Chapter 145: Family Order, Social Cultivation

Before long, the jade talisman in Zhou Kang's hand vibrated slowly. He sensed it slightly and said to Brother Qian Chen, who had changed into a new pot of spiritual tea: "Distinguished guest, the cave dwelling has been arranged. It is located outside the market and is a residence provided by the King Wuling Immortal Sect for inner sect disciples. There are immortal sect disciples on the left and right, quiet and elegant."

Although Brother Qian Chen was preparing to go to the capital, Jiankang, he did things with a sense of proportion and order. Now that he had refined the Five Thunders Pill and cultivated the thunder art, it was the first major event in his heart, and other matters had to be pushed back.

So he nodded and said: "The deacon can lead the way!"

Zhou Kang led Brother Qian Chen and flew out of the market slowly. Even for a mid-level immortal sect like the King Wuling Immortal Sect, maintaining such a large market required no small amount of consumption of seals and arrays every year, and every inch of land in the market was worth an inch of gold. Although there were places for visiting guests to stay, the furnishings were luxurious, but the space was a bit cramped.

The cave dwellings truly provided for the disciples of the King Wuling Immortal Sect and distinguished guests close to the sect were still in the Great Spiritual Peak in the King Wuling Mountain range outside the market.

That peak ran from northeast to southwest, about several hundred li long and several dozen li wide, with over a hundred cave dwellings located there. It was equivalent to any disciple of the King Wuling Immortal Sect having a private mansion of several li in radius... and this was still for deacon disciples who didn't have high status.

If it were a true transmission disciple...

Anyone would have a peak, several hundred mu of spiritual fields, and influence radiating to several mountain peaks around. Dozens of outer sect and inner sect disciples would rely on them, with hundreds of servants, and the pomp was unimaginably large.

Brother Qian Chen, a rogue cultivator walking the world alone, could never imagine that some people, upon entering the gate of cultivation, would have dozens of guards who had painstakingly cultivated martial arts working under them, dozens of collateral branch disciples from their own families, and figures like Zhou Kang running errands under them. There were hundreds of maids and servants, some specifically serving immortal flowers and spiritual herbs; some managing mounts; some learning ancient characters and possessing a wealth of knowledge; and even some arranging troops and formations, planning strategies; and some calculating heavenly secrets, planning for their masters.

And the disciples who were responsible for farming spiritual fields and managing various industries were all over the sect.

In such a large market, many King Wuling disciples Brother Qian Chen had seen who were responsible for guarding shops and entertaining guests were of this status.

In this way, everything could be handled in an orderly manner. True transmission disciples only needed to focus on cultivation and consolidate their status. With one order, hundreds of people ran for them, which was a benefit that a rogue cultivator like Brother Qian Chen couldn't imagine.

This was the natural order of family disciples. Some people were born only needing to cultivate, while others were born as servants for others, and even the cultivation methods they practiced were extremely shallow.

When Brother Qian Chen slaughtered his way into the Golden River Gate, he had roughly seen it once.

The Pei family disciples were all commanded by a true transmission direct descendant, leading dozens of collateral branches to kill Brother Qian Chen with their lives, and were then slaughtered by Brother Qian Chen. In Brother Qian Chen's eyes, the magic power practiced by these people was extremely shallow, and the magic treasures they used were not worth looking at. They could only splash Brother Qian Chen with a cavity of hot blood.

And those Pei family disciples with profound cultivation and extraordinary magic treasures were slaughtered by Brother Qian Chen in two or three moves. Not many of them had this backbone.

Those family disciples said that the Pei family was slaughtered, but Brother Qian Chen actually showed mercy. For example, those collateral branch disciples, as long as they weren't particularly ignorant of death, Brother Qian Chen knocked them down and stunned them. Instead, those direct descendants with obviously noble status, Brother Qian Chen often ignored their pleas for mercy. Presumably, these people were killed by him, so the Pei family was "slaughtered"?

