“Practice alchemy?” Although Qin wanted to believe his words, she still decided to shrug it off as she told him, “You must be kidding, Jian. You know how much it costs for me to continue practicing alchemy, right? Much less to say the amount of materials I would burn through in order to reach a high level of proficiency.”

“And that’s why I only told you this after the God of Spirit Slag decided to give us high-grade Spirit Slag,” Jian said in response, radiating an aura of determination as he continued, “If the only thing we had access to was just normal Spirit Slag, then I wouldn’t have brought up the topic until we were many years older. But with the help of the high-grade Spirit Slag, then there’s a chance… it’s possible.”

“Really, Jian? You’re not telling me all of this just to make me happy, right?” Qin asked, tears brimming around her eyes.

“Why would I?” Jian looked at his wife with a light smile. “When I’m telling you that you can practice alchemy again, I really mean it.”

“But… would we even make it in time?” Qin said, a few tears starting to stream down her face. “You know… with the…”

“Father-in-law wouldn’t want to see you like this, Qin,” Jian told her, caressing her head as he continued, “Just believe in him. Believe in us, Qin. Everything will be just fine. We’ll make it in time, I’m sure.”

After a few more words of comfort from her husband, Qin finally decided to believe in her husband’s words, letting out a long sigh before smiling at Jian with tear stains still on her face. In response, Jian wiped them off before giving her a soft kiss.

Basking in the slightly melancholic yet warm atmosphere around them for a bit, the two eventually returned to the real world as Jian scooped up the high-grade Spirit Slag at the top of the pile, placing it into a small sack. After that, he looked at Qin and said, “I’ll be placing the high-grade Spirit Slag in another place for now. We still have to find the perfect place where we could plant the alchemical materials, after all.”

“Why not near the shrine, then?” Qin suggested all of a sudden. “Although I’ve really noticed it just now, the qi around the shrine is more dense compared to the qi at our house and at the field. I think this would be the perfect place to plant them, no?”

“Hmm…” Listening to his wife’s words, Jian closed his eyes as he tried to get a feel for the qi surrounding the shrine. After a while, he nodded in satisfaction as he told her, “Alright then. I’ll grab a few pots and start planting a few of the basic plants later. I still have to buy the seeds from a nearby town, after all.”

“Also, now that you mention denser qi, have you ever thought about cultivating near the shrine?” he asked, to which she asked in response, “Why?”

“Well, as you said, the qi is more dense here. I’m not certain if it’s because of the remnant qi from the large pile of Spirit Slag in front of us, but what I am certain about is that we’ll progress faster if we cultivate here,” Jian replied.

“I guess so…” Qin said, her tone somewhat confused. Of course, she had an idea as to why Jian would suggest something like that. However, it seemed that the two of them did not want to talk more about it for now.

With that, the two resumed their prayer to the God of Spirit Slag, eventually separating their own ways as Jian headed to a nearby city to buy a few seeds, while Qin headed to the nearby forest to cut a few logs, wanting to fashion them into a few pots for the alchemical plants they were going to plant sometime later.

In the meantime, Arthur was listening in on their conversation, realizing that there was more to the couple than what he originally thought. “And here I thought they just settled near where I was because they found the area nice to live in.”

“Hmm? What are you talking about, Arthur?” Sisa asked in response, prompting Arthur to tell her everything he had heard from the couple while they were near the pile of Inferior Spirit Slag. After he was done explaining, Sisa could not help but say, “It seems there’s more to them than what meets the eye.”

“Yep.” Arthur agreed with her. “From the looks of it, them settling here has something to do with family-related problems, but I’m not too sure. Everything’s still a bit too vague.”

“Although that’s interesting and all that, shouldn’t you be focusing on spending your remaining System Points first?” Sisa could not help but remind him soon after. “You still have over 800 System Points available, you know?”

“Ah, right. I think I got a bit too invested there,” said Arthur with a light chuckle before commanding the system to show him the list of available upgrades.

Ding!

