Mortal: My name is Ma Liang, and I also possess a magic brush.

Ma Liang rushed into the Pill Pavilion in a flurry of activity. Inside, many disciples were moving about, and several people were gathered around each counter.

He no longer cared about the rules; his gaze swept across the room and landed on a disciple whose cultivation level was lower than his own, who appeared to be only at the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

Ma Liang stepped forward, used his spiritual power to shove the disciple aside, and shouted at the disciple behind the counter, "Do you have Soul Nourishing Pills? Give me a few quickly!"

The disciple who was pushed away immediately became anxious and was about to curse, but when he sensed the fluctuations in Ma Liang's cultivation, the words he was about to say were swallowed back, and he shrunk to the side sullenly, not daring to utter a sound.

The disciples behind the counter showed Ma Liang absolutely no respect.

"Senior brother, the junior brother in front of you hasn't finished his transaction yet. Please go to the back of the line!"

Ma Liang couldn't wait any longer. He pounded on the counter in frustration, yelling, "What's with the queue?! My head's about to explode! I don't have time to waste on these ridiculous rules!"

After saying that, he took out his storage bag and poured out a pile of spirit stones, more than three hundred in total.

"How many Soul Nourishing Pills can I get for these? Give them to me now!"

He roared as he pounded his head with his fists in pain.

Seeing this, the disciple realized that Ma Liang was in a hurry to use the elixir to save his life, and dared not disregard the rules any longer. He quickly took out a porcelain bottle from his storage bag and handed it over.

"This bottle contains ten Soul Nourishing Pills, totaling eight hundred spirit stones!"

Ma Liang simply shoved over three hundred spirit stones at once: "Give me these spirit stones first!"

The disciple patiently counted the spirit stones, then pushed over a dozen more.

"Senior brother, here's three hundred and twenty spirit stones for you." He then poured out four Soul Nourishing Pills from the porcelain bottle and handed them over.

Ma Liang grabbed the pills and, without thinking, stuffed them into his mouth, swallowing all four Soul Nourishing Pills in one gulp.

Seeing this, the disciple behind the counter quickly spoke up to stop him: "Hey, senior brother, wait!"

Before he could finish speaking, a "gulp" was heard, and the pill had already been swallowed by Ma Liang.

"Eating so much at once might damage your spirit and soul."

After swallowing four Soul Nourishing Pills, Ma Liang sat cross-legged under the counter.

Now all eyes in the Pill Pavilion were on him, and someone tugged at the disciple next to him.

"Senior brother, do you know that senior brother?"

The person being pulled shook his head, and the other disciples looked at each other in bewilderment.

Several people who recognized Ma Liang, seeing his appearance, wisely kept quiet.

Ma Liang closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing all his energy on refining the medicinal power.

Just as the disciple had said, the medicinal power of taking four Soul Nourishing Pills at once was too strong. He felt his soul swelling, as if it were about to be torn apart.

But the divine brush in his sea of ​​consciousness did not stop at all, and continued to slowly absorb his consciousness.

In this way, the divine soul power that had expanded and overflowed due to the excess of the medicine was continuously absorbed by the divine brush, which strangely maintained a delicate balance.

After the medicinal power of the four Soul Nourishing Pills was completely refined, Ma Liang exhaled a breath of turbid air, and the stinging pain in his head finally dissipated, leaving only a faint, almost imperceptible ache.

After finishing all this, Ma Liang stood up and stretched his limbs.

Physically, there was nothing seriously wrong, but the underlying crisis was not resolved at all.

He looked to his side, where the disciple he had pushed aside earlier was staring at him with a look of surprise.

Ma Liang cupped his hands to the disciple and said, "Junior brother, I was very rude earlier. I apologize to you."

The disciple quickly waved his hand and said with an embarrassed smile, "Senior brother, there's no need for that. You clearly have a special circumstance; how could I possibly take it to heart?"

Ma Liang nodded, said nothing more, and turned around to dump the contents of his storage bag onto the counter.

He put the clothes back into his storage bag and then looked at the clerk.

"Junior sister, how many spirit stones do you think these things are worth? Exchange them all for Soul Nourishing Pills."

The junior sister looked troubled. She was only there to guard the pill store and sell pills, and she didn't know anything about valuing these miscellaneous items.

Just as she stood frozen in place, unsure of what to do, an aged voice came from the small door behind the counter.

Immediately afterwards, an elderly man with white hair and beard lifted the curtain and came out.

"I'll do it."

As soon as the old man appeared, the disciples in the Pill Pavilion immediately became solemn and bowed respectfully, saying, "Greetings, Martial Uncle Li!"

