumulated a total of 2550 points of Dao cultivation. Now the Dao Heart Pills are no longer effective for me.”

"Ok."

After shutting down the communication, Su Yu glanced at the remaining Dao Heart Pills and continued refining them.

It's just that it has developed drug resistance, not that it's completely useless. I can still use it, and I'll keep buying it until it completely becomes ineffective.

However, it turned out he was overthinking it. He continued refining the remaining Dao Heart Pills, and the effect gradually decreased. By the time he refined the fifteenth pill, the effect had dropped to 50% of normal.

Su Yu refined all thirty pills in one go, accumulating a total of 1323 points of cultivation.

Adding the remaining 56 points, the total cultivation points are 1389.

When refining the last one, it used to increase cultivation by 60 points, but now it only increases cultivation by 6 points, leaving only 10% of the original effect.

"From now on, I'll have to find other ways to accumulate experience."

Su Yu smacked her lips, deciding not to make any more purchases.

A 10% effect is too poor; it's not worth wasting money on that.

It is worth mentioning that the drug resistance applies to Dao Xing Dan pills, regardless of whether they are first-grade, third-grade, or the highest-grade fifth-grade, because they are all Dao Xin Dan pills, just of different qualities.

Regardless of its quality, any Dao Heart Pill will be ineffective once the Dao Heart Pill reaches a certain level of cultivation.

In addition, drug resistance varies from person to person; generally, the higher one's innate genetic predisposition, the higher their drug resistance.

Wei Xia's innate talent was higher than Su Yu's, so Wei Xia accumulated a total of 2550 points of cultivation through the Dao Heart Pill, while Su Yu accumulated about 2200, which was about 330 points less than Wei Xia.

After refining, Su Yu opened the panel, his gaze falling on his many Dao techniques, and after a moment of contemplation, his consciousness focused on the Mustard Seed Concealment Technique.

This is a technique for concealment, which can reduce one's presence and conceal all one's aura. At the highest level, it can even hide within a mustard seed or a vast expanse, completely concealing one's whereabouts. It is an essential technique for going out on adventures and explorations.

It takes 1000 million cultivation points and 50 points of Taoist cultivation to advance to the first level.

With a thought, his consciousness focused on the Daoist method, consuming 1000 cultivation points and Daoist power. An invisible fluctuation swept across his entire body, and then nothing happened, and he didn't feel anything unusual.

But a Taoist technique inexplicably appeared in his mind.

He pointed and a water mirror appeared. With a thought, he tried to circulate his magic. He could see with his naked eye that the radiance and magical power he had been radiating from his cultivation in the mirror quickly faded, the brilliance in his eyes disappeared, and even his skin turned ashen, making him look like an ordinary person.

He glanced back and found that the shadow behind him had disappeared.

"This is quite amazing, it's only one layer."

The Mustard Seed Concealment Technique has five levels in total. If you can upgrade it to the maximum level, it will definitely be very powerful.

Then, his gaze turned to the second level of the Mustard Seed Concealment Technique, which required 5000 million cultivation points and 200 points of Taoist cultivation.

He has enough spiritual cultivation, but not enough cultivation points.

"Let's upgrade next time."

Su Yu closed the panel and sat quietly in place for a long time without moving.

"What should we do next?"

"Let's level up."

There are never enough cultivation points. Not to mention the Qi Refining Technique and Sword Art, there are many secret techniques, thunder techniques, forbidden techniques, supernatural powers, etc. to learn in the future, all of which require a huge amount of cultivation points and Taoist cultivation.

However, some things needed to be prepared before setting off. I browsed through the Thousand Feather Pavilion and spent 5 taels of gold to buy a few special spells.

The Lesser Heavens Cloud Restriction Technique is a restriction technique that can be used to refine flying swords and magical treasures, as well as to set up restrictions to seal certain things.

To advance to the first level, you need 500 million cultivation points and 30 points of Taoist cultivation, and you can only refine a second-tier flying sword magic weapon at most.

The Invisibility Technique, as the name suggests, allows one to become invisible and can be used in conjunction with the Mustard Seed Concealment Technique.

It takes 300 million cultivation points and 20 points of Taoist cultivation to advance to the first level.

He currently lacks cultivation points, so he only upgraded these two secret techniques to the first level, which is enough for now.

Nothing happened that night. Early the next morning, Su Yu left Qianyu City and flew east, intending to level up in Yuanjiang.

