Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 85

What was needed to refine Warming-Spirit Pills was only mature Warming-Spirit Grass. Because of this, Lin Mianmian’s earlier thinking had also been limited. She had only thought of buying seeds, urging them to maturity, and then selling the finished plants. It was just like what she had done every day during the apocalypse. The base issued seeds, she planted them to maturity, and then handed the finished products back to the base.
However, this was why fixed thinking was not desirable.
In truth, the base’s department for researching mutant plant growth-urging during the apocalypse had different divisions of labor. The department Lin Mianmian belonged to mostly handled tasks like urging seeds to grow to an edible mature state. But there were also other departments responsible for continuing to urge growth based on a mature plant’s state. Trees would branch, flowers would bear fruit, and grasses would drop seeds, preparing the next batch of seeds for them to urge.
Fortunately, she had understood before opening her mouth to buy. Lin Mianmian thought this.
Her ability had already recovered to forty percent, which gave Lin Mianmian quite a bit of confidence as she prepared to urge the Warming-Spirit Grass to produce seeds.
The small square of land in the courtyard had long been leveled and ready.
Dig the pit, place the seed, moisten the seed, urge growth, draw out the stem, spread the leaves…
The dark green little grass seed, only a quarter of a fingernail in size, was watered by Lin Mianmian’s ability like a thin, flowing stream. A stem as thick as one finger grew to half an arm’s length. From low to high, grass leaves grew with it. The leaves were round and small, only the size of a fingernail, growing in order, tender green and somewhat cute.
When the seventh leaf at the very top had grown to the same size as the first leaf at the bottom, it was exactly as recorded in the World-Viewing Hall books: the time when Warming-Spirit Grass was mature and could be used for pill refinement.
In less than fifty minutes, all seven leaves had grown. Lin Mianmian felt her ability and found that only two percent had been used.
The Warming-Spirit Grass had matured, but Lin Mianmian did not stop. She only carefully controlled the ability to continue moving through the grass in order.
A moment later, the Warming-Spirit Grass leaves gradually changed from tender green to a deeper shade. When they became almost the same dark green as the earlier grass seed, a small bud slowly drew out from the grass tip, then slowly grew into a small diamond-shaped ear.
From the Warming-Spirit Grass maturing to three dark green grass seeds forming at the three tips of the small ear, it took Lin Mianmian about another ten minutes.
The seeds formed and fell to the ground very quickly.
After the grass seeds fell, the Warming-Spirit Grass also changed from dark green all over to ashen and faded. The leaves curled, and the originally straight stem bent down.
Only then did Lin Mianmian stop sending ability. From the ground that had become a little hard, she picked up the three grass seeds.
Looking carefully, they were the same as the one Lin Mianmian had planted earlier. Dark green, slightly bulging in the middle and a little pointed at both ends. When smelled, they even carried a bit of firewood scent. Only, they seemed a little larger. Each was about one-third of a fingernail in size, and they looked fuller than the earlier one.
One seed gave birth to three seeds.
From urging growth to maturity, it had used about two percent of her ability. From maturity to seed drop, it had used about another four-thousandths…
The Warming-Spirit Grass seeds sold by All Affairs Hall cost ten middle-grade spirit stones each, which was one thousand low-grade spirit stones. But if Lin Mianmian urged them herself… including the cost of buying the first seed, the cost of each of the three newly born grass seeds was only about five hundred and seventy low-grade spirit stones.
Later, if she continued using grass seeds to grow more grass seeds, the cost of the first grass seed would be spread down endlessly. Assuming the later planting number became so large that the shared cost of the first grass seed could be ignored, the cost of each grass seed afterward would only be about two hundred and forty low-grade spirit stones.
Just for the grass seeds, the cost could drop to twenty-four percent…
In this way, after deducting all costs, each mature Warming-Spirit Grass plant could net two thousand one hundred to two thousand two hundred low-grade spirit stones… which was almost twenty middle-grade spirit stones.
That was eight more than the twelve she had thought before.
It was truly thanks to that sudden flash of insight.
Only, Lin Mianmian did not know that this time, she had more or less benefited from blind luck. Not every spiritual plant could give birth to several little ones by itself. Warming-Spirit Grass just happened to be like this.
