I am a Late Bloomer in the Immortal World

Wei Tu's expression softened slightly.

"Since it was just a joke from Second Miss, I won't pursue the matter."

"Farewell."

With that, Wei Tu flicked his sleeve and left without any hesitation, leaving Huang Caiyu and Master Xia Qi behind with complicated expressions.

"Second Miss, what exactly were you trying to accomplish by buying my Qingyang Furnace just to sell it to Wei Tu?" Master Xia Qi frowned as he watched Wei Tu walk away.

His reactions were slower than most, but that didn't mean he was a fool.

Even though Wei Tu hadn't exposed Huang Caiyu's intentions outright, it didn't take much effort for Master Xia Qi to piece things together.

Before Huang Caiyu could answer, Master Xia Qi snorted coldly, packed up his stall, and left without looking back.

"There are plenty of women in the world. With my status as a Tier 2 Artifact Refiner, finding a few beautiful Qi Refinement female cultivators isn't difficult at all."

A quarter of an hour later, Huang Caiyu was the only one left at the now-empty stall, standing there in a daze.

Not long after, Wei Tu found a slightly used Tier 1 Pill Furnace at another stall.

The vendor was a Foundation Establishment patriarch from a minor clan that was affiliated with the Heshan Huang Clan.

Wei Tu, following his usual practice, haggled over the price.

After some negotiation, he managed to purchase the Tier 1 High-Grade Pill Furnace for 270 spirit stones.

After storing the furnace in his storage bag, Wei Tu casually asked, "Does Fellow Daoist Liu happen to have any pill recipes?"

Even a sinking ship might still have some nails left—Foundation Establishment clans might not be as prestigious as Golden Core aristocratic families, but after generations of existence, they were bound to have accumulated some valuable resources.

"Pill recipes?" Liu Yang's eyes lit up, immediately taking out a jade slip and handing it over. "My ancestors were also an alchemist family. If we had found a decent alchemy disciple, we wouldn't have had to sell off our pill furnaces."

"This jade slip contains nothing but top-quality pill formulas!"

Liu Yang spoke with great confidence.

Wei Tu was inwardly pleased—could this be a hidden treasure trove?

However, he remained calm and pressed the jade slip against his forehead to scan through the contents.

A moment later, his expectations were shattered.

The pill formulas recorded in the jade slip were all Tier 1 Low-Grade Pills, and the selection was far inferior to the alchemy inheritance he had obtained from Geng Wen.

"I suppose that's expected. Pill Master Shu was a Tier 2 Alchemist, so the pill formulas he passed on to Geng Wen wouldn't be something just anyone could compare with."

Realizing this, Wei Tu calmly returned the jade slip to Liu Yang and shook his head before walking away.

After browsing through the Gold Moon Cliff marketplace, Wei Tu returned to the Pavilion marked "Offering Hall", set up his stall again, and prominently displayed four large characters:

"Preordering Talismans"

For cultivators like him—"craftsmen"—there were generally two ways to obtain new skills and techniques.

One was to seek them out personally—purchasing them in stores, auctions, or markets, or even killing and looting for them.

The other was to let customers bring them to him—just like how he had obtained the Demon Refining Talisman technique from Helian Xiong.

By advertising "Preordering Talismans," Wei Tu wasn't just looking to make money in advance, he was also hoping to gather more Tier 2 talisman techniques from other Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The Gold Moon Cliff exchange gathering lasted for an entire month.

In the first few days, no one approached his stall.

It wasn't until the seventh day that he started receiving customers—but they were mostly ordering Tier 1 talismans from his existing catalog, rather than providing new Tier 2 techniques.

"Seventy-three Tier 1 Mid-Grade Rejuvenation Talismans, thirty-four Tier 1 Low-Grade Earth Spike Talismans, fifteen Tier 1 Mid-Grade Earthquake Talismans, and three Tier 1 High-Grade Ironwood Talismans…"

After reviewing the list of preorders, Wei Tu nodded in satisfaction and prepared to close shop.

These preorders would keep him busy for the next eight years.

