“Greetings Elder Brother Yuehao, would you be free for a short discussion?” Mingwei asked from outside the young master’s room.

“Come in.”

Mingwei walked in, and noted a simple room. He spent a day thinking of whether he wanted to give the pills to his de-facto, self-proclaimed batch leader. He could, after all, use it on himself, but if Yuehao was stronger, he would probably continue to require pills to support his cultivation. Since materials are so common, time is the scarce resource. A small cultivation candle was lit on the table, and he picked up the faint scent of a cultivation-boosting tea. A mild tea that just adds 5-10 QI a day.

“Speak. I must return to my cultivation soon. What brings you here, brother Mingwei?”

“I come to present the results of my 2nd attempt at alchemy. I hope it will prove useful to you.” Mingwei placed a small bunch of 7 pills. All in, about 100,000 Qi boost. Not much, but better than nothing.

Yuehao paused. “Ah. Thank you brother Mingwei.” He walked over and examined the pills. He didn’t seem particularly knowledgeable about pills other than a rudimentary assessment of how much Qi they added. “These will do.. How much Qi per day?”

“Around 2,000 to 2,200 Qi, for a week.”

Yuehao stared at the pill. “Ah...”

Mingwei bowed. “I’ve taken too much of your time, elder brother. I shall take my leave now.”

Yuehao kept staring. He couldn’t believe that the sucker gave him more pills. He had better made some arrangements to get more materials to Mingwei. He clearly had a talent for alchemy, and this was his good fortune! He'd be able to rise in cultivation quickly if Mingwei kept making pills!

Now, what should he feed Mingwei to keep up his production of pills? While Yuehao pondered the question of how to maximise his new fortune, Mingwei went back.

Back in Mingwei’s own room, he looked at his 20 4-star Gator Refined Pill, and 10 4-star Greenduck Refined Pills. He sat down and added some runes to his new batch of pills, pushing it’s QI per day to 4,400 QI per day.

Still, he had a patrol to go through, so he spent a few months just patrolling the designated sites with his partners. Thankfully, it was an uneventful period of time, and Mingwei was able to return to his room.

It’s finally time to hit start eating his pills and push his cultivation to the mid 3-star level. It would take him a good 4 and a half months to collect 720,000 QI. He reckoned that Yuehao would reach there first, as he has been cultivating during the time he was out patrolling and making pills.

For those 4 and a half months, he was oblivious to what happened outside, as he focused on cultivating. At 3-stars, the body’s need for sustenance begins to dwindle. At 5 stars, a cultivator can survive on cultivating alone, and only needs to eat when he’s not cultivating. At 7 stars, a cultivator can skip meals altogether, and eat for fun.

He had 8 4-star Greenduck Refined Pills left when he hit the mid-3star checkpoint of 720,000 Qi.

Qi Gathered

724,500/1,800,000

Qi Storage

39,080/39,080 (includes 10,000 from cauldron)

QI Output Limit

5,816

Core Toughness

46,660/46,660

Ah. Now what’s happening outside?