With the first time done, the later matters went even more smoothly.
One became three, three became nine, nine became twenty-seven…
Another two hours later, Lin Mianmian held twenty-seven grass seeds. Her ability, which had originally been nearly half full, had fallen again to less than ten percent.
The money path was bright, but this comrade still needed to work hard…
Investment and output could very quickly enter a good cycle. Right now, only two things blocked the industry’s rapid development.
One was time.
The other was space.
The two things they restricted were the production speed of Body-Nourishing Soup.
Body-Nourishing Soup had to be stewed for a day and night before it could be drunk. Lin Mianmian’s little courtyard, packed full, could only stew fifty bowls at a time. In other words, even if Body-Nourishing Soup did not have Bitter Jiji Grass Soup’s limit after being drunk, it was still limited by cooking time.
Even if she stewed day and night, Lin Mianmian could only replenish five percent of her ability in one day.
Besides, stewing day and night was basically impossible.
If, after planning, ability could now become a steady way to make money, then a cultivator’s true foundation in the cultivation world still had to return to her own cultivation.
Ability was good, and it should also be usable in actual combat. But she could not use her ability to fight in the future, fight halfway until it ran out, then throw out a little white towel and ask the other side for a truce so she could drink a hundred bowls of soup before continuing.
On this point, Lin Mianmian had always clearly understood what was primary and what was secondary.
A thirty-two percent spiritual root aptitude was ordinary, but cultivation should still be the main daily matter. Useful Great Lecture Hall classes also could not be missed. The jade slips in World-Viewing Hall still needed to be read from time to time. As for sect missions, those were not urgent. In any case, the rewards from low-cultivation disciple missions could mostly be exchanged for spirit stones.
As for ability, since it had already been developed into a money-making path, she would set aside two days every ten days to cook Body-Nourishing Soup. Every thirty days, she would spend one hour urging ten Warming-Spirit Grass plants to maturity at once. If grass seeds gradually became fewer, she would add one more Body-Nourishing Soup cooking session each month as needed and arrange one more seed-growing session.
In this way, each month, urging growth could earn two hundred middle-grade spirit stones. Each month, five percent of her ability could remain in the core. If this continued, replenishing a little every month, there would eventually be a time when her ability filled up.
Spirit stones were naturally better the more one had. But Lin Mianmian’s cultivation was too low right now, and raising her cultivation was also urgent. If she put the cart before the horse, earning many spirit stones but making no progress in cultivation, then it would be laughable when her lifespan ended.
Besides, under the condition that a Core Formation elder’s official yearly salary was only about three hundred middle-grade spirit stones, Lin Mianmian being able to earn two hundred middle-grade spirit stones each month was already very impressive.
When one could not be too greedy, it was better to proceed steadily.
Another month passed.
Yuan Zhaoyang had not come down from Wanyi Peak. A-Bai had not returned to the Five Elements Sect either.
Lin Mianmian had the first batch of ten mature Warming-Spirit Grass plants in hand.
This time, she did not plan to sell the Warming-Spirit Grass back to All Affairs Hall. If she used the official route, the disciple plate had to be used back and forth. It might leave records, and that was one thing. If she ran into a manager like the senior brother from last time, someone who paid attention to the cultivation recorded on the disciple plate, it would be even harder to explain where this Warming-Spirit Grass came from.
If she did not go to All Affairs Hall, there were other places in the sect where things could be sold.
Lin Mianmian had heard Zihui and Gui Changshou mention before that if one took the small road opposite Clear Heart Hall down the mountain for a while, there was a large open space half hanging over the cliff. Some things All Affairs Hall did not accept, or things disciples did not want to sell at All Affairs Hall, would be taken to that open space and sold from mats on the ground.
Compared with All Affairs Hall, its weaknesses were naturally that the goods were incomplete, real or fake was not guaranteed, and people came and went at random. Things one wanted to sell might not sell quickly, and things one wanted to buy were also hard to find at just the right time.
But these weaknesses were not too bad for Lin Mianmian. After all, she was selling, not buying, and what she was selling was a popular common item.
