Li Qi couldn't help but wear a smile upon hearing this information.
Being picky about food was one of his Heavenly Dao's bad habits.
When he, the patriarch, was at home, he could still manage it. But now that he was away on a business trip, that gluttonous Heavenly Dao was becoming more and more unruly.
"If I have a chance to go back, I need to educate that gluttonous pig again, lest he becomes completely lawless," Li Qi muttered to himself.
However, he did a rough calculation. He had been nurturing his gluttonous Heavenly Dao for quite some time, feeding it well and expending resources that even peak tribulation-passing cultivators would envy.
As of now, the Di Xu Heavenly Dao should be not far from the strength of the peak tribulation-passing stage.
Once it reached the strength of the peak tribulation-passing stage, it would likely be able to start breaking through to the Mahayana stage.
"I wonder if the Di Xu Heavenly Dao, that gluttonous pig, breaks through to the Mahayana stage ahead of me, if it will directly rebel against me."
After all, Li Qi had witnessed that rebellious Heavenly Dao son before. The last time, the Son-in-Law Heavenly Dao had tried to devour its master. It was only because the Di Xu Heavenly Dao's strength hadn't surpassed the formations Li Qi had set up at the time that he was able to remotely control the formations and subdue it.
But now, if the Di Xu Heavenly Dao truly reached Mahayana stage strength, the old formations he left in the Di Xu Realm would clearly be ineffective. If he was still at the fourth level of tribulation passing, he might not be able to defeat it even at full power.
"No, no, I can't let that rebellious son devour me. If that happens, I'll lose all face. I need to finish modifying these pill recipes as soon as possible and focus on breaking through my cultivation." Li Qi muttered.
With that thought, Li Qi decided not to waste any more time. He calmed his mind and took out the fourth pill recipe.
Just as before, he finished reading the entire recipe and began to deduce.
Time passed. Eighteen years later, Li Qi began refining the fourth type of pill again.
He succeeded in one attempt, just like before. He then passed on the refining method to his second and third innate spirit puppets and inquired about the development of the Penguin Medicine Pavilion.
The answer he received was that everything was going well.
Li Qi then continued to research the fifth pill recipe.
Seventeen years later, Li Qi attempted to refine it.
Unfortunately, Li Qi's luck was not as good this time. There was a small error in his deduction of the medicinal principles.
His first attempt at refining the pill failed.
After contemplating for five years, Li Qi finally succeeded in his next attempt.
Following this, came the sixth, seventh, and eighth pill recipes...
The innate spirit puppets had collected over a dozen publicly known sky-high priced pill recipes. Of course, this didn't mean that the Qingrao Domain only had this many publicly known sky-high priced pill recipes.
It was simply that Li Qi felt that over a dozen were enough.
However, each of these dozen sky-high priced pills required Li Qi to spend over ten years, or even twenty to thirty years, in research. Sometimes, mistakes could occur, and success wouldn't be achieved on the first try.
In the most difficult instance, Li Qi had to modify the pill formula five times before succeeding.
Finally, the last sky-high priced pill recipe was modified in Li Qi's hands.
From the beginning of refining the first pill to the completion of refining the last pill, Li Qi spent a total of over two hundred years.
"Hoo!"
He exhaled deeply, a smile appearing on his face as he held the last sky-high priced pill he had successfully modified and refined.
"It's finally over. These dozen or so pills are enough for my Penguin Medicine Pavilion to establish a foothold in this prosperous Qingrao Domain."
As usual, he passed on the recipe of this last modified sky-high priced pill to his two innate spirit puppets.
This time, Li Qi didn't even inquire about the development of the Penguin Medicine Pavilion.
After all, in this small territory, the Penguin Medicine Pavilion's development could only reach a certain level. It was merely that whenever a pill with stronger medicinal effects appeared, it would astonish the cultivators who came to buy them.
Nothing else.
Moreover, if the Penguin Medicine Pavilion were to encounter a crisis again, his two innate spirit puppets would definitely inform him proactively.
"Now I can finally rest for a while and start preparing to open new branches." Li Qi muttered. He then felt his current cultivation realm.
Unknowingly, Li Qi's strength had now reached the fifth level of tribulation passing. Although he hadn't reached the peak yet, his realm within the fifth level of tribulation passing was stable.
This was naturally achieved by Li Qi during these past two hundred years.
Although Li Qi had spent most of these two hundred years researching and modifying pill recipes, it didn't mean his cultivation had stagnated.
After all, researching and modifying recipes required the circulation of spiritual energy and the manipulation of divine sense. Li Qi's strength naturally improved through the intense operation of his soul during these two hundred years.
And there was one crucial point that hadn't been mentioned.
That was, during these two hundred years, even though Li Qi was constantly researching and modifying pill recipes, he had actually kept the Oblivion Space open.
As for what the Oblivion Space devoured, it naturally devoured some of the resources that his innate spirit puppets occasionally brought back.
Even though Li Qi wasn't actively cultivating, with the one-sided feedback from the Oblivion Space, his strength increasing to the fifth level of tribulation passing was not entirely surprising.
The only drawback was that purely relying on throwing resources into the Oblivion Space for it to refine was an enormous expenditure.
In the following days, Li Qi rested for a while without doing anything, replenishing his energy.
As for his two innate spirit puppets, now that Li Qi was awake, they also began to prepare for opening branches.
The Qingrao Domain was vast, so vast that the sum of all the small worlds in the dozens of Void Black Markets around Li Qi's hometown couldn't even reach one-tenth of the Qingrao Domain's area.
Therefore, in such a large region, there wasn't just one Void Black Market.
If there were only one, even a peak tribulation-passing cultivator, if the location was unfavorable and too far away, would likely die of exhaustion from traveling.
Thus, compared to the situation in Li Qi's hometown, Void Black Markets were spread throughout many places in the Qingrao Domain.
Of course, these Void Black Markets were naturally located in the centers of some smaller regions, serving several, or even dozens of, smaller regions for trading.
Another point worth mentioning was that although the aforementioned were considered smaller regions within the Qingrao Domain, those smaller regions were by no means small.