My Portable Spirit Farm: Rise of the Humble Servant

Chapter 246: Fond of Teaching Others

His Divine Sense swept outward, catching two familiar auras toiling in the Spirit Fields.

It was thanks to these two providing a steady stream of auxiliary Spirit Grass that Chen Ping didn’t have to constantly commute between the Marketplace and Green Mountain.

Shan Yu and Yao Min.

They were sharp. Ever since Chen Ping casually instructed them to keep his parents company, they had dumped almost all their daily duties at the Spirit Plant Hall onto others, dedicating themselves entirely to serving Chen Dashan and Lin.

Tending the Spirit Fields, serving tea, sweeping the courtyard, and answering basic cultivation questions—they were nothing short of meticulous.

They weren’t fools. They knew that currying favor with the Master’s parents yielded a far greater Return than slaving over mundane Sect missions.

And their Investment had paid off in spades.

Every month, Chen Ping rewarded them with two Top Grade Peiyuan Pills. This was a steady luxury that even core disciples with deep backgrounds couldn’t guarantee.

Consequently, the duo was fiercely loyal, working without a single complaint.

Probing them now, Chen Ping noted their cultivation had advanced significantly. While not yet at a bottleneck, their Qi was dense and their foundations rock-solid.

At this rate, assuming the Pill supply remained constant, they had a genuine shot at reaching Qi Condensation Grand Perfection before hitting forty.

If they reach that point, a pair of Foundation Establishment Pills would be enough to push them into the next realm. Chen Ping’s mind churned with pragmatic calculations.

He couldn’t guard his parents all day. His path required him to leave the mountain and hunt for resources. The two elders needed a reliable shield—both for physical safety and peace of mind.

These two clever disciples were shaping up to be perfect candidates.

Finally, his Divine Sense settled on the Pill Hall’s courtyard, an area specifically carved out for his three youngest apprentices.

It was time to audit their alchemy.

Pushing open the heavy wooden doors of the Pill Hall, Chen Ping found the three teenagers huddled around a bronze Alchemy Furnace that came up to their waists. The air was thick with tension.

Chen Ping’s discarded Tier 2 Top Grade Alchemy Furnace had become their primary training tool.

Wang Lijing, now fifteen, had shot up in height. A fierce, stubborn edge sharpened his youthful features.

He was dead-focused on the furnace fire, his hand seals blurring as he tried to forcefully punch through the critical pill-forming stage with a blast of violent heat.

But a second later, the Qi inside the furnace violently destabilized.

PUFF. A jet of acrid black smoke hissed from the lid’s seams, carrying the bitter stench of charred herbs.

“Failed again!” Wang Lijing slapped his thigh, his face twisting with frustration. “I was right there! If I just pushed the fire a fraction hotter, it would have formed!”

Beside him stood Wang Liqian. Also fifteen, she was blooming into a stunning young woman. Her skin was snow-pale, her features delicate as a painting. Give her a few more years, and she would be the kind of mortal beauty that could topple empires.

She frowned slightly, her voice soft but analytical. “Senior Brother, I don’t think it was the heat. Look at the condensation phase. The medicinal power of the Sinking Star Grass hadn’t completely dissolved before you aggressively added the Crimson Flame Powder. Wasn’t that too rushed? A gentle, simmering fire might have stimulated it properly…”

“What do you know?” Wang Lijing snapped, his temper flaring. “This is a Tier 2 Pill, not some Tier 1 trash! If you don’t push the boundaries and force the breakthrough, you’ll be stuck forever! Following the steps blindly gets you nowhere!”

Xiao Feng, the youngest at fourteen, stood quietly to the side. He still had baby fat on his cheeks, but his eyes were ancient—steady, cold, and carrying a heavy burden that didn’t belong on a child.

He finally spoke, his tone completely flat. “Senior Brother, Senior Sister is right. I’ve studied Master’s alchemy notes. For Tier 2 Pills, he emphasizes ‘harmony’ and ‘timing’ over brute force. The last time I failed, it was because I was impatient and my fire was a fraction too hot during condensation.”

