Three years passed in the blink of an eye. At twenty-three, Wang Hao had grown even more handsome and striking, his demeanor efficient and steady.

“Open panel!”

Name: Wang Hao

Age: 23

Cultivation: Qi Refining Layer 6 (299 / 380)

Cultivation Technique: Red Lotus Illusory Wood True Scripture (Layer 2)

Spiritual Power: 298 / 298

Skills:

Alchemy: Tier 1 High-Grade

Talisman Crafting: Tier 1 Low-Grade

Spells: Fireball Technique (Grandmaster), Entangling Vine Technique (Grandmaster), Wood Shield Technique (Grandmaster), Pulling Technique (Grandmaster), Light Body Technique (Grandmaster)

Divine Abilities: You have not yet mastered any divine abilities.

Over three years, his strength had steadily progressed. Due to his frequent practice of spells, his spiritual power had become more refined, making the breakthrough to the sixth layer even simpler than reaching the fifth.

Six of his spells had reached the Grandmaster level, while his alchemy skill had advanced to Tier 1 High-Grade. He could now refine Yellow Dragon Pills.

Furthermore, he had begun his journey in talisman crafting, though he could only draw basic talismans like Evil-Warding Talismans and Cleansing Talismans. To make money from it, he needed to at least reach Tier 1 Mid-Grade to produce offensive and defensive items like Fireball Talismans.

Regarding the farm, sixteen plots of land had now been opened up, more than half of the total. Eight plots were upgraded to Red Soil. If he used the farm’s full output for profit, even planting only Spirit Rice would yield 7,200 jin per month, equivalent to 720 low-grade Spirit Stones. Planting higher-value spirit grass for talismans would double that number. Planting Tier 2 spiritual plants on the Red Soil would be even more valuable!

Unfortunately, Qingniu Market couldn’t absorb that much spirit grass. Moreover, Wang Hao wouldn’t do that anyway. Eighty percent of the farm’s output was still used for subsequent upgrades, fifteen percent for alchemy and talisman crafting, and only the remaining five percent was exchanged for Spirit Stones by Wang Hao. Even so, Wang Hao still earned nearly a hundred Spirit Stones per month.

Part of these Spirit Stones was used to maintain the operation of the Spirit Gathering Formation, part was used to purchase talismans in preparation for travel, and the rest was entirely consumed by his spirit beast!

The spirit beast egg he obtained two years ago had successfully hatched and did not disappoint Wang Hao. It was a Golden-Eyed Duck—a duck with wings that could fly. Wang Hao’s knowledge was limited; he couldn’t discern its origins or whether it could grow to become a Tier 2 beast.

Even if it were just a Tier 1 flying spirit beast, its value would exceed one hundred and twenty Spirit Stones.

Qi Refining cultivators couldn’t fly, but a flying spirit beast could serve as transportation and even save one’s life at critical moments!

Unlike Han Laomo’s “Weeping Soul Beast,” which was difficult to raise, the Golden-Eyed Duck wasn’t hard to care for—it just had a big appetite. Every morning, it would bang its food bowl to wake Wang Hao up.

Its incessant quacking was quite annoying. Later, Wang Hao bought a Spirit Beast Pouch and usually kept it inside to avoid disturbing his rest.

Moreover, it was picky about food. It didn’t eat much Spirit Rice, preferring meat and spirit fruits. A duck eating meat—Wang Hao found it quite peculiar.

Demonic beast meat wasn’t scarce in Qingniu Market, but it cost more than twice as much as Spirit Rice. The Golden-Eyed Duck ate once every three or four days, consuming at least twenty jin each time. That amounted to forty Spirit Stones per month—a cost most people truly couldn’t bear.

It was feeding time again. Wang Hao released the Golden-Eyed Duck from the Spirit Beast Pouch.

A duck nearly five chi tall appeared before him—its body entirely black except for its golden eyes. Seeing Wang Hao, it let out two “quacks” and affectionately rubbed its head against him.

A spirit beast hatched by one’s own hand is naturally close to its master. Spirit beasts captured in the wild obey cultivators only due to restrictive seals. Once their level surpasses their master’s, there is a risk of them devouring their master. Those hatched from infancy have a much lower chance of doing so.

Without this limitation, those high-level demonic beasts would have long been subdued by major sects and factions to serve as mountain-guarding spirit beasts.

Spirit beasts have much longer lifespans than cultivators. Even Tier 1 beasts can live four to five hundred years; Tier 2 beasts can live for millennia. Correspondingly, their growth is extremely slow.

After being raised by Wang Hao on demonic beast meat for two years, apart from growing larger in size, the Golden-Eyed Duck remained at Tier 1 Low-Rank with no signs of advancing. A Tier 1 Low-Rank flying spirit beast has poor load-bearing capacity and cannot yet serve as a mount. Currently, it offered no help to Wang Hao, but Wang Hao believed the Golden-Eyed Duck would advance one day.

Wang Hao took out a large piece of demonic beast meat. The Golden-Eyed Duck immediately flapped its wings excitedly and quacked.

“Glutton, I hope you’ll be useful someday!”

“Quack quack!” As if responding to Wang Hao, the duck quacked twice more.

