Five Spirit Stones a Month

The next day, early morning.

Luo Chen got up early and packed the pills from the cutting board into five jade bottles, ten pills to a bottle.

He put on his only presentable low-grade magic robe, picked up his low-grade flying sword, and hurried out the door.

He had to get into the city early; otherwise, once it grew fully bright, those better rogue cultivator stalls wouldn't leave a turn for him.

Perhaps because of yesterday's full day of torrential rain, the road in the outer city area appeared quite muddy.

The closer one got to the center of the outer city area, the more intense a mixed stench of urine and feces, medicinal fragrance, and the commingled scent of humans and demonic beasts became.

Especially with the intermingling of earthy smells, that sensation was truly a bit much for people to bear.

Yet Luo Chen was already accustomed to it.

An hour later, he arrived at the city gate.

Upon entering the inner city, Luo Chen could not help drawing a deep breath.

Sure enough, the air in the inner city was simply wonderful!

"I hear the inner city is built upon a first-order spirit vein, which is quite beneficial for the cultivation of Qi Refining Stage cultivators."

"Once I have money in the future, I must buy a house in the inner city area!"

Secretly pumping himself up, Luo Chen headed straight for the rogue cultivator area in the southwest corner.

Before an azure stone slab, with well over half of it laid out with yellow talisman paper and beast skin, an old man was busy right there.

He arranged the beast skin, stood up, stretched lazily, and happened to catch sight of Luo Chen's arrival.

"Fellow Daoist Luo, you've come somewhat later than me this time."

The old man was named Chen Xiuping, at the sixth layer of the Qi Refining Stage, and was an old-timer of the Great River Market.

He had lived here for decades, making a living by talisman making, and additionally possessed an impressive skill in talisman skin tanning.

Given his income level, he could actually already barely afford to rent a place to live in the inner city area.

Yet this old man was rather stingy, preferring to live in a wooden shack in the outer city area that cost one low-grade spirit stone a month rather than spend ten times the price to live in a stone house in the inner city area.

Even when setting up a stall to sell goods, he calculated everything with absolute clarity.

Stalls in the rogue cultivator area required paying rent to the marketplace managers.

A single stall cost one spirit stone per month.

With the massive two-sided stall, if they squeezed together, after laying out talismans and talisman skins, there was still a small fraction of a square meter left over.

He simply allocated that small fraction of a square meter to Luo Chen, and the two of them then paid half the rent each.

Had Luo Chen taken a loss?

You couldn't quite say that either, for if he rented another separate stall, he would have to spend one spirit stone a month.

Furthermore, there were hardly any cultivators who liked selling things alongside others.

Therefore, Luo Chen probably didn't lose out, but Old Taoist Chen definitely profited.

After exchanging a simple greeting, Luo Chen laid out his own goods before the stall.

Twenty bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills!

Seeing this quantity, Old Taoist Chen could not help being startled. "Fellow Daoist Luo, your pill refining skill has risen again recently!"

No wonder he spoke thus.

Luo Chen generally came to set up his stall once every seven days, coming four or five times a month.

And every single time, the quantity of Grain Avoidance Pills he sold hovered around fifteen or sixteen bottles.

This time, he had actually brought out twenty bottles!

From this, one could see that he had certainly made no small progress in the crafting of Grain Avoidance Pills.

In reality, it was indeed so.

In seven days, setting aside the one day for setting up the stall and purchasing materials, the remaining six days were split evenly—half used for processing materials and half used for pill refining.

That meant there were only three days of pill refining time in total.

In the past, when Luo Chen pushed himself to the limit, he would only get two batches per day, mustering roughly five bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills, because the material wastage rate was truly somewhat high.

Yet yesterday, his Grain Avoidance Pill crafting technique had advanced from Perfect Level Proficiency to Grandmaster Level.

That very last batch directly yielded five bottles!

