"Alchemist Chen, come out and pay the rent!"
A sudden knock sounded outside the door.
It was Manager Zhang, coming to collect the rent.
Listening to the knocking, Song Huaying let out a soft sigh of emotion. "Time really flies. In the blink of an eye, another month has passed, and it's time to pay the rent again."
"Indeed, it goes by so fast."
Chen An replied to his lovely young wife, and with those words, he stepped outside with three low-grade spirit stones to pay the rent.
The transaction went smoothly and effortlessly.
Manager Zhang couldn't help teasing him a bit, remarking that Alchemist Chen seemed to be making a fortune.
With that, Manager Zhang moved on to the next household to collect rent, without lingering unnecessarily.
As for the other low-level cultivators nearby, they weren't nearly as well-off as Chen An. Many of them couldn't afford the rent and begged Manager Zhang to grant them a few more days.
Unfortunately, Manager Zhang showed no sympathy whatsoever—not a single day of delay was tolerated.
No money for rent?
Then pack up and leave!
Helpless and cornered, several more low-level cultivators were forced to move away from the Bamboo Leaf Forest.
As for those who managed to stay, although they successfully paid their rent, most of them had to rely on savings accumulated from the past.
Once those savings ran out, it would only be a matter of time before they were kicked out on the street.
Everyone was under immense pressure.
Many female cultivators who couldn't afford the rent began actively looking for dao companions to rely on, just to survive and stay in the Bamboo Leaf Forest.
They specifically targeted wealthy ones, such as alchemists, talisman makers, and weapon smiths.
During this time, several female cultivators living nearby set their sights on Chen An, but he rejected them all.
The reason was simple: these women who proactively threw themselves at him were all seasoned veterans of the world.
Chen An worried he wouldn't be able to handle them and might end up falling into a trap.
If he were ever to take in a female cultivator, he would only accept a young, inexperienced, and seemingly innocent maiden.
After rejecting those female cultivators who had come making desperate, blatant hints to become kept women, Chen An turned around and walked back inside. He approached his lovely young wife, who was currently clearing the dishes, and said, "Ying'er, your husband will take you for a stroll in the market to buy some supplies."
"I'll listen to my husband."
Song Huaying smiled sweetly, her pretty eyes curving into crescents.
After a quick change into clothes suitable for going out, the couple soon set off for the market to go shopping.
As for the risk of being robbed of their wealth, Chen An wasn't worried in the least.Because just a moment ago, he had taken out ten low-grade spirit stones and handed them to Manager Zhang, who had come to collect the rent, asking him to keep himself and his beloved young wife safe along the way when he headed to the market.
Manager Zhang readily agreed.
After all, spirit stones that could be earned with a mere wave of the hand—only a fool would pass up such an opportunity.
Upon arriving at the market, the couple followed closely behind Manager Zhang all the way.
While Manager Zhang went from door to door collecting rent up ahead, the two of them followed behind, purchasing supplies along the route.
They bought firewood, rice, oil, and salt, herbs needed for refining Pills, and daily necessities.
Along the way, they passed by a music house, a bookstore, and a teahouse, stepping into each to buy some musical instruments, chess sets, poetry books, and calligraphy and painting scrolls.
Chen An had bought these intentionally.
Knowing that his beloved young wife had previously been a young lady from a scholarly family and enjoyed the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, he thought of buying them back for her to pass the time when she was bored.
Song Huaying loved these gifts very much. Taking advantage of a moment when no one was paying attention around them, she mustered up her courage and secretly kissed her husband on the cheek.
Although it was just a fleeting touch like a dragonfly skimming the water, it still made her face flush crimson with shyness.
[You gave your wife Song Huaying her favorite gift; marital affection +3.]
After finishing their purchases, the couple returned to their residence under the escort of Manager Zhang.
"Alchemist Chen, going out on a trip and buying so many things without the slightest hesitation—it seems you've really earned quite a few spirit stones lately."
"I look forward to you moving into the core district sooner rather than later to be my neighbor, and I'll treat you to a drink then."
With a beaming smile, Manager Zhang dropped these two remarks and left with a happy expression, humming a little tune.
Back inside the house, the couple sorted and put away the items they had bought.
Finishing up in no time at all, Song Huaying found a place to sit down and looked at the instruments and sets of zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting in her hands, unable to put them down.
She carefully picked out a carved bamboo flute adorned with patterns and tried blowing into it a few times.
The tone was excellent, and the mouthfeel was wonderful as well.
"Husband, is there any tune you'd particularly like to hear? No matter what tune it is, I can play it for you on this bamboo flute."
