Cultivation begins with harvest.

"Junior brother is still far from reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, but we must consider it. Those who plan for the future always think far ahead."

"Junior Brother, I think your future is very promising," Wei Donglai said earnestly. "Firstly, we will share this secret technique with you, as it is for Foundation Establishment. Secondly, given your ability to take care of the spirit fields, you can consider applying for an overseas deacon post when you reach the late stage of Qi Refining."

"An overseas deacon?" Chen Guang frowned; this sounded dangerous.

Upon hearing this, Zhong Qi affirmed, "Being a deacon stationed abroad is definitely worth striving for. The sect has resource points outside, and the guarding and development of these resource points is actually a way for some deacon disciples to be sent out to hone their skills and increase their chances of entering the Foundation Establishment stage."

"Some resource points are of high quality but of average quantity, and are guarded by only a few stewards. Usually, it is a few stewards from the Road Hall and Qi Hall plus a steward from the Earth Hall. If you are unlucky, you may also have a steward from the Flame Hall or the Life Hall. The cultivation and development of the resources here all depend on the Earth Hall cultivators."

"As long as the resource points can be guaranteed to operate normally, the other non-resource areas are at your disposal. Although you need to cultivate the spirit fields yourself, there is no doubt that this is your own territory. The lucrative job of the Earth Hall's outpost deacons is comparable only to that of the Guanglin Hall. Of course, the premise is that you can become a deacon disciple, junior brother."

"If you really succeed, you'll have your own spiritual fields, and we'll be able to shamelessly ask you to plant more cultivation resources that are useful to us," Zhong Qi said with a smile.

Guanglin Hall is the developer of external shops and difficult resource points of the sect, and the profits from it are naturally plentiful.

The rules of the Qingheng Sect have always been like this: as long as the development level and the resources paid are strictly followed, the miscellaneous profits in between are not taken very seriously.

For example, in Ditang, every year 120 seeds of Jade Heart Grass per mu are guaranteed to reach the hands of the spirit farmers, who then use them to grow and raise the grass. They deliver 30 qualified Jade Heart Grass plants, and the rest are left to their own devices.

You can sell the remaining Jade Heart Grass to the sect if you want, or you can dispose of it yourself if you don't wish.

However, you cannot simply give someone one acre of land and then secretly collude to open another acre in a separate building, or even take away the purple spirit soil from the spirit field. You will be held accountable. If you do not pay enough Jade Heart Grass, the sect will also be dissatisfied.

Within the bounds of the rules and regulations, as long as there are no mistakes or omissions, and as long as there is still surplus, it does not affect doing important things, and it does not excessively consume the sect's resources, the Qingheng Sect is never stingy.

Chen Guang gradually figured out this way of doing things and realized that there was a lot of room for maneuver in overseas deacons, which was in line with his fourth goal.

Chen Guang took the opportunity to inquire whether the sect had independent cave dwellings or the like. He learned that this was only possible after becoming a steward, so he temporarily gave up on the idea.

"There are still nearly ninety-three pots of mana left in the spirit stone, more than enough." Zhong Qi was in an increasingly pleasant mood today, and replaced the Ice Mist Array Plate with a new spirit stone.

"My two senior brothers, please try my Ice Mouth Shrimp Oil made from Ice Tail Shrimp. I don't have much else to offer you." Chen Guang took out three cups and poured half a cup of Ice Mouth Shrimp Oil into each of them. The shrimp oil was quite delicious, but it was not advisable to eat too much on its own.

"Not bad, it's a delicious dish. It's a pity it was a few decades earlier." Zhong Qi took a sip and commented aptly.

Wei Donglai also praised it a couple of times, but his attitude was similar to Zhong Qi's. Although he thought it was a good thing, he didn't care much about it.

Chen Guang belatedly realized that Zhong Qi was one thing, but he was already at the ninth level of Qi Refining, and his meridians and acupoints were already at the limit of his mortal body. Wei Donglai had a grade C aptitude, but his earth spirit root had reached grade B, and his meridians were naturally wide and strong. Shrimp oil still had an effect on him, but the effect was not very obvious.

"Junior Brother Chen Guang, you are a talented individual. This year, we have decided to appropriately increase our support for your cultivation. Do you still want the Qi-Nourishing Pill?" Zhong Qi asked.

Chen Guang shook his head and said seriously, "Senior brothers, I have a favor to ask. You are both experts in the Qi Hall. I hope you can give me some guidance on my combat cultivation. If my goal is to become an overseas steward, I think I must be able to protect myself."

"This is a mature approach," Zhong Qi nodded. "But if I really want to give you some guidance, I only have one request: you have to be completely honest. You need to tell me what spells you have, what your plans are, and your combat strategies. We can practice together. In the end, I can only give you some insights into fighting enemies—including which spells are more applicable in combat. It's not really guidance, but rather a kind of exchange."

