The sun had already dropped two of its three orbs below the horizon, leaving only the largest one hanging at an angle above the distant mountains.
The weather was gradually turning cooler.
But Chen Xian's courtyard was sweltering.
As the temperature rose, the Rattan Blood Sugar in the iron pot gradually melted into a thick syrup.
At first, the syrup was pale red, but as the cooking went on, it gradually turned rust-red.
It looked just like a pot of thick blood, bubbling away.
Looking at the blood-red syrup in the pot, Chen Xian suddenly felt a stir in his heart, as if a voice inside him were saying, "The syrup is ready."
It was an ethereal, mysterious sort of intuition.
He immediately took out a chopstick, dipped its tip into the syrup, and stuck it into the cold water he had prepared nearby.
"Ts."
A faint cooling sound rang out. When he pulled the chopstick back out, the syrup on its tip had solidified into a crystal like a natural ruby.
He gently pinched the strand of sugar trailing from it, and the sugar crystal snapped with a crack.
"It really is ready!"
He was startled. This was his first time making syrup with Rattan Blood Sugar, yet he had managed to get the timing just right?
He immediately realized this was the boost from [Masterful Pill Crafting].
That was incredible!
Strictly speaking, this counted as a kind of pill refinement too, didn't it?
It was just that other people used pill furnaces, while he used an iron pot.
Now that the syrup was ready, the rest was simple.
Dip and coat the Candied Hawthorn in sugar.
He had just picked up a skewer of hawthorn, ready to dip it, when another idea suddenly popped into his head.
How about trying to add a Spirit-Guiding Pill?
Before he had crossed over, people who made Candied Hawthorn added some rock-flower cake powder and maltose syrup to improve its texture and flavor.
This was the cultivation world. Compared with foods that could help people cultivate, ordinary Candied Hawthorn didn't seem to have much of a competitive edge.
Chen Xian acted as soon as the thought came to him!
He went back to his room, reluctantly took a Spirit-Guiding Pill worth 10 Contribution Points out of his pill box, ground it into powder, then poured it into the syrup.
The syrup bubbled away, and before long, it had blended completely with the Spirit-Guiding Pill powder.
"It'd better work! This whole pot has cost me 15 Contribution Points!"
He carefully coated skewers of different fruits with the new syrup.
"Smack!" He slapped them down onto the smooth stone slab he had greased.
A blood-red sugar coating quickly hardened over the Candied Hawthorn. On closer inspection, it even gave off a faint red glow, like strings of exquisite rubies.
They looked a whole lot more impressive now!
He worked for half an hour before he had finished making all the different kinds of Candied Hawthorn.
He had used up almost all the Rattan Blood Sugar in the pot.
Chen Xian scraped a hardened piece of sugar off the bottom of the pot and tasted it. As it melted, a faint wisp of Dao Qi entered his body.
There wasn't much, but it was definitely there!
And besides that, there seemed to be a purer force of blood and qi mingled with the Dao Qi, nourishing his meridians.
Chen Xian felt the soreness in his old arms ease at once. The discomfort faded almost immediately.
With his blood and qi replenished, he felt a little more energetic all over.
"Perfect!"
It didn't just have the Qi-inducing effect of a Qi Induction Pill; it could also nourish his meridians. His Blood Sugar Hawthorn had become a tonic!
Spending those 15 Contribution Points hadn't been a waste at all. Even if he couldn't sell them, he could eat them himself.
He counted the skewers already stuck into their grass handles, along with the ones that had just hardened on the stone slab. There were eighty-eight in all.
A very auspicious number, with a fine meaning behind it.
"I'll price them at one Contribution Point per skewer, or three for two. Today, I'm going to make a fortune!"
Chen Xian's confidence soared.
There was no time to waste. While it was still light and the sect market was open, he hoisted the bundle of Candied Hawthorn and hurried out.
A quarter of an hour later.
Sunset Valley, outer sect, sect market.
"Granduncle Master, I'll leave you here. You're free to set up a stall anywhere in the market, as long as you don't block the way."
The female disciple who had given Chen Xian a ride on her Tailwind Sword helped him off, then bowed respectfully to take her leave.
"Good girl, I won't ride your sword for nothing. Take a skewer of Blood Sugar Hawthorn as your fare."
"No need... This disciple has been trying to lose weight lately and doesn't like sweets."
The female disciple waved her hands repeatedly, trying to refuse.
Chen Xian looked her up and down. She was five foot seven and looked to weigh barely a hundred pounds. Why was she still trying to lose weight?
