Spirit Medicine Pavilion

The Immortal Wine Pavilion currently sells only two types of spirit wine. One is made by Wang Hong using secular strong liquor, infused with spirit herbs, and stored in the Mysterious Space for a hundred years. Its cost is low, and its grade only reaches low-tier first-grade, considered the most basic spirit wine. Each half-jin bottle sells for thirty Spirit Stones.

The other is Spirit Rice Wine brewed from Spirit Rice, stored in the Mysterious Space for ten years. Its grade is mid-tier first-grade. Each liang bottle sells for twenty Spirit Stones.

Although the grades of these two spirit wines are not high, their prices are affordable. The number of cultivators follows a pyramid structure, with more people at the lower levels. These two spirit wines, supplying the most numerous early and mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators, naturally have huge sales volumes.

Since its opening, the Spirit Wine Pavilion has been doing brisk business. In the first month, it profited twelve thousand Spirit Stones, equivalent to his previous year's profit.

Wang Hong kept only a few of his subordinates who were manning stalls in the market to purchase spirit herbs, and withdrew the rest to brew spirit wine.

As for the acquisition of spirit herbs, it could not stop. On one hand, it replenished the supply of spirit herbs, allowing the spirit herbs produced by the Mysterious Space to be mixed in, a strategy to deceive the heavens. On the other hand, sometimes rare spirit herbs that Wang Hong didn't have could genuinely be acquired.

Once the spirit wine business stabilized, Wang Hong handed over its management entirely to Skinny Monkey and began to refine elixirs in seclusion.

He was still refining Qi Gathering Pills, this time preparing one thousand portions of spirit herbs. Every day, besides the essential task of consuming elixirs and cultivating, Wang Hong spent all his time refining elixirs.

This time, it took a full six months to finish refining the one thousand portions of spirit herbs. The harvest was also immense.

Wang Hong's elixir yield rate for refining Qi Gathering Pills finally reached forty percent. Each portion of spirit herbs was worth twenty Spirit Stones, and each Qi Gathering Pill sold for ten Spirit Stones. A twenty percent yield rate only broke even, while forty percent meant he could profit twenty Spirit Stones per furnace of Qi Gathering Pills.

Moreover, Wang Hong also obtained a bottle containing a total of eight mid-grade Qi Gathering Pills. Each type of elixir can be divided into several grades: low, mid, high, and supreme.

Elixirs commonly seen without a grade specified refer to low-grade elixirs. This is because mid-grade and high-grade elixirs are only occasionally produced in one or two pills by highly skilled alchemists.

Most alchemists keep them for their own use, and if they don't need them, they will keep them for private exchange of desired items. Only a very small number of mid-grade elixirs make their way to the market.

Compared to low-grade Qi Gathering Pills, mid-grade ones have fewer impurities, contain more potent and refined spiritual energy. Their efficacy is several times that of low-grade elixirs. They also significantly aid cultivators in breaking through bottlenecks. If consumed long-term, they offer numerous benefits.

After refining this batch of elixirs, Wang Hong rested for a few days to relax his mind.

In the past six months, the Spirit Wine Pavilion's business had been booming. After deducting various expenses, it brought in over ten thousand Spirit Stones each month.

The tens of thousands of Spirit Stones earned were all spread onto the land in the Mysterious Space. At this rate, in another two to three months, the land in the Mysterious Space would reach three mu.

Currently, one mu of land in the Mysterious Space was planted with materials for Qi Gathering Pills. The original Spirit Grains and Spirit Wheat, due to the increased size of the plants, had become too crowded. Wang Hong transplanted them all, occupying two fen of land.

Wang Hong also planted some Iron Thorns, which were covered in seeds. These thorns produce seeds once every ten years and can be used with the Wood Element Entanglement Technique.

The Azure Spirit Peach Wang Hong planted grew extremely slowly. It took nine years to sprout in the Mysterious Space. Now, after decades of growth, it was only a little over a foot tall. Its stem was crystal clear and jade-green, with some light white patterns on its emerald leaves.

Additionally, the Solomon's Seal he planted earliest had begun to mutate. The originally emerald-green leaves had grown some golden-yellow spots. The mutation had just begun, and he was unsure what its final appearance would be, filling him with anticipation.

After a few days of rest, Wang Hong resumed his grand endeavor of alchemy. He didn't know what standards were required for sect alchemist recruitment, so he could only do his best.

