Chapter 9: Breakthrough
This time, the extra Spiritual Fish was a black bream with a long fish spine extending from the front of its mouth.
Judging by its appearance, it looked somewhat similar to the Sword Yellow Fish, which was worth about ten Spirit Stones, but this black bream was dark in color, with dense markings all over its body.
A Spiritual Fish evolved from the Semi-Spiritual Black Long Bream… the Spine Bream!
Just like the Sword Yellow Fish, the value of the Spine Bream lay in its sharp spine.
However, the spine of this Spine Bream seemed to have some additional uses, so its price was even higher.
Take Ji Yuan’s Spine Bream for example—if it was preserved in perfect condition, it could easily sell for sixteen or seventeen Spirit Stones.
Ji Yuan glanced at the sky. It was still early.
No time like the present—delays could bring unexpected changes.
With a casual raise of his hand, a Water Arrow appeared.
With another push of his palm, the Spine Bream in the Fish Pond flipped over with its belly facing up.
Neither of his neighboring tenants were around, which made it even more convenient for Ji Yuan to act.
Not long after, he had already sold the Spine Bream at the Fish Market.
As expected, the price reached seventeen lower-grade Spirit Stones.
Together with the three Spirit Stones he had previously saved, he now had a total of twenty Spirit Stones!
If this amount still wasn’t enough to break through to the mid-stage of the Qi Refining Realm, Ji Yuan could only console himself with “maybe next time.”
On his way home—despite taking the waterway—he unexpectedly ran into an acquaintance.
Qiu Qianhai, one of the original Ji Yuan’s few friends. Ji Yuan had no choice but to stop and exchange a few words with him.
He learned that Qiu Qianhai had just returned from Maple Leaf Island, with traces of blood still on his body.
“All I can say is… everyone went mad with killing.”
Even recalling it, Qiu Qianhai showed lingering fear.
“That wasn’t a fight over opportunities anymore; it had turned into a complete free-for-all. No matter who it was, everyone attacked on sight. If you didn’t kill them, they would kill you.”
“I only managed to escape because of my spell ship’s speed.”
Ji Yuan couldn’t help but think of his neighbors and wondered how they were doing.
“Well, go home and rest. We’ll catch up another time.”
Ji Yuan cupped his hands in farewell.
“Alright, farewell.”
With that, one man piloted a spell ship, while the other paddled a small boat, each going their separate ways.
Ji Yuan could tell that Qiu Qianhai had likely gained something from Maple Leaf Island and was in a hurry to return because of it.
As for this friend of his… orphaned with no parents, starting life with nothing but disaster. Yet, with his reckless nature, he had forcibly carved out a place for himself in Zengtou Market.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have reached the fourth layer of Qi Refining at such a young age.
He even owned a spell ship now.
Ji Yuan had a rather deep impression of him.
Back home, since Lin Youwei’s family and Old Huang hadn’t returned, Ji Yuan didn’t bother waiting and headed straight to the backyard to check on the Fish Pond.
Unfortunately, there were no Semi-Spiritual Fish that had evolved.
He then returned to his room, first laying out the twenty Spirit Stones in front of him. Settling his mind, he silently began circulating the Azure Sea Tide Technique. Once he was completely calm, he took out two Spiritual Eggs, cracked them together, and drank the spiritual liquid inside.
Repeating this process, after refining six Spiritual Eggs, it was already deep into the night.
The surroundings were silent, only occasionally disturbed by the sound of the lake waters of the Yunyu Marshlands lapping against the shore.
Ji Yuan looked at the twenty Spirit Stones in front of him.
Without hesitation, he picked up two at a time, circulating his technique to absorb the pure spiritual energy within them.
Two, four, eight… one after another, the Spirit Stones in Ji Yuan’s hands turned into powder and slipped through his fingers. He wasn’t in a hurry.
After all, he had plenty of time, and as long as he stayed alive, Spirit Stones would only become more plentiful.
A breakthrough was just a matter of time.
Yet, amidst this peaceful state of mind, after he had absorbed the energy of twelve Spirit Stones—
He suddenly felt as if he had broken through a certain barrier.
The thin membrane that had been blocking him was pierced through, and the surrounding heaven and earth’s spiritual energy naturally surged toward him, flowing into his meridians and finally settling into his dantian.
Mid-stage Qi Refining!
“I, Ji Yuan, damn it, I made it!”
After a brief moment of excitement, he picked up another two Spirit Stones, continuing to absorb their pure spiritual energy to stabilize his cultivation.
