Chapter 145

“Miss Fu, how is it? Our village is nice, isn’t it? The soil is fertile and the spiritual energy is rich. Although it’s not as rich as Lingyun Mountain, it’s very suitable for growing low-grade spiritual herbs. This mountain also belongs to my family. It’s full of spiritual rice, and it will be harvested in two months. You can stay here, and when the new rice comes out, you can buy some to take back and try. It’s very good for your health as cultivators. Ordinary rice is okay, but compared to spiritual rice, it has more impurities and hinders cultivation…” Zhai Qianqian kept promoting her spiritual plants, sparing no effort, and would occasionally secretly look at Fu Le’s expression to see if she was interested.

Unfortunately, the girl's expression remained indifferent, and her eyes showed little emotion, so she couldn't tell what was going on.

Why don't we go talk to the village chief? He's much better at talking than she is.

“Show me around,” Fu Le said.

"Alright, young lady, sit down and I'll show you around."

This Huangni Village is estimated to be about the size of a small modern county town, but its population is only a little over 10,000. Therefore, the per capita land and mountain area is vast, and most of the residents are innate martial artists.

In this Spirit Continent, even those with innate martial arts skills are only slightly better off than ordinary people who cannot cultivate.

Every year in the depths of winter, a beast tide arrives on time and lasts for a month. Ferocious beasts attack human cities, trying every means to eat human flesh to improve their cultivation. At this time, high-level martial artists can unite to resist, but they can only snipe some low-level beasts. Those who charge to the front and fight against high-level beasts are the spiritualists.

As for low-level martial artists, those below the fifth rank mostly make a living by farming.

Zhai Qianqian is a fourth-level martial artist, which is considered a pretty good rank in the village. The highest-ranking martial artist in Huangni Village is the village chief's eldest son, a seventh-level martial artist who participates in the city defense battle every year and is very likely to advance to the Spirit Realm. He is highly respected by the villagers.

"The Lingyun Mountain you mentioned, does it have a spiritual vein?" She had read quite a few novels.

"Yes, most spirit stone mines are found in the Spirit Essence Mountain. However, it is too dangerous there. Going in is almost certain to result in death. Not to mention ordinary martial artists like us, even high-level spirit practitioners would suffer heavy casualties if they went in. Otherwise, why would a spirit stone be so rare?"

Fu Le probably had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

There are spirit stone mines inside, so the spiritual energy must be rich, and the spiritual plants must be even better.

Fu Le took a stroll and returned to the rented village house. This was Zhai Qianqian's old family home. Her family had all moved to the city center, and she was left to take care of the old house, so she rented it to Fu Le for two taels of gold a month, which was not much and far below the market price.

Zhai Qianqian originally didn't want to pay rent; Fu Le was already making a huge profit by accepting their spiritual plants. However, Fu Le insisted on paying, not wanting to owe anyone a favor, so she didn't refuse, lest she offend him.

Early the next morning, Zhai Qianqian took her two sons and daughters-in-law, along with six grandchildren, up the mountain to harvest the spiritual plants. They planned to sell their own first, and then introduce Fu Le to the village chief. This way, they could protect their own interests while also gaining a huge favor from the village.

Fu Le would sit in the courtyard to cultivate in his spare time, and he felt that the internal energy was circulating faster. Ten cycles were completed in one-tenth of the time he used to cultivate on Earth.

What a great place!!!

Fu Le's eyes gleamed. This was just an ordinary mountain village. What if it were Lingyun Mountain? Could she also break through to the Innate Martial Artist realm and enter the Spirit Realm?

Fu Le took out Zhao Le's Heavenly Rank cultivation technique and calmed down to study it. In the blink of an eye, a day had passed, and the sky began to darken.

Her original cultivation technique was not bad, but it was nothing compared to this Heaven-rank technique. Fortunately, she had only cultivated to the second rank, so changing techniques would be easy.

Take a deep breath, focus your energy in your dantian, and you can then observe the circulation of internal energy within your body.

Two hours later, the wisps of energy twisted into a rope, as thick as a finger, and Fu Le exclaimed in surprise! His eyes snapped open, his pupils filled with astonishment.

She can actually draw external spiritual energy into her body!! And she can clearly feel cool energy entering her limbs and bones! The spiritual energy enters her body and is transformed into internal energy, and the integration is perfect, without any rejection. How is this possible?

Looking at the small red booklet on the table in front of him, Fu Le's heart pounded. He had struck gold!

Fu Le crushed all fifteen beast cores and drank the bitter liquid inside. Ugh, it was really bitter.

Gu Yan said that beast cores are the essence and elixir of spirit beasts, which can be directly consumed by martial artists and spiritual practitioners. The outer skin of the beast core can also be ground into components to repair old injuries.

