When it comes to cultivating immortality, it naturally starts with upgrading the herb garden.

On one side is the familiar green leaves that wrap around the purple buds of the Purple Dream Bud, and on the other side is the deep blue and white Wish Flower that blooms like a lotus.

The former is used to refine second-grade Qi-gathering pills, while the latter is used to refine various first-grade pills such as the Heart-Clearing Pill and the Impurity-Clearing Pill.

Song Chen was overjoyed. The Purple Dream Sprout was worth twenty-five spirit stones, while the Dark White Blue Wish Flower was worth fifteen spirit stones.

If you sell the two medicinal herbs, you can get forty spirit stones directly!

Thinking of this, he could no longer sit still. He carefully took out the two spiritual herbs along with the soil and put them into the wooden box.

He then immediately disguised himself and went to Linglong Tianlou before the neighbors on both sides got up.

This time, the cultivator on duty from the Lower Sword Sect had transformed into an old man with white hair and a face full of wrinkles.

He's an oddball; it's clearly the transition between autumn and winter, yet he's holding a palm-leaf fan and constantly waving it.

"Selling things."

"Put it on the table."

Click.

Two wooden boxes appeared on the table, and the old man's wrinkled eyes opened slightly.

"A magical herb?"

"Yes."

He opened the wooden box, glanced at it, and then looked Song Chen over. He said, "Forty spirit stones, plus a three-yuan handling fee."

"it is good."

Song Chen accepted the thirty-seven spirit stones and left without looking back.

The old man stared at his retreating figure and said sheepishly, "At the second level of Qi Refining, disguised, and with those two spiritual herbs, was it just good luck, or is there someone backing you up...?"

Unable to reach a clear conclusion, he lay back down in his chair.

In the quiet Linglong Tianlou duty station, only the sound of a palm-leaf fan swaying could be heard.

Sasha, Sasha...

Unaware of the old man's thoughts, Song Chen immediately went into a herb shop after leaving the Linglong Tianlou and bought five more "potential stocks".

When paying, the shopkeeper noticed the handful of seeds in his hand and instinctively asked, "You're buying seeds but not pesticide?"

"Insecticide?"

"First time planting?"

"no."

"So the ones planted before were inferior?"

"..."

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "It's normal that you don't know."

"Most medicinal herbs attract pests, which damage the soil and crops, resulting in a significant reduction in harvest, soil compaction, and rendering the soil unusable the following year."

"However, inferior herbs will not attract insect infestations."

Song Chen was stunned; he had no idea there was such an important matter as pest control before. "Why?"

"I wouldn't even consider an insect."

"..."

Yes, that's right, that's what inferiority is.

"Is pesticide the best solution?"

"Although pesticides can effectively kill pests, they damage the soil, and over time the soil will harden, making it unusable the following year."

Song Chen frowned. This won't work, that won't work, there must be a way to solve it, right?

"Fellow Daoist, are you worried about the insect plague?"

How could he not be worried? He currently has eight "potential stocks" in his herb field!

If you get eaten by insects, you'll have nowhere to cry.

"Since that's the case, I see that you love grass very much. I have some experience in preventing and controlling insect infestations. These insect infestations are essentially born between water, soil, and vegetation. You can solve the problem by simply separating them a little."

"This insect-repellent membrane allows water to pass through in one direction without attracting insects, thus solving the root cause of all insect infestations. Moreover, the outer membrane is tough and can collect insect carcasses, making it the best choice."

Song Chen stared blankly at the shopkeeper, who resembled a top salesperson from his past life, and the insect repellent film in his hand, and blinked:

"How many spirit stones?"

"Fifteen, absolutely no bargaining!"

"Ten yuan, the highest price."

"make a deal."

As Song Chen walked out of the shop, the shopkeeper behind him waved with a smile.

I feel like I've been ripped off, but I don't know exactly how.

Then, he touched the seventeen spirit stones he had left, hesitated for a moment, and went into the talisman shop. He spent ten spirit stones to buy a mid-grade Qi Refining Rocket Talisman.

Once this rocket talisman is used, combined with Song Chen's practice of the "Three Thousand Crimson Fire Technique," its power can absolutely rival the full-force attack of a Qi Refining Level 5 cultivator. For now, it is quite suitable as a trump card.

The most expensive are the high-grade talismans, which start at twenty spirit stones and are unaffordable.

With this thing in hand, if someone really comes knocking on his door, he'll have a way to seduce them.

Cultivation is important, but life is definitely more precious. One's own strength is the best way to communicate with the outside world.

He had seven spirit stones left. He would spend one on food and use the rest for cultivation.

Six pieces isn't a small amount; it should be enough to break through to the third level of Qi Refining.

As the morning fades and the sun rises, the real morning begins.

When Song Chen was about two hundred steps away from his house, he noticed several people standing there.

Upon closer inspection, he recognized them as Zhou Ming and Jiang Wan, a married couple.

Song Chen did not step forward immediately, to prevent them from discovering his disguise.

He just watched from a distance without making a move.

They seemed to be in a hurry to leave and left quickly. Before leaving, they knocked on his door, but gave up when there was no response.

The group of people set off in a large convoy on a flying boat towards Guanshi Peak in the northwest.

