Translator: AnubisTL
"Hahaha, I never would have guessed that your path to the Immortal Path was so bizarre, Brother Li. Fascinating, fascinating!"
Jin Chuan, who had been listening to Li Qing's half-truthful account, burst into laughter.
"Ah, it's just the unpredictable nature of life," Li Qing sighed. Then, changing the subject, he asked, "Speaking of which, I've heard rumors of a great war that swept across the entire cultivation world fifteen years ago. What exactly happened?"
Hearing this question, Jin Chuan poured himself a cup of tea and began, "Brother Li, I'm about your age, so I didn't truly experience that war myself. But I do know a little about it."
"This region is known as the Azure Ridge Domain, collectively referred to as the Azure Ridge Cultivation World."
Within the Azure Ridge Domain, there are three mortal kingdoms and a vast expanse of grasslands.
These kingdoms are the Maple Country and Liang Country, which Li Qing already knew, and the Mu Kingdom, located far to the south, distant from the other two.
Each of these three mortal kingdoms and the grasslands has its own cultivation power.
In the Maple Country where Li Qing now resided, the Heavenly River Sect was the leading cultivation sect. Nearby, in the Liang Country, there was another cultivation sect of comparable strength, the Shangqing Sect.
Jin Chuan lowered his voice and spoke cautiously. "Rumor has it that twenty-four years ago, the Shangqing Sect took in a disciple with exceptional talent. They say he had a Heavenly Spirit Root and an Exquisite Treasure Physique!"
Li Qing's pupils dilated sharply at those words.
He was no longer a novice in the cultivation world and knew what a Heavenly Spirit Root meant.
In the cultivation world, a person's aptitude was largely determined by their Spiritual Roots. The fewer Spiritual Roots one possessed, the greater their cultivation potential. Cultivators like Li Qing, with four Spiritual Roots, had virtually no hope of achieving immortality in this lifetime.
Those with a single Spiritual Root were called Heavenly Spirit Root cultivators. They were undoubtedly Heaven's Chosen, destined to advance smoothly all the way to the Core Formation Realm. For such individuals, the bottlenecks that plagued cultivators at various stages before that were virtually nonexistent.
In addition, a tiny fraction of people were born with extraordinary physiques. These individuals were extraordinary from birth, and as they grew older, they would gradually reveal their unique and wondrous abilities.
For example, some people are born with immense strength, requiring no training to possess an incredibly powerful physical body—they are natural body cultivators!
Others possess the Pure Yang Physique, inherently capable of suppressing all kinds of yin spirits and evil entities, making them the bane of ghost cultivators and practitioners of unorthodox arts.
As for the Exquisite Treasure Physique, upon embarking on the path of cultivation, it grants a unique innate ability called Exquisite Immortal Sound.
This sound wave attack is virtually impossible to defend against, directly harming a cultivator's spiritual consciousness!
Moreover, the Exquisite Treasure Physique renders most illusion techniques ineffective and even provides a certain degree of assistance during Nascent Soul breakthrough.
"Hiss!"
Li Qing couldn't help but gasp in astonishment.
"Ignoring the Core Formation bottleneck and even aiding in Nascent Soul breakthrough... cultivation must be incredibly easy for such a person!"
Li Qing's expression was dazed, thinking, "Such a person is truly a favorite of the heavens."
"Indeed. The Shangqing Sect, having taken in such a Heaven's Chosen, will undoubtedly pour all its resources into nurturing them. They are almost certain to produce a top-tier Nascent Soul Realm cultivator in the future."
"Tsk tsk tsk, just think about it—that's a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, capable of living for at least a thousand years! What does that even mean?"
"Once the Shangqing Sect had a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, the balance of power among the three major factions in the Azure Ridge Cultivation World would be shattered."
And so began a nine-year-long cultivation war that only ended fifteen years ago.
The exact outcome was something a rogue cultivator like Jin Chuan could never know.
In any case, the Heavenly River Sect, the Shangqing Sect, and the Holy Temple Tribes deep in the Grasslands had all been severely weakened by the conflict and were now desperately trying to recover their Vital Energy and rebuild their strength.
As for the Heaven's Chosen destined to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, no one knew what had become of him.
Some said the Shangqing Sect had managed to protect him, while others claimed he had been crippled by the fighting, perhaps even killed.
In short, rumors abounded.
But for cultivators like Li Qing and Jin Chuan, these matters were far too distant to concern themselves with.
"Let me tell you, it's best to avoid discussing these things with outsiders. After all, the Heavenly River Sect started this war."
Li Qing nodded, acknowledging the gravity of the situation.
"I understand. Thank you for the reminder, Brother Jin."
Jin Chuan casually asked, "By the way, the task you took on shouldn't be farming spirit fields, right?"
"No, I'm planning to join the Liu Clan in mining spirit stones at their spirit stone vein," Li Qing replied truthfully.
Upon hearing that Li Qing had become a spirit stone miner, Jin Chuan wore a strange expression.
"Mining spirit stones, huh? While it gives you more time to cultivate, the pay is meager."
"Especially for a newcomer like you, you'll likely be assigned to a poor-quality mining area. Add to that your lack of experience, and you'll probably earn very few spirit stones in a month."
