Over the next ten days.
Fang Ping’s life fell into a regular rhythm. Every day, he arrived at the Formation Hall on time, cut Spirit Jade, meditated to recover his Spiritual Power, and continued cutting Spirit Jade until dusk when he finished for the day.
By scavenging scraps every day, he harvested dozens of waste Spirit Jade pieces and offcuts with varying degrees of defects.
If he took them to the market, they could sell for about two Spirit Stones.
Right, he also had to deduct the one Spirit Stone handling fee for entering and leaving the market…
With continuous practice, Fang Ping’s technique for cutting Spirit Jade grew increasingly skilled. His progress in the latter half was noticeably faster than he had expected.
He only needed to come for another half-day tomorrow to finish this round of chores.
“After this, I’ll gain another two and a half months of cultivation time.”
The anxiety of his cultivation stagnating for over ten days was greatly alleviated by this good news, allowing Fang Ping’s mindset to become much more peaceful.
The next day.
Just past noon, Fang Ping finished cutting the final piece of Spirit Jade.
He found the inner sect Formation Hall disciple on duty. After obtaining his proof of completion, he did not hesitate and headed straight for the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall.
Fang Ping’s luck was quite good this time. The one presiding over the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall was not Deacon Zhao, but the relatively agreeable Deacon Liang. He smoothly completed his chore registration and received his twenty sect contributions.
Stepping out of the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall once more, Fang Ping felt a long-lost sense of relief.
He took a deep breath and headed straight back to the courtyard where the outer disciples lived.
Shut the door, meditate, cultivate!
The Spiritual Power of the Five Elements Sutra circulated endlessly through his Meridians, continuously refining the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, allowing Fang Ping’s cultivation to begin growing once more.
“This feeling of constantly improving my strength really is wonderful!”
After making up for the cultivation he had missed earlier that day, Fang Ping could not help but sigh with emotion.
Afterward, he originally wanted to get up and continue refining pills, but then remembered that his first batch of Inedia Pill materials was already exhausted.
He had to sell these pills before he could buy more materials for alchemy.
For the outer disciples of the Luoyang Sect, there were two places to sell pills.
One was the Luoyun Market he had visited last time, and the other was a small exchange gathering held irregularly among the Luoyang Sect’s outer disciples.
Both locations had their pros and cons.
Selling Spirit Pills at the exchange gathering would allow him to establish the identity of an alchemy apprentice, expand his connections, and attract some business along the way. This would also provide some intangible benefits for entering the inner sect in the future.
However, Inedia Pills were far too basic. Luoyang Sect disciples did not lack such things, so the market for them would likely be limited.
He pondered for a moment and decided it would not be too late to attend the exchange gathering once his strength improved and he had mastered the refining methods for a few more pills.
“In that case, I’ll still go to Luoyun Market.”
To avoid running into Lu Shan and Ming Yulou again, Fang Ping was extremely cautious when going out this time.
Before the sky even brightened, he hurriedly went down the mountain.
…
Entering Luoyun Market again.
To avoid drawing suspicion, Fang Ping did not go to the Pill Cauldron Workshop this time, instead opting for another alchemy shop with an equally solid reputation.
“Shopkeeper, does your store buy pills?”
Fang Ping asked.
Seeing business arrive, a smile broke across the shopkeeper’s face. He stood up and said, “Our humble shop does indeed purchase Spirit Pills. May I ask what kind of pills this Fellow Daoist wishes to sell?”
“Inedia Pills!”
Fang Ping laid out the pills he had refined with his own hands.
Hearing it was only this most basic of pills, the shopkeeper could not help feeling a bit disappointed.
But as a businessman, he still maintained a baseline level of enthusiasm. “Fellow Daoist, might I examine the effects of these Spirit Pills?”
This was standard procedure, so Fang Ping naturally did not mind. He made a gesture inviting the man to go ahead.
The old shopkeeper casually took out two bottles of Inedia Pills. After a brief inspection, he revealed a fairly satisfied expression. “The quality is acceptable. How about we price them at one Spirit Stone per bottle?”
