Stealthy Cultivation! Catching Up!

This means Meng Nan's mission in this life is incredibly heavy.

Palm Thunder, Blood Arrow Secret Technique, Giant Spirit Mysterious Technique, Gale Thunder Sword Technique, Hundred Changes Thousand Illusions Cloud Mist Movement Technique.

He has to cultivate and study each and every one of these sorceries.

And then there's cultivation.

In this life, he needs to achieve Body Cleansing with True Qi. In reality, Meng Nan is still only at Fetal Breath Contemplation, his true realm stuck at the Inner Qi Minor Heavenly Cycle, and far from reaching the next stage.

Then there's Meng Nan's main objective for this entry—

"Alchemy Notes!"

Meng Nan needs a skill to rely on, to solve the problem of a continuous source of cultivation resources. Alchemy is currently the most suitable.

The Qi Circulation Powder and pills he refines can be used by himself or sold, and they have broad applications. The ingredients for alchemy are more common compared to the mineral materials for crafting artifacts, cinnabar for talismans, and so on.

Moreover, in this life, Meng Nan has practiced alchemy for sixty-four years, gaining rich experience and having a large number of notes for him to study and reference.

These must be utilized.

Among the medicinal and pill formulas Meng Nan has mastered over the years.

The Alchemy Notes record formulas for seven types of wound medicines, including stopping bleeding, dispelling bruises, mending bones, and conditioning internal organ injuries, as well as two detoxification formulas. These are all ordinary. Based on Meng Nan's experience, he only needs to select three or four formulas with common ingredients and easier refinement processes to master.

Besides these.

He also has mastery over more valuable and difficult-to-refine items.

Qi Circulation Powder.

Yellow Spirit Pill.

Golden Marrow Pill.

These are the three types.

Among them—

'Qi Circulation Powder' is effective for both Inner Qi and True Qi.

'Yellow Spirit Pill' has slightly better efficacy.

'Golden Marrow Pill' is even better, a pill for those in the True Essence Stage. Meng Nan's 'Great Pill' refined by combining it with 'Essence Blood' was developed based on the 'Golden Marrow Pill'.

The three pills are distributed in a tiered manner, perfectly suited for the Inner Qi, True Qi, and True Essence stages respectively.

It's different from his youth in this life.

Back then, Meng Nan was in Yinlian Village, with little money and little experience. For the first two years, he didn't even dare to attempt alchemy, fearing bankruptcy.

Later, his refining relied on 'Suoluo Seed' to extract money from Qian Yu to support his alchemy.

But Qian Yu was also poor, not having much money, so Meng Nan still struggled.

Now it's different.

Owning 'Qingtian Market', Meng Nan and Zhao Xiaoshuang, as a couple, are considered absolute high-ranking figures within the market. Their share of the market's income is on par with four peak True Essence cultivators.

They have an annual income of nearly one hundred thousand taels of gold.

Coupled with Meng Nan's alchemy and Zhao Xiaoshuang hunting Yao Beasts.

All in all, their annual income is approaching one hundred and fifty thousand.

They are quite wealthy.

With such wealth and income, delving into alchemy again is incredibly simple.

"It's all about burning money!"

When he first started studying alchemy, he only dared to attempt refining once every one or two months.

Now, Meng Nan can refine ten or twenty times a day.

Combined with the alchemy notes he's left over the years and his experience and insights, both his practical experience and theoretical knowledge can be rapidly enriched.

He doesn't aim to catch up to this life's achievements, but at least when eight years have passed and he returns to reality, Meng Nan's skills in this area will be considered proficient, able to overcome the most difficult early stages.

"'Qi Circulation Powder' costs about 20 taels to produce and sells for about 100 taels. I have painstakingly practiced alchemy for sixty-four years, and my success rate in refining 'Qi Circulation Powder' is now ninety-five percent."

Meng Nan flipped through his notes, calculating the prospects of his alchemy.

With his current alchemy standards, refining one hundred portions of 'Qi Circulation Powder' will result in ninety-five successful batches. With a cost of two thousand taels, he can earn nine thousand five hundred taels.

Over a year, refining a hundred batches, or over a thousand pills of 'Qi Circulation Powder', would yield a profit of seventy-five thousand.

Seventy-five thousand taels of silver.

Which is nearly four thousand taels of gold.

It seems like a lot, and compared to ordinary True Qi and True Essence rogue cultivators, it's a heavenly income.

However, compared to managing the entire 'Qingtian Market', this is just pocket change, hard-earned money.

"Platforms are still the most profitable!"

Meng Nan sighed.

No wonder the Meng Nan of this life advocated for the construction of such a market.

However, this was decades later, and with Qian Yu, Chen De, and other True Essence cultivators guarding it, the market could be stable and secure, unafraid of petty thieves.

Even a lone True Essence cultivator would find it difficult to achieve this.

This included the real-world Meng Nan.

"Although alchemy earns little money, it's fine for transitioning in the early stages, and the prospects are good in the later stages."

Like Meng Nan now.

Just from the 'Qi Circulation Powder' alone, conservatively calculated, he could earn four thousand gold per year.

Coupled with the 'Yellow Spirit Pill' and 'Golden Marrow Pill', the annual income would easily exceed ten thousand gold.

And this was only up to the 'Golden Marrow Pill'.

Moreover, he hadn't fully mastered the latter two pills yet, and the success rate still needed improvement.

