61: Chapter 61: The Spirit Beast Trade Route Opens a Hidden Vein, and the Wang Family Sends Another Gift

Li Qingfeng had just returned to the New Courtyard with the recovered formation talisman, and before he could even catch his breath, the manager of the Spirit Beast Garden rushed over, looking like his hair was on fire, his face twisted into a bitter melon.

"Young Master! It's bad!" The manager's voice was laced with a sob. "The three White-Eared Spirit Rabbits in our garden, I don't know what happened, but they suddenly became restless. They won't eat anything and keep slamming their heads against the cage! Also, news just came from the Wang Family—that batch of Green-Horned Deer cubs we had reserved to pick up was intercepted halfway by the Chen Family Trading Firm at a high price!"

Two pieces of bad news, one after another, smashed directly into the Li Family's nascent Spirit Beast Garden industry.

Li Qingfeng's face sank.

The plan for the Spirit Beast Garden was the most critical link in his entire internal circulation industry. Spirit Beasts produce spiritual fertilizer, spiritual fertilizer nourishes spiritual fields, spiritual fields produce Spiritual Plants, and Spiritual Plants, in turn, feed the Spirit Beasts and supply the Sect. Now that the Green-Horned Deer cubs had been intercepted, it was equivalent to having the source strangled.

He didn't get angry immediately. Instead, he walked quickly to the Spirit Beast Garden and took a look at the three White-Eared Spirit Rabbits that were frantically restless. He extended his Vitality Perception to probe them and discovered that there was a faint strand of Evil Qi scurrying about inside the cubs' bodies.

"It's not an epidemic." Li Qingfeng made a judgment immediately. "They were disturbed by something carrying Evil Qi."

He understood instantly; this was a chain move by the Chen Family Trading Firm. First, use a Loose Cultivator to rob the talisman; when that failed, they immediately turned to attack the Li Family's most vulnerable new industry.

Just then, Wang Qingluan also hurried over. She had changed out of her training gear today, wearing a simple and elegant long dress convenient for moving around the Family, but the capable aura between her brows had not diminished in the slightest.

"The Chen Family Trading Firm didn't just intercept the Green-Horned Deer; they also pre-booked the stock of several Spirit Beast dealers in the Outer Town." The news she brought was even worse. "They are determined to completely cut off our path to purchasing young beasts from the open market."

She spread out a trading route map of the Outer Town, her fingertips tracing over several red lines: "These are all the public trading routes around Qingshi Town that sell low-grade Spirit Beasts. Now, they are all being watched by the Chen Family."

Li Qingfeng looked at the red lines that were locked down, his brows furrowed tightly.

The fermentation pits of the Spirit Beast Garden were already half-dug. If the young beasts couldn't be obtained, the spiritual fertilizer line would have to be cut off in ten days at most.

Seeing him deep in thought, Wang Qingluan suddenly took out another, older map drawn on special animal skin from her Storage Pouch and spread it on the stone table.

On this map, there was a winding blue line that bypassed all public trading route strongholds, passing through several remote valleys and Loose Cultivator towns.

"The Chen Family intercepted the open route." Wang Qingluan's voice was very cold, but it carried complete certainty. "My Wang Family has an old trading route that has been in use for over a decade, specifically for transporting low-grade spiritual birds, medicinal rats, and some Green-Horned Deer descendants with impure Bloodline. This line doesn't have much profit, so it was never put on the public ledger, but its advantage is that it's steady. The Chen Family doesn't know about it."

Li Qingfeng's gaze fell on that blue line, and he looked up at her, asking directly: "Is this line on the Wang Family's public ledger?"

Wang Qingluan shook her head, meeting his gaze, and answered directly and frankly: "It is under my name."

The outer hall was quiet for a moment.

Li Qingfeng suddenly laughed: "Is Miss Wang planning to use her private property to sustain the Li Family's industry?"

Wang Qingluan looked at him, her expression devoid of any joking intent: "According to our current alliance, this is called an investment. If in the future… the two families go deeper, this will be my foundation."

She didn't say the words "dowry," but the weight of it was already clearly placed on the table.

Li Qingfeng's thoughts raced. He knew that Wang Qingluan was using the most direct method to demonstrate her value as a marriage partner. She hadn't just brought a woman; she had brought an entire secret industrial line that could provide blood transfusions for the Family.

He didn't rush to answer, nor did he play dumb. He just gently pushed the old map back and said: "Let's enter it into the accounts according to the alliance rules. The Li Family will give you ten percent of the profits from this trading route. As for deeper matters, we will talk when we see results."

Wang Qingluan nodded decisively: "I don't like empty promises either."

That night, Li Qingfeng returned to the New Courtyard.

Su Qingyue had just coaxed their second son, Li Changsheng, to sleep and was sitting under the lamp, reading a book on pharmacology. Her postpartum recovery was excellent; her figure appeared even more voluptuous than before pregnancy. The soft light outlined the full curves of her chest, and even a loose home robe could not conceal her mature and gentle charm.

Li Qingfeng recounted the events of the Spirit Beast Garden and Wang Qingluan to her exactly as they happened.

After listening, Su Qingyue gently closed the book. She didn't ask about Wang Qingluan the person first, but about the Spirit Beast Garden's accounts: "If her old trading route can really bypass the Chen Family, we can maintain the spiritual fertilizer closed loop. It's just that those branch descendants might not be as easy to raise as pure-bloods."