“Fine.”
Fang Ping decisively finalized the transaction.
Afterward, he purchased another one hundred portions of Inedia Pill materials in a single breath.
Originally, Fang Ping hesitated over whether he should also try refining the other two basic pills recorded in the Basic Understanding of the Dao of Alchemy.
But on second thought, his most pressing priority was to use his profits to feed back into his own cultivation.
It would not be too late to try refining other pills after he advanced to the third level of Qi Condensation and thoroughly mastered the Inedia Pill refining method.
Thus, he temporarily set aside that idea and headed to the trading area of the market.
Since his goal was clear, there was no need to waste a Spirit Stone to rent a stall. Fang Ping simply wandered around the trading area for a while until he finally caught two poor cultivators. He managed to sell his four bottles of defective Inedia Pills using a buy-one-get-one-free strategy.
A net profit of fifteen Spirit Stones was in hand!
Looking at the crystal-clear Spirit Stones inside his Storage Bag, Fang Ping was in an excellent mood as he turned and left the market.
…
If he were refining brand-new pills, Fang Ping would need to spend a lot more time. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
But when repeatedly refining Inedia Pills, there were very few techniques left to summarize and improve. It was more about repetitive, mechanical work—achieving mastery through familiarity.
As a result, the time Fang Ping spent on alchemy each day was much less than expected.
Aside from his daily cultivation, he actually had some time left over.
Purely cultivating and refining pills was fine for short periods. But over a prolonged amount of time, it was actually quite dull and austere.
Another cultivator might have chosen to use this meager remaining time to relax and enjoy themselves.
Some with extremely poor aptitude might even feel that Foundation Establishment was hopeless, give up on themselves entirely, and run off to a mortal dynasty early on to live a life of carefree pleasure.
But Fang Ping had not transmigrated here easily, nor had he obtained such a heaven-defying Fated Chance just to be willing to spend his entire life as a mere Qi Condensation cultivator.
Deeply aware that his Four-Attribute Spirit Root aptitude was severely lacking, he could only choose to redouble his efforts in cultivation.
He used the little time he had left to study the minor Five Elements spells of the early Qi Condensation stage. This way, he would not end up as someone with a cultivation realm and alchemy skills but no power to protect his dao.
Amidst this secluded life of keeping to himself, the season shifted into deep winter.
The weather around Mount Cangyue gradually turned frigid.
Many of the once lush and verdant trees withered and shed their leaves, casting an atmosphere of bleakness and desolation over the landscape.
But the mood of the Luoyang Sect’s outer disciples was entirely unaffected by the season. Instead, they gradually swelled with anticipation and excitement.
For no other reason than this: the bi-annual distribution day for cultivation resources, held in winter and summer, was finally approaching!
That morning, many outer disciples dragged themselves out of bed early and gathered outside the courtyards.
The deacons responsible for distributing resources seemed to sympathize with the disciples’ eagerness and made a rare early appearance.
Seeing the deacons arrive, the eagerly awaiting disciples immediately surged forward.
The scene grew slightly chaotic until the deacons shouted a harsh reprimand, finally forcing everyone to honestly line up.
Fang Ping arrived neither early nor late. Waiting in the crowd, he received his own cultivation resources.
Outer disciples at the early Qi Condensation stage received ten Spirit Stones, three Origin Condensation Pills, and ten jin of Green Bamboo Spirit Rice each time.
Outer disciples at the mid Qi Condensation stage received twenty Spirit Stones, one bottle of Origin Condensation Pills, and ten jin of Ink Blood Spirit Rice each time.
For outer disciples, this was a stash of resources that could not be ignored. It was enough to support one or two months of full-force cultivation.
Unfortunately, cultivators had many uses for Spirit Stones.
After receiving their Spirit Stones, many outer disciples were unwilling to spend them all on cultivation. Instead, they would save a portion to purchase Magical Artifacts, materials, and daily necessities.
Looked at this way, these cultivation resources suddenly did not seem like so much after all.