The Hall of General Affairs, besides arranging daily chores, had the crucial task of assigning residences for newly admitted disciples.
These residences naturally held mystical significance; the dwellings of Qingquan Peak disciples were usually located in the same areas as the plots they cultivated. The hundreds of hills surrounding Qingquan Peak varied noticeably in spiritual energy density, which directly resulted in vastly different cultivation efficiencies for spiritual herbs planted upon them.
Sun Yuming led Ye Qin into the Hall of General Affairs, where over a dozen managing disciples were stationed. Sun Yuming took him directly to a plump Senior Brother Wang to arrange Ye Qin's lodging.
“Two Senior Brothers, this junior has little money, only two low-grade Spirit Stones to offer. Please handle it as you see fit; just arrange something suitable for me.”
Ye Qin feigned a wry smile, producing two low-grade Spirit Stones from his robes. Although Sun Yuming had hinted at the necessity of offering a substantial sum of Spirit Stones to secure residence on a spiritually rich peak, he had no intention of parting with too much. Not only was he short on resources, but he also didn't want anyone to know his wealth, lest he become a target of covetousness. As a cultivator at the fifth layer of the Qi Refining stage, he couldn't afford to be noticed for his possessions. Offering two Spirit Stones wouldn't offend the two Senior Brothers and might prevent them from eyeing him up greedily.
Sun Yuming and Senior Brother Wang were visibly disappointed when Ye Qin only ‘paid respects’ with two Spirit Stones.
Around Qingquan Peak, the hills rich in spiritual energy were highly sought after. To secure even a slightly better dwelling, one typically needed to slip them at least ten Spirit Stones. For superior accommodations, the price would be even higher. Two low-grade Spirit Stones were simply not enough.
The portly Senior Brother Wang secretly shook his head at Sun Yuming—a poor cultivator offered little profit. Sun Yuming sighed in resignation; he hadn't expected Junior Brother Ye to be so destitute, wasting nearly half a day's persuasive effort.
However, since Ye Qin had offered two Spirit Stones, money was money, regardless of the small amount.
Senior Brother Wang took out a scroll titled Map of Qingquan Mountain, injected his magic power, and a miniature, illusory depiction of the area around Qingquan Peak appeared before Ye Qin. This illusory map was strikingly realistic, offering a bird's-eye view of the entire mountain.
“Pick a spot on the map. Any location marked with a red dot is already occupied. White spots are uninhabited,” Senior Brother Wang instructed. The locations marked on this scroll were all areas with the thinnest spiritual energy for habitation. The only benefit Ye Qin gained for his two Spirit Stones was the right to choose any of these unoccupied places.
Ye Qin studied the map briefly. He noticed that some hills were densely covered with red dots, while others had only a few scattered red dots, and a minority of hills were almost entirely white.
“I’ll take this place!”
He pointed to a small hill dotted almost entirely with white markings.
Senior Brother Wang formed a hand seal, marked a red dot on the scroll, noted the resident, and the spot was assigned to Ye Qin.
After showing Ye Qin around and finalizing the lodging, Sun Yuming hurried off to attend to his own matters. “Junior Brother Ye, I’m busy preparing for the minor competition in six months, so I can’t stay with you. You’ve familiarized yourself with the area now; you can handle the rest on your own.”
“Many thanks, Senior Brother, for your guidance.”
Ye Qin felt deeply grateful; Senior Brother Sun had spent nearly half a day showing him around the various halls and explaining every minute detail.
Sun Yuming’s face flushed slightly as he waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t be so polite. Guiding newcomers like this is just part of my sect duties. I get paid one Spirit Stone annually for this—it’s quite a lucrative chore. If you run into any issues, you can come find me. But only within the next month. After that, I’ll have no time and must focus entirely on preparing for the year-end minor competition.”
“Then I won’t trouble Senior Brother Sun further.”
Ye Qin bowed, a note of confusion in his voice. “By the way, what is this minor competition?”
Senior Brother Sun chuckled heartily. “Minor and major competitions are the most significant events in our Qingdan Sect. We hold a minor competition every three years, testing skill in ‘Herb Cultivation, Pill Alchemy, and Combat Magic.’ All eight thousand Qi Refining disciples are eligible.
The major competition occurs every nine years, open only to the two hundred Foundation Establishment disciples.
Only the top three hundred in the minor competition receive rewards. The prizes are incredibly enticing; our future as Qi Refining disciples rests entirely on this minor competition. I’m participating in the Herb Cultivation division. You must come support me then!