Seeing that the others had left and there was no one around, Song Chen hurriedly went home.

Song Chen leaned against the courtyard gate and murmured, "They must have gone to inherit the late-stage Qi Refining technique. I wish them good luck!"

After sowing the five seeds and laying down the insect-proof membrane, he wiped away his sweat and returned to his room to begin his cultivation.

With the spirit stone in hand, he activated the "Three Thousand Crimson Fire Technique." As the technique circulated, the spirit stone visibly shrank, and a vast amount of spiritual energy was absorbed into his body, flowing along his meridians into his dantian.

An hour later, a spirit stone turned into powder, and the spiritual energy in his dantian noticeably increased!

Song Chen felt a swelling sensation in his body, a sign that a breakthrough was imminent!

Not daring to delay, another spirit stone was now in hand...

Three hours later, the powder from the four spirit stones piled up into a small mountain.

The moment the fourth spirit stone was absorbed, the spiritual energy in Song Chen's dantian suddenly tightened, as if all the spiritual energy had been compressed. Then, his aura surged several times!

Qi Refining Level 3, breakthrough successful!

This wasn't a major bottleneck to begin with; with ample resources and time, things will naturally fall into place.

Song Chen stood up and stretched his limbs, his bones cracking and popping, feeling quite uncomfortable.

A surge of energy rose from my dantian, ready to be exhaled through my nose, instantly sweeping away the fatigue that had accumulated over time.

Breakthroughs are truly exhilarating!

It was already afternoon. Song Chen ate a quick bite and returned to his room to continue cultivating. It wasn't until nightfall that he had completely stabilized his cultivation.

With this level of cultivation combined with the rocket talisman, he should at least be able to survive against a cultivator in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, if not have a fighting chance.

Breaking through from the third to the fourth level becomes quite difficult, requiring resources and talent that have stumped countless people.

Given Song Chen's extraordinary talent, it seems that his only way to break through is through pills and spirit stones.

At the same time, a faint, illusory mark appeared at the corner of his eye: [Fertilizer Room lv0]

【Route 1】

[Level 1: Functions: Deodorizes, increases composting speed by 10%, and increases the chance of fertilized herbs transforming by 10%]

[Upgrade Requirements: 20 low-grade spirit stones, a pit 5 meters deep and 3 meters wide, and 10 swamp gas talismans.]

【Route Two】

......

Song Chen automatically skipped over the others and went straight to the section that could increase the probability of herbs transforming.

This is great!

Combined with the effects of the herb field, the probability of herbs transforming can be further increased!

He looked at other routes, and most of them had very different upgrade requirements, differing only in the amount of resources available.

Functionally, it mainly focuses on the speed of composting and the speed of herb transformation.

Even so, Song Chen was pleasantly surprised to discover a route that could generate fertilizer every day and increase the probability of herbs transforming by 20%.

You could call him a god.

However, the upgrade requirements for that route are extremely stringent.

[Upgrade Requirements: Fifty spirit stones, ten swamp gas pills, ten swamp gas talismans, and a rib from a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.]

Putting everything else aside, Song Chen simply couldn't handle the ribs of that late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

He pondered for a moment, then thought to himself, "I'm still too poor at this stage; it's impossible for me to afford it."

"Let's choose the simpler route to upgrade first. Based on the subsequent routes of the medicine field and the alchemy room, the fertilizer room should also be able to have its functions restored later."

"We still need to earn spirit stones!"

He strolled around the herb garden in the backyard, and seeing that everything was fine, he immediately went into the alchemy room to start refining pills, while also practicing his fire control technique.

The process of alchemy is complicated.

First, the herbs need to be cleaned. Then, depending on the pill being refined, it is decided whether to grind the herbs into powder. Other common ingredients such as lime and warm sand are added to the pill furnace. After that, the most complicated step is to control the heat. Once the furnace is stable, spiritual energy is released to knead the pill into a ball shape until it is formed.

This process is extremely prone to errors; if even one step fails, the entire process is ruined.

The elixir that Song Chen was to refine was not of high quality and was called the Yellow Kidney Pill, which was used to enhance male virility.

Generally speaking, low-grade pills are useless to cultivators, but there are always exceptions.

For example, Huang Shen Dan, Jin Qiang Dan, and Jia Shi Dan are also helpful to cultivators in the early stages of Qi Refining, and are therefore highly praised.

Especially the Xiaojinglou, which is almost in short supply. When Song Chen opened the shop before, he would order more than twenty pills every month.

Each month, this income alone yields two spirit stones.

It can only be said that the alchemist is too powerful to be able to refine inferior herbs that are useless to cultivators into useful pills.

Song Chen is now preparing to resume this income stream.

With his first-grade alchemist skills, he could easily refine several batches of pills of this level.

Even if the alchemy room doesn't bless the non-grade pills, his success rate in making pills is still over 60%.

After several batches of pills, perhaps due to a breakthrough in his cultivation, his fire control technique became increasingly refined, allowing him to control the fire temperature to within millimeters.

In the middle of the night, Song Chen, whose face had become gaunt from refining pills, felt as if he had forgotten something important.

But the intense exhaustion made him forget everything else; he slumped over and fell asleep on the bed.