The moment Zhang Wu Ji entered the library of the Zhang Family, a few servants in the family all prepared a bucket of water in hand.
Because the previous experience of their Third Young Master tries to burn the library, this reaction becomes normal in their daily lives as a servant in Zhang's Household.
But unexpectedly, the current Zhang Wu Ji is actually here to study!
Taking over the identity of Zhang Wu Ji for less than a week, he has to gain more information and knowledge related to this world thoroughly before he actually does something wrong.
Although... The chances of him getting killed because of the former Zhang Wu Ji reputation and deeds is higher.
Two days.
It took him two days to go through most of the reading material he considers important for him to know. What amazes him the most is their language and writings is basically the same as in his former world.
Except for the void of science, electricity, mechanical and building made of concrete, everything is almost similar to what he had seen before back in his own world.
As for the next differences, is their cultivation.
Back in his world, it was level 1 to level 99, and a level 100 is counted as the strongest person ever. But even that was made into a video game and not in their real life. While for the circumstances in this world, they were pretty much similar to a video game.
Qi Branching Tier
This is what their cultivation tier is called. In the branching Tier, one will weave the strands of Inner Qi to produce more power for the cultivator to control.
In the earliest stage of the branching tier, A cultivator will have to weave a total of 100 strands of Inner Qi in their body until they advanced and become a proper cultivator.
This is also known as the 1st Stage of Inner Qi Fighter Stage. Where everything begins. For every 100 Strands of Inner Qi weaved inside their body, it will be condensed into a strand of fighter Qi. Similarly, as long their amount of Fighter Qi reaches 100 strands, they can advance into the next stage, and so on.
This will remain from the 1st Stage until the peak of the 9th Stage.
Entering the 10th Stage, they will be a qualified Inner Qi Warrior, a minimal requirement to become somebody associated with the Clans, Families, and proper Imperial Forces.
This will continue until the 20th Stage, known as Inner Qi Soldier, 30th Stage, Inner Qi Master, 40th Stage Inner Qi Grand Master, until 50th Stage Inner Qi Elder.
Reaching 59th Stage in their cultivation, one will need to go through the Sheng Tian Process to cleanse their body and purify the Quality of Inner Qi, Physical Body, and Martial Body before entering the 60th Stage.
This stage is known as Inner Qi Lord, a grand title given to only those in this stage because they're now considered as a true cultivator that went through the cleansing process, where their strands of Lord Qi is twice stronger than before their Sheng Tian Process.
As they continue, it would be the 70th rank Inner Qi King, 80th rank Inner Qi Emperor, and the 90th rank Inner Qi Saint. Only by possessing 9,999 strands of Saint Qi can one obtains the ability to step in the sky, although the exhaustion of Qi will be extremely great.
Bur from rumors, it's said that the cultivation tier above the Qi Branching Tier does exist, but until now, no cultivator succeed in advancing past the borders between this two tiers.
"Wu Ji, what are you doing inside the library?" Zhang Qing Feng went to the library to see what the bastard is looking forward to accomplishing, but before he entered, Zhang Wu Ji opened the door and come out.
"I was reading. It seems our Ping An Continent is really interesting!" Zhang Wu Ji replied his so-called father in a nonchalant attitude, Unknown that his shallow reply will get the attention of his father.
"Quite interesting? What did you understand there from reading those books inside the library?" Zhang Qing Feng is shaken by the word this youth speaks. Only lingering in the library for two days, how many information can he grasp?
"If this brat actually understands the situation within the continent and what trouble us the most within the Li Jiang Town, it would be the best, even if he can't cultivate!" Zhang Wu Ji thought.
“Ping An Continent, Four Imperial Kingdom, Qi Branching Tier, Beast Infestation, Profession, and Hierarchy. Is there anything I missed out?" as a librarian at his previous life, Zhang Wu Ji's bad habit such as thoroughly skimming through the book, revise them and simplified their content end up appearing once again.
But inside this useless debauchee Zhang Wu Ji, won't this turn into an uproar if the useless and trash Third Young Master suddenly went to read books?
"Father, are you here to read some books as well? Some of them are too lengthy, they wasted me too much time to go through the whole book," he asked his so-called father since they were both standing at the entrance of the library.
"Read your head! I'm here to see how you're going to burn the library! But you actually read? And understand the continent and the power delegation on top of that? Has the sun start to rise from the west now?" Zhang Qing Feng stares at the bastard child of his while plenty of words he wished to say went through his mind.
"What are you planning to do?" His father asked him.
"Since my pocket money is limited, I was thinking about concocting some pills to earn money. Father, do you have a cultivation manual that I can learn?" Zhang Wu Ji replied his so-called father honestly. After listening to the servants that he only has 500 gold coins monthly to spend, and how he uses 100 gold coins to buy ten simple seeds, it seems that their family isn't doing too well.
