“Sooner or later, I’ll be eating one Foundation Establishment Pill and tossing another away!”
Having laid out this beautiful vision, Fang Ping calmed his mind and decided to strike while the iron was hot to consolidate his experience.
Even with his nine daily uses of time reversal exhausted, he continued attempting to refine a few more times.
But this was undoubtedly a bit overconfident.
His occasional successes earlier were certainly the natural result of accumulated experience, but there was also an element of luck involved.
Now, with his emotions slightly turbulent, he unsurprisingly failed consecutively, wasting two furnaces of materials for nothing.
“Damn, I got carried away!”
Realizing something was wrong, Fang Ping—who was no stubborn fool—decisively stopped.
Only after the Prime Cauldron’s time reversals were restored the next day did he resume consolidating his experience and insights in refining Inedia Pills.
Thus, spending another three days and focusing his reversals on the critical steps most prone to failure, he practiced them dozens of times before finally achieving success again.
This second successful furnace yielded five pills. It was one fewer than his first success, but the overall quality of the pills was slightly better.
From this point on, Fang Ping truly began to get a feel for refining Inedia Pills, and the number of reversals needed for a successful batch dropped noticeably!
…
Two weeks later.
Having invested a massive amount of time and energy into figuring things out, and having experienced all kinds of failures, Fang Ping finally managed to stabilize his natural success rate in refining Inedia Pills—without relying on reversals—at slightly above twenty percent.
When all fifty portions of Inedia Pill materials were fully refined, Fang Ping had produced a total of twenty-three bottles of Inedia Pills, plus four bottles of defective ones.
This yield was only because his skill was still insufficient, so the average number of pills formed per furnace wasn’t high.
“Fifty portions of Inedia Pill materials cost ten Spirit Stones, while twenty-three bottles of finished Inedia Pills will sell for twenty-three Spirit Stones!”
Defective Inedia Pills weren’t inedible.
They merely had a flawed appearance, slightly insufficient medicinal efficacy, or possibly slightly higher pill toxicity.
Among Rogue Cultivators, there was never a shortage of paupers.
If Fang Ping was willing to lower the price—say, buy one get one free—he wouldn’t have to worry about them not selling.
Thus, four bottles of defective Inedia Pills could also be exchanged for two Spirit Stones.
Doing a quick calculation, Fang Ping was pleasantly surprised to find that his first true foray into pill refining had actually yielded a pure profit of one and a half times his investment!
Though there was still a lot of room for improvement compared to the theoretical maximum profit of three times the cost, this return was already enough to satisfy Fang Ping. This story is hosted at g.com.
“As expected, today’s success is all thanks to my own talent and hard work.”
“A little cheat doesn’t count as cheating!”
“Prime Cauldron, activate!”
…
Just as Fang Ping was preparing to press on and fire up his pill dao money-printing machine, a small problem interrupted his grand money-making plan.
The new season’s chores had arrived!
Calculating the date, Fang Ping regretfully paused his pill refining.
The Luoyang Sect recruited outer sect disciples, provided a safe cultivation environment, passed down cultivation methods, and distributed Spirit Stones and pills twice a year in winter and summer—but not out of the kindness of their hearts to support idlers.
As an outer sect disciple, aside from cultivation, one had to take on at least one chore per season.
In most cases, disciples could choose their own chore assignments.
But there were also times when the Sect would directly assign and designate tasks, leaving no room for a disciple to refuse.
As for the specific contents of these chores, they encompassed almost everything: patrolling, guarding medicinal gardens, overseeing mine caves, heading out to hunt Demon Beasts, eliminating wandering bandit cultivators and hidden Demonic Cultivators, and so on.
These chores either consumed massive amounts of time and labor, or they carried significant danger.
Even the relatively leisurely and profitable tasks had long been snatched up by those with connections; they would never be posted publicly.
Fortunately, the Luoyang Sect was, after all, a Golden Core sect, and maintained some semblance of decency.
Before a disciple cultivated to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation, they generally weren’t required to take dangerous assignments like hunting Demon Beasts outside.
