Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 1-Chapter 100)

His other spoils were nothing more than silver. Originally, Li Qingshan thought the black ox would not care about these worldly objects of white and yellow, but he never expected the black ox to firmly say after hearing him, “Good. Compared to that piece of torn paper, this is what matters!”



He looked down on an ability, yet he placed great focus on the silver. Even for Li Qingshan, who had undergone the black ox’s teachings of eating meat and drinking alcohol, he could not help but feel shocked at a time like this. Brother ox sure was grounded to the secular world.

The black ox could tell what he was thinking. “Haven’t you heard of the four words, wealth, companionship, method, and environment? They’re the crucial requirements to cultivation, and wealth ranks first amongst them.”

Li Qingshan nodded. “No matter what I do, I need a financial foundation.” If the ox had not been providing the most important element so far, food, he would have no way to cultivate even if he possessed the secrets to a divine art right in his hands. “Though, I don’t think I’ll be able to spend too much money!” A sum of over one thousand taels of silver was a tremendous amount. If he only bought alcohol and meat, it could last a very long time.

The black ox said, “You’ve always been asking me just how long you’ll need before you’ll be able to achieve something with the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength.”

“Yeah, but you always refuse to tell me.”

“I can tell you now. At the rate you're cultivating currently, if nothing unexpected happens, it’ll probably take you ten years before you reach the first layer of the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength, giving you the strength of an ox!”

“Ten years!” Li Qingshan’s mouth hung open in surprise.

“And that’s towards the shorter side of things. If you come across a bottleneck, it’ll be even more difficult to say. The stronger the ability, the harder it is to practise. Do you really think daoist abilities are a peasant’s tricks, where you can achieve something just by some slight practise then proceed to dominate the world? You’d better wake up!”

Li Qingshan felt like a cold bucket of water had been poured over him. All of his joy from killing the witch vanished. “In other words, if I want to complete the Strength of Nine Oxen and Two Tigers, I’ll need one hundred and ten years at the very least?” He could not imagine how he might turn out to be after a hundred and ten years.

“Wrong. Abilities get more difficult the further you practise. It’s nothing surprising if you don’t complete it even in a couple hundred years. However, you don’t have to worry too much. With each layer you achieve, your body will be consolidated, and your lifespan will obviously increase.”

“Then what am I supposed to do!?” Li Qingshan personally believed he had extraordinary willpower, able to endure practise everyday without stopping. However, if he had to last like this for a few hundred years, he felt like he would go crazy just from the thought of it.

The black ox was just about done with its psychological blows. It donned a smug expression of ‘Kid, do you know how powerful it is now?’Then the ox said, “If you want to reduce this time, the simplest method happens to fall on the word, wealth.”

Despite Li Qingshan’s strange expression, a list flew into his hands. The list stated several dozen medicines. “What’s this?”

“To be used to make soup and alcohol. It’s all tricks that even mortals know. It doesn’t matter if you’re missing any medicines from the list as long as you’re not missing the most crucial one.”

“Ginseng!” Li Qingshan already saw the medicine listed at the very top.

This was probably the most common and most easily obtainable spiritual medicine in the world. It was known as the King of Herbs, able to replenish vitality tremendously. In Chinese medicine, there was a soup of revival that would allow people on the brink of death to regain enough of their strength to leave behind their wills. In reality, it was ginseng soup.

“It’s exactly ginseng.”





Chapter 18: Scholar Tree Wood Nurtures Ghosts | Legend of the Great Sage




“Then there doesn’t really seem to be a difference between me and regular practitioners of martial arts?”

“Of course there is a difference. Due to their frail constitutions, regular people often cannot intake overly strong or nutritious medicines. Not only will it bring no benefit, but it’ll even be detrimental instead. I didn’t tell you this from the beginning because your body was still frail. It would have been useless if I told you anyway.”

“You’ve been slowly fixing this over the past few days, and you managed to refine a sliver of true qi. As such, you’ve basically fulfilled the basic requirement. I just happened to be thinking of ways for you to make money, but I can save some of that trouble now. However, this amount of money probably won’t last you for too long.”

Li Qingshan understood the differences as well. He could eat more ginseng than regular people without having to worry about developing ulcers or nosebleeds. His body was like a cauldron. He would use his ability to refine and absorb all the vitality that went into his body so that nothing went to waste.

This also meant that Li Qingshan needed to buy a tremendous amount of ginseng. However, regardless of the day or age, ginseng would always be an expensive medicinal herb.

However, he needed to eat ginseng like carrots. He would probably run out of money no matter how much he had.

Just how much ginseng could he buy with the silver that amounted to a little over a thousand taels? He could not help but consider this problem!

After lamenting, Li Qingshan had to admit that this was not bad news. The rate at which his strength grew would reach a whole new level.

For a single breakthrough in strength, regular people would need to search for rare spiritual pills and wondrous medicines, which might not necessarily be effective in the first place. However, all he needed to eat was easily found and obtained, and his strength would constantly grow. Who knew how many people would be envious of him if they knew, so how could he be dissatisfied?

As for the gold and the silver, there would always be a way. Once he was powerful enough, would money still pose an issue?

“This little ghost is pretty interesting.” The black ox arrived behind Li Qingshan and used its round eyes to stare at Xiao An, who hid behind Li Qingshan. He had always been hiding there, quietly sticking out his head to study the black ox out of curiosity.

Xiao An was frightened into hiding once again, afraid of facing the talking bovine. Although the black ox did not possess anything terrifying like a murderous or a vicious aura, he basically avoided it out of instinct.

“Are you talking about Xiao An? There’s nowhere for him to go right now, so I’m going to take care of him for now. You wouldn’t mind it, would you?” Li Qingshan said casually. If the black ox did mind, he obviously would not mention it right in front of Xiao An.

“She used an incomplete piece of paper, yet she actually managed to refine a ghost slave. Moreover, it is a ghost slave that can wield objects. Unbelievable. Either this old woman is a genius at refining ghosts, or this little ghost’s spiritual constitution is rather special. However, seeing how the old woman had been refining for all these years and sacrificed so many experimental subjects with only one case of success, it must be the latter.”

Li Qingshan looked at Xiao An. What was peculiar about him? Though, a little ghost was something extremely bizarre in the first place.

The black ox said, “This might be your best spoil from that battle. Why don’t you accept him as a ghost slave? This child might be of great use to you in the future.”