“A budding spirit vein? You seem to be mistaken, Lady Guang. In front of you is actually the shrine of the God of—hmpnmhgh!” Just as Qin was about to tell Lady Guang that the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag in front of them was actually the shrine of the God of Spirit Slag, Jian decided to cover her mouth before she could finish her sentence, prompting Lady Guang to look at the two in mild confusion.

“Is there something you would like to say, Young Miss Huang?” she asked, to which Jian replied with a light chuckle. “Hahaha. Nothing at all. You know what Qin is like. She likes to daydream every once in a while. Anyways, what were you saying about a budding spirit vein?”

“Ah, yes. About that.” Lady Guang eventually nodded in response before continuing to talk. “As I’ve said, what we might have under our feet right now is a budding spirit vein. Rather than entertain the possibility of some rich young master deciding to place a mound of Spirit Slag in the middle of nowhere, it would be more believable if one were to think that there was a budding spirit vein under this pile.”

“But don’t spirit veins only produce Spirit Stones?” Xu Zhoucheng could not help but ask, to which Lady Guang nodded as she told him, “That would be correct, yes. However, that’s only if you were to consider mature spirit veins. Budding spirit veins, on the other hand, do not have enough qi to produce such items, which means that the items they produce could only be…”

“Spirit Slag…” Jian muttered, finally understanding why there was a pile of Spirit Slag here before they arrived. Although he still believed in the God of Spirit Slag, considering that the god aided the two of them in their cultivation, he now interpreted it as the God of Spirit Slag bestowed a budding spirit vein to the two of them as they were devout believers.

While Jian was making sense of the whole situation, Qin also listened in on the conversation between the four of them, wondering if the God of Spirit Slag was a lie all this time. However, she also came to the same conclusion as her husband, thinking that the God of Spirit Slag bestowed them a budding spirit vein for their devout belief towards the god.

Unfortunately, that was nowhere near the truth.

On the other hand, both Huang Yongzhen and Xu Zhoucheng could not help but eye the budding spirit vein for themselves, knowing very well how beneficial having a spirit vein was. Unluckily for them, Lady Guang dispelled all of their greedy thoughts as she told them, “If you’re planning to take this budding spirit vein for yourselves, you can’t really do that. Once you harvest a budding spirit vein off the ground, it instantly dies.”

“How about selling the location of the budding spirit vein?” Huang Yongzhen could not help but suggest, only to realize that he had misspoken soon after. “Ai. Never mind. I let greed get the better of me just there. Selling the location of the budding spirit vein is akin to telling others where Qin’er and Young Master Jian lives.”

Naturally, Jian and Qin could not help but frown at the words spoken by Huang Yongzhen, even if the latter was related to him by blood. Then again, as they thought about their conversation, never did Lady Guang bring up the thought of selling the spirit vein. With that in mind, Jian told her, “From the looks of it, Lady Guang has something else to propose.”

“But of course.” Lady Guang smiled in response. “Since we can’t really take a budding spirit vein off where it originated, then all the more reason to find other ways of benefiting from it.”

“Such as…?” Qin asked, to which Lady Guang replied, “Cultivating near the spirit vein aside, we could sell all of the Spirit Slag it has produced for quite a sizable amount of money.”

“Unless… you have other uses for it?” she continued, to which Jian shook his head in response. “Although we’ve taken some of the Spirit Slag for ourselves, that’s already enough for us to last for a couple of decades.”

“Then I assume it would be fine to sell all of the Spirit Slag here, no?” Lady Guang nodded as she asked, prompting Jian to lightly nod, with Qin also nodding soon after. However, before she continued with her idea in mind, she instead asked yet another question to the couple. “Judging by the density of qi in the surroundings, I presume that Spirit Slag isn’t the only thing this budding spirit vein has produced, right?”

