Immortality and cultivation begin at age forty, starting with Foundation Establishment.

Time flies, and a month has passed.

Chen An recruited two hundred disciples in his sect.

The demon-hunting team reaped even greater rewards, which Yu Lanhua led a group of disciples to return to the sect to exchange for cultivation resources.

Chen An received news that half a month ago, Yu Lanhua, Lu Nian, Ye Hongyi, and Zheng Ping had surrounded and killed a powerful second-tier demon beast, the Sword Tiger Beast.

Having harvested a large amount of second-tier spiritual materials, they can exchange them for a considerable amount of Foundation Establishment stage cultivation resources, and Chen An can also get a share of the profits.

The resources of the Yu family, who are at the Golden Core stage, are slightly different from those that ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators can exchange in the sect's mission hall. Not only are they more numerous, but their quality is also superior.

Most of the pills that have passed through Yu Lanhua's hands are of medium to high grade, which not only have less toxicity but also allow for easier absorption of the medicinal power.

For an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, the best they could get would be a mid-grade pill; a high-grade pill would likely require a much greater price.

But who is Yu Lanhua? Her deceased Daoist partner was a direct descendant of the Shangguan family, a renowned family of alchemists. Even if she returned to the Yu family, she could still use her past relationship to obtain the highest quality pills.

Chen Anchun benefited from this.

He increasingly felt that he had taken advantage of Yu Peiyao. He remembered that at the beginning, when he discussed the issue of profit sharing with Yu Peiyao, he refused to budge an inch.

In retrospect, it seems that he was rather petty.

After Liu Hao broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage, the bet between the two would make Yu Peiyao give Chen An half of the profits back.

Among cultivators, every benefit is clearly priced, and Chen An never felt that making more than half of the profit meant he was getting a bargain.

Behind this partial profit lies something that even Chen An finds difficult to understand.

Just like when Chen An chose the person to give the Foundation Establishment Pill.

The Yu family has been driving them for ten years, but that's just the stated price. The hidden cost will require them to make additional payments in the future.

They can also choose to refuse.

The price to pay for this is that next time Chen An has an opportunity, he won't side with them.

After obtaining the cultivation resources, Chen An was about to set off for the Monster Mountain Range.

The demon-hunting team has recruited two hundred new disciples, fifty of whom are descendants of the Yu family and ten of whom are descendants of the Shangguan family.

This time, only one deputy captain position was added: Shangguan Changqing.

She was a junior member of Yu Lanhua's family in the Shangguan household.

The Shangguan family is a family of alchemists, but not every member of the Shangguan family knows how to refine pills. Most of the disciples of the Shangguan family only receive the inheritance of first-level ordinary pills. Only a very few talented disciples will have their potential in alchemy nurtured.

After all, training an alchemist requires a lot of resources and time, and training a disciple with no potential is tantamount to wasting resources.

Chen An wasted a lot of spiritual herbs by training Shi Ying as an alchemist. The resources consumed in learning alchemy in the mid-to-late stage of the first rank were even enough to train dozens of cultivators at the peak of Qi Refining.

This is only because Shi Ying has exceptional talent. If she were to encounter a disciple with less talent, the amount of energy required to learn alchemy would be a bottomless pit.

During this month.

Chen An and Shangguan Changqing talked for a long time.

Through Shangguan Changqing, he learned some basic information about alchemists.

If an ordinary cultivator consumes resources on their own, buying and selling pills to earn spirit stones to support their alchemy studies, then that person's cultivation time will be infinitely compressed.

Like Lu Nian, he was almost eighty years old when he established his foundation. If it weren't for the help of a large number of pills, he would have almost failed to establish his foundation because he spent too much time learning alchemy.

For an individual to learn alchemy, they need to produce a large number of pills to sell and recoup their costs. Buying, selling, and learning seem simple, but in reality, it is a long process.

The pills sold can never supply the new pills you want to learn, so you need to refine a larger batch of pills, which will slow down your cultivation progress.

Family alchemists don't need to worry about these things. As long as you have good enough talent, the family won't care about the losses incurred in the early stages.

Ordinary cultivators have little access to second- or third-tier pill formulas and medicinal herbs, but this is not so difficult within alchemy families.

Shi Ying was able to steadily learn alchemy and improve her cultivation because Chen An was her supporter, providing her with unlimited resources.

On the Xuan Yang Sect's flying boat, after careful consideration, Wang Qian also boarded the flying boat. She stood on the edge of the flying boat and looked down.

The area was shrouded in mist, resembling a fairyland. As far as the eye could see, everything was a vast expanse of white, with only the faint outlines of the mountains visible.

Shi Ying, meanwhile, was diligently studying second-order alchemy techniques at the dojo.

On the flying boat, under Chen An's arrangement, several veteran demon hunters were sharing their knowledge and stories with those who had never participated in demon hunting or rarely participated.

Everyone listened with great interest.

When the previous group of people perished, Chen An searched for their relatives one by one and delivered the pre-arranged compensation resources.

Faced with death, everyone roused themselves. Even Shangguan Changqing, the young genius who was usually praised by his relatives and was certain to reach the Foundation Establishment stage, listened with exceptional seriousness.

Shangguan Changqing is quite well-known among the younger generation of the Shangguan family branch. He is ambitious and his elders have high hopes for him.

He received guidance from Yu Lanhua during this demon hunt; otherwise, he would have gone to the mission hall to do other missions and missed the opportunity to participate in group missions.

Shangguan Changqing possesses a Foundation Establishment Pill, but his cultivation level needs time to stabilize before he can seize the opportunity for a breakthrough.

Liu Hao and Wang Rulong are still in seclusion.

With the addition of sect disciples, the number of independent cultivators should also continue to increase.

With the addition of newly recruited independent cultivators, the total number of independent cultivators has reached one thousand.

The sect has 370 disciples.

Thirty people tragically perished.

As for the fallen rogue cultivators, no one knows, and no one cares.

Those whose origins can be found will receive a compensation equal to one-tenth of the sect's disciples' salary; those whose origins cannot be found will not be forced to comply.

These are the rules of Qingyang Market, and also the rules of the independent cultivator community.

If it's too much, Chen An might be willing, but other forces might not be. Some rogue cultivators might even risk their lives to obtain resources and fraudulently claim compensation.

There will also be independent practitioners who are forced to become beneficiaries.

Chen An will not go against the tide.

He should exploit the cattle and horses as he sees fit, since he is the one in control and has no need to think for them.

If you don't want to do it, there are plenty of independent practitioners who will.

Every day, thousands, even tens of thousands, of people come and go in Qingyang Market, and new independent cultivators arrive from afar every day to collect resources.

Chen An's demon-hunting team was very popular. Apart from the first batch, those who wanted to join the team in later batches had to go through layers of screening, and some even bribed the cultivators in the team to get in through back channels.

Chen An turned a blind eye to this.

The Xuan Yang Sect has a righteous reputation, and the rogue cultivators who come here will also be very disciplined.

The demon-hunting team expanded its base in the Demon Beast Mountain Range, establishing multiple smaller bases to acquire more resources.