However, you likely won't have a chance to participate in the next minor one for now. It’s at the end of the year, with only a month or two left; you won't have time to prepare. The triennial major competition falls three years from now, which only Foundation Establishment cultivators can enter. The next minor competition will be in six years. But that might be for the best; by then, you should have cultivated quite a few spiritual herbs and be qualified to compete.”
Ye Qin arrived at the Beast Hall on Qingquan Peak, rented a Twin-Headed Eagle-Dove for riding, and flew to an obscure small hill a hundred miles from Qingquan Peak, named "Qingxiu Mountain." This hill stood several dozen feet tall, spanning seven or eight square miles, covered in dense forests of iron-green bamboo. Each stalk was as thick as a man’s arm, having stood for millennia, possessing extreme toughness.
Ye Qin dismounted the Eagle-Dove, sending it back to the Beast Hall on its own.
He then shouldered a pack containing tools like an axe, rope, and hoe, and found a relatively flat spot halfway up Qingxiu Mountain, intending to chop down bamboo to build a small hut.
He discovered the bamboo grove was surprisingly hard; his axe struck sparks upon impact without cutting through.
Ye Qin paused, then took out a low-grade Gold Spirit Sword. He infused it with magic power and brought the sharpest edge down, but the blow only managed to sever one-third of the incredibly tough bamboo stalks.
After several strenuous days, he managed to fell several hundred stalks, trimmed the branches and leaves, and constructed a rudimentary bamboo structure using the poles. In front of the hut, where he had cleared the bamboo, he carved out a small patch of field to plant spiritual herbs.
Ye Qin was utterly exhausted but felt a surge of accomplishment gazing at the small bamboo hut he had built over several days.
He chose to reside on Qingxiu Mountain purely because no other fellow disciples occupied it. The reason no Qingdan Sect disciples lived here was clearly due to the spiritual energy being too sparse, which was detrimental to herb cultivation.
He paid no mind to the astonished expressions of Senior Brother Sun and Senior Brother Wang.
“The good, spiritually rich spots were long ago snatched up by fellow disciples. The remaining places are average, and the spiritual energy difference isn't that vast. Sharing a mountain with others is just asking for trouble. By choosing the worst spot, others won’t bother me.”
Ye Qin gave a self-deprecating laugh. Having Qingzhushan entirely to himself meant he could cultivate in peace without interference. As for whether the land was suitable for growing spiritual herbs, what did that matter to him!
After selecting the site, he visited the small marketplace on Qingquan Peak. He spent one Spirit Stone to purchase tools like an axe, hoe, and knife, and exchanged it for a small packet of spiritual herb seeds—about twenty or thirty seeds in total, which were cheap, costing only three Spirit Stones.
This small marketplace was near the main hall square, established by the Qingquan Peak disciples themselves for convenient exchange of goods.
Once his necessary supplies were procured, Ye Qin rented a flying beast at the Spiritual Beast Hall on Qingquan Peak and flew directly to this small summit on Qingzhushan. He spent several days constructing a small bamboo hut and began clearing fields to plant spiritual herbs.
According to Senior Brother Sun’s explanation, every disciple in the Qingdan Sect was allocated a plot of land upon entry. After establishing their residences, disciples would rely primarily on this meager acreage for their livelihood for decades to come.
Alchemy and earning Spirit Stones all depended on the spiritual herbs grown in this land.
Some sect members cultivated vast fields of medicinal herbs, dedicating their time to tending them, improving their cultivation techniques, and then selling the various spiritual herbs they grew for Spirit Stones or elixirs to aid their practice. However, managing extensive herb fields was no easy task; simply fetching the spiritual spring water daily to irrigate the herbs was exhausting enough.
Other disciples, not skilled in cultivation, focused on honing their Pill Alchemy, exchanging elixirs for herbs.
And then there was a very small minority of disciples whose aptitude in cultivation or alchemy was lacking. They simply neither cultivated nor concocted, instead becoming resellers—buying cheap spiritual herbs from cultivators and selling them to disciples urgently needing them for alchemy.
After all, with thousands of disciples, many focused intently on cultivation or alchemy and had no energy to spare for trade, so they entrusted these matters to these merchant-type disciples.
Although these 'merchant' disciples could occasionally earn some money through arbitrage, their path in immortal cultivation looked bleak. Without a specialized skill in cultivation, alchemy, or artifact refining, it was difficult to advance far on the immortal path.
In front of his bamboo hut, Ye Qin scattered a few seeds in a plot a few feet wide and irrigated them with spiritual spring water brought from the back of Qingquan Peak.
