East District. Night.

Carrying his sandstone box with only three scorpions left, Bubai headed back to his tower, wearing an ugly yet satisfied smile on his old Ah Niu face.

“Lucky, lucky. The last two days, I managed to sell most of the batch.”

Undeniably, it was truly a stroke of luck. Initially, the fear of the Flower Thief Gang's trouble kept most outer disciples away from his stall.

However, a turning point occurred two days ago when a passing inner disciple patronized his stall!

The majority of the inner disciples had already gone to the secret realm, but there were still some who managed to stay in the sect for one reason or another.

Not everyone saw the secret realm as a golden opportunity; some valued their lives too much to risk it all. These were the true stable fellas with influential connections to avoid the draft.

They were also his prime targets during this low-tide in the market. After all, those afraid of death were more prone to control fetishes.

So, for just a mere low-grade spirit stone, he threw in an extra two for the clearly interested senior. The decision was correct as it became the jump starter for his business.

With the purchase from a foundation establishment cultivator, the other Qi-refiners knew the quality wouldn’t be bad.

Although Qi-refiners couldn't use the Gu control technique to refine the scorpions, there were still other ways a poisonous scorpion could be put to good use...

Thus, customers trickled in one by one, and his scorpions sold like hot cakes, already earning him more than a pouch of spirit rice!

The happy times didn’t last long though because his sales immediately invited the collective price suppression from the rival stalls, drawing away his small customer base.

However, this battle could be fought. A spirit stone and some spirit rice was already a decent profit.

So, he took his price action to the next level. Toward the end, he even accepted mortal money, completely overshadowing all the other stalls who were all only seeking resources for cultivation.

This allowed him to clear away almost all his scorpions!

Unfortunately, the fervor still died out in the end. The market was simply temporarily saturated.

This was inevitable due to the smaller population of customers. The competition from the other stalls certainly didn’t make it any easier.

Plus, most of these outer disciples weren’t rich, and not all could afford a deadly weapon such as his Death Scorpion.

Many visitors, instead, showed interest in his stock of stolen goods.

This was another reason why he needed to maintain a disguise. It’s uncertain if anyone would recognize the goods. He wasn’t willing to gamble no one would notice.

So, he took the dive fully expecting someone to notice. Now, even if someone did notice, it would only be linked back to his disposable disguise.

If it comes to that point, he just needed to pat his booty and vanish with the wind. They won’t be finding the nonexistent outer disciple anytime soon.

Fortunately, no one had come to find fault with him… at least for now.

Without any hiccups, in the end, his earnings totaled one low-grade spirit stone, three pouches of spirit rice, 13 taels of gold, and 18 taels of silver!

Alas, this wasn’t his realized capital gain.

One pouch of rice covered the initial cost of acquiring the mother scorpion, while the second pouch accounted for the expenses incurred for his disguise.

Some mortal funds were also invested in purchasing smaller boxes necessary for selling the scorpions He couldn’t just hand the venomous creature to the customers...

Considering these expenses, his net profit amounted to a spirit stone, a pouch of spirit rice, and about 10 taels of gold.

This was definitely fell short of his original estimate, especially since the pouch of spirit rice and some of the taels mainly came from the sales of his stolen goods.

For an asset with fatal risks and normally requiring months of investment, this harvest was rather lackluster.

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However, to him, making a quick buck like this was already very good.

In fact, he considered himself very lucky to have made this much despite the fierce competition from the other stalls.

Just that he might have offended them all. The next time he came back with this face, he might incite a collective suppression, regardless of his sales.

Of course, he had no intention of revisiting the market anytime soon. Excessive sales would only attract attention.

It was also best to steer clear of the limelight, especially considering the inner disciple who had expressed interest in his scorpions.

Plus, the current harvest was already enough to cover the costs for a couple of mistakes during his formation task. This alleviated some of the pressure on his educational journey, allowing him to finally speed up the process of earning contribution points

After all, he still hadn’t acquired his first complementary technique for his Arboreal Bliss Dreamcatcher Art…

Saving a portion to offset these extra costs, his assets were, unfortunately, not plentiful enough to afford a pure and safe closed-door cultivation. Well, even if he didn’t save, it was still not enough to meet the excessive requirements of his gluttonous golden finger.

Luckily, he had an alternative, albeit riskier, method to gather Qi. The true advantage of a golden finger lies in the extra options it offers, letting him have more choices than those without.

Just that safety factors still needed to be taken into consideration.