Looking at this King Wuling Immortal Sect where there was a distinction between high and low, noble and cheap, Brother Qian Chen felt even more deeply.

Zhou Kang led Brother Qian Chen into a courtyard on the edge of the Great Spiritual Peak. The location of this courtyard was excellent. Looking out from the courtyard wall, the surroundings were lush, the green mountains were beautiful, the streams were gurgling, and the eyes were full of emerald green. There were three main rooms and five or six side rooms in the courtyard, as well as more than ten mu of spiritual fields and medicine fields, and seven or eight strange pines and exotic cypresses.

A gurgling spring flowed slowly through the backyard and injected into a pool, which was extremely quiet and elegant.

The three main rooms were elegantly furnished, with tables, desks, and bookshelves, full of classical home styles. Even if Brother Qian Chen had graduated in his previous life, working overtime every day until his head was bald and tired, he could only dream of such a classical mansion. The six side rooms had study rooms, painting rooms, warm rooms, and flower rooms, and the pill room with a purple copper pill furnace was located in the southeast corner.

Even the silver silk charcoal piled up on the side was carved into the shape of a beast head.

"Sister Guan Zhong once said that we should encourage wealthy merchants and nobles to consume, and it is best to carve even the firewood used for burning. Only in this way can we promote the circulation of wealth, which can be called the ancestor of consumerism. But if he came to this world to see, he would know that this family world where personal dependence has reached the extreme, even if it is luxurious to the extreme, it only consumes labor! It will not promote the circulation of wealth and commercial prosperity at all."

Brother Qian Chen looked at the beast-head silver silk charcoal faintly, thinking silently in his heart.

He finally understood why the Central Lands had the deepest foundation, but the market development was not as good as overseas. Those families wished that their clothes and Daoist robes were collected by their own servants, their own agricultural slaves raised spiritual silkworms, their own maids wove dharma clothes, and if the technology of external arts like alchemy, weapon refining, talismans, and arrays wasn't so high, they would probably also support dozens of servants who practiced this, planting spiritual herbs, processing, and refining pills in one stop.

These immortal sect families were engaged in self-sufficient large manor economies.

So Brother Qian Chen felt that the development of external paths like alchemy, drawing talismans, and even refining magic treasures was unimaginably low in the Central Lands, and even Yuan Qi Pills had become legends.

From what he had seen and heard, perhaps only overseas were there huge markets where hundreds of immortal boats gathered, tens of thousands of rogue cultivators gathered, and resources and treasures for cultivation gathered. This was a huge change in the class structure after overseas broke the cultivation families, making overseas rogue cultivators unable to be self-sufficient like the Central Lands families, and unable to exchange resources through various social activities and elegant evaluations.

Overseas rogue cultivators and sect practitioners were forced to be involved in the tide of marketization.

They would inevitably kill each other, and even nakedly rob and occupy various resources. There was no elegance or romanticism among those sects, only the most shallow order of respect for power. Brother Qian Chen had seen this slightly wild temperament in Senior Brother Yan Shu.

"But why, I seem to like that secular atmosphere full of hostility more?"

"Am I really more suitable for black-society cultivation?"

He turned to send Zhou Kang away and instructed: "I might be in closed-door cultivation for nearly a month, and I will close the main room and pill room with magic power. I'll tell you first. The spiritual herbs sent over can be temporarily placed in that vacant side room. When I come out of closed-door cultivation, I will inform you."

Zhou Kang had seen too many practitioners who closed their doors to cultivate, so he promised: "This cave dwelling has been vacant for a long time, so it doesn't matter if the Daoist stays for three or five years."

Isn't that so?

Brother Qian Chen's spending in the market in one day was almost equivalent to the entire business volume of the King Wuling Market for half a year. Especially the spiritual herbs, he almost bought out the inventory of the King Wuling Market for a year by himself.

