After dealing with that mid-Foundation Establishment old man, just as Qi Ping was about to return to his territory, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“A significant number of the wanted targets on the Mysterious Black Market’s bounty list are people who practice blood-food techniques like the Blood Fiend Art. I wonder if that mid-Foundation Establishment old man from today is on there, too?”
If he was, wouldn’t that mean he could earn a few thousand Black Market points for free?
Thinking this, Qi Ping immediately turned around and headed to the place where he had buried his Mysterious Black Market token, deciding to refresh the list a few times and see.
[Black Market Spirit Stones: 7200]
[Black Market Points: 1600]
After choosing to refresh the Foundation Establishment level missions, the Black Market spirit stones immediately decreased by 200.
However, the first mission was a faction bounty and had nothing to do with the Foundation Establishment elder Qi Ping had killed.
Qi Ping wasn’t in a hurry and patiently kept refreshing.
Actually, this information itself had some value. Spending a few spirit stones to get information on some Foundation Establishment factions and experts near the Qingtian Domain was still somewhat valuable to Qi Ping.
He kept refreshing until the seventh time, and sure enough, he found it!
[Foundation Establishment Mission: Kill the rogue cultivator, ‘Daoist He’. Mid-Foundation Establishment cultivation. Practices the Blood Devouring Fiend Art. Skilled in swordsmanship. Appearance: … Reward: 1500 Black Market Points.]
“1500 Black Market Points! Nice!”
That was enough to buy 16,000 spirit stones’ worth of stuff on the Mysterious Black Market!
After Qi Ping accepted the mission and submitted it, the mission was immediately marked as complete, and the Black Market points were credited to his account.
“I really wonder how the Mysterious Black Market knows the mission has been completed… It’s so strange…”
Qi Ping was also a bit scared of these mysterious, supernatural methods, but the Mysterious Black Market was currently his only way to access high-level items. He had to accept some risk.
“Anyway, I’ll just be more cautious from now on!”
Then Qi Ping looked back at the increased Black Market points on the token.
[Black Market Spirit Stones: 5800]
[Black Market Points: 3100]
“Awesome!”
Earning 1500 Black Market points without having to take any risks made Qi Ping very happy.
3100 Black Market points were enough to buy him many precious things.
After hiding the Mysterious Black Market token again and returning to his territory, Qi Ping finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The events of the past few days had been somewhat of a shock to him.
The class rigidity in the cultivation world was even more severe than he had imagined. Not to mention rogue cultivators, even within the sects, the competition for resources was incredibly fierce.
This wasn’t just a matter of good or bad; it was a matter of having or not having. You simply couldn’t imagine what kind of madmen such an environment would produce. The old man who practiced the Blood Fiend Art was a very typical example.
“Thankfully, my territory is already established…”
He had formations, a spiritual vein, spiritual herbs, and spiritual trees. To increase his cultivation, all he needed to do was slowly work at it.
There was also an illusion formation hiding the territory’s existence.
Especially being in this godforsaken place gave Qi Ping an immense sense of security.
Plus, there were his animal companions in the territory, like the little flower demon, the tricolor deer, and the little spirit fox, so life wouldn’t be too boring.
After adjusting his mood, Qi Ping threw himself back into cultivation and farming.
“The spiritual trees like the Blazing Sunwood and Moonlight Tree have reached the mid-second-rank and late-second-rank stages, which is pretty much the limit I can nurture at my current level.”
“Next, I’ll focus mainly on improving the Azure Moon Fruit!”
The only things Qi Ping had brought back from outside this time were the low-second-rank Azure Moon Fruit and low-second-rank Cold Pond Grass he’d bought from Red Sun City. He hadn’t brought back the old man’s things; he planned to wait two or three years. For now, his focus was on the Azure Moon Fruit.
As for outside matters, just thinking about them gave him a headache, so he decided not to! Let the outside world fight until the sky darkens; as long as it doesn’t interfere with his farming and cultivation for now, that’s fine!
