At Bifeng Academy.
“Ouyang Jinyue left?” Mo Bei asked.
Ouyang Jing nodded. “Yes!” She had originally wanted to use this opportunity to establish a relationship with Ouyang Jinyue, but unfortunately, Ouyang Jinyue was very guarded and didn’t take her seriously at all.
Thinking about Ouyang Jinyue, Ouyang Jing couldn’t help but sigh – comparing people really could drive you to death.
They were both from the Ouyang family, but that girl could get whatever she wanted – wind if she wanted wind, rain if she wanted rain. Yet she had to fight for any resources herself and was looked down upon everywhere.
“Isn’t that Xiao Jingting?” Ouyang Jing looked into the distance with surprise.
Mo Bei nodded. “Yes! Xiao Qingyan’s younger brother. He doesn’t seem to be a student of Bifeng Academy – what’s he doing here?”
“Could he have come to the wrong place?” Ouyang Jing said.
Though Xiao Jingting had great luck and advanced to the seventh layer of Qi Refining, he was already so old that the academy definitely wouldn’t accept him.
“I heard that Xiao Jingting’s son bought a stone that didn’t look very good and gambled out a spirit medicine silkworm, earning over ten Spirit Stones and forming a good relationship with a Foundation Establishment cultivator.” Mo Bei said.
Ouyang Jing nodded. “Yes!”
She had happened to be nearby when Xiao Xiaofan gambled out the spirit silkworm.
Ouyang Jing had always felt stone gambling wasn’t good, but seeing Xiao Xiaofan, just a child, gamble out such valuable things, she had taken some money to try a small gamble. Unfortunately, she didn’t win anything, and watching her hard-saved money just disappear like that made Ouyang Jing feel terrible.
“Xiao Jingting really has good luck!” Mo Bei said.
Ouyang Jing nodded with deep agreement. “Indeed!”
During the previous competition, people from the Marquis Manor had said that Xiao Jingting and Xiao Jinfeng both advancing to the seventh layer of Qi Refining might have been due to obtaining great opportunities in the secret realm. He really had deep fortune!
Xiao Jingting was carrying Xiao Xiaofan when suddenly two people blocked his path.
“Do you two need something?” Xiao Jingting looked up at Ouyang Jing and Mo Bei.
“Xiao Jingting, you shouldn’t be a student of our Bifeng Academy, right? What are you doing here?” Mo Bei asked. Seeing Xiao Jingting made Mo Bei feel very uncomfortable – this second-generation heir had reached the sky in one step through luck and was also at the seventh layer of Qi Refining. His own cultivation, which he took such pride in, held no advantage at all.
Xiao Jingting glanced at Mo Bei. “I rented the academy’s earth fire chamber. Bifeng Academy gave me a token.”
Mo Bei said with some surprise, “You rented an earth fire chamber?”
Xiao Jingting nodded. “Yes!”
“Do you still have the Spirit Stones that senior gave you? I’ll pay thirty thousand taels each to buy them from you.” Mo Bei said.
Xiao Jingting was stunned for a moment, then laughed. Was this guy Mo Bei taking him for an idiot? Spirit Stones had a market price of around sixty thousand taels of silver. In fact, you couldn’t even buy them at that price. Cultivators above the seventh layer of Qi Refining rarely needed silver anymore – they dealt in spirit jade and Spirit Stones. If he took Spirit Stones to the black market, selling one for a hundred thousand taels wouldn’t be difficult.
“Sorry, I’ve already used them all.” Xiao Jingting said.
Mo Bei frowned, his expression showing some displeasure. “Brother Xiao, you used them so quickly! So many Spirit Stones should last quite a while even for eighth layer Qi Refining, right?”
Xiao Jingting smiled bitterly. “No choice! I can’t control myself. Whenever I see good things, I want to buy them, so I spent all the Spirit Stones.”
Xiao Jingting didn’t really want to deal with Mo Bei. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he took Xu Mu’an and his two sons to the earth fire chamber.
…
Xiao Jingting spent one hundred fifty thousand taels to rent an ordinary earth fire chamber.
The earth fire chamber was divided into a fire room and a rest room. The rest room was pitifully small.
“Just this little space costs fifty thousand taels of silver per month.” Xiao Jingting shook his head.
Bifeng Academy had over a hundred earth fire chambers! If they were all rented out, that would be five million taels of silver per month! Uh, he heard that premium earth fire chambers cost even more.
Xu Mu’an smiled. “This is Bifeng Academy – property in the academy district is more expensive.”
Xiao Jingting nodded, finding this very reasonable. This was school district housing! How could school district housing not be expensive?
