Lu Ping Continued Generating Revenue for the Greenwood Sect
[Day twenty-seven.]
[You finally saved up twenty Spirit Stones.]
[You gritted your teeth and went to the Scripture Pavilion to buy the Spirit-Eroding Powder Formula.]
[Once you had the formula, you discovered it was cheap because the refining process was extremely prone to backfiring on the alchemist.]
[If a Qi Refining cultivator failed to refine it, the poison would take effect on the spot. Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spiritual power would become sluggish if they came into contact with it.]
[The senior disciple guarding the pavilion glanced at you but said nothing. You silently put the formula away.]
[That night, you continued attempting to refine a Mortal Grade Poison Essence Pill.]
[You had the Spirit-Eroding Powder Formula, but not a single one of its medicinal ingredients.]
[However, the Spirit-Eroding Powder Formula gave you fresh inspiration.]
[Artisan Spirit activated.]
[The battered Pill Furnace used to refine Poison Essence Pills shook violently, its lid bouncing three times.]
[Poisonous smoke spewed from the cracks.]
[Tiny holes were corroded into the cave abode's restrictions, and the walls of the empty cave abode next door turned black.]
[A disciple patrolling the Alchemy Hall at night ran into the corridor. The moment he came within three zhang, he covered his nose and mouth and backed away.]
["What is No. 13, Ding Character up to again?!"]
[You ignored the demand from outside and sat before the Pill Furnace, continuing to control the fire.]
[Artisan Spirit activated.]
[Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement activated.]
[The first batch of Poison Essence Pills (improved) failed. However, thirty percent of the medicinal properties were preserved.]
[You obtained one unfinished Poison Essence Pill (improved).]
[Day thirty.]
[Interest began accruing on the first loan.]
[As usual, you attended classes during the day and infused Spiritual Qi in the evening.]
[Your success rate for refining Grain Avoidance Pills rose to seventy percent, and you finally refined your first Qi-Replenishing Pill.]
[The instant the pill took shape, the Spiritual Qi in the furnace trembled slightly.]
[You looked at the grayish-white pill in your palm, fell silent for a moment, then tilted your head back and swallowed it.]
[Once the Qi-Replenishing Pill reached your stomach, a stream of spiritual power gentler and more condensed than that of Spirit Stones spread through you.]
[You quickly confirmed that the absorbable Spiritual Qi contained in one Qi-Replenishing Pill was roughly equivalent to that in five Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[Its medicinal ingredients, however, cost only two.]
[The only problem was that selling pills without a license carried a fine of ten times the amount.]
[For now, you could only consume them yourself. Moreover, you could only absorb one Qi-Replenishing Pill a day.]
[That was despite the fact that you weren't afraid of Pill Poison. All low-grade pills contained Pill Poison to varying degrees.]
[Ordinary disciples at low cultivation levels scarcely dared to use Qi-Replenishing Pills.]
[Your success rate at refining poison pills was still terrible.]
[However, all three low-grade cave abodes around yours were vacant.]
[Disciples of the Alchemy Hall automatically took a detour when passing by.]
[You obtained the most luxurious thing available to a newcomer in the Alchemy Hall.]
[Quiet.]
[Day thirty-five.]
[You had absorbed a total of fifty-seven Low-Grade Spirit Stones and three Qi-Replenishing Pills.]
[That was equivalent to the total Spiritual Qi in seventy-two Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[The spiritual power in your Dantian finally reached the bottleneck, and you began attempting to break through to Qi Refining, Second Layer.]
[The Greenwood Art circulated.]
[Spiritual power washed over your Dantian in continuous cycles. The bottleneck loosened, then closed again.]
[You took out a Qi-Replenishing Pill and swallowed it.]
[A faint tremor sounded from the bottleneck in your Dantian.]
[You pressed down the last wisp of spiritual power.]
[The bottleneck shattered. You successfully broke through to Qi Refining, Second Layer.]
[After breaking through to Qi Refining, Second Layer, you sat quietly in front of the Pill Furnace.]
[Outside the cave abode, a night patrol disciple paused at the end of the corridor.]
[He covered his nose and looked toward No. 13, Ding Character for two breaths.]
[Poison gas slowly seeped through the crack in the door.]
[He cursed.]
["He really isn't dead."]
[Then he turned and left.]
[You sat quietly for half a shichen, doing nothing. Then you took out three Low-Grade Spirit Stones and held them close to your Dantian again.]
[From the first, spiritual power entered your body.]
[With the second, your Dantian filled.]