Coupled with prior good luck where wastage dropped very low, that was why he managed to gather twenty bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills this time.

"Not at all, not at all. Practice just makes perfect!" Luo Chen smiled modestly, though his eyes still held a trace of complacency.

Grain Avoidance Pill crafting technique newly entered into Grandmaster Level Proficiency still had a bit of prestige, more or less.

Chen Xiuping shook his head. "There are a few fellow peers who also sell Grain Avoidance Pills, yet none of them are like you, able to churn out twenty bottles in five days."

With that, he reached out a hand toward the nearest bottle.

"You wouldn't be mixing in flour to make up the count, would you? As an old senior, I must vet this for you lest you smash the signboard of this stall of ours."

Luo Chen looked at him with a chuckle as he made his move, his own hand already picking up a talisman covered in red lines.

"I heard last time someone bought your Aura Concealing Talisman, but it failed to take effect, and their backside was bitten by a demonic beast for the most part. This junior might as well take one back to study for you; we certainly can't smash our family signboard!"

Old Taoist Chen grew anxious. No longer caring about the pills within his grasp, he hurriedly snatched back that talisman from Luo Chen's hand.

"Your five bottles of Grain Avoidance Pills only sell for one spirit stone, yet you have the nerve to trade them for my Aura Concealing Talisman which costs three spirit stones each!"

"Give it back! Give it back!"

Luo Chen smiled all over as he watched the old man solemnly place the talisman in the most conspicuous spot.

The Aura Concealing Talisman was Old Taoist Chen's flagship product!

Among his crowd of low-tier talismans priced at one spirit stone each, its price was the highest, starting at a full three low-grade spirit stones.

In reality, the market demand for the Aura Concealing Talismans was also the best, especially for those cultivators who ventured into the mountains to hunt demonic beasts.

This sort of spirit talisman capable of concealing blood Qi for an hour could save a life at a critical juncture, and its value was no less than that of numerous defensive talismans.

Sometimes, Luo Chen actually envied Old Taoist Chen quite a bit.

Selling a single talisman casually yielded at least one spirit stone, netting a tidy profit of over a hundred a month at the very least!

Unlike himself.

In the past, he had worked himself to the bone every month to bring in twelve spirit stones. After deducting costs, what reached his hands was only six or seven spirit stones.

If one further deducted half a spirit stone for rent, half for the stall fee, and one spirit stone for daily food and drink, in the end there would only be four or five left over.

And this was after crossing over for a year, grinding for a long time just to save some money.

It was hard to imagine what kind of life the early original host had lived.

Yet envy was merely temporary.

Luo Chen knew very well that among the mainstream Four Arts of Cultivation, each had its own difficulties.

Pills ran on volume with greater profit, the difficulty lying in the entry level of various pill recipes; each type of pill required knowing how many furnacefuls would be ruined from entry to mastery.

Talismans ran on quality, every single talisman condensing all of the cultivator's Essence, Qi, and Spirit during creation. The slightest mistake represented total defeat.

Moreover, talisman makers tended not to have very long lifespans, and nobody knew why.

Just like Chen Xiuping—he looked old, but his age was actually only in his sixties. Well, it seemed he truly was quite old indeed.

Still, Qi Refining Stage cultivators could theoretically live to one hundred twenty or thirty, so sixties could still be considered "young."

Switching to become a talisman maker was impossible; in this lifetime, he would never sit there writing homework every single day.

Better to refine pills and roll pellets instead.

Besides, Luo Chen knew his own affairs best: the Grain Avoidance Powder crafting technique newly entered into the Grandmaster Level could already achieve doubled returns moving forward.

Although a monthly income of ten stones was still insufficient to support cultivation for longevity (net income), at least things were moving in a favorable direction.

Furthermore, a new project could be started right away, couldn't it?

Right as Luo Chen harbored wonderful hopes for the future, Old Taoist Chen tugged at his sleeve.

"Business is here!"

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