Chapter 359 Assembly
As soon as Zhan Shi left, Jiao Jue squinted and said to Qing Pingzi and Shan Shui with a smile, "Senior, you haven't seen Guan Shan for several years. Jue and Shan Shui Shenjun will take you there to see his businesses in the Danxue Mountains."
Mountains and rivers are not inherently bad, but Qingpingzi did not want to go to Qingguanzi's earthen cave so soon. He insisted, "Juejun, let this old man wander around and see more places before going to Guanshan."
They left the city government building and started browsing the large shops along the central avenue. These shops, located in convenient locations, had a wide variety of goods.
In the shops belonging to the Buddhist artifact market, Qingpingzi saw a wide variety of Buddhist artifacts, but all made of inferior materials.
He scooped up a "Ruyi Spear" that was said to be able to grow or shrink at will, sent some spiritual energy into it, and gently waved it in the air. As soon as he saw the spear, which was about to grow larger, burst into nineteen pieces as if it could not withstand the pressure of the spiritual energy.
"Who touched my family's magical artifact!" Hearing the noise outside, a chubby white dog cultivator came running out while barking. Upon seeing Qing Pingzi and his group, he immediately said, "Thank you for visiting our humble shop, senior, and for picking out this item."
Qingpingzi placed eighty-five spirit crystals on the shelf, which was the price of the gun. He said, "Young friend, we are in a hurry, so please go to the city office to buy it yourself."
After browsing through several shops selling magical artifacts, Qingpingzi headed towards the elixir market.
In the shops of this pill market, he saw low-grade pills specially made by the Blood Pill Workshop and the Separation Pill Workshop of the Jade Void Palace. Each inferior pill bottle was brightly imprinted with the emblem of the Jade Void Palace. Underneath the pill bottle was a piece of rough straw paper, on which the advantages, disadvantages and uses of the pill were described. This made Qingpingzi, an old Taoist who came from a pill cultivation background, turn his hair red and black.
Undeterred, he searched from the first shop to the last and discovered that every one of the sixty pill shops that had opened was stocking pills from the Jade Void Palace Blood Pill Workshop. Some shops even brazenly displayed notices outside their doors offering to teach pill-making and medicine-making techniques—it was truly outrageous!
With this kind of skill, they even teach alchemy techniques! Qingpingzi watched the whole way, feeling his blood rush to his head and his skull cracking.
The first twenty shops in the cultivation hall market were purely bookstores, while the middle thirty not only offered paid introductory courses in minor cultivation but also rented and sold books.
This book comes in all sorts of varieties and materials.
The last thirty are pure cultivation halls.
Finally, they arrived at the Talisman Market.
In the shops of the talisman market, talismans made from tree bark and straw paper, like those Qingpingzi had seen, were sold by the dozen. Although they were crude, they were cheap.
Inside the shop were some inferior magic arrays of poor quality, which were carefully placed in wooden cabinets inlaid with glazed tiles on the wall. At first glance, these magic arrays all seemed to radiate a precious light.
Although Qingpingzi cursed the rubbish in his heart again and again, these pills, books and talismans sold exceptionally well. Merchants and cultivators from caravans, bearing the seals of the Canglan Mountains and Water Veins, would often pack them up and take them away in bags.
The more Qingpingzi looked, the more gloomy his face became. He only glanced at a few shops in this talisman workshop before he could no longer bear to look at them.
Hejian Mountain was closest to the Talisman Market. Jiao Jue and his group slowly walked deeper into the market. After a while, Jiao Jue suddenly turned his head and smiled at Qing Pingzi with narrowed eyes, "Senior, you came here using a talisman array. Did you figure out how that teleportation array worked?"
Qingpingzi nodded with a stiff, dark face.
Jiao Jue pointed to the shops in the talisman market and said, "When it comes to setting up businesses, no one is better than your Junior Sister Cai Niao. Senior, would you like to go and see how the talismans on the talisman array are made?"
Hearing this, Qingpingzi slowly nodded and said, "It would be good to go and take a look."
Jiaojue led them into a shop with the sign "Baozhuanfang". They passed through the main hall and came to the backyard, where they saw dozens of junior cultivators diligently inscribing runes.
Jiao Jue pointed to the junior cultivators: "These are all hastily trained array masters from the Great Wind Sect."
The colorful bird broke each talisman into more than twenty parts, saying that if anyone had a talent for drawing, even an illiterate cultivator could copy it.
She had Jiu Feng and the others screen cultivators in the Danxue Mountains and focused on teaching them how to carve convenient talismans for daily use. These talismans were cheap and consumed quickly. Although each talisman yielded a small amount, as long as they were diligent and hardworking, they could produce many every day.
These minor repairs are now very skillful; as long as each cut is perfectly replicated, once the pieces are joined, it will be a fine talisman.
Those minor cultivators who are literate, have a talent for array formations, and can understand talismans have even more work to do. They can draw talismans to sell, or participate in the engraving of some talisman arrays in the Daoist tradition.
In this way, a skilled talisman array apprentice can support an entire family.
Qingpingzi pursed his lips and remained silent, for he was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he would breathe fire and burn the place to the ground. This was not something a true array cultivator should do. The cultivators who came to learn this skill were only interested in those thirty or fifty spirit crystals. It was a disgrace to their master!
But deep down, he couldn't help but marvel at the market's incredible inclusiveness.
These weak creatures, who for the past tens of thousands of years could only serve as food and servants, are now able to enter the Danxue Mountains and learn crude skills to support their families.
It can only be said that times have changed, and Bird Sister's mortal path will flourish, while her own myriad immortal path will be even more expansive!
“When ordinary, poor, and weak people gather together, they become a powerful force!” At this moment, Qingpingzi felt the wonder of the mortal path in this small backyard.
After leaving the Talisman Market, the main road underfoot splits into two like a snake's tongue, one leading to the Great Wind Sect and the other to Hejian Mountain.
They walked along the bluestone path built with cinnabar water, and saw young cultivators carrying swords and spirit sacks heading towards the Great Wind Sect from time to time.
Jiao Jue pointed to the groups of young cultivators carrying spirit sacks and said, "Senior, look, they are laborers who collect jade materials for the Great Wind Sect. The more they work, the more they earn."
They usually study at the free literacy center set up by the Great Wind Sect in the morning, and only go out to work in the afternoon.
"Free?" Qingpingzi asked, "Does it mean that I, like myself, will enlighten and teach these novice cultivators?"
Jiao Jue squinted and smiled, "It's not that profound. We just want them to learn more about the common language of the demon race and the principles of survival. We won't teach them any cultivation techniques."
As they spoke, they arrived at the foot of Hejian Mountain. Jiao Jue transformed into a magic dragon and called out loudly into the mountain, "Guanshan, the Immortal Ancestor of Ten Thousand Laws has come to see you!"
"Senior brother?!" In a cool, simple, and huge earthen cave on the mountainside, Qing Guanzi, who had already washed the black bear Xiu, who had been stripped of his ornaments, three times, immediately swung his tail down and knocked the despairing black bear unconscious, leaving it aside.
Qing Guanzi feigned heartache and sighed to Zhan Shi, "Young friend Shi, my senior brother has arrived."
I won't try to bluff him anymore today. Take him away and give him a good talking-to so he'll submit. Then confirm the amount of spirit crystals he needs to compensate, and make him obediently sign a contract with us. After he's affixed his palm print, let him go to the front mountain to dig for jade."
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