Unbeknownst to Wang Hao, everything he did in the shop had been observed by Wang Yanzhao from the second floor.

“Second Brother, are you reassured now?” a young man seated across the table spoke up. This was Wang Yanfeng. With three Spiritual Roots and cultivation at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, he ranked eighth among the ‘Yan’ generation of the Wang family. He was also an alchemist, though his talent was far inferior to Wang Yanzhao’s; he could only refine Tier 1 pills.

Wang Yanzhao, having reached the ninth layer of Qi Refining with no further room for advancement in cultivation, had focused entirely on alchemy. Half a year ago, he had successfully broken through to become a Tier 2 Low-Grade alchemist.

Wang Yanfeng had come this time to take over managing the market shop from Wang Yanzhao, as Wang Yanzhao was preparing to return to the family estate to await a Foundation Establishment Pill for his breakthrough.

Wang Yanzhao let out a slight sigh. “Ai, I hope he can persist a bit longer this time. Eighth Brother, I won’t hide it from you. In the past, this kid has also gone into seclusion to cultivate, but he never lasted more than half a year at most!”

Wang Yanfeng laughed. “Second Brother, you saw it yourself. Nephew Hao is now at the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Coming here to buy pills shows he’s truly mended his ways! Besides, I’ll be here to keep an eye on him. You can rest assured!”

Wang Yanzhao nodded helplessly. There was nothing else he could do; he couldn’t shelter Wang Hao forever. While Wang Hao seemed reformed on the surface, what Wang Yanfeng didn’t know was that he had only left Wang Hao with one hundred Spirit Stones. Now, Wang Hao had spent them all on pills. Once those were consumed, it was unlikely he would advance to the fifth layer of Qi Refining. Without the aid of pills, and with the tortoise-paced cultivation speed of five Spiritual Roots, would Wang Hao still be able to endure the hardships of diligent cultivation?

“I leave everything in your hands, Eighth Brother. There’s no need to watch over him deliberately. Just don’t let him cause any major trouble or endanger his life.”

“Second Brother, you’re too serious. He is still of our Wang family bloodline. How could I, as his uncle, let anyone harm him?”

After bidding farewell, Wang Yanzhao took one last look at Wang Hao’s retreating figure before leaving Qingniu Market with the other family members.

After advancing to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, Wang Hao’s speed of refining pills had increased considerably. The three bottles of pills he bought would only last him about five months.

However, during his time at the square, he had managed to obtain quite a few seeds for free by unlocking them in the system. Among them was one called the White Jade Watermelon.

This fruit was notoriously taxing on soil fertility. After planting one crop in an ordinary Tier 1 spirit field, it would take a full year for the land to recover. Therefore, despite its effect of enhancing cultivation, very few forces cultivated it. Calculated by benefit, it was less cost-effective than growing other spiritual herbs for pill refining.

Wang Hao’s farm, however, clearly wasn’t afraid of this issue. The White Jade Watermelon had a short growth cycle and could be harvested in just one year inside the farm, though its medicinal efficacy was somewhat inferior—one watermelon provided about eighty percent of the effect of a Gathering Spirit Pill. Because it required a massive amount of spiritual energy to grow, at most twenty plants could be cultivated per mu of land, and each plant only produced a single melon.

This yield was considered very low. Its medicinal power couldn’t match the Gathering Spirit Pill, nor could its price. Even with its excellent taste as a bonus, the income per mu per year would be at most fifty Spirit Stones.

In comparison, growing Spirit Rice yielded about thirty Spirit Stones per mu per year without the risk of depleting soil fertility. For most cultivators, the choice was obvious.

But Wang Hao didn’t care about the cost. He wanted to minimize external purchases and lower his profile, planning to lie low until he reached the late stage of Qi Refining.

Using White Jade Watermelons to aid his cultivation would be slightly slower than using Gathering Spirit Pills, but advancing to the fifth layer of Qi Refining in about a year wouldn’t be a problem. This cultivation speed was already quite fast—not comparable to a Heavenly Spiritual Root, but faster than some Dual Spiritual Root cultivators without pills. Of course, under equal cultivation conditions, he still wouldn’t match them; talent was talent—nothing could be done about it.

Wang Hao quickly returned to his small courtyard and casually planted the purchased spiritual plants and seeds in the vegetable garden. His few fen of land were also spirit fields; leaving them idle served no purpose.

