Reputation Fulfilled

Half a month later.

The two returned to Bamboo Creek Island.

Xu Qinghou put away the green-leaf Law Artifact, still shaken.

"Good thing we rode spirit steeds. Otherwise, we might not even have made it back."

Along the way, they had encountered immortal cultivators battling in the sky, with the fighting affecting a wide area. Fortunately, Zhou Ning had anticipated it and taken a detour.

Old Jia was a seasoned veteran. He remarked, "Your cultivation is too low. You'd best go out less often from now on."

Xu Qinghou was puzzled. "But I've heard plenty of cultivators at the first or second layer of Qi Refining travel around all year."

Old Jia snorted. "Their cultivation is low, but they're poor too!"

Unlike Xu Qinghou, who had both a green-leaf Law Artifact and a Storage Bag, both worth a considerable sum.

"All right, then." Xu Qinghou took some comfort in that.

Then he felt a little resentful. For this seven-year appointment, they had braved such great risks and spent half a month on the road, only to be stood up.

When I become a great Foundation Establishment cultivator, sooner or later I'll have a word or two with them to their faces, Xu Qinghou thought.

Zhou Ning, meanwhile, opened the jade box containing the Vermilion Fruit and called Old Jia over to discuss pill refining.

Old Jia worked out the price. "In the past, this Vermilion Fruit would have sold for at least one Spirit Stone. These days, that'll be a little harder."

In recent years, the Lei Household had gone mad, ambushing and killing Alchemist Yurong's people everywhere. They even hated the crows on the roof along with the house, dragging many unrelated Alchemists into it and turning Forget-Return Market into a place Alchemists scarcely dared enter.

Alchemists were scarce, and pill prices had soared, while medicinal herbs had fallen in price.

"Old Jia, help me sell it. I trust you."

Old Jia nodded solemnly.

Seeing this, Xu Qinghou hesitated for a moment before asking, "Big brother, do you still want to refine pills?"

As far as he knew, Zhou Ning had been refining for more than half a year and had only succeeded in making one inferior pill.

That counted as a little talent, but... probably not much.

He was worried it would be a bottomless pit.

Zhou Ning nodded and said firmly, "How will I know if I don't try? One last year. If I still can't refine a Stasis-Clearing Pill, I'll never touch it again."

Xu Qinghou breathed a sigh of relief.

He took out a stack of talismans. At a rough glance, they were worth several hundred catties of spirit rice. "Big brother, take these and use them."

"This..." Zhou Ning was surprised.

Seeing Zhou Ning hesitate, Xu Qinghou said, "Why stand on ceremony between us? Take them!"

If he hadn't borrowed spirit rice from Zhou Ning that day, he might not have been able to join Yuan Dahu's fishing team.

Zhou Ning did not refuse. His tone was grave. "If you ever run into trouble, I won't stand by and do nothing."

Even Old Jia was moved. Most people in the cultivation world were cold and heartless. He had lived more than half his life without a single true friend.

The little conscience Old Jia had stirred, and he decided to give Zhou Ning a thirty percent discount on this deal!

Zhou Ning returned to his little courtyard and sat cross-legged on a cushion, his brows slightly furrowed.

Jiang Xiaohua had not come this time, which meant their relationship was severed. What would the higher-ups of the Su Household think when they found out?

Fortunately, he was still in contact with Gu Xiangning.

Besides, a great Foundation Establishment cultivator like Su Yanghao probably wouldn't care about such trivial matters. After all, he was a chess piece placed on the board on a whim.

"One year. I'll raise my cultivation in the Land of Wei to the Third Layer of Qi Refinement, then reveal my achievements in pill refining."

Having made his plan, Zhou Ning took a Ginseng-Nurturing Pill and immersed himself in cultivation.

One month later.

News spread across Bamboo Creek Island that Steward Su was kindhearted and sympathized with the fish hunters' hardships, so he had decided to improve their basic compensation.

The previous guaranteed minimum of two catties of spirit rice and one catty of spirit fish was doubled outright.

For a time, everyone was stirred up. Even the fishermen who had secretly cursed Steward Su behind his back now thought he was a wonderful man.

After thinking it over, however, Zhou Ning was somewhat unsure.

Were the people of the Su Household really so kindhearted?

According to Old Jia, ever since the Spirit Lotus Root Woman, Jiang Xi, had married Steward Su, she had lived in extravagant luxury, wearing magical robes and eating spirit fruit.

He had also heard that she had bought a Pill Furnace and was learning pill refining, spending a great deal.

Even with Steward Su's Late Qi Refining cultivation, he would probably find it hard to sustain such a lifestyle for long. By rights, shouldn't he be cutting the fishermen's expenses and lining his own pockets?

One could call Steward Su bad or call him crafty, but Zhou Ning had never doubted the brains of people like him. They were certainly not stupid.

Zhou Ning rowed across Cuiwei Lake.