"I understand."

"There's not much space here, so we can't really perform well. Here's what we'll do: come find me at my place in ten days, and we'll go to the training ground," Wei Donglai said. "You know my family; we'll be staying in the market for a month or two this time."

Zhong Qi and Wei Donglai didn't stay long. They left after agreeing on the harvest time for the Concentration Flowers. After the first batch of Concentration Flowers, they would give Chen Guang more Concentration Flower seeds.

Zhong Qi originally just wanted to give it a try, but since the effect was so good, she had to increase her investment. However, considering that the three ponds inside the ice mist array occupied a considerable amount of space, the number of Concentration Flowers could only be increased to about thirty. Any more would have a significant impact on the quality.

After the two left, Chen Guang thought to himself for a while. Apart from the Ice Yuan Bottle and Yin Burning Pearl, which could be revealed, these two were his trump cards and would not have been his usual methods of fighting. The guidance Wei Donglai and the others gave him was just the usual fighting methods. He only needed to know his own trump cards.

Just as they said, hiding things is not something Chen Guang, a newcomer to magic combat, should be concerned about. There is nothing shameful about the magic he knows.

There's no need to mention those like Qingma Kuiyan who haven't completed their cultivation.

The remaining 14 Linquan Pumpkins all matured, but they were all only of excellent quality. They yielded 8 Water Gourds, 12 Spring Spring Techniques, and 8 Spring Spring Techniques Talismans.

The Linquan Pumpkin cannot be left for long, and it's time to sell some of the Thousand Water Gourds as well. The incompatibility of storage artifacts is giving Chen Guang quite a headache. He only learned from the Scripture Pavilion that only high-grade storage artifacts can accommodate other storage artifacts, and they will also reduce the corresponding space inside. The storage bag given by Qingheng Sect is only a mid-grade artifact, so there is no hope in this regard in the short term.

The following evening, after feeding the Thousand-Needle Wren to its heart's content, it took a large number of spiritual creatures to Xingfeng Market.

Instead of going to the Fanglin Hall of the Cang Clan, they purchased a large number of containers for holding the pills from different shops, spending more than three thousand silver dollars before finally going to the Fanglin Hall to buy a pass and enter the Yanmian Market.

The Linquan pumpkins were alright; I sold them all and got 1190 ears of grain. I sold 81 Chirongdan pills for a total of 17820 ears of grain, keeping three bottles for myself as backup. I only sold two Qianshui gourds for 2800 ears of grain. I sold fifteen sets of three Mianhuozhen needles at 4500 ears of grain per set, for a total of 67500 ears of grain.

After only a taste of the Yin Fire Pill, he sold three bottles. On average, each bottle cost less than 350, which dampened Chen Guang's enthusiasm for selling Yin Fire Pills in large quantities. Although he hadn't originally planned to sell too many, the price made Chen Guang prefer to stock up first.

I sold a few talismans for the "Spring of Life" technique, but the profit was appalling.

This harvest yielded an astonishing 90,000 yuan.

It's even more profitable than selling the recipe for frozen shrimp oil.

At the same time, Chen Guang realized that the value of Suiyuan was easily inflated. He felt that tens of thousands of Suiyuan was too much for him, but for those powerful forces, it was easy to come up with hundreds of thousands. Moreover, the more Suiyuan they planted, the more Suiyuan they had. This also indirectly showed that the purchasing power of Suiyuan had an upper limit. All four spiritual items that could be used as basic currencies had this characteristic: large quantities, mainly for use by low- and mid-level cultivators.

With Chen Guang's deep pockets, he could already pursue a higher level.

Chen Guang was secretly calculating in his heart.

First, the Thousand Water Gourd is a completely unsaleable commodity with the lowest economic value. Next is the Yin Fire Pill. All other items, whether pills, spirit melons, or spirit artifacts, are selling very well, although the economic benefits of the Linquan Pumpkin have visibly begun to decline.

Without the reward orb, Linquan Pumpkin would indeed be a reliable economic item, but looking at it a year later, it's not worth it anymore, as the reward orb of Linquan Pumpkin no longer meets Chen Guang's needs.

"Let's explore first. Prioritize spending Suiyuan on the Secret Technique 'Falling Butterfly Guide,' then see if there are any substitutes for Linquan Pumpkin, preferably those that can be planted in Black Thistle soil. Next, see if there's any possibility of turning Suiyuan into a Hundred-Year Spirit Herb."

Other cultivators often only realize this in the late Qi Refining stage. Hundred-year-old spiritual herbs are the next intermediate currency, lower than spirit stones but still stable. Chen Guang had this intuition.