All Affairs Hall bought Warming-Spirit Grass at thirty middle-grade spirit stones per plant, but what it directly sold were Warming-Spirit Pills. One Warming-Spirit Pill cost twenty middle-grade spirit stones. She heard that one Warming-Spirit Grass plant, with some supporting ingredients, could refine at least two pills.
Lin Mianmian had no fire at all, so she could forget about pill refinement. Naturally, she honestly went to sell grass.
This month, Lin Mianmian had also gone to that open space a few times and had seen stalls selling Warming-Spirit Grass twice. Both sold for a little more than All Affairs Hall’s purchase price. One sold for thirty-two middle-grade spirit stones per plant, and one for thirty-three. Lin Mianmian had watched from far away, and both sold quite quickly.
Lin Mianmian was not too greedy either. When she reached the open space, she shook out a small square cloth in pink-blue, placed a flat ordinary jade box on it, and laid out ten Warming-Spirit Grass plants inside, all the same size and neatly arranged. Then she took out a small wooden sign, wrote the price of thirty-three middle-grade spirit stones per plant, and set it upright.
This time, Lin Mianmian’s mission was: sell the grass, recover the cost, keep a low profile, and speak little.
It had just passed the lunch hour. Lin Mianmian wanted to sell all the grass in one go, so she came a little early. Three or five stalls were scattered far apart in the open space, and there were not many people walking down the small road. Lin Mianmian touched the jade box, took out a small stool, sat behind it, and waited patiently.
Soon, more people came down the small road. Most had come to set up stalls. After another while, a group of people came down to stroll around and look at goods.
Pairs of jade-colored, black, and vermilion cloth shoes, straw sandals, and boots swayed before her eyes… Lin Mianmian lowered her head and stayed quiet.
“Thirty middle-grade spirit stones per stalk.” A girl’s voice sounded above Lin Mianmian’s head, lowered but still pretty.
Lin Mianmian shook her lowered head.
“All Affairs Hall only pays thirty middle-grade spirit stones too. How about this? I will take all ten stalks. I will give you three hundred… and one.” Even when bargaining, the girl’s voice remained very low.
Lin Mianmian raised her head and saw a girl of eighteen or nineteen standing before her. A milk-green gauze dress wrapped around her body, pretty yet not losing purity.
Seeing Lin Mianmian raise her head, the girl showed a friendly smile. “Then it is settled…” As she spoke, the girl began taking out money to claim the goods.
“Thirty-three,” Lin Mianmian said in the same lowered voice, but very firmly.
In order to grow these Warming-Spirit Grass plants, Lin Mianmian had almost used up the spirit stones Yuan Zhaoyang and A-Bai had left her. She was counting on selling them this time to recover the cost. Last time, from far away, she had seen that the person selling grass at thirty-three spirit stones per stalk had sold them all in about one hour. Since she could sell at a better price, there was no need to lower it. It was not a clearance sale.
This was a business she would do every month. There had to be some bottom line.
With ten stalks, the difference was thirty middle-grade spirit stones. No one was foolish. Besides, Lin Mianmian was thinking that when Yuan Zhaoyang came out after condensing her golden core, Lin Mianmian’s cultivation would be so low that she could not offer a proper congratulatory gift. She should at least prepare more spirit stones. If she could not buy anything suitable, directly giving spirit stones should also make Senior Sister Yuan happy. After all, Senior Sister Yuan’s kindness to her had also been straightforward.
“Three hundred and… five…” The girl bit her lip and looked pitifully at Lin Mianmian. “We pill refiners are very poor and work very hard. Little Junior Sister, just sell them to me…”
If she could sell for a few more spirit stones each time, she could give Senior Sister Yuan a few more, give A-Bai a few more, and get herself some pills to eat. When her cultivation rose later, she could go see the little calico cat sooner.
My Rice Ball…
Lin Mianmian touched the small square cloth under the jade box. This was what had been left from making the little calico cat’s soft nest…
So, under the girl’s sincere pleading gaze, Lin Mianmian once again shook her head. “Thirty-three.”
“Three…” The girl still wanted to struggle, but was caught off guard and interrupted.
“Three hundred thirty.” A male voice forcefully cut in. It was clearly a price quote, so why did it sound a little excited?