Chen Ping stood in the shadows, listening to them bicker. He didn’t interrupt.

His Divine Sense scanned their cultivation. They were on track.

Wang Lijing sat at the peak of the fifth layer of Qi Condensation, a hairsbreadth from the sixth. He was the strongest of the three.

Wang Liqian and Xiao Feng were both steadily in the mid-stage of the fifth layer.

As for their Alchemist skills, they had made massive strides.

Wang Lijing had the highest innate talent. He had a visceral, instinctual feel for medicinal properties and fire control. But he was impatient and addicted to high-risk gambles, making his success rate wildly erratic. On a good day, he could successfully refine Peiyuan Pills forty percent of the time. On a bad day, he couldn’t even hit thirty.

Wang Liqian was less naturally gifted but far more cerebral. She had a delicate, highly observant approach to alchemy, catching subtle shifts in the furnace that the others missed. Her success rate with Peiyuan Pills was a perfectly stable thirty percent.

Xiao Feng was the least talented, but his execution was chillingly methodical. He was cautious, steady, and refused to take unnecessary risks. Because of this mechanical perfection, he actually had the highest success rate, occasionally breaching forty-five percent.

Chen Ping stepped into the light. He walked over to the Alchemy Furnace, scooped up a handful of the charred dregs, and flipped through their logbook. The problem was obvious.

“Refining a Tier 2 Pill is not like the Tier 1 Pills you are Proficient with,” Chen Ping’s cold voice echoed through the hall. “The medicinal power is volatile. The reactions are violent. The margin of error for timing, fire control, Qi input, and Divine Sense manipulation is razor-thin.”

The three disciples jumped, instantly bowing in deep respect. “Master!”

Chen Ping ignored the pleasantries. “Lijing, you value speed but operate with reckless impatience. Liqian, you are observant but paralyzed by caution. Xiao Feng, you are steady but lack the ruthlessness to make split-second gambles. You all have glaring strengths and fatal flaws.”

He let the silence hang for a moment. “Becoming a Tier 2 Alchemist is not a day’s work. It requires burying yourself under a mountain of Spirit Grass, failing thousands of times, and bleeding from your mistakes. There are no shortcuts.”

Watching their faces fall, Chen Ping added a sliver of encouragement. “However, if the three of you learn to cover each other’s blind spots, stepping into the ranks of Tier 2 Alchemists is inevitable.”

The three immediately bowed lower. “We will remember Master’s teachings.”

Chen Ping nodded. Not entirely hopeless. “As for the materials, do not hesitate to burn through them. Your Master may lack many things, but Spirit Grass is not one of them.”

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed a heavy Storage Bag onto the floor.

It landed with a heavy thud. Inside were three hundred portions of True Essence Grass.

The three teenagers gasped, their faces lighting up with pure shock and gratitude. “Thank you, Master!”

Chen Ping wasn’t exaggerating. The True Essence Grass in his Jade Pendant space was growing at a monstrous rate. Before the upgrade, harvesting eighty to a hundred portions a month felt like a fortune. Now, with the temporal acceleration sitting at one hundred and fifty times the outside world, he was pulling nearly three hundred highly potent portions every thirty days.

It was an obscene amount of wealth. Forget three apprentices; this stash could comfortably bankroll the daily practice of ten veteran Tier 2 Alchemists.

“Failure is the mother of success,” Chen Ping instructed, his tone turning strict. “Every time that furnace fails, I want to know exactly why. Was it the fire? The sequence? Uneven Qi? Weak Divine Sense? Document it. Analyze it. Fix it.”

He looked at the burning determination in their eyes. “With this level of resources backing you, your ascension is merely a matter of time. Do not let temporary setbacks break your spirit, and do not let this wealth make you lazy.”

“Yes, Master!” they shouted in unison, their fighting spirit blazing like the furnace fire.