Chapter 500 - Chapter 500: Chapter 492: Raising Blood Silkworms (2/2)

Young Master Yan must have seldom begged for favors from others since his early years.

Now that he owes Qin Niu several thousand taels of silver, he has no choice but to bow his head and speak softly.

“Master Yan and Young Master Yan are truly men of their word! Nowadays, it’s hard to find debtors who keep their trust as you do. Every family has its tough times; this year disasters kept coming, and I deeply empathize with the Yan Family’s plight. I’m not in urgent need of money, so if your family needs to use these three thousand taels, there’s no need to repay me for now.

Young Master Yan can go back and tell Master Yan not to worry about these eight thousand taels of silver.

When you have the money, you can return it.”

This year’s gang war has caused many landlords who follow Black Tiger Gang to suffer great misfortune.

Aside from a few who saw the opportunity early and shifted the risk away, most are tightening their belts to get by.

The Yan Family faced large penalties for breached contracts because they couldn’t deliver silk on time due to a mass death of silkworms. Then, with no harvest from the fields, they still had to pay the workers’ wages and the land tax.

Under multiple adversities, their lives were particularly miserable.

Being able to gather these three thousand taels of silver was already incredibly difficult.

“Thank you for your kindness, Master Qin. Our family has kept a bit of silver on hand, so please accept these three thousand taels for now. Currently, Black Tiger Gang and Nine Insect Gang have signed a peace agreement. The merchants in Black Tiger City have regained confidence; they proactively approached the Yan Family to renew their store leases and paid next year’s rent in advance. As long as there are no major wars again, I believe the Yan Family can repay the silver by next year’s Mid-Autumn Festival at the latest.”

Young Master Yan unwittingly revealed a crucial piece of information.

Black Tiger Gang and Nine Insect Gang have actually agreed to a truce.

No wonder he hasn’t seen any warriors suffering from poison seeking Qin Niu’s treatment recently.

A truce is a good thing.

War always results in death, and ultimately, it is the common people who suffer.

Black Tiger Gang’s territory has nearly doubled in size, making them the biggest winner of this war. Although Nine Insect Gang lost the original territories of Seven-Star Sect, they managed to invade some of Shennong Sect’s land, making their losses somewhat acceptable.

After seeing off Young Master Yan, Qin Niu was finally able to have dinner with his wives and concubines.

After dinner, he went to his study and carefully opened a box on the desk. Inside lay two blood cocoon, lying still.

Some time ago, after Black Tiger Gang rewarded him with a Blood Silkworm, Qin Niu finally managed to gather a pair.

He then took out the Blood Silkworm he had snatched from the He Family and began hatching them together.

Lacking experience in breeding Blood Silkworms, the hatching of the two was very slow.

Given the great reputation of Blood Silkworms, he believed they definitely could bring him immense benefits. Thus, he looked forward to the silkworms emerging from their cocoons soon.

To prevent the Blood Silkworms from hatching, the He Family even placed them in a Cold Jade Insect Coffin, effectively freezing them.

He had thought that simply removing the Blood Silkworm cocoons from the Cold Jade Insect Coffin would allow them to hatch quickly.

Days passed, and the two Blood Silkworm cocoons showed no sign of activity, still leaving him uncertain about when they would hatch.

…

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, four months passed.

Qin Niu’s cultivation was progressing at an astonishing pace.

His Medicine King Technique had now reached the mid-stage of the Spirit Qi Realm, still a considerable distance from the late Spirit Qi Realm. This was despite cultivating under the Ancient Banyan Tree with an abundant supply of medicinal energy to absorb.

The cold, dark energy that fell from the Ancient Banyan Tree at night also greatly aided the advancement of Qin Niu’s cultivation.

Even so, his Medicine King Sutra’s power had only reached the mid-stage of the Spirit Qi Realm.

This showed that after reaching the Spirit Qi Realm, advancing even one minor realm required ten times more time and accumulation.

The Everlasting Spring Technique successfully broke through to the early stage of the Spirit Qi Realm not long ago.

Qin Niu was a contented person.

He had originally thought that with the help of the Ancient Banyan Tree, and maybe one or two elixirs to break through levels, he could easily promote his cultivation to the peak of the Spirit Qi Realm. But in reality, reaching the peak of the Spirit Qi Realm proved much more difficult than anticipated.

However, that makes sense; every Spirit Qi Realm Expert who reached that level had cultivated for a hundred years, or even two to three hundred years, hadn’t they?

Qin Niu, not even seventeen yet, had already achieved a mid-stage Spirit Qi Realm cultivation level. Wherever he went, he would be considered an exceptional genius.