Raise a sword!

At dawn, the market town at the foot of the mountain was shrouded in morning mist.

After a night of Qi cultivation, Jiang Peng stabilized the spiritual energy within her body.

"At the current rate of progress, it will take at least three more years to make a breakthrough."

It takes about three years to advance to the next level, and about ten years to attempt a breakthrough to the late stage of Qi Refining.

This speed is already quite good for a rogue cultivator, but Jiang Peng is still not very satisfied.

Having witnessed the examples of top-grade spiritual root geniuses from the Cangshan Sect who often lingered for years or even decades in the late stage of Qi Refining, Jiang Peng realized early on that cultivating in the late stage of Qi Refining was probably even more difficult than he had imagined.

"The income of a mid-grade first-level alchemist is enough to support me in moving to a new house."

Jiang Peng still has over two thousand spirit stones, enough for him to move to a higher-class residence.

After some thought, Jiang Peng decided to put the moving on the agenda.

...

At noon, in the east of Fangshi, Chonglefang.

This is the area where the residences numbered B and C in the market are located. Even just walking around, you can clearly feel that the spiritual energy in the vicinity is much stronger.

Jiang Peng found house number 27 (丙字27) and triggered the formation.

Soon, Lan Yingying opened the door.

"Brother Jiang has arrived? Please come in." Upon seeing Jiang Peng at the door, Lan Yingying immediately realized that the matter of the Dragon Tiger Pill had likely come to a conclusion, and a smile appeared on her face.

After giving a slight bow, Jiang Peng followed Lan Yingying into the house.

The spiritual energy in the Bing-character residence was indeed much more abundant than that in his Ding-character residence; upon closer inspection, the difference was at least twice as much.

Moreover, the area of ​​the Bing-character house is slightly larger, divided into three courtyards: front, middle, and back. In addition to the original defensive formation and spirit-gathering formation, it also has a formation to isolate and detect.

Jiang Peng was led by Lan Yingying to the reception room of the Central Court.

"Brother Jiang, has your visit come with news of the Dragon-Tiger Pill?"

Jiang Peng placed the porcelain bottle containing the Dragon Tiger Pill in front of Lan Yingying.

"I have successfully completed my mission."

Lan Yingying's eyes lit up. She opened the porcelain bottle and examined it. She exclaimed with delight, "The pill is perfectly round, bright yellow in color, and all the characteristics match... However, I still need to have someone else examine it to see for more details."

"That's only right," Jiang Peng nodded in response.

Lan Yingying had never seen the Dragon Tiger Pill complete, so it was understandable that she dared not make any hasty conclusions.

After delivering the pills, Jiang Peng inquired about the Bing-character residence.

Lan Yingying gave a brief introduction.

The situation was similar to what Jiang Peng had learned.

There are only 100 residences in Chonglefang, including 30 residences of type B and 70 residences of type C.

"Brother Jiang, you asked at the right time. Recently, due to the beast tide, several houses in Chonglefang have become vacant. The original tenants have either died or been injured, and in short, they were unable to afford the rent and had to terminate their leases and leave."

As she spoke, Lan Yingying seemed to remember something and smiled, "My neighbor's house at number 28 is currently vacant. If Brother Jiang doesn't mind, you can rent it and become my neighbor."

"If it were anyone else, renting a house with a grade of C or higher would probably be difficult without connections... but Brother Jiang is a member of the Mutual Aid Association and is acquainted with Fellow Daoist Liu Quan, so this shouldn't be a problem for him."

After chatting for a while, Jiang Peng left.

Back home, Jiang Peng looked at the house at number 42, Dingzi, where she had lived for a long time, and felt awkward no matter how she looked at it.

The difference in spiritual energy is too great.

"Let's move! Let's move now!"

Jiang Peng headed to Cangshan Pavilion with great efficiency.

After completing the formalities, the contract was signed.

In less than half an hour, he obtained the array gate number for house number 28 (丙字28).

