The Fire Tree and Silver Flower Talisman

As for spirit stones serving the dual purpose of currency among cultivators and consumable resources for cultivation, Liu Yunan had already explained it to them on the way there.

No one had any questions about it.

After leaving the alchemy room, they visited the weapon-refining hall, talisman-making room, and formation hall in turn.

Naturally, Liu Yunan and Qin Jianghe had arranged for people to put on demonstrations in each location ahead of time.

The weapon-refining hall had Lin Lei and Lin Yun, two obsessively hardworking weapon refiners, along with Hu Liang—nicknamed Tietou—who had been driven to work tirelessly by the two of them. Thus, although the hall’s current upper limit in terms of rank was not particularly high, its overall minimum standard was definitely not low either.

Moreover, the weapon-refining hall employed all sorts of techniques. There was meticulous handiwork, wild, forceful hammering, and a dazzling variety of finished products.

Overall, it was highly entertaining to watch.

Therefore, for the new disciples experiencing it for the first time, the demonstration in the weapon-refining hall was truly spectacular.

As for the formation hall, with Mo Yuanjiao, now a Golden Core cultivator, holding down the fort, putting on a few dazzling formation-carving displays for the newcomers was no challenge at all.

Only the talisman-making room seemed somewhat shabby by comparison.

Because Liu Chun spent most of his time away from the sect, the talisman-making room was not nearly as active as the other three locations. Lin Yan, Lin Xiao’s cousin, was the only one who came there from time to time to practice, since she was quite interested in talisman-making.

Aside from Lin Xiao, Sun Yigao, and the other few people within the sect who possessed extraordinary talent in the four great cultivation arts, Lin Yan was the only one whose talent in talisman-making could be considered decent.

However, perhaps because the talisman-making room lacked any competitive pressure, Lin Yan’s rather lax skills were still considerably short of the standard required of a first-grade talisman master.

So asking her to put on an elaborate demonstration for the new disciples was out of the question.

She could barely be considered the talisman-making room’s representative.

Fortunately, Liu Yunan had made preparations long in advance.

Several months earlier, he had asked Liu Chun, who was far away in the cultivation world, to make several talismans. He had no other requirements—he simply wanted their visual effects after activation to be as striking as possible.

Ideally, they would have little power and cause almost no damage, yet create a spectacular display of flashing lights and explosions.

When Liu Chun first received this request, he was stumped for quite some time.

Then he thought about it. Normally, he always pursued the greatest possible damage, hoping to convert every bit of spiritual power in a talisman into effective destructive force and avoid wasting energy on flashy visual effects.

Since what was needed now was something as flashy and impractical as possible, all he had to do was reverse his usual approach.

And so, he really did manage to produce several water-and-fire talismans.

These talismans were completely useless. Their sole purpose was to create an exaggerated spectacle and fool the audience.

...

Once they had finished touring the facilities for the four great cultivation arts, Liu Yunan immediately took them to the sect’s spirit fields, which sprawled along the mountainside.

There, he showed everyone the various spirit plants currently being cultivated by the sect.

Standing before the spirit fields, he pointed toward the nearby field of spirit rice and said to the new disciples with an air of profound mystery, “This is our sect’s spirit-rice field. Don’t be fooled by how much it resembles ordinary rice paddies. Its flavor is something you have never experienced before—absolutely exquisite. From now on, all the meals you eat will be made with the spirit rice produced here. You’ll understand once you’ve tasted it.”

Seeing the profound look on his face, those who had initially thought the rice paddy looked ordinary immediately began imagining all sorts of wonderful things about the dinner awaiting them.

They wondered what kind of flavor this spirit rice, which Immortal Liu had praised as exquisite, could possibly have.

After touring the spirit fields, Liu Yunan briefly showed them places such as the sect’s main hall and Guiyuan Mountain Residence, simply making sure they knew where everything was before moving on without a detailed tour.

As for the Beast Garden, Liu Yunan had originally intended to take the new disciples inside for a look. Thanks to the barrier and illusion formation protecting it, the new disciples, who had already received their identity tokens, would not be attacked by the demonic beasts within. They could even see the great variety of demonic beasts for themselves.

However, this idea was flatly rejected by the Beast Garden’s owner, Little Luan.

It only reluctantly agreed to let everyone watch the surveillance mirror it opened from outside the Beast Garden.

This was a new feature added to the Beast Garden during an upgrade three years earlier.

Those with management authority over the Beast Garden could directly use the surveillance mirror to unfold a sheet of water outside the garden. By manipulating it, they could view the conditions in various areas within the Beast Garden.

Thus, within the enormous sheet of water summoned by Little Luan, the newly arrived disciples witnessed the hidden world contained within the small valley before them.

Whenever the people of the Lingxian Sect—especially Lin Xiao—went to the cultivation world, they never returned empty-handed.

Aside from bringing back the goods and money they were supposed to acquire, they would always scour the place for things such as demonic beasts, books, and assorted junk with the potential to turn out to be rare treasures.

Over time, everyone else from the Lingxian Sect who traveled to the cultivation world began following their example.

After completing the sect’s regular trade, they always had to bring back something extra, or they simply would not feel satisfied.

As a result, the number of demonic beasts in the Beast Garden continued to grow.

Some of the demonic beasts they had bought for only a handful of spirit stones had already changed drastically after being raised in the Beast Garden for several years.

They had also brought back demonic beast eggs said to belong to ancient divine beasts. Little Luan always tossed these eggs to Da Tao for incubation.

Generally speaking, five out of ten would be incubated into a rotten mess.

Of the remaining five, whatever hatched was invariably one of the lowest-grade demonic beasts commonly found in the cultivation world.

Every now and then, one would display some kind of mutation. However, Lin Xiao had examined them all, and they did not seem to possess anything particularly special. They had merely been led astray by Little Luan, taking a somewhat warped cultivation path and tempering themselves to an extreme degree, which had resulted in their mutations.

They were not cases of discovering some extraordinary innate talent or rare bloodline, as in those classic lucky-protagonist stories.

While most of the new disciples were marveling at the many demonic beasts they had never seen before, a small number of them were shocked for an entirely different reason.

They were not astonished by the unfamiliar demonic beasts.

They were astonished by the existence of the Beast Garden itself.

Liang Zhonghuai was one of them.

He gazed at the enormous sheet of water suspended in the air before him, which displayed a space vast enough to accommodate so many demonic beasts. Then he looked at the small valley behind the water screen, whose approximate size could be estimated with the naked eye.

The two were clearly completely disproportionate.

This meant that the Lingxian Sect’s Beast Garden obviously contained a hidden, expanded space—and a very large one at that!