Rise of the Wang Clan: Starting with a Portable Farm

Chapter 12: Setting Up a Stall

Spring passed, and autumn came. In the blink of an eye, a year had flown by.

During this year, Wang Hao’s cultivation had progressed significantly; he was now not far from the fifth layer of Qi Refining. Logically, he should have continued his seclusion to attempt a breakthrough. However, the date for the Foundation Establishment Pill auction was approaching, and the marketplace had become much more bustling. Wang Hao decided to go out and join the excitement, hoping he might be able to gather some of the spirit herbs needed to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill.

Additionally, the auction wouldn’t just feature Foundation Establishment Pills; there would be plenty of other good items. He needed to exchange for some Spirit Stones in advance to prepare!

Over the past year, he had made little progress in the art of talisman making. The reason was simple: in both his past and present lives, he had zero experience using a calligraphy brush. The very first hurdle—tracing and copying runes—would waste a massive amount of time, and time was exactly what Wang Hao lacked the most. He could only set it aside temporarily. If his cultivation stagnated once he reached the late stage of Qi Refining, he could then practice talisman making while searching for the herbs required for the Foundation Establishment Pill.

While talisman making was a bust, his alchemy skills had improved by leaps and bounds. Once his success rate with Fasting Pills reached sixty percent, he began attempting to refine Gathering Spirit Pills. After dozens of failures, he finally succeeded. Now, he no longer needed to purchase pills for his cultivation. Relying solely on the farm’s output to refine Gathering Spirit Pills was more than enough for his own use, leaving a considerable surplus. Over this period, he had accumulated over thirty bottles of Gathering Spirit Pills, which could be exchanged for nearly a thousand Spirit Stones.

The farm now had nine plots of land. One was occupied by the Golden Thread Spirit Apricot tree, and three were planted with herbs for Gathering Spirit Pills. Of the remaining five plots, aside from occasionally using one to grow Spirit Rice for his own consumption, he planted Spirit Talisman Grass in all of them, utilizing its high-profit margins to continuously unlock more space.

The cost of unlocking land was constantly rising. The tenth plot required 1,075 Spirit Stones. He had already figured out the pattern; it involved an arithmetic progression. The unlocking price for the $n$-th plot of land equaled the price of the previous plot plus $25(n-2)$. Moreover, after unlocking the sixth plot, the option to upgrade to Red Soil became available. The first upgrade cost 500 Spirit Stones, and the second required 700.

He had already upgraded one plot, and the effects were stellar. It could grow Tier 2 crops, and the maturation time was accelerated. Wang Hao had tested it once by planting Spirit Rice. The conclusion was that it was twice as fast as normal land, meaning the time flow was twenty times that of reality!

This shifted Wang Hao’s mindset. As long as the price of unlocking new land was higher than upgrading to Red Soil, it was far less cost-effective than just upgrading. Unfortunately, he had been too busy with cultivation and alchemy to notice this earlier, wasting a lot of Spirit Stones for nothing. Otherwise, he would have three plots of Red Soil by now!

After checking his belongings, Wang Hao left his residence. The Foundation Establishment Pill auction, held once every twenty years, had a massive impact on the Qingniu Market. Just a month before the auction, the foot traffic in the market surged drastically, with the permanent population of over ten thousand swelling to nearly fifty thousand.

Most of these people weren’t here for the Foundation Establishment Pill; they just wanted to take advantage of the crowds to sell off their goods!

Wang Hao first headed to the Wang family’s pill shop and directly sought out Wang Yanfeng, selling him ten bottles of Gathering Spirit Pills. Selling any more would be risky. Being a Tier 1 Mid-Grade Alchemist was one thing, but explaining where the spirit herbs came from would be difficult.

Naturally, Wang Yanfeng offered him some earnest words of encouragement.

However, Wang Hao hadn’t come for a lecture. He wanted to tag along with Wang Yanfeng to the auction.

So, choosing his words carefully, he asked, “Eighth Uncle, has the family decided on the candidates to attend the auction?”

“Hmm? You want to go to the auction?” Wang Yanfeng shook his head gently and scolded with a smile, “I was wondering why you came to see your Eighth Uncle today. So you had an ulterior motive all along! It seems I was just flattering myself.”

