[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Senior, I tried it, and it really works. I've been cultivating for a whole day and night, and I've already got over thirty points of spiritual energy. Senior, did you break through? I saw your combat power go up. How much spiritual energy do you need to break through?]
His Junior Schoolmate sent him another message during dinner.
And judging by the message, he had been cultivating nonstop since yesterday.
[Me: You can attempt to break through into qi refining with 100 points of spiritual energy. I failed once and only succeeded on my second attempt. After the first failure, I only got three-quarters of my spiritual energy back.]
Ye Fei shared the information with him, and then there was a long silence.
He didn't dwell on what the other person was doing. He ate his meal in peace, while also coaxing the two Little Dumplings clamoring for attention.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Senior, didn't you tell me before that being schoolmates doesn't really mean anything where you come from? You wouldn't even accept the things I offered you. Why are you telling me so much now? You're way too softhearted. That makes it really easy for people to trick you.]
Over half an hour later, his Junior Schoolmate's message arrived.
The message caught Ye Fei off guard.
It did seem that he had said a little too much.
The more they chatted, the more he unconsciously relaxed. Was he lonely after all, because he had no one else to talk to?
He had thought he could live normally even away from other people, since he was already halfway to being socially anxious.
But now, why was he telling this Junior Schoolmate from another space-time so much?
Yet as he thought it over, something suddenly clicked for Ye Fei.
[Me: It's information you'll find out sooner or later anyway. It's not some secret. Is there any need to hide it?]
After replying, Ye Fei lay on the bed, holding the two Little Dumplings in his arms and playing with them.
Why should he agonize over this?
It was just an exchange of information. They had both chosen to become cultivators, and if he ran into problems with Cultivation later, he would ask his Junior Schoolmate too.
Likewise, that big shot had paid to buy information from him. If he needed to ask that person something, he would naturally have to pay for it as well.
When exchanging information with other people, he would treat them the way they treated him.
Although his Junior Schoolmate had listened to him talk a lot this time, he had also learned some other information from what his Junior Schoolmate said.
As long as he didn't feel he had lost anything, there was no need to tally up gains and losses.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Oh... then I've got something to tell you too, Senior. You can get the recipes for the Spirit-Gathering Pill and the Spirit-Gathering Formation for 600 points. I thought cultivating was too boring, so I bought the Spirit-Gathering Pill recipe to save myself some effort. But only after I bought it did it tell me I also needed an Alchemy Furnace and all kinds of herbs. Now I've got a useless recipe gathering dust in my Storage Cabinet. (┯_┯)] [Me: ...When did you buy it?]
Ye Fei felt like laughing.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Half an hour ago, a pack of wolves attacked my yard. I went out and dealt with them, and they dropped a few Beast Essence Stones. I sold those and bought this recipe. Senior, don't buy it. At least don't buy it before you have an Alchemy Furnace. They didn't even mention that requirement. What a rip-off.]
This message explained what he had been doing during that half-hour.
Still, 600 points for a recipe he couldn't use yet...
Ye Fei thought he understood now.
His junior had felt that cultivating spiritual energy was still too slow and wanted a shortcut, only to dig himself into a hole.
[Me: Just hang on to it. It'll be useful eventually. It's only a matter of sooner or later. Those Beast Essence Stones really are worth a lot.]
Ye Fei smiled and sent him some comfort that wasn't actually much use.
For this Junior Schoolmate with his high combat power, earning 600 points probably wasn't difficult.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Beast Essence Stones are actually one of the ingredients for Spirit-Gathering Pills too, but they're just an ordinary material. There's also spirit-gathering grass, Heavenly Spirit Pearls, rehmannia, chuanxiong, and so on. Anyway, they're all things I've never seen before, all purple grade.]
His Junior Schoolmate told Ye Fei everything the Spirit-Gathering Pill recipe required. It seemed casual, but Ye Fei could tell that his Junior Schoolmate was deliberately returning the favor.
Perhaps he had bought the Spirit-Gathering Pill recipe much earlier.
As for the Alchemy Furnace...
The Alchemy Furnace and the recipe probably weren't too far apart in price. That was his guess, and his Junior Schoolmate didn't seem foolish enough not to know that this sort of thing required a furnace.
Maybe he already had both the furnace and the pill recipe?
[Me: Purple grade is way out of reach. I've only seen two or three green-grade things so far, and those were crafting materials. I listed them all for sale and traded them for points.]
After replying, Ye Fei saw that the little fox and the Little White Tiger had both fallen asleep. He put them on the bed and tucked them under the quilt before heading out into the yard to begin cultivating.
[Grassland/0090-1144-3656: Yeah, purple-grade things are too hard to get. The best drop from the wolf leader I killed tonight was only green grade. Senior, you've probably had dinner already, right? Get some rest early. I'm going to find something to eat now. Once I've eaten, I'll head back out into the yard and keep cultivating.]
After reading the message, Ye Fei replied, telling him to focus on cultivating. Then he sat cross-legged in the yard and continued absorbing spiritual energy.
[Spiritual energy successfully absorbed. Spiritual energy +2.]
When the notification sounded, even with its volume already turned down, Ye Fei instantly woke from his meditative cultivation state.
He opened the Survival Handbook. Sure enough, the message clearly read: spiritual energy +2.
Was it because I'd already broken through to qi refinement first tier?
Ye Fei closed the messages and settled back into his meditative cultivation state.
The amount of spiritual energy he absorbed had suddenly doubled. That was great!
Feeling increasingly relaxed, Ye Fei focused on continuing his cultivation.
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