The Poison Mist Swamp is still not good enough; it's far inferior to Yuanjiang in both the number of monsters and resources.

It plunged into the Yuanjiang River, and the Black Water Pearl parted the lake water to form a waterless space, slowly sinking into the water. The lake water was clear and transparent, and various aquatic creatures and monsters could be seen swimming in it from afar.

After sinking more than a thousand meters in one breath, Su Yu immediately activated the Mustard Seed Concealment Technique to conceal his aura and greatly reduce his presence. With such a large transparent ball of light suspended in the water, even spirits a little distance away could not see him.

It wasn't until he unleashed his Sun-Covering Flying Sword and circled a group of level 60 or so blue-backed carp spirits that he attracted the attention of the nearby monsters.

The sharp sword energy crisscrossed back and forth, leaving deep gashes wherever it touched, and blood quickly stained the waters red.

After quickly subduing the group of fish spirits, he retrieved his flying sword and released it again, sweeping over another group of blue fish spirits.

"Yo ho!"

After killing this group of blue carp demons, a third-tier blue carp sword actually dropped as a loot.

Green Fish Sword (Tier 3 Flying Sword): A flying sword forged from the bones of a green fish spirit.

Attributes: Attack power 30-50, Attack speed 20-40, Sword control speed 20-40, Sword skill bonus 20%, Special feature: Azure Fish Dragon Formation.

Azure Fish Dragon Formation: Collect 108 Azure Fish Swords to form a set, which can be used to set up the Azure Fish Dragon Formation and summon a terrifying level 150 Azure Dragon phantom.

Equipment requirement: Basic Sword Technique Level 15.

"Well"

Su Yu's evaluation is:

"Fancy!"

The attributes of the Azure Fish Spirit are lower than the average of a third-tier flying sword, and its strength is not high. Its only highlight is that it comes with the Azure Fish Dragon Formation. Once you collect 108 Azure Fish Spirits, you can set up the formation and summon a phantom dragon to assist in battle.

At first glance, it looks very powerful; a level 150 terrifying template dragon is indeed quite formidable.

但问题需要108口，三阶飞剑市价按品质10-20两纹银一口，青鱼剑本身属性应该是垫底10银一口，但因为附带特性却高达20两纹银一口，108口是20金60银。

Wouldn't it be better to buy a Tier 5 high-quality flying sword for 20 taels of gold? Who would buy a Green Fish Sword whose attributes are only slightly better than a Tier 2 flying sword?

Furthermore, don't count on the Azure Dragon Formation. While gathering 108 swords can indeed summon a dragon phantom, the problem is that simultaneously activating the mana of 108 second-tier flying swords is extremely demanding and cannot be sustained. In addition, the Azure Fish Sword has low durability and is easily broken when clashing with high-level flying swords.

Once too many of them are severed, the great formation will break on its own.

Considering all the negative factors, this sword is quite useless; only rich second-generation heirs who don't care about money would like to get one to show off and pick up girls.

Su Yu casually put away the Azure Fish Sword and moved to a different spot to continue grinding monsters.

These monsters are all low-quality templates, with similar health and defense to ordinary templates, but extremely low intelligence. They only have biological instincts and pose almost no threat, and are affectionately called "experience monsters" by players.

With almost no pause, I kept grinding from morning till night, successfully accumulating 126 million kill experience points.

Instead of returning to the base in the Poison Mist Swamp that night, they stayed in a nearby riverside town.

This town also belongs to the guild and seems to be the base of an independent squadron. The town is larger than Sandsink Town, but its importance is far less than that of Sandsink Town.

There's a square at the east gate of the town where a large number of players gather, forming a flea market.

After finishing her meal, Su Yu saw that it wasn't too late yet, so instead of going to bed early, she strolled around the flea market.

He saw a general store at the entrance and sold some fish scales, fish bones and other odds and ends he had collected while leveling up. He earned a total of 32 taels of silver, including the Green Fish Sword.

After browsing around, just as he turned into another row of stalls, he bumped into someone. As he was about to turn away, the person leaned closer and whispered:
"Brother, I have a high-grade black market flying sword for sale, cheap. Do you want it?"

As he spoke, he opened his coat, revealing a crystal-clear flying sword hanging inside, with the words "..." written on it.
Suspended (Seventh-Order Flying Sword): Fine quality, a flying sword forged from a mixture of Taibai refined gold and dazzling crystal.