Zhai Qianqian and her family were extremely busy, which naturally attracted the attention of the village. The village chief personally came forward to inquire, but Zhai Qianqian gave vague answers. As clever as she was, she would never reveal the truth before the transaction was completed.

“Village chief, Zhai Qianqian must have found a good buyer. Otherwise, why would she change her usual practice and harvest the spiritual plants as soon as they mature? In previous years, she would harvest them long after the ripening period.” The longer the ripening period has passed, the weaker the medicinal effect.

Unfortunately, there are too few healers, and only martial artists and ordinary people have access to medicinal herbs. If they are picked directly, their medicinal properties will dissipate more quickly. Therefore, they only harvest the herbs after finding a buyer.

Moreover, the buyers are different every year. Because the demand is not high, some buyers will only purchase once every three to five years or even ten years. Spirit rice is easy to sell, but the price is much lower than that of spirit plants. Selling it five or six times is not as good as the price of one spirit plant. Over time, people do not like to grow spirit rice.

This time, Zhai Qianqian picked the fruit so early, ensuring its medicinal efficacy, so the price won't be low.

"Well, let's wait and see. She won't budge until she's finished dealing with her own problems. There aren't many days left anyway, so let's just wait." The village chief was a tall, lean old man with white hair and beard, but his eyes were clear. He was also the only first-level spiritualist in the village.

The lifespan of a Spirit Master is five hundred years. The village chief is already over three hundred years old. For every level he advances in rank, his lifespan increases by one hundred years.

"Zhai Qianqian is really shrewd. Tsk, Lao Yu really hit the jackpot by marrying her. The Yu family used to be so poor, but now they're doing incredibly well."

"The principle of marrying a virtuous wife is exactly like that. If Lao Yu had married that girl from Kaoshan Village according to his own ideas, he would probably still be living in a wooden house now."

"This is all thanks to Old Yu's father, a high-level martial artist, who's got brains. But Master Yu has been away from home for thirty years. Is he dead or alive? There's no sure."

"Who knows? We cultivators often suffer deaths and injuries, and if someone goes missing, they're probably gone."

The harvested herbs were delivered in batches. Fu Le confirmed that they were clean, fresh, and free of impurities. Gold would be awarded on the spot after inspection. Zhai Qianqian was overjoyed.

Although the harvested medicinal herbs were all stored in a ring pouch, Zhai Qianqian's frequent visits to the old house naturally attracted the attention of those with ulterior motives.

Then other herbalists came to the village. With so many people, the noise inside couldn't be contained no matter how hard you tried to hide it.

Finally, after three consecutive days, the village chief led a group of people to the Yu family's door.

Upon seeing the village chief and several high-ranking martial arts elders, Zhai Qianqian knew she couldn't hide it any longer. Fortunately, the transaction was already mostly completed, and Miss Fu was open to all comers as long as the quality was guaranteed.

So there's no loss in saying it now.

“Village chief, I know what you want to ask, I…” Zhai Qianqian told him everything, and the village chief and the elders’ eyes lit up and their faces flushed.

"Zhai Qianqian, you're really something, you kept it a secret so well," the village chief said meaningfully.

“Village Chief, I invited Miss Fu here. It’s Miss Fu’s idea for our family to accept her first. We…” Zhai Qianqian was quite shrewd and calculating, otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to turn the Yu family into the second largest family in the village after the village chief’s.

So, when Zhai Qianqian visited again, to avoid abruptly offending Fu Le, she only brought the village chief with her.

As soon as Fu Le opened the door, she saw Zhai Qianqian's fawning face and the old man next to her, whose face was full of wrinkles and who was smiling just like her.

Fu Le knew what Zhai Qianqian was there for without her saying a word, just from that hopeful look in her eyes.

"I'll accept any good herbs you have. As for the finished products, make them like the Zhai family's: clean, no smuggling, plump leaves, and excellent medicinal properties."

"Yes, yes, thank you, Miss Fu, we understand." The village chief left with a beaming smile, while Zhai Qianqian stayed behind to continue weighing the animals.

Fu Le opened more than thirty rings and necklaces, categorizing them by type and storing spiritual plants. If there were other types of spiritual plants in the village, she would open more. In short, she didn't have much else, but her mustard seed space was more than enough.

"If you know any other villages that have spiritual plants, I'll buy them too. From today onwards, I'll buy them at night; I'll be going to the city during the day," Fu Le said as the village chief handed over the first batch of spiritual plants.

"Very good, very good!!! Thank you, Miss Fu. I will pass on the message." The wrinkles on the village chief's face deepened with joy.

