After stepping off the fishing dock, Ji An parted ways with Liang Qiu and made his way toward the street market to look for Wei Songnian.
The willows swayed gently by the shore, and Ji An couldn't help but shiver.
Falling into the lake at dusk without dry clothes to change into had left him chilled.
The lake wind cut sharply and cold; after being buffeted for so long, even a body at the third level of Qi Refining had trouble enduring it.
He stopped walking, circulated spiritual power through his limbs and bones a few times, dispersing the cold and restoring warmth to his body.
By now, his robe was half dry. He tidied his hair, tied it back up, and fixed it with a wooden hairpin.
When he finally found Wei Songnian, the man was packing up his stall. His long shadow blocked the light, and he instinctively looked up in surprise.
"Junior Brother, why do you look so bedraggled?"
"A bit of an embarrassing mishap. Best not mentioned," Ji An waved it off and produced a jade bottle still damp with lake water.
"Senior Brother, give me a price."
Originally, he had planned to exchange the Wood Essence Beads at the sect for contribution points. But since the fourth-level spell manuals could be paid for in installments, he decided it was better to trade them for spirit stones.
"What good stuff did Junior Brother get his hands on this time?"
Wei Songnian chuckled as he accepted the jade bottle. He wiped it dry with a cloth, then poured out more than twenty pale green beads the size of longans.
One by one, he raised them to his eye for inspection before remarking flatly:
"Low-grade Wood Essence Beads. Three beads for one spirit crystal."
"So cheap?"
"Your Wood Essence Beads must've been condensed from ordinary plants. Spirit farmers can refine those themselves, so they don't fetch much. They're mainly used to boost spirit grain harvests.
Only Wood Essence Beads refined from higher-tier spirit flora are truly in demand, since they can be used to increase the age of medicinal herbs."
Herb "age" meant medicinal potency. When cultivators spoke of century-old herbs, five-hundred-year herbs, or thousand-year herbs, this was what they referred to.
After all, where could there possibly be so many herbs that had literally grown for hundreds or thousands of years?
Advanced planting techniques, combined with specialized medicinal field formations, could accelerate the "growth" of herbs, thereby increasing their medicinal age.
In the Hundred Arts of cultivation, spirit farming was notoriously difficult to profit from in the early stages. But if one could endure until later, it became highly lucrative.
At that point, even alchemists would lower themselves to court spirit farmers.
Aside from herbs that simply could not be cultivated, most medicinal ingredients were farmed. Relying on the wild to gather them was far too uncertain.
That was why sects and great clans had stable legacies; they had spirit gardens cultivated for generations, ensuring a steady supply of ingredients to refine the pills disciples needed to advance.
Take the Golden Spirit Sect, for example. Though not renowned for alchemy, every few years they could still refine a batch of Foundation Establishment Pills and Origin Nurturing Pills, the crucial medicines for breaking through great realms.
"Well then, Junior Brother, do you want to sell?"
Wei Songnian pressed, his impression of Ji An rising yet again.
In just three months, this fellow had raised two planting spells to the Minor Accomplishment stage, clear proof of his exceptional talent in the field.
Wei had already decided that after the next grain harvest, he would invite Ji An out for drinks to build rapport.
More importantly, he intended to increase his investment.
How much to commit would depend on whether Ji An continued to show such progress in the next three months.
"Sell."
Ji An nodded. These Wood Essence Beads wouldn't be of use until the spirit grain entered its heading stage several dozen days later.
Ordinary jade bottles couldn't seal away spiritual energy; if he kept them, they would eventually turn into useless husks.
"All right then, twenty-three beads in total. I'll give you eight spirit crystals for the lot," Wei Songnian said smoothly.
He poured the Wood Essence Beads into a special jade bottle, his movements practiced and deft.
Low-grade beads didn't contain much wood-type spiritual energy, and the amount was too meager to fetch a good price. Still, if he could collect them in bulk, they might come in handy, especially when the sect's medicinal gardens occasionally fell short of their quota and needed Wood Essence Beads as an emergency boost to improve herb quality.
Even inferior beads, when amassed, could save the day.
"Junior Brother, do you have anything you need to buy soon? If so, best tell me now. In a few days, I'll be traveling outside for ten or fifteen days, hitching a ride on the sect's flying boat to Azurecloud Immortal City to trade some goods."
Ji An shook his head. Even if he wanted to buy something, he had no crystals left.
He cupped his hands respectfully.
"Never thought Senior Brother's trade network stretched this wide, my admiration!"
He had always assumed Wei was just a small-time reseller within the sect. It turned out his business extended beyond its borders. That meant either ability, connections, or both.
"Overpraise," Wei Songnian said with a smiling squint. In truth, the trades in the immortal city were his true source of profit.
...
Tian Qingbai lifted a purple clay teapot, sipped his spirit tea, and shook his head with quiet satisfaction.
He was one hundred and thirty this year, and had only recently broken through to the fourth level of Foundation Establishment.
After taking nearly ten years just to climb from the first to the second level of Foundation Establishment, he had long understood that in this lifetime, no matter how hard he worked, reaching the Origin Ascension stage was nothing but a dream unless fate granted him some heaven-defying chance.
The Golden Spirit Sect had seven or eight hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators. So many people are competing for progress, yet the resources are far too few to go around.
He was only of mid-grade aptitude. Without ample spirit stones, pills, or external aids, advancing further was nothing but wishful thinking.
Remaining within the sect meant safety and stability, but as for great opportunities? That was pure fantasy.
The only way to progress faster was to venture outside and seize chances for himself.
Rare spirit herbs, ancient cultivators' caves, such finds could bring the windfall needed to advance.
But though it sounded simple, going out without plans or clues was no different from courting death.
Countless Foundation Establishment cultivators had hit bottlenecks and ventured out in search of fortune; few ever returned.
Many only saw the lucky few who came back transformed, soaring in strength. Few cared to notice the mountains of bones left on the road of cultivation.
Years had worn down his ambitions. Besides, after half a lifetime of struggle, wasn't it time to enjoy what he had?
So he took more concubines, sired more heirs, and nurtured more "cultivation seeds" for the Tian clan. Even if he couldn't achieve greatness, if his descendants succeeded, that too would count as his accomplishment.
The Affairs Hall was a post most ambitious Foundation Establishment cultivators shunned, as it consumed too much time and offered little progress.
Tian Qingbai, a middling alchemist at best, had taken the job. And once he held the reins, he discovered that if one squeezed carefully, there was plenty of hidden profit.
"Uncle Master, Li Changfeng requests an audience."
"Changfeng? Let him in," Tian Qingbai replied, quickly putting on a mask of stern authority.
"Uncle Master, you were away yesterday. A spirit farmer disciple came to exchange for a fourth-level planting spell manual. I've already recorded his information and brought it for your approval."
Li Changfeng presented a ledger.
"Very good. More seedlings of promise emerging, our sect's prosperity is assured," Tian Qingbai said with a glance.
Inside, though, he was laughing. This post had hidden profits aplenty!
By rule, any disciple who reached Great Accomplishment in a planting spell would earn a fifty-contribution reward from the sect as encouragement. But the disciples themselves never knew about this rule!
All he had to do was stamp approval, and a neat hundred contribution points would fall into his pocket.