William Grant felt a pang of guilt. His body actually wasn’t short—by his estimate, he was at least 1.85 meters tall. Yet standing in front of the proprietress, he was still half a head shorter.

In his memory, this proprietress was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, extremely skilled at breaking bones, and her combat power was off the charts.

But this proprietress had long brows and deep-set eyes, striking features, and wheat-colored skin that was tight and radiant. Even the loose blue Daoist robe couldn’t hide her tall figure and long legs.

Her features were so well-defined that she actually resembled the movie version of Wonder Woman, only her eyes and brows were even more delicate.

At such close range, William Grant finally realized how beautiful the proprietress was. In this land of yellow earth, there was actually such a beauty!

Driven by a man’s instinct, and by his own repressed nature of over thirty years, he couldn’t help but steal another glance.

The proprietress frowned slightly, her beautiful emerald eyes shifting as she gave William Grant a look whose meaning was unclear.

“What does the proprietress mean by that?”

William Grant didn’t understand the look, but it didn’t stop him from acting obedient and yielding. With a humble face, he explained, “Big Brother Clark, I’m eager to break through in cultivation so I can refine better pills.”

“The higher my cultivation, the better I can control the heat, and the higher the quality of the pills I can make.”

William Grant grinned apologetically. “Big Brother Clark, sister-in-law, I really didn’t mean to delay. Please give me a few more days, just a few more days.”

Shopkeeper Clark waved his hand and said, “Even if it weren’t for your master’s sake, a few days’ delay is nothing.”

His chubby face was full of a genial smile, as if this was no big deal at all.

“Is ten more days enough for you?”

Shopkeeper Clark being so easygoing made William Grant breathe a sigh of relief.

He nodded with a forced smile. “Alright, alright, ten days is enough. Once I’m done, I’ll deliver it to you.”

“Focus on your alchemy, don’t let your master down.”

Shopkeeper Clark patted William Grant on the shoulder and offered a few words of encouragement, taking on the air of an elder caring for a junior.

“If you have any problems in life, you can always talk to me… Alright, I have things to do, so I’ll be off. No need to see me out.”

William Grant hurried to follow and see them off. Shopkeeper Clark left the main gate with a beaming smile, treating William Grant with notable courtesy.

Following behind Shopkeeper Clark was Mary Clark, who, before leaving, gave William Grant a deep look.

That look seemed to carry a rather complicated meaning…

William Grant was baffled. Was sister-in-law… interested in him?

As the saying goes, nothing tastes better than dumplings, but he wasn’t that kind of person!

No matter what he thought inside, William Grant remained respectful on the surface, bowing and seeing the Shopkeeper Clark couple out the door.

Chapter 2: The Great Idol Divine Method

Once Shopkeeper Clark and his wife had gone far, William Grant finally let out a long breath.

“Those two would eat a man alive and not spit out the bones. You’ve got guts to play with them…”

Not far from the main gate stood a skinny old man, grinning as he made sarcastic remarks.

The old man’s Daoist topknot was a mess, dark circles under his eyes, his old face pale, and his black Daoist robe was covered in greasy wine stains. He looked every bit the image of a lecherous old drunkard.

William Grant suddenly remembered—this old man was his next-door neighbor, surname Wang, whose hobby was visiting brothels and drinking with courtesans.

“A shameless old geezer!”

William Grant had no desire to get involved with someone like that, so he pretended not to hear.

When Old Baker saw how docile William Grant was, he only grew more pleased, chuckling wickedly.

William Grant closed the courtyard gate behind him, shutting Old Baker and his laughter outside, then hurried back to his room.

He took out the “Essentials of Alchemy” from the few Daoist books left by the original owner and began to read. Although Shopkeeper Clark was easy to talk to, alchemy was his foundation—he had to master this skill as soon as possible!

Since the original owner knew alchemy, maybe by reading more, he could recall how to do it.

But after a short while, William Grant felt his head spinning.

He recognized every character in the book, but when strung together, the text was a confusing blur—he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

It reminded him of his experience studying advanced mathematics.

William Grant put the book down helplessly. This wasn’t something you could just brute-force your way through.

He sat on the bed thinking for a long time, but couldn’t come up with any solution.

A little black cat jumped onto the bed and meowed at William Grant twice.

“Are you hungry?”

William Grant affectionately patted the little black cat’s head. The little thing really was quite cute.

After a few days together, William Grant could more or less understand what the kitten wanted.

If it wanted to be petted, it would wag its tail and its meow would be softer. When it was hungry, its meow was sharper and it wouldn’t wag its tail.

Getting off the bed, William Grant went to the kitchen next door to wash rice and cook.

The rice grains were a jade-green color, about the size of peanuts, with a faintly translucent, gem-like quality.

This rice was called Green Jade Spirit Rice, rich in spiritual energy and very expensive.

A single low-grade spirit stone could only buy ten jin.

And this was the lowest grade of spirit rice.

The original owner had been an alchemist, and with his skills, he’d managed to get by quite well.

There was more than half a vat of Green Jade Spirit Rice stored at home, along with some demon beast meat. It was kept in the cellar in the courtyard, where the temperature was low enough to preserve meat for a long time.

At least there was no need to worry about food and drink for now.

Over the past few days, William Grant had gotten used to the life of a cultivator and was now adept at starting a fire and cooking.

The stove was made of bricks, with a big iron pot—just like the kind used in farmhouse restaurants to stew goose, only even more rustic.