Chapter 271: Patient Guidance (Please Subscribe)

Azure sky leaf blade.

"Azure sky is stainless, encompassing all phenomena..."

Du En pondered the information on this final exotic item and stepped out of the Lin'an City treasury.

Tong Wenrong, waiting outside the door, immediately hurried over to greet him, looking even more like a lackey than the former City Lord of Nanmo, and without that old City Lord's many schemes; he was truly, genuinely in awe of Du En.

"Master Du, is there anything else you require next?"

"I would like to take on a side job..."

"A side job?! What kind of side job? Whatever Master Du wants, just say the word!"

"I want to refine three hundred third-tier high-grade Dharma treasures myself."

"I will arrange the best artifact refining room for you right away!"

Good heavens, three hundred of them! Considering the loss of materials, he would at least have to double that!

Even if he poured that entire room of black spirit stones into it, it wouldn't even make a splash!

It can't be done, it really can't be done, so, you might as well take that side job; it was your own suggestion anyway!

A storm raged in Tong Wenrong's mind, but on the surface, he was already trembling, waiting for Du En to show displeasure so he could collapse and hug his thighs to beg for mercy.

"Hmm, then that is settled."

Du En was not surprised; he simply agreed calmly, then changed the subject to something Tong Wenrong could manage if he gritted his teeth: "Additionally, I would like to buy some spirit beasts here, live ones."

Lin'an City's spirit beast farming scale was quite prominent; one only had to look at the cluster of pastures outside the city to know.

"How many?"

"Five hundred."

"Ho-how many tiers?"

"Third tier."

"Hiss!"

Tong Wenrong immediately gasped in cold air.

Five hundred! The total number of various third-tier spirit beasts in the entire city didn't even add up to three thousand; asking for five hundred right off the bat—one-sixth of the total—was truly difficult to handle!

He couldn't help but pull a long face, racking his brains to calculate, and finally, with immense courage, he gritted his teeth and said: "Five hundred is truly impossible; three hundred, three hundred is barely manageable."

Du En didn't actually need five hundred; this was just an opening number for bargaining, so he immediately said: "I have some insights into the way of artifact refining. I can guarantee the output of Dharma treasures based on the materials provided, ensuring both quantity and quality without any waste."

When it came down to it, many raw materials produced by spirit beasts were essentially intended for processing into artifacts.

Therefore, as long as Du En went full throttle and refined artifacts frantically, stockpiling a batch of third-tier Dharma treasures for Lin'an City would be enough to allow them to supply the required amounts later, preventing shortages even if the spirit beasts were gone.

Having this transition time would be enough for them to raise another batch of second-tier spirit beasts to the third tier to fill the gap.

"Then, three hundred and fifty?"

"I also have some small accomplishments in culinary arts. Although the requirements in this area are not as great, considering Lin'an City is a major livestock city, I imagine the allocated spirit meal quota will be even higher..."

"Hiss, four hundred, four hundred! It really cannot be any more, because of that fellow Zhou Ze, the outer city is currently in a mess, so for the next ten years, we must work at full capacity, and with me personally stepping in, it might be possible to fill this gap."

"Fine, four hundred it is. For these spirit stones, I will pay with talismans of equal value."

Elixirs were for his own consumption, but talismans could be used to settle debts.

Tong Wenrong thought of the origin of these talismans, and his skin twitched instantly; he subconsciously wanted to refuse.

"It is fine, City Lord Tong. Not to mention that the Meng resolution committee will apply pressure, I will also attempt to resolve the conflict later. Just consider this: you are the City Lord of this vital Lin'an hub; you will never be easily moved or replaced, and you are the signboard representing this sect's attitude."

He needed to have some self-awareness and stand tall while accepting the illicit talismans.

Du En's meaning was hidden within, leaving Tong Wenrong feeling a bit dizzy.

At this moment, Zuo Kui, who had just sent off the people from the Hub City, heard that Du En had come to the treasury and wanted to see if there was anything he could help with.

But just as he approached, he saw from afar that Du En was coaxing City Lord Tong, so he immediately chose to turn around.

"Old Tong, it's not that I, Zuo Kui, don't want to help, it's just that the mess Zhou Ze left behind is a bit too big, so I'll go get busy first!"

Zuo Kui walked away in a hurry, running very fast.

Here, Tong Wenrong was led around by Du En's words and eventually nodded, accepting this batch of illicit talismans, which allowed him to buy four hundred third-tier spirit beasts.

Du En didn't push his luck; two hundred of them were intended to be selected from the old, sick, disabled, or weak individuals—those that would be culled immediately or within ten years—to be killed and buried in the Divine Ability Death Land.

The remaining two hundred were the main ingredients for spirit meals, used to replace the Red Leaf Firmiana.

Although he didn't actually care about these things, how should one put it—if one could eat meat and eat normal spirit meals, one should naturally eat normal spirit meals.

So, on his way to collect the spirit beasts, he used the illicit talismans obtained from Wang Zhun to trade with Tong Wenrong for a batch of spirit rice, spirit fruits, and spirit vegetables to balance his diet.

Having had his defenses breached, Tong Wenrong simply gave up and accepted everything, thinking to himself that what Du En said didn't seem wrong, and more importantly, he was now clinging to a powerful backer, so his courage grew a bit, and he prepared to offload this batch of illicit talismans onto the Hub City.

That is, when delivering goods next time, he would use them to offset the count.

Those were all good third-tier mid-to-high-grade talismans; normally, they couldn't produce so many mid-to-high-grade goods here, so let the Hub City take this hot potato away!

Just like that, in a mood where both parties felt satisfied, the matter of spirit beasts and spirit materials was quickly settled.

Next, Du En naturally returned to his old path, working a side job while grinding his practice.

First was the side job of artifact refining, increasing the inventory for Lin'an City while replenishing five hundred third-tier high-grade Dharma treasures for himself, and incidentally bringing his savings to exactly sixteen hundred high-grade spirit stones.

At the same time, there was culinary arts; by piling up materials, he successfully produced fourth-tier low-grade spirit meals, offsetting the issue that his third-tier low-grade Lacquer Shadow Dharma Robe could no longer keep up.

He also focused on grinding the Giant Cannon Art, so that he could have a prominent offensive technique to serve as a signboard, and could also use the rule of "peer reduction" to grind other Earth-element spells faster and more efficiently in the future, while relying on the rule of "peer mutual promotion" to feed back into the progress of his cultivation method.

Because of numerical inflation, this method was highly efficient; compared to the form of exploiting loopholes and switching cultivation like other spells, the returns were better.

Since the rule of halved accumulation was only triggered upon reaching the Deity Transformation stage, the loophole-exploiting cultivation switching that hadn't been useful before could now be put to use.

That is, the proficiency bar for a supreme-grade spell at the "initial glimpse of the path" stage was a full ten thousand points less than the proficiency bar for a high-grade spell at the "mastery" stage!

Along the way, Du En also found time to raise the Ice Breath Art, which currently seemed a bit out of place among his many spells, up by another level.

This was all thanks to the virtually inexhaustible supply of recovery elixirs, which allowed him not to be affected by his side job while practicing spells, even enabling him to increase his daily workload.

(End of chapter)