Any more than that, and it would start interfering with his cultivation.

He had once warned his daughter, Wei Yan, about balancing talisman crafting and cultivation, and he wasn't about to make that mistake himself.

Resources that can't be converted into actual progress are meaningless.

Wei Tu understood this concept very well.

"Master Wei."

A familiar voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

Looking up, Wei Tu saw a graceful young woman in a white dress standing before his stall.

She wore a bamboo hat and had light makeup, with her elegant beauty partially obscured by a thin veil.

However, Wei Tu recognized her immediately.

"Zhao Qingluo."

Her distinctive outfit and posture made it obvious—it was the same woman he had previously traded with multiple times.

"It seems that Master Wei has honored his previous promise and joined the Heshan Huang Clan."

Zhao Qingluo smiled gently.

"Promise?"

Wei Tu was momentarily confused, but then he remembered their conversation from before.

When he had refused to join the Qiyue Zhao Clan, Zhao Qingluo had suggested that he consider joining their ally, the Heshan Huang Clan.

Back then, he had not agreed, but he had promised that he wouldn't ally himself with the rival Chisong Jia Clan.

His ultimate decision to join the Heshan Huang Clan had been entirely based on logic—with their Tier 3 Array Master, they were the safest choice for a newly established Foundation Establishment talisman master.

It had little to do with Zhao Qingluo's persuasion.

Of course, there was no need to point this out bluntly.

"Since Master Wei has kept his word…"

Zhao Qingluo's gaze swept over the sign that read "Preordering Talismans", and after a moment of contemplation, she spoke again:

"Then I, on behalf of my clan, will fulfill our agreement and place an order for your Tier 2 Talismans."

When Zhao Qingluo had first tried to recruit him, she had told him that as long as he didn't join the Chisong Jia Clan, the Qiyue Zhao Clan would purchase his talismans in the future.

Of course, her decision to buy from him now wasn't just out of loyalty to a verbal promise.

The Qiyue Zhao Clan genuinely needed Tier 2 talismans.

Tier 2 talismans were much rarer than Tier 1 talismans, and since talismans were consumables, a single battle could deplete years' worth of accumulated stock.

"I'll order ten Shattered Stone Talismans and fifteen Ironwood Talismans…"

Zhao Qingluo spoke without hesitation, placing an order worth several thousand spirit stones.

Wei Tu was not surprised by this.

As one of the top-tier Golden Core aristocratic families, the Qiyue Zhao Clan had long since moved past relying on craftsmanship to earn spirit stones. Instead, they directly mined their own spirit stone veins, making them vastly wealthy.

For them, spirit stones weren't a problem—strategic resources like talismans were.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao, my Tier 1 talismans have already been fully reserved by other customers. Only the Shattered Stone Talismans are still available."

Despite being offered a lucrative deal, Wei Tu remained calm and declined the order for Tier 1 talismans.

There was no end to earning spirit stones.

He wouldn't let business interfere with his cultivation.

Besides, he was already preparing to wrap up his stall.

"If only the Shattered Stone Talismans are available, that will suffice," Zhao Qingluo replied.

She was puzzled as to why Wei Tu was refusing an easy business opportunity, but she did not press the matter. Instead, she nodded and confirmed the order.

"I will return to collect the talismans at the next exchange gathering."

With that, Zhao Qingluo gave a formal bow and departed for the next stall.

One month later.

The Gold Moon Cliff Exchange Gathering came to an end.

Wei Tu returned to Talisman Heart Residence on Yunhe Mountain.

Upon entering his cave dwelling, Wei Tu did not immediately start working on the talisman orders. Instead, he entered his cultivation chamber and meditated for several days.

Only after his meridians reached the point of feeling slightly engorged with energy did he stop cultivating and move to his talisman workshop to begin drawing.

To Wei Tu, cultivation and talisman crafting were two halves of the same balance—"work" and "rest."

Besides consuming pills, a cultivator's daily spiritual energy absorption was naturally limited.

