A Living Spring

Yet in just half a month, dozens of shops had gradually reopened in Xiushui City’s commercial district.

More and more cultivators from all over the Mortal Realm began taking an interest in Xiushui City. Most of the disciples from the various sects had not gone there originally, but after hearing the descriptions of what the disciples who had visited in early February had seen and experienced, they were all filled with eager anticipation.

As it happened, when the elders returned to their sects, they announced that a great many items would need to be produced in the future and that disciples who accepted commissions would receive additional wages. The disciples eagerly scrambled to take on assignments and earn spirit stones, all so they could save up enough to visit Xiushui City, stroll through its reportedly dazzling commercial district, and witness the auction held once a month.

Quite a few sects and imperial clans whose warehouses were running low on supplies, or who did not consider themselves especially competitive when it came to refining various items, brought out their spirit ships and spirit boats and began operating proper passenger services.

These spirit ships were generally piloted personally by Golden Core or even Nascent Soul cultivators. They did not require spirit stones to operate, and their consumption was extremely low. As a result, the fares charged to each cultivator were not particularly high.

The initial pricing was one spirit stone for an ordinary small cabin on regular days. On the day before and the day of an auction in Xiushui City, however, the price would rise to two spirit stones.

The spirit ships made nearly one trip a day, arriving from every direction across the Mortal Realm.

Every day, the people of Xiushui City and its surroundings could look up and see large ships passing through the sky. At first, they were endlessly amazed, but before long, they gradually grew accustomed to the sight.

With the spirit ships traveling back and forth so frequently and in such large numbers, the City Lord’s Office of Xiushui City decided to build a dedicated docking area outside the city.

Xiushui City would be responsible for constructing, maintaining, and generally managing the site, while providing each sect’s spirit ships with a designated docking area. Each sect, in turn, would have to send people to manage its own area, and would also bear all expenses incurred there.

When the sects saw this, they thought that since they would have to send people to manage their docking areas anyway, they might as well establish an office for their sect there as well. That would make it more convenient to handle various matters whenever members of their sect came to Xiushui City in the future.

Thus, once the spirit-ship docking area outside Xiushui City was established, the sects operating passenger services also set up their own sect outposts there.

The sects and imperial clans that did not operate spirit ships but had opened shops in the city took one look at this and thought: If all those people have outposts in Xiushui City, how can those of us doing business here not have one too? Set one up—immediately!

As for why they did not simply use their shops as sect outposts, the reason was obvious. Shops were open for business, with people constantly coming and going, making them crowded and full of prying ears. It would be inconvenient to discuss important matters there. Besides, the shops were not especially large, and an outpost would naturally require people to be stationed there. The shops were simply unsuitable.

And so, in less than another half a month, just as the spirit-ship docking area outside Xiushui City was completed, row upon row of sect and imperial clan outposts had also been built around it.

This auction was even more lively than the previous one. Although it was still a small auction aimed at Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators, those two groups made up the largest proportion of cultivators as a whole. The Trade Affairs Center had therefore anticipated the auction’s popularity as early as the previous month.

As a result, this month’s auction was not held just once, but three auctions were conducted simultaneously.

Although three hundred spots were still nowhere near enough to satisfy the enormous demand among low-level cultivators, auctions were all about scarcity creating value. If too many items were offered, it would truly be no different from simply selling them in the shops.

The low-level cultivators who failed to secure a place at the auction were not in a hurry. After all, the auction was held once a month. Though missing out on something rare was disappointing, it was hardly enough to make them heartbroken or consumed by regret.

They had traveled a long way, and simply strolling through the commercial district was already well worth the trip.

In just over two months, Xiushui City—which had originally been almost entirely empty apart from the area beneath Lingxian Sect’s mountain—had suddenly become astonishingly bustling. Visitors arrived from every direction in an endless stream, and the city was filled with vigorous growth and prosperity.

At the same time, far away in Yuanling City of the Cultivation World, the Yuan and Su families had also been so busy that they scarcely had time to catch their breath.

Over the past few months, both the quantities of goods sent over by Lingxian Sect and the volume of items it purchased had increased month by month—and not merely by a little, but by multiples. Even the Yuan family, accustomed as it was to handling major business, had been stunned by the scale of the shipments and purchases.

Fortunately, Lingxian Sect had given them advance notice. The families had already begun contacting merchants in more distant cities some time ago, so they were still able to handle Lingxian Sect’s current volume.

The situation at Su’s General Store was somewhat different. Lin Xiao and Qin Jianghe had initially thought that the Su family might have difficulty selling the rarer, higher-end goods. Yet every trade had its own channels, and Su Yaoguang had directly sold the first batch through the black market in the Southern Spirit Region.

Because the quality of that first batch was excellent, and because Su Yaoguang had connections of his own, he had even obtained the right to use a permanent stall in the black market of the Southern Spirit Region.

Naturally, the black market did an excellent job of keeping both sellers’ and buyers’ identities confidential. Otherwise, it could never have survived in the Cultivation World for so long.

Thus, while the Cultivation World remained completely unaware, the Mortal Realm developed at astonishing speed, with everything proceeding in an orderly fashion.

It was as though the entire Mortal Realm had suddenly been infused with fresh vitality. Whether it was the spirit stones and cultivation resources in the cultivators’ hands or their cultivation levels, everything was increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

This also gave the common people of Xiushui City a deeper understanding of cultivators.

So immortals had to do business too. They had to earn money as well—only their money was spirit stones rather than gold and silver.

The expansion of Lingxian Academy also gave every child in the city the opportunity to attend school and learn to read and write. More and more scholars who had failed to distinguish themselves in the civil service, or who possessed other ambitions and pursuits, heard of Lingxian Academy’s reputation for accepting students without discrimination and came flocking to Xiushui City to apply for positions as teachers.

Whenever a festival arrived, the City Lord’s Office of Xiushui City would take the lead in organizing various activities.

During the Qingming Festival, there were ancestral rites and spring outings. During the Dragon Boat Festival, people wrapped zongzi and held dragon boat races. On the Qixi Festival, they built magpie bridges beneath the night sky. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, they admired the moon, and flower lanterns filled the streets. On the Double Ninth Festival, they climbed heights, admired chrysanthemums, and attended crab feasts. In the depth of winter, there was Laba porridge.

The cultivators were drawn by Xiushui City into celebrating one mortal festival after another alongside the city’s ordinary people. This left many of them in a daze.

Many could no longer remember how long it had been since they had celebrated such festivals. The meanings and customs of those occasions seemed to have been buried deep within distant memories, blurred beyond recognition.

Yet when they celebrated alongside the people of Xiushui City, when they were completely enveloped by the atmosphere of each festival, it felt as though something deep within their hearts was awakening once more, gradually becoming clear.