[Upgrade Module] Available System Points: 840 Stats: Upgrades: Cost: [Qi Capacity] - 40/40 (+1) 5 System Points [Qi Purity] - Tier 1, Grade 0 (+1) 110 System Points [Qi Recovery Rate] - 6/hr. (+1) 210 System Points Skills: Upgrades: Cost: [Qi Conversion Lv. 11] (+1) 100 System Points [Spirit Sense Lv. 10] (+1) 250 System Points [Spirit Aura Lv. 10] (+1) 250 System Points [Spirit Analysis Lv. 1] (+1) 25 System Points

Looking at the screen with the list of upgrades in front of him, he could not help but focus on the first two stats he could upgrade, recalling that they were the ones he wanted to upgrade before the conversation between the couple happened. Now that he was looking at his choices again, he could not help but ponder over it a bit more, wondering if it would be better for him to spend all of his points on one stat, or spend it equally on both stats.

Surprisingly, in the end, he decided to spend all of his stats towards upgrading Qi Capacity, remembering that the quest he had at the moment needed him to reach 100 points of capacity to become an Early Spirit Nucleus. Although he did not know what becoming an Early Spirit Nucleus would give him, he had a feeling that it would allow him to do more than just convert Spirit Slag and infuse qi into things.

Ding!

Would you like to upgrade [Qi Capacity]? This will cost you 5 System Points.

“Yes.”

…

…

Would you like to upgrade [Qi Capacity]? This will cost you 34 System Points.

"Yes."

Ding!

[Qi Capacity] has been upgraded from 89 points to 90 points.

Seeing that he was only 10 points away from meeting the requirements necessary to become an Early Spirit Nucleus, it was no surprise that the next thing Arthur did was to convert his qi into Spirit Slag once more, allowing time to pass as he looked at the daily lives of the couple through [Spirit Sense].

Unexpectedly, by the time it was night, Arthur could not help but notice that the two were discussing what they talked about earlier in front of the shrine just as they were about to sleep. Thus, with the help of [Spirit Sense], he listened in on their conversation.

“Since I’m going to start practicing alchemy again, shouldn’t we let the others know where we are right now?” Qin could not help but ask Jian, who was lying down beside her.

“Well, it has been a couple of months since we last met the others…” Jian said as he scratched his head, wondering whether it was a good idea or not. “Then again, people who know of our relationship with them might use them to find our whereabouts.”

“It’s going to be fine, Jian. They have Third Uncle with them,” Qin told him, reassuring him. “You know what Third Uncle is capable of, right?”

Hearing the name ‘Third Uncle’ being mentioned by Qin, Jian obviously knew that she was not going to take no for an answer. With that in mind, he let out a sigh as he wryly smiled, saying, “Alright, alright. I’ll notify them of our current whereabouts later in the morning. In any case, it seems we have to prepare a small feast for them when they arrive.”

With a light yet joyous squeal, Qin went ahead and embraced Jian tightly, to which Jian could not help but laugh out loud in response. After that, they looked each other in the eyes with special gazes and then…

A situation that definitely could not be put into words soon unfolded.

As Arthur ignored the part where the couple engaged in acts that would normally seem impossible to do with the human body, the words spoken by the two lingered in his mind, recalling how he needed more people to recognize his presence in the system quest. With that, he could not help but say with a hint of excitement, “I guess it’s my luck that the two are going to invite a few people over to their house in the following days. There’s a high chance that they might introduce the God of Spirit Slag to the others.”

“With that in mind, I should probably continue converting my qi into Spirit Slag. After all, for them to quickly notice my presence, to see is to believe,” he said with a chuckle, making a mental note to upgrade [Qi Conversion] in the future.

And with that, Arthur went ahead and continued to convert his qi into Spirit Slag for two straight days, stopping as he noticed a group of silhouettes gradually getting closer and closer to the range of his [Spirit Sense].

Seeing how the couple looked at the silhouettes with wide smiles from the front porch of their house, everything quickly clicked in Arthur’s mind as he remembered the conversation the couple had that night. Letting out a chuckle, he then said to himself, “It’s time to make some progress on this quest of mine.”