This limit depended on three key factors:

1. The durability of one's meridians—which restricted how much energy they could channel each day.

2. The quality of one's spiritual root—which determined the amount of energy absorbed per cycle.

3. The foundation laid during Foundation Establishment—which set the total spiritual energy a cultivator could refine daily.

These three aspects determined a Foundation Establishment cultivator's potential and ultimate ceiling within their lifespan.

Thus, beyond pill consumption, a cultivator's daily training time was inherently capped.

At the talisman workshop, Huang Chengfu, his servant, had already laid out talisman paper and spiritual ink for him.

Wei Tu retrieved his talisman brush from his storage bag and, relying on his past experience, began drawing talismans.

Spiritual energy pulsed at the tip of his brush.

With each stroke, complex runes took shape on the talisman paper, forming mystical symbols imbued with power.

Days passed.

The once-empty talisman paper on his desk had been transformed into a neatly stacked pile of Tier 1 talismans.

However, when it came to Tier 2 talismans, the process was far less fluid.

Out of ten Tier 2 talisman papers, he only successfully completed one Shattered Stone Talisman.

"The cost is barely breaking even right now. But after a few more years, once my proficiency improves, I'll start making a solid profit."

Wei Tu thought to himself.

After finishing the Tier 2 talisman, he found that both his mental energy and spiritual power were nearly drained.

Thus, he returned to his cultivation chamber to resume training in seclusion.

For the next year and a half, Wei Tu continued his cycle of cultivation and talisman crafting.

Until the "Ten-Year Gathering" approached.

One month before the meeting, Wei Tu exited seclusion ahead of schedule.

"My cultivation has progressed slightly…"

"But I'm still quite a ways from reaching mid-Foundation Establishment."

Inspecting his dantian, Wei Tu noted that his bicolored spiritual power—yellow and green—had grown by about fifty percent.

Satisfied, he packed his belongings, retrieved the Windcleaving Eagle from his beast house, and reported to the Heshan Huang Clan before departing Yunhe Mountain.

Although, as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, attending the "Ten-Year Gathering" no longer held much practical benefit for him—most of his fellow members could no longer contribute to his cultivation progress.

Aside from Kou Hongying, there was hardly anyone left who could be of significant assistance to him.

However—

Life wasn't just about profit and loss. There was also loyalty and sentiment.

If he hadn't supported Kou Liang back then, he wouldn't have received the Earth Origin Pill or gained the trust of Kou Hongying and the others.

His investment in Kou Hongying had saved both himself and Fu Zhizhou over two decades of effort.

Half a month later.

Wei Tu arrived at Nanhang City.

On June 13th, the members of Righteous Society gathered once more.

However, this time, due to Fu Zhizhou being in seclusion, only three members made it—Wei Tu, Kou Hongying, and Wei Fei.

Seeing that Kou Hongying had not skipped the gathering, Wei Tu's eyes revealed a trace of admiration.

This affirmed his respect for her character.

Previously, after reaching Foundation Establishment, Kou Hongying had honored her promise by repaying both him and Fu Zhizhou with Foundation Establishment spiritual materials and Condensing Foundation Pills.

At that time, it could have been argued that she did so only because of the binding spirit contract.

But this was different.

The members of Righteous Society—including him—could no longer offer any meaningful support for Kou Hongying's upcoming attempt at Core Formation.

And yet, she chose not to abandon their group, still making the effort to meet them.

This spoke volumes about her character.

Next, the three of them took turns discussing their cultivation progress and insights over the past decade.

Since Wei Fei ranked second, he was the first to report.

After four years, he had advanced from Qi Refinement Level 8 to Level 9.

Then, his expression grew awkward, and after glancing at Kou Hongying, he hesitated before speaking.

"I have an embarrassing request… I hope both Third Brother and Hongying can help me with it…"

"Uncle Wei, please speak freely. There's no need to hold back."

Kou Hongying's tone was calm.

"Then I'll be direct."

Wei Fei clenched his teeth and said, "Right now, I have a little over 300 spirit stones… but I still need 1,000 more to purchase a Condensing Foundation Pill. I hope… you two can lend me those 1,000 spirit stones."