I'll Give You This Technique, Junior Brother

A Storage Bag and three Jade Slips lay in a row on the table.

Li Ye picked up the Storage Bag and checked the Spirit Stones of various colors inside once more, one by one.

After confirming the amount was correct, he let out a long sigh.

"Should I thank this father I got for free for thinking of everything, or blame him for ruining my grand plan to make a fortune?"

By Li Ye's reckoning, even though the spirit fields amounted to only a fraction of a mu, and selling them within the Lineage would most likely mean having the price driven down mercilessly,

he could still have squeezed nearly a thousand Spirit Stones out of those relatives in the end!

Once he had them, most of his concerns and limitations would become hardly worth mentioning.

With funds and the help of the panel, he could have honed at least one cultivation craft in a short time, giving him a steady means of raking in wealth from then on.

He could then feed the gains back into improving his other crafts one by one, making things much easier!

Even his personal combat strength would see a considerable increase as a result.

Then the sky would be high enough for birds to fly as they pleased, and the sea wide enough for fish to leap wherever they wished!

But no matter how he thought about it, he had never expected things to turn out like this...

After all, his predecessor had never once considered selling anything his father had left him to make money!

Only Li Ye, a modern man from Blue Star with a considerably more flexible bottom line, would have thought of it.

"A modern man's flexible bottom line has been defeated by the sincere feelings between a father and son native to the cultivation world... What can I do about that?"

Li Ye shook his head. "I can only accept his kindness!"

But that meant he would have to plan carefully and spend sparingly with the mere two hundred Spirit Stones he had.

If he wanted to study either pill refinement or artifact refinement, the whole set of tools needed for either craft would probably cost dozens, nearly a hundred Spirit Stones just to scrape together.

Never mind that he still lacked sufficient experience points; if he really tried to get started on his own, there was no telling how many materials he would burn through!

Considering that the Blackwood Sword was currently little more than a flashy prop with an intimidating name, he also had to set aside some money to repair it as much as possible, to ensure his combat strength.

Once he added a few miscellaneous expenses, two hundred Spirit Stones would really only be enough to support his study of either pill refinement or artifact refinement.

The Dao of Talismans, on the other hand, had always been known for having somewhat lower costs and barriers to entry than the other cultivation arts.

On the panel, that would most likely mean it took somewhat fewer experience points to improve as well.

Perhaps he could study talisman-making while choosing one of the other two to research.

"No need to rush for now. I've only given the three inheritances a cursory check. I'll decide after studying them a little..."

After some thought, he set aside fifty Spirit Stones in the Storage Bag he usually carried.

As for the remaining hundred and fifty Spirit Stones...

Li Ye leisurely moved his bed aside and lifted a hand against the seemingly seamless floor, opening a passage that led straight underground.

He walked slowly down and came to a fairly spacious and clean basement.

It was divided into several separate rooms of varying sizes, and it was well ventilated and dry.

Most of the rooms were empty. Only one small room held a simple meditation cushion and some incense; apart from those, there was nothing else.

He had dug the place out bit by bit in his spare time each day since transmigrating, mainly for concealment and safety.

So far, he had only used it as a place to meditate and practice Qi Refining.

If he began studying the hundred cultivation arts in the future, he would naturally add the necessary furnishings and set up dedicated rooms here.

After hiding the hundred and fifty Spirit Stones he had brought down, Li Ye returned aboveground and sat back down at the table.

He looked at the three Jade Slips, flames of longing dancing in his eyes.

"My predecessor was scared off after encountering only some rudimentary knowledge of plants, but I'm someone who went through the legendary college entrance exam... All I need to get started is some rote memorization. There's no way that can stump me!"

Without hesitation, Li Ye reached for the Jade Slip containing the incomplete first-tier pill refinement inheritance.

The next day.

"Huh!"

"Junior Brother, why does your complexion look so poor? Look how dark the circles under your eyes are!"

The moment Zhang Liangfu saw the lingering weariness on Li Ye's face, he asked without thinking.

But immediately afterward, he seemed to realize something and a teasing look appeared on his face.

"Junior Brother, even though you haven't left the sect in a long time, you can't indulge yourself like that. You still need to take care of your body!"

Seeing the lecherous look on his face, Li Ye's expression did not change at all.

"You misunderstand, Senior Brother. I just made a little progress and got too absorbed in it last night. I lost track of time, that's all..."

He had indeed entertained a few such thoughts, though.

But when he first went out, if he had taken the measly few coins on him to a pleasure house to listen to music, he would probably have been thrown right out!

Later, he had gotten two hundred Spirit Stones from Third Uncle.

But with a fortune and three craft inheritances in his possession, how could he have had the mind to think about those things?

As for the dark circles under his eyes...

Li Ye could only say that he had underestimated just how profound the art of pill refinement was!

After spending most of a day on it, even with the panel's help, his research seemed to have gotten him no further than his predecessor!

[Pill refinement: not yet initiated (5/2000)]

Three points!

If he could only gain three points a day, that meant he would have to spend more than six hundred days studying it day and night before he could truly get started in pill refinement.

But yesterday, he had returned to the sect after meeting Third Uncle at the market and had begun studying without leaving his residence.

On ordinary days, he still had spirit fields to tend, cultivation to do, and Law Techniques to practice...

Moreover, he was still only at the stage of familiarizing himself with medicinal knowledge. First came rote memorization, then understanding and combining the various medicinal principles and deciphering Pill Formulas.

Once he actually started trying to refine pills, his progress might not even be this fast.

Who knew how many years and months it would take before he successfully refined a low-tier pill and got started!

"With the panel's help, I can actually make steady progress through my own research and have a chance of gradually getting started, but that would cost far too much in resources and time..."

"I'd be better off using experience points to raise my level of skill directly!"

Li Ye thought silently,

"So now I understand my talent for the Dao of Alchemy. I'll take a look at the artifact refinement inheritance over the next couple of days..."

Gathering his thoughts, Li Ye dealt with the group of spirit-farming disciples drawn over by Zhang Liangfu's remarks, then rolled up his sleeves and prepared to head into the fields.

The spirit rice was not far from ripening. The seedlings across the fields had grown over two meters tall, and the individual ears of rice were gradually filling out, changing from pale green to emerald.

The fragrance of rice in the spirit fields was growing stronger.

Even Xiao Qiang, who was busy watching over the spirit fields on behalf of his master, had gone into the fields for an inspection not long ago and praised how well the rice seedlings in the many spirit fields were growing this year.

"Hey! Don't be in such a hurry, Junior Brother..."

After the others dispersed, Hu Zhiquan suddenly appeared and threw an arm around Li Ye's shoulders.

He moved extremely quickly.

He glanced around, and seeing that no one was looking, swiftly slipped a booklet with what seemed to be a portrait on the cover inside Li Ye's robes.

He looked at Li Ye with a rather meaningful expression.

"Though that sort of thing is pleasurable, if you don't exercise restraint, it's ultimately no good for your cultivation..."

"I have little to my name, Junior Brother, so I'll give you this technique as a small repayment for all you've taught me these past few days!"

"Hey! Senior Brother Hu..."

Li Ye tried to call him back. He pulled the booklet from his robes and glanced at it without thinking, then froze.