It wasn’t until the early morning, when the sunlight squeezed through the window and shone in, that Ji Yuan snapped out of his meditative state.
Having firmly seated himself in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, he slowly exhaled a turbid breath.
Stepping into the backyard, he felt the world had become clearer and brighter, as if the future held endless possibilities… hmm, first, let’s check the Chicken Coop.
After collecting six Spiritual Eggs, he checked the Fish Pond again.
Good. Still no evolved fish.
It was only at this moment that he had the leisure to inspect his surroundings more carefully.
After advancing to the mid-stage of Qi Refining, although it didn’t feel like a leap in life essence, his perception of the environment had indeed become several times sharper.
As for the spiritual energy in his dantian—there was no comparison.
When he was at the second layer of Qi Refining, casting a single Water Arrow Technique would drain his dantian completely. At the third layer, he could cast it five times in a row.
But now, if he only cast Water Arrow Technique—
Ji Yuan estimated he could fire it twenty times without a problem… if only his body could perform like that too.
Body Tempering!
He had to temper his body!
This breakthrough to the fourth layer of Qi Refining had consumed a total of fourteen Spirit Stones, leaving him with six, just enough to upgrade one of his buildings.
After thinking it over, Ji Yuan made his decision.
He wouldn’t upgrade the Cave Dwelling just yet. Instead, he would upgrade the Pigsty.
With the Spiritual Eggs on hand, the 20% nighttime spiritual energy boost from the Cave Dwelling felt like a chicken rib—something too tasteless to enjoy yet too wasteful to discard.
It didn’t provide much practical improvement to his current strength.
But the Pigsty was different.
Once he raised a Spiritual Pig, eating its meat… would strengthen his tendons and bones, enhancing his physique.
Maybe by then, he could even find a pretty female cultivator to dual cultivate with.
Filled with these pleasant thoughts, Ji Yuan took a while to calm down. While six Spirit Stones were enough to upgrade the Pigsty—
What about buying a baby Spiritual Pig afterward?
Ji Yuan had looked into it.
A baby Spiritual Pig cost about two to three Spirit Stones, while an adult one sold for eight to ten Spirit Stones.
Given that Ji Yuan’s Pigsty could fatten a pig by a hundred jin in seven days, this seemed like a great way to get rich.
But he didn’t dare use it so openly.
After all, unlike the Spiritual Fish business that could be explained away with the Yunyu Marshlands as an excuse, selling Spiritual Pigs would attract too much attention.
While others took half a year to raise a pig to adulthood, he did it in just half a month—anyone would find that suspicious.
Of course, this was partly because Zengtou Market was too small.
If only the market were bigger, he could sell in different places.
Looking at the Spiritual Eggs he had left, Ji Yuan realized he was just short of one or two Spirit Stones.
Waiting any longer wouldn’t help, so he might as well sell a few Spiritual Eggs and buy the baby pig first.
But before that, he needed to build the Pigsty.
After some consideration, Ji Yuan decided to place the Pigsty next to the Chicken Coop.
Compared to the Chicken Coop, the Pigsty took up much more space.
After spending a whole day building it, nearly half of his backyard was now occupied, in addition to the already existing Fish Pond.
His backyard was now completely filled with these three structures.
‘This house is still too small. Once my cultivation improves, I must get myself a big mansion to live in!’
Ji Yuan secretly made this vow as he glanced at the Building Upgrade Panel in his mind.
[Upgrade Requirements: 5 Lower-Grade Spirit Stones, 50 jin of Iron Ingots, 10 jin of Coarse Salt (Not Met)]
The Pigsty’s upgrade required fifty jin of iron and ten jin of salt.
Fortunately, these mundane items were cheap in Zengtou Market.
He could settle it all with just a Spirit Stone or two in loose change.
Looking at the [Pigsty: Lv0] label floating above the Pigsty, Ji Yuan decided to complete the upgrade before buying the piglet.
Before long, after purchasing the iron ingots and coarse salt from Zengtou Market, Ji Yuan had just returned home when he saw a battered spell ship drifting back from the Yunyu Marshlands, moving very slowly.
As Ji Yuan took a closer look, he recognized it as the Lin family’s old Ebony Boat.
Sitting on the spell ship were none other than Lin Hu and Wu Qin.
Both of them looked extremely pale, especially Lin Hu, whose face had turned ashen to the extreme, with a vacant look in his eyes.
It wasn’t until the spell ship docked that Lin Hu seemed to snap out of it and noticed Ji Yuan standing on the shore.
With just one look, he wailed with a sorrowful expression:
“Brother Ji, my parents… they’re all dead.”