Refining the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng (Part 2)

In low-level martial arts worlds like this, the martial arts themselves aren't worth much. When Descenders complete their legacies and return with their cultivation, their martial arts can be stripped away.

Not just the martial arts, but the martial arts along with the cultivation experience are stripped away in one go.

For example, the Lightness Skill Flying Heaven Steps that Lin Xiao is currently cultivating. If he were to die and return to the Primordial Gate, he could use the Primordial Gate to strip away this Lightness Skill along with all its cultivation experience, forming a card. After being stripped away, the memory of this Lightness Skill in Lin Xiao's body and mind would also be completely removed, as if he had never cultivated it.

The stripped martial art card can then be traded or sold. Anyone who buys this martial art card and fuses with it can directly obtain his perfected Flying Heaven Steps, achieving mastery in a single step.

This applies to Lightness Skills, martial arts, and most importantly, Internal Energy Cultivation.

This is a common way for new Descenders to earn money in the early stages. Other Descenders generally don't need this, but in the Primordial Gate and the New Immortal Realm, countless non-Descenders require it. Simply buying a mastered Nine Yang Divine Skill skill card and fusing with it would grant one the Nine Yang True Qi equivalent to Zhang Wuji's, allowing them to ascend to the heavens in one step – it would be incredibly satisfying.

However, there's a crucial condition for stripping away cultivation techniques: they must be cultivated to perfection before they can be stripped. And once stripped, it's as if they never existed. While this is less of an issue for martial skills and lightness skills, most Descenders are reluctant to strip and sell their Internal Energy Cultivation.

Therefore, on the Primordial Gate's trading network, the most common trades for mastered skill cards are for various martial arts, saber techniques, sword techniques, fist techniques, palm techniques, and so on. However, skill cards for Internal Energy Cultivation are extremely rare, and their value is generally 50% to 100% higher than those of the same tier.

One-star martial arts have very low value, even One-star Peerless Grade martial arts like the Eagle Claw Technique aren't worth much, typically trading between fifty to one hundred Spirit Coins in the Primordial Gate.

By the time one reaches Two-Star, the value increases significantly, starting at least at five hundred Spirit Coins. Two-Star Peerless Grade martial arts could potentially sell for one to two thousand Spirit Coins.

It's rumored that some special Two-Star Peerless Grade Internal Energy Cultivation techniques can sell for three thousand or even more Spirit Coins, with a total value higher than most Three-Star martial arts.

As for Three-Star martial arts, they start at least at three thousand Spirit Coins, with Three-Star High-Grade Peerless Grade going for at least five thousand. Similar to Two-Star, some special Three-Star Peerless Grade martial arts can reach ten to twenty thousand, but these are extremely rare.

Currently, the common skill cards in the Primordial Gate are below Three-Star. This is because Four-Star cultivation techniques and above begin to involve entering the Dao through martial arts. Cultivating at this level is inherently difficult, and many Descenders might never cultivate a single technique to perfection in their lifetime. Even if they do achieve perfection, wouldn't it be more satisfying to keep that power for themselves rather than stripping it away to sell?

Lin Xiao wouldn't sell this entire cultivation, but he might sell one or two of the many martial arts he has cultivated, or he might specifically derive and cultivate one or two Two-Star High-Grade or Peerless Grade martial arts to perfection, and then strip and sell them upon his return.

It wouldn't be enough to pay off his debts, but it would at least provide some living expenses.

Since he had decided to start descending, he didn't need to worry about his debts for the time being, but he still had to live, and he needed to earn money to prepare for paying off his debts. The debts weren't being waived, just postponed.

Lin Xiao planned to earn some money first, and then find a way to develop his ancestral Twin Wood Realm.

After much thought, given his current situation, the most likely way for him to pay off this astronomical debt within a hundred years was through his ancestral Twin Wood Realm.

It was, after all, a semi-complete small world. Even if its level was low and its world energy level might be similar to the current martial arts world he was descending into, and its area was pitifully small at only about ten thousand square kilometers, it was still a semi-complete small world with complete world rules. If it could be properly planned and developed, accumulating enough money to pay off his debts within a hundred years wouldn't be impossible.

According to the experiences of the many families and powerhouses in the New Immortal Realm who owned private worlds, the development of such small worlds generally falls into two categories.

One was the Lin Family's former method: transforming the entire world into a vast ranch for livestock or a dedicated plantation for various cash crops. Although it didn't generate much profit, it was sustainable and continuous, providing a stable income every year.

The second method was to develop the world like a normal world, migrating large numbers of humans to reproduce and develop within it. It would be like the low-level martial arts world Lin Xiao was currently in, with dynasties, martial arts sects, and gangs, etc.

Once developed to a certain extent using this method, one could systematically and controllably harvest various resources. Trading populations was the most basic approach. The best method, naturally, was to expand the world, slowly supplement its origin, and eventually condense its world will. Once successful, the profits would be immense, and one could earn passively, easily paying off the debt of over three hundred million.

However, this step was extremely difficult, and Lin Xiao didn't have much confidence in it. But he couldn't give up. After much deliberation, he decided to pursue both approaches simultaneously. He would try both methods and then see how his future descents went. If the development was average, he would switch to the first method; if it went well, he would naturally switch to the second method.

But all of this was for the future, to be dealt with after his return. For now, Lin Xiao was busy refining the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng.

Unknowingly, all thirty to forty root tendrils of the Snow Ginseng had entered his abdomen and were being refined, accumulating a total of 447 Potential Points. Only a bare, thick Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng remained in the brocade box, looking strange like an octopus with all its legs chopped off.

Furthermore, after refining all the tendrils, Lin Xiao felt as if he had eaten something strange. Below the Potential Points on his status panel, a faint vortex had appeared out of nowhere, as if something was gestating within, but it hadn't successfully formed due to insufficient conditions.

He guessed that this special Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng must contain something unique, and perhaps eating the entire ginseng would allow it to fully gestate.

He didn't dwell on it and directly picked up the main body of the Snow Ginseng and took a bite... just a tiny bit.

He didn't dare to bite off too much, fearing he wouldn't be able to digest it.

But even with just a tiny bite, he felt a medicinal power several times more potent than the tendrils erupting from his stomach. He immediately felt like he had drunk a belly full of chili oil, a terrifying heat surging from his stomach throughout his body, and his face instantly turned red.

"Hoo!"

He opened his mouth and exhaled a stream of reddish hot air. A few ants on the tree trunk that were hit by the breath stiffened and fell to the ground.

"Damn, this is intense!"

Lin Xiao was taken aback and gained a new understanding of the Snow Ginseng's medicinal power. He turned and exhaled a large mouthful of hot air towards the mountains outside, and was stunned.