Chapter 2: Monthly Income of Five

The next day, early morning.

Luo Chen got up early and packed the pills on the cutting board into five jade bottles, ten pills per portion.

He put on his only decent low-grade magic robe, carried his low-grade flying sword, and hurried out the door.

He had to get into the city early, otherwise, when it got bright, those better rogue cultivator stalls wouldn't be his turn.

Perhaps because it had rained heavily all day yesterday, the roads in the outer city area appeared quite muddy.

The closer one got to the center of the outer city area, the more intense the mixed smell of excrement, medicine, humans, and beasts became.

Especially with the mixture of the earthy smell, that feeling was truly hard to bear.

However, Luo Chen was already used to it.

An hour later, he arrived at the city gate.

When entering the inner city, Luo Chen couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Sure enough, the air in the inner city was better!

"I heard the inner city is built on a Tier 1 spirit vein, which is quite beneficial for the cultivation of Qi Refining stage cultivators."

"When I have money in the future, I must buy a house in the inner city area!"

Secretly cheering himself on, Luo Chen headed straight for the rogue cultivator area in the southwest corner.

In front of a bluestone slab, more than half was covered with yellow talisman paper and beast skin, and an old man was busy there.

He arranged the beast skin, stood up, stretched, and just happened to see Luo Chen arrive.

"Fellow Daoist Luo, you came later than me this time."

The old man's name was Chen Xiuping, Qi Refining Tier 6, an old-timer in Dahe Market.

He had lived here for decades, making a living by making talismans, and also had a not-bad skill in tanning talisman skin.

With his income level, he could actually barely afford to rent a house in the inner city area.

But this old man was a bit stingy, preferring to live in a wooden hut in the outer city area for one low-grade spirit stone a month rather than spend ten times the price to live in a stone house in the inner city area.

He even calculated everything clearly when setting up a stall to sell things.

The stall space in the rogue cultivator area required rent to the market manager.

One stall, monthly rent of one spirit stone.

In the large stall space, if they squeezed a bit, after placing the talismans and talisman skin, they could still squeeze out half a square meter.

He simply allocated this half square meter to Luo Chen, and then the two of them paid half the rent each.

Did Luo Chen lose out?

That couldn't be said either. If he rented another stall, he would have to spend one spirit stone a month.

Moreover, not many cultivators liked to sell things with others.

Therefore, Luo Chen probably didn't lose out, but Old Man Chen definitely made a profit.

After a simple greeting, Luo Chen set up his things in front of the stall.

Twenty bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills!

Looking at this quantity, Old Man Chen couldn't help but be surprised, "Fellow Daoist Luo, your pill refining level has improved again recently!"

No wonder he said that.

Luo Chen usually came to set up a stall once every seven days, coming four or five times a month.

And every time, the number of Grain-Bigu Pills sold was around fifteen or sixteen bottles.

This time, he took out a full twenty bottles!

From this, it could be seen that he must have made no small progress in the refining of Grain-Bigu Pills.

In fact, it was indeed the case.

In seven days, excluding the day for setting up the stall and buying materials, the remaining six days, half were used to process materials and half to refine pills.

That is to say, there were only three days of pill refining time in total.

In the past, Luo Chen would refine two pots with all his might in a day, gathering about five bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills; the material loss rate was really a bit high.

But yesterday, his Grain-Bigu Pill refining technique advanced from the perfect level of proficiency to the Grandmaster level.

That last pot directly produced five bottles!

Plus the previous good luck, the loss was reduced to a very low level, which was why he gathered twenty bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills this time.

"Where, where, practice makes perfect!" Luo Chen smiled modestly, but there was still some self-satisfaction in his eyes.

The Grain-Bigu Pill refining technique at the entry-level Grandmaster proficiency still had more or less some prestige.

Chen Xiuping shook his head, "There are several fellow Daoists who sell Grain-Bigu Pills, but no one can produce twenty bottles in five days like you."

After speaking, he reached out and touched the nearest bottle.

"You wouldn't have mixed in flour to make up the numbers, would you? As an old senior, I have to check for you, don't smash the signboard of our stall."

Luo Chen watched him make a move with a smile, his hand already picking up a talisman covered in red lines.

"I heard that last time someone bought your Concealment Talisman, but it didn't have any effect, and their butt was bitten by a beast for the most part. Why don't I take one back for you to study, we can't smash our family's signboard!"

Old Man Chen was anxious, and ignoring the pills in his hand, he hurriedly snatched the talisman back from Luo Chen's hand.

"Five bottles of Grain-Bigu Pills only sell for one spirit stone, and you have the nerve to exchange them for my Concealment Talisman that costs three spirit stones!"

"Give it back! Give it back!"

Luo Chen watched with a smile as the old man placed the talisman in the most conspicuous place with great care.

The Concealment Talisman was Old Man Chen's star product!

Among his many low-grade talismans that cost one spirit stone each, it was the most expensive, starting at a full three low-grade spirit stones.

In fact, the market for Concealment Talismans was also the best, especially for those cultivators who went into the mountains to hunt beasts.

This kind of spirit talisman that could conceal blood energy for an hour could save a life at a critical moment, and its value was no less than many defensive talismans.

Sometimes, Luo Chen actually envied Old Man Chen very much.

Selling a talisman casually was at least one spirit stone, and he made a net profit of at least over a hundred a month!

Unlike himself.

In the past, he earned twelve spirit stones a month by working himself to death, and after deducting costs, he only got six or seven spirit stones.

If he deducted the half spirit stone for rent, half for stall fees, and one spirit stone for daily food and drink, he would only have four or five spirit stones left.

This was still after transmigrating for a year and grinding for a long time to save money.

It was hard to imagine what kind of life the original owner lived in the early days.

But envy was only for a moment.

Luo Chen knew very well that in the four arts of mainstream cultivation, each had its own difficulties.

Pills were about volume, profits were greater, but the difficulty lay in the entry of various pill formulas; every pill from entry to proficiency didn't know how many furnaces would be wasted.

Talismans were about quality; every talisman could be said to condense the entire essence, energy, and spirit of the cultivator when drawing it, and a single mistake meant losing everything.

Moreover, talisman makers often didn't live very long, and who knew why.

Just like Chen Xiuping, he looked old, but his age was actually sixty-something, uh, it seemed he was indeed very old.

However, Qi Refining stage cultivators could theoretically live to be one hundred and twenty or thirty, so sixty-something could be considered "young."

Turning into a talisman maker was impossible; he could never do homework every day in this life.

It was better to refine pills and roll balls.

Moreover, Luo Chen knew his own situation; the Grain-Bigu Powder refining technique at the entry-level Grandmaster proficiency could already double his income next.

Although a monthly income of ten was still not enough to support the cultivation of longevity (net income), at least it was moving in a good direction.

And, he could start a new project soon, right?

Just when Luo Chen was full of beautiful hopes for the future, Old Man Chen pulled his sleeve.

"Business is coming!" ===== CHAPTER 3 =====