Chapter 12

The next morning.

The female Cultivator who lived opposite him came early to return the money and settle the low-grade spirit stone she owed yesterday.

She even gave an extra piece and bought a bottle of Summer Relief Pills.

Looking at this female Cultivator’s haggard appearance, Chen An guessed that she must have gone to find a way to get money last night and was so busy that she did not sleep the entire night.

As for where she got the money and how she got it, Chen An did not care. He only knew that he could earn money.

“Husband, it’s still early. Shall we go back to our room and sleep for a while?”

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Song Huaying held onto Chen An’s arm, her beautiful watery eyes sparkling as she shook her head coquettishly.

When the female Cultivator came to return the money just now, she had seriously sized her up from the side.

In the end, she realized that the other party was not inferior to her in terms of looks and figure.

Her sense of danger increased greatly. She was worried that if the other party really became her husband’s concubine in the future, her current status in the family would be lost.

In order to avoid such a situation, she wanted to please her husband as much as possible and further improve her status in his heart before he accepted her into his family.

Hence, in the following days.

Due to Song Huaying’s intention, the couple’s life gradually returned to how it was before they got pregnant. They had to have sex every day.

However, the corresponding number of times every day was less than half of what it was before. Moreover, the process would be more careful and gentle, and they would pay more attention to communicating telepathically.

During this period, the female Cultivator who lived opposite would come over every once in a while to buy Summer Relief Pills.

Each interval became shorter and shorter, as if her seriously ill father’s condition had worsened and the need for Summer Relief Pills was growing.

At first, Chen An thought that the Summer Relief Pill had side effects that even he did not know about.

For example, increased dependency, addiction, and so on.

In the end, after looking through the information, he found out that the reason for this situation was completely because of the fire poison patient himself.

He was in the late stages of the fire poison. Then, his physical condition deteriorated drastically, and his condition worsened day by day.

Simply put, it was similar to terminal cancer in his previous life.

His body deteriorated day by day until he died.

The female Cultivator’s current actions were equivalent to giving her seriously ill father chemotherapy, hoping that he could live for a few more days.

Chen An had thought of persuading the female Cultivator.

Saying that you would only ruin your own life and torture your father with the treatment.

Why don’t you let your father end his pain as soon as possible? You don’t have to be so tired.

However, on second thought, the father and daughter had relied on each other for so long. The relationship between them was deep. It was not up to an outsider like him to analyze the pros and cons and let others make a choice.

…

Days passed just like that.

[Goldfinger: Beginner (66/100)]

[Alchemy Technique: Intermediate Level 1 (338/500)]

[Wife: Song Huaying]

[Attribute: A drop of water should be repaid with a fountain]

[Relationship: 2 stars (299/500)]

[Provided Alchemy Experience: 320]

[Proficiency of Goldfinger provided: 60]

He glanced at it and saw that it did not increase much.

Chen An put away the data in front of him and couldn’t help but think of the young female Cultivator who lived opposite him, a female Cultivator at First Level of Qi Refinement called Gu Xinyue.

He still remembered that the other party had cried and said that as long as she could save her father, she was willing to be a concubine.

Now, his wife is almost five months pregnant.

In another two months, she would have to rest in confinement and not be able to have sex.

At that time, whether it was the Alchemy Realm or the ‘Goldfinger’ Realm, the speed of improvement would be greatly reduced.

At this rate, it was a little unrealistic to save enough money to move to the core area before the child was born.

After all, he had only saved less than 300 low-grade spirit stones since he got married.

The only solution now was to raise his alchemy realm to a higher level as soon as possible.

This way, his income from refining pills would increase greatly. It was more than enough to pay the rent in the core area.

For this reason, Chen An had to find another partner who could assist in his cultivation.

And this candidate was the young female Cultivator who lived opposite him—Gu Xinyue.

Firstly, the other party’s appearance was outstanding and she was tall. She matched his aesthetic standards.

Secondly, the other party was young and inexperienced, so it was convenient for her to be trained in the future.

Thirdly, the other party kept his promise. Once she bought the medicinal pills on credit, he would settle on any day he wanted. Moreover, she had a strong personality and carried the heavy responsibility of the entire family alone as a woman. She also showed filial piety and would never leave her father, who was so sick that he could not take care of himself.

It would be a pity if he didn’t find a way to lure such a high-quality partner into his house.

“Sigh, let’s take it one step at a time.”

Chen An lowered his head and looked at his wife’s round abdomen. He was extremely worried.

The pressure of starting a family was really great. She was extremely tired.

How he missed his unfettered single life.

…

In the blink of an eye, several days passed.

Recently, the situation in the cheap district has become more and more chaotic.

Due to the increase in rent, there were now many more tribulations.

He often heard that someone had been robbed of their wealth and even their clothes had been stripped off.

The worse ones even wanted to silence them after robbing their wealth. Their methods were extremely cruel.

The atmosphere in the entire cheap district was very oppressive.

Unless one’s strength was guaranteed, many people would usually stay at home and not go out.

Some people who were not very economical either became Tribulation Cultivators or moved out of the Forest to find another way out.

On the other hand, Chen An belonged to the type of person that had always shut himself in.

He spent most of his time refining pills and earning money. A small portion of his time was spent fooling around with his little wife.

On this day, Chen An had just finished a business deal and was about to go back to his room to find his little wife to be intimate with when there was an inappropriate knock on the door.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

“Alchemist Chen, I’m here to buy Ice Crystal Pills!”

