Earning Spirit Stones

Li Chengjie had no Alchemical Furnace? No startup funds to buy medicinal ingredients?

Now that he had a chance to try and verify what he had gained through replication, why would he refuse? "Yes, Alchemist Chen!"

Chen Xing's sudden enthusiasm was like a torrential summer downpour, swift and violent, standing in stark contrast to his earlier coldness and suspicion.

Chen Xing tightly grabbed Li Chengjie's arm, as if afraid this newly discovered "treasure" would sprout wings and fly away. The smile on his face was so broad it nearly squeezed out wrinkles.

"Good! Good! Good! Li Chengjie, right? From today onward, you are an apprentice of my Chen's Pill Workshop!" Chen Xing's voice trembled with barely contained excitement as he repeated his approval.

"Work hard in this Pill Hut from now on! This old man will never treat you unfairly!"

Chen Xing turned and barked at Li Douzi, who was still standing dumbly by the doorway. "What are you standing there like a fool for? Can't you see your senior brother is exhausted? Hurry and brew a pot of that Clear Heart Tea your master has been saving! Let your senior brother recover from his fatigue!"

Li Douzi jolted and hurriedly answered, "Yes, Master!" He trotted toward the side room, and when he looked at Li Chengjie again, his gaze was filled with deep awe and a trace of barely perceptible envy.

Li Douzi had followed his master for so long without even touching the edge of a Qi Condensation Pill, yet this newly arrived senior brother had achieved Pill Formation on his very first attempt!

The quality might have been poor, but it was still Pill Formation!

Li Chengjie felt somewhat uncomfortable with Chen Xing's excessive enthusiasm and lightly moved his arm. Only then did Chen Xing realize he had lost his composure. He gave two awkward laughs and let go, though his gaze remained burning as he stared at Li Chengjie as if admiring a peerless uncut jade.

"Chengjie," Chen Xing said far more kindly, "I never expected you to possess such talent! It seems this old man had poor eyesight before. Rest assured, now that you have entered my sect... ah, now that you have become an apprentice of my Chen's Pill Workshop, benefits will naturally come your way. Experience and technique are certainly important on the path of alchemy, but without sufficient materials for practice, they are useless. From now on, you can take on more of the work of refining Qi Condensation Pills here in the workshop."

Li Chengjie understood perfectly that Chen Xing valued the immense potential hidden behind his "talent."

An apprentice who could achieve Pill Formation in one try—even if the pills were inferior—meant someone who could save him vast amounts of materials and time, creating greater profits.

These so-called "benefits" were nothing more than empty promises and exploitation.

But Li Chengjie did not care.

Each took what he needed; that was the norm in the Cultivation World.

What Li Chengjie needed was a place to settle down and survive, a platform where he could access Alchemical Furnaces and medicinal ingredients, a starting point from which he could earn Spirit Stones and accumulate Replication Points.

Chen Xing saw him as a long-term laborer to squeeze dry, but was Li Chengjie not also using Chen Xing as a stepping stone to accumulate his initial capital?

"Thank you, Senior... thank you, Furnace Master." Li Chengjie went along with it and changed his form of address, putting on a suitably grateful expression. "This junior will certainly do his utmost."

"Good! Sensible!" Chen Xing stroked his few sparse whiskers in satisfaction. His eyes shifted as he added, "However, Chengjie, you also know that life is difficult for us rogue cultivator alchemists, and our resources are limited. As an apprentice, your food and lodging can naturally be provided at the Pill Hut, but for daily pill refinement, the workshop supplies the materials, while the finished pills... according to the Rules, apprentices receive no share. Of course, this old man will not have you work for nothing. Every month... I will give you one Low-grade Spirit Stone as payment. How about it?"

One Low-grade Spirit Stone a month?

Li Chengjie sneered inwardly. Chen Xing really was stingy to the bone, and his abacus beads clattered with precision.

The material cost for one batch of Qi Condensation Pills was roughly three to four Spirit Stones. A successful furnace—counting qualified pills, at least five finished pills or more—was worth fifteen to twenty Spirit Stones per bottle of ten on the market. Li Chengjie was practically costless labor. (This has been revised: a bottle of ten is worth fifteen to twenty Spirit Stones. It was changed after checking later chapters, though there may still be omissions. Please forgive any discrepancies.)

Whether Li Chengjie succeeded or failed at alchemy this time, Chen Xing would make a sure profit without loss.

If he failed, Chen Xing gained another servant. If he succeeded, Chen Xing gained another cheap long-term laborer. No matter how the account was calculated, Chen Xing took every advantage.