However, this time he was going to refine Barrier Breaking Pills. The main ingredient for Barrier Breaking Pills, Crimson Blood Ginseng, was extremely rare to others. Wang Hong had a large patch of it in his Mysterious Space, and it was inconvenient to sell it in large quantities, so it was perfect for practice. In any case, with his poor aptitude, he would likely need this elixir in the future.

With the foundation from before, after refining only a hundred furnaces, he improved the yield rate of Barrier Breaking Pills to forty percent.

Following this, Wang Hong spent over half a year refining several other first-tier elixirs, refining each one for hundreds of furnaces, bringing their success rates to forty percent.

By this point, Wang Hong had accumulated over ten thousand first-tier elixirs in his possession. He couldn't use so many elixirs himself for the time being. Having them pile up was a waste of resources.

If he sold them to elixir shops, the sheer quantity would attract too much attention. It would be better to open his own elixir shop.

Opening a shop and doing business in the cultivation world is very different from the secular world.

The secular world has abundant products, selling only mortal items. Goods are extremely plentiful, requiring effort to attract business, and competition is fierce.

In the current cultivation world, various resources are scarce. As long as there are spiritual items, there is no worry about them not selling. The most intense competition among major merchants is for supply channels, sources of goods, and various resources.

Therefore, competition in the secular world is downstream, a buyer's market. Competition in the cultivation world is upstream, a seller's market.

The spiritual items required for the Qi Refining stage can still be purchased from major shops with Spirit Stones. However, the spiritual items required for Foundation Establishment become scarce. The spirit elixirs consumed by Foundation Establishment cultivators can no longer be bought readily like Qi Gathering Pills. By the Golden Core Stage, almost every spiritual item that appears will cause disputes.

The scarcity of resources is the primary reason for the small number of high-level cultivators.

Opening an elixir shop requires two main conditions. First, there must be a stable supply of spirit herbs. The spirit herbs needed for alchemy often require decades of age and large quantities. The meager spiritual resources found in the wild are simply insufficient.

Ordinary elixir shops possess their own medicinal gardens, and some also establish stable supply relationships with spirit herb suppliers.

Second, there must be an alchemist stationed there. An elixir shop without an alchemist cannot last long. However, cultivating an alchemist is very costly. Alchemists trained by cultivation families must serve their own families, and rogue cultivators often struggle even for cultivation resources. How many can practice with a large supply of spirit herbs like Wang Hong?

For example, the Wan Family, with its ten mu of spirit herb garden and its own alchemists, can support an elixir shop in Qingxu City.

Currently, Wang Hong's Mysterious Space has three mu of land, and the flow of time is thirty-two times faster. One hundred thousand Spirit Stones can increase the Mysterious Space by one mu of land, and with each increase of one mu, the flow of time doubles. This is sufficient to supply an elixir shop.

As for elixirs, he needs to refine a large quantity of them for his own cultivation of alchemy. He feels his forty percent yield rate is still too low and requires further practice.

Additionally, he only needs to rent another shop. Renting a good storefront is also a considerable expense.

Wang Hong has always wanted to buy a house and a few plots of spiritual fields in Qingxu City. However, he never has enough Spirit Stones. Considering the considerable income he has earned over the years, the expenses for over forty people are also not small. Furthermore, the Mysterious Space is a major consumer of Spirit Stones, and it is the foundation for all his development, so he can only prioritize it.

He has been around for so many years, yet he doesn't even have a few decent Magic Artifacts. One reason is that he hasn't found any particularly suitable Magic Artifacts, and the other is that he truly has no spare Spirit Stones.

He wants to spend every Spirit Stone on critical items, maximizing their value.

Wang Hong called Zhao Ning over and assigned this task to him. Zhao Ning is currently at the first level of Qi Refining and rarely shows himself. This elixir pavilion will be opened under Zhao Ning's name.

Ten days later, a shop named Zhao's Elixir Pavilion opened. It primarily deals in elixirs and spirit herbs, and the elixirs sold in the shop are all first-tier elixirs required for the Qi Refining stage.

This time, Wang Hong didn't inform anyone. He wanted to downplay the connection between himself and this shop. He would be the silent owner.

For a Qi Refining cultivator without any background, owning an Immortal Wine Pavilion is already astonishing. If he were to own an elixir pavilion as well, he would likely be targeted very quickly.

Possessing immense wealth without corresponding strength is very dangerous.