Chapter 31
Chapter 31: The Sect Master Picks Up Trash Outside to Feed You
They sold little at first, but it was the kind of work that rewarded patience. Once the process scaled, it could become real money.
Seeing that brewing had a future, a few more players joined Fan Gu Zhou. He was only one person—if they wanted to grow, they needed hands.
Zhou Xiao and a male player were researching in-game food, so they simply partnered up and opened a winery and a food shop together. They started by targeting mortals and common folk. If they could shear a little wool, they’d shear it.
Around the same time, Chen Miao Miao made a breakthrough.
She realized that mature spirit herbs died easily when their roots and stems were cut because harvesting itself required spirit qi nourishment. It wasn’t enough to snap and collect. The process had to be gentle—like moving a plant in real life and immediately putting it in water so it didn’t wilt.
Here, the “water” was spirit qi.
The problem was that nourishing was finicky. The spirit qi had to flow at the same pace the plant naturally absorbed while growing. Too fast, too slow—either way, it failed. And most Qi Refining Stage disciples couldn’t control spirit qi with that kind of precision.
The seedlings A Wu had bought were different. They’d been specially soaked by Medicine Sect disciples, which kept them alive longer. That spirit-qi solution was Medicine Sect’s signature. Chen Miao Miao couldn’t replicate it yet, but she’d at least found a workable method to raise survival rates with ordinary means.
A Wu had left ten seedlings in the ground and didn’t harvest them.
At first, Chen Miao Miao had done it wrong. The moment she cut the roots and stems, both the herb and its root died. Now only two remained. But from the first five spirit herbs, she’d successfully split off thirteen new seedlings.
She didn’t need to buy more anymore—just fertilizer water, which she planned to research next.
As long as the Longevity Sect had Chen Miao Miao, they could guarantee they wouldn’t need to keep bleeding money on new seedlings.
When A Wu heard, he looked like his world had cracked open.
He’d grown spirit herbs for years without discovering this method. He’d tried, too, and failed every time. When he asked how she did it, Chen Miao Miao explained patiently, “Spirit qi has to circulate and nourish the roots and stems. That takes time. Every spirit herb has different root lengths, so the duration changes. What we have to do is measure the best timing so the spirit qi cycle stays stable…”
She spoke with the calm confidence of someone who’d watched the problem long enough to see the pattern.
A Wu listened until his eyes went blank. In the end, he couldn’t even pretend. He scratched his head, embarrassed. “Junior Sister, you handle this.”
Chen Miao Miao nodded. “Okay.”
Truthfully, the higher your cultivation, the easier it was to grasp. But everyone here was only Qi Refining Stage. For most of them, it was memorization and luck.
She wrote up a template and posted it in the group chat. The ones who understood, great. The ones who didn’t—like Wu Da Hu—felt, for the first time, that cultivating immortality could make your head hurt.
And even if you understood it, doing it was another matter entirely.
Still, everything was moving in a good direction.
Song Jiu Lai was still grinding on First Mountain, working herself ragged.
She’d been there seven days and still hadn’t pushed into the second-rank zone with Lin Qian, but she’d killed plenty of first-rank demon beast. She’d tested herself alone, too. If she drained her spirit qi completely, she could throw out six or seven large fireballs and handle two or three low-threat first-rank demon beast.
Any more than that and she couldn’t keep up. She always had to stop and rest. But she recovered surprisingly fast.
When she compared it to Lin Qian’s usual fighting style, the difference stood out. Lin Qian fired fireball technique a few times, then had to pause. Her fireballs were smaller, and without pills she needed half a day of resting to return to full strength.
Song Jiu Lai noticed the gap. Whenever she fought beside Lin Qian, she held back on purpose and rested longer, matching Lin Qian’s rhythm.
Out in the wild, caution wasn’t shameful. It was survival.
The more she hunted demon beast, the fuller her spirit qi grew, and the steadier her body felt. Her combat instincts sharpened. At first, ugly demon beast made her shriek, goosebumps crawling up her arms like insects, her SAN dropping through the floor. Now she could pick up corpses without even blinking.
The mustard seed pouch Su Huan Li had given her wasn’t big, though. After only a few dozen demon beast, it was packed tight.
A whole corpse sold for more, but most people killed first, then harvested the key parts they needed. Demon beast materials had uses—some for forging, some for alchemy. first-rank demon beast weren’t valuable, but quantity mattered.
Song Jiu Lai was too poor to carve them up. She couldn’t bear the waste.
Staying with Lin Qian had perks, at least. She’d managed to mooch a second-rank qi replenishing pill. The difference was immediate: she swallowed it, recovered half her spirit qi, and could kill several more demon beast.
It was also painfully expensive.
Now she understood why Lin Qian dared to travel. She came prepared—qi replenishing pills, and even food that replenished qi and blood. Lin Qian had planned for the long haul.
Medicine Sect was ridiculous. Even an outer sect disciple lived like this. Song Jiu Lai could practically taste her own jealousy.
She’d been planning to head back, but then she discovered a bug exploit.
She could use demon beast corpses as direct rewards for the players.
It happened like this.
When Fan Gu Zhou sold wine outside, the money used to buy grain, rice, and fruit had been fronted by A Wu. Fan Gu Zhou paid that back first, then handed over thirty percent of the remaining wine income to the System to exchange for points.
It didn’t look like much day by day, but it added up. Soon, the sect account held five low-grade spirit stone.
It was a tiny fortune for them. More importantly, it was proof: this could work.
Song Jiu Lai thought she needed to reward Fan Gu Zhou to keep morale high, so she asked the System, “What should I give him?”
Money was out. Livestream permissions only came at the end of the month.
The System said, “Reward him with the demon beast materials you’ve harvested.”
Song Jiu Lai froze. “Send it directly?”
“Yes,” the System said. “As long as it belongs to the sect, I can issue it to you and you can distribute it.”
“…Damn it,” Song Jiu Lai hissed. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”
“You didn’t ask.”
She glared into empty air. “You little beast. What kind of System acts like this?”
“As long as you work like a donkey,” the System said pleasantly, “you can call me whatever you want.”
“…Fine.”
Song Jiu Lai picked through her haul and dug out two pieces of first-rank demon beast material: jade spider shells. Each was about the size of her head. They were the only thing she’d found that could be described as “pretty,” green and glossy like polished jade.
Digging them out still made her gag. The smell clung to her throat like rot.
But they were forging materials. Defensive ones, if the records were right. She didn’t know what Fan Gu Zhou could do with them, but as Sect Master, she had to show her “love.”
Food materials from demon beast were out of the question. These things looked like zombie mutations. Only an idiot would eat them.
Back at Longevity Sect, the System broadcast an announcement:
[Ding, congratulations player Fan Gu Zhou on making the sect’s first point exchange. As a reward, the Sect Master awards Fan Gu Zhou two pieces of first-rank demon beast material: jade spider shell.]
[jade spider shell: demon beast, mineral-type material. Best used for forging defensive items.]
[No available storage to claim. Please go to the spawn point to collect it, Fan Gu Zhou.]
The announcement hit everyone at once. The sect erupted.
Far away on First Mountain, Song Jiu Lai smiled, pleased with herself.
Work harder, children.
The Sect Master was out here picking up trash to feed you.