At least at his current stage, Fang Ping didn’t need to worry about his safety when doing chores.
“I need to hurry up and finish this chore, then convert my pill dao profits into cultivation resources as soon as possible.”
“As long as I have enough resources, charging from the second level of Qi Condensation to the third level shouldn’t take too long.”
After bathing and changing into a fresh dao robe, Fang Ping grabbed his sect-issued Three Yang Talisman Sword—which didn’t even qualify as a Low Grade Magical Artifact—and hurried toward the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall.
Perhaps the new season’s chore assignments had already been claimed by most outer sect disciples.
When Fang Ping arrived at the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall this time, he found very few people inside. The hall seemed quite empty.
Perhaps because of this, Deacon Zhao, who was in charge of the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall, hadn’t called for any assistants and was personally presiding over the desk.
This unsmiling deacon came from the inner sect and possessed the strength of the tenth level of Qi Condensation.
Because he couldn’t obtain a Foundation Establishment Pill and lacked the sheer resolve to risk his life on a breakthrough—even if it meant his death and the dissipation of his Dao—Deacon Zhao chose to give up on Foundation Establishment and came to the outer sect to serve as a deacon. Visit novelping(.)com for the full chapter.
Harboring inner grievances over this, the deacon was incredibly harsh toward outer sect disciples and had a terrible reputation among them.
Fang Ping was well aware of his temper. Seeing him personally manning the desk, Fang Ping immediately put on a respectful expression.
Lightening his footsteps, he approached the man and bowed. “Greetings, Deacon sir!”
Deacon Zhao was currently holding a Daoist text, reading it with his head swaying rhythmically. Hearing the greeting, he slightly raised his head and glanced at him. “What is your business here?”
What else would an outer sect disciple come to the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall for?
What was the point of asking the obvious?
Fang Ping complained inwardly, but his face maintained a look of utmost respect. “This disciple is Fang Ping of the outer sect. I have come to accept this season’s chore. I must trouble Deacon sir to assist me.”
Seeing how humble his attitude was, Deacon Zhao finally put down the Daoist text. After a brief moment of recollection, he said, “Fang Ping, is it? Second level of Qi Condensation? Most of the other outer sect disciples accepted their assignments days ago. Why are you only showing up now?”
Fang Ping’s tone filled with trepidation. “This disciple’s aptitude is too poor. Terrified of being expelled from the Sect, I buried myself in cultivation and forgot the time. I beg the Deacon’s forgiveness.”
He didn’t mention a single word about refining pills, otherwise he would surely have been mocked.
“With poor talent, even diligent cultivation is useless. Wanting to reach Foundation Establishment is as difficult as ascending to the heavens!”
Deacon Zhao snorted coldly, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
However, Fang Ping ultimately hadn’t violated any rules.
Never mind being a few days late—even if he were two and a half months late, as long as he completed his chore before the season ended, Sect rules couldn’t touch him.
Deacon Zhao didn’t press the matter further. He reached out and pointed to several rows of bamboo slips hanging on the wall behind him. “These are the only tasks left unclaimed. Which one do you want?”
Fang Ping followed his gaze and quickly scanned through them.
“Serve as a guard at the Tiandu Peak annex for one month, rotating shifts every three days. Reward: fifteen Sect contribution points.”
“Head to the West Mountain Mine to extract Fire Emanation Stones. Must submit at least one thousand pieces. Reward: twenty Sect contribution points.”
“Assist outer sect Elder Huang in caring for a late-stage Qi Condensation Demon Beast. Reward: thirty Sect contribution points.”
“Carefully tend to a Moonlight Grass medicinal field in the outer sect. Must ensure the Spiritual Qi is not lost. Reward: twenty Sect contribution points.”
Looking through them all, not a single one of these chores satisfied Fang Ping.
Either they took too long.
Or they were too exhausting.
The occasional one or two that were quick and seemed easy either didn’t offer a high return or potentially hid a massive pitfall—one mistake and he’d end up having to pay compensation!
Seeing Deacon Zhao growing impatient beside him, Fang Ping couldn’t be bothered to keep picking and casually chose a relatively simple one.