The jade box was not cheap, but Zhang Wan had only bought the most ordinary kind, which was still merely a mundane object.
Paying with spirit stones, a single low-grade spirit stone could buy more than two hundred of them.
The Storage Talisman was the same. One low-grade spirit stone could buy two.
However, Zhang Wan did not need two Storage Talismans.
He already had one, so he only needed to buy another to store the spirit items he had harvested.
Therefore, he only asked for one Storage Talisman, then had the shopkeeper give him more than a hundred jade boxes to make up the price of the other talisman.
All told, he spent two low-grade spirit stones.
However, when he went to Yunmeng Market, he had also sold the Water Green Cucumber plants and Spider Silk Grass, earning exactly two low-grade spirit stones.
With one expense balancing one income, his wealth remained unchanged.
He still had twelve low-grade spirit stones.
Of those twelve, one had been deliberately kept after he made a trip to the mountain gate, three had come from selling pseudo-spirit items, and six had been issued by the sect as cultivation resources after he advanced to become a Level Eight Student.
The remaining two had been won by Zhang Wan during arena gambling bouts over this period.
He had taken part in quite a few arena gambling bouts. He had suffered losses and scored wins, but overall, he had won more than he had lost, earning those two low-grade spirit stones.
After Zhang Wan finished processing the Postnatal low-grade spirit items he had harvested, Zhang Lingshu and Zhang Yan began living through days of wailing and suffering.
With Fire Blood Grass in hand, Zhang Wan went straight for the jugular in tempering the two of them.
Every day, he made them train until they reached their physical limits, until they could no longer endure it. Then he had them soak in hot water mixed with Fire Blood Grass juice, allowing them to recover from their injuries.
Previously, he had forbidden them from eating too many pseudo-spirit items. Now, he relaxed the restriction somewhat, increasing their daily portions and allowing them to eat some Combined Rice, Red Fruits, or Earth Fruits.
He had originally worried that they would be unable to digest them, but after the intensity of their tempering rose another level, they could quickly digest the small amount of pseudo-spirit-item spirit food they had eaten before. In fact, without additional nutritional supplements, the two of them would even fall into a state of malnutrition.
Of course, while arranging devilish training for his younger sister and third brother, Zhang Wan also gave them plenty of sweet rewards.
They were not like Zhang Wan, who possessed the wisdom of a former life, and they were still young.
Without giving them some rewards or time to relax, this devilish training would drive them insane sooner or later.
Zhang Wan controlled the balance very well, adjusting it according to their condition at any moment.
This ensured that they grew rapidly without suffering any mental problems.
While Zhang Lingshu and Zhang Yan grew rapidly, Zhang Wan also forged ahead by great strides.
The Small Jade Bamboo Rice, Water Green Cucumbers, and Dwarf Apricots he harvested all went into Zhang Wan's stomach.
Some classmates at the Postnatal level and even Guiding Martial Masters wanted to buy some from him.
But Zhang Wan politely declined them all.
He intended to keep the first harvest entirely for himself.
Naturally, this approach made some people unhappy.
They would never care whether Zhang Wan had obtained it through his own hard work. As long as he failed to satisfy their demands, dissatisfaction would arise in their hearts.
Zhang Wan had no intention of indulging them, nor did he care what they thought.
Why did he maintain a low profile while continuously keeping his cultivation and strength at the upper-middle level or even the upper level?
It was because a person could keep a low profile, but could never be completely without strength!
Those who truly lacked strength would become meat in someone else's bowl, whether they kept a low profile or not! Whenever someone wanted to bully them, they could do so without the slightest hesitation.
Yet Zhang Wan also disliked the approach of possessing strength while hiding it completely and revealing not a trace.
If others truly took you for a pig, then even if you were not one, you could easily invite bullying and suppression. When that happened, would you endure it or suddenly erupt and reveal your strength?
Zhang Wan did not want to stand at the very front, drawing countless jealous eyes and assassins, nor was he interested in acting like a pig and being treated as someone weak and easy to bully.
He did not want to choose between enduring humiliation and erupting to reveal his strength.
Keeping his cultivation and strength at the upper-middle level or even the upper level among his peers, while not being among the very strongest, was the low-key, steady growth plan that best suited Zhang Wan's temperament.
At this level, he would not attract too much attention, but the academy would still value him.
Combined with his considerable strength, what could the dissatisfaction others felt because he would not sell them spirit items possibly do to him?
His strength and the academy's regard for him were plainly there. Even if these people were dissatisfied, they could only digest it themselves.
And Postnatal low-grade spirit items were indeed different from pseudo-spirit items.
After spending more than a month swallowing and refining all the Small Jade Bamboo Rice, Dwarf Apricots, and Water Green Cucumbers he had harvested, Zhang Wan's cultivation directly rose to the peak of the First Level Postnatal!
He could advance to the Second Level Postnatal at any moment!
As for Xu Hui, he was still some distance away from the peak of the First Level Postnatal.
However, considering his own aptitude, Zhang Wan felt that he would probably be stuck for several months before the bottleneck between the First and Second Levels Postnatal.
An average aptitude truly could not compare with those geniuses.
Zhang Wan was not anxious, because he could cheat!
Host: Zhang Wan (eleven years old) Realm: First Level Postnatal (120/120) Realm Bottleneck: Second Level Postnatal Bottleneck (four experience points required to break through the bottleneck) Cultivation Techniques and Martial Skills: Bronze Iron Art, Sixth Level Postnatal Technique (14/114, First Level Postnatal formula comprehended), Stacked Force Palm (24/155), Bone Piercing Finger (103/103, 7/46), Nine Step Movement Technique (28/127), incomplete version of Vitality Catalysis Technique (89/89, 11/11), incomplete version of Extreme Growth Technique (83/83, 10/10), knowledge of spirit plants (7.8/20) Available Experience: 9092
Quite a few figures on the panel had changed.
That was normal. Although Zhang Wan had not used much experience during this period and had saved it all up, he had been diligently cultivating the entire time. Even with average aptitude, it was only natural for him to improve.
"Four experience points? That isn't much. It's only a little more than the experience required for a mortal to break through to the Postnatal realm." Zhang Wan looked at the experience required to break through the bottleneck. Compared with the more than nine thousand experience points he currently had available, four experience points were insignificant.
However, Zhang Wan did not plan to use experience to break through directly.
Reaching the peak of the First Level Postnatal through cultivating with the harvested spirit items was already conspicuous enough. If he broke through to the Second Level Postnatal within a short time as well, it would conflict with his relatively low-key growth plan.
He planned to try breaking through on his own first. If he still could not break through after three or four months, he would then use experience to improve. That would not be so conspicuous.
Another month passed, and the pseudo-spirit plants growing in the spirit field matured once more.
After Zhang Wan harvested them and paid over forty percent of the harvest, he kept four sacks of the remaining pseudo-spirit items and plants for himself as usual, selling everything else.
He still only obtained three low-grade spirit stones.
Although this harvest was slightly larger than the previous one,
the increase was not obvious.
After the academy took forty percent, the added yield became even less noticeable once it was divided up.
Zhang Wan simply packed up the increased portion and brought it home as well.
His younger sister and third brother's demand for pseudo-spirit items had also been increasing during this period, so he could put them to good use.
Before you continue