Xiao Xiaofan looked with interest at the flames emerging from the fire room. “Daddy, are we going to stay here for three months?”
Xiao Jingting nodded. “Yes!”
Xiao Xiaofan scratched his head with some distress. “I see!”
Xiao Jingting looked at Xiao Xiaodong. “The fire elements in the fire room are quite concentrated. Since you and your brother are young, you shouldn’t stay too long. Watch your brother and try to take him outside to cultivate.”
Xiao Xiaodong nodded. “I understand.”
Xiao Jingting looked at Xiao Xiaofan thoughtfully. The fire elements in the fire room were quite concentrated, and Xiao Jingting could see tiny red specks falling on Xiao Xiaofan and entering his body. Xiao Jingting squinted – his youngest son’s constitution seemed somewhat special. He was automatically absorbing spiritual energy without even circulating cultivation techniques.
It was said that besides pill refining, pill refining chambers could also help fire-element cultivators in their cultivation. However, the fire elements in earth fire were quite violent, so one couldn’t cultivate there for extended periods.
…
Xu Mu’an studied the jade slip in his hands with great interest. The jade slip recorded some of Wang Huacheng’s pill refining insights.
Previously, Xiao Jingting and Xiao Jinfeng had discovered the cave mansion left by Wang Huacheng during their adventure, which allowed them to advance to the seventh layer of Qi Refining. Xiao Jingting had obtained Wang Huacheng’s pill refining insights at the time, but being busy with cultivation then, he hadn’t paid attention to it. Only now was he taking it out to study.
Alchemists were all very prestigious. Xu Mu’an had heard many legends about alchemists since childhood, so when Xiao Jingting said he wanted to learn pill refining together with him, Xu Mu’an was first incredulous, then overjoyed.
Xiao Jingting took out a pile of spirit herbs from his jade pendant space.
“Let’s begin.”
Xu Mu’an said happily, “Alright!”
Xu Mu’an and Xiao Jingting each held a pill furnace and began refining pills.
The pill refining process was very tedious, and they could only slowly explore. Fortunately, there were plenty of spirit herbs in the jade pendant space, so Xiao Jingting didn’t need to worry about the consequences of failure.
Looking at the pile of spirit herbs beside the pill furnace, Xu Mu’an couldn’t help but feel his heart flutter.
…
At Bifeng Academy.
“Brother Mo Bei, I heard that the person who gambled out the spirit medicine silkworm rented an earth fire chamber for three months.” Pei Song said.
Mo Bei nodded. “There is such a thing.”
“This guy Xiao Jingting really is wealthy and generous!” Pei Song said.
Mo Bei nodded. “Indeed!”
Pei Song had seventh layer Qi Refining cultivation and had been stuck at this level for six years. The stronger one became, the more intense the competition for resources.
After Xiao Jingting gambled out the spirit medicine silkworm, Pei Song had set his sights on him. Pei Song had originally contacted several people, planning to intercept Xiao Jingting when he left the city. The Pei family also had Foundation Establishment cultivators, so Pei Song wasn’t very concerned about that Foundation Establishment cultivator’s threat at the time.
In Pei Song’s view, that Foundation Establishment senior had only casually spoken a word to help Xiao Jingting at the time. If Xiao Jingting really died, that Foundation Establishment cultivator probably wouldn’t meddle further. After all, Foundation Establishment cultivators were all very busy.
Xiao Jingting’s strength was decent, but he had a fatal weakness – he had two children. Those two children had no self-protection ability, and Xu Mu’an was pregnant, making him a burden too. Pei Song was almost eager to rob this fat sheep after Xiao Jingting left Bifeng Academy.
However, after the auction ended, Xiao Jingting didn’t leave Bifeng City but instead entered the academy.
Naturally, they couldn’t make a move within the academy, so Pei Song decided to wait longer. But while Pei Song was willing to wait, the others he had originally contacted weren’t happy about it. Over ten Spirit Stones wasn’t a small amount, but three months was enough time for Xiao Jingting and Xu Mu’an to consume most of those Spirit Stones. Those people couldn’t wait so long for such a small amount of Spirit Stones.
“Renting for three months – is this Young Master Xiao trying to learn pill refining?” Pei Song said.
Mo Bei nodded. “Possibly. There are always those who don’t know their place and try to learn pill refining, only giving up after hitting a wall.”
“Maybe this Young Master Xiao will give up in less than a month.” If pills were so easy to refine, alchemists wouldn’t be so precious.
