Collecting Rent From All Realms, Even Empresses Must Pay Tribute
Ch. 123 - The Crystallization Pill

After the alarm rang, Ye Chuan got up and started his morning routine.

He had to admit, cultivation was quite addictive.(TL: I think he is talking about double-cultiviation)

Luo Xi also got up after seeing Ye Chuan, although she was still a bit sleepy, she couldn't just skip class.

"I'm so full," Luo Xi said, rubbing her stomach. She had eaten a bit too much.

"Let me take a look?" Ye Chuan said, turning around.

Let me inspect your problem!

"Eek, no thanks!" Luo Xi, sensing Ye Chuan's mischievous intent, quickly left the room. They would be late otherwise.

Ye Chuan chuckled, watching her scurry away like a startled rabbit, finished his morning routine, and followed Luo Xi out of the room.

As soon as he entered the living room, he saw Lan Xiaoke acting suspiciously, pretending to wipe the table with a dust cloth, but she was actually just spacing out, cleaning the air.

Dressed in her maid outfit, her ample bosom jiggled with her unconscious movements.

"Oi, what's wrong?" Ye Chuan asked.

"Ah… nothing," Lan Xiaoke said, snapping back to reality. She scratched her head, her face flushed, and giggled nervously. "Ehehe."

Ye Chuan could guess what she had been thinking about; after all, her room was right next door.

"Focus on your work, stop daydreaming," Ye Chuan said, flicking Lan Xiaoke on the head, and went to the kitchen.

"Okay~" Lan Xiaoke stuck her tongue out.

She was also quite curious, after all, she had been dead for decades, and she was still a young ghost at heart.

…

In the kitchen, Luo Xi was humming cheerfully as she prepared breakfast. She asked Ye Chuan if he wanted to call Bai Qianshuang for breakfast.

"Where's Miss Bai? Is she awake yet?" Luo Xi asked with a grin.

She was wearing an apron and holding a kitchen knife, a slightly intimidating sight.

"She should be up, she usually sleeps in," Ye Chuan said. 

He wasn't sure what Bai Qianshuang was doing and was about to check her status on his phone when the door to her room opened, and she walked out.

Bai Qianshuang was wearing a black dress, her ahoge sticking up, her gaze calm. 

Seeing Ye Chuan and Luo Xi, a slight ripple appeared in her usually serene eyes.

"Good morning, Miss Bai, come have breakfast with us," Luo Xi said with a smile.

"Good morning…" Bai Qianshuang seemed to want to say something, but stopped herself, just gave a soft "thank you," and sat quietly at the corner of the table.

"Chuan Chuan, is Miss Bai always like this?" Luo Xi asked Ye Chuan, curious about Bai Qianshuang's indifferent demeanor.

"What do you mean?"

"She's always so expressionless," Luo Xi said. She rarely saw Bai Qianshuang show any other emotions.

She was aloof and beautiful, like a celestial being.

"Is she?" Ye Chuan was used to it.

Although Bai Qianshuang didn't show much emotion, he could somehow tell her mood from subtle changes in her behavior.

She was actually quite easy to read.

Rather than aloof,

"Airheaded" was more accurate.

For example, seeing the delicious breakfast Luo Xi had prepared, her ahoge perked up, a clear sign of her good mood.

As they were eating, Luo Xi suddenly remembered something she had left at home and stood up abruptly. 

"Chuan Chuan, I'll be right back! Wait for me downstairs!"

"What about breakfast?"

"I'll take it with me!" Luo Xi grabbed a baozi and rushed out.

But as she left, she mumbled,

"There's so much… I need to change."(TL: I'm not explaining this, you can't make me!)

Ye Chuan: "?"

He didn't understand why she was in such a hurry. 

Seeing that only he, Bai Qianshuang, and Lan Xiaoke remained in the apartment, he turned to Bai Qianshuang.

"Qianshuang, I have a question."

Bai Qianshuang, nibbling on a baozi, looked up. "What is it?"

"Do you need a Crystallization Pill to reach the Crystallization realm?" Ye Chuan asked.

Bai Qianshuang's eyes widened, and the baozi in her hand fell onto the table. She was shocked to see that Ye Chuan had reached the peak of Foundation Establishment!

It had only been a week, right?

"You… Ye Chuan, how did you do it?" Bai Qianshuang picked up the baozi and took a bite, unable to comprehend his rapid progress.

Even the most talented geniuses in the Tianxuan Continent couldn't cultivate this fast.

She considered herself a heaven-blessed prodigy, but seeing Ye Chuan's unreasonable cultivation speed made her question everything.

At this rate, wouldn't he surpass her soon?

"Even for Qi Refining cultivators, it takes three to five years to break through a minor realm, but you…" Bai Qianshuang hesitated. 

"Even demonic cultivation techniques can't increase cultivation this quickly."

And she could clearly sense that Ye Chuan's realm was solid, not achieved through external forces.

How was this possible?

Suddenly, Bai Qianshuang realized something.

Luo Xi.

Could she have a special constitution that was boosting Ye Chuan's cultivation?

A Supreme constitution like the Profound Yin Body?

Seeing Bai Qianshuang lost in thought, Ye Chuan waved his hand in front of her face. When she snapped back to reality, he asked, "What's wrong?"

"..." Bai Qianshuang remembered his question and explained,

"To reach the Crystallization realm, a cultivator needs to compress and condense their spiritual energy into crystals. This makes the spiritual energy purer and more potent."

"There are two common methods for reaching the Crystallization realm."

"One is to compress the spiritual energy through self-cultivation, but this method is very slow and doesn't offer any additional benefits."

"The other is to use a Crystallization Pill, which increases the efficiency of spiritual energy compression."

Bai Qianshuang continued, "Crystallization Pills also have different qualities. The higher the quality, the purer the crystals formed, the more powerful the spiritual energy, and the stronger the Golden Core formed later."

When she had reached the Crystallization realm, her master had found a Second-Grade Crystallization Pill for her, and combined with her special constitution, her Golden Core's capacity was much larger than that of ordinary cultivators.

"I see," Ye Chuan now understood the purpose of the Crystallization Pill.

But the problem was…

Where could he get a Crystallization Pill?

"I don't even have the recipe, even spending money won't help," Ye Chuan muttered.