"Junior Brother, you have to understand, a stalk of Qi Nourishing Grass that can be bought for one Lower Grade Spirit Stone plus four pounds of Clear Water Rice can only be inferior-grade."
Spirit Medicine is divided into three grades based on cultivation quality: inferior, good, and superior.
The quality of a Spirit Rice Plant is the easiest to distinguish; you just have to see how many grains it produces.
For example, with Clear Water Rice and Purple Corn, if one mu can produce over 125 pounds, it means more than eighty percent of the Spirit Rice Plants are superior-grade.
"Senior Brother, I'll take three stalks. Will you sell them for four Lower Grade Spirit Stones?" Fang Yun thought for a moment before naming his price.
When he came to the Disciple Marketplace, Fang Yun hadn't expected to buy high-quality materials for refining Qi Nourishing Pills anyway.
When accepting a planting mission from the sect—for example, the Purple Corn mission he took—he would have to turn in one hundred pounds of Purple Corn per mu after six months. The rest would be his. If it were a mission to plant Qi Nourishing Grass, the sect would send a Steward to collect the corresponding amount of Qi Nourishing Grass.
The sect would definitely pick the superior-grade first, then the good-grade, and only take the inferior-grade if the quantity wasn't met.
Most of the Spirit Medicine that appeared in the marketplace from Sect Disciples was inferior-grade. Whenever good-grade ones showed up, they were snatched up in an instant.
The book Preliminary Understanding of Alchemy recommended that for one's first time refining pills, it's best to use superior-grade materials. This helps build a novice's confidence.
But Fang Yun didn't need to. He knew his own Alchemy Talent. He wouldn't be like a novice who, after failing to refine a pill, would wonder if his talent for alchemy was simply lacking.
"I can't do that. For three stalks of Qi Nourishing Grass, the best I can do is knock one pound of Clear Water Rice off the price."
Upon hearing this, Fang Yun turned and walked away.
'My offer was reasonable; I wasn't trying to rip him off. I offered four Lower Grade Spirit Stones, not something ridiculous like three Spirit Stones and five pounds of Clear Water Rice. A discount of two pounds of Clear Water Rice is perfectly reasonable.'
His time was limited, and he wasn't going to waste too much of it haggling.
"Wait, Junior Brother! I can see you're a straightforward man. Four Lower Grade Spirit Stones it is!" Seeing a deal about to slip away, the stall's senior brother immediately called out.
Fang Yun turned back, and after checking that the Qi Nourishing Grass was intact, he completed the transaction.
When the deal was done, the stall's senior brother seemed to want to say something more, but seeing that Fang Yun had no intention of chatting, he went back to resting with his eyes closed.
Next, still in the Disciple Marketplace, Fang Yun spent another four Lower Grade Spirit Stones to purchase the supplementary ingredients for refining Qi Nourishing Pills.
There was a greater variety of supplementary ingredients. He bought ten Wulong Beans and a single Little Pure Flower, but one Little Pure Flower had thirty petals in total, and refining one batch of Qi Nourishing Pills only required nine.
He bought two stalks of Wind-facing Grass and two pounds of Eight-corner Root.
With three sets of materials for refining Qi Nourishing Pills in hand, he was still very hopeful he could successfully refine them, despite the poor quality of the ingredients.
'Two-star Alchemy Talent... I hope you don't disappoint me.'
Fang Yun couldn't help but think this as he left the Disciple Marketplace and headed for Dan Cloud Peak.
This time, upon arriving at Dan Cloud Peak, Fang Yun saw Song Qiaoqiao again. What a coincidence.
'If they get any bigger, she'll have trouble keeping them contained.'
Fang Yun shot a quick couple of glances before immediately averting his gaze and stepping forward to greet her.
"Hello, Senior Sister Song."
"Junior Brother Fang, are you here to take on an apothecary apprentice mission? If so, that's a shame. There aren't any available right now."
"That's not it, Senior Sister Song." Fang Yun shook his head and stated his purpose. "I came this time because I want to rent an Alchemy Room."