As for the farm system… seeds from outside couldn’t be taken inside. Wang Hao still had to make a second purchase from the system’s mall. Hmph, fitting for a certain game company’s nature—utterly shameless!

Clicking in to check, he saw that Golden Thread Spirit Apricot seeds cost thirty Spirit Stones—truly extortionate! However, this was a perennial spiritual plant; plant it once and harvest multiple times. Given that Tier 1 spiritual plants had a maximum lifespan of one hundred years (in system terms), this Golden Thread Spirit Apricot tree could survive for ten years in Wang Hao’s farm.

The Spirit Apricot tree would take fifteen years to mature fully and then flower and bear fruit once every five years thereafter. He could harvest seventeen times!

The Wang family’s Golden Thread Spirit Apricot trees only produced five or six fruits per tree each season. The farm system should maximize yield; it might be more, but it likely wouldn’t exceed ten fruits per tree.

After clicking to sow, Wang Hao noticed three seeds arranged in a triangular pattern within that single plot grid. This indicated that one mu of land could grow three Spirit Apricot trees—a quantity sufficient for his cultivation needs once he reached the late stage of Qi Refining.

Therefore, for the remaining three plots of land (one mu each), Wang Hao planted one mu with White Jade Watermelons and chose Spirit Talisman Grass—the most economically efficient crop—for the other two plots to generate income for opening up more land later.

After handling these chores, Wang Hao settled down for another month of dedicated cultivation. The effect of taking pills was much worse than when he was at the third layer of Qi Refining. Back then, using Gathering Spirit Pills allowed him to expand his Dantian capacity by one point in less than three days; now, it took five days.

Moreover, his speed of refining the pills’ energy had also increased; previously, refining one Gathering Spirit Pill took six days, but now it only took five.

This completely invalidated Wang Hao’s previous calculations; the number of pills he needed to break through to the fifth layer had greatly increased!

Although the White Jade Watermelons had matured by now (in his farm), Wang Hao wasn’t overly joyful. He had already refined and consumed one earlier, and its effect was barely satisfactory.

Therefore… alchemy had become an urgent necessity.

Spirit Stones from the farm system couldn’t be taken out physically. The Spirit Apricots still needed over a year to mature. And even if they did mature… wouldn’t he still need Spirit Stones to buy other things?

Magical instruments… talismans… and Foundation Establishment Pills!

Selling large quantities of Spirit Rice or medicinal herbs all at once would easily raise suspicion… not to mention potentially exposing the secret of his farm system. Converting them into pills for sale would be much better. After all, selling raw Spirit Rice or herbs directly to rogue cultivators wasn’t ideal. But pills? Everyone needed those! He just needed to price them slightly lower than the shops… Wouldn’t earning Spirit Stones be as easy as pie?

No sooner said than done! Wang Hao took out the jade slip left by Wang Yanzhao and began studying it carefully.

Wang Yanzhao had given him formulas for three types of Tier 1 pills: the Novice-level Fasting Pill, the Tier 1 Low-Grade Gathering Spirit Pill, and the Tier 1 Mid-Grade Yellow Sprout Pill.

These three formulas weren’t particularly valuable; they could even be found by rummaging through market stalls. Wang Yanzhao probably chose them thinking these pills were simple to refine. Even the Tier 1 Mid-Grade Yellow Sprout Pill only required three types of spiritual herbs.

Alchemy could broadly be divided into three steps: First, refining spiritual herbs into medicinal liquid essence. Second, fusion. Third, pill condensation.

Having fewer required herbs greatly reduced the difficulty in steps one and two.

The jade slip left by Wang Yanzhao not only contained pill formulas and refining method descriptions but also included his own personal insights and experiences—truly thoughtful guidance.

Fasting Pills also came in several varieties. For starting out, Wang Hao chose the simplest type, which required only Spirit Rice as a material.

Having realized the White Jade Watermelon wasn’t suitable for his cultivation needs anymore, Wang Hao stopped planting it long ago. That plot now grew Spirit Rice again! Ten days yielded one hundred jin! Using that for alchemy practice while being frugal should work fine enough temporarily.

Moreover, the Spirit Talisman Grass’s profitability was good enough that within another month, he’d open the next plot. More land meant raw materials naturally wouldn’t be a problem later on.

Qi Refining stage alchemists typically used Earth Fire for refining. Unfortunately, the entire Qingniu Market lacked any Earth Fire veins. To use Earth Fire, one had to go to the Qingyuan Sect, and the rent was expensive! So, Wang Hao had to use Spirit Charcoal instead.