Interstellar Farming: I Make Potions and Climb to the Top

According to the Federal Alchemist assessment rules, those who could refine single-ingredient medicines were Apprentice Alchemists. Those who could concoct junior-level compound medicines were Junior-level Alchemists. Those who could create Intermediate Compound Medicines were Intermediate Alchemists, and those who could produce Advanced Composite Potions were Advanced Alchemists.

Above Alchemists, there were also Alchemy Masters and Alchemy Grandmasters, which were also divided into different Levels.

Ning Xuan was starving when she returned to Chen Nan’s house. Without a word, she headed straight for the kitchen to cook and eat. Chen Nan was truly hopeless when it came to cooking. After much teaching from Ning Xuan, he had barely managed to learn not to blow up the kitchen, and the things he made were an absolute waste of ingredients!

After dinner, Ning Xuan meditated and did some Cultivation for a while, but the efficiency was much lower than in the A-level Earth Fire Room. So, she simply gave up on Cultivation and focused on her studies. She still had so much to learn: the types of Exotic Plants, their growth locations and habits, the parts used for medicine, their properties and effects, as well as various compound medicines, their compositions, and the precautions needed during refinement. The sheer volume of books and materials on these subjects alone stood as tall as a person, all of it written in tiny, dense print.

Chen Nan was from a combat specialization, so the sight of those towering stacks of books terrified him. Seeing Ning Xuan, pen and paper in hand, writing and sketching with such intense focus, he felt she was truly special. It was clear that she loved this subject, enjoyed the process of learning, and was incredibly talented in this area!

The profession of an Alchemist was well-compensated and highly respected. However, most successful Alchemists were men. For one, becoming an Alchemist required one to be a Spirit Controller with awakened spiritual power. Their Spiritual Power Value couldn’t be too low, and there were strict requirements for spiritual power control. Furthermore, the amount of material to learn was vast and complex, and the learning process was long and tedious. Yet, female Spirit Controllers with even slightly high Spiritual Power Values were highly sought after. They didn’t need to put in any effort at all, as countless male Spirit Controllers would willingly fall at their feet, competing to support them.

After all, even women who hadn’t awakened their spiritual power had no trouble finding someone to support them. Therefore, while one could still find women among Low-level Alchemists, High-level Alchemists were, without exception, almost all men.

However, judging by Ning Xuan’s current learning progress and the talent she displayed, she was bound to become a High-level Alchemist!

Ning Xuan’s behavior before and after her spiritual power awakened was, to put it mildly, completely different. Before coming to D618 Star, he had secretly investigated Ning Xuan’s past. Before her spiritual power awakened, Ning Xuan was timid and weak, her schoolwork was average, and she was often bullied by the sisters Ning Fei and Ning Chuchu. Back then, she had a secret crush on Luo Meng, who had helped her once by chance. Her greatest wish was to form a Contract with Luo Meng and have his child. She even foolishly fell into a trap someone had set for her when she heard Luo Meng was injured and needed a specific Exotic Plant to be saved.

He had analyzed the old Ning Xuan: naive, ignorant, innocent, and weak. In short, she seemed incredibly easy to deceive!

However, the Ning Xuan he had come into contact with shared not a single trait with the one from his investigation.

She... she...

Chen Nan didn’t know why she was so completely different from before. But her identity information was correct, the genetic match was correct, and it was she who had established a spiritual connection with him. It was she who had cleared the spiritual toxins for him. It was even she who had accompanied him through his fever period! ’She’s so beautiful.’ As Chen Nan watched her, his thoughts began to stray, drifting to that night, to what she had done to him!

Chen Nan stared at her for too long. No matter how focused Ning Xuan was, she was eventually disturbed. She slammed her pen down. "Do you not want those eyes of yours anymore?"

Startled, Chen Nan dropped his pen. A drop of ink spread across the page. He immediately lowered his head and apologized, "I’m sorry, Contractor. I’ve offended you!"

"Bring what you’ve written over here!" Ning Xuan snapped her book shut and commanded.

Chen Nan held the ink-stained sheet of paper, which was covered in words, with both hands. He knelt and presented it to Ning Xuan.

"Weren’t you the one who wanted to be disciplined? I had you copy the Bai Family’s rules. You’re not happy about it, are you?" Ning Xuan didn’t take the paper, so Chen Nan could only remain in position, his arms outstretched and raised. Hearing Ning Xuan’s question, Chen Nan quickly said, "I wouldn’t dare!"

The rules the Bai Family required Chen Nan to learn in advance were, it was said, only a small portion of the precautions. The true, detailed regulations went far beyond what he saw before him.

For example, Rule Thirteen, the rules for interacting with one’s Contractor, stated that when the Contractor was present, the Contractee could only serve while standing or kneeling. When the Contractor returned home, the Contractee must kneel outside the door to welcome them. One must not look directly at the Contractor, and one must not touch the Contractor’s body without permission, and so on. In the truly detailed regulations, there were corresponding punishments for violating any rule.

The Bai Family’s rules were indeed extremely harsh on the Contractee. When Ning Xuan had read a few, she felt they treated the Contractee like a slave or a pet. However, the contents weren’t entirely without merit. For example, ’do not look directly at the Contractor,’ and ’do not touch the Contractor’s body without permission’—Ning Xuan felt these were rules the Contractee absolutely had to obey!

"Recite this one, and this one, for me!" Ning Xuan pointed to the thirteenth and fourteenth rules he had copied.

The two rules Ning Xuan pointed to were near the beginning. Chen Nan had copied them so many times that, despite his resistance, he had long since memorized them. Having just angered Ning Xuan, he didn’t dare to defy her now. Thus, he didn’t hesitate and finished reciting them in a moment.

"This page is ruined. Copy it again. Get out and do it! This is a warning. If there’s a next time, it’s fifty lashes with the Vine Whip!" Ning Xuan crumpled the ink-spotted paper into a ball, threw it at him, and chased him out.

Ning Xuan turned her head and plunged back into her focused studies. Even with her excellent memory, it would still take a great deal of time to get through all these learning materials.

The next morning, Ning Xuan made a trip to the Exotic Plant Market, the Medicine Trade Market, and the Weapon Trading Market. She familiarized herself with the prices of various goods, bought a large number of cheap Exotic Plants, and then went to the Earth Fire Room for Cultivation and Alchemy.

After some investigation, Ning Xuan discovered that Chen Nan wasn’t wrong at all. Exotic Plants of all Levels here were fifty to sixty percent cheaper than on the Star Network. For example, the common Blue Flame Grass cost 30,000 Star Coins per stalk on the Star Network but only 10,000 Star Coins here. As for the refined Blue Flame Grass Potion, it sold for 80,000 to 100,000 Star Coins a bottle in the outside world, but here it was 50,000 to 80,000 a bottle. Although the finished medicine was also cheaper than outside, comparing the price reduction of raw materials to that of the finished products, the profit margin here was actually a bit larger than in the outside world.

Ning Xuan also went to the Extreme Cold City Immigration Center to make inquiries. Her original plan was to see if she could get a Metal Plate. If she could get one, wouldn’t she be able to enter and leave Extreme Cold City freely?

Unfortunately, the results of her inquiries were very disappointing. She could buy property here, and even live here permanently, but the identity-recognizing plates that allowed for teleportation were limited in number and non-transferable!