“Brother Zhang, your son hasn’t been awakened yet? Why don’t you send him to the Ding family with the wooden statue in the backstreets of Nanyuan? He helps people to enter a meditative state, and the possibility of being awakened is great!”
“Brother, do you mean the genius, Ding Hao?”
“That’s right. He is not only a genius with a superior level one celestial gene, he is also a tutor!”
“I know about him. But my son is able to enter a middle-stage meditative state, don’t need him…”
“Brother Zhang, there is so much that you don’t know! Do you know that he has become a level one tutor? He is able to help others to enter the higher-stage meditative state! If your son is able to enter the higher-stage meditative state, he would probably be able to awaken his celestial gene!”
“What? He can help people to achieve the higher-stage meditative state! That’s great, there’s hope for my son!”
“Not just your son, you have remained stagnant at Innate Stage level three, right? He can give you some guidance, it is one thousand taels of silver every visit!”
“I’ll go home and get some money!”
There were more people who remained stagnant in Innate Stage level three than teenagers who hadn’t been awakened!
When Ding Hao began opening his business to initiate higher-stage meditative states, his business blossomed! People began to visit him every day. They were there from morning to evening. They almost flattened the doorstep.
Din Hao turned all the empty rooms in the house into meditation rooms. He never rejected any potential clients. The rooms were always full. Once he collected the money, he would put them into a meditative state and move into the next room.
People watched his actions.
In the City Lord’s Residence.
Ling Yunxiao frowned.
He wasn’t sure whether to be happy or not when he heard the young military office report.
First, Ding Hao had helped many of the Innate stage people to achieve Moderate Innate Stage from Initial Innate Stage. This increased the level of Wuzhou entirely. This was a wonderful thing and it made Ling Yunxiao happy!
As Ding Hao had been busy earning money, he had neglected his own cultivation. He helped others, but he did not practice. It had been months since he had awakened, and he still remained at the Innate Stage level one!
“Hasn’t been practicing?! What is this kid thinking?” Lin Yunxiao couldn’t understand.
He knew that Ding Hao was smart and detail-oriented. But why was he so focused on earning money? How much money does a cultivator need anyway?
Ling Yunxiao had sent the young military officer to remind him a couple of times, but the kid continued to do things his own way.
Finally, Ling Yunxiao gave up, “That does it! Maybe he has his ideas. We won’t care anymore. Let him be.”
Someone else was paying attention to what Ding Hao was doing. On the other side of City Lord’s Residence, in the small courtyard.
“Ding Juncai was able to refine the yuandan’s first level and entered Innate Stage level two! This is such good news!” The young prince laughed while strolling in the courtyard.
Ding Juncai’s family had been killed. He was staying with the young prince. The young prince allowed him to stay in the small courtyard. He didn’t have to worry about his daily meal and medicinal pills. He only needed to focus on practicing.
When Ding Juncai saw the young prince enter, there was hatred in his eyes. “Every time I thought of the murder of my parents and my brother my hatred grows. It is my motivation to practice!”
“You did well.” The young prince nodded and said, “Let me tell you some good news. Ding Hao has remained at Innate Stage level one! It has been a month since he was awakened and there has been no improvement since!”
“What? Isn’t he a superior level one genius?” Ding Juncai was in disbelief.
The young prince said, “Not sure what was wrong with the kid. He seemed to have gone mad. He helped many people meditate and earn lots of money. But he never spends time practicing himself. I wonder if he has given up.”
“Given up?” Ding Juncai was happy, but he shook his head slowly. “Young prince, we mustn’t be complacent. This kid is very sneaky! Before this, he bought a large number of medicinal pills from Heaven’s Will Array. I’m not sure what he did there!”
“I wondered if he was using the medical pills submersion method? Let me find out if he is buying medicinal pills again…” The young prince saw Ding Hao as his nemesis. He turned and left. “Oh, Juncai, don’t just focus on achieving higher realms. You must practice martial arts too! Weh you are done with the moderate level martial arts manual that you got from the city lord. I will give you an Innate Stage supreme martial arts manual. And your battle strength will be frightening!”
“Thank you so much, young prince!”
…
Although all parties paid attention to him, Lord Ling repeatedly reminded him. Once even a young military officer brought him the summons of the city lord so that the lord might have a word with him. However, Ding Hao went back to his old ways upon returning home.
Ding Hao didn’t spend any time practicing martial arts. He was focused on earning money. He earned 20,000,000 in two months!
There was a reason he tried to earn so much money.
Look back two months.
In the meditation room.
Under the silver candlelight and muslin cover, the shadows flickered red. Boss Shang sat on the Bodhi mat across him. He said with a smile, “Gentleman Ding, our family is grateful to you! Not only did you help me awaken, but you also helped me break through the bottleneck and entered Moderate Innate Stage!”
Ding Hao nodded. “Boss Shang, not at all. You paid me for that. It was a business transaction.”
“I still need to thank you. My son and my life have changed because of you, thank you.” Boss Shang stood up, bowed in salutation, and then sat cross-legged. “I’m here to say goodbye.”
“You’re leaving?” Ding Hao asked curiously.
“Yes, the shop that I run is a franchise. Now that I’ve achieved a higher grade, the owner of the franchise gave me a promotion and transferred me to another place.”