Brother Qian Chen sighed secretly: "This is still one of the largest markets in the south, which shows how much the resources of the Central Lands are imprisoned in the upper-class families. No wonder the King Wuling letter talisman is not as good as the San Shan Talisman, and the San Shan Talisman is not as good as the Yuan Qi spiritual pill... This Great Jin in the Central Lands truly has many things that money can't buy. If there are no hard currencies that families value very much, they would rather let the resources sit idle than trade them to rogue cultivators and let the resources flow."

"These rogue cultivators in the Central Lands are so hard to mix. I turned around the market today and didn't see a few boutique magic treasures or pills, and there was no place to buy or sell cultivation methods! All cultivation methods are called classics, and you either have to join an immortal sect, or you have to rely on your own collateral status to beg the main family to teach you. No wonder even Daoist Zhen, who had good alchemy skills, was so down and out... In this world, if you don't act as a dog for a family, you can't get the resources needed for cultivation at all!"

"It's a pity... If I had known that Daoist Zhen had the backbone not to act as a dog for a family, I shouldn't have refined him into a divine demon. It would have been more respectful to end him with a sword!"

"These rogue cultivators in the Central Lands are so hard to mix, I should leave some opportunities for them."

Brother Qian Chen thought about it. His method of refining spiritual pills with the "Supreme Alchemy Book" seemed to be able to deduce a few cultivation methods for forming a core from the pill formulas. Although he couldn't deduce the method to achieve the Yin Spirit, this was already a good legacy in the Central Lands. There was an opportunity for middle-grade Core Formation! If there was a chance, it could be spread out.

He waved his hand to release the Heavenly Net Umbrella, dropping clear light to seal most of the courtyard.

Walking into the pill room, he waved his hand to sweep the purple copper furnace and silver silk charcoal, which had no seals and were just for display, to the side, and released the Supreme Eight Views Furnace himself. The price of this pill furnace was as high as thirty morality points, higher than ordinary round magic treasures of excellent quality. It had three round feet on the ground, and the furnace body had three layers. In addition to two pill rooms, one large and one small, like gourds, there was also a furnace lid like a pavilion tower.

The furnace body was decorated with divine beast eaves and flame patterns.

This pill furnace came with its own Dry Origin Taiyin Zhenhuo. Brother Qian Chen only needed to urge his magic power to drive this true fire to refine spiritual pills. Although it was far inferior to the Purple-Green Doushu Fire that Brother Qian Chen was thinking about, it was more suitable for refining spiritual pills than the violent Tai Fire.

Of course, Brother Qian Chen found that the Tai Fire Poison Dragon he had subdued had particularly sufficient firepower when refining weapons. Although it was difficult to tame and drive, once successfully tamed, the quality of the refined magic treasures was even better, and refining pills should be the same.

Although the Dry Origin Taiyin Zhenhuo could be manipulated as he wished, it was just a little bit short...

Making Brother Qian Chen feel no challenge...

Various spiritual herbs and yuan qi were sent into the pill furnace. As the Dry Origin Taiyin Zhenhuo was urged by Brother Qian Chen, the firepower that ordinary pill masters found difficult to drive was like his own arm in Brother Qian Chen's hands. Hundreds of fire lines were divided in one furnace, slowly surrounding those spiritual herbs, baking out their medicinal properties with different temperatures. 【14

If a pill master were fortunate enough to observe from the side, they might discover that every single spiritual herb received the perfect amount of fire.

Using the most perfect temperature to bake out the medicinal properties within.

Just this one feat required supreme cultivation, subtle and inconceivable techniques, and even spiritual sense that was extremely profound. The art of alchemy in the Central Lands was so in decline precisely because those who truly handled alchemy had no opportunity to practice superior Daoist methods or cultivate extraordinary cultivation bases.

They toiled bitterly around the pill furnace, refining pills diligently every day, all to make wedding clothes for others.

There was simply no way, and it was impossible for anyone to give them a chance to glimpse the Great Dao.