Li Qingfeng walked behind her, naturally placing his palms on the soft flesh of her waist, using gentle Azure Wood Spiritual Power to massage her, soothing her fatigue from the day.

Su Qingyue hummed softly in comfort, leaning back into his arms, and said in a low voice: "You don't need to test me. Miss Wang is capable and knows her place; this is a good thing for the Li Family. As long as she enters the door, she must follow the Family's rules. Establish the rules first, and there won't be chaos later."

Smelling the faint scent of herbs and wood from her hair, Li Qingfeng said in a low voice: "Qingyue, with you as the mistress, my mind is much more at ease."

Su Qingyue was pleased by his praise, but she gently patted the back of his hand: "Less sweet talk. Tomorrow, you go look at the Spirit Beast Garden accounts yourself; don't think about pushing everything onto me."

The next morning, Li Qingfeng took Wang Qingluan, the Spirit Beast Garden manager, and the accountant to re-plan the trial-raising area.

With the replenishment from Wang Qingluan's secret line, he immediately adjusted the plan: first, use the excrement of Green-furred Mice and White-Eared Spirit Rabbits for rapid fermentation to stabilize the basic production of spiritual fertilizer; then, introduce a batch of low-grade spiritual birds, whose manure has more potent medicinal properties and can be used to cultivate fields after separate fermentation.

In this way, even if the pure-blood Green-Horned Deer arrived half a month late, the supply of spiritual fertilizer would not immediately collapse.

Just as Li Qingfeng was looking at the ledger, calculating the ratio of the three types of spiritual fertilizer, the System panel suddenly lit up in his mind.

[Ding! Detected that the Family's Spirit Beast Garden secondary industry is facing external cargo blocking, and the newly introduced young beasts are at risk of maladaptation and unstable Divine Soul!]

[Current core gap: Lack of effective low-grade young beast calming feed, lack of Spirit Beast-specific nourishing Medicinal Pill, fermentation pit bacterial strains are not stable enough, lacking medicinal primers.]

[Opening secondary profession prerequisite task: Alchemy Introduction.]

[Task Objective: Within seven days, complete the blending of three furnaces of "First-Grade Low-Quality beast-calming pill" medicinal embryos.]

[Task Description: The beast-calming pill can soothe the minds of low-grade Spirit Beasts, remove trace amounts of Evil Qi, and is one of the basic Medicinal Pill for stable Spirit Beast Garden operation.]

[Task Reward: Alchemy proficiency upgraded to "Apprentice Alchemist"; Host cultivation infusion (small amount); The System will gift the complete Pill Formula for [Low-Grade beast-calming pill].]

Li Qingfeng stared at the words on the panel, his eyes bright.

The Chen Family thought that blocking the source of young beasts would paralyze his Spirit Beast Garden, but they didn't expect that this would instead force the System to open up a new path: Alchemy.

Once the Li Family could refine beast-calming pill themselves, these little tricks of the Chen Family would all become a joke.

After checking the Spirit Beast Garden, Li Qingfeng sent Wang Qingluan back to the front courtyard. Passing by the fermentation pit, the stone steps were slippery with moss, and Wang Qingluan's foot slipped slightly.

Li Qingfeng was quick-witted and agile, reaching out to hold her wrist and pulling her back to a stable position.

After Wang Qingluan stood steady, she didn't pull her hand back immediately, just looked down at where they were holding hands and said softly: "Your movements for helping people are becoming increasingly practiced."

Li Qingfeng let go and laughed: "With two children at home and a wife who just finished her confinement not long ago, it would be hard not to be practiced."

Hearing the word "wife," Wang Qingluan's gaze paused slightly, then she said: "Sister Su is more magnanimous than I thought."

Li Qingfeng looked at the distant spiritual fields and replied: "She isn't magnanimous; she sees clearly what is most important in the Family."

Hearing this, Wang Qingluan also looked at the lush spiritual fields and said softly but firmly: "Then I cannot let her look down on me."

Within seven days, Wang Qingluan's old trading route indeed delivered the first batch of substitute young beasts, but at the last checkpoint before entering the town, they were stopped by Loose Cultivators hired by the Chen Family under the pretext of "checking for epidemics."

At the same time, in a remote pharmacy in the New Courtyard, Li Qingfeng lit the Pill Furnace for the first time.

Following the incomplete Pill Formula provided by the System, he began refining the beast-calming pill in a flurry of confusion.

"Bang!"

The first furnace, the heat wasn't controlled well, and it exploded directly, spraying black ash all over his face.

"Sizzle—"

The second furnace, the order of adding medicinal materials was wrong, and it refined into a pot of sticky black medicinal dregs.

Su Qingyue stood at the door of the pharmacy, looking at Li Qingfeng, who was covered in black ash and smelled of medicinal dregs. She really couldn't help it; she giggled and teased softly: "Husband, your talent for Alchemy seems far worse than your talent for raising children."

Just as Li Qingfeng was preparing to start the third furnace, the System suddenly popped up a prompt:

[Detected that the medicinal properties of the second furnace of medicinal embryos have not yet fully dissipated and have remedial value. Please Host immediately use Vitality Perception to recalibrate the heat and attempt to condense the pill.]