But Li Chengjie did not argue. What he needed now was to lie low and accumulate strength, not draw Chen Xing's wariness and displeasure over such trifling gains.

One Spirit Stone was one Spirit Stone. The key was that he had gained the chance to refine Qi Condensation Pills! With Li Chengjie's current assets, how could he afford an Alchemical Furnace?

"I will leave everything to the Furnace Master's arrangements," Li Chengjie answered respectfully.

Seeing him so "sensible," Chen Xing was even more overjoyed. He felt he had truly picked up an inexpensive yet capable seedling, a long-term laborer who had fallen from the heavens for him to manipulate as he pleased!

And so, Li Chengjie remained at Chen's Pill Workshop as the lowest-ranking alchemy apprentice.

Time flowed like water, and in the blink of an eye, three months had passed.

The seasons in Qingshi Market quietly changed. The damp heat in the air faded, replaced by a touch of autumn chill.

In the small courtyard of Chen's Pill Hut, the messy pile of firewood seemed to have shrunk, while the varieties and quantities of drying medicinal ingredients had clearly increased.

Inside the pill room, Li Chengjie stood before that familiar dark-red Alchemical Furnace.

Unlike the awkwardness and nervousness of his first refinement three months ago, his movements were now steady and fluid, his gaze focused and calm.

Spiritual Power flowed from his fingertips as he controlled the Earth Fire Array. The flames within the furnace brightened and dimmed, rising and falling with the changes in his hand seals like a docile pet.

Processing the ingredients, roasting herbs over a gentle fire, rapidly melting and extracting them with fierce heat, mixing the medicinal liquid, adding auxiliary ingredients, withdrawing the fire for Core Condensation... the entire process flowed like drifting clouds and running water, carrying a unique rhythm.

Over these three months, he had poured nearly all his time and energy into refining Qi Condensation Pills.

Chen Xing was delighted to have such a "high-yield" and "reliable" laborer. Other than watching from the side for the first few days to confirm that Li Chengjie's success had not been luck, he had confidently handed most of the Qi Condensation Pill refinement work over to him. Chen Xing himself busied himself studying scraps of information on the new pill formula—Harmony Qi Pill—which had supposedly spread after Zhang Gui advanced to the middle grade and was said to increase the chances of breaking through the Qi Refining mid-stage bottleneck, or receiving regular customers who came to buy low-grade pills.

The immense amount of practice made Li Chengjie increasingly proficient in the use of the Basic Fire Control Art. His command over Heat Control and his grasp of timing continued to improve through the tempering of countless successes and failures.

The experience in Li Chengjie's mind, replicated from Li Douzi and filled with the shadows of failure, had long since been repeatedly tested, corrected, absorbed, and transformed into a solid foundation in alchemy that truly belonged to him.

More importantly, he had cleverly combined Old Man Li's profound foundation from a century of cultivating the Mysterious Flame Art with the alchemical process.

The Mysterious Flame Art gave him exquisite perception and control over Fire-attribute Spiritual Power, allowing him to notice subtle changes in the medicinal properties within the furnace earlier than ordinary alchemy apprentices. Thus, he could make timely adjustments and avoid countless risks that might have led to failure.

"Condense."

With a low shout, Li Chengjie withdrew his hand seals, and the Furnace Fire went out.

Li Chengjie skillfully opened the furnace lid, and a rich, pure medicinal fragrance spread through the room.

At the bottom of the furnace lay eight round, plump, dark-green pills with uniform color, their surfaces faintly gleaming.

Eight finished pills!

And all of them were qualified Low-grade Qi Condensation Pills!

Had Chen Xing been present, he would surely have been shocked speechless once more.

In only three months, Li Chengjie had gone from refining merely six inferior pills to steadily producing eight qualified ones. Such a rate of improvement was nothing short of terrifying!

Li Chengjie looked at the eight pills, and a faintly satisfied expression appeared on his face.

Li Chengjie carefully removed the pills and placed them into a Jade Bottle he had prepared beforehand.

This was already the third successful furnace he had refined recently.

Three months of intense alchemy had not only greatly advanced his alchemical skill, but also benefited his Cultivation level immensely.

Constantly consuming and recovering Spiritual Power, precisely controlling his divine sense—these were excellent forms of cultivation in themselves.

Li Chengjie felt the circulation of the Mysterious Flame Art within him becoming increasingly smooth. Though the panel did not clearly display the progress after "entering the hall," he could feel that he was not far from breaking through to the next realm.

