58: Qi Refining Level 9, Materials

Cultivation knows no days or months, years pass without notice.

In a flash, summer heat recedes, winter chill ends, and the spring breeze greens the branches before the courtyard once more.

Looking back, it has already been eight months.

Inside the Cultivation Chamber.

Lu Xian felt the condition of his Dantian, took out a High Grade spirit gathering pill, and began to charge at the minor Bottleneck of the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining.

During this period, he had consumed quite a few pills.

They were all gifted by Tang Jingcheng before his death; the man had even lost his life for them, which brought a touch of melancholy.

Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was drawn by him, converging around his body.

This Breakthrough was not as difficult as the previous step from the Middle Stage to the Late Stage.

Everything flowed like water into a stream, naturally and effortlessly.

Lu Xian's aura suddenly surged, and a powerful wave of magic power rippled outward!

Ninth Layer of Qi Refining!

"Whew... Whew—"

He let out a long breath of turbid Qi, and his mind gradually settled.

Inspecting his Dantian again, he saw that his Five Elements magic power was more condensed and surging than before, already showing a trend of transforming from "gas" to "liquid," flowing incessantly.

"I've heard that the Foundation Establishment realm involves continuously compressing and purifying magic power, turning Qi into liquid, causing the magic power capacity to explode several or even a dozen times over; its power is far beyond what Qi Refining can compare to... And the path of the Golden Core is even more profound, requiring the liquefied magic power to be condensed to the extreme to form a Golden Core Great Dao Seed."

Lu Xian reflected on this common knowledge of the cultivation world.

Although it was common knowledge, without the guidance of an orthodox Cultivation Technique, ordinary Loose Cultivators would have no way to break through.

If one were to try blindly, at best they would suffer Qi Deviation, and at worst, their body would perish and their Dao would vanish.

"I've just entered the ninth layer, but I'm not far from the tenth layer's Great Perfection; it's time to plan ahead... This shouldn't be too worrying. As a Golden Core-level power, the Cangye Sect certainly won't lack Foundation Establishment techniques."

Lu Xian stood up and stretched his limbs.

He glanced at the panel.

Currently, the only building still at Level 1 was the [livestock pen].

[Immortal Cave], [Cultivation Chamber], [bedroom], [formation chamber], [teleportation room],

[Spirit Field], [Chicken Coop],

Were all at Level 2.

Lu Xian went to the backyard, where Tian Da was packing the Spirit Bird and spirit eggs that needed to be sold this month.

Tian Er was like an untiring Puppet, patrolling around the Spirit Field with a cold gaze; any weeds or strange plants that dared to sprout were instantly eradicated.

In the [Spirit Field], besides the soul settling tea tree and star stamen grass, there was another mutated heavenly star flower swaying gracefully in the breeze.

"Alchemy must also be put on the agenda. It just so happens that I've used up all my Medicinal Pills..."

Lu Xian thought to himself.

For a rare spirit plant like the heavenly star flower, the best course of action would be to refine it into a Starlight Spirit-Inducing Pill personally.

This pill could significantly increase the efficiency of absorbing Spiritual Qi at night. If stacked with the effect of the Cultivation Chamber, the time to charge toward Foundation Establishment would surely be shortened by a lot.

He went to the neighboring [livestock pen].

Tian San had already finished feeding today's fodder and was now standing still like a Puppet that had lost its instructions, motionless.

Lu Xian was very satisfied with this.

Over these eight months, except for the beginning of each month when he needed to use the teleportation array to go out to hand over goods and collect Spirit Stones, he was almost never disturbed.

Even when he passed by Luo Xuanmeng's courtyard last time, he found that she had long since disappeared.

This rare peace allowed Lu Xian to focus solely on his cultivation without distractions.

Otherwise, the time to break through to the ninth layer would probably have been a month later.

"Such speed can be called miraculous. One must know that even those geniuses who only Cultivate a single top-grade Spiritual Root take more than half a year to break through a layer in the Late Stage of Qi Refining... and their magic power isn't as deep as mine."

After a brief comparison, Lu Xian dismissed these stray thoughts.

Considering he was only twenty, such an achievement surpassed 99.999% of Cultivators.

As for the remaining one-ten-thousandth, even if they were prodigies among prodigies, his powerful Physical Body would be enough to kill them easily.

It could be said that below Foundation Establishment, he no longer feared anyone.

However, one still needs to be steady.

