Chương 3: This Is Treasure!

"Gift successful!"

"Gift: Ten low-grade Qi Gathering Pills."

"Returning gift…."

"One hundred low-grade Qi Gathering Pills have been credited."

"First gift by the host detected. Though it didn't surprise the recipient greatly, a critical hit reward has been triggered!"

"Reward: Complete understanding of First Grade Alchemy."

"First Grade Alchemy Complete Understanding has been delivered."

"Detected that the host does not possess storage equipment. Physical rewards will be temporarily stored in system space and can be retrieved at any time..." Holy crap…! Hearing the system's notification, Ye Chen's eyes widened. Not only had one hundred Qi Gathering Pills been credited, but he had also triggered a critical hit reward? He had directly gained a complete understanding of First Grade Alchemy? This was too good to be true! Ye Chen had felt firsthand just how difficult alchemy was in those past few days.

There were no formulas to follow. You had to pay full attention to the furnace, constantly adjusting the flame based on the different materials, and channeling spiritual energy to fine-tune the process. A single mistake and the entire batch would be ruined. His predecessor had studied alchemy for four years and was only just a beginner. He was nowhere near a true First Grade Alchemist. Now, with a single critical hit, he had attained the complete understanding of First Grade Alchemy.

It was like winning the lottery. At this moment, Ye Chen's gaze toward Lin Ke'er had completely changed, like a stock-trader watching his portfolio shoot up to the sky. Lick, lick, lick… I'm going to lick this treasure for the rest of my life! … Ye Chen's burning gaze made Lin Ke'er feel a slight unease. A sense of worry crept into her heart. Could it be that Ye Chen thought giving a gift meant she would become his Dao partner? How could that be possible? Ye Chen must be too desperate!

However, every time he gave something in the past, Ye Chen would eagerly drag her into conversation, babbling on for ages. Lin Ke'er had no choice but to listen, smiling along. After all, it wouldn't look good to just take the gift and leave. But she had to maintain some distance. Receiving a gift was one thing, but becoming a Dao partner was another. The two were entirely separate matters.

As Lin Ke'er pondered how to phrase her next words, balancing keeping Ye Chen interested while not leading him to think she was fully invested, Ye Chen suddenly spoke.

"Then, Fairy Lin, go back and focus on your cultivation. I'll head back to rest for a bit myself…." With that, he turned and left. The sound of the door slamming shut behind him echoed. Lin Ke'er, who had been preparing various responses in her mind, blinked in surprise. He's leaving just like that? Why wasn't he clinging to her like before, desperately chatting away and not wanting to part? But the surprise was only momentary. Lin Ke'er didn't think much of it. Who would care about the thoughts of a simp, anyway?

Her attention was entirely on the pills in her hands. The Qi Gathering Pills were the most suitable for early-stage Qi Refining cultivators. They could significantly speed up cultivation. Taking one before each session of training would give her roughly 1. 5 times the normal effect. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Lin Ke'er didn't want to be stuck working as a receptionist in this small shop forever.

Once she broke through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining, she could look for a better job. So, without further hesitation, she turned and left, not wasting a single moment. … With the rewards flooding in, Ye Chen was more than ready to leave. What else could he do? Was he really supposed to act like a simp? The gift-giving was just a task assigned by the system, nothing more. He wasn't about to get emotionally wrapped up in it.

"Extract Qi Gathering Pills!" He mentally spoke the words, and in an instant, ten small bottles of Qi Gathering Pills appeared in his hands. Opening one, he took a light sniff of the pill's fragrance. There was a faint undertone of mixed medicinal herbs. The pills weren't pure. Clearly, the refinement process had not been flawless, and the pills were barely passable. But low-grade pills were still good enough. This batch of pills was part of a task to hand in five hundred Qi Gathering Pills to the store.

Now, he had a hundred in hand. At this rate, in a month, he could easily gather the remaining amount. The task deadline was actually two months away so there was no rush. What once seemed like an impossible task that had nearly drained his predecessor was now a walk in the park. As long as he completed the task, he wouldn't need to find another job. He could stay comfortably in the shop, relying on the simp system to gather endless resources and cultivate his way to immortality.

Just imagining that scenario made Ye Chen feel a surge of excitement. After counting the pills, Ye Chen placed them in a box at the side. As he looked at the box, a thought crossed his mind, and he couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed. Here he was, a cultivator, and not only did he lack a storage ring, he didn't even have the basic standard storage bag. It was so inconvenient. But after searching through his memories, Ye Chen realized that storage bags weren't exactly low-tier in the cultivation world.

The smallest one, with just half a cubic meter of space, would cost fifty low-grade spirit stones. What kind of concept was that? Lin Ke'er, a Qi Refining third layer cultivator, worked eight hours a day at the shop, took one day off a week, and earned only three low-grade spirit stones per month. The market itself was protected by formations with a higher concentration of spiritual energy than the outside world. Even a small courtyard there would cost one low-grade spirit stone for rent.

And then there was food and other daily expenses. If cultivators ate ordinary, spiritless food, it would merely fill their stomachs and create waste, which would slightly hinder their cultivation. Hence, they needed to consume the flesh of spirit beasts, spiritual grains, or else take special pills like the Spiritual Fasting Pellets. This was the basic requirement. If cultivators wanted to speed up their training, they'd need medicinal pills, magic tools for protection, and perhaps even some offensive spells.

All of these would undeniably cost money. The cost of cultivating immortality was astronomically high. That's why, typically, only cultivators in the mid-stage of Qi Refining who have multiple sources of income would be able to afford a storage bag. Most cultivators barely had enough spirit stones to get by, let alone spend them on female cultivators. Once their cultivation reached a certain level, they would have no shortage of women around them.

It was no wonder Lin Ke'er had latched onto someone like him and was milking him for all he was worth. It was truly a matter of being broke! In the cultivation world, everyone was poor and obsessed with spirit stones. Who had the time or energy for romance? But for Ye Chen, this was not a problem at all. Ten low-grade Qi Gathering Pills were worth half a spirit stone. Sending one gift would result in a tenfold return, meaning he'd earn five spirit stones.

With this, his monthly income could easily reach twenty low-grade spirit stones. And this didn't even include the fact that he had now attained the full comprehension of First-Grade Alchemy. Alchemy was also an incredibly profitable profession. He could easily be considered one of the wealthy elites in the cultivation world. The higher his skill level, the more he would earn. Take for example, refining Qi Gathering Pills, which was the task that his predecessor had failed at.

He needed to hand in five hundred pills and the materials the shop had provided could produce a total of 1, 500 pills. The reason for the extra materials was the failure rate in alchemy. A success rate of thirty percent was already considered acceptable for an alchemist. If he raised his success rate slightly, the surplus pills would be his own profit. Ye Chen's salary at the pill shop was five low-grade spirit stones.

If he improved his success rate and managed to refine 750 pills, the remaining 250 would be his personal profit. That would easily add another dozen spirit stones to his pocket. By this calculation, he'd comfortably earn around forty to fifty spirit stones a month. Thinking about the future influx of spirit stones, Ye Chen, who had previously been ready to slack off, suddenly felt a renewed sense of hope. Luck truly seemed to be on his side.