Looking at Lady Guang with a hint of hesitation for a few seconds, Jian eventually let out a sigh as he hastily headed back to the house, soon coming back with a sack that was filled to the brim with white dust. Seeing the sack of white dust, Lady Guang could not help but say, “As expected. It has started to produce high-grade Spirit Slag as well.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Then again, I already see quite a decent amount around the pile,” she added with a chuckle, making Jian scratch his head as he awkwardly chuckled in response.

“What were you going to do with the high-grade Spirit Slag, if I might ask?” Lady Guang asked soon after, to which Qin replied, “We were planning to use it as fertilizer for a few alchemical plants we were going to plant near the pile.”

“I’d suggest selling it instead.” Lady Guang shook her head once she heard that. “If you weren’t notified, high-grade Spirit Slag is actually a rare commodity nowadays, with a small sack already fetching a hefty sum. You’d probably be able to get more materials for practicing alchemy if you sold it right now.”

“Brother, is this true?” Jian asked Xu Zhoucheng, slightly in doubt as to whether Lady Guang’s words were true or not. However, Xu Zhoucheng supported her words, telling him, “Yeah. For some reason, a lot of people are trying to buy high-grade Spirit Slag as of late. As for the reason why, the clan has no clue.”

“We’ve heard that it has something to do with an alchemy competition encompassing the whole kingdom coming up, but the information we’ve obtained regarding that is still a bit vague,” said Huang Yongzhen, adding onto Xu Zhoucheng’s words.

Hearing how there was an alchemy competition coming up, Jian could not help but look at Qin, whose eyes were glistening like the stars after hearing those words come from her Third Uncle. From the looks of it, it seemed like she was set on participating in the competition. After all, participating in it would possibly give her access to rare alchemical materials that would aid in waking up her father.

Noticing that the atmosphere around them had changed for the better, Lady Guang called for their attention and asked, “So, is that a yes for selling the high-grade Spirit Slag as well? I think we could do something where half of the profit from selling the Spirit Slag would go towards the funds to buy your father’s medicine, while the remaining half would go towards your practice on alchemy. Does that sound good to you, Young Miss Huang?”

“Is that fine with you, Jian?” Instead of agreeing to it outright, Qin decided to ask for her husband’s opinion. After all, he was more knowledgeable in the business aspect compared to her. With that, Jian closed his eyes for a bit, pondering over the entire situation before eventually nodding while letting out a light sigh. “Let’s do what Lady Guang says. After all, this might be our best shot at solving the problem.”

After that, the five of them continued to talk for a bit more before they returned to the house, ready to eat the stew that had been bubbling all this time.

On the other hand, oblivious to the disaster that he had unknowingly barely avoided, Arthur could not help but try to wrap his head around the information he had identified from Lady Guang. “It doesn’t make sense. Although her aura’s faint, I’m certain that it’s as strong as Qin’s uncle, if not stronger. If that’s the case… then why is her cultivation still in the Essence Gathering Realm?”

Ding!

[Guang Zhenqiang] Race Human (True) Age 36 Cultivation Aptitude Seven-Tiered Soul-Heart Bridge Cultivation Essence Gathering Realm, 2nd Stage (53%)

As Arthur continued to read through the information he had obtained from her through [Spirit Analysis], he soon noticed a few things that were out of place. First off, her race was not ‘Human’, just like Jian and the others. Instead, what was written was ‘Human (True)’, the latter part of which he did not know what it signified.

As for her cultivation aptitude, unlike Jian’s brother that was a Soul Palace, hers was a Soul-Heart Bridge. Thinking about it for a bit more, he could not help but wonder why the system hasn’t given him any additional knowledge yet.

“Do I have to meet another requirement or something? Is that the reason why the system isn’t giving me any more knowledge I could buy?” he asked, only to obtain a notification from the system not long after.

Ding!

The user has reached Tier 1 Qi Purity and has unlocked Spirit Receptor Tier 2 through the Spirit Receptor Module. The user has also upgraded [Spirit Analysis] to Level 10.

And lastly, the user has asked the system for more knowledge.

The user has met all of the necessary requirements.

The Knowledge Module is now unlocked.

From the looks of it, all he needed to do…

…was ask.