Lin Mianmian naturally held the idea that the higher bidder won. But when she looked over, well, the person who had squeezed up from behind to the girl’s side looked rather familiar.
“Senior Brother Wen…” Lin Mianmian sincerely hoped this senior brother had already forgotten the meeting between them one month ago.
However, her hope broke in the next second.
“Little Junior Sister, what a coincidence. You have not come to All Affairs Hall to buy things lately. Was the thing you bought last time useful?” As Wen Liangzhi spoke, he handed over a storage bag with a smiling face. “Junior Sister, count it.”
How was she supposed to answer such an awkward topic?
Lin Mianmian could only pretend not to understand and reach out to take the storage bag.
“Wait!”
Lin Mianmian’s hand had stretched halfway when Wen Liangzhi’s storage bag was blocked back by the girl beside him.
The two looked at the girl together.
“I… I came first!” The girl pulled out a storage bag with some annoyance, then shook out three high-grade spirit stones and a cloth bundle. She handed them to Lin Mianmian. “Three hundred thirty. The cloth bag has thirty middle-grade spirit stones. I came first. I will buy them first.”
Say that earlier, friend. If you had been this straightforward earlier, I would have sold them and walked far away by now. How would I have run into this awkward senior brother?
Although what the girl said made sense, Wen Liangzhi had been the first to accept the price. Lin Mianmian did not take the girl’s spirit stones. She only looked at Wen Liangzhi with a headache.
The latter shrugged. “Then sell them to her.”
Fine. Senior Brother was a good person. She would accept the awkwardness! Lin Mianmian did not say more. She swiftly accepted the girl’s spirit stones and handed the jade box on the ground to her.
The girl put away the jade box with some heartache. She was about to leave, but then saw that one person had nothing left to sell and one person had nothing left to buy, yet both still stood there without leaving. She opened her mouth suspiciously. “Hey, you two are not singing one song together to trick me, are you?”
Lin Mianmian: “…”
Wen Liangzhi: “…”
“This grass…” Seeing both of them silently look at her, the girl’s alert nerves jumped in her head. She hurriedly took the jade box back out of her storage bag. She looked left and right, then pinched one plant out and sniffed it. Fine… it was Warming-Spirit Grass, and very good quality at that.
Lin Mianmian: “…” Running into a senior brother who came with an awkward aura was one thing, but this senior sister also imagined a little too much. She wanted to go back and be a salty fish who planted grass. She did not want to take part in this play that could not close its curtains. What should she do…
“All right, all right. Stop sniffing. Are you not a pill refiner? Warming-Spirit Grass is such a common spiritual plant. Can you still fail to recognize it?” Wen Liangzhi looked at the girl before him, who seemed to be hesitating over whether to chew a bite of the grass to taste it, and felt convinced. “I admit, I gave it to you because whether I bought this Warming-Spirit Grass or not did not matter. Who told you to clearly know the goods but still press Little Junior Sister’s price?”
“What is wrong with bargaining when buying things?” When the girl heard Wen Liangzhi admit he had deliberately provoked her into buying the grass, she actually relaxed a little. She had known it. How could there be such a good thing, someone giving up goods so easily when buying?
“Even if I do not refine pills, I work at All Affairs Hall and have seen many spiritual plants. The same spiritual plant also has grade differences. Even if this Warming-Spirit Grass is only a third-grade low-level spiritual grass and is not divided in detail by shape, smell, and intent, never mind the color. Just looking at the shape, I saw very clearly that every leaf was the same size, almost exactly the same. And it was not only that the leaves on one plant were like this. All ten plants were like this, plant after plant. They can be called high-grade. No, even better than high-grade. Thirty-three middle-grade spirit stones did not cheat you at all.” Wen Liangzhi snorted. “You are a pill refiner. Whether this Warming-Spirit Grass is worth thirty-three middle-grade spirit stones per stalk, do you not know in your heart? Then why did you bargain so quietly just now? Was it not because you were afraid of someone like me suddenly charging out?”
“You!” The girl was so embarrassed by his words that her face turned red.
When buying and selling things, bargaining was common. It did not have to be like this.
