Meng Nan looked at Qian Yu.
"Thank you for trusting me!"
Qian Yu reached to her waist, pulled out a hide pouch, and tossed it to Meng Nan. Then the corner of her mouth twitched. "You even know where to find good stuff thousands of miles away. Quite the talent!"
The pouch was filled with spirit sand.
During the half year Meng Nan had spent at Yinlian Village helping with the birth, he had truly put Qian Yu to work to the utmost—
Connecting with rogue cultivators.
Searching for magical artifacts.
He had even sent her out to mine spirit sand.
The last task in particular was grueling. Though Meng Nan had given her three city ruins relatively close to Three Hundred Cave Villages, making the rounds of all three meant traveling at least ten thousand miles in total.
Just the journey would take two months.
With the mining on top, the trip had taken a full four months. It had been no easy task.
"But Auntie still can't rest. I've finished refining these pills, and you haven't been in touch with those rogue cultivators for four months. You'll have to make another trip and trade the pills for medicinal ingredients."
As Meng Nan spoke, Zhao Xiaoshuang immediately took two prepared vials from her pack and handed them over.
Meng Nan looked at Qian Yu. "This vial contains Qi Circulation Powder, seven pellets in all. This one contains Yellow Spirit Pills, two pellets."
He and Qian Yu had officially started working together in early November of the previous year.
During the first three months, Qian Yu had contacted a total of 424 rogue cultivators and obtained from them enough ingredients to make 75 batches of Qi Circulation Powder and 11 batches of Yellow Spirit Pills.
Meng Nan's success rate refining these two kinds of pills was as high as ninety percent. In the end, he made seventy pellets of Qi Circulation Powder and nine Yellow Spirit Pills.
He kept half for himself: thirty-five pellets of Qi Circulation Powder and five Yellow Spirit Pills.
It was nothing like the pharmaceutical companies of his previous life.
Those companies had to invest in research, production, sales, and every other stage. They also had to pay taxes. The raw materials might not cost much, but all the costs added together were considerable.
More importantly, pharmaceutical companies were practically monopolies and held patents. No matter how outrageous the prices, people had no choice but to buy.
But pill refining in the cultivation world was different.
It wasn't an exclusive business, and there were no patents to speak of.
Anyone could refine pills here.
Some people simply weren't skilled. They might get only one or two successful batches out of ten, so they were willing to trade ten sets of ingredients for one or two batches of finished pills.
But if the cost went any higher, they might as well refine the pills themselves.
In the cultivation world, people could do everything themselves. There was a bottom line: unless you could do what others couldn't and had an exclusive product—like a unique pill—you couldn't charge exorbitant prices. Even a unique pill had to lack any comparable substitutes to make a fortune. Otherwise, nobody would be interested.
There was no comparison.
Meng Nan wasn't greedy. He was perfectly satisfied to earn half on the strength of his skills.
The rest all went to Qian Yu.
He didn't concern himself with how she negotiated with those rogue cultivators to buy the ingredients.
The pills he'd taken out now were from the last batch, which he hadn't had the chance to give Qian Yu. Now that she had them, she could go contact those rogue cultivators again.
"After four months, they should have built up quite a stock of ingredients."
"I'll go tomorrow!"
Qian Yu never seemed to tire. She took the pills, more excited than ever. With a steady supply of Qi Circulation Powder and Yellow Spirit Pills, she could quickly finish cultivating at the True Qi Stage and advance to True Essence sooner.
She had seen just how vast the world was over the past six months. Now she was brimming with energy and didn't feel tired at all.
In the blink of an eye, it was the end of June.
That day,
The barely hundred-day-old Meng Xingzhe dangled from a tree, swaying gently as he watched his mother practice her sword.
The hanging cradle was comfortable.
The sword moves were dazzling.
Meng Xingzhe giggled nonstop.
When he tired of laughing, he fell asleep.
The child was no trouble at all.
Zhao Xiaoshuang practiced with complete focus, training in the Gale Thunder Sword Technique. Meng Nan had obtained the technique in his third life, and it was already among the finest of mortal sword arts.
Anything beyond that was true spellcraft.
Such as Palm Thunder.
Such as the Five Thunder Technique.
Zhao Xiaoshuang's cultivation was still too low to sustain spells, so she still needed sword techniques and mortal martial arts to protect herself.
She threw herself into her sword practice.
Three months after giving birth, she had long since fully recovered. She had been at Angming Mountain for a month, and had adapted to most of her surroundings and daily life. Her mind had gradually settled. She spent her days immersed in cultivation, slowly discovering the joy of it and taking pleasure in the process.
She finished a set of sword moves.
Just then,
Suddenly,
A flash of light streaked from the cave behind the wooden house nearby. Before Zhao Xiaoshuang could react, a giant more than two zhang tall appeared in front of her.
Over two zhang tall!
Nearly seven meters!
The sheer sense of oppression was staggering.
The giant appeared and, without a word, flipped its palm and brought it down—
"Ha!"
Zhao Xiaoshuang didn't panic. She leaped into the air, and as she descended, the giant turned its palm over. She landed squarely in its hand.
She stood steady.
The giant was none other than Meng Nan, who had just mastered the secret art.
"So this is the Giant Spirit God secret art?"
