Chapter 81: Forming a Delivery Team

The mandrill sat on the bed, looking sleepy.

It heard Li Chang'an and Tianxuan leave the room, and some doubts arose in its mind.

What did that voice just say? Oh, it sounded like the spirit boat was ready.

The mandrill lay back down on the bed, then suddenly stretched out its tail and scrambled off the bed.

Wait a minute! The spirit boat is ready!

Everyone in the Xuanling Immortal Mountain knew about Yao Guang's work on the spirit boat, since her refining furnace was open to the public and everyone could see it every day.

The mountain demon was also very curious about the spirit boat. Every day before and after work, it would come back from the refining furnace to check on the progress of the spirit boat.

Upon hearing that the spirit boat was ready, it was wide awake and quickly left the room, following Li Chang'an and Tianxuan to the refining furnace.

The strange fire in the furnace had been extinguished, and two palm-sized spirit boats floated above the furnace, gleaming with a faint purple light.

"This is a spirit boat, a third-grade spiritual artifact."

After Yao Guang finished speaking proudly, she took out the spirit boat and handed it to Li Chang'an.

"Don't underestimate it just because it's only a third-grade item. Its speed can reach 1,000 kilometers per hour, which is faster than an airplane. You just need to infuse it with spiritual power and at the same time increase the size of your mind."

After Yao Guang finished her explanation, she reminded him, "Oh right, let's find an open space first before we grow bigger."

Li Chang'an nodded, and with some excitement, he carried the shrunken spirit boat to the bank of the Ningjing River.

He infused his spiritual power, and his thoughts grew larger. The next moment, the spirit boat flew out from above his palm, gradually growing larger until it was 150 meters long and 30 meters wide before stopping.

The spirit boat was entirely purple, with stairs leading up to it on both sides of the middle of the boat.

The group, along with the mandrill, ascended the stairs to the spirit boat. The spirit boat had three floors, decorated in an antique style. The first floor was a spacious hall, well-ventilated on all sides, with windows and doors carved with various openwork patterns. The second and third floors were rooms, a total of one hundred rooms, used for the delivery people to rest.

The hall and all the rooms were empty and unfurnished.

In one corner of the hall, a staircase leads down to the core control area, about thirty square meters in size, where the flight direction is controlled and spiritual energy is injected. In the center floats a purple disc, which is also made of purple jade bamboo.

Under Yao Guang's guidance, Li Chang'an channeled his spiritual power into the purple disc.

The disc shone brightly with purple light, projecting a miniature topographical map of the Xuanling Immortal Mountain. The next moment, the group saw the spirit boat slowly rising through the window beside them.

Within minutes, the spirit boat had broken through several layers of clouds and reached the same height as the floating island.

Li Chang'an made a slight thought, and the spirit boat began to fly around the four floating islands. Under his control, it would speed up and slow down at different times, but no matter the speed, no strong winds would blow in from the windows.

The spirit boat finally hovered outside the East Floating Island. The group went up to the deck and saw the sun of Xuanling Immortal Mountain slowly emerging from the distant, ethereal clouds in the east, which gradually turned orange-red.

"Wow—" Li Chang'an exclaimed in surprise.

He now has only one thought: this spirit boat is not only suitable for delivering packages, but it would also be more than enough to carry passengers and entertain guests.

The beautiful sunrise quieted the three of them and the mandrill, and they admired it for a long time.

As the sky brightened in the Xuanling Immortal Mountain, Yao Guang crossed her arms and said, "Alright, I've finished teaching you how to refine weapons and making this spirit boat as I promised. Now it's time for me to leave. If you have any questions about alchemy or weapon refining later, just ask me."

Li Chang'an snapped out of his reverie at the beautiful sunrise and was slightly taken aback by what he heard. He quickly took out ten sections of purple jade bamboo and a large bag of river mud from his storage bag.

"Thank you for your help, Star Lord. These are for you."

Yao Guang provided him with a lot of refining materials to help him build this spirit boat, which was far more valuable than the spirit rice and spirit vegetables he later gave her.

After much deliberation, Li Chang'an decided to prepare these two items.

Good crafting materials are definitely what crafting masters need most.

Yao Guang was slightly taken aback, but after a moment she understood what Li Chang'an meant: "Actually, you don't need to mind. Using top-grade refining materials once is beneficial to a refiner's cultivation, so I didn't lose out."

Using top-quality materials to forge weapons, and having sensed exceptional stellar power during her months of living in the Xuanling Immortal Mountain, her cultivation level even rose by three ranks.

Li Chang'an smiled and said, "But this is the reward you deserve for teaching me how to forge weapons and helping me build the spirit boat."

Yao Guang looked at the refining materials in front of her and scratched her head.

She may not understand social etiquette, but she really wanted these two things.

Tianxuan chuckled and took the purple jade bamboo and river mud from Yaoguang, handing them to her: "Take it. I've been cultivating in Xuanling Immortal Mountain for over a year now, and I've gotten a great deal. I'll still get paid for designing the terraced fields."

Now that the items are in my hands, there's no reason not to take them.

Yao Guang's gaze was firm as she put the purple jade bamboo and river mud into her storage bag: "Okay, thank you."

She glanced at Li Chang'an's storage bag and said, "Although the spirit boat can shrink, it is stored in a storage bag based on its actual volume. Your storage bag can't hold it all, but I can use some refining materials to help you upgrade it."

Upgrading storage bags requires a refining furnace, which other cultivators either use from their sects or rent from the Cultivation Alliance.

"Okay, thank you, Star Lord." Li Chang'an clasped his hands in thanks.

Yao Guang stayed an extra day and upgraded her storage bag with a section of purple jade bamboo.

