Two years had passed since Xiao Fei returned from Lion Peak Ridge.
During these two years, he cultivated daily with spirit stones, and sometimes he would buy a pill or two of Qi Gathering Pills and secretly consume them in his room.
It wasn't that he liked to hoard them, but Qi Gathering Pills were very expensive, and even disciples of noble families couldn't afford to take them frequently.
For a lone rogue cultivator like him to take them occasionally was acceptable, but to do so often would be difficult to explain.
In two years, he had successfully advanced from the sixth level of Qi Condensation to the seventh.
Huang Feifei, without taking Qi Gathering Pills, had cultivated from the fourth level of Qi Condensation to the sixth.
Slight differences in aptitude, accumulated over time, would lead to increasingly significant advantages, becoming more pronounced in the later stages of cultivation.
Huang Feifei could now independently craft several types of magic robes, and her monthly salary at the robe workshop had increased to ten spirit stones.
These spirit stones were just enough for her own cultivation and absorption.
In recent days, Xiao Fei had been leaving early and returning late, with no one knowing what he was busy with.
Recently, the crops in his space had yielded a bountiful harvest. The Red Shoots fruits had ripened, with the two fruit trees bearing sixty to seventy fruits.
Every day after leaving, he would find a spot, take out a few spirit fruits, and set up a stall in the market to sell them for five spirit stones each.
Besides the Red Shoots fruits, he would also dig up one or two ginseng roots from his space and sell them together at his stall.
These ginseng roots were already twenty to thirty years old, and Xiao Fei sold them for fifteen spirit stones each, and they sold very well.
However, after selling the eighth ginseng root today, he would not sell any more for a while.
In the past few days of selling at the stall, he had earned 200 spirit stones.
He had his eye on a low-grade magical artifact alchemy furnace at the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion, priced at 150 spirit stones.
Alchemy furnaces had high material requirements and were much more expensive than ordinary flying swords.
Furthermore, only a few shops in the entire city sold them.
The Spirit Gathering Grass, Crimson Striped Yellow Essence, and Thousand Gold Flower in his space, after years of cultivation, had matured into a large patch.
Now was the time for him to figure out how to refine Qi Gathering Pills.
Xiao Fei packed up his stall and walked into the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
This time, he did not borrow the mask from Green Bean Eyes and appeared in his true form. The maid who had served him last time passed by without recognizing him.
The process of buying the alchemy furnace went smoothly. As he paid the spirit stones and was about to leave, he saw several cultivators entering the main entrance.
The leading cultivator was imposing, with an air of looking down on the world in his gaze.
This cultivator was dressed in a crimson robe, with the small characters "Chi Yang" embroidered in gold thread on the chest.
Behind him followed several people with bowed heads and fawning smiles. One of them, a man with a face full of obsequious smiles, was quite familiar to Xiao Fei.
It was Lin Xiang of the Lin family.
Xiao Fei still remembered Lin Xiang's arrogant demeanor when they were in the restaurant that day. He never expected that when he was bowing and fawning, he would appear even more humble than Xiao Fei had been that day.
At this moment, all the cultivators shopping in the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion stopped, not daring to block the path of the crimson-robed cultivator.
"Be careful, don't offend this great deity in front of you."
"The robe this person is wearing indicates that he is a disciple of Chi Yang Sect, one of the four major sects of the Lu Kingdom."
"You might not know this, but this is not just any ordinary disciple of Chi Yang Sect. He is a registered disciple of an elder of Chi Yang Sect, and his status is extraordinary."
"Even ordinary disciples from the four major sects, when they descend the mountain, are treated as honored guests by all the major families."
"Although immortal cultivation families are much more powerful than rogue cultivators, they are incomparable to the four major sects."
"What's the use of just envying? The four major sects recruit disciples every ten years, you can go too!"
"Alas! I did go to sign up, but unfortunately, I didn't make the cut."
"Heh heh heh! You actually went. It's hard for even one out of a hundred people to be selected. Why did you go to join the fun?"
"..."
Xiao Fei pricked up his ears, listening to the discussions of the people around him, and thus learned a lot of useful information.
