Arriving at the Spiritual Plant field outside the courtyard, he immediately spotted a sword-shaped Spiritual Plant swaying in the wind.
“Sword Qi Grass: First Grade, Early Stage;”
“Spiritual Power: 4;”
“Can be infused, can be plundered.”
He had known about this Sword Qi Grass for a long time; according to its grade, it could grow to Second Grade, Early Stage.
It was considered one of the more valuable Spiritual Objects planted by Jiang Yan.
However, this Sword Qi Grass was of too Low Grade; if sold, it would probably be worth about ten Spirit Stones.
If it were a Second Grade, Early Stage Sword Qi Grass, its value would be at least a thousand or more.
He temporarily did not touch this Sword Qi Grass, as it was his only Spiritual Object at the moment, and he couldn't waste it casually.
Just then, someone knocked on the Formation.
Chen Si smiled, walked over, and opened the protective Formation.
Outside the door was a middle-aged man, “Elder Brother Chen, this is last month's wages and this month's food.”
“Thank you, Brother Wang.” Chen Si flipped his hand, and ten old leaves from the tea tree appeared in his palm, which he slipped into the other party's hand.
The Spiritual Power contained in these leaves was far less than that of new leaves, but they were still worth about half a Spirit Stone.
The middle-aged man, Wang Guangmin, like Chen Si, was an odd-job worker for the Qinghe Society.
“You’re welcome.”
Wang Guangmin quietly put away the leaves, handed over the Spirit Stone bag and parcel in his hand, and then took his leave.
Chen Si closed the Formation, took the items, and returned to the small courtyard.
After sweeping the courtyard again, he moved into the main house.
Counting the Spirit Stones.
He had been here for more than five months and had accumulated fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones, all of which he had saved up.
“It should be enough to buy a Qi Refinement Stage Cultivation Technique.”
The Cultivation Technique he previously Cultivated was called “Ancient Wood Eternal Life Art,” which could be Cultivated up to the Soul Transformation Stage, making it a proper Soul Transformation Stage Cultivation Technique.
It could indeed be sold for a good number of Spirit Stones, but it wasn't something he could do now.
The tea leaves in the Tea Garden could also be sold, but this, too, carried risks.
nurturing spiritual tea was the Qinghe Society's main business; there was no second one in the entire Qingshan Town, so even selling old leaves would easily be discovered.
The amount he gave to Wang Guangmin was very small, only once a month.
Mainly, he was afraid the other party would trip him up, delivering food that was short on weight or deducting his Spirit Stones.
He put all the Spirit Stones into the Spirit Stone bag, changed into clean clothes, and then headed out.
He was going to the free trade market to buy a Low-Grade wood-element Cultivation Technique.
The nearest market was only a quarter of an hour away; he walked leisurely, stopping along the way, and soon arrived at his destination.
Trade markets like this were commonplace in Qingshan Town.
The northern district mostly gathered Qi Refinement Stage Loose Cultivators, so the Cultivators setting up stalls here were naturally of this level.
Chen Si strolled along, and whenever he saw Spiritual Plants or Spirit Medicine at a stall, he would use his Investigation Technique to check if he could find a bargain.
He did not casually sweep with his Divine Sense; this was the market of the Soul Transformation Sect Qingyun Sword Sect, and there might be a Golden Core Immortal Master somewhere, which would only bring trouble upon himself.
After a round of browsing, his luck was not good; he didn't find anything he could pick up as a bargain.
A moment later, he stood before a stall. The stall owner was a young girl of twenty-one or twenty-two, with a pretty face and dark skin. Seeing a customer arrive, her eyes lit up, and she asked, “Fellow Daoist, what do you need?”
On the stall, besides a few books, there were also several Medicinal Pill bottles and a few First Grade Low-Grade Spiritual Plants.
The Medicinal Pill bottles contained Low-Grade Medicinal Pills used by Qi Refining Cultivators to improve their cultivation, yinqi pills.
Chen Si's gaze swept across the stall, and under her eager gaze, he smiled faintly and asked, “How much is the 'Evergreen Skill'?”
The books were all handwritten copies, with only the first three pages. He scanned them with his Divine Sense; although far inferior to the Cultivation Technique he Cultivated before, it was sufficient for use in the Qi Refinement Stage.
“This is a First Grade Mid-Grade Cultivation Technique, with three accompanying skills: Wood Shield Technique, Wood Nail Technique, and Wood Prison Technique. One for defense, one for offense, and one for confinement. It's most suitable for wood-element Spiritual Root Cultivators, and it costs one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.” The young girl seemed afraid of being rejected and hesitated before saying this.
Chen Si shook his head; he only had fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones, enough to buy only half.
“Too expensive. I only need the Cultivation Technique, plus the Wood Nail Technique. Anyway, what you're selling are all handwritten copies. Just tear off the other two techniques. My final offer is forty Low-Grade Spirit Stones.”
The young girl was a bit stunned; it was her first time encountering such a buyer.
Among the three techniques accompanying this Cultivation Technique, the most valuable should be the Wood Prison Technique, which is a relatively rare technique. She didn't expect that the person in front of her would prefer the Wood Nail Technique and discard the more precious Wood Prison Technique.
“Xiaohui, sell it to him.” A middle-aged man walked up from behind the young girl, his face a bit pale, and he was coughing as he spoke, evidently injured.
“Dad, why are you here?” the young girl asked.
“Just came to take a look.” The man came closer, first sized up Chen Si, and then said, “Fellow Daoist, the 'Evergreen Skill' can be sold to you. If you want the remaining two techniques later, you can come back here to find me.”
He took the book from the young girl's hand, flipped through it, tore off the last few pages, and then handed two of those pages along with the book to Chen Si.
“Good!” Chen Si nodded, counted forty Low-Grade Spirit Stones from his Spirit Stone bag, exchanged them for the Cultivation Technique, and directly left the trade market.
After he left, the young girl asked worriedly, “Dad, your injury?”
“It's not serious. With these forty Spirit Stones, I can buy a bottle of Gathering Qi Pill, which should help me Breakthrough to the Late Stage Qi Refinement. After my strength Breakthroughs, my injury should recover by more than half, and then I'll need to slowly recuperate.” The middle-aged man said.
The young girl clearly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly went to help the middle-aged man sit down.
...
After Chen Si bought the Cultivation Technique, he directly left the trade market and returned to Cultivation Garden No. 103.
He entered the Tea Garden, closed the Formation, returned to his room, sat cross-legged on the bed, and began to Cultivate the “Evergreen Skill.”
Starting to Cultivate again, with his previous experience, Chen Si's progress was still very fast.
After one hour, he officially stepped into Qi Refinement First Layer, and one month later, he stepped into Qi Refinement Second Layer.
After reaching Qi Refinement Second Layer, his progress slowed down. He estimated that it would take at least one year to reach Qi Refinement Third Layer.
Extrapolating at this speed, it would take a full three years to reach Qi Refinement Fourth Layer.
This was completely incomparable to his previous rocket-like speed of improvement.
He tried taking a drop of spiritual liquid to Cultivate, but his Cultivation speed only increased by less than ten percent, which was too wasteful.
“It seems that prioritizing the improvement of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root's grade is the most important thing.”
After several months of accumulation, the accumulated Spiritual Power had reached 69 points.
Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root (Wood)
Grade: 1 (0 / 1000);
Spiritual Power: 69;
Skills: 1. Investigation; 2. Plunder; 3. Infusion; 4. Transformation.