…
Xiao Xiaofan rolled around on the bed. The rest room was very cramped, so Xiao Xiaofan could only roll a couple of times at most – he couldn’t even get a good roll going.
“Big brother, let’s sneak out to play, okay?” Xiao Xiaofan said.
Xiao Xiaodong opened his eyes and shook his head. “No.”
Xiao Xiaofan frowned. “No? Why not?”
“You’re being watched. Many people want to catch you.” Xiao Xiaodong opened his eyes from meditation.
Xiao Xiaofan made a confused “eh” sound. “I’m being watched? Those people want to catch me – what for?”
“They see you have a lot of meat and want to roast you.” Xiao Xiaodong said.
Xiao Xiaofan’s face immediately twisted up. “I don’t taste good.”
Xiao Xiaodong glanced at Xiao Xiaofan. “Hurry up and cultivate. Improving your strength is what matters.”
Ever since Xiao Xiaofan had gambled out the spirit medicine silkworm, Xiao Xiaodong had noticed some people watching them with greedy auras. Xiao Xiaodong was somewhat worried, but since Xu Mu’an was pregnant, he could only suppress this unease, afraid of affecting Xu Mu’an.
Xiao Xiaodong thought to himself: Father should also know we’re being watched, which is why he didn’t hurry to leave Bifeng City. It’s good to enjoy the shade under a big tree – staying at Bifeng Academy, no one should dare make a move.
In the earth fire chamber separated by just a wall, Xiao Jingting and Xu Mu’an repeated the tedious activities of pill refining and cultivation every day.
After consuming spirit herbs that could be sold for hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, Xu Mu’an finally refined a pill. Though it was just an ordinary Qi Recovery Pill worth only a dozen or so taels of silver, there was finally some result. Xiao Jingting was still very excited – though the pill wasn’t refined by himself, his husband had refined it, which was the same thing.
In the rest room.
Xiao Xiaofan sat on the bed, lazily rubbing his feet. “Big brother, staying cooped up here every day, I’m going to develop problems.”
Xiao Xiaodong looked at Xiao Xiaofan. “We should starve you for two days. After two days of hunger, you wouldn’t have any problems.”
Xiao Xiaofan glared at Xiao Xiaodong unhappily. “Big brother, you’re really mean.”
Xiao Xiaodong: “…”
Xiao Xiaofan took out several piles of dried meat from his spatial ring. “Spicy, numbing spicy, salt and pepper, five-spice, cumin… Eating roasted meat every day, I’m going to get constipated.”
Xiao Xiaodong glanced at Xiao Xiaofan. “I have spirit fruits here. How about we trade?”
Xiao Xiaofan put away his dried meat. “No need, no need. I have spirit fruits too.”
Xiao Xiaodong snorted lightly, thinking: Xiaofan is getting more and more picky about food.
“Daddy is busy with pill refining all day now and doesn’t make delicious food anymore.” Xiao Xiaofan sighed.
Xiao Xiaodong said irritably, “Eat, eat, eat – all you think about is eating. Before, you said that as long as you didn’t go hungry, you’d be very happy. Now you’ve learned to be picky.”
Xiao Xiaofan scratched his head. “But Daddy’s cooking is really delicious! You want to eat it too, right?”
Xiao Xiaodong hummed without saying anything.
Xiao Xiaofan moved closer to Xiao Xiaodong. “Big brother, have you seen Daddy refine pills?”
Xiao Xiaodong nodded. “I have. What about it?”
“Daddy is clumsy at pill refining. Last time when I went to see Father, I saw Daddy ruin a pill and the whole room smelled terrible.” Xiao Xiaofan said.
“Pills naturally aren’t that easy to refine.” Xiao Xiaodong said.
Alchemists had very high status. Desert City wasn’t a small place, but such a large area didn’t even have one official alchemist.
Xiao Xiaodong was also somewhat puzzled. He had also watched Xiao Jingting and Xu Mu’an refine pills, and each time he saw piles of spirit herbs beside them. Xiao Xiaodong estimated those spirit herbs could sell for millions of taels of silver if sold. He didn’t know where his two daddies got so many spirit herbs.
Xiao Xiaofan swayed his feet. “Daddy makes us stay here every day. If we keep staying here, I’ll grow grass on my head.”
Xiao Xiaodong looked at Xiao Xiaofan and felt a sense of urgency.
Xiao Xiaodong thought to himself: After Xiao Xiaofan could cultivate, his cultivation speed became very fast. Even though his brother doesn’t cultivate much, his cultivation progress is still very quick – his aptitude should be quite good. I must work hard at cultivation and not let my brother leave me far behind.
