My Portable Spirit Farm: Rise of the Humble Servant

Chapter 171: One Hundred and Five Times

In the center of the Pill Hall stood a masterpiece of metallurgy and alchemical art—the Rank 2 Top-grade Alchemy Furnace, the “Red Sun Cauldron.”

Its surface was etched with complex, glowing spirit patterns that pulsed with a rhythmic heat. To acquire this treasure at the start of the year, Chen Ping had gutted his savings, dropping nearly 20,000 Spirit Stones.

But every single stone was worth it.

This wasn’t just a metal pot; it was a precision instrument. Its embedded Formations stabilized the flow of Qi and micro-adjusted the internal temperature, handling the heavy lifting of thermal control. For an Alchemist, it was the difference between driving a cart and piloting a starship. It drastically simplified the refining process for Rank 2 and Rank 3 pills.

Chen Ping sat cross-legged on the cushion before the furnace, purging his mind of distractions.

He activated the Earth Fire Formation. A jet of terrestrial flame roared to life, preheating the cauldron. Although he had initiated the True Fire chapter of his cultivation method, his internal flame was still too unstable for high-stakes alchemy. The Earth Fire, drawn from the Spirit Vein itself, was reliable.

He began feeding the processed True Essence Grass and auxiliary herbs into the chamber.

As his Divine Sense expanded to envelop the furnace, he felt a level of control he had never experienced before. The Red Sun Cauldron’s auxiliary arrays synced with his will, maintaining a delicate equilibrium within the reaction chamber.

Time dissolved into the rhythm of the fire.

Two days and two nights passed without sleep or rest.

Chen Ping processed ten sets of materials. The result was six successful batches.

And the quality was terrifying.

Every single successful batch was a “Full Batch”—nine pills, no waste.

Even more shocking, every batch consistently produced three Top-grade True Essence Pills.

The remaining six were all High-grade.

Final Tally: 54 True Essence Pills. Breakdown: 18 Top-grade, 36 High-grade.

Chen Ping held a crystal-clear pill up to the light, a surge of satisfaction swelling in his chest.

Eighteen Top-grade pills from a single session. This efficiency, this success rate, and this quality were leagues beyond his past performance.

At this rate, by next year, as the True Essence Grass Tree continued to mature, his probability of refining Top-grade pills could exceed 80%.

He had secured the material foundation for his upcoming power-leveling session.

But Chen Ping knew the cauldron wasn’t the only factor. The true MVP was the Tree Heart.

The wisdom enhancement had fundamentally altered his approach to alchemy. His mind was now a supercomputer running real-time simulations.

Before he even opened the furnace, he could deduce the optimal herb sequence, the exact thermal nodes, and the rhythm of True Essence injection.

During the process, if a reaction deviated by even a fraction, his mind instantly flagged the error. Fire intensity spiked by 0.5%? Corrected. Fusion timing delayed by half a breath? Adjusted. True Essence injection unstable? Stabilized.

It was a cycle of “Precise Review” and “Efficient Correction.” The Tree Heart allowed him to learn from mistakes instantaneously, bypassing years of trial and error.

Chen Ping counted his stash. With the 18 new pills and the 10 he had saved previously, he now held 28 Top-grade True Essence Pills.

Enough for a full cycle.

He didn’t hesitate. He sealed the Pill Hall, activated every defensive Restriction, and declared secluded cultivation.

It was time to answer the burning question: What happens when you combine the Whale Swallowing Technique with Top-grade resources?

Chen Ping sat cross-legged and swallowed a Top-grade True Essence Pill.

The pill melted instantly, exploding into a torrential river of pure, warm energy that flooded his meridians.

Chen Ping’s eyes snapped open. Now.

He triggered the Whale Swallowing Technique.

In an instant, his body transformed into a bottomless black hole.

The ambient Qi in the room screamed as it was dragged toward him, forming a small, visible vortex that swirled around his frame.

Inside his body, the effect was even more violent. The Whale Swallowing Technique tore into the pill’s energy, refining it with brutal efficiency. The medicinal power surged through him like two violent rivers converging, crashing through his meridians, being purified and compressed at a speed that defied logic.

The roaring torrent transformed into liquid True Essence, pouring into his Dantian like a waterfall filling a reservoir.

One Month Later.

The Restrictions guarding the cave dwelling flickered and faded.

Chen Ping stepped out.

His eyes opened and closed, revealing flashes of restrained light. His aura was heavier, denser—like a compressed spring ready to snap.

The 28 Top-grade True Essence Pills were gone. They had fueled exactly one month of non-stop, high-intensity cultivation.

Chen Ping sat on a large rock outside his cave, running the numbers. Even he, the one who had just lived through it, was shaken by the results.

Factor 1: The Pill Multiplier. Through direct testing, Chen Ping confirmed that one Top-grade True Essence Pill was equivalent to three ordinary True Essence Pills in terms of potency. An ordinary pill increased his base cultivation speed by roughly 5x. Therefore, a Top-grade pill provided a 15x speed boost compared to meditation without pills.

Factor 2: The Whale Swallowing Multiplier. His mastery of the Whale Swallowing Technique was at the peak of the “Novice” stage. Normally, digesting a pill took time. But with this technique, he could consume three Top-grade pills in a single day, then spend two days expelling the minor toxins. This throughput was insane. He calculated that the technique amplified the pill absorption speed by another 7x.

The Final Calculation: 15 (Pill Factor) × 7 (Technique Factor) = 105.

Chen Ping sucked in a cold breath of air.

105 times the normal cultivation speed.

It was a number that broke the rules of the cultivation world.

He remembered the struggle of his initial Foundation Establishment. Based on standard progression, going from Level 1 to Level 2 without pills would take a cultivator with his aptitude roughly 30 years. That was 10,950 days of boring meditation.

But with his cheat codes activated? 10,950 days ÷ 105 ≈ 104 days.

Three and a half months.

He had just spent one month in seclusion. That single month was equivalent to 8.5 years of bitter, unassisted cultivation.

According to his internal sense, he only needed one more month of seclusion to break through to Foundation Establishment Level 2. It would happen naturally, like water flowing into a canal.

Chen Ping stood in silence for a long time.

“Is this… is this the shortcut provided by wealth and forbidden techniques?”

He muttered to himself, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards until they formed a grin.

“This shortcut… is almost cheating.”

The heavy mountain of pressure that had been crushing him—the fear that three years wouldn’t be enough for the Grand Competition—evaporated instantly.

As long as he could keep the pills coming, he wouldn’t just participate in the tournament. He would dominate it.

Level 2 was days away. Mid-stage Foundation Establishment… or even higher… was no longer a dream. It was a schedule.

“Time to refine more pills.”

Chen Ping smiled.