He then planted a cheap array flag at each of the four corners of the field, inscribed with a protective formation to ward off birds and beasts, preventing them from eating the seeds. The spiritual aura emanating from these small flags was very weak, only enough to drive away small creatures. Fortunately, the thousand-mile radius around the Qingdan Mountain Range had long been cleared by preceding cultivators, and demonic beasts rarely appeared. He didn't need to worry about the spiritual herbs being eaten by them yet.
Once the herbs matured over several years or decades, he would need to take serious precautions against the potential appearance of demonic beasts.
Most spiritual herbs required at least one or two years, some three to five years, and others decades, or even centuries or millennia, to mature. The older the herb, the stronger its spiritual energy and medicinal efficacy, making it naturally more valuable.
In the Qingdan Sect, older cultivators often signified greater accumulated wealth. Those Foundation Establishment cultivators aged one or two hundred years often started cultivating herbs from the moment they entered the sect; they possessed hoards of herbs with a century or more of accumulated medicinal power, making them extremely valuable.
New Qi Refining disciples, after sowing their seeds, had to wait patiently for maturation, enduring decades of hardship before seeing a chance to succeed.
Naturally, Ye Qin did not need to rely on this field to grow his own herbs. However, now that he had joined the Qingdan Sect, he had to fulfill the duties expected of an ordinary disciple to avoid arousing unwarranted suspicion.
He continued to clear bamboo and cultivate several acres of fields on Qingzhushan, sowing spiritual herb seeds and watering them with spiritual spring water. Once these seeds sprouted and began to grow, he would mostly leave them be.
In his free time, he visited the Scripture Depository and purchased the cheapest book available on spiritual herb cultivation techniques.
As an ordinary, blue-robed disciple, he had no assigned master and relied on self-study; the sect did not interfere much. Only the truly outstanding would be taken as disciples by certain Foundation Establishment Martial Uncles or Aunts, becoming silver-robed disciples who received attention and specialized training.
Disciples like Ye Qin, who were determined to cultivate quietly on their own, were unlikely to catch the eye of any Martial Uncle or Aunt.
He maintained occasional contact with Senior Brother Sun. A few days later, as Ye Qin was busy breaking ground on Qingxiu Mountain, a golden transmission talisman suddenly flew from the sky, carrying Sun Yuming’s languid voice:
“Junior Brother Ye, Martial Uncle Zhao sent a disciple to Xian Yuan City yesterday to investigate your background; he suspects there might be an issue with your origins. But from my perspective, I can’t see any problems. Junior Brother Ye, did you happen to offend Martial Uncle Zhao somewhere? This Martial Uncle Zhao is a cultivator from a major family and looks down on us rogue cultivators. Since we are fellow sect brothers, I can’t stand by and watch you get caught by Martial Uncle Zhao for an infraction. Be as obedient as possible, don’t cause trouble, and especially don’t give Martial Uncle Zhao any leverage. Martial Uncle Zhao is quite busy; he’ll probably forget about investigating you in a year or so and lose interest. Also, the peaks and factions within our Qingdan Sect are extremely complex, and the infighting between factions is fierce—absolutely do not get involved. I’ve been on the mountain for over ten years and still haven’t fully grasped the intricacies. We rogue cultivators without backing must stick together and maintain firm positions; when others fight, we just watch the show. I’m very busy these next few months, so I won't be able to visit you much. Be careful about everything.”
Receiving this message, Ye Qin felt frustrated and somewhat helpless.
“How could I have offended Martial Uncle Zhao? When I first joined, he probably suspected my low-grade Spirit Stones came from a dubious source after I managed to gather the required thirty rare spiritual herbs for entry.”
Still, Senior Brother Sun’s message arrived in time; otherwise, he wouldn't have known Martial Uncle Zhao was scrutinizing his background. He needed to be more cautious.
Ye Qin pondered for a moment.
He still possessed several dozen low-grade Spirit Stones brought from Xian Yuan City, enough to sustain his cultivation within the Purple Mansion for several months. The formula for the Qi Refining fourth to sixth layer specialized elixir, the 'Qi Gathering Pill,' and the seeds required to refine this elixir could also be purchased at the Pill Hall and the small marketplace on Qingquan Peak.
He entered seclusion in his bamboo house on Qingzhushan to refine pills. He consumed every elixir himself, selling not a single one. After all, as a newcomer who had just started planting herbs, he couldn't possibly have so many elixirs to sell. Once the heat died down and Martial Uncle Zhao lost interest in investigating him, he could start considering how to earn Spirit Stones later. (To be continued; for future events, please log in to www***, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)