As for why this Chi Yang Sect disciple had come, Xiao Fei actually knew.
He had interrogated it from Lin Da Gou.
The large spiritual peach orchard in the Lin family manor, whenever the peaches ripened, they would be brewed into spirit wine, and the Chi Yang Sect would regularly come to acquire it.
Judging by the time, it was almost time for the Chi Yang Sect to come and acquire the spirit wine.
In fact, the Lin family was reluctant to drink much of the spirit wine they brewed themselves; they sold it all to the Chi Yang Sect in exchange for other cultivation resources.
Xiao Fei stood aside, and only after the Chi Yang Sect disciple and the group of Lin family escorts entered the main hall did he walk out of the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion.
Since entering the world of immortal cultivation, his understanding of this world had become increasingly profound.
There was no such thing as law in this world. Whether to do good deeds or commit evil deeds depended entirely on personal moral standards.
Yet, this world had never produced any moral saints, and everyone's moral standards were not very high.
Someone like Green Bean Eyes, who did not bully him with strength and treated him as an equal, was already considered a model of morality.
This world adhered to the law of the jungle, where the strong preyed on the weak.
If one day his strength was sufficient, even immortal cultivation families like the Lin family would only grovel before him.
Thinking of this, Xiao Fei couldn't help but quicken his pace. He wanted to master the art of alchemy as soon as possible. With poor aptitude, even with one Qi Gathering Pill a day, he could still advance his cultivation.
When he entered the inn, he found that Green Bean Eyes, who was always behind the counter and never moved, was not there today.
Returning to his room, Huang Feifei had not yet returned from working at the workshop.
Xiao Fei took out the newly purchased alchemy furnace and examined it.
It was a three-legged cauldron with cloud patterns, one foot wide and two feet high, inscribed with numerous profound array formations and runes.
Alchemy required fire, which could be earth fire, spirit charcoal fire, or maintained by cultivators using fire-elemental spells.
Xiao Fei currently had no other options, and since he intended to refine alchemy in his space, he could only use spirit charcoal fire.
Before refining alchemy, he took out the ancestral medical book of Huang Feifei's family and read it again, confirming there were no errors, before beginning some preparations.
Entering his space, he dug up the spirit herbs. The entire Spirit Gathering Grass was used as medicine, only the tubers of the Crimson Striped Yellow Essence were used, and the petals of the Thousand Gold Flower were picked for medicinal use.
The three main ingredients were washed and dried for later use.
There were over ten types of auxiliary medicinal materials, which needed to be refined for their essence using the alchemy furnace beforehand.
Xiao Fei cleared a flat area in his space, set up the alchemy furnace, and placed spirit charcoal beneath it.
With all preparations complete, he recalled the alchemy process once more, simulating it several times in his mind.
At this moment, Xiao Fei formed a hand seal and cast a Fireball Spell towards the bottom of the alchemy furnace.
The spirit charcoal was ignited, and a large fire immediately erupted.
Xiao Fei threw in the auxiliary herbs, his fingers changing continuously, and cast a spell in the air towards the alchemy furnace.
The first step was successful.
The second step was to refine the essence from the auxiliary herbs.
However, before the second hand seal in his hand could form, a puff of green smoke emerged from the cauldron, and the medicinal materials were burnt!
Fortunately, the auxiliary herbs were not expensive. He cleaned the cauldron and continued refining.
He had never refined alchemy before, nor had anyone guided him, so experiencing a few failures was inevitable.
However, his failure rate was a bit too high. He had been tinkering in his space for three months without a single success.
During the time he was secretly refining alchemy, the shopkeeper Green Bean Eyes had not returned, seemingly having disappeared.
While he was focused on alchemy, a major case of murder and treasure-snatching occurred outside Star Moon City.
Disciples of the Chi Yang Sect, escorting a batch of spirit wine back to the Chi Yang Sect from Star Moon City, were attacked by a group of demonic beasts, resulting in the death of the Chi Yang Sect disciples on the spot.
Only one attendant managed to escape by fleeing quickly.
According to him, they were attacked by a group of rat demons, and an old rat with golden fur was particularly ferocious.