For the next period, Qi Ping studied formations while putting all his effort into cultivating the Azure Moon Fruit!
The first time he cultivated Azure Moon Fruit, it took him almost three-quarters of a year to get the first batch of fruit.
“That was really difficult!”
Looking at the eight fruits on the Azure Moon Fruit tree, each about the size of a fist, resembling a full moon and emitting a cyan glow, Qi Ping’s face was full of the joy of harvest!
It has to be said, the difficulty of cultivating second-rank spiritual herbs was far beyond that of first-rank herbs. Especially for fruit-tree type spiritual plants, the difficulty was much higher than for normal herbs.
Under normal growth conditions, Qi Ping estimated it would have taken at least ten to twenty years for the first batch of fruit to ripen.
Considering the rarity of second-rank spiritual veins and the difficulty of ripening second-rank spiritual herbs, you could see just how scarce second-rank herbs were in the outside world.
The annual yield is so small. The Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Qingyuan Sect, plus those from the various families and cities below, aren’t many in total number, but they’re certainly not few either.
[Read the correct version at 6 9 9 9 9 9 9 . com, 6 9 Book Bar is the first to publish the original novel.]
With such a small annual output of spiritual herbs, after the core members take the majority, the rest can only fight over the scraps!
They might not even get the scraps!
If they knew Qi Ping had produced eight Azure Moon Fruits in half a year, they would go crazy, because even the core Foundation Establishment members of the Qingyuan Sect might not get such treatment.
“Buzz buzz… (Boss, the Azure Moon Fruit is ripe?)”
The Bee Queen, resting on the Azure Moon Fruit tree, suddenly caught a special spiritual herb scent, far superior to any she had smelled before!
“Yep, just ripe!” Qi Ping nodded with a smile.
“Buzz buzz! (Awesome! Cultivating second-rank herbs is really hard!)”
“Yeah, now it’s up to you all!”
Qi Ping picked an Azure Moon Fruit from the tree and handed it to the Bee Queen, continuing his instructions:
“It enhances fire-attribute spiritual power and physique, helps you transform to the second rank, and is also suitable for cultivating young second-rank bee offspring. Focus your research on these directions… When making honey, use as small an amount of Azure Moon Fruit as possible…”
“Buzz buzz! (Don’t worry, Boss. I’ll supervise the pharmacist bees to make sure this gets done!)” The Bee Queen patted her chest in assurance.
She had been watching Qi Ping work hard to cultivate the second-rank spiritual herbs all this time, so she knew very well how precious they were.
“Great! I’ll wait for your good news!”
Qi Ping trusted the Bee Queen a lot; in fact, you could say he trusted her the most.
Over the years, she had managed almost everything in his territory: major and minor affairs, reconnaissance and vigilance work, marking and guarding storage pouches outside, honey production, caring for spiritual herbs… The Bee Queen had handled practically everything.
The Golden Marrow Bee Queen was basically Qi Ping’s chief steward.
So he had no worries entrusting the precious second-rank Azure Moon Fruit to her. He could only look forward to seeing how much the honey they produced would help increase his cultivation.
As a low-second-rank, wood-attribute spiritual herb, the Azure Moon Fruit didn’t have strong special effects. Its only unique trait was that its spiritual energy was extremely pure and dense. It could be combined with the various spiritual herbs in Qi Ping’s territory to brew honeys with various special effects.
At the same time, Qi Ping was really looking forward to seeing if the pharmacist bees’ first time working with a second-rank herb might yield some unexpected surprises.
“Oh, right, I wonder if adding the essence of the sun, moon, and stars would create any special effects?”
An idea flashed through Qi Ping’s mind, and he immediately had the Bee Queen make the relevant arrangements.
Advancing through the Foundation Establishment stage is far harder than Qi Refining. If he could brew some pleasantly surprising honey this way, that would be great.
After arranging the honey research, Qi Ping stopped paying attention to it.
He had something even more important to do. Not long ago, his Druid level had finally increased to level seven!
Thanks for the chapter