Song Huaying playfully brandished the bamboo flute in her small hand, speaking with a face full of absolute confidence.
Chen An loved confident girls, and without hesitation, he named every single tune he had listened to over the past thirty-some years, asking his beloved young wife to play them all for him.As it turned out, his little bride was a fierce woman who kept her word. She blew on Chen An straight from daytime into the night, until her little mouth went numb.
"Cough... cough cough!"
"There, there, hurry up and sit down to drink some water and lubricate your throat. Don't cough yourself hoarse."
"No need, I can still blow!"
"Alright, alright, seriously, stop blowing. Your husband knows how formidable Ying'er is."
Chen An never expected his little bride to be so stubborn, and for a moment he was completely dumbfounded.
You silly girl, I just told you to play a few tunes for me to hear, and you actually played every single one of them?
This really was... a bit stubbornly cute.
After a great deal of further persuasion, Chen An finally snatched the bamboo flute from his little bride's hands and made her obediently sit down to rest for a while.
Late at night, everything was quiet.
With nothing much to do, the couple changed into their pajamas early and lay down on the bed to rest.
Snuggling in Chen An's arms, Song Huaying suddenly sat up and asked:
"Husband, we haven't been intimate for so long. Do you feel very uncomfortable?"
"No, your husband has extraordinary willpower."
"That's good."
With that, Song Huaying lay back down, pressed her pretty face against Chen An's chest once more, and enjoyed listening to his steady, powerful heartbeat.
Before long, however, she sat up again, gazed into Chen An's eyes with a distressed look, and said:
"Husband, I know you must be suffering."
"I really am not."
"You definitely are."
"Fine, it is actually a bit uncomfortable."
"Husband..."
"Alright, go to sleep. Your husband has to wake up early tomorrow to refine Pills."
"..."
After Chen An fell asleep, Song Huaying quietly got out of bed, dropped to the floor, pulled a book titled *Arts of the Bedchamber* out from under the bed, and tiptoed over to the window to flip through it in the moonlight.
Back when she was still a pampered young miss of a wealthy household, she had accidentally overheard from her personal maid that such a miraculous book existed.
She had heard that this book could teach women many techniques on how to please their husbands during pregnancy, preventing them from succumbing to temptation and being seduced by other vixens.
Lying in bed pretending to be asleep, Chen An opened his eyes just a crack to look at his little bride, who was standing by the window studying the *Arts of the Bedchamber* with utmost seriousness. He couldn't help smiling with helpless amusement.
Only today did he realize that his little bride could be quite stubborn at times.
"Oh well, since she likes it, I'll just let her be from now on."
Thinking this to himself, Chen An quickly closed his eyes again, though whether he was truly asleep or not was hard to say.
Days passed one by one.
Ever since that night, whenever bedtime rolled around in the days that followed, Song Huaying would use the techniques she had learned from the book to please Chen An as best as she could.
While enjoying it, Chen An couldn't help thinking that the author of the *Arts of the Bedchamber* was truly a genius. Where on earth did they learn so many tricks? Could they also be a time-traveler who had watched countless videos?
In the blink of an eye, several more days passed.
It was a bright and sunny day, filled with the sound of birds and the fragrance of flowers, when a rabbit somehow wandered into the courtyard.
It was furry, extremely cute, and very much the kind of creature young girls loved.
Golden light flashed brightly across Chen An's fingertips as he poked it to death on the spot and took it into the kitchen to make soup.
Two hours later.
The soup was ready.
Chen An brought it into the room to feed his little bride so she could nourish her body.
"Husband, what kind of soup is this?"
"Chicken soup."
Chen An lied straight through his teeth.
After finishing the soup and resting for a little while,
Song Huaying returned to the bed, using both hands and feet to reward her husband. When she grew tired, she leaned against her husband's head, whispering all sorts of warm, sweet, and sticky loving words into his ear to make up for her inability to share the bedchamber.
A few days later.
Chen An opened his attribute panel to check his stats.
【Golden Finger: Novice (58/100)】
【Alchemy Skill: Rank 1 Intermediate (292/500)】
【Wife: Song Huaying】
【Trait: A favor repaid by a spring for a drop of water】
【Affection: 2 Stars (253/500)】
【Alchemy Experience Provided: 276】
【Golden Finger Proficiency Provided: 52】
After looking closely, he saw that the progress bars for both his Golden Finger and his alchemy skill had increased by only a tiny bit.
There was no helping it, after all; his little bride was pregnant, and they could not engage in the pleasures of water and fish.
The comforting news, however, was that the affection level progress bar had grown significantly, already passing the halfway mark.
A 3-star marital affection level was just around the corner.
