Chapter 166 – Finally (1/2)

Spiritual stones were basically the item that possessed the most stable price among cultivators. Qi Gathering pills could not compare to it. Only low level Black Wolf guards like him would receive Qi Gathering pills as a salary. Zhuo Zhibo and Zhou Wenbin both earned spiritual stones. To stronger cultivators, low level Qi Gathering pills provided no benefit at all. They could even lead to detriments. However, they could always keep using the pure spiritual qi contained within spiritual stones.

There were many uses to spiritual stones. They could be used in forging artifacts, formations, mechanisms, and so on. The puppet that Li Qingshan gave Xiao An was powered by spiritual stones as well. The most common use for spiritual stones was to constantly provide true qi during battle.

Right now, Li Qingshan mostly engaged in close combat, so he did not need it too much, but once he made it to the sixth layer and could wield artifacts, a few extra spiritual stones would be equivalent to an extra life.

Li Qingshan had only taken out these spiritual stones after considering his current needs. A bird in hand was worth two in the bush. Many times, short-term benefit would surpass long-term benefit.

Seeing how Li Qingshan had no objections, Zhou Wenbin was obviously willing to make the trade. In the end, he took out eight bottles of Qi Gathering pills. Each bottle held twelve pills, amounting to almost a hundred. He exchanged them for the spiritual stones in Li Qingshan’s possession, basically relieving Li Qingshan’s urgent needs.

For the next few days, Li Qingshan would stroll around randomly with Xiao An in the city aside from cultivating in his dwelling. He bought everything she liked for her.

However, his infamy as the Tiger Butcher had spread through Jiaping city as well. It was so significant that it could basically clean the streets. No matter how busy it was, as long as he walked over, someone would cry out, “The Tiger Butcher is here!” In the blink of an eye, the street would be cleaned out, leaving behind a single child in the middle of the street crying. When he walked past the kid, the child would even stop crying, becoming stunned from fright.

Whenever he entered a store to buy something, the shopkeeper would always firmly refuse to take any money from him.

Zhou Wenbin sent people to invite him over once again, telling him to not roam the streets so casually. Otherwise, he would not alarm the citizens of Jiaping.

As a result, he also became a regular visitor of the government office.

Li Qingshan said in a loud, clear voice, “Sir, look at this bottle of Pills of Calming. They’re high grade pills that only the Sect of Clouds and Rain can refine. When you consume them while cultivating, it can calm your mind and bring you great benefit. And look at these Pills of Passion. When you use them in bed, it’ll amplify the experience.” He raised his eyebrows and made an expression that all men understood.

After some consideration, Zhou Wenbin used four bottles of Qi Gathering pills to exchange for them, which made Li Qingshan overjoyed.

Three days later, at noon, Zhou Wenbin sat in front of a pill cauldron to refine pills. Ever since he became the district magistrate, he had constantly made people gather medicinal herbs for him so he could refine pills. As a result, he ended up with many Qi Gathering pills. He was preparing to get rid of them in a cultivator’s market when it was appropriate, but Li Qingshan’s arrival had saved him some trouble. It put him in a good mood. He needed to work harder on refining pills.

A maidservant reported, “Sir, that sir Li has come to visit again. He’s waiting for you in the guest room.”

Zhou Wenbin found this to be rather strange. Why did Li Qingshan come to visit him again? When he arrived in the waiting room, he saw that the long table in the room was piled full with a wide assortment of items. It was like a small stall that sold miscellaneous items, and the stall owner was Li Qingshan behind the table.

“Please take a look, sir. These were all gifts to Qian Yannian when he was celebrating his birthday. You can tell with a single glance that these spiritual herbs are teeming with spiritual qi, so they must be wondrous for refining pills. And look at these jade statues. Aren’t they life-like? If you like them, You can take them all. I’ll give you a discount.”

Under Li Qingshan’s silver-tongued persuasion and the fact that their past dealing had always been rather pleasant, Zhou Wenbin took out a few more bottles of Qi Gathering pills and bought everything.

A few more days passed, and Zhou Wenbin sat in front of Li Qingshan once again.

Zhou Wenbin said, “We’ll just be drinking tea and talking today. Don’t even think about mentioning Qi Gathering pills.”

Li Qingshan was taken aback. After a moment of hesitation, he stifled his voice and said, “Sir, do you want talismans?”

Zhou Wenbin finally could not help himself anymore. He asked, “What do you need so many Qi Gathering pills for? It’s not like you can eat Qi Gathering pills like regular meals! The amount of Qi Gathering pills you have received from me is enough to last you for three years!”

Li Qingshan was unable to explain that he actually was able to eat Qi Gathering pills like regular meals. He could only say, “I just want to save up a reserve, to be on the safe side.”

Zhou Wenbin said, “The path of cultivation mainly depends on yourself. At the end of the day, pills are just items external to you. They can only assist…”

Li Qingshan agreed to his words, but he thought inside that if it were not for all those pills Xuanyue had provided to him, how was he supposed to condense a daemon core so quickly? If he did not use these items external to him, it would take him a century at the very least to become a Daemon General.

After Zhou Wenbin finished talking, Li Qingshan asked again, “Do you really not want them?”

Zhou Wenbin sighed and shook his head firmly. As the district magistrate, it had been many years since he had fought against someone. He had no need for talismans at all.

Xiao An squatted by the wall outside the government office and played around with the ants using a twig.

Whenever Li Qingshan made deals with Zhou Wenbin, she would wait outside. Whenever other people tried to talk to her, she would just ignore them.

Under a great aspen tree, a nest of red ants and a nest of black ants engaged in an intense war. Who knows how many of them were inside the dense swarm. While the red ants were smaller, they were extremely fierce and possessed the upper hand.

Xiao An watched with great concentration. The warm sunlight of autumn landed on her face and seemed to penetrate her tender skin. As she saw how the black ant army was about to collapse, the twig in her hand suddenly turned into a blur.

“Little sister, what are you doing here all by yourself?” A smiling scoundrel squatted beside Xiao An and asked with malicious intent.