Storage bags are the most basic magical artifacts for cultivators. They are very simple to make and easy to upgrade. They can be made simply by using any refining material together with the storage bag.

A single section of purple jade bamboo directly upgraded Li Chang'an's storage bag from a first-tier magic artifact to a first-grade spiritual artifact.

The reason it's only a Grade 1 spiritual artifact isn't because of a failed crafting, but because the highest level a storage bag can be is a Grade 1 spiritual artifact, which has unlimited space and cannot be upgraded further.

Upgrading a storage bag with a section of purple bamboo is a complete waste.

Although it wasn't her own Purple Jade Bamboo, it still made Yao Guang's heart ache so much it felt like it was bleeding.

After upgrading Li Chang'an's storage bag, Yao Guang packed up her refining furnace early the next morning, bid farewell to Xuanling Immortal Mountain, and left without even staying until the New Year.

...

In the spring, the nineteen breeding pigs gave birth to 228 piglets. Over the past few months, Li Chang'an has been feeding them carefully with broad-leaved ferns and various vegetables. By the end of the year, each piglet weighed nearly 300 jin (150 kg), reaching the standard for slaughter.

This year-end, Li Chang'an still plans to sell all the vegetables, pork, chickens, ducks, shrimp, and crabs from Xuanling Immortal Mountain in one go.

There are tens of thousands of chickens and ducks, tens of thousands of pounds of shrimp and crabs in the pond, and five thousand Mingyi bird eggs.

It is foreseeable that the number of orders will increase significantly after this grocery shopping trip.

Li Chang'an plans to officially begin building his courier team.

He sent a message to Xie Kuling, asking him to come over.

With time running out and courier jobs being hired on short notice, Li Chang'an couldn't guarantee that all the people he recruited would be good people.

Especially given that Yuheng said there are many heretical practitioners nowadays.

Spiritual vegetables are beneficial to cultivation, but it would be bad if they fell into the hands of evil cultivators.

Therefore, Li Chang'an planned to use Qingfeng Sect disciples directly, which would eliminate this risk.

Firstly, Xie Kuling knew the disciples' backgrounds. Secondly, the disciples of the sect were bound by the sect rules, and if they did something against them, they would suffer the consequences, which also served as a form of supervision.

After listening to Li Chang'an's words, Xie Kuling pondered and said, "Then we can use disciples at the fifth level of Foundation Establishment or above. There are currently more than sixty of them in the sect."

The spirit boat requires cultivators to activate it with spiritual power, and also requires a certain level of strength to deal with the dangers that may be encountered along the way. Therefore, the stronger the couriers are, the better.

Li Chang'an nodded, agreeing with the sentiment.

"Alright, then I'll trouble you, Mountain Lord, to ask the disciples for their wishes first. I will pay them a base salary, and then they will receive a commission based on the number of packages they deliver."

After thinking for a moment, Li Chang'an added, "The commission portion can be converted into spirit rice or spirit-grade vegetables after the calculation is completed."

Xie Kuling chuckled: "Then the disciples will probably fight tooth and nail for this spot."

Li Chang'an smiled as well.

Xie Kuling didn't linger any longer and quickly left Xuanling Immortal Mountain to inform the sect disciples of the good news.

As he expected, the disciples at the fifth level of Foundation Establishment and above were initially shocked, but then became extremely excited.

"Spirit Rice! Spirit Vegetables! You can get them just by delivering packages for Li Chang'an?!"

"This way, I don't even need to work so hard to grab food on the app anymore, that's great! I want to sign up!"

"I knew joining the Qingfeng Sect was the right choice! I've been waiting for this kind of good thing!"

"Although I am over 160 years old, my cultivation level fully meets the requirements! At my age, this is the time to make a name for myself, please give me this spot!"

That afternoon, all the disciples of the Qingfeng Sect who were at or above the fifth level of Foundation Establishment signed up, a total of sixty-four people.

Li Chang'an arrived at the Qingfeng Sect, intending to meet the sixty-four cultivators.

From the moment he entered, the cultivators looked at him with intense fervor, as if they could see even more spiritual vegetables through him.

Li Chang'an paused, then coughed awkwardly.

“I have reviewed your information. Your cultivation levels are among the best in the Cangxuan Realm. I feel at ease having you deliver packages.”

Li Chang'an made some polite remarks, then continued, "Xianshan Farm currently only operates within our Xia Kingdom. Each time it sells vegetables, it can sell hundreds of thousands of orders, and the spirit kites are already unable to deliver them all."

"That's why I wanted to set up a delivery team, but we only have one spirit boat at the moment, so I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you all."

After Li Chang'an finished speaking, a cultivator shouted, "It's alright! Delivering more orders will earn us more commission!"

The other cultivators around them laughed.

The atmosphere immediately relaxed.

Li Chang'an relaxed and selected eight cultivators with high cultivation levels and calm personalities from among the sixty-four cultivators to serve as team leaders.

The leader is responsible for piloting the spirit boat and planning the route.

The remaining people need to infuse spiritual power into the talisman on the delivery slip to complete the delivery.

The talisman is a combination of the guiding talisman and the teleportation talisman created by Li Chang'an—a positioning and delivery talisman.

This talisman no longer has the function of guiding the way, but as long as you draw this talisman on the waybill with the address written on it and then infuse it with spiritual power, the package will be automatically sent to the delivery address and wait for pickup.

However, this talisman is only a low-level talisman. Like the Cleansing Talisman and the Guiding Talisman, even if the talisman master's cultivation is high, there is no distinction in level or quality when drawing it. Therefore, it will be limited to a distance of about fifty kilometers.

Li Chang'an carefully explained the process to the cultivators, and after ensuring they were all familiar with it, he returned to Xuanling Immortal Mountain.

The next day, he got up early to prepare for another year-end clearance sale.