Chen An looked at his little bride, who was fast asleep beside him, and his gaze fell upon her lower belly, which was gradually beginning to show. A trace of eager anticipation stirred within his eyes.
In the blink of an eye, his little bride had already been pregnant for over three months.Just a few more days, and he would soon be able to share intimate marital bliss with his lovely young wife, all while diligently working to elevate his alchemy experience and the proficiency of his Golden Finger.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
"Alchemist Chen!"
"Alchemist Chen, are you home?!"
A flurry of urgent knocking came from outside the door, accompanied by the panicked shouting of a woman.
Chen An gently tucked the quilt over his little wife, then strolled out of the bedroom at a leisurely pace.
Arriving in the main hall, he picked up a bamboo pole as he always did and pushed aside the curtain over the window from a distance to see who was looking for him.
Peering through the parted curtain, he saw that it was the young female cultivator who lived across the way—the one who frequently came out to empty her chamber pot.
"Alchemist Chen, sob... My dad... he's fallen ill. I'm begging you, please save my father! As long as you can save him, I'll do anything—I can be your concubine, your slave, anything at all, sob, sob, sob, sob..."
The young and pretty female cultivator outside the window, the moment she saw Chen An appear before her eyes, burst into tears and choked out her desperate plea.
Chapter 11: The Young Wife's Perspective
Chen An and the young female cultivator looked at each other across the window, making no attempt to hide his gaze as he sized her up.She was in her early twenties, with fair skin, stunning looks, a tall figure, snow-white hair, and crimson eyes—giving off the distinct vibe of a white-haired, red-eyed heroine straight out of an anime from his past life.
All in all, she was a rare and striking beauty.
"Tell me about your father's condition."
Chen An made no move to leave, standing right where he was inside the room and speaking.
The female cultivator wiped the tears from her face and said, "When my father was young, he suffered from fire poison. His body temperature has always been slightly high, and he frequently feels dizzy. But just now, it got extremely severe—he overheated and passed out completely. Right now, he's lying in bed unconscious, and his vitality is fading more and more. Alchemist Chen, I beg you, please save my father."
After listening, Chen An lowered his head in thought. After a good while, he said, "Wait here a moment. I'll go get you some Pills that might ease your father's condition."
A short while later, he returned holding a small vial covered in frost.
Inside was a rare kind of Pill called the Heat-Relief Pill, which could quickly lower body temperature when consumed.
The reason it was rare was that it was a concoction he had researched and tinkered with himself in the past, used exclusively in the summer as an air conditioner.
Other than that, it was completely useless.There was no helping it; summer in this world of immortal cultivation was simply too scorching. While the native residents had grown used to the heat since childhood, as an outsider, he could not adapt to it at all.
"Take this bottle of Pills back for your father to try. He can take at most one at a time, and a single pill will remain effective for a whole day."
"Thank you! Thank you, Alchemist Chen!"
"Don't thank me just yet, there's a charge. There are a hundred pills in this bottle, and that will be one low-grade spirit stone, please."
Chen An was not about to give away the pills he had painstakingly refined just because the person standing before him was attractive.
In this world of immortal cultivation where every man for himself meant nothing was forbidden, he only recognized money, not faces—even beauties were useless.
"Alchemist Chen, I don't have any money..."
The female cultivator's voice trailed off into a whisper.
The exorbitant rent over the past few months had long since hollowed out her family's savings of many years.
Now they could barely make ends meet, and on some days they even operated at a loss, making it utterly impossible for her to produce a single low-grade spirit stone to buy pills.
"Then take the pills back for your father first. We can talk about the money later."
"Thank you! Thank you, Alchemist Chen!"
Overflowing with gratitude, the female cultivator dropped to her knees to thank Chen An. The moment she finished, she snatched the medicine bottle and bolted toward home, anxious to rush back and give the medicine to her fainting father.
Watching the slender figure of the female cultivator fade into the distance, Chen An was not worried that she would default on her debt.
First, her home was right across the door; he could go over and collect at any time.
Second, the heat-relief pills were cheap, costing only a few taels of silver to make. Even if he took a loss, it wouldn't amount to much.
The only reason he dared price them at one low-grade spirit stone was precisely because he had concocted the stuff himself, and nothing like it was sold on the market.
Since it was an exclusive pill, he could set whatever price he pleased.
A merchant was bound to be unscrupulous—that was probably how it went.
Returning to the room, his sweet young wife had already woken up, having been roused by the crying and shouting of the female cultivator at the door just moments before.
"Husband, what happened outside just now? I thought I heard a woman crying."
"It's nothing. The female cultivator who lives across the hall and is always coming out to dump chamber pots came knocking. She was crying because her father's old illness flared up and he fainted, so she asked me to help."