He had heard stories of being invincible in the world, only for enemies to descend from the heavens.

Lu Xian took out the quasi-immortal jade token to gather recent intelligence, only to find several messages.

「Du Qinghong: Brother Han, last month's Spirit Bird and spirit eggs were sold out early. Can we do the handover?」

「Du Huaigu: Fellow Daoist Han, the Gray-Backed Yak meat you provided is very popular. Five hundred catties cooked into spirit food were sold out in less than half a month. This old man intends to...」

「Zhang Tie: Brother Han, do you have any more star stamen grass? I tried a new Pill Formula and used it all up again, heh.」

That's right.

Besides the Spirit Bird products, the extra meat produced by the livestock pen was handled by the Du Family.

As for the spirit plants, they were purchased by Zhang Tie.

Now, the monthly income was stable at 2,500 Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

After deducting daily cultivation consumption and the minor costs of purchasing Mortal Chickens and young beasts, the net profit was 2,000 stones!

In eight months, not counting this month's uncollected earnings, Lu Xian's net worth was as high as 14,000 Spirit Stones!

According to the normal ratio, that was equivalent to 14 Mid-Grade Spirit Stones!

One should know that for most Level 3 buildings, the required upgrade cost was only two or three Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.

"It's a pity Materials are hard to come by..."

As Lu Xian was lamenting, he read the last message, and his pupils constricted slightly.

「Du Qinghong: Brother! There's news! At the Lin Family's Market No. 3, there's finally news about the rewarded Thunder Cloud Tiger cub and spirit condensing black soil! The items are in the hands of a group of Late Stage Qi Refining Loose Cultivators. They requested a face-to-face meeting, as they seem dissatisfied with the original reward price.」

It's here.

During this period, although he hadn't gone out to find upgrade Materials personally, he had never stopped inquiring about various upgrade Materials.

The Thunder Cloud Tiger cub was a necessary material for upgrading the [livestock pen] to Level 2.

The spirit condensing black soil was for the Level 3 [Spirit Field].

Previously, Lu Xian had already collected the returning yang wood marrow.

"It seems the Spirit Field will be the first Level 3 building."

With a thought, Lu Xian replied to Du Qinghong with four words: 「Discuss at my home.」

He then tidied his robes and went to his second Immortal Cave in the city through the [teleportation room].

Not long after, Du Qinghong pushed the door open and entered.

"Brother Han, those Loose Cultivators got the goods at Mirror Lake Valley, the same place we heard about at the last auction!"

"They took advantage of the weakness of that First-Order Perfection Thunder Cloud Tiger after its Breakthrough to Second-Order to forcibly kill it. After scouring the nest, they found a black bone tree, spirit condensing black soil, and a cub..."

He spoke directly as soon as he entered the room, knowing that Brother Han didn't like people who beat around the bush.

"Continue. What are their conditions? Is one thousand Spirit Stones not enough?" Lu Xian frowned.

"They said they lost a few brothers and need more money, and they want to meet in person."

"Do they want to rob us?"

"It doesn't look like it. They said they want us to treat them to a big meal at Hundred Flavors Studio first. They're treating us like suckers," Du Qinghong explained.

Lu Xian was speechless.

Don't these Loose Cultivators care about efficiency at all?

Wouldn't it be better to just exchange money for goods quickly and cleanly?

He didn't bother to ask more and said directly, "Set the time for tomorrow, the location remains the same. Tell them, come if they want, and if they don't... Jie jie."

"Understood!"

Du Qinghong immediately sent the message.

A moment later, he looked up and said, "They agreed."

...

The next day.

Wujian Workshop, Hundred Flavors Studio.

At the main gate, Du Huaigu personally came forward to receive him: "Fellow Daoist Han, those two are already in the private room. Looking at their appearance, they have heavy hostile and Killing Intent, appearing to be Loose Cultivators who risk their lives outside the city year-round and only occasionally return to the city to rest... Perhaps I should step forward to mediate first?"

As he spoke, his gaze was as usual.

Even if the person's appearance was slightly different from last time, Du Huaigu could still recognize that unique build and temperament.

'My Hundred Forms Thousand Illusions Art is only at the Proficient level; I can only change subtle parts of my body, and my build cannot be adjusted significantly. I still need to practice more!'

Lu Xian confirmed the effect of the Spell in his mind, but said indifferently on the surface, "It's fine. I hope they... are sensible.""}],