Chapter 36: Can Candy Cure Illness?
Immediately, Wang Zijia used up the last of the spiritual materials. Out of one hundred units, four were wasted, leaving him with ninety-six blank rune papers.
Just by selling these cards to the shop, he could earn nineteen spirit coins, doubling his profit.
Glancing at the time, he calculated that after work each night, he could produce over one hundred and fifty blank rune papers, yielding a profit of around ten spirit coins, a straightforward and lucrative endeavor.
Compared to his previous monthly wage of one spirit coin, the change was nothing short of remarkable.
This was the result of comprehending a production technique to its highest level, and it was only the lowest-level rune paper crafting.
Now that he had Rune Perception, he needed to assess the profitability of rune talisman crafting.
With a slight thought, he proceeded to temporarily exchange skill weights again.
Tonight was an experiment to devise the most profitable short-term money-making process. It required him to maximize profits, so he didn't hesitate to frequently exchange skill weights, consuming free skill weights, i.e., those that had not been previously exchanged.
Each free skill weight, when combined with exchanged ones, allowed for one exchange of all skill weights.
So, although Wang Zijia couldn't exchange skill weights at will, he wasn't too concerned about resetting his progress.
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After the exchange was complete, Wang Zijia exited his sea of consciousness once more and retrieved the newly acquired rune crafting tools.
From his storage bag, he retrieved a piece of earth-based spiritual material. It was a viscous, asphalt-like substance in a earthy yellow color. Wang Zijia mixed it with a bit of rice wine in a sealing plate, carefully crafting it into ink.
Then, picking up his rune brush, he absorbed a bit of ink, activating the Rune Perception technique. Faint runes circulated in his eyes, followed by the earth spear spirit arrow technique permeating his mind. A peculiar rune appeared before him.
Wang Zijia began to draw this rune with his brush.
The effect of Rune Perception was to view the fundamental rune forms of other techniques and, through rune crafting, inscribe them onto rune paper, forming a rune circuit.
After completing the inscription, the user only needed to infuse Qi into the rune talisman, enabling them to cast the technique without actually knowing it.
In simple terms, casting a spell required Qi to pass through a "template" to form the spell. When you learn a technique, you obtain this "template."
A rune talisman, on the other hand, acts as an external "template." You just need to pour Qi into it without thinking.
And rune crafting is the process of externalizing this "template" onto rune paper, which requires you to first see this template. The effect of Rune Perception is to open up this perspective.
As Wang Zijia depicted, a rune slowly took shape on the rune paper. However, just as it was nearly complete, it suddenly became chaotic.
"pop!"
With a light sound, the spiritual light dispersed, and the runes on the rune paper became blurred, destroying the spiritual essence of the card, leaving it in disarray.
With a sixty percent mastery of the technique and this set of rune crafting tools, there was still a failure rate of around thirty percent.
It was mainly due to nervousness during the first attempt.
After a moment, Wang Zijia began again. With fluid strokes, he inscribed the fundamental runes of the earth spear spirit arrow technique onto the rune paper.
As the final burst of light faded, the spiritual light on the card converged, presenting a rune talisman card before him.
After scrutinizing the card with a pleased expression for a while, he buried his head in making more.
Surprisingly, the Qi consumption was slightly lower than making rune cards, but it was much slower. He could make about twenty cards in two hours, succeeding with around fifteen.
One blank rune paper plus ink cost half a spirit coin.
A low-grade rune talisman could be sold for one spirit coin, a medium-grade for two, and a high-grade for four, excluding special cases.
The earth spear spirit arrow rune belonged to the medium-grade category, selling for two spirit coins each.
So, with a cost of five spirit coins for ten cards, he could expect to succeed with seven, totaling fourteen spirit coins.
If he squeezed himself a bit harder every day and worked an extra five hours, he could earn nearly twenty spirit coins!
In comparison, even with just the proficiency of Rune Perception, the daily profit had slightly exceeded that of making advanced rune cards.
Converting this money into elixirs, he could accumulate a year's worth of progress in just two to three days. Advancement in cultivation was practically on rocket fuel!
Of course, the accounts couldn't be that straightforward, as it wasn't a direct return from the sect. He needed to consider how many he could make and sell each day.
But even considering all these factors, he could definitely earn over ten spirit coins on average every day.
So, it seemed like he had found a truly viable source of income!
After a night of testing, it was confirmed that Wang Zijia could reliably pursue the rune crafting business in the future.
Therefore, Wang Zijia once again immersed himself in hard work, continuously producing earth spear spirit arrow runes. However, in reality, crafting the advanced Clay Shape Concealment technique would likely yield slightly higher profits.
But the earth spear spirit arrow technique was a common method, whereas the Clay Shape Concealment technique belonged to the realm of secret arts. It would be too easy for him to attract attention if he started making it, especially since Luo Qing had personally witnessed him using it.
...
"Good morning, Sister Wang!"
"Good morning, Aunt Wang!"
"Good morning, young master, Miss Bai Qian!"
The next morning, as soon as Sister Wang entered the courtyard, she saw two figures, one large and one small, under the peach tree, practicing Tai Chi under the morning sun.
There was only one person, Bai Qian, with half an arm, her face serious and her expression focused.
She was constantly chewing on something, with a piece of dried meat still in her left hand.
"Miss, what happened to your eyes?" Wang Dan, who entered the kitchen belatedly and saw Bai Qian, who had stopped practicing Tai Chi and was now eating dried meat while following her into the kitchen to help, reacted with surprise and asked.
"Master healed me last night and told me to gain weight, then he treated my other injuries," Bai Qian replied as she continued to chew on the dried meat with vigor.
With a pair of clear eyes now, although her appearance remained ugly, at least she no longer looked like a fierce ghost.
"Oh!" Sister Wang, upon hearing this, was no longer surprised, knowing that Wang Zijia was a cultivator, a celestial being.
After Sister Wang and Bai Qian finished cooking, Wang Zijia slowly finished his work.
During the meal, Wang Zijia looked at Bai Qian, who was enthusiastically eating dried meat with rice porridge, and paused before saying to Wang Dan, "Sister Wang, when you have some free time today, take Bai Qian out to buy some candy, sweets, pastries, and the like."
"Master, I'm not craving sweets..." Baiqian immediately wanted to protest upon hearing this.
"Meat is not as effective as sugar for quick results. Sugar is the purest form of energy. At your age, your digestive system is even more so. If you want to gain weight quickly and recover, eating sugar should be the fastest way," Wang Zijia interrupted her before she could finish, calmly explaining.
"Oh!" Bai Qian didn't quite understand what Wang Zijia was saying, but she got the gist: eating candy was for her recovery.
What cultivation level did the master have exactly? Why did her father have to take medicine for treatment instead of using candy to treat his illness?
"Okay, I'll come pick up Miss Bai later after I finish my noon chores!" Sister Wang didn't understand what the two were talking about, but she understood the instructions and nodded in response.
With the matter settled, they stopped speaking. After finishing their meal, Sister Wang and Bai Qian tidied up, and then she left after finishing her shift.
Bai Qian continued to practice Tai Chi in the courtyard, eating dried meat with great effort, her expression focused and appearing somewhat cute in her ugliness.
Before leaving, Wang Zijia glanced at her and said, "That's enough, don't eat too much. If you get diarrhea, you'll end up losing weight!"
"I got it!" Bai Qian replied.
Seeing this, Wang Zijia said no more and turned to go to work.
[Author's note: Actually, the rune crafting part could have been briefly mentioned, but because rune talismans are an important setting in the early stages of this book, this chapter was elaborately described.]
(End of this chapter)