"An Alchemy Room... You're going to refine Qi Nourishing Pills?"
"Yes."
Song Qiaoqiao frowned as she confirmed, "Junior Brother, you only started learning about alchemy a month ago, right?"
"Yes, Senior Sister." Fang Yun explained frankly, "I just want to see if I have any Alchemy Talent. If not, I'll go back to growing Spirit Medicine. But if I really do have the talent, then for someone with Five Spirit Roots like me, it'll at least give me something to hope for in the future."
"How many batches of Qi Nourishing Pills do you plan to refine, Junior Brother?"
"Three."
"It's hard to test for alchemy talent with just three batches."
"Senior Sister, think about it. With my Five Spirit Roots talent, if I can't even produce a single Qi Nourishing Pill from three batches, then there's no point in me pursuing alchemy. I'd be better off just going back and diligently tending to my Spirit Medicine."
Song Qiaoqiao thought about it for a moment and realized that what Fang Yun said made a lot of sense.
For someone with a Five Spirit Roots talent and no powerful background, cultivation is fraught with difficulties. Only by confirming a powerful talent in some other area would they have any chance of going far.
An ordinary level of Alchemy Talent wouldn't be of much use to Fang Yun. Indeed, he didn't need to be like other Cultivators, starting as an apothecary's apprentice and only later seeing if he had any talent for alchemy.
Once she understood, Song Qiaoqiao lowered her head and apologized. "I'm sorry, Junior Brother. I was being inconsiderate."
"It's not your fault, Senior Sister. After all, you didn't know I have Five Spirit Roots." Fang Yun didn't blame Song Qiaoqiao at all. At that moment, he was wondering, 'Can Senior Sister Song even see the ground?'
Ahem.
Fang Yun gave a light cough, quickly reigning in his thoughts. He considered himself a respectable person; some stray thoughts had to be kept in check.
"How about this, Junior Brother Fang? I'll help you refine one batch of Qi Nourishing Pills. You can watch from the side and learn by observing. That way, you'll have a better chance of succeeding yourself."
Song Qiaoqiao said, looking up. She had decided to make it up to Fang Yun as a way of expressing her apology from just now.
Hearing this, Fang Yun stared at Song Qiaoqiao, stunned.
"What's wrong, Junior Brother?"
"Senior Sister, you don't have a thing for me, do you?"
"What are you talking about?" Song Qiaoqiao's face instantly turned bright red. She had no such intentions at all. "Junior Brother, you're reading too much into it. Even though you're good-looking, I'm really not interested in you."
"Hahaha! Senior Sister, I'm just teasing you. But you're pretty skilled at turning people down. You must get a lot of practice rejecting the pursuits of our senior brothers."
'Unbelievable,' was all Fang Yun could think.
'Senior Sister Song's personality is really something else.'
'How does someone with a personality like hers survive in the sect?'
Fang Yun had a good impression of the Celestial Cloud Sect, stemming from his childhood memories.
That's why after his standard transmigrator 'package' arrived, his first thought was to join a power like the Celestial Cloud Sect, rather than seeking out other factions.
For a Cultivator like him, with Five Spirit Roots and talents that were all a blank slate, the Celestial Cloud Sect offered a much more stable path for development.
But even in a sect like Celestial Cloud, it would be hard to nurture a Cultivator with a personality like Song Qiaoqiao's.
There had to be another reason. Soon, something occurred to Fang Yun.
"That's right." Mentioning her pursuers made Song Qiaoqiao a little embarrassed; she confirmed that she had rejected quite a few.
"Senior Sister Song, I was wondering, which Elder is your relative?"
"No Elder in the sect is my relative," Song Qiaoqiao said, shaking her head. "But a Supreme Elder is my maternal great-grandfather."
Fang Yun's confusion was instantly resolved.
No wonder. With a Core Formation Stage elder for a relative, Song Qiaoqiao could practically do whatever she wanted in the Celestial Cloud Sect.
The senior brothers she rejected most likely wouldn't dare to keep pestering her and disturbing her life.
To have developed such a personality, one could only say that Song Qiaoqiao had been protected far too well.