met free Chapter 75 It seems the more they work, the poorer they become.
Chapter 75 It seems the more they work, the poorer they become.
"One needs to have their divine sense cover a radius of a hundred feet to achieve perfect foundation building. I'm still far from that."
Yang Changsheng withdrew his divine sense, his expression calm and unhurried.
He stood up, his bones cracking slightly, a tremendous force of 43,000 jin lurking within his flesh.
He still looked like a handsome and refined seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy, but his physique was comparable to that of a ferocious demon beast at the late stage of the first tier. If others knew this, they would be so shocked that they would be speechless.
"Squeak!"
Pushing open the door leading to the side room, a unique aroma, a blend of the chilling coldness of black iron and the refreshing fragrance of spirit wood, wafted towards you.
This is the puppet workshop he has painstakingly built up over several years.
The scene that comes into view is the culmination of his hard work over the past year.
Forty-nine black iron woodcutter puppets were neatly arranged on the left side of the workshop. Their dark iron bodies had a simple structure, yet they exuded a sense of sturdiness and power.
Each one was personally adjusted by him, with spiritual patterns flowing at the joints and the core driving array operating stably. As long as a spirit stone was embedded, it could unleash combat power comparable to the peak of the third level of Qi Refining.
This foundation was built with time, effort, and constantly improving puppetry skills.
On the right side of the workshop stand three distinct creations: the Fiery Archer Puppet.
They are more slender and streamlined, and are made entirely of refined red copper and some fire-patterned wood, with a miniature fire-gathering array inlaid at the core.
The twin-arm crossbows are ingeniously designed, with three specially made flaming arrows pre-loaded into the quiver.
One of them is a bit rough and was the initial prototype, while the other two are new results from recent improvements in spiritual awareness.
These three archers were his true trump card. When fully activated, the power of their Fiery Crossbow bolts was enough to threaten a cultivator at the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refining, and could even pose a fatal danger to a cultivator at the seventh level of Qi Refining.
"With the improvement in spiritual awareness, efficiency is indeed different from before."
Yang Changsheng silently made his own assessment.
Previously, the maximum production of Xuan Tie woodcutters was four per month. Now, with more precise and meticulous control of divine sense, the speed of material processing, rune imprinting, and core debugging has increased significantly. If we exert our full efforts, it is possible to produce five per month.
However, the materials required for the Fiery Bowman are rarer, the craftsmanship is more complex, and the time required is much longer, making it incomparable to the Iron Woodcutter.
As Yang Changsheng's gaze swept over the fifty-two finished puppets, he calculated their value.
According to the price previously given by Steward Qian of Wanbaoge, one Xuan Tie woodcutter was priced at 29 low-grade spirit stones, and 49 woodcutters would cost a total of 1,421 spirit stones.
After deducting the material cost of approximately 11 spirit stones per item, which amounted to 539 spirit stones, the net profit from this transaction was 882 spirit stones.
As for the profits from refining elixirs, they have long since plummeted.
The supply of waste pills to Baicao Pavilion has almost run out, which has also affected Su Wanqing. The number of waste pills she can get has decreased sharply. After deducting costs, after a year of hard work, she only earned 220 spirit stones.
This is worlds apart from the profits brought by puppets.
To prevent frequent transactions at Tongchen Hall from attracting the attention of those with ulterior motives, he had already sold off the refined inferior pills in batches and small quantities, and had no more stock on hand except for what he needed for his own cultivation.
Thinking of spirit stones, Yang Changsheng subconsciously touched the storage bag at his waist.
After the last transaction at Wanbaoge, he immediately paid the rent for the courtyard at No. 9527 Tingchao Lane for another three years, and another 216 spirit stones disappeared.
In addition to daily cultivation, maintaining the spirit plant garden, buying spirit rice and spirit meat for a treat, and occasionally sipping a few cups of spirit wine, there is a way to alleviate the unbearable boredom on this long and arduous path of life.
All things considered, his remaining savings amounted to only 231 low-grade spirit stones.
The seven carefully cultivated low-level spiritual herbs in the corner silently testify to the scarcity of resources.
Polygonatum, Coagulation Herb, and Heart-Clearing Flower... are all basic medicinal herbs whose value increases with age.
If he could infuse the life force within the golden ancient tree mark with the same vitality he used to nurture seedlings, four years would be enough to give them the medicinal value of twenty or thirty years, doubling their worth.
However, crafting puppets, practicing cultivation techniques, refining elixirs, and studying the "Great Evolution Myriad Souls Technique" were all vying for his precious time and energy.
Due to the limited resources available, the care provided to these seven medicinal herbs could only be maintained at a level slightly better than normal growth.
In four years, the medicinal properties increased by a paltry six years.
Even now, it's still a chicken rib in my hands—tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.
"The spirit stones in my hands... are truly impossible to retain."
Yang Changsheng gazed at the puppets in the workshop and let out a low, helpless sigh.
He felt like he was struggling desperately on the edge of a bottomless abyss, with each seemingly substantial income being swallowed up by an even greater demand in the blink of an eye.
All the hard work throughout the year is but a drop in the ocean compared to the long and arduous journey to immortality.
As puppet production increased, the two-cubic-meter storage bag that had been with him for many years was already overburdened.
The subsequent transportation of the puppets to Wanbaoge would have to be done in two separate trips, which was extremely inconvenient and increased the risk.
A larger storage bag is urgently needed.
A five-cubic-meter space would cost at least five hundred spirit stones, and it might even be more expensive now.
This is just the container; the auxiliary spiritual medicine needed to cultivate the "Great Evolution Myriad Souls Technique," the Bewitching Flower, is also quite expensive.
Not to mention the "Yi Wood Everlasting Spring Technique," which he cherishes as a crucial part of perfect foundation building.
The jade slip containing the ancient wood-type cultivation technique was priced at a staggering 2,100 low-grade spirit stones at Wanbaoge!
This is almost the life savings of an ordinary late-stage Qi Refining cultivator who would save up for most of his life without eating or drinking.
"So poor..."
Yang Changsheng's gaze fell on himself, on that ordinary light blue low-grade magic robe.
This item was the only equipment he had acquired in his more than ten years of cultivation.
As for other offensive or defensive magical artifacts, there wasn't a single one.
On the other hand, all the cultivators he knew, whether they were family members or independent cultivators with some connections, had at least one or two handy offensive and defensive magical artifacts by their side.
Despite possessing puppets and having two lucrative business paths—elixir purification—that others envied, he lived a life of poverty and hardship.
"The path to immortality, wealth, companions, methods, and land... I am now completely detached from all of them. I have only the empty title of 'immortality,' yet my life is even more frugal than many short-lived cultivators."
Yang Changsheng shook his head, a self-deprecating smile appearing on his lips.
The hardships involved are something that outsiders can't truly understand unless they experience it firsthand.
If they themselves are in such a state, what kind of desperate situation must those low-level cultivators, who have no skills to rely on and can only rely on mining and hunting demons to obtain meager resources, be living?
The thought of buying a magical artifact had barely surfaced when he forcefully suppressed it.
"Steady management, gradual growth... everything will come eventually."
Yang Changsheng exhaled, clearing his mind of distractions, and his eyes returned to calm.
Currently, the market area in the core area of Biyue Lake is relatively stable. Although the Lu and Wang families are constantly in conflict, the flames of war have not yet spread to the depths of this place.