Such a familiar voice. Without looking, he knew that it was Gu Xinyue, who lived opposite him.

She was here to buy the Summer Relief Pills for her father.

The Summer Relief Pill has now been renamed the Ice Crystal Pill.

After all, a bottle of pills that could be sold for one low-grade spirit stone was too low-class. It was not worthy of this price.

However, it was different if it was called the Ice Crystal Pill.

It sounded very high-grade. It felt very affordable to be able to buy it with just a low-grade spirit stone.

“Fellow Cultivator Gu, how many do you want to buy this time?”

Chen An looked out of the window at Gu Xinyue and asked with a smile.

Gu Xinyue took out three low-grade spirit stones and threw them to Chen An accurately. She said indifferently, “Give me three bottles of Ice Crystal Pills.”

She was getting more and more generous.

Chen An sighed in his heart and did not forget to tease, “Fellow Cultivator Gu, where have you been getting rich recently? Don’t tell me you’ve secretly stolen money?”

Gu Xinyue smiled faintly and didn’t say anything. She picked up the three bottles of Ice Crystal Pills and turned around to walk home.

Looking at her graceful back as she left, Chen An felt a little regretful.

If he had known earlier, he would have taken Gu Xinyue down when she came crying and said that she was willing to be his concubine.

It would be difficult to take it down now.

After all, she was no longer short of money. She could afford medicinal pills and rent a house. Why did she have to suffer to be someone’s concubine?

However, on second thought, there was nothing to regret.

No matter what, he had earned more than 30 low-grade spirit stones by selling Ice Crystal Pills to Gu Xinyue.

If he chose to take her as his concubine that day, he would definitely not be able to earn this money.

It was even to the extent that he had to spend spirit stones to treat her father.

But then again, where did Gu Xinyue, who was only at First Level of Qi Refining, get so many spirit stones?

Could it be that she found a rich man?

Chen An was puzzled.

…

Unknowingly, a few days had passed.

During this period, the situation in the Bamboo Leaf Forest’s cheap area became more and more chaotic.

Many Tribulation Cultivators had slowly developed from blocking the way to robbing people during the day.

It made everyone in the cheap district panic.

As for Chen An, who was an Alchemist, he had long become a hot commodity in the eyes of Tribulation Cultivators.

Many Tribulation Cultivators had set their sights on him to rob.

It was just that the outcome was a little tragic.

Not only did they all fail to rob him, but they were also shot in the head by Chen An’s cheat. Their corpses were looted and assets confiscated.

After that, they were casually dragged to a corner of the courtyard and buried as they lay dying, quietly.

But not everyone had the ability to protect themselves like Chen An.

When most residents were robbed, they either chose to admit defeat and spend money to avoid disaster, or they chose to resist and die tragically.

For a time, a large number of Cultivators moved out of the Bamboo Leaf Forest and chose to find another way out.

Because there were too many people who had left, and there were no new tenants coming in, the higher-ups of the Bamboo Leaf Forest were anxious.

The tenants had already left. Who were they going to collect the rent from?

Hence, the higher-ups of the Bamboo Leaf Forest began to incur losses to remedy the situation. They arranged for a manager at the advanced stage of Qi Refining to guard each of the cheaper areas of the Bamboo Leaf Forest. They also arranged for a small team of intermediate stage Qi Refining Cultivators to patrol and jointly deal with the chaos in the cheaper areas.

It was very strong and the results were obvious.

In less than half a month, all the cheap districts returned to their usual peace.

Everyone dared to leave their homes to do business, and the situation began to thrive.

However, compared to half a year ago, it was still far inferior.

Because the price of the Bamboo Leaf Forest had increased randomly previously, coupled with the serious public security in the later stages, the reputation had collapsed.

If they wanted to return to their former prosperity, it would take at least a few months or even a year to slowly recover.

…

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

On this day, the Bamboo Leaf Forest welcomed a piece of good news.

The rent in the cheaper district had dropped!

It was reduced to one low-grade spirit stone a month!

Due to the pressure from the outside world, the Xuanhuang Sect, which had caused the Blood Demons to run rampant outside because of the spirit stone mine, finally sent people to clean up the mess.

They sent several Golden Core Stage Cultivators to eliminate all the Blood Demons in less than two days.

Some were happy, while others were sad.

Most people had lost their families because of the rampage of the Blood Demons, but a small number of people had made a lot of money because of this.

For example, as an Alchemist, Chen An had earned more than 400 low-grade spirit stones in the past year. His days were much richer than before.

To be able to earn so much money in a year was unimaginable in the past.

Although the Blood Demons were gone and refining pills was less profitable, Chen An did not feel uncomfortable at all.

He had long known that this special period would not last long. Sooner or later, someone would take action to resolve it.

It was already beyond his expectations that it could last for almost an entire year.

“Ying’er, let’s go. Let’s go out and have fun.”

Chen An had just gotten up from his wife when he immediately lowered his head and smiled at her.

Song Huaying’s face turned red. She knew that her husband wanted to go out and play with her. Although she was a little embarrassed, she did not reject him. Instead, she pursed her lips and agreed, “Ying’er will listen to my husband.”

Soon, the couple left the house.

After taking a few steps, he bumped into Gu Xinyue, who had a worried expression on her face.

Gu Xinyue was about to go to the Chen An family to talk to him about something embarrassing.

Now that they happened to meet, she made up her mind and walked up with her head lowered and eyes closed. She begged him shamelessly,

“Alchemist Chen, please take me as your concubine!”