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

"If I were to borrow it, how much demon gold would I need to deposit with you, fellow Daoist?"

Gou An asked politely.

Black Horn smiled and said, "According to the usual rules, a mid-grade spirit stone like this should cost at least this much..."

He held up three fingers.

"Thirty thousand demon gold coins?" Gou An asked curiously, as that was a month's salary for him.

"How could that be!" Blackhorn chuckled sinisterly before replying, "Three hundred thousand!"

"Huh?" Gou An was shocked and opened his mouth wide.

Three hundred thousand?

All I have in total is only thirty to fifty thousand demon gold coins. Who could afford that?

"Fellow Daoist, don't be too nervous!" Black Horn seemed quite satisfied with Gou An's reaction and continued, "I know the deposit is a bit too high, but that's the price offered to the public..."

At this point, he changed the subject and continued, "We're brothers, how can I charge you so much? Thirty thousand will do!"

Gou An couldn't help but twitch his lips.

This guy knows how to play the game. It should have been 30,000, but he insisted on asking for 300,000, trying to force me to do him a favor.

However, Gou An, wanting to obtain the spirit stone, could only pretend not to see through it and immediately said with a smile, "Then thank you very much, fellow Daoist!"

As Gou An spoke, he took out a storage bag from his bosom, which contained the 30,000 demon gold coins he had saved up over this period of time!

Black Horn took the money pouch, probed it with a few strands of demonic power, and after confirming that there were no problems, he put it away.

Just as Gou An was about to accept the spirit stone, Black Horn suddenly stopped.

"Hmm?" Gou An looked at Black Horn in confusion, thinking that the other party had changed his mind.

Unexpectedly, Black Horn suddenly spoke up: "Fellow Daoist, I've staked 30,000 of the 300,000 spirit stones on you. Isn't that generous?"

"Enough! That's more than enough." Gou An replied immediately, knowing he had to give the other party face, especially with so many demons watching.

"That's enough!" Black Horn suddenly chuckled. "I can ask for less demon gold, but as a fellow alchemist, you should at least compensate me with some pills, right?"

Upon hearing this, Gou An immediately understood.

This guy has his eye on my pills and wants to take advantage of the situation.

So Gou An readily agreed: "Of course, of course! I happen to have some pills on me, fellow Daoist, you may take them if you don't mind!"

As he spoke, Gou An took out a porcelain bottle from his robes and handed it over: "This bottle contains Qi-Nourishing Pills that I refined myself. Using them in conjunction with your regular cultivation will make your efforts twice as effective!"

Upon seeing this, Black Horn beamed and reached out to take the porcelain bottle.

He uncorked the bottle, took a deep sniff, and seemed somewhat intoxicated.

"Good stuff!" Black Horn carefully put away the porcelain bottle and continued, "There won't be many left. Next time you come, please bring me some more!"

Gou An outwardly agreed, but inwardly he was already cursing the black-horned man.

This guy is really greedy. He not only took 30,000 demon gold from me for a mid-grade spirit stone, but he also wants to keep taking pills from me. Does he really think he's a sucker?

Unfortunately, Blackhorn didn't know that the Qi-Nourishing Pills Gou An gave him were all defective products.

Although it has some effect, it can actually lead to more erysipelas buildup.

The reason Gou An was certain that Black Horn couldn't tell was because he had discovered this during his previous tests of pills.

This guy seemed to be checking each pill one by one, but he was a complete novice; he could only smell them and look at their color.

Gou An deliberately included a few inferior pills among the medicinal pills, but they were not picked out at all.

After all, even when Gou An first arrived, it wasn't easy to tell the difference, let alone for monsters like them who didn't know anything about alchemy.

The Transformation Pill is numerous and fast-acting, so the quality of the pill can be analyzed from the transformation success rate.

However, this kind of Qi-nourishing pill won't work. The accumulation of toxins takes time and effort, and you won't feel the effects until it's been ten or eight years.

Moreover, Gou An could tell from the way Hei Jiao enjoyed smelling the pills that he hadn't noticed anything amiss.

The rat population that currently lacks the resources to deal with elixir residue and inferior elixir quality can be used as a substitute.

Upon returning to the City of Ten Thousand Demons, Gou An immediately locked himself in his room and eagerly took out a mid-grade spirit stone to enjoy himself.

Holding the spirit stone in his hands, Gou An almost drooled.

During this period, Gou An could only increase his demonic power by consuming pills, but the growth rate was very slow.

The current demon power panel is as follows.

[Current Realm: Eighth Rank Demon Beast]

[Demon Power Value: 6520/1000000]

Since breaking through to the eighth-tier demon beast, Gou An has accumulated more than 6,000 points of demon power, which has taken six or seven months.

If this pace continues, it will take Gou An sixty or seventy years to break through to the ninth rank.

Thinking about Gou An made the journey seem long, which made him appreciate the preciousness of the spirit stone even more.

So he eagerly held the spirit stone in both hands, brought it to his lips, and took a deep breath.

The pure spiritual energy within the spirit stone entered Gou An's nasal cavity with his breath, transforming into a warm current that flowed into his meridians.

Blackhorn wasn't lying; this mid-grade spirit stone was indeed worth a thousand low-grade spirit stones.

Gou An inhaled the energy for a long time, only to feel a slight swelling and pain in his meridians before he stopped. Yet, the mid-grade spirit stone still shone brightly.

Gou An closed his eyes and checked the current panel.

[Current Realm: Eighth Rank Demon Beast]

[Demon Power Value: 15600/1000000]

In one go, it increased its demonic power by nearly 10,000 points.

This is equivalent to the amount of twenty or thirty low-grade spirit stones from before.

"Good stuff!" Gou An felt refreshed and then carefully swallowed the spirit stone into the storage space in his mouth.

Although Gou An has quite a few treasures like storage bags, he only uses them to store miscellaneous items such as medicinal herbs and pills.

Gou An still felt that the safest thing to do was to put the real treasure in his own mouth.

While resting peacefully, he couldn't help but silently make plans.

This mid-grade spirit stone is equivalent to a thousand low-grade ones, so it can provide about 300,000 demonic power.

If you calculate it that way, you probably really can't get this thing for 30,000 demon gold coins. It seems I misunderstood Black Horn.

This guy offered me a low price just so he could get more benefits from the pills.

But he gave him inferior pills instead, which was a bit too much of a jerk.

Thinking of this, Gou An felt a pang of guilt.

But the guilt only lasted for a moment before it disappeared. After all, this guy had tested him several times and was still a threat to him.

Moreover, even inferior pills are very valuable in the City of Ten Thousand Demons.

Although Gou An paid less demon gold, Black Horn seems to have a big appetite and will gradually take back the less demon gold from the pills, or even more.

Therefore, using inferior pills is simply to minimize one's own losses.

Once Gou An understood this, he immediately felt no shame in his heart.

After absorbing enough spiritual energy, I fell asleep immediately.

I slept incredibly soundly.

Gou An even dreamed that he discovered a secret realm filled with mountains of spirit stones.