Li Qing's heart sank slightly at this. He had suspected that mining wouldn't be easy.
"Ah, but it's all pretty much the same. Any labor offered to us outsiders is bound to be a tough job," Jin Chuan sighed.
After a moment's thought, Li Qing asked, "Brother Jin, where should I go to buy some grain?"
"Hahaha, you've come to the right person! As cultivators, we should ideally be eating spirit rice!"
"There are two main ways to buy spirit rice. One is through the Liu Clan, where the current market price is one spirit stone for five catties of spirit rice."
"The second way is to find spiritual farmers like me. After a year, we usually have some spiritual rice in stock."
"Hehe, Brother Li, if you buy from me, I'll give you a special price: six pounds of spiritual rice for one spirit stone!"
Jin Chuan's gaze softened considerably as he looked at Li Qing, as if he saw a long-term customer in the making.
"Thank you, Brother Jin," Li Qing said awkwardly, scratching his head. "But as a newcomer to the Azure Ridge Cultivation World, I don't even have a single spirit stone to my name." His earnest expression was utterly guileless.
"No problem, no problem. We all start somewhere. Just sit here for a moment while I go get something." Jin Chuan said with a smile, then immediately turned and went back inside.
A short while later, Jin Chuan emerged with a small bowl filled with glistening, crystal-clear grains of millet, about two ounces in total.
"Here, Brother Li. As a newcomer to the Azure Ridge Cultivation World, you probably haven't tasted spiritual rice yet. Consider this a small token of my goodwill."
Taken aback by Jin Chuan's enthusiasm, Li Qing stammered, "I can't accept this without earning it. Brother Jin, you're being far too generous."
"Nonsense! It's just a small gesture from your elder brother. All you have to do is buy your spiritual rice from me in the future. There's nothing to be polite about." Jin Chuan insisted, firmly pushing the small bowl of spiritual rice into Li Qing's hands.
So that was the plan. But this marketing tactic had genuinely won Li Qing over.
If no other spiritual farmer sells their rice cheaper than Jin Chuan, I wouldn't mind buying his spiritual rice from now on, Li Qing thought.
In the end, Li Qing accepted the small bowl of spiritual rice with a grateful expression. "Thank you, Brother Jin."
Jin Chuan smiled contentedly. "But Brother Li," he said kindly, "I wouldn't recommend feeding your demon beast spiritual rice. While it's not strictly forbidden, it's better to feed such creatures Beast Taming Pills or Beast Nurturing Pills."
"Of course, the best food for a demon beast is still the flesh and blood of other demon beasts."
There's even a distinction like that? Li Qing felt a little embarrassed, realizing he usually fed Fan Tong ordinary wild animal flesh. The only time Fan Tong had eaten demon beast flesh was half a year ago, when he had independently hunted a Mountain Bear King.
"I wonder..."
Knowing Li Qing would ask, Jin Chuan chuckled. "Every six months, the three districts—A, B, and C—organize a trade fair. Besides us outsiders, many young members of the Liu Clan also attend."
"At the trade fair, you can buy Beast Taming Pills and Beast Nurturing Pills. There will also be other items for sale, like spiritual materials, Magic Artifacts, and pills cultivators consume!"
"But since this trade fair is organized by us low-level cultivators, the quality of the spiritual items won't be very high."
Li Qing, having learned this, realized that venturing out to meet other cultivators was essential. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known about such things.
Indeed, cultivating immortality couldn't be done in isolation. Blindly burying oneself in practice would lead to missing out on too much.
"I see. Brother Jin, when is the next trade fair?" Li Qing asked.
"The next one is in five months, Brother Li. You still have time to slowly save up spirit stones."
Jin Chuan said this, but he didn't believe that Li Qing, just starting out, could save up many spirit stones.
As Li Qing was about to take his leave, Jin Chuan thought for a moment and stopped him.
"Brother Li, let me give you one last piece of advice. In Area C, Courtyard 16, there's an old miner who knows a lot about the mine. But he has a very strange temper."
"That's all I'll say. Do as you see fit."
An old miner with a strange temper?
Since Brother Jin knew so much about the mine, Li Qing decided he had to visit him. He also wanted to ask someone about the mining area.
"Brother Jin, could you tell me more about it? Why is that old miner so temperamental?" Li Qing asked, shamelessly.
Jin Chuan hesitated for a moment before finally speaking. "That old miner was originally an outsider who married into the Liu Clan."
"But he was unlucky. He had eleven children, and none of them possessed a Spiritual Root. When he grew old, the Liu Clan cast him out and sent him here."
"I heard that the old miner's greatest regret now is marrying into the Liu Clan. He regrets not choosing to make his own way in life when he was young."
"So, while the Liu Clan offers good conditions and treatment to their son-in-law, if they don't fulfill their intended role, their fate is even worse than ours."
Hearing this, Li Qing's lips twitched involuntarily.
To have eleven children and not a single one with a Spiritual Root... That's worse than failing to pull a guaranteed rare card in a gacha game!
Li Qing couldn't help but curse inwardly, feeling grateful he hadn't taken the shortcut and instead chosen to work as a helper.
It seemed being a son-in-law wasn't as easy as it looked.
(End of the Chapter)
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