His Cultivation level at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation had also completely stabilized, and he was faintly advancing toward the peak of the fourth layer.

Of course, the greatest change lay in his Spirit Stones.

Li Chengjie put away the Jade Bottle and patted the Storage Bag at his waist. It still looked somewhat worn, but its interior had become far more substantial.

This was the slightly larger Storage Bag Chen Xing had "rewarded" him after he successfully refined ten consecutive furnaces of qualified Qi Condensation Pills. Its internal space was roughly a foot and a half wide.

His divine sense entered it.

In one corner lay twenty-six Low-grade Spirit Stones, each emitting a soft, gentle glow.

Besides those, there were several empty Jade Bottles and some leftover medicinal ingredients he had privately purchased to practice the Basic Fire Control Art and experiment with other low-grade medicines, such as the less effective Qi Restoration Powder.

Twenty-six Low-grade Spirit Stones!

Looking at those twenty-six Spirit Stones, Li Chengjie felt a thousand emotions surge within him. (If too many Spirit Stones are written in, their value will collapse. Please forgive it.)

He recalled the beginning after his rebirth, when the original owner and Old Man Li had set up a stall at the edge of the Marketplace. They had weathered wind and sun, haggled over every scrap with others, and after deducting the most basic cultivation expenses and the market management fees, saving five Spirit Stones in an entire year counted as a good harvest.

Back then, every Spirit Stone had to be split in two before being spent. They could not even afford stall fees, and even when holding a Spirit Stone to absorb Spiritual Energy during cultivation, they felt a stingy ache in their hearts.

But now...

These twenty-six Spirit Stones were merely his "savings" from the past three months!

Though Chen Xing was miserly and gave him only one Spirit Stone a month as fixed payment, Li Chengjie had his own way of making money.

Li Chengjie's success rate and number of finished Qi Condensation Pills far exceeded Chen Xing's expectations.

Chen Xing only knew that he could more or less achieve Pill Formation, unaware that he could now steadily produce six to seven qualified pills.

When Chen Xing calculated the materials and the number of pills Li Chengjie was required to hand over, he did so based on the lower success rate and pill yield of a "normal" apprentice.

The difference became room for Li Chengjie to maneuver.

Each time Li Chengjie handed over pills, he submitted only five or six, just enough to meet the standard of an "excellent apprentice." This both satisfied Chen Xing and avoided arousing suspicion.

That one extra qualified Qi Condensation Pill was quietly held back by him.

Qualified Low-grade Qi Condensation Pills were hard currency in the Marketplace. A single bottle could sell for fifteen to twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones!

Li Chengjie did not dare sell large quantities lest he attract attention. He only occasionally used chances to purchase ordinary supplies for Chen Xing to sell small batches to different stalls in the Marketplace or familiar rogue cultivators who seemed tight-lipped. The prices were slightly lower than those of the shops, but he sought stability.

Drop by drop, water wore through stone. After three months, aside from occasionally buying inexpensive medicinal ingredients to assist his cultivation and covering necessary cultivation expenses, Li Chengjie had actually saved twenty-six Spirit Stones! (If too many Spirit Stones are written in, their value will collapse. Please forgive it.)

More importantly, he no longer found himself stretched so thin when using Spirit Stones for cultivation.

Though he was still far from living extravagantly, whenever he felt his cultivation progress slowing, he could at least hold a Spirit Stone and peacefully draw out its Spiritual Energy to assist his breakthrough, without worrying that he would run out of food the next day.

This initial material comfort brought a subtle change in his state of mind.

No longer crushed breathless by extreme poverty, no longer racking his brains over every Spirit Stone, he could devote himself more fully to cultivation and alchemy and consider matters further ahead.

"As expected, alchemy is still the way to earn Spirit Stones..." Li Chengjie murmured as he rubbed his Storage Bag, the corner of his mouth curving into a complicated smile.

Knowledge from his past life on Blue Star had taught Li Chengjie that mastering core technology was the key to wealth.

In this Cultivation World, alchemy was undoubtedly one such core technology.

Though he was only the lowest-level alchemy apprentice, he had already tasted the sweetness of it.

This only strengthened Li Chengjie's determination to continue down the path of alchemy, improve his Replication Ability as quickly as possible, and obtain higher-level experience.

Twenty-six Spirit Stones—enough to replicate Chen Xing's Low-grade Alchemist experience, which required 20 points.

They were even farther from the unreachable 150 points needed to replicate Chen Xuan's Geng Metal Sword Qi Art experience.

