Lin Luoran stays at home and makes boluses. She only rests when Reiki inside her are used up and the first thing she does after getting up is to open the alchemy furnace and make more boluses. She does this repeatedly for a whole month. Mrs. Lin is worried that her daughter exerts herself so much. Therefore, Mrs. Lin ransacks her brain every day to think about how to cook nutrient food for her daughter.
Every time Lin Luoran gets out of the basement, her mother is waiting for her with some soup made of love. The wild chickens in the mountains and fish in the lake suffer. The chickens are mostly brought back by Goldie as its snacks, yet Mrs. Lin always takes the chickens and makes them into soup for Lin Luoran. The fish are caught by Mr. Lin who goes fishing by the lake in his spare time. His special way of cultivation is to sit by the lake with a fishing pole in his hand. During the fishing, Mr. Lin slows down his breath in order to feel the Reiki in the air.
Lin Luoran doesn’t oppose her father for combining cultivation with his hobby.
Who says that everyone has to meditate while absorbing Reiki? Take Lin Luoran as an example. She breathes at the same frequency of the breathing methods when she eats, sleeps, and even makes boluses. She doesn’t think she absorbs Reiki much slower than when she meditates.
Cultivation depends on one’s ability to keep calm.
Similarly, one needs to endure the loneliness in order to make boluses. Just like the sea, the path of cultivation is endless. Sea is made up of countless drops of water, and cultivation grows while one works harder day by day. Nobody can control the sea, yet cultivators can choose whether to make efforts or not.
Lin Luoran puts all of her attention into making boluses this month. She goes directly to sleep after stepping out of the basement, which leaves herself no time to cultivate. Nevertheless, Lin is happy when she checks on her own state of cultivation after finishing making the boluses.
She doesn’t regress. On the contrary, she actually makes some progress.
As the proverb goes, you have to break before you build. During the last month, though she didn’t reach the state of “break”, she indeed used up the Reiki inside her every time she made the boluses. Then the Reiki will be replenished between breaths and during sleep. This can also be counted as cultivation, right?
A month later, Lin Luoran stops making boluses.
The Lin family sit by the table and stare at the jade boxes. Baojia opens her mouth first: “You only made such a little bit during this entire month…”
Lin Luoran pinches Baojia. Such a little bit? She worked so hard on these boluses and there are actually quite a lot!
She has made 18 batches of boluses during the last month. There are 14 batches of Gathering Qi Bolus, which are 480 in total. She collected 29 boluses in the least productive batch and 38 boluses in the most productive batch. The productivity rate was unstable. She will have to practice more.
Lin also made 4 batches of “Circulation Bolus”, which are 78 in total. Last night, she successfully collected 28 Circulation boluses in one batch and it made her so glad.
In order to make all of these over 500 boluses, toads which used to live around Lin’s villa are now rarely seen, let alone all the other medicines Lin put in the furnace.
She has saved some medicines in the field and planted some more. She spent so many medicines on making these boluses and she didn’t plant much of every medicine in her space. Therefore, she won’t be able to make too many boluses soon.
Except for Lin Luoran, a rich woman of herbs who has a “cheating device”, cultivators in the alchemy school may not be able to make so many in such a short time.
The efficacy of Gathering Qi Bolus lasts for a month. Lin Luoran is not going to offer too much to her father and Baojia. Firstly, it will be such a waste. Secondly, her father and Baojia are still building their foundation. It is inappropriate for them to take too many boluses.
Lin Luoran saves 100 Gathering Qi boluses for her father and Baojia, which are enough for them in the next four years. She also saves 100 boluses for herself and prepares to sell the rest 280 — Lin doesn’t want her competitors to get too powerful, and she decides to set a purchase restriction.
As for the “Circulation Bolus”, she is going to save half for her family and sell the rest one by one!
Lin Luoran, who is almost like a profiteer, clicks into the BBS and changes the status of her boluses from “pre-order” to “on-sale”. The buyers, who have long since got the jade ready for the exchange, are finally relieved and start to head to R City.
This time, the trade has to be done on spot. “Uncle Lin” wrote on the webpage that she would have to look at the quality of the jade in order to decide how many boluses she likes to offer.
Xi Heng, one of whose apprentices is familiar with Lin Luoran, is wreathed in smiles. However, it seems to be too flattering to send Li Xi’er there. Xi Heng decides to send someone else to trade with Lin Luoran in the name of Li Xi’er.
Head of the Wen family is glad too. Even Chen Yun, the minister of the special department, is thinking about trading some boluses with Lin Luoran as the reward for his staff.
Everybody wants to get boluses as much as possible and everybody seems to be confident.
With the purchase restriction in mind, Lin Luoran is sitting in front of her computer, laughing like a cunning fox. Her laughter shocks Luodong, who happens to pass by the study—
Why his sister’s laughter today makes him feel that all of his pocket money will be robbed?
*********
It is a pleasant and confusing day for the doorman of Qingcheng Resort.