If she slimmed down any more, those two plump pomelos in front would shrink!
He furrowed his white brows, pulled a strawberry skewer off the bundle, and forced it into her hand. "Why lose weight? Take it! There's no need to be so polite with me."
"All right~"
The female disciple reluctantly accepted it and casually put it away in her Mustard Seed Bag.
Watching Chen Xian hobble into the market with the bundle propped against him, she sighed. "Can Granduncle Master really make money selling these?"
After all, what could possibly be tasty about a bunch of ordinary fruits strung together?
Chen Xian stepped through the market's stone gate and into the street.
It was already evening, but the market was bustling. Disciples streamed back and forth from one end of the street to the other, too many to count.
There were even outsiders without disciple robes selling things there.
Chen Xian didn't rush to sell his Candied Hawthorn. Instead, he looked around first.
From what he could see, most of the goods for sale were low-grade Dao Artifacts, manuals, and pills, along with some Blood Beast materials.
The sect disciples running stalls were relatively honest. The goods they sold mostly came from their own work or from completing sect missions outside.
The outsiders manning the stalls, on the other hand, were a different story.
Their stalls were piled with rusty spears, swords, knives, and axes, or battered books and talismans.
According to these stallholders, they had either stumbled down a cliff by chance and discovered a cave dwelling full of treasures, or found a secret realm and obtained these battered ancient cultivation manuals inside.
Chen Xian sneered inwardly. "Ancient? Last week, maybe!"
There might be some real treasures among them, but the odds were probably no better than finding a needle in the ocean.
These people were clearly trying to fleece Sword Sect disciples, yet the sect didn't intervene. Chen Xian found it rather strange.
Then he spotted a stall selling pills. A three-legged pill furnace was embroidered on the stallholder's sleeve, and from his clothes, he seemed to be an Inner Sect disciple from Pill Peak.
The pills he was selling were all genuine.
Qi Induction Pills were among them.
"How much is this Qi Induction Pill?" Chen Xian asked casually.
The disciple looked Chen Xian up and down. Seeing an old man he didn't recognize, he smiled ingratiatingly and said, "One hundred taels of Dao Silver each. Buy a bottle of ten and I'll give you a discount—eight hundred taels."
"How much?"
Chen Xian was so shocked he nearly wanted to stick every skewer of Candied Hawthorn in his hands into the man's face.
The market was in the outer sect and connected to the mortal world. Contribution Points could be exchanged for mortal silver, and silver could also be exchanged for Contribution Points.
The exchange rate was one Contribution Point for one tael of Dao Silver, and vice versa.
Did that mean this punk was trying to sell him a Spirit-Guiding Pill for a hundred Contribution Points?
"You little punk! Why don't you just rob me?"
Chen Xian's face darkened. He might be old, but he wasn't senile. This disciple was taking him for a fat pig!
He wasn't buying, but did he look that easy to fool?
"Hey! That's just the price. Buy it or don't, old man! You can ask at the other pill stalls—it's the same price everywhere!"
When the Pill Peak disciple was challenged, he stuck out his neck and glared at Chen Xian, acting even more brazenly.
"Hey, hey, Jian Shan, take a good look. That's our Granduncle Master, not some outsider!"
Just then, the friend beside him, who was selling hammer Dao Artifacts, tugged at his sleeve and quietly warned him.
"What? What'd you say?"
The Pill Peak disciple named Jian Shan quickly looked Chen Xian over three times, then hastily drew his neck in and put on a smile again.
"Old man, were you asking me how much this Qi Induction Pill costs?"
Jian Shan seemed like a completely different person now, nothing like the arrogant man from a moment ago.
He glanced around to make sure no one was paying attention, then leaned toward Chen Xian and whispered:
"I was only joking with you just now! The Qi Induction Pill is ten taels of Dao Silver each. I'll charge you eighty for a bottle, and I'll throw in a bottle of Blood Vitality Pills."
"Outsiders pay outsider prices, Granduncle Master gets Granduncle Master prices. Heh heh."
Seeing his two-faced behavior, Chen Xian finally understood why the sect didn't stop those outsiders from setting up scam stalls.
It turned out everyone was fleecing and deceiving one another.
"You really do live up to your name, Jian Shan! Hmph!"
Chen Xian ignored him, snorted, and turned to leave. He had to find somewhere to sell his Candied Hawthorn.
He'd have to change the prices he'd come up with earlier, too: ten taels of Dao Silver per skewer, and buy five, get one free.