Ma Liang also bowed in return.

Uncle Li walked to the counter, without asking Ma Liang the reason for his earlier outburst, and bent down to examine the pile of things on the counter.

Magical implements, elixirs, and several talismans were scattered all over the place.

He picked up a low-level magic artifact and weighed it in his hand, then glanced at the spiritual herbs that had lost most of their spiritual energy, and finally picked up the talisman and casually flicked it.

"These items of yours have mixed spiritual energy and are of ordinary quality, so they are only worth two hundred and fifty spirit stones."

"A fool?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Liang couldn't help but grin; the number sounded really awkward.

But he was in a hurry to get the Soul Nourishing Pill and didn't have the mind to argue about it.

"Alright! Then please, Uncle Li, help me change it to a Soul Nourishing Pill!"

Without further ado, Uncle Li took the bottle containing the Soul Nourishing Pills from his junior sister, poured out three pills, added some spirit stones, and pushed them all to Ma Liangmian.

Ma Liang didn't look closely. He grabbed the pills and spirit stones, stuffed them into his storage bag, thanked Uncle Li, and quickly walked out of the Pill Pavilion.

Only after Ma Liang's figure disappeared through the door did Uncle Li wave his hand.

"Alright, go do what you're supposed to do."

Having said that, he lifted the curtain and went back into the room behind the small door.

Seeing that Uncle Li didn't say anything more, the other disciples in the Dan Pavilion dispersed, and no one discussed Ma Liang's matter anymore.

Strange things happen frequently in the cultivation world, so this little incident is really not worth mentioning.

After leaving Dan Pavilion, Ma Liang did not rush back to his residence. Instead, he stood under the corridor and focused intently on exploring the divine brush in his sea of ​​consciousness.

He took out three Soul Nourishing Pills from his storage bag.

Based on the rate at which the magic pen absorbs the energy, plus the three pills in hand, it can only last for five or six days at most. By then, the splitting headache will probably be even more unbearable.

"No...we have to think of something quickly."

"Either we get more Soul Nourishing Pills, or we need to find a way to enhance divine sense and completely stabilize the Divine Brush."

Ma Liang's first thought was to obtain Soul Nourishing Pills. Since he currently lacked spirit stones, he might as well draw spirit stones directly with his divine brush. One Soul Nourishing Pill costs eighty spirit stones.

With this in mind, he took to the air and flew towards a deserted mountain within the sect.

Having found a secluded spot, he summoned his magic brush, focused on the appearance of the spirit stone, and sketched a few lines on his sleeve.

The moment he lifted the pen, a flash of inspiration struck him, and a spirit stone fell into his palm.

Ma Liang caught the spirit stone, carefully sensing the spiritual energy consumed by drawing this spirit stone, and then calculated with his fingers that he needed to collect eighty spirit stones.

He couldn't help but sigh, shaking his head and muttering to himself, "No, no, drawing it like this is such a waste."

Since the path of exchanging spirit stones for soul-nourishing pills was blocked, Ma Liang had no choice but to find another way and focus on strengthening his divine sense.

A name flashed through his mind: the Great Evolution Technique.

"But the Great Evolution Technique can only be cultivated at the Foundation Establishment stage."

The thought had barely crossed his mind when Ma Liang slapped himself across the face.

"What nonsense are you thinking! You haven't even gotten close to the Great Evolution Technique, and you're already worrying about whether you can practice it or not?"

"So what if we can't master it? We'll get it first! We're in a crisis, who has time to look for other techniques?"

"This is a top-tier divine sense cultivation technique in the human realm, and it just so happens to be in Yellow Maple Valley right now."

Ma Liang recalled the memories in his mind: this was the State of Xu, not the State of Yue; this must be the world of the animation.

Therefore, if you want to obtain the Great Evolution Manual, you have to find the Foundation Establishment cultivator surnamed Ye, rather than the person surnamed Lin in the original story.

But thinking of this, Ma Liang couldn't help but frown again.

Regardless of whether his surname is Lin or Ye, the other party is a genuine Foundation Establishment cultivator, while he is merely a lowly Qi Refining cultivator in the late stage. A head-on confrontation would be like throwing an egg against a rock.

Ma Liang was so worried that he kept grabbing his hair, pulling out several strands.

He was crouching in a hidden spot, at a loss, when suddenly a figure flew across the sky.

At first, he didn't take it seriously, only glancing at it before looking away. But the next second, he suddenly turned his head to look at it, and saw an old man with white hair and beard.

Ma Liang watched the old man's departing figure, and unconsciously murmured, "Xiang Zhili?"