"Is it serious?"
"Hard to say. I didn't make a house call; I just asked about the symptoms and gave her a bottle of Pills."
With that, Chen An hesitated for a moment before adding, "That's right, Ying'er, there is something your husband wishes to discuss with you.""Husband, what is it?"
"That female cultivator couldn't afford Pills, and said that if I save her father, she'll offer herself to be my concubine."
"..."
Hearing this, Song Huaying fell completely silent.
What was bound to come had finally arrived.
She wasn't some naive, sheltered girl; she knew her husband would eventually take a concubine one day, and she had long since prepared herself mentally.
Yet preparation was one thing, and when the day actually arrived, she still found it hard to stomach.
After a moment of silence, Song Huaying bit her lower lip and asked nervously, "Husband, did you agree?"
She was terrified that Chen An had agreed.
Because the female cultivator living right across from them was an immortal, and she didn't know how she, a mere mortal, was supposed to get along with someone like that in the future.
After all, a mortal woman's youth lasted barely a dozen or twenty years, while an immortal's could remain unchanged for decades, or even preserve her youth forever.
When the day came that she grew old and withered, with a breathtakingly beautiful immortal concubine living right beside her as a comparison, would her husband even spare her a second glance?
Song Huaying felt deeply uneasy at the thought.
Seeing this, Chen An reassured her, "Your husband did not agree. And even if I had, Ying'er, you are my lawful wife, while she would merely be a concubine."
"Husband..."
Song Huaying's eyes brimmed with deep affection.
Chen An knew that his little wife was feeling insecure and wanted to please him in this way to raise her own value and cement her position.
[You promised to cherish her for the rest of your life. Affection +10, Alchemy Experience +2.]
...
The next day, the sun was already high in the sky.
A commotion suddenly arose outside the house.
Curious, Song Huaying pulled her husband, who had just stepped out of the alchemy room, over to the window to see what was going on.
They saw a couple arguing right in the middle of the street.
"Husband, this concubine has dedicated the entire youth of her life to you! How can you be so heartless to me?"
"Are you ever going to stop nagging, you old hag? It's already out of the goodness of my heart that I, a cultivator, spent all these years supporting a mere mortal like you. Get out of my house this instant!"
"Husband!"
"Keep shouting and I'll beat you to death and bury you!"
"..."
Under the male cultivator's threats, that aging and withered woman could only leave with an ashen face.
Watching this scene from the window, Song Huaying felt a profound sense of empathy, and her delicate face instantly turned completely pale.
As for Chen An beside her, he was long accustomed to such sights and felt not a single ripple in his heart.
Male cultivators despising their aging, withered mortal wives was a common occurrence among the lowest rungs of the cultivation world.
The root cause was simple: female cultivators only ever wished to form dao companions with men whose cultivation was higher than their own, and wouldn't even deign to look at men of equal or lesser power.
Consequently, low-tier male cultivators had no choice but to take mortal women as wives.
Yet mortal women had one fatal flaw: their youth lasted for a mere decade or two.
Once they grew old and withered, they were frequently and ruthlessly discarded by these low-tier male cultivators, who would then go out and find a fresh, dewy sixteen-year-old girl to make merry with night after night.
Was it heartless?
Extremely heartless.
Yet in a low-tier cultivation world that worshipped the law of the jungle and suffered from a severe lack of responsibility, this was the most normal thing in the world.
No matter how low-ranking a low-tier male cultivator was, in the eyes of mortal women, he was still an immortal—towering above them and acting invincible.
And they, in turn, viewed mortal women as disposable items to be tossed away once used up.
A cultivator like Chen An, who was actually willing to cherish his mortal wife, was one in a million.
"Husband, if I grow old and withered in the future and am no longer pretty, will you still be willing to keep me?"
Song Huaying looked at Chen An with a pitiful expression and asked.
Chen An answered without the slightest hesitation:
"I will."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Husband, let's go take a nap."
[Alchemy Experience +2]
...
In the blink of an eye, night had fallen.
The couple had already gone to sleep.
Suddenly, the sound of discussion drifted in from outside the house.
"Sigh, why take it so hard?"
"Such bad luck. Of all places to die, she had to die right next door to my house."
"Break it up, break it up, nothing to see here. Stop hanging around outside my door, dammit!"
"..."
Song Huaying was a light sleeper and was jolted awake.
Dazed, she sat up in bed and walked curiously to the window to look outside and see what on earth had happened.
Never in her wildest dreams did she expect that a single glance would nearly drive her to depression.
The woman who had been driven out of her home during the day was dead.