Attributes: Attack power 600-880, Attack speed 480-720, Sword control speed 500-750, Sword skill bonus 70%, additional Taoist magic.
Before he could even finish looking at the man, he pulled up his clothes and looked around cautiously.

"A seventh-tier flying sword?"

Su Yu was taken aback and immediately asked:

"How to sell it?"

The man held up two fingers:

"Five hundred taels of gold."

"too expensive."

"This is not expensive. A seventh-tier flying sword costs more than 1000 gold on the market, and mine is only half of that."

"I don't have that much money."

"how much do you have?"

"84 gold."

"84 gold?"

"That's too little, no way."

The man quickly waved his hand and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute."

Su Yu reached out and pressed him down, gritting her teeth as she said:

"Could you make it a little less? I'll go borrow some."

A seventh-tier flying sword! You'll never find one at such a low price in your lifetime. He'll regret it to death if he misses it.

Moreover, with a high-level flying sword, one can definitely break through Ding Lingyu's defense. Coupled with a good defensive magic weapon, even a sixth-tier one, one will be confident of defeating Ding Lingyu.

"We must take it."

The man hesitated for a moment, then extended a finger slightly:
"150 gold coins, that's the lowest I can offer. You can borrow some money from your friend."

"Row!"

"Let's add each other as friends first."

"By the way, I need to take a screenshot, otherwise my friend won't believe me."

The man said impatiently:
"Why are you making such a fuss? The price has dropped to 150 gold and you're still making a fuss. If you can't afford it, don't buy it. I'll sell it to someone else for 200 gold."

Watching the man disappear into the distance, Su Yu opened her mouth, but ultimately didn't insist. She turned and took to the air, flying towards the poisonous fog swamp, and contacted Zhuang Zhuo and the others.

"Brother Zhuang, lend me some money, I need to buy a flying sword."

"How much?"

How much can you borrow at most?

"15 gold."

"Okay, I'll pay you back after the next quiz."

"Thanks!"

"polite!"

"Brother Gu, lend me some money, I need to buy a flying sword."

"Don't you have a sixth-tier flying sword?"

"Yes, I want to buy a seventh-tier flying sword."

"Can you afford a seventh-tier flying sword? How much does it cost?"

“Someone is selling it for 150 taels of gold, saying it’s black market goods being sold at a discount.”

"???"

"Even black market goods aren't discounted like this. Have you been scammed?"

"No, I saw the flying sword's attributes; it is indeed a seventh-tier flying sword."

There's no reason for it.

Do you have a screenshot?

"No."

At this moment, Shi Ning suddenly sent him a message:
"Brother Su, you've definitely been scammed."

"Is it a seventh-tier flying sword called 'Suspended Sword'?"

"Oh, you knew about this too?"

"Hahaha, you've been fooled. That's a Tier 1 flying sword, but its name is—Suspended (Tier 7 Flying Sword): Excellent quality, forged from a mixture of Taibai Refined Gold and Radiant Crystal. Attributes: Attack power 600-880, Attack speed 480-720, Sword control speed 500-750, Sword technique bonus 70%, additional Daoist magic."

"???"

"You read that right, this long description and attributes is the name of the flying sword."

"This guy used to scam people in the Thunder Eagle Gang's territory, but he couldn't make it there anymore, so he came here."

Su Yu stopped, her face changing from white to red, then from red to green, a mixture of shame and anger constantly shifting.

"grass!"

Since they've already mentioned the name, it must be true.

He quickly turned back and soon saw the man whispering to someone by the flea market.

Su Yu descended from the sky and immediately summoned the Fixing Mirror, a beam of white light shining down and freezing him in place.

His sudden action immediately attracted the attention of the market guards. A group of players from the Thousand Feathers Guild flew over, and Su Yu immediately went to greet them, identified himself as a guild member, and told them what had happened.

The captain immediately took out a spirit-binding rope to tie it up, and after a search, he found the seventh-tier flying sword.

Needless to say, the person was taken away immediately.

Scamming people on their turf, involving such a huge sum of money, would have a very negative impact if successful, and they will definitely be severely punished.

We won't kill him; that would be too lenient. We'll most likely lock him up for a decade or so to teach him a lesson and vent his anger.

"That was too dangerous; we almost suffered a great loss."

Su Yu expressed her gratitude to Shi Ning.

(End of this chapter)