Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

Chapter 192: Chapter 132: Favoritism

"No problem," Dai Xingyan nodded decisively. She had waited for so many years, a little more wait wouldn’t matter.

"We can wait a year, act next summer; rain is the best cover... Those two really have money."

With such a promise, her attitude towards Qu Jianlei improved greatly, even dispatching some association maintenance tasks his way.

The tasks assigned by President Dai were easy and lucrative, her decision even triggered some complaints from the members.

Everyone knew Jian Lei and Terry were not to be trifled with, but applying some pressure on the young president was doable.

However, Dai Xingyan firmly rebutted.

"Anyone who can publish some articles in heavyweight journals will also receive resource inclinations from me. The problem is, who can achieve this?"

The maintenance masters fell silent. Jian Lei could produce one or two articles per month for journals, and who wouldn’t be envious of the subsidies he received?

But envy was all it amounted to, as most maintenance masters focused on hands-on tasks; playing with words... was too difficult.

Some maintenance masters, unwilling to accept this, tried submitting articles, but few were accepted.

Three months passed, excluding Qu Jianlei’s pieces, only two articles were approved in Houjing City.

One was published in Practical Mechanical Technology, while the other was purely a popular science article, incomparable to Qu Jianlei’s quality.

During this time, Qu Jianlei completed the Flower Scorpion’s Cultivation Technique, only to encounter a new problem.

The Flower Scorpion needed a Transformation Potion as a catalyst, otherwise, this threshold was too hard to cross.

Bentley, upon hearing this, volunteered to go to Central City to fetch the potion.

His cultivation had now started, and with growing strength, his confidence also swelled considerably.

Qu Jianlei and the Flower Scorpion were uneasy, suggesting to accompany him, but he flatly refused.

After all, he was the native of Central City, bringing along these two would be more trouble than it’s worth.

He didn’t forget to emphasize: I’m not questioning your strength, it’s just that over there, identity checks are too strict.

Nevertheless, the Flower Scorpion sneered, "You’ve disliked me for a long time, do you really think I can’t remember?"

The old man was blunt to her, "In that case, let’s say I dislike you, but Xiaoqu... that’s different."

Despite having said this, the Flower Scorpion could only roll her eyes—after all, he was getting the Transformation Potion for her.

Bentley’s trip lasted four months, and when he returned, it was already late winter.

Qu Jianlei hadn’t been idle, besides making money through maintenance, he also improved the Nameless Qi Refining Technique referencing the Flower Scorpion’s Cultivation Technique.

Then, he solidly pushed himself up to the seventh Qi Refining stage.

During these four months, he didn’t write many professional articles, only four in total.

Dai Xingyan was well aware that Jian Lei was a prolific guy, but since he didn’t want to write more, she wouldn’t force him.

The key was that his articles were gradually improving in quality and the platforms for publication were getting higher-end.

President Dai even used her personal authority to provide access to some restricted books for Master Jian Lei to peruse.

In such circumstances, Qu Jianlei arranged his time very tightly, but being someone who couldn’t remain idle, he rather enjoyed this life.

During this period, some cultivation resources were also used.

Two days before Bentley’s return, Qu Jianlei broke through to the eighth Qi Refining stage.

However, this was a result of accumulated efforts; he estimated that breaking through to the ninth stage would take at least another year.

As for how long it would take to break through beyond the Qi Refining stage, that was hard to say.

Thus he could afford to relax a bit and focus on earning some money.

Just when he was pondering which earning strategy to choose, Bentley returned.

(Fourth update mark, continuous 14th day of ten-thousand-word updates, asking for monthly tickets and subscription support.)