As for whether the shop would really be able to open smoothly next month, who knew?
If the Lingxian Sect ultimately failed to come up with enough spirit stones, causing the deal to fall through and the shop to remain unopened, so be it. After all, there were plenty of trading markets in the mortal world that had never opened or had gone bankrupt.
However, one piece of news about the Lingxian Sect spread through the circle of mortal-world cultivators with astonishing speed.
The Lingxian Sect had a Deity Transformation cultivator!
Naturally, the news had initially been spread by the sects and royal families that had attended the Lingxian Sect’s annual gathering. But they had been cautious when speaking of it. Since they had not witnessed it with their own eyes, they had only said that the sect “might” have a Deity Transformation cultivator.
Rumors, however, were very prone to distortion. Thus, as the story passed from person to person, “the Lingxian Sect might have a Deity Transformation cultivator” became “the Lingxian Sect has a Deity Transformation cultivator.” That was only to be expected.
Quite a few people believed the news. After all, so many major sects and royal families had said the same thing, so it ought to be true.
Still, many sects and other countries remained skeptical.
For so many years, the mortal world had never seen a single Deity Transformation cultivator emerge. No matter how outstanding a cultivator’s talent was, the highest they could reach was the Nascent Soul great perfection stage, after which they would quietly die.
Most cultivators in the mortal world guessed that these powerful figures had probably been unable to cross the threshold into Deity Transformation.
But how could it be that, over all these years, not a single cultivator at the great perfection stage had managed to advance to Deity Transformation?
This was a matter that all the cultivators of the mortal world tacitly agreed not to investigate any further.
“Senior Brother Wan, Senior Brother Wan, wait for me!” Within the Qinglian Sect, a disciple caught up with the one ahead of him. “Senior Brother Wan, how many Swift Movement Talismans did you make yesterday?”
“Not many. Only twelve.” Senior Brother Wan shook his head.
His junior brother looked envious. “Senior Brother, you’re amazing. I only made eight yesterday.”
As he continued walking, Senior Brother Wan said, “The materials for making talismans are scarce, and the sect usually doesn’t require everyone to specialize in this field. Junior Brother Fang, being able to make eight Swift Movement Talismans in a day after only a few days of practice is already very impressive.”
Swift Movement Talismans were somewhat more difficult among basic talismans. For those who were unfamiliar with the process, there were plenty who could only make three or four a day.
After hearing this, Junior Brother Fang smiled brightly and said happily, “Now that our Qinglian Sect has obtained so many materials, we can make a lot more talismans! I heard one of the elders from the Talisman Hall say that if this deal goes through, every disciple will receive a large number of spirit stones as a reward based on the quantity and types of talismans we make!”
“It might be related to a deal with the Lingxian Sect.” Clearly, Senior Brother Wan knew about this as well.
Junior Brother Fang nodded. “That’s what everyone is saying. Although the sect master and elders didn’t say anything explicitly after they returned, they went to visit the Lingxian Sect and came back a few days later with all these major arrangements. There’s probably a ninety percent chance it’s related to them.”
“Besides, didn’t they say that the Lingxian Sect built a city in the Puxi Kingdom? I think it’s called Xiushui City. Huh, why didn’t they name it Lingxian City? I heard that Xiushui City seems to have plenty of good things for sale.”
Hearing this, Senior Brother Wan was puzzled. “Although Xiushui City was built by a sect, isn’t it still just a city for mortals? What good things could it possibly have for cultivators like us?”
Junior Brother Fang leaned close to his ear with a mysterious expression and whispered, “Senior Brother, you really don’t know? I heard that there are a lot of cultivators in Xiushui City. There’s even a place there that sells treasures specifically for cultivators. They have all kinds of resources that our sect doesn’t even possess, and the prices aren’t high either!”
Senior Brother Wan looked at him skeptically. “Where did you hear that?”
Junior Brother Fang replied, “Don’t doubt me, Senior Brother. This came straight from Senior Brother Liu Shanqing.”
“It was Senior Brother Liu who said it?” Senior Brother Wan was surprised.
Senior Brother Liu Shanqing was none other than one of Sect Master Qiu Junsong’s personal disciples. He had accompanied the sect master to the Lingxian Sect’s banquet a few days ago. If the words had truly come from him, then they were highly credible.
“Of course. Would your junior brother lie to you?” Junior Brother Fang thumped his chest in assurance. Then he leaned over again and asked, “Senior Brother, if we really receive spirit-stone rewards next month, should we go to Xiushui City together and look around?”
“We’ll talk about next month when it comes. For now, we’d better hurry to the Talisman Hall and finish this month’s Swift Movement Talismans. The elder gave us quite a large quota.” Senior Brother Wan was more practical and reined in his junior brother’s daydreaming.
Conversations like this were taking place within all the sects and royal families that had attended the Xiushui City auction.
None of those sects or royal families had revealed everything about Xiushui City and the Lingxian Sect as soon as they returned.
For one thing, many matters were still uncertain.
However, they also did not stop their disciples from spreading the news and discussing it among themselves in private.
As long as the person in charge had not made an official statement, then no matter what the final outcome was, it could not be considered a broken promise.
There was also the matter of the Lingxian Sect giving their sects awards and handing out piles upon piles of cultivation resources as rewards. Naturally, they could not let their own disciples know about that. What if the disciples compared it with what their own sects provided and became dissatisfied? What if they lost their motivation to cultivate?
Information capable of unsettling people’s hearts absolutely could not be revealed. They would rather die than say a word about it.
While the various sects and royal families were working overtime to complete their orders, the recently renowned Lingxian Sect was not idle either.
Although Xiushui City’s New Year holiday lasted from the first to the seventh day of the first lunar month, in reality, everyone within the Lingxian Sect only had three days off.
Once those three days were over, classes on various cultivation arts and techniques resumed.
The departments responsible for the various crafts also returned to work.
The orders that the Lingxian Sect had distributed through the trading center at the foot of the mountain were fairly substantial in quantity, but they consisted entirely of the most basic goods. These items were in great demand throughout the cultivation world, yet they were not difficult to produce, making them suitable for the sects of the mortal world.
The orders taken on by the Lingxian Sect itself, however, were on an entirely different level.
The Lingxian Sect had to produce all kinds of higher-grade items. After all, the sect still owed one hundred thousand spirit stones.
If Lin Xiao asked Senior Liao for help, that amount of spirit stones would not really be worth mentioning.
After Liao Pantu had reconstructed his body through Deity Transformation, his entire soul had returned to his body. All the wealth that had once been stored within his soul had also returned to his hands and could be used freely.
Yet Lin Xiao did not want to ask Senior Liao for help.
To Senior Liao, one hundred thousand spirit stones were no more than a drop in the ocean. Not to mention lending them to Lin Xiao—even giving them away would not cause him any heartache.
But once a precedent was set, there would be a second time. That door could not be opened.
Although Lin Xiao often joked about moving the soul-nourishing wood bed from Senior Liao’s cave abode over to the sect, in truth, he had always been clear about one thing: Senior Liao was an elder of the sect and one of the people closest to him. He did not want a debt to create a distant relationship between Senior Liao and the sect.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