Wang Hao hurriedly apologized. “How could that be, Eighth Uncle? You know me; my mind is completely set on cultivation now. I haven’t stepped out of my door for a whole year, and the moment I finished my seclusion, I came straight to you. As for the auction, your nephew merely wishes to broaden his horizons.”

Wang Yanfeng smiled and nodded slightly. “That’s true. Your father previously urged me to keep a close eye on you. But you’ve been so good you haven’t even left your house, saving your Eighth Uncle a lot of trouble. Alright then. I happen to be attending the auction representing the Wang family shop anyway, so you can stick with me. The auction starts in five days. Don’t go out on that day; I’ll send someone to fetch you!”

“Then I thank you, Eighth Uncle.” Wang Hao cupped his hands in a bow, then added, “Eighth Uncle, the market is currently bustling, and your nephew was hoping to go buy some spirit herbs…”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Wang Yanfeng interrupted him, “Alright, alright. You’ve been cooped up for over a year, so your old habits are acting up again, right? Go take a stroll. Seeing as your temperament has become quite steady, just don’t cause any trouble!”

“I definitely won’t cause you any trouble, Eighth Uncle,” Wang Hao excused himself and left the shop!

A quarter of an hour later, he arrived at a massive square entirely covered with small stalls.

Setting up a stall in the square didn’t require rent, but it was currently packed to the brim. Finding an empty spot was no easy task for Wang Hao.

The stalls were filled with a dazzling array of goods of all varieties, including quite a few bizarre and unusual items. However, the vast majority were still Tier 1 Spirit Rice, Tier 1 crafting materials, Tier 1 pills, Tier 1 talismans, and Tier 1 spirit herbs. There weren’t many truly good items, and everything was jumbled together. Searching for things one by one would be highly troublesome. Since looking for things himself was a hassle, he decided to let the people come to him.

After observing for just a short while, Wang Hao got the general gist of how transactions between rogue cultivators worked. It was no different from a vegetable market in his past life, except the currency had been replaced with Spirit Stones.

But the key rule was “all sales are final.” If you picked up a hidden gem, it was your good luck; if you bought a dud, don’t go looking for trouble!

After walking a full circle without finding a single empty spot, Wang Hao had no choice but to give a rogue cultivator two Spirit Stones to buy out his space!

He took out a pre-written wooden sign and placed it in front of him. It read: “Gathering Spirit Pills, exchanging for and purchasing various Tier 1 and Tier 2 spirit herb seeds or live plants!”

As soon as the stall was set up, a continuous stream of people came to ask for prices. Initially, Wang Hao sold a few bottles of Gathering Spirit Pills cheaply, but he soon realized that this crowd only wanted to buy with Spirit Stones and didn’t possess any rare seeds. So, he changed his conditions. Trade only, no sales!

The crowd surrounding Wang Hao’s stall immediately thinned out. A few people who failed to take advantage of the cheap prices complained quite a bit. However, with the market’s law enforcement personnel watching from the edge of the square, they didn’t dare do anything and could only mutter a few curses under their breath before shaking their heads and leaving.

“Fellow Daoist, what is the price for these Gathering Spirit Pills?” A soft, gentle female voice rang out, sounding incredibly pleasant to the ear.

Wang Hao looked up and found a young woman of seventeen or eighteen standing before him. She wore a yellow ruqun, her skin was as white as snow, her face was like a peach blossom, and her eyes resembled a pool of clear water.

Since arriving in this world, it was the first time Wang Hao had seen such a beautiful woman, and he was momentarily stunned.

“Fellow Daoist? Are you selling these pills or not?” Being stared at by Wang Hao, the woman’s expression tightened, and her tone turned cold.

Wang Hao snapped back to reality and hurriedly restrained his expression. He wasn’t the original Wang Hao; he couldn’t make this kind of mistake. Women would only affect the speed of his cultivation!

“Oh, naturally I’m selling them, but the price isn’t any cheaper than the shops. If you, miss, have any rare spirit herb seeds or live plants, trading would be much more cost-effective!”

“Then how do we trade?”

“That depends on what kind of seeds you can produce, miss. If they are ordinary goods, there’s no need. I only trade for relatively rare ones, such as spirit herb seeds related to the Foundation Establishment Pill! If you can take them out, we can trade pills based on their value! I can pay a premium for rare ones,” Wang Hao introduced.