Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

"This is really good stuff!"

Gou An came to his senses, plucked a leaf, put it under his nose, and smelled it carefully. The scent was so pure!

"Master, should we plant it?" Liu Dayong asked curiously.

"Plant them!" Gou An nodded immediately. "Not only should we plant them, but we should plant them on a large scale, the more the better!"

"Understood!" Liu Dayong nodded immediately.

"How many of these spiritual herbs do you have now?" Gou An suddenly asked.

"There's a hillside covered with this kind of grass!" Liu Dayong scratched his head and recalled carefully, "There were probably seventy or eighty plants."

"Great!" Gou An stood up excitedly: "Gather twenty plants for me first, and figure out how to plant the rest as soon as possible."

"Dao Master!" Liu Dayong suddenly said, "If we need it urgently, ordinary watering will make it grow rather slowly. If you want it to grow faster, Dao Master, you can give me some spirit stones. I will set up a spirit-gathering array in the herb field to accelerate the growth of the spirit plants."

Hearing Liu Dayong's words, Gou An became interested: "How much do you want?"

"If we set up a system for all the medicinal herb fields, it would cost about eight thousand spirit stones!" Liu Dayong calculated with his fingers. "But if we only need to speed up the process for this particular type of herb, it would only cost two thousand!"

"No problem!"

Without hesitation, Gou An took out a storage bag from his pocket and placed it in Liu Dayong's hand.

"There are 10,000 spirit stones in here!" Gou An said. "Set up spirit-gathering arrays in all the medicinal fields. I want all the medicinal fields to be planted with spirit plants as quickly as possible."

"You are responsible for using the extra spirit stones to reward the other outstanding performers."

Liu Dayong stuffed the storage bag into his robes and quickly clasped his hands in a fist salute: "Rest assured, Daoist Master, I will certainly take care of it."

Gou An then sent Liu Dayong back to the Palm Heaven Map.

Not long after, Liu Dayong delivered the other twenty spirit tobacco plants.

Upon receiving the item, Gou An was overjoyed and immediately prepared to begin refining the spirit smoke!

Although Gou An wasn't a smoker in his previous life, he did have some knowledge of cigarettes and was fairly clear about the production process.

Although this spirit tobacco is essentially a type of spirit herb, the processing methods are all quite similar.

Gou An selected the intact leaves from the twenty tobacco plants and removed all the damaged and broken leaves.

Then, after spreading them on a bamboo mat to wither in the shade for several days, once the leaves became soft and pliable, they were hung in a well-ventilated place to release their spiritual energy and allow them to dry quickly.

The pungent, spicy scent of fresh grass gradually faded, and a mellow, gentle aroma slowly permeated the air.

After the tobacco leaves have dried, Gou An will repeatedly rub them to turn the large tobacco leaves into fine tobacco shreds.

After obtaining the tobacco, he put it all into the jade box.

Seal the lid and place it on a desk filled with spiritual energy to ferment.

Several days later, upon opening the jade box, a fragrant aroma wafted out.

At this point, Gou An knew he had succeeded.

So they specially bought paper as thin as cicada wings, scooped on tobacco shreds, and rolled it into neat little cigarettes of uniform length.

Twenty spirit tobacco plants produced more than eight hundred spirit cigarettes.

Gou An picked up one, smelled it under his nose, and then couldn't wait to put one in his mouth.

He snapped his fingers with his right hand, and a cluster of spiritual flames ignited, lighting the cigarette butt.

"hiss!"

Gou An took a deep breath, and the spiritual smoke went down his throat into his lungs.

In just a moment, Gou An felt refreshed and his mind cleared up instantly.

This intoxicating feeling is just too good!

Furthermore, after the spiritual smoke is inhaled, the body will also absorb the spiritual energy within it, and it also has some of the effects of a Qi-replenishing pill.

Furthermore, this spirit tobacco has a mild medicinal property and can regulate internal energy, even having some of the effects of a Qi-nourishing pill.

"What a wonderful tonic!" Gou An exhaled white smoke as he held the spiritual cigarette in his hand. This stuff was hundreds of times better than the cigarettes of his previous life.

I just wonder if this stuff is addictive?

Should we add something to it?

A thought suddenly popped into Gou An's mind.

However, this idea was rejected by Gou An as soon as it came to mind.

After all, if addictive drugs were added to this, it would be easily discovered by highly skilled alchemists or other alchemists.

They will naturally be wary of this item then, so it cannot be added.

Since this stuff is so similar to tobacco, its effects should be about the same.

Looking at the more than eight hundred spirit cigarettes on the table, Gou An began packaging them.

Each pack contained only ten sticks, wrapped in cardboard.

This stuff isn't expensive; it doesn't require any expensive medicinal ingredients.

Moreover, this is the early stage, and opening up sales channels and brand awareness are the most important things, so Gou An only set the price at five spirit stones for one pack.

Although these 800 roots were only packed into 80 bags, which adds up to only 400 spirit stones, once the production capacity of the Palm Heaven Diagram is released, we can then sell more at a lower profit.

Thinking of this, Gou An couldn't stop smiling.

As for where to start promoting it? Gou An already had the answer.

That's the Alchemy Competition!

This is a major event in the City of Ten Thousand Demons, and it will surely attract the attention of all the demons in the city.

This is definitely the best place to build brand awareness.