Lin Mianmian heard clearly, and her heart was startled. So ordinary Warming-Spirit Grass should not grow like this? No, that was not right. The jade slip in World-Viewing Hall had clearly described Warming-Spirit Grass like this. When the last leaf and the first leaf were the same size, it counted as mature…
“I am not talking to you anymore!” In the end, the girl still swallowed this anger. The embarrassed pink on her face remained, but when she turned to Lin Mianmian, her voice became gentle. “Little Junior Sister, if you have good things like this next time, come straight to Dan Peak and sell them to me. Same price. My name is Liu Longyue. Go to Dan Peak’s teleportation array and tell the guard my name. I will come down.”
“…” Lin Mianmian wanted a route where she quickly sold everything each time and did not interact much with people. How could she be willing to supply a long-term customer like this? If time passed, where would these ten high-grade Warming-Spirit Grass plants each month come from? How could she explain it clearly?
“All right, all right. Since you got a good deal, leave with a smile. With me here next time, it will not be this price.” Wen Liangzhi wore the face of a dishonest merchant chasing someone away.
“Tch!” Liu Longyue glared at Wen Liangzhi, then looked at Lin Mianmian. “My name is Liu Longyue. Remember, all right? Dan Peak.” After saying this, she glared at Wen Liangzhi again before leaving.
Lin Mianmian crouched and began putting away the small square cloth and stool.
Wen Liangzhi watched Liu Longyue walk a little farther, then crouched down too. “Hey, Little Junior Sister, are you not going to thank me?”
“Thank you, Senior Brother Wen.” Lin Mianmian flowed along with kindness.
“Little Junior Sister, do not go to Dan Peak to find her next time.” Since the person had already walked far away, Wen Liangzhi spoke directly.
Lin Mianmian nodded obediently.
“Why do you not ask me why?”
Lin Mianmian finished putting away her things. When she raised her eyes, she saw that senior brother crouched in front of her, his whole face saying, hurry and ask me.
She did not want to ask…
Lin Mianmian shook her head.
Wen Liangzhi froze. This was not following the script.
“Senior Brother, I will leave first.” Lin Mianmian now did not want to get involved with Liu Longyue, nor with Wen Liangzhi. Especially this senior brother. He had sold her one seed before, and now she was here selling ten finished plants. Did he really have no thoughts about it at all? A little scary. She kind of missed Senior Sister Yuan.
Even a blind person could see that Lin Mianmian was eager to clear away the relationship and did not want to chat. Wen Liangzhi was not blind. Naturally, he saw it clearly.
Alas, who told him that when he went back and saw Master’s white radishes and Martial Uncle’s little spirit beast, he kept thinking of this little junior sister? If she would not ask, he still had to tell her everything.
“This Liu Longyue, she does not know me, but I know some things about her.” Wen Liangzhi lowered his voice. “Little Junior Sister, are you not suspicious? She bought such good Warming-Spirit Grass just now. She definitely still wants to continue buying more. But she only told you her name and did not ask yours. She even opened her mouth and called you Little Junior Sister. There are so many Five Elements Sect disciples, and your cultivation is not written on your face. How did she call it so accurately? Do you know why I did not retort when she said pill refiners are poor? One grass plant makes how many pills, how could she be poor?”
Wen Liangzhi paused here and looked at Lin Mianmian.
Lin Mianmian did not look at him and did not answer. Her things were packed, but she did not rush to stand and leave. The two stayed crouching in this corner.
Fine, this little junior sister had character… Such a characterful little junior sister, who also looked a little silly. Even if she ignored him, he had to tell her everything properly.
“Because she is only at mid Qi Refining. She does not have the ability to use this third-grade Warming-Spirit Grass to refine pills. Hahaha.” Wen Liangzhi laughed, but no laughter answered him. He could only touch the tip of his nose and continue. “She is a disciple accepted by an elder on Dan Peak. The Warming-Spirit Grass she bought this time is either for her master or for her senior brothers and sisters. The key is that she is only at mid Qi Refining. How could she be certain that you, who can take out third-grade spiritual plants, are her little junior sister? Of course it is because…”
Lin Mianmian: “…”
“…” Wen Liangzhi had already given up on leaving suspense.