Wang Hao gave it the meat. After eating and drinking its fill, it scurried around the courtyard playing. Wang Hao allowed it to frolic for a while before putting it back into the Spirit Beast Pouch.

At that moment, Wang Hao noticed the restriction outside his door had been triggered. Opening the door, he found two young people wearing Wang family robes—a man and a woman, both around twenty years old.

The man had thick eyebrows and big eyes with a robust build, resembling a body-refining cultivator. The woman was petite with a round face and large eyes that blinked charmingly—extremely cute.

“What business do you two have with me?” Wang Hao asked.

The male cultivator looked somewhat awkward; he moved his lips but didn’t speak for a long while.

It was the young woman who spoke first. “Fifth Brother, we are both family cultivators. I am Wang Wenmei, ranked ninth among our generation. Fifth Brother can call me Ninth Sister.” She then pointed at the burly man. “This is Seventh Brother, Wang Wenzhi.”

Seeing Wang Wenmei speak up, Wang Wenzhi also bowed in greeting. “Greetings, Fifth Brother.”

“Fifth Brother?” Wang Hao was full of confusion. In earlier years, the original owner was disliked by the Wang family. After he arrived, he rarely interacted with them either. Apart from Wang Yanfeng and Old Wang, no one from the Wang family had actively contacted Wang Hao until now. What was going on today?

“Fifth Brother’s age ranks fifth among our ‘Wen’ character generation; naturally, you are our Fifth Brother!” Wang Wenmei explained.

One doesn’t strike someone who comes with a smile on their face. Since these two were calling him Fifth Brother so politely, there was no need for Wang Hao to give them a cold shoulder anyway—the grievances were with those former Wang family leaders from back then; they had little to do with these juniors here today.

But just because they called him ‘brother,’ did that mean he should consider himself part of their family? He certainly wasn’t that cheap!

Thus, he asked indifferently, “What matter brings you two here?”

As if they had received instructions beforehand, seeing his cold tone, they didn’t make trouble. Instead, they clasped their hands respectfully. “Fifth Brother, Second Uncle has now become a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Next month, there will be a Foundation Establishment Ceremony. We are here to invite you!”

“Foundation Establishment Ceremony?”

So Old Wang really did establish his foundation. Thoughts began churning in his mind. He himself was already at the sixth layer of Qi Refining. The Red Lotus Illusory Wood True Scripture only contained the first two layers… Obtaining the subsequent parts of this cultivation method had become an urgent matter. He definitely needed to meet the Old Man. This might be an opportunity! But some things still needed clarifying, lest he fall into someone else’s trap.

“Is inviting me the Old Man’s idea?”

“Old Man is…?”

“That would be… Wang Yanzhao!” Wang Hao explained calmly.

Both visitors were visibly shocked—calling one’s own father ‘Old Man’? They truly hadn’t seen such behavior before. It took them a good moment to recover their composure before replying awkwardly, “Oh, yes, yes indeed. Second Uncle sent us to invite Fifth Brother… In ten days, the stationed cultivators within the market will also return to the mountain to rotate shifts… Fifth Brother can go together with them!”

“Will Eighth Uncle also return to the mountain?”

“Yes, indeed. Eighth Uncle has been close friends with Second Uncle since childhood, so he naturally will return to offer congratulations.”

“Alright, understood then. In ten days, I will go to the pill shop to meet up with Eighth Uncle. My place is a bit messy, so I won’t entertain you two further. Please take care of yourselves. Goodbye!” With that, he closed the door behind him.

Left standing outside the door, the two stared at each other blankly. An awkward smile spread across Wang Wenmei’s face as she muttered softly, “This Fifth Brother is really quite unusual, huh…”

Wang Wenzhi, feeling indignant, snorted quietly and muttered under his breath, “Hmph, we came to speak so politely, yet his attitude is like that. Truly makes people…”

“Seventh Brother, careful with your words please! Second Uncle is now a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Moreover, he dotes greatly upon this Fifth Brother!”

“I didn’t say anything wrong… His attitude is just bad…” Wang Wenzhi pouted his lips but ultimately dared not utter anything truly offensive.

Wang Wenmei sighed softly and advised gently, “Seventh Brother, try to put yourself in his shoes. Think about it—if you were Fifth Brother, abandoned by the family since childhood, living alone in this market for over twenty years, wouldn’t you harbor resentment in your heart?”

“Sigh, how could I not know? But we two didn’t provoke him either!”

“We belong to the family. Since childhood, we were supported by family resources and guided by elders… Look, what does Fifth Brother have? He doesn’t even own a decent set of robes! How could he possibly feel goodwill towards the two of us? Not speaking harsh words already shows his broad-mindedness!” Recalling the tattered robes just now, Wang Wenmei sighed sympathetically.

Wang Wenzhi immediately fell silent too. He nodded slowly and said quietly, “Yes… I heard Fifth Brother actually has Five Spiritual Roots, yet just now, I sensed his aura clearly. He’s already at the sixth layer of Qi Refining. He must practice extremely diligently daily…”

Both felt a mix of heartache and admiration! Simultaneously, they felt ashamed of themselves for having such favorable conditions yet not knowing to work hard and cultivate diligently.