But... How would he know that it was his own action that causes his pocket money to be deducted by so much? Zhang Qing Feng used to give him 5,000 gold coins monthly to spend, but he used the first-month money to visit the prostitutes in the Deity Pavilion for a total of five days and return home in a life-risking condition.
The reason? He enjoyed intercourse so much he dried his sack from any remaining juices.
After the pocket money was deducted to 2,500 gold coins, he took it to wreck havoc in the Botanist Hall, messing with their Vice Hall Master's only daughter, arson, and other things.
These actions almost took him his life when he returned to the Zhang's Family Manor with hundreds of cultivators wanting to kill him.
Then, it reduced to a mere 1,000 gold coins a month, which he used them to burn the stalls of the vendors from the business street.
His father screamed "My God!!!" when he privately hires the carpenter to rebuild the stalls, but yet to give up in his ignorance, the former Zhang Wu Ji changes the design again and again, until the business street looks like a joke now in the eyes of other visitors!
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Three times, in three months, after he reached the age of fifteen years old. As for the education subjects, he was expelled from the six classes his two brothers took, and the Medicine Teacher and Blacksmithing Teacher give up on teaching him after five classes.
"Father, can I do so?" not knowing what his father is thinking, Zhang Wu Ji asked for his father's approval once again.
"Erm... Take it as a learning process, I will tell some people to bring you some ingredients to practice. As for those sold in Zhang's Apothecary, I will let you keep all the money it sold." Zhang Qing Feng hesitates to let this bastard child of his handle the production, but a few additional pills for sale won't be a problem.
"As for the Cultivation Manual, I will have some people to bring you a few of them," he replied before leaving.
But when Zhang Qing Feng returned to his room and listened to the report from the butler, his expression turn green from his decision earlier.
"That bastard child of mine concocted a better grade Wound Mending Pill by using trash materials? How is that possible!" he almost can’t believe what he said, but from the word of the servants of Zhang Family, Pill Masters, and people from Botanist Hall, how can that be false!
"Did I just let the God of Wealth go out to do what he likes?"
The next day, Zhang Wu Ji went to have a look at the plot of soil where the ten seeds are planted. Only three days have passed, so it was normal to not seeing any sprouts on the soil. But then, he walked over to where the watering can is placed, and tried to upgrade it.
Wooden Watering Can +1
Amount of water: 3 liters
Durability: 10/10
"We should continue until it becomes +5?" he tells himself to continues.
Wooden Watering Can +2
Amount of water: 3.2 liters
Durability: 12/12
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Wooden Watering Can +3
Amount of water: 3.4 liters
Durability: 14/14
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Wooden Watering Can +4
Amount of water: 3.6 liters
Durability: 16/16
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"Come on, give me a good bonus ability for the +5 upgrade!" he prayed to the god for a moment before he mentioned [Upgrade]!
Wooden Watering Can +5
Amount of water: 4 liters
Durability: 20/20
Special: Twice a day, allow plants watered by this to grow faster by an hour
"Amazing! He shouted when he read the description given by the upgrade system. Without waiting, he took the watering can and proceed to collect some water, but soon, stop on his track.
"Hah... Hah... Shit! My cultivation is still too weak for me to upgrade five times and still move freely!" he collapses at the side of the well, still with the hand holding the watering can.
Unknown to him how long had passed, Zhang Wu Ji awake from his slumber. His first sight is the knot on top of his bed, folded together to form a curtain that can repel insects when sleeping at night.
Standing beside him, Da Yang and Da Zui are shivering in worries, unknown what had happened to their young master when they went to collect the ingredients their master ordered.
"Young master, since you cannot cultivates, please keep yourself from working through the heavy stuff." Da Zui said.
"Yes, young master, please let us handle these smaller tasks for you." Da Yang added.
He later moved to a corner of their young master's room and took a few ingredients out for their young master to inspect them.
"How many sets of ingredients did my father deliver to my courtyard?" Zhang Wu Ji asked as he inspects the ingredients and also the quality.
Although all the ingredients were nothing precious, still, his father delivered a total of 100 sets for him to play with.
This alone may cost his father between 500 gold coins, which was an enormous expense compared to a normal family of four that only need to spend less than 100 gold coins a month.
It may look like the ingredients aren’t worth as much as their seed counterparts do, but the reason for their differences is easily distinguished.
The harvested ingredients carry no ability to further reproduce, but it was different from the seeds.
A skillful botanist can properly grow their own variant of plants, which will vary in their overall quality, and yield when harvested. For those bigger establishments, their ingredients may be sold for higher prices because of the better quality ingredient was presented.
The better the quality, the higher the chances of a successful concoction.
For example, the half-withered ingredient he used a few days back to concoct might results in a failure or a single pill is concocted at that time, but he managed to concoct two pills.