He knows that the residents of the resort are either rich or powerful. However, how can they also be good-looking? This is so unfair!
A dozen of rich and handsome guys have come here today in their luxury cars to visit the No.18 Villa!
Though being jealous, the doorman is happy that many of these handsome guys actually leave him big tips! Anyway, why do these good-looking men all come to visit the No.18 Villa? Does it mean that a famous director lives in the mysterious No.18 Villa? Are these guys stars who participate in an audition?
These cultivators don’t know that a doorman sees them as actors. Speaking of Lin’s plan of trading boluses for jade, there is a man on the BBS whose ID is “Bad Quality”. His real name is Zeng Tian and he comes from a wealthy family of industrialists. He comes today driving an SUV loaded with jade. Though the quality of the jade may not be the best, he is confident that he will get enough boluses he needs with such a huge amount of jade.
Zeng Tian is usually careless and casual. However, this time, he is going to visit “Uncle Lin”. Thus, except for the jade, he prepares many gifts. He parks his car half a mile away from the No.18 Villa and walks up the mountain carrying two big boxes. When he arrives at the gate of the villa, he can’t figure out how to go inside. Zeng Tian sees that a middle-aged man who is fishing by the lake points to the villa. Zeng thinks quickly and takes out a cigarette and lights it for the middle-aged man who is wearing plain clothes — you have to admit that Zeng Tian is actually smart. What’s wrong with fishing? What’s wrong with plain clothes? Do you think a man who fishes by Lin’s villa is ordinary?
After finishing the cigarette, the middle-aged man asks curiously: “Why don’t you go in? Aren’t you here to trade boluses?”
Hearing this, Zeng Tian is interested. He scratches his head awkwardly and says: “Brother… I don’t dare to go inside.”
Mr. Lin is almost chocked by the cigarette. He is much older than the young man in front of him, and the man just called him “brother”! However, Mr. Lin is actually satisfied because the man’s words show how young he looks. He feels that all the cultivators who have arrived earlier are not as good as this one. He drops his fishing rod and leads Zeng Tian into the house.
Zeng Tian follows Mr. Lin inside excitedly. He doesn’t even dare to look around the house. After they enter the garden room and a kid brings them a cup of wine, Zeng takes the chance and checks on the room.
“Uncle Lin” does entertain his guests in a strange way. Since he has offered me a cup of wine, I may as well have a taste. Holding the cup made of bamboo, Zeng Tian notices that the middle-aged man is looking at him. Zeng drinks up because he doesn’t want to be seen as a coward… The wine slips down his throat, which makes his expressions change constantly.
It’s not that Zeng gets drunk easily. The feeling of peaceful Reiki flowing inside his body is just so amazing!
Fifteen minutes later, Zeng Tian opens his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Uncle Lin” is really generous for entertaining his guests with spirit wine.
Mr. Lin asks with a smile: “How about it?”
Zeng Tian almost bursts into tears. He answers: “Senior, this cup of wine saves me from days of arduous cultivation. What do you think about it?”
Mr. Lin waves his hand: “I mean the taste of the wine. Doesn’t it taste good?”
Doesn’t it taste good? Zeng Tian is in shock. Does it even matter that the spirit wine tastes good or not…? He poured the wine down his throat and the only thing he now remembers is the feeling of flowing Reiki.
Lin Luoran walks into the garden room smilingly and says: “Dad! Stop making fun of him!” It’s Baojia’s idea to entertain the guests with spirit wine. Baojia is not being generous. The truth is that they have just dug out the wine jars. Baojia wants others to test whether the wine will cause an allergy or not. Therefore, everybody who comes today to trade boluses becomes her “lab rat”.
Judged from the man’s expressions, he is clearly a happy lab rat!
Zeng Tian makes a bow respectively and introduces himself. He presents the jade he brings here to Lin Luoran. Since the quality of the jade is not the best, Lin Luoran offers him six “Gathering Qi boluses” and one “Circulation Bolus”.
Zeng Tian seems to be thrilled. Lin Luoran, who is a potential profiteer, wonders if she has given him too much. These cultivators are so easy to satisfy!
“According to your level of cultivation, you should take one bolus every two months. Don’t take too much.”
Zeng Tian nods vigorously and leaves the villa in a daze. He touches the jade box in his pocket and thinks: “I must work harder on my cultivation. With the help of the boluses, I may have a chance to get rid of the bottleneck though my natural quality is bad! I was so lucky! The man I offered a cigarette to was the father of ‘Uncle Lin’! Ha-ha…”
Lin Luoran, who has received tons of jade, is in the same mood with Zeng Tian.
So many cultivators have come to her house to trade, and the jade she has received piles up like little hills in the basement. Lin Luoran lets her bead absorb all the Reiki it can while thinking about the money she could make if she were really a profiteer.
The trade has temporarily come to an end. Lin Luoran thinks that it may be the time for her to go to the capital.
