98: Practice all arts and study diligently

After gathering the Spiritual Qi, the snakes coiled within their den. Chen Cuo could sense many fearful thoughts, but these snakes were not his Spirit Beasts, so he could not truly understand their intentions.

Chen Cuo grabbed the longest and largest snake nearby, transmitted a thought to it, then pulled its tail, making its head plunge into the foul water of the snake den.

A moment later, the large snake emerged with a section of white lotus root in its mouth, covered in a good deal of mud. Chen Cuo summoned a stream of water to wash it clean and stored it in a Storage Talisman.

He packed his things, followed the tunnel he had come through, exited the cave, and hastily covered his tracks using some methods. He quickly returned to Xueshan City, first going to the unified common area to clean up and take a good bath.

It also cost him a good deal of Spirit Liquid, which made him incredibly envious. Alchemists and apothecaries are professions that can yield enormous profits.

Now, with this trip, he had basically gathered the Five Elements Spiritual Roots and no longer needed to worry. Chen Cuo planned to quietly focus on other side professions, as obtaining a Cross-Realm Quota would still cost a lot of money. He heard that a 100% guaranteed quota would cost no less than a thousand Spirit Stones, perhaps even more.

Over the past five years, his income solely from Artifact Refining, as a fixed salary, was one Spirit Stone per month, accumulating only sixty Spirit Stones in five years. But the commission was much more.

According to the contract, Chen Cuo needed to refine two first-order Magical Artifacts or five unranked Magical Artifacts each month; only then would other items be counted for commission.

Refining a first-order Magical Artifact, at Chen Cuo's speed, would take about two days if he was fast, so he spent about four days each month refining the contracted number of Magical Artifacts.

Aside from his Cultivation time each month, he only spent half a month on Artifact Refining, producing seven first-order Magical Artifacts and one unranked Magical Artifact monthly. His additional income came from five first-order Magical Artifacts and one unranked Magical Artifact.

An unranked Magical Artifact's price ranges from eighty Broken Spirit Crystals to one Spirit Stone, while a first-order Low Grade Magical Artifact costs between three and five Spirit Stones, and a Medium Grade one between eight and ten Spirit Stones.

As for profit, after deducting costs, it was roughly half of the selling price. However, the Magical Artifacts Chen Cuo refined were all high-quality, so their prices would be slightly inflated. Thus, according to the five-five split agreement in the supplementary clause, for a first-order Low Grade Magical Artifact, he could earn two Spirit Stones, and for an unranked Magical Artifact, he virtually earned the entire cost.

Calculated this way, he could earn more than ten Spirit Stones each month.

However, this was not absolute. Sometimes, researching new Magical Artifacts took a lot of time, and Cultivation also took up some days. Moreover, he occasionally refined and sold first-order Medium Grade Magical Artifacts, earning nearly five Spirit Stones in profit from selling them.

Also, White Egret, the shopkeeper, often bought back his high-quality Magical Artifacts at high prices. She said those Magical Artifacts could also fetch high prices in the Immortal Realm.

In any case, he wasn't at a loss. Over these five years, accumulating a thousand Spirit Stones was quite easy.

But this was only considering income; there were also expenses. The biggest expense was Foul Beast blood. He rarely hunted Foul Beasts himself, always buying the blood, which became a major expenditure, almost a bottle a month. Yue Wudao sometimes bought blood and was surprised by his consumption.

Next was the Spirit Cleansing Flower for preparing Spirit Cleansing Liquid. The Yue Family sold him Spirit Cleansing Flowers, which also carried no small risk for them, and the price was very high. In addition, the medicinal ingredients that assisted in Alchemy were not cheap either.

Adding in occasional splurges, going out for entertainment and such, he simply couldn't stop spending less than five or six Spirit Stones each month.

Currently, he still had about four hundred-plus Spirit Stones, less than five hundred. To buy a Cross-Realm Quota, he still needed to save more.

But there was no rush; he still had over twenty years, so he would definitely be able to save enough.

"Brother Yue, business is good lately!"

Chen Cuo returned to the city, not going back to Bailu Smithy, but instead heading to the retail street within the city. As expected, Yue Wudao was setting up his stall there.

"You brat, teasing me again. Here, this is your beast blood from last month."

Yue Wudao hadn't been idle these past five years either. In his first year, he didn't hesitate to expend his essence blood, relying solely on selling blood Talismans. Within the first year of his studies, he bought a Golden Bristle Talisman Brush three months in advance.

Yue Wudao truly had some skill in Talisman crafting. In his second year, he was successfully able to draw Spirit Talismans. After completing the Huang Family's required monthly Talisman count, he used the initial capital provided by Chen Cuo to rent a stall on the city's retail street and began selling Talismans.

The stall fee was one Spirit Stone per month, which wasn't expensive, and he made a profit. Now, he was quite wealthy, and unlike Chen Cuo, he had almost no expenses, so accumulating a thousand Spirit Stones was a sure thing.

Chen Cuo wasn't just helping for free; after all, most of his Foul Beast blood was bought from Yue Wudao.

"Forget it, you keep it for drawing Talismans. I just bought some from someone else."

"Oh, you brat, why aren't you hiding it today? This Foul Beast blood has mixed Qi and blood within it; it's really difficult to control when drawing Talismans."

Although he said that, he honestly put the bottle of blood away again.

"No more joking, Brother Yue. Actually, I wanted to ask you where I can buy books on learning Talisman crafting, preferably those with complete Legacies?" Chen Cuo's expression became serious, asking very earnestly.

The surrounding markets and the shops of other Families' marketplaces did not directly sell Secret Manuals or books on Cultivation skills.

Formations, Talismans, Alchemy, Artifact Refining—the four Cultivation arts—not only were these unavailable, but even skills like butchering, Spirit cooking, and brewing Spirit wine were not sold.

These skills were all controlled by the major powers and were not allowed to be sold or spread. Their attitude was: 'You want to learn? Sure, come work for us! Or simply become our servant, and we'll let you learn.'

Even working only allowed one to learn the basics, and being a servant was similar. Chen Cuo and Yue Wudao had both experienced this deeply. For example, White Egret's Artifact Refining method was not on the same level as his, which meant his talent was astonishing.

"What do you want to do? Isn't Artifact Refining tiring enough? Do you want to learn Talisman crafting too?"

"No, I want to refine a special Magical Artifact, but I've recently hit a Bottleneck and want to try to gain insight through the Dao of Talismans."

The types of Talismans sold at Yue Wudao's stall were neither the Huang Family's Legacy nor from his previous encounters; they seemed newly acquired, which prompted this question.

As for Chen Cuo himself, he had been confined to Artifact Refining or Cultivating Body Refinement and truly didn't know if such channels existed.

He wanted to buy some Cultivation Techniques for the hundred arts of Cultivation to enrich himself.

After all, he had a foundation in these skills. His past talents like mastery in calligraphy and painting, and mastery in brewing, should also be put to use, shouldn't they?