Furthermore, the quality of his pill is slightly better than their normal version.
A proper well taken cared basic quality ingredients may yield between two to three pills in a cauldron, while those better one may yield even more, depending on how well they were grown. Due to this sensitive circumstances, the botanist profession is often well sought after by those businesses that excel in medicine.
"Da Zui, from today onwards, go to the plot where the seeds are planted and water them using the Watering Can in my hand before I collapse. Twice a day, and report to me if there are any changes in the sprouts."
"As for Da Yang, come to the Pill Making Room daily to deliver foods and collect the completed pill to be sold at the Zhang's Apothecary." Zhang Wu Ji delegates the task to his two servants and went over to the Pill Making Room.
Realizing that their young master wishes to sleep in the Pill Making Room, they quickly rearrange the bedding and belonging might be used by their young master and transferred them to the Pill Making Room, before they left to do what he ordered.
"Well, since father already delivered me 100 sets of ingredients, should we begin once again?" Zhang Wu Ji officially starts his attempt to earn more money.
With the word of mouth quickly spread across the whole Li Jiang Town, 99% of the population living in the town was informed about the higher quality pill produced by the Third Young Master of the Zhang Household.
In fact, who isn't tempted to purchase the better quality Wound Mending Pill that will save their lives when fighting against the Beast Infestation in the wild?
Compared with a human with cultivation, the Beast can easily overpower a group of humans with similar strength as they do.
As for the reason, because the beasts only have two different stages before the advance in their ranks!
A Wild Beast is well known for its strength between an Inner Qi Fighter to Inner Qi Soldier rank.
As for the Strong Beasts, their strength is between Warrior Rank to Master Rank.
After this two differentiation came in the Lesser Demon Beasts and Greater Demon Beasts.
Similar to a human, a Lesser Demon Beast is known for their strength between elder rank to an Inner Qi Lord. A Lesser Demon Beast will remain as one if they failed to break through the border between Lesser and Greater Demon Beast. The difference is significant because the breakthrough allows them to enter the Xia Di Process.
With each Strand of Inner Qi is worth 1 life source, a 1st Stage Fighter Rank cultivator can easily have 100 Life source to support themselves in a fight, but when that was used to compare with Zhang Wu Ji, which doesn’t even have 10 strands of Inner Qi, the differences are pretty huge.
"Unless I cultivate, It would be very hard for me to improve. I can’t remain so weak that I will collapse after five upgrades attempt." Zhang Wu Ji knows that except to continue to train and strengthen himself, It would be difficult for him to overcome his weaknesses.
Supported by such motivation, Zhang Wu Ji started. Upgrading the ingredients before he started!
To support his production, no matter how tired it would be, he will have to concoct at least one set to be sold every day, which is why he will only supply one batch of the Wound Mending Pill each day, and spend the remaining points to upgrade the ingredients.
Each time, it took him between 3 to 4 hours of short rest before he can continue with the upgrading. After some calculation, he decides to upgrade only three times a day, which totaled up to fifteen attempts, and the remaining time will be used to concoct the pills, rest, and reading.
Even Zhang Qing Feng himself is surprised by the effort the child put into himself.
Seeing how much of an improvement the youth made, he decided to deliver the two Cultivation Manual he previously spent some effort for the master to creates a copy.
Three days later, Da Zui is the first to come and report to his young master about the plot with seeds. It seems that the ten seeds he planted had sprouted. Among the ten, half of them grows faster than the others.
Listening to his report, Zhang Wu Ji dismisses him from the room to continue and look after the plants.
After all, the plants were properly nurtured by him through the watering can’s special ability.
With only 15 units of Upgrade that can be used, he only upgraded 15 sets of the materials, with three set that have been used to concoct the Wound Mending Pills. The only unfortunate thing is that his three-set only yielded him 8 Pills, while none of his three attempts managed to activate the special ability of the Cauldron.
But through this eight pills, Zhang Wu Ji nearly destroyed the entire Zhang family Apothecary because of the market for his Wound Mending Pill is too enormous.
Cultivators from all over the town queued outside of the apothecary for the sake of purchasing at least a pill before going out for their adventure.
From 10 gold coins per pill, the extreme demand caused the price to soar, reaching 25 gold coins for a single Pill! In the eyes of Zhang Qing Feng, he almost blamed the youth for his turtle speed in concocting the pills!
What he doesn't know about is, with the amount of cultivation strength and Inner Qi inside his body, how can he produce over one batch of pills?
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[1]. The Sheng Tian here is a direct pinyin means Ascend to heavens. It was a proud and heavenly ordeal often used on those folklore stories where their MC ascend to the heavens.
[2]. Xia Di means Descending Hell. It can also be used to imply the meaning of Entering Earth, used in a burial term.