It was a pity that this thing could only be consumed once, and would have no further effect if ingested again. Cultivating a mu (Chinese acre) was truly wasteful. Ideally, he could just buy the product ready-made! But things didn't always go as planned!
Wang Hao returned to his residence and realized he had been so focused on the Spirit Gathering Pill that he hadn't yet given the Spirit Nourishment Pills he had refined to Ya Ya and Xiao Bai!
Ya Ya was the Golden-Eyed Duck, and Xiao Bai, of course, was the Ice-Eyed White Tiger!
Wang Hao tapped his spirit beast pouch, and a golden-eyed duck, already larger than Wang Hao himself, appeared before him, quacking twice as soon as it saw him!
— "Don't worry, let's release Xiao Bai first!" — he said, controlling another pouch to release the White Tiger. Xiao Bai was a few years younger than Ya Ya, but his growth rate was incredibly fast. Now, his size had already reached Wang Hao's shoulder, and judging by his aura, he would soon reach the intermediate stage of the first level.
— "Awoo!" — the little white tiger roared fiercely upon release, but was met with a disdainful look from the Golden-Eyed Duck! As if it were looking at an idiot!
— "Truly worthy of being a spirit beast capable of reaching the third level," — Wang Hao praised, taking out two Spirit Nourishment Pills and feeding one to each.
Ya Ya was still a step away from the advanced stage of the first level. One pill wasn't enough for him to advance. On the other hand, Xiao Bai became drowsy after eating the pill, a sign of advancement. Wang Hao put him back in the pouch. As for Ya Ya, he could play a bit in the courtyard!
Spirit beasts are more intelligent than ordinary animals. Moreover, Wang Hao had raised them since they were cubs, so Ya Ya was also very attached to the Wang Family and wouldn't cause trouble!
Thus, Wang Hao continued to cultivate, refine his body, and occasionally practice alchemy. The monotonous and uneventful days passed for over a year!
There was still no news of the Three-Leaf Concentration Herb from the consignment shop. Wang Hao had already canceled the order. The herb he had planted on his farm had already matured, so why keep waiting? Since the Spirit Gathering Pill was very complicated, he could only refine four pills at a time, well below his average success rate of 60%!
Over the past year, he had tried several times to refine the Qi Gathering Pill, but all attempts had failed. Nevertheless, he didn't get discouraged. He had already reached the pill core formation stage. He believed that after refining the Spirit Gathering Pills, he could succeed after a few more attempts! Old Wang only became a second-level alchemist when he reached the ninth level of Qi Refinement.
Unfortunately, Old Wang came to tell him that he was going to the Qingyuan Fair, so the breakthrough would have to wait!
— "Are you ready?"
— "What needs preparing? Old Wang, you didn't divert my three thousand spirit stones, did you?" — Wang Hao teased.
Wang Yanzhao's face twitched upon hearing this. Although this boy had become talented, with achievements in cultivation, combat, and business, his sharp tongue hadn't changed! He casually tossed a storage pouch: — "Here, take this and use it to buy some good stuff at the Qingyuan Fair!"
Wang Hao laughed and took the pouch. Upon inspection, besides the three thousand spirit stones, there were many good items, including some techniques from the family collection and two second-level spirit talismans.
Wang Yanzhao explained: — "Now that you're already in the late stage of Qi Refinement, you're still relying on the Fireball Technique. This Three Transformations Spiritual Flame can control flames to transform into various attack forms. It can even be used in the Foundation Establishment stage. Train well. The other two talismans are for your protection, gifts from the Elder!"
Wang Hao thanked him happily. Yanzhao didn't say much more. He drew a red flying sword and carried Wang Hao into the sky. A Foundation Establishment cultivator's flying speed on a sword could reach three thousand miles per hour. With Wang Yanzhao's second-level Foundation Establishment mana, he could fly for three hours straight. However, the Qingyuan Fair was hundreds of thousands of miles from the Qingniu Market. Yanzhao didn't want to use pills to restore mana, so he could only meditate along the way. The two traveled for over ten days before arriving!
The Qingyuan Fair was much larger than the Qingniu Market. In terms of area alone, it was at least ten times larger. The resident population exceeded one hundred thousand. This was the permanent population. The Qingniu Market only attracted large crowds during Foundation Establishment Pill auctions, reaching fifty thousand people. Normally, there were fewer than ten thousand people, most of them cultivators temporarily residing in the Duan Yuan Range!
The Qingyuan Fair had two third-level spiritual veins and several second-level ones, transferred by the Qingyuan Clan through formations, just to sustain so many cultivators!
The Wang Family had a shop at the Qingyuan Fair, but its business was very weak. The few spirit stones earned barely covered the rent. If they didn't need a foothold, the shop would have closed long ago!
The shop manager was Wang Yanzhi, the tenth in the family hierarchy. As soon as he saw Wang Hao, he grabbed his hand: — "This must be the prodigy of our family, Wenhao, right? You have to give your uncle some ideas! I'm not asking for much, just enough to keep the shop afloat and not need the family's support anymore!"
Wang Yanzhi needed the family to send spirit stones every year to pay the rent, so he was embarrassed to return to the Wang Family Peak. Seeing Wang Hao was like seeing a savior!
Wang Yanzhao intervened to rescue Wang Hao: — "Tenth brother, everyone knows the shop's situation. A clever woman can't cook without rice. Without a large amount of goods, how can we keep the business running? The family never blamed you!"
— "Ah!" — Wang Yanzhi sighed. — "I know, but seeing the bustling streets and then looking at the deserted shop, I feel truly ashamed!"
With such a large flow of people, if the shop were well managed, it wouldn't have fallen into this state.
Wang Hao thought for a moment and said: — "Tenth uncle, aren't we here now? With two alchemists present, how can we not have products? Does the shop have any prepared spiritual herbs? Bring them quickly!"
— "Yes, yes," — Wang Yanzhi agreed hastily. — "I acquired a batch some time ago. Although the quantity isn't large, it's enough to refine a few furnaces of pills!"
Yanzhao thought the auction was still two months away and that he'd be idle anyway, so he said: — "Tenth brother, you can spread the word and acquire more spiritual herbs! Your brother will stay here for two months!"
Wang Yanzhi was overjoyed and patted his chest: — "No problem, I'll inform the known herb gathering teams today. You can rest, and I'll get the herbs!"
There were few spiritual herbs, so Yanzhao would handle them personally, saying Wang Hao could use his time to practice techniques!
Wang Hao was happy to be able to rest, but he wasn't in a hurry to practice the Three Transformations Spiritual Flame. Instead, he took out the Spirit Gathering Pill! With strong spiritual perception, practicing techniques would be more efficient. The order couldn't be reversed!
The pill was black and dark. Wang Hao put it directly into his mouth. As it dissolved in his stomach, he didn't feel the medicinal power flowing into his dantian, but instead into his sea of consciousness!
At first, there was a tingling sensation, then a sharp pain, but at the same time, the fog cloud in his sea of consciousness began to expand slowly, fed by the medicinal power!
This process was long, at least from Wang Hao's perception. Of course, perhaps the pain and swelling distorted his sense of time.
When the pain ceased, Wang Hao discovered that the fog cloud had expanded by at least one-third. Previously, his spiritual perception reached only thirty zhang (approx. 100 meters), but now it had surpassed forty zhang!
Wang Hao took the Wind-Cutting Sword and discovered that the control range had indeed increased to over forty zhang. Of course, he could launch the sword beyond that distance, but he couldn't retrieve it with spiritual perception!