Standing in Meng Nan's palm, Zhao Xiaoshuang was held level with his face, several meters off the ground. She looked around in wonder.
She had heard Meng Nan talk about the Giant Spirit God secret art. A month had passed since he obtained the spirit sand, and now, with one final push, he had finally mastered it in the real world!
"Exactly."
"With my current cultivation, I can grow to at most two zhang tall, but my combat strength is formidable. An ordinary True Essence cultivator might not be able to beat me!"
As Meng Nan spoke, he held Zhao Xiaoshuang in one hand and formed a seal with the other. He pointed a finger into the air—
Boom!
A rumble shook the air as thunder flashed into being.
Casting the Five Thunder Technique in his Giant Spirit God form could already pose a deadly threat to cultivators at the True Essence Stage.
With this art mastered,
Meng Nan had truly laid the foundation of his cultivation in the real world.
"Next—"
"I'll have to kill True Qi cultivators while at the peak of Inner Qi, then keep opening future timelines and set my sights on breaking through to True Essence—to Qi Refining!"
Meng Nan was overcome with delight.
He played around with Zhao Xiaoshuang in his giant form for quite a while before changing back.
"So amazing!"
Once Meng Nan returned to normal, Zhao Xiaoshuang dropped down from the sky too. Her face was flushed as she ran her hands up and down his body, exclaiming in amazement.
She had grown up among the savage tribes of the cave villages and had seen little beyond ordinary martial arts. She could hardly have imagined the power of true immortal arts like the Giant Spirit God and the Five Thunder Technique.
Seeing them for the first time left her astounded.
"Once you master it, you won't be any worse."
Meng Nan smiled, in an excellent mood.
When the mood was good, it was time to kill!
Eight months had passed. It was time to open a future timeline again.
"I'll be gone for a few days. I'll be back soon."
Meng Nan gave Zhao Xiaoshuang a brief explanation, then descended Angming Mountain.
He strode off!
Time to kill!
Yinlian Village.
At Meng Ba's home.
It was late at night. Meng Ba and Sun Mei were speaking in hushed voices.
"Have you made up your mind?"
Sun Mei nudged Meng Ba. "My younger brother-in-law has always had a plan. He may be young, but he's sharper than either of us. In my opinion, sticking close to him can only do us good."
But Meng Ba still hesitated—
"He was clever from the time he was little, quiet, and kindhearted."
"But he's only at the Inner Qi level right now. If we leave the village with him, we'll have no way back. Can he protect us?"
A month earlier,
Meng Nan had said goodbye to Meng Ba and Sun Mei. His family was leaving Yinlian Village.
Before leaving, he had asked Meng Ba and Sun Mei what they thought, and whether they wanted to join them after he'd settled in.
They would leave Yinlian Village.
Leave the crowds.
Head into the deep mountains and forests, where they might spend years.
Meng Ba hesitated.
Sun Mei hesitated too.
But—
"Let's do it for the children!"
"Meng Nan said that if we're willing to go with him, he guarantees all three of our nieces and nephews will be able to cultivate to the True Essence Stage when they grow up."
"That's a pretty outrageous claim, but I believe him."
Sun Mei was tempted.
Meng Nan had always seemed so reliable that people couldn't help but believe what he said.
For the children's future, living in the deep mountains and forests wasn't out of the question.
If they stayed in the village for ten or twenty years, wouldn't things remain just as they were?
They might as well go out and take a chance.
"He's your own younger brother. Do you really think he'd harm us?"
Sun Mei pinched Meng Ba. When he still wouldn't say a word, she was furious.
"They can't cultivate until they're sixteen."
"Our eldest is only four, and the little one can't even talk yet. Why rush? We could send the children over once they're older, couldn't we?"
Meng Ba couldn't understand it.
"Hey!"
"You blockhead!"
"Meng Nan explained it clearly. If you stay in the village and grow up like the local folk, you'll have no future. Your Meng family's aptitude is poor, so you need strong medicine. You have to leave the village if you want to raise anyone remarkable."
Sun Mei patiently spelled it all out for Meng Ba.
Actually, if the village's rules weren't so troublesome, it would have been best to let Meng Nan take the three children by himself and leave Meng Ba here if he wanted to stay.
Unfortunately, the rules wouldn't allow it.
Cave villages like Yinlian Village valued population above all else. With Qian Yu vouching for them, Meng Nan's family could leave temporarily without trouble. But if their three children disappeared, both Meng Ba and Sun Mei would be punished.
If they left, they had to leave together.
"Think of the children!"
When Meng Ba didn't reply, Sun Mei smacked him again.
"Fine, fine."
"We'll do as you say."
Meng Ba finally gave in.
"That's more like it!"
Sun Mei broke into a smile.
She swung astride him, and they spent the night in a storm of passion.
On the tenth day of the seventh month in the nineteenth year of the Immortal Calendar,
Meng Nan returned with Qian Yu. Qian Yu's three children came with them: one boy and two girls. They had been spirited out of Yinlian Village under cover of darkness.
Meng Ba and Sun Mei had also been persuaded by Meng Nan and brought their three children along.
That brought the number of people at Angming Mountain to twelve.
The place was starting to feel lived in.
On the same day,
Meng Nan spent cultivation to open his fifth life.
Before you continue