“Is that so.” Ding Hao nodded and asked, “Where to? To become a shopkeeper?”
“Not a shopkeeper, but I will be put in charge of the sales counter.”
Being in charge of the sales counter means that he’d be the sales counter manager. Ding Hao frowned, “Boss Shang, isn’t it better to be a shopkeeper of the bookstore here?”
Boss Shang smiled and said, “The enterprises and businesses in Tu City! You’ve never been abroad, you don’t know that the businesses abroad are many times larger than the businesses in Wuzhou City! They have all kinds of merchants, it is unimaginable! Being a manager there is way better than being a shopkeeper here!”
“Is that so? Then, congratulations on your promotion!”
Boss Shang chuckled, “Gentleman Ding don’t be a stranger. It will be easier to get any kinds of medicinal pills when I go there. Even the banned medicinal pills. I can buy them at a cheaper price and get someone to send them to you.”
Ding Hao furrowed his brows. “I’m currently having this problem.”
The truth of the matter was:
Before Ding Hao had awakened, he had absorbed the Ex Pills to upgrade his abilities. However, when he became an Innate Stage Cultivator, he recognized the massive problem he now had.
The strength of the Ex Pills was too weak!
In other words, the spiritual energy in the Ex Pills was too low in grade!
He needed something new. Ex Pills with stronger spiritual energy!
“There are three grades of Ex Pills. The ones that you purchased are the lower grade ones. There are many of those types in the market. They are inexpensive and both the Innate Stage and the Acquired Stage practitioner can consume them.”
“But the problem is that these medicinal pills are useless to me. What I need is moderate and higher grade Ex Pills. I’ve looked around and there are none,” said Ding Hao.
“Of course.” Boss Shang analyzed, “You should know that the higher grade medicinal pills are made by the higher grade drug refiners. There are high quantities of lower grade Ex Pills because there are many lower grade drug refiners, and these people’s main focus is to make money!”
“The higher grade drug refiners are different. They have a different focus. They need to practice, and they don’t have the time to produce medicine. It is impossible to purchase those. They are produced by drug refiner masters. They are hard to come by, and it isn’t something that you can buy with money.”
Ding Hao frowned, “That’s right. I’ve asked around these past few days. I can forget about the higher grade Ex Pills. The quantity of moderate grade Ex Pills is limited. Not only that they are pricey, but they are also limited in quantity which is not enough for me!”
Ding Hao had been scratching his head over this matter.
In order to practice, he needed a large amount of spiritual energy. His Power Absorption Skill was at level one, he could only absorb energy from things like medical pills. Thus, if he couldn’t get the pills he wanted, he couldn’t practice.
Boss Shang said, “Gentleman Ding, I can see that you are using the medical pills submersion method.”
The medical pills submersion method was an improper method of cultivation. The cultivator would consume a large number of medicinal pills. They would grind the pills into powder and bathe with it. They would eat and drink medicinal pills all day and every day.
And let the spiritual energy infiltrate the body and improve its constitution.
Ding Hao knew the boss’s misconception, but he didn’t bother explaining. He nodded with a, “Mmm.”
Boss Shang advised, “Gentleman Ding, you better don’t use that method and stick to practicing your celestial power. Use it to refine your yuandan. That is the best way!”
Ding Hao shook his head after listening to him.
Practicing with the celestial power meant that one would have to absorb the little amount of energy found in the air, turn it into spiritual energy, and refine the yuandan one layer after the other. It turned the yuandan into liquid, and it turned into a sea of energy.
Ding Hao did give it a try.
It didn’t work.
It was probably because of the Black Cyclone Celestial Gene. The small amount of spiritual energy that he absorbed from the air immediately disappeared. He couldn’t practice the celestial power in this world! He couldn’t absorb spiritual energy from the air, and his yuandan was extremely hard to refine.
It would take donkey years to refine his yuandan using the Jiuzhou method.
He could only give up on using the usual Jiuzhou method, and take a shortcut. He would use Power Absorption Skill!
The Power Absorption Skill was powerful, as he didn’t need to absorb energy and turn it into spiritual energy. He could absorb spiritual energy straight away then use a large amount of spiritual energy to refine yuandan. That way, he would be able to speed things up. Furthermore, the energy in yuandan mixed with the spiritual energy that he absorbed, the sea of energy that he possessed would be at an unprecedented scale!
Ding Hao said, “Boss Shang, I really don’t want to use the traditional way of going about. Please help me think of something. Something that has a larger amount of spiritual energy than the Ex Pills and it can easily be transformed.”
Boss Shang said, “There were two ways. One, you can refine the moderate level medicinal pills by yourself.”
Ding Hao shook his head, “I don’t have enough time, the Wuzhou metropolitan exam is six months away. I have no knowledge about medicinal pills refining. I won’t be able to learn them in time.”
Boss Shang said, “You can consume spiritual animals such as woolly monsters, plate armor rhinoceros would be even better.”
“No, the meat of the spirit animals are not easily transformed.” Ding Hao tried it before. His power absorption skill was too low to absorb spiritual energy from meat.
“Something that is easily transformed.” Boss Shang pondered and thought of something. He searched his storage pouch and fished out a few small objects and placed them on the table. “Try these.”