Once he advanced further, earning thirty to fifty thousand, or even a hundred thousand a year, would be no problem. It wasn't any worse than painstakingly managing the myriad affairs of a large market.

"It's just that the initial investment is too large!"

Meng Nan cleared his thoughts and officially began studying alchemy.

Even with his own alchemy insights and cheat sheets, it was still difficult to get started in the early stages.

One out of ten furnaces would fail to produce a pill.

If he practiced ten furnaces a day like this, two hundred taels of silver would be wasted.

This would continue for a long time.

Before the success rate reached twenty percent, it was a losing venture.

The more he refined, the more he lost.

Only then did Meng Nan truly understand the hardships contained within the words in the diary.

In a place like Yinlian Village.

With cultivation levels like Inner Qi and True Qi.

Given the income situation at the time, it was not easy to reach proficiency in alchemy and master the refinement of 'Qi Circulation Powder'.

Meng Nan was somewhat impressed with himself for persevering.

Fortunately, hardship had paid off.

Now--

He had no shortage of money or medicinal ingredients.

His information was complete, and he had many peers.

Meng Nan's alchemy skills rapidly improved, showing great promise.

In the following years.

Meng Nan spent most of his time in seclusion.

Cultivation.

Sorcery.

Alchemy.

His days were fully scheduled.

Every few days, he would spend time with Zhao Xiaoshuang, walking around the market, clearing his head, and gaining a deeper understanding of Qingtian Market and this new environment.

He also interacted with people like Qian Yu, Chen De, Wang An, and Chu Zhongliang.

There were old acquaintances.

There were new faces.

He was interacting with and understanding them all.

Combined with his notes, he gained a more concrete understanding of these people, and even some who were no longer around.

He also observed the pills, magic tools, talismans, and formations in the market. These were all tinkered with by amateurs like himself, and couldn't compare to those made and used by true Immortals, but they still offered a glimpse.

Occasionally, there were vendors in the market selling all sorts of strange items.

Meng Nan's horizons broadened day by day.

His days were fulfilling.

Time flew by.

With no shortage of pills, Meng Nan quickly cultivated to the Inner Qi Minor Heavenly Cycle.

It gets much harder from here on.

To advance to the Greater Heavenly Cycle, one must connect more vital points, which is more difficult than the Lesser Heavenly Cycle.

In his previous life, Meng Nan spent ten years to reach the Greater Heavenly Cycle, and then another twenty years in the Greater Heavenly Cycle before advancing to the True Qi Stage.

It took a long time.

Even now--

He had a large number of notes, and there were many cultivators in the True Qi Stage in the market, and even higher realms like Zhao Xiaoshuang and Qian Yu in the True Essence Stage.

He buried his head in cultivation.

And occasionally sought advice.

There were also various elixirs, magic artifacts, and other aids.

It could be said that he had the right time, place, and people.

Yet, Meng Nan still spent three years to reach the Greater Heavenly Cycle.

After that, another four years passed, but he still couldn't touch the threshold of the 'True Qi Stage'.

"After the Greater Heavenly Cycle, one's internal energy is perfected, they embrace unity, and then the internal energy transforms into True Qi."

"Too mystical!"

Meng Nan couldn't figure it out.

He had all sorts of elixirs, and his internal energy accumulated rapidly. Shortly after reaching the Greater Heavenly Cycle, he cultivated his internal energy to its limit, but he couldn't grasp concepts like 'embracing unity' or 'internal energy like water'.

In the seventh year of this life, Meng Nan opened his cultivation notes and found his records from when he broke through this realm.

"Twenty years of arduous cultivation."

"Trials, battles."

"Plus the help of a 'Great Pill'."

Meng Nan flipped through it repeatedly, unable to find the key point.

Arduous cultivation.

Trials.

Battles.

Great Pill.

"Perhaps I should try 'Essence Blood'."

Meng Nan thought of Zhou Boren back then. He advanced from Fetal Breath to True Essence in just four years. Such speed would have been incredible in the past, but after seeing himself, Zhao Xiaoshuang, Qian Yu, and others in this life, he realized how monstrous it was.

"Use 'Essence Blood' to break through first, then comprehend the differences in realm levels. Then, in reality, in the next life, I'll return and cultivate the Thunder Illumination Scripture again, breaking through through the normal channels."

But there were two uncertainties here.

One was whether this kind of breakthrough would be useful to him and if he could use it in his next normal cultivation.

The second, and most important point, was that Meng Nan worried that using 'Essence Blood' to cultivate the Nameless Demonic Art would affect his state of mind, drastically changing his personality.

Sometimes, changes in one's state of mind could not be reversed simply by abandoning a cultivation technique.

If he were still affected after leaving, it would be terrible.

"This risk--"

Meng Nan shook his head.

It wasn't worth it!

There were precedents for this.

Zhou Shan harmed infants solely for cultivation.

Although Zhou Boren became a True Essence cultivator in four years, he was extremely bloodthirsty.

What was the use of such cultivation?

In the first sixty-four years of this life, even with slow cultivation, he only used 'Essence Blood' through alchemy, rather than choosing to cultivate the Nameless Demonic Art.

"I resisted this temptation for the first sixty-four years when I had no other options, so there's no need to take risks for speed now."

It was only twenty years at most.

He had already cultivated arduously for four years.

After this, he would activate the future timeline twice more, and he would surely break through this realm.

He would just grind it out, time and time again.

"Not worth it."

"Unnecessary."

Meng Nan made up his mind.