So for the remaining half month or so, Gou An stayed at Wandan Hall to make preparations.

More than half a month passed quickly, and the day of the conference arrived in the blink of an eye.

Gou An arrived at the city's largest square early in the morning, where everything had already been prepared.

Hundreds of alchemy furnaces were neatly arranged on the square, numbering at least seven or eight hundred at a glance.

The square was already surrounded by monsters from all over the city, while the alchemists who were participating in the alchemy competition had gathered inside the square.

Gou An glanced over and found that most of them were human alchemists, with demon cultivators making up less than 30%.

I have no idea where all these alchemists came from. After all, according to what Gou An knew before, there were only about forty alchemists in total, including both human and demon alchemists in the three major alchemy halls.

I have no idea where all these extras came from.

As all the alchemists arrived, a demon cultivator who had transformed from a white crane flew into the sky above the plaza.

He opened his mouth and shouted in an extremely loud voice that echoed throughout the entire venue: "Fellow Daoists, the first Alchemy Conference of Ten Thousand Demon City is about to begin."

"Please welcome the Demon King!"

As he shouted, a purple light fell from the sky and landed directly on the high platform, taking its place.

Gou An looked at the Demon King and found that the Demon King's transformation was extremely perfect. His body did not have any resemblance to his original form, and it was impossible to tell what kind of demon beast he was transformed from.

The Demon King appeared to be a middle-aged man with a resolute face, thick eyebrows, and wearing a purple-black robe.

As soon as he sat down, an invisible demonic aura instantly spread outwards, and Gou An felt an overwhelming sense of oppression from this aura.

As expected of the Demon King!

Following closely behind, the heads of the three major alchemy halls also appeared one after another.

The group included Master Wenxu, Master Xuanding, and a demon cultivator whom Gou An had never seen before. The demon cultivator appeared to be an old ox in human form, with a pair of ox horns on its head.

Following this, Bai He continued, "Next, all alchemists may begin the first round of pill refining. There are no restrictions on the quality of the pills, and all medicinal materials must be provided by yourselves. The time limit is one hour!"

"The refined pills will be inspected by the heads of the three major alchemy halls in one hour!"

"If the inspection is passed, the second round of refining can begin."

As they were talking, an alchemist opened the furnace door and lit the fire to preheat it.

An hour?

In such a short time, only the simplest pills can be refined.

Moreover, there is no room for trial and error; once a problem occurs, there is no time to re-refine it.

Therefore, this round of competition is merely to eliminate those who are mediocre or whose alchemy skills are not proficient.

With the assurance of Master Wenxu, Gou An felt no pressure in this round and ultimately chose to refine the Qi-replenishing pill.

Although it's simple, it still tests your basic skills.

Gou An took out the ingredients needed for the Qi-replenishing pill and started a fire in the furnace.

With the Flame Sacred Body, Gou An's control over the furnace fire became extremely precise.

Simple Qi-boosting pills are practically a given.

After Gou An put all the medicinal materials into the alchemy furnace and they successfully took shape, he only needed to wait for the temperature to slowly refine the elixir.

The entire process took less than fifteen minutes.

When Gou An looked around at other locations, he saw a wide variety of sights.

It's unclear whether there weren't enough real alchemists, so the Demon King and his group brought in some people to make up the numbers.

Many alchemists had just begun refining pills when the furnace fire became so intense that it burst out, almost burning the man's hair off.

Even worse, some couldn't even light a fire in the stove.

Some didn't bring any medicinal herbs and had to borrow them from various places.

Seeing everyone busy, Gou An calmly flipped his hand, took out a spirit cigarette, and put it in his mouth.

Then, with a snap of his fingers, a cluster of magical flame appeared and lit the cigarette butt.

He took a deep breath and then exhaled a long plume of smoke.

The first step in promotion is to become your own spokesperson.

Don't actively sell; let others come to you.

Gou An took out a chair from his storage bag and placed it next to the alchemy furnace. He leaned against it, smoking a cigarette, completely unlike the busy people around him, and was leisurely and carefree.

Gou An's strange behavior naturally attracted the attention of the onlookers.

"Look, that guy's mouth is steaming."

"Is that really true? What are they doing?"

"It seems quite interesting."

Not only the onlookers noticed Gou An, but even the other alchemists nearby also noticed his actions.

As the scent of incense drifted over to him, the fox alchemist immediately spotted its source.

He had just finished shaping the elixir and now only needed to wait for the furnace fire to slowly bake it.

He saw that Gou An was holding a thin white stick with sparks burning at the tip, and there were still wisps of spiritual energy left in the white smoke he exhaled.

"Fellow Daoist!" The fox approached Gou An and asked curiously, "What is that in your hand?"

Seeing that someone had taken the bait, Gou An grinned: "This is the Tranquil Dust Spirit Incense. One puff and you'll feel refreshed, two puffs and you'll be invigorated, and three puffs and you'll be free of worries."

"Oh?" The fox looked at Gou An with a surprised expression as he took a puff of the spirit smoke and then exhaled it.

Gou An deliberately blew white smoke into his face, letting the fox take a good drag of secondhand smoke.

After getting close enough to experience it, the fox took a deep breath and, feeling the exquisite sensation, its eyes widened in interest.

"Fellow Daoist, may I have one of these?" the fox asked ingratiatingly.