With a movement of his Divine Sense, he fired a fish spear.

The sharp spearhead plunged into the water with a bang, striking a Fuluo Eel squarely in the eye and killing it instantly.

Zhou Ning hauled up the Fuluo Eel. The incomparably hard black scales on its body gradually began to dissolve.

"Since eel blood can be used in the Land of Wei, I wonder if there's a way to use these black scales to refine artifacts."

The next time he entered the Land of Wei, he had to ask around.

He always felt this thing was a treasure from head to tail.

Time flowed on, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.

At noon, the sun shone brightly, filtering through the poplar tree in the courtyard and casting mottled light and shadow into the room.

Zhou Ning sat in meditation, golden fire Law Power surging and churning in his Dantian.

He opened his eyes and made a grasping motion. Law Power circulated around him, forming a dazzling ribbon of gold.

"Third Layer of Qi Refinement."

The cultivation progress of the [Xinsi Golden Scripture] was indeed astonishingly fast.

"The Law Power fluctuations I'm showing now are close to the Fourth or Fifth Layer of Qi Refining."

"Twenty-five years old, a Middle-Grade Spirit Root, and the Fourth Layer of Qi Refinement. That fits well enough."

As for his progress in pill refining, Zhou Ning turned his wrist over. A pill lay quietly in his palm, lustrous and white as jade, heavy, and giving off the fragrance of ginseng.

He had ingredients for four furnaces of Ginseng-Nurturing Pills. He had ruined two batches and refined three pills in all. It was better than nothing.

The main problem was that materials were scarce, so he could not improve quickly.

"It's about time."

Zhou Ning let out a breath.

Ever since he had started refining pills, he had gone to great lengths to keep up appearances: controlling fire, buying herbs, setting up formations, hunting fish, renting a furnace... all to make everything seem reasonable.

"The year is up!"

"Time to cash in my reputation!"

Thinking of the care and caution, the false smiles and pretenses of the past seven years, he had truly had enough of living this way.

Zhou Ning wrapped the brass Pill Furnace in a cloth bundle, strapped it to his body, and strode out of the courtyard.

Old Jia spotted him from next door and counted on his fingers.

He figured Zhou Ning had run out of spirit rice and failed completely at pill refining, leaving him no choice but to return the Pill Furnace to the Su Household's eldest young lady on Luyou Island.

Old Jia knew Zhou Ning was probably in a bad mood right now, so he did not speak to him.

Only after silently watching him walk away did Old Jia shake his head. In his decades at Cuiwei Lake, he had never seen a retainer escape his own fate.

People like Yuan Dahu had relied on catching Fuluo Eels to earn vast amounts of spirit rice. Full of vigor, he had even broken through to the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining. But what about now?

With a single written order from Steward Su, the exchange rate had gone from ten catties of Fuluo Eel for one catty of spirit rice to fifteen catties for just one!

Steward Su had first won the loyalty of all the retainers by raising the guaranteed spirit rice, then swung his sickle specifically at Yuan Dahu and his group.

Did Yuan Dahu dare say "no"?

If he did, he would be making an enemy of all the retainers!

There was no need for Steward Su to act personally. Others would rise up and attack him.

Under an Aristocratic Clan's rule, what did it matter how astonishing one's talent was? All were chess pieces in the palm of its hand.

When he was young, Old Jia had always thought others were mere sparrows. How could they know the lofty ambitions of a swan like him?

But many years later, he could only lament that he had not known how high the blue sky was or how thick the yellow earth.

Zhou Ning ran across the water, racing all the way to Luyou Island, a hundred li away.

On the island, deer called, white birds soared, and all things flourished.

With the Pill Furnace on his back, he walked step by step to the market he knew so well.

Over the past year or two, Zhou Ning had often come to buy pill-refining materials, and many stallholders had grown familiar with him.

As soon as he appeared, someone laughed and said, "Well, if it isn't the martial arts grandmaster, here to buy medicinal herbs!"

"Buy from me! Mine are cheap!" someone called at the top of his lungs.

Other stallholders watched coldly, secretly amused. Over the past year or two, this man had probably spent close to two Spirit Stones, hadn't he?

What a spendthrift!

With that money, wouldn't it be better to learn talisman-making? Instead, he had to pour it down the drain on pill refining.

Still, everyone present was a merchant, so none of them would openly ridicule him.

Zhou Ning shook his head. "I'm not buying medicinal herbs today."

The middle-aged stallholder was taken aback, then smiled. "Finally accepted your fate?"

Zhou Ning had bought his first batch of Stasis-Clearing Pill ingredients at this man's stall.

Zhou Ning chuckled, sat cross-legged in an empty spot nearby, took out a jade bottle, and placed it on a mat.

"Today, I'm selling medicine instead."

With that, he tipped the bottle over.

Three pinkish pills fell onto a porcelain plate with a clink, clink, clink.

For a moment, all the sounds around them fell silent.