Yet for Li Chengjie, this was ultimately a beginning he could see and touch.

The spark of hope had already been lit, and it was gathering fuel.

Li Chengjie put away his thoughts and began cleaning the Alchemical Furnace, preparing for the day's fourth refinement.

There were still nine months until the one-year replication cooldown ended. During that time, Li Chengjie had to accumulate more Spirit Stones and increase his strength further.

Just as he finished preparing the new materials, the pill room door was pushed open. Chen Xing walked in with an irritability he could not conceal and... anticipation?

"Chengjie." Chen Xing's gaze swept over the Alchemical Furnace that had just been cleaned, his tone somewhat urgent. "How did today's Qi Condensation Pill refinements go?"

"Reporting to the Furnace Master, I have completed three furnaces. Here are the pills." Li Chengjie handed over a Jade Bottle containing fifteen Qi Condensation Pills. He had actually handed over ninety percent of them. He deliberately controlled the quantity and frequency of his submissions, maintaining a level that was "excellent but not outrageous."

Chen Xing took it and swept it roughly with his divine sense. The number was correct, and the quality was all qualified. His expression eased slightly, and he nodded. "Mm, not bad. Keep it up."

Chen Xing paused, seemingly weighing his words. Then he lowered his voice. "Chengjie, your alchemy has become increasingly skilled lately. This old man has a more profitable job here. Would you like to try it?"

Li Chengjie's heart stirred, but his expression did not change. He respectfully said, "Please speak, Furnace Master."

Chen Xing rubbed his hands together, a crafty smile appearing on his face. "It's like this. The workshop recently accepted an order for a large batch of Blood-Stopping Powder, and the deadline is tight. Blood-Stopping Powder may not be as complicated as Qi Condensation Pills, but processing Red Berries and Earth Root Vines requires patience. Little Bean is so clumsy that I fear he will delay the work. Since you can even refine Qi Condensation Pills, this Blood-Stopping Powder should surely be no challenge for you. If you are willing to take it on, once this batch of Blood-Stopping Powder is completed, this old man can decide to give you... one additional Spirit Stone in payment!"

Blood-Stopping Powder? It was the most ordinary healing medicine among first-tier low-grade medicinal powders, worth far less than Qi Condensation Pills.

This thought flashed through Li Chengjie's mind, and at the same time, he realized a problem—among the experiences he had replicated from Little Bean, there were only experiences related to Qi Condensation Pills. As for Blood-Stopping Powder, he truly knew nothing at all.

That old fox Chen Xing wanted him to take on this urgent order with only one extra Spirit Stone. Clearly, he had seen how useful Li Chengjie was and wanted to squeeze him even harder.

If he rashly agreed now yet failed to refine it, the image of "talent" he had built up would likely suffer a tremendous blow, and he might even be blamed.

As thoughts raced through his mind, Li Chengjie put on a suitably troubled yet candid expression. He cupped his hands and spoke with a trace of apology and caution. "The Furnace Master thinks highly of this junior, and I am deeply grateful. However... this junior has truly never encountered Blood-Stopping Powder before. I know nothing of even its required ingredients and basic procedures. Though this junior wishes to share the Furnace Master's burden, I fear my skills are inadequate. Should I delay this important order and ruin the Furnace Master's great affair instead, then this junior would deserve death ten thousand times over."

His words were sincere. They both made clear the fact that he did not know how to do it and placed Chen Xing's "order" front and center, hinting that failure would bring serious consequences.

When Chen Xing heard this, the warm smile on his face stiffened slightly, and a trace of imperceptible disappointment flashed through his eyes. But he quickly resumed his kindly demeanor. Stroking his beard, he gave two dry laughs. "Hehe, this old man was too hasty. No matter, no matter. If you do not know, you can learn! Blood-Stopping Powder is much simpler to refine than Qi Condensation Pills. The main point lies in the Heat Control and fusion when processing Red Berries and Earth Root Vines. This old man will teach you the pill formula and the key refinement points later. With your talent, I am sure you will grasp it quickly."

Chen Xing's inner abacus clattered away: Not knowing is perfect! If I teach him now, he will owe me even more gratitude, and it will be all the more natural to order him around later. Even if he learns slowly and wastes some materials in the early stages, as long as he can master it as quickly as he mastered Qi Condensation Pills, this deal will still be worthwhile in the long run! This long-term laborer has immense potential and is worth investing some initial cost in.

"Then many thanks for the Furnace Master's guidance!" Li Chengjie showed a "grateful" expression and bowed once more.