Ten thousand taels of gold were gone in the blink of an eye, but with these spiritual plants, Fu Le didn't feel the slightest bit of heartache. With these medicinal herbs alone, she could become the world's richest woman; gold was nothing to her.

She doesn't lack money now; she lacks supplies.

After staying in the village for seven days, Fu Le couldn't stand it anymore, so the next day he rode the horse that Zhai Qianqian had given him to the city.

Food is scarce on the Spirit Continent, and the taste is really mediocre. Many restaurants serve terrible food, prioritizing the preservation of the spiritual energy of the ingredients and not paying much attention to cooking methods. They mostly just steam the food.

The only decent thing was the pastries, all made from spiritual plants. The spiritual rice tasted really good; it made me feel comfortable all over, and I could see spiritual energy flowing into my meridians.

Fu Le bought some and put them in a ring to take back to Lu Shi and her mother to try.

The spirit fruits were also good, all of them were low-grade level one and two. Fu Le bought a lot, and fruit farmers from nearby villages came to ask about them. Fu Le readily gave them her address and asked them to deliver them to Huangni Village. She wanted all the spirit fruits.

Fu Le also liked the taste of the spirit wine from the distillery. Although it was far inferior to monkey wine, the taste was still excellent. Ordinary people could drink it to improve their health and prolong their lives.

Fu Le glanced at the spirit wines of several wine merchants, feeling satisfied, but he also noticed that he seemed to be being watched by some people with ill intentions, which made his heart sink.

In fact, if this were any other time, such a blatant collection of supplies would have already attracted the attention of surrounding forces, or someone might have come to rob them. However, this time it was the Wancheng Chamber of Commerce, and the city lord and local forces had put in a lot of effort to strictly control it. High-level spiritualists were spread throughout every corner of the town to ensure everyone's safety and promote the development of the city. Naturally, they would not allow any unstable factors to exist. Therefore, even though Fu Le was being watched by some people with ulterior motives, no one dared to do anything. They could only keep a close eye on him and hope that the Chamber of Commerce would end soon.

The city center.

Since entering the Martial Pavilion, Fu Le has been unable to move. Her legs seem to have a mind of their own, and even though her eyes are tired from looking around, she is reluctant to leave.

"Miss, are you satisfied with all of these?" The shop assistant was getting impatient after Fu Le tried on a bunch of weapons but still couldn't make up her mind to buy them. Fortunately, she was quite well-mannered and managed to control her temper, helping Fu Le try them on.

Only spirit orbs can be used...

Although Fu Le was satisfied with all of them and wanted to buy them all, the prices were simply too high.

so……

"Can you accept supplies here?" Fu Le pondered for a moment before asking.

The shop assistant was about to breathe a sigh of relief when Fu Le finally responded, but then asked, "Miss, are you planning to sell all the supplies before you start selling?"

"Yes, I've used up all my spirit pearls, and all I have left is monkey wine."

"What? Monkey wine?!" The shop assistant was stunned by Fu Le's words, his eyes filled with shock. "How much do you have?" Realizing that his voice was too loud and had attracted attention, the shop assistant immediately leaned closer and asked in a low voice.

"You give me an offer first. If it's right, I'll sell it. If it's not, I won't buy the weapon."

"Miss, this way, please wait in the private room upstairs. I'll go and talk to the manager."

Fu Le did not refuse and followed them upstairs to a private room, where a female staff member served them spiritual tea and snacks.

A short while later, a middle-aged man in a silver robe rushed over and was still breathing heavily when he knocked on the door.

He gave an apologetic smile, and then, bang, the door slammed shut again.

"Young lady, do you want to sell monkey wine?" the man asked impatiently.

Monkey wine, a small cup of which is worth a hundred spirit crystals. If their Martial Pavilion could get their hands on monkey wine, the price would increase several times over. The young city lord prefers monkey wine. If… The shopkeeper seemed to be thinking of something, and his eyes became somewhat glazed.

"Yes, at what price will you buy it?"

"What is your surname, young lady? My surname is Zhou, Zhou Liang. You can just call me Manager Zhou."

"Fu Le".

"Miss Fu, our Martial Pavilion offers the highest price for Monkey Wine: eighty spirit crystals for one tael of wine." Manager Zhou gestured the number eight, his face crinkling with laughter.

Fu Le: Merchants are indeed cunning. This is a rare and valuable item that can directly increase spiritual energy.

If it weren't for Gu Yan and the others explaining things to her, she probably wouldn't have thought the price was low. "One tael of wine, five hundred spirit crystals," Fu Le said with a smile, holding up five fingers.

The shopkeeper's smile instantly froze. This was almost wiping out his profits; what was the point of making any money?

"Miss Fu, we..." Manager Zhou wanted to persuade her further.