The original doorplate was returned.

Jiang Peng didn't encounter any trouble throughout the entire process. The disciples of Cangshan Pavilion all knew that he was a good friend of Liu Quan, so even if they didn't want to curry favor with him, they wouldn't deliberately make things difficult for him.

On the contrary, at the rental location, Jiang Peng did see several other people who had also come to rent houses with the character "丙" (Bing) being harassed by disciples of the Cangshan Sect and asked for bribes.

"It's true that having connections in the court makes things much easier."

With a touch of wistfulness, Jiang Peng moved into her new home with Ah Huang.

...

Three days later, Lan Yingying came to visit.

She brought a gourd to the door, saying it was to congratulate Jiang Peng on moving to a new house.

But the implication in her words was that one should host a housewarming party for guests and friends.

Then he added that the restaurants outside were overpriced and didn't live up to their reputation, and since Jiang Peng wasn't planning on having a big celebration anyway, it would be better to have a small gathering with his friends.

What a coincidence! There was spirit wine she had brought in her gourd; all she was missing was a meal.

So Jiang Peng was inexplicably sent into the kitchen.

Looking at Lan Yingying leaning against the kitchen doorway with expectant eyes, Jiang Peng said with a wry smile, "Don't tell me you recommended me to move here just so you could freeload off me."

"Otherwise what?" Lan Yingying said bluntly.

In about half an hour, a simple home-cooked meal was ready.

Hot dishes include stir-fried dried bamboo shoots with cured pork, pork potstickers, and crystal pork knuckle.

Jiang Peng also cut up a portion of pork skin jelly to go with his drinks.

For soup, I simply made an egg drop soup and sprinkled some chopped green onions on top.

These are all materials from the demonic boar we bought last time.

The cured pork was smoked by Jiang Peng himself, while the pork skin jelly was made long ago and stored in a storage bag.

The storage bag did not preserve the food; Jiang Peng used a jade box, which was used to store medicinal materials to preserve their medicinal properties.

Such a jade box container is sufficient to ensure that the medicinal properties of spiritual materials are not lost for decades; using it to preserve food is simply a waste of its potential.

But Jiang Peng didn't care about any of that.

This time, Lan Yingying didn't wait for Jiang Peng to sit down at the table; she went to the kitchen and filled the rice container herself.

By the time Jiang Peng brought out the last egg drop soup, most of her bowl of rice had disappeared, and the part of the crystal pork knuckle with the skin and meat attached had vanished.

It's not just Lan Yingying.

Ah Huang, that little thing, was not polite at all. He sat on the table like a human, holding a pair of tiny chopsticks that were just the right size for his little paws. Without even looking at what the food was, he picked it up and stuffed it into his mouth.

Seeing this, Jiang Peng didn't say anything polite and immediately joined the group eating rice.

Half an hour later, they had eaten and drunk their fill.

Lan Yingying handed a jade slip to Jiang Peng.

"This is the Dragon Tiger Skill. Although this method only involves the Qi Refining part, it seems there is more to come... However, even just the Qi Refining part is valuable enough."

"Don't forget to take one bottle of Dragon Tiger Pill every month."

The gourd of spirit wine weighed about seven or eight jin, and Jiang Peng and Lan Yingying both drank quite a bit.

Lan Yingying did not use her spiritual power to dispel the smell of alcohol, so she swayed unsteadily after standing up.

After explaining the details of the "Dragon Tiger Skill" word by word, she prepared to leave.

But before leaving, she asked again, "Brother Jiang, do you cook for yourself every day?"

"Every now and then," Jiang Peng said, both amused and exasperated. "If I cook again, I won't forget to call you."

Lan Yingying left satisfied.

Jiang Peng circulated her spiritual energy, which helped to alleviate some of her drunkenness.

After tidying up the tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks, he picked up the "Dragon Tiger Skill" and went into the training room.