Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 12 On How to Feed an Apprentice

"How...how do I try this?"

Chang Ping'an scratched his head, looking at the small fairy dew grass with some confusion.

"Swallow directly,"

Zhang Chengdao thought for a moment, worried that the [Immortal Dew] might not work on his disciple, so he added, "I don't know how effective this Immortal Dew Grass will be on you, so let's try it first. But be careful, the most precious part of the Immortal Dew Grass is those few drops of Immortal Dew on it!"

Seeing Zhang Chengdao's seriousness, Chang Ping'an carefully took the Immortal Dew Grass and then carefully put it into his mouth.

He even chewed it a few times.

It's just ordinary grass, with a slightly bitter taste, but the few drops of dew are cool and have an indescribable fragrance.

Shortly after swallowing the fairy dew grass, Chang Ping'an felt a slight burning sensation in his abdomen.

Then, an extremely pure spiritual energy suddenly burst forth in his abdomen, rushing back and forth along his meridians, causing even his bones to ache slightly.

Before he could ask his master, Chang Ping'an instinctively sat down to meditate, guiding the spiritual energy and trying to slowly digest it.

Unexpectedly, as that spiritual energy surged and crashed, the true qi meridians within his body, which had just been healed, began to melt—unlike the ruptures he experienced when he was severely injured last time, this time it melted! It melted as if it were being swallowed up by the spiritual energy! Or rather, it was being refined!
He opened his eyes in horror, just as he was about to ask Zhang Chengdao for some advice, but the true energy in his body was like cotton candy soaked in water, and in the blink of an eye it was refined into that chaotic spiritual power!
However, Chang Ping'an soon discovered that he seemed to be able to slowly absorb this spiritual power, just like absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy, only at a slower speed.

But this spiritual energy is really strong. If I can absorb it completely, my cultivation level will probably increase by a lot, and I will be able to reach the second level of Qi Refining in an instant!
Realizing this, Chang Ping'an was no longer afraid. He glanced at Zhang Chengdao, who was also meditating with his eyes closed, and fell into deep self-reproach.

His master gave him the Immortal Dew Grass, surely for his own good. How could he panic just because he didn't understand the reason and his true qi meridians were being refined?

I have truly let my master down!

Thinking of this, Chang Ping'an, deeply saddened, sat down to meditate even more earnestly, trying his best to absorb the spiritual energy within his body.

Since I am naturally poor, if I don't work hard in the future, I will really be letting down my master for his momentary leniency and for his teachings!

……

Zhang Chengdao was completely unaware of Chang Ping'an's various thoughts.

He was indeed making the most of his time to close his eyes and cultivate, because it would take a full 12 hours to advance from the fourth level of Qi Refining to the fifth level!
Even with the [Fairy Dew], it still takes more than nine hours!
If I don't work hard at cultivation, what if my disciple catches up with me one day?
Is it true that a disciple's cultivation level is higher than that of his master?

To save face as a master, Zhang Chengdao, unusually, did not slack off or pursue upgrading the construction level of his cheat ability. Instead, he began to cultivate himself while his disciple was cultivating.

The two of them continued their cultivation until nightfall.

With just over an hour left in the nine-hour countdown to his advancement, Zhang Chengdao only needs to cultivate a little more before going to bed tonight to successfully become a cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

The reason he stopped was because the screams coming from his cheap apprentice's stomach had become so loud that Zhang Chengdao could no longer ignore them!
Is this thing a reincarnation of the Taotie?!
Zhang Chengdao looked at the only remaining basket of meat buns and three bowls of lean meat soup in his backpack, and he was so worried that he was about to go bald.

If all else fails, I'll just have to keep feeding my apprentice the lean meat soup, since I still have plenty of the ingredients for it in my backpack.

Although one can live without eating after drawing qi into the body, insufficient nutrition and an empty stomach will significantly affect cultivation efficiency.

Besides, being able to survive without food doesn't mean you won't get hungry. Making a high school student go hungry is just inhuman! But...

Zhang Chengdao glanced at the two membership red envelopes in his backpack again and sighed unconsciously.

He, as the master, truly had no more food in his bag. The farmland behind the house wouldn't be ready for harvest for another day, and besides gambling for more red envelopes, he really didn't have any good ideas for the time being.

Left with no other choice, Zhang Chengdao opened both of his saved member red envelopes. His luck was neither good nor bad; first, he opened 10 portions of [Traumatizing Powder], and then he opened a decorative item [Incense Table].

The former is worthless and has a high probability of appearing, so it's quite normal to get it. He used to get this thing frequently when he played this game before he transmigrated.

The latter is quite rare, and it's even a purple-quality ornament. If you could draw it before you transmigrated, you would almost be considered extremely lucky... But the problem is that you can't eat this thing!

Zhang Chengdao looked at the materials shimmering with purple light in his backpack and felt somewhat disoriented.

Why didn't he have this luck before he time-traveled?!
However, after carefully examining the ornament, Zhang Chengdao suddenly had an idea.

Although it's just a decorative item, classified as an "ornament" in the game, it has no function or special attributes; it's purely for aesthetic purposes...

But this ornament is very special. It is an offering table. In addition to an incense burner and a pair of candles, there are many offerings on the table!

That is to say—food!
A plate of oranges, a plate of peaches, a plate of fried pork belly, and a plate of Nanyue longevity cakes.

It was very lavish, after all, it was for sacrificial purposes.

I just don't know if I can take it off this ornament and eat it myself.

Zhang Chengdao was quite eager to try.

Based on his exploration of the cheat system over the past few days, he discovered that any items included in a building constructed by the system could be removed and kept separately—for example, the quilt in the [Thatched House] could be put into his backpack separately and it would be displayed as [Quilt]. It was very intelligent and wouldn't disappear.

Since the items inside the building can be disassembled, the decorative items... should be able to be disassembled as well, right?
Thinking of this, Zhang Chengdao hurriedly returned to his room, secretly took out the incense table, and placed it in front of his bed.

First, I put the meat pie into my backpack, and sure enough, it showed up as 1 [Nanyue Longevity Cake]. Next, I put the fried pork belly and oranges in my backpack, and they also showed up with their corresponding names. Even the icons looked like they were taken from a photograph, exactly the same as when I put them in.

Only when it comes to the plate of peaches does the icon change to a very special resource in the game: [Immortal Peach].

This brings us to the name of the game, "Peach Blossom Spring 3".

The reason why "Peach Blossom Spring 3" is called "Peach Blossom Spring" is obviously related to "Peach Blossom Spring". In the game's background, the small village built by the players is the legendary Peach Blossom Spring Village, and the village has a special product, which is the "Immortal Peach" produced by the Immortal Peach Tree.

The "Immortal Peach" is of course not the same as the peaches of immortality from the Queen Mother of the West in mythology, but in the game, it does have certain special attributes, such as increasing lifespan experience by 1 point.

Of course, 1 point of life experience is pitifully little. Even if the villagers in the game feed them full of [Immortal Peaches] every day, they won't gain much life experience. It's probably less than staying in a high-level house for one night. Its greater use is actually as fertilizer or feed.

In the game, once you reach a higher level and unlock new buildings, you can craft [Peach Paste], which can be used as fertilizer or animal feed, making it a very important resource. Therefore, players rarely feed villagers [Immortal Peaches] directly; they usually craft it into [Peach Paste] for use.

However, in reality, this "immortal peach" probably has something special about it, right?

I'm currently reading this book and I'm asking for your monthly votes!!!
It's finally in the library today!! Reading it is absolutely crucial!!! Please, all you book lovers, don't overfeed it, it'll kill me, waaaaaah!!!
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(End of this chapter)