**Chapter 1: Fairness**
In the bright alchemy room, the flames flared up sharply. The next moment, black smoke began to billow from the alchemical furnace in front of Ye Jingcheng.
A faint, unpleasant odor started to spread, still pungent even under the roasting flames.
The temperature was high, and the alchemy had failed!
It was his most skilled recipe, the Spirit Feeding Pill.
However, Ye Jingcheng did not have a gloomy expression. Instead, his eyes sparkled with anticipation and excitement.
Because inside him, an ancient book was glowing brightly, its first page fully illuminated.
Ye Jingcheng was a transmigrator who had arrived in the Ye family over ten years ago. From being helpless at the beginning, he had risen to a high position as an Immortal Master of the Ye family, only to discover he had only four spiritual roots, making his cultivation speed extremely slow.
The obstacles he faced in this world were even more dramatic than those of his previous life.
This world was one where cultivators could command the wind and rain, possessing great power. If one reached the pinnacle of cultivation, they could even live as long as the heavens!
His only reliance and greatest secret was an ancient book embedded with unknown spiritual patterns within him.
Just now, the book had emitted light, dispersing spiritual mist that captured his full attention, causing the familiar alchemy process to go awry.
Half a day's work was ruined in an instant.
The book was adorned with faint spiritual patterns resembling strange beasts, each page different from the others.
The spiritual light from the book had been tested and proved to be very helpful for healing and nurturing poultry. He had even tried using it to save dying birds.
However, the spiritual light consumed was enormous.
Fortunately, it could slowly recover, but it had never fully restored until today.
Unfortunately, although Ye Jingcheng was in the Beast Taming family, he had not yet had the chance to obtain a truly promising beast cub.
Ye Jingcheng pondered for a while, and as the sound of bells rang out, he performed the spiritual technique to remove the alchemical furnace. He carefully wrapped the hot, large furnace handles with cold silkworm cloth.
He then poured the remaining alchemical liquid into a wooden box he had prepared.
After storing it in a storage bag, he used a special brush to clean the furnace walls until they were spotless.
Only after ensuring everything was immaculate did Ye Jingcheng rub the still-warm furnace handles and sigh.
"I wonder when I'll have my own alchemical furnace!"
This furnace belonged to the Ye family. As a member of the Ye family, he could borrow it, but any elixirs produced had to be sold to the family at fifty percent of the normal price.
If he had his own furnace, he could sell them to the family at eighty percent of the normal price.
The bells outside rang again.
"They're here!" Ye Jingcheng responded, hurriedly using a special broom to clean up.
[Translator: sauron]
After making sure the alchemy room was as it had been, he stepped outside.
The hall outside was spacious and, thanks to the cultivation array, was not hot at all, a stark contrast to the inside.
An elderly man in a gray-white robe was ringing the bell outside the alchemy room.
Behind the elder were three or four other Ye family members dressed similarly. They clearly had been waiting for a while, their faces showing signs of impatience from the heat.
Ye Jingcheng smiled wryly. He knew that Grandpa Ye Haitian, who guarded the Alchemy Pavilion, had privately extended his time.
The elder walked to the hall's table, took out pen and ink, and began to record:
"Alright, come over here quickly, check your gains. The next batch is about to come in!"
"Jingyun, thirty Spirit Feeding Pills were refined using the family furnace, each worth 1 contribution point, totaling 30 contribution points. The rental for three days is 6 contribution points, leaving 24 contribution points!"
...
Soon, it was Ye Jingcheng's turn.
He took out five palm-sized pill bottles and placed them in front of the elder.
Each bottle was filled to the brim and emitted a faint pill fragrance.
The elder looked up, not with praise, but with surprise: "Planning to buy a spiritual beast?"
In the past, Ye Jingcheng would refine seven furnaces in three days. Spirit Feeding Pills, like the Valley-Dissolving Pills, were produced in bulk, with at least ten per furnace, sometimes even fifteen or sixteen.
Thus, it seemed Ye Jingcheng had kept some for himself.
The Ye family was a Beast Taming family. Unlike other families that focused only on spiritual roots, the Ye family also valued the quality of spiritual beasts.
In fact, if the spiritual beasts were well-raised, even if one had five spiritual roots, the Ye family would still focus on nurturing them.
"Grandpa Nine, you truly are insightful!" Ye Jingcheng scratched his head, nodded with a smile, displaying a rare, simple demeanor.
"Let me calculate your contribution points!" Ye Haitian took Ye Jingcheng's family token and began the process:
"Jingcheng, you refined fifty Spirit Feeding Pills using the family furnace, each worth 1 contribution point, totaling 50 contribution points. Additionally, because the pills have a fragrance, there's an extra reward of 30 contribution points. The rental for three days is 6 contribution points, leaving 74 contribution points!"
Ye Haitian said with a slight smile.
Ye Jingcheng was astonished. Although Spirit Feeding Pills with fragrance were better, they did not warrant extra rewards.
The Ye family had no such rule; this was private support from Ye Haitian.
"Grandpa Nine…"
"Jingcheng, remember, in the cultivation world, absolute fairness is actually unfair, and the Ye family is no different!" Ye Haitian said without further explanation, signaling Ye Jingcheng to leave.
He continued organizing the contribution records.
Ye Jingcheng held the family token and bowed deeply.
The exchange rate for family contribution points was one to one low-grade spirit stone.
But in reality, contribution points were more valuable than low-grade spirit stones.
Some family treasures and spiritual beast cubs could only be exchanged with contribution points.
Though the Ye family was not a large clan and could only be considered moderately famous among foundation-building families, it was renowned in the realm of spiritual beasts across the Taihang Mountains.
Ye Jingcheng, with four spiritual roots and missing only the metal root, had been on the mountain since he was eleven. Now at twenty-one, he was at the fourth level of Qi Refining, a result of his diligence and understanding of the value of cultivation.
Even so, he lagged significantly behind other cultivators of the same age with three spiritual roots.
Thus, he had spent the past three years diligently refining pills and accumulating contribution points to exchange for a good spiritual beast.
Currently, he had exactly four hundred contribution points on his family token.
But four hundred points were not a small amount. For context, foundation-building cultivators in the Ye family received only five low-grade spirit stones per year, with an additional two for being a pill master.
Having four hundred in addition to his cultivation was due to his talent in alchemy.
Yet, he couldn't use all of it to exchange for spiritual beast cubs. He needed contribution points for his own cultivation, for purchasing pill materials, and for future feed for the spiritual beast cubs…
His only hope was that the ancient book within him had more uses beyond healing for spiritual beast cubs!
Ye Jingcheng sighed again.
As he walked, he soon arrived at the family's Demon Hunting Hall.
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This concludes the chapter.