[You stopped of your own accord after absorbing just five percent of the third. Your meridians still ached and felt swollen.]
[Lying-Flat Trait remained active.]
[Your State of Mind was stable, like gold, stronger than iron.]
[You put away the remaining half Spirit Stone, not letting the breakthrough go to your head.]
[It seemed that the total amount of Spirit Stones you could absorb each day at Qi Refining, Second Layer was not much different from Qi Refining, First Layer.]
[If you wanted to increase your cultivation quickly, Qi-Replenishing Pills were a must.]
[You began going over the accounts.]
[Loan principal: fifty Spirit Stones.]
[Expenses to date: ten for the deposit, twelve for the cave abode, eight for training, and four for registration.]
[Then there were ongoing expenses: medicinal ingredients, spirit blanks, Pill Formulas, and various miscellaneous fees.]
[Income to date: earnings from infusing Spiritual Qi and costs saved by using low-grade pills yourself.]
[Current savings: four Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[Your cultivation could rise, and so could your debt.]
[In the Greenwood Sect, the toughest thing wasn't the grand mountain-protecting array. It was the account book.]
[In the days that followed, you divided your life into four parts.]
[Classes during the day, infusing Spiritual Qi in the evening, refining pills at night, and cultivating in the latter half of the night.]
[Oh, no, that wasn't right. You were continuing to serve your sentence.]
[Day sixty-five.]
[You began using more Qi-Replenishing Pills in place of Spirit Stones to cultivate.]
[Cost Reduction and Efficiency Improvement activated.]
[Given the same amount of medicinal ingredients, other newcomers could only refine one Qi-Replenishing Pill.]
[You could refine two and a half.]
[The half was pill dregs scraped off the furnace.]
[Heavy Tomato User Trait remained active.]
[You ate the pill dregs too and gained a small amount of spiritual power.]
[You raised your success rate for refining Qi-Replenishing Pills to eighty percent.]
[You used inferior Dew-Congealing Grass to refine Hemostatic Powder with medicinal effects that met the standard.]
[You used Shashen Grass from the mortal world to refine a Body Tempering Pill.]
[With three batches of poison pills, you smoked out the occupants of a fifth cave abode around No. 13, Ding Character.]
[When an Alchemy Hall deacon passed by, he stood at the entrance to the corridor and watched for a long time.]
[He had the vacated cave abodes converted into "special isolation cave abodes."]
[The rent rose to ten Spirit Stones, twice as expensive as a standard cave abode.]
[Three days later, two senior disciples who refined poison pills moved in.]
[They cursed you while paying the sect.]
[When you learned of this, you fell silent for a moment.]
[Your revenue generation for the Greenwood Sect had gone from passive to actively polluting the industry chain.]
[The bad news was that your reputation had worsened. However, there was good news too: no one dared approach your cave abode.]
[The even better news was that the sect could capitalize even on a bad reputation.]
[The Greenwood Sect's business model could have attracted funding even in your previous life.]
[Day seventy-two.]
[The Alchemy Hall lecture room.]
[The instructor tapped the table with a wooden stick and looked at everyone with a face full of disdain.]
["Don't think you can make money just because you know how to refine pills."]
["You only count as knowing how when the Heavenly Certification Alliance recognizes that you do."]
[Someone in the lecture room muttered a curse.]
["Then what are we learning this for?"]
[The instructor pressed the wooden stick down on the table.]
["To get certified."]
[The person fell silent.]
Lu Ping watched the scene as the memories of his previous life automatically turned a page.
Knowing medicine didn't count; you needed a certificate.
Knowing bookkeeping didn't count; you needed a certificate.
Knowing how to refine pills didn't count; you still needed a certificate.
A certificate wasn't proof of ability.
A certificate was a gateway for collecting fees.
[After class, an Alchemy Hall deacon stopped you with a stack of yellow papers in his hand.]
["No. 13, Ding Character, your registration documents are still missing one item."]
[You took the yellow paper.]
[It read: Pre-exam Advanced Class, voluntary attendance.]
[Fee: ten Low-Grade Spirit Stones.]
[There was another line of small print at the bottom of the yellow paper: Those who do not attend the Advanced Class assume the risk of failing the exam.]
[Options appeared.]
[A: Sign up for the Advanced Class and spend ten Spirit Stones for peace of mind.]
[B: Refuse to sign up, review on your own, and save the money for cultivation and loan repayment.]
[C: Start a class on the spot, charge the guiding disciple ten Spirit Stones instead, and teach "How to Gracefully Harvest Chives."]