After the secret turmoil caused during his nightly cat walks over the past couple of days, it was too risky to go out at night further.

Sensing the Liang mask in his hidden storage space, Bubai could only lament inside. “Seems it will have to stay in cold storage for a while.”

So, he was back to being an honest worker.

Tower. Bathroom.

The currents of water shifted in the pool, the cool water caressing his skin from multiple angles while the soft, cool beauty intercepted the waves coming from the front.

Despite the cool sensation of the water and the beauty, Bubai still couldn't shake off the heat he was feeling at the moment. The reason? Well, he was playing the full version of some hot water games...

Of course, this wasn’t just wanton indulgence. Naturally, Bubai was honestly cultivating.

After his nights out with the cat, his cultivation had progressed rapidly. Astonishingly, he had already saturated the final meridian network in his head!

The pace of his progress had exceeded expectations!

In fact, he had noticed his saturation pace had gradually increased as he approached the end, becoming faster and faster! The process started out requiring weeks, until the end, where it only took mere days!

This was attributed to the mysteries of his green Qi. Despite mainly focusing on specific areas during each saturation, every strand of Qi also seemed to nourish the rest of his body.

Thus, as more strands of Qi were utilized, the saturation process became more efficient because other parts had already been partially saturated!

One prime evidence of this occurrence was his real dantian – recently reaching complete saturation even without him actively absorbing any Qi using it! This was a spill-over effect from the saturation of other meridians!

He honestly didn’t even notice the event until he drew a strand of Qi into his real dantian, intending to clear his mind as usual, only to notice the strand of Qi lingering in the dantian without dissipating!

It didn’t take long to confirm the fact, and the realization soon dawned regarding the benefits of a saturated dantian.

Now, he could store his green Qi in his real dantian, letting it roam freely until he needed to use it!

This was a significant advancement, surpassing the previous limitation of a single strand or wisp. Now, he could store as many strands as he wanted, until the real dantian became full!

In short, he had unlocked an extra storage space for his green Qi!

Of course, his real dantian still fell short of the size of his mysterious space.

Even with the saturation and improvement from his mysterious green Qi, he estimated his real dantian’s capacity to be only slightly superior to the average cultivator, amounting to a fifth of the size of his mysterious space.

Moreover, unlike typical cultivators, he still couldn't store any other sources of Qi in his real dantian.

His mysterious seed had a voracious appetite, automatically sucking all external, non-green Qi into the mysterious space. There, the seed would either transform them into green Qi or directly devour them like it was still doing with his memory Qi.

Basically, the new perk was only a +1 to his capacity of 5 for green Qi storage.

Still, it was excellent news, especially when coupled with the fact that his saturation process was completed.

This wasn’t the only good news. His calculations also indicated that his memory Qi collection was nearing its estimated conclusion!

This was why he was cultivating so hard at the moment. He was making the final sprint towards his goal!

The idea of hot water games had long been on his mind, but despite the diminishing quality of the harvested memory Qi, he had deliberately saved this experience.

Naturally, he saved it all for this essential moment, hoping to capitalize on the strong impact of a completely new set of games to bolster the quality of his harvested memory Qi! With this, he aimed to directly sprint to the end and maybe even achieve a breakthrough in the process!

At the corner of his vision, Bubai glimpsed the soaked twins already sprawled by the poolside, long exhausted from the intensity of his earlier games, and this spurred him to work even harder with Xiao Lan...

Soon, another memory Qi was devoured by his seed. “Ha… 100%…”

Getting out from the water, Bubai settled at the poolside, legs crossed, trying to grasp the feeling of the breakthrough he had worked tirelessly for, but...

There was nothing, not even a single sign of change, even in his seed.

Opening his eyes, Bubai frowned slightly. Did he calculate wrong?

“No?”

Bubai’s attention was drawn towards the voice, seeing Xiao Lan wading in the shallow waters toward him, staring at him with an expressionless face.

Bubai shook his head, “Thanks, Xiao Lan. But it might be something else. I’ll figure it out.”

Xiao Lan lowered her head, her expressionless demeanor unchanging, but he still felt her underlying moodiness.

Xiao Lan was probably one of the most excited inside over his potential breakthrough, but now her hopes were let down.

Bubai sighed inside. What could be the issue?

Did he have to double his efforts and gather a full capacity of memory Qi instead of just reaching the specified halfway point?

Could he be lacking something else? Or could this be… the legendary bottleneck?