The Wheel-Turning Master.

Chapter 84 Making a Living
No matter how eloquently the little girl from the Jiang family spoke, Lin Bai still gave up the double cave and chose the cheapest one.

"Here, sign and seal it."

The little girl from the Jiang family had a depressed look on her face, like an eggplant hit by frost. With lifeless eyes, she took out a wooden token and threw it to Lin Bai, saying, "You need to use this to enter and exit the cave. If you lose it, you need to replace it, and it costs spirit stones."

"Thank you, Young Friend Jiang." Lin Bai took a quick look and put it into the storage ring.

"Come with me." Jiang Xiaobai walked in front weakly.

The Jiang family’s cave industry is not small. It occupies a large piece of land in the south of Xinyifang and is divided into several areas.

Some places are comfortable, convenient and full of spiritual energy; some places are just cramped dwellings that can barely satisfy one person's practice and cannot do anything else.

However, because the Jiang family mainly does business with independent cultivators in the Qi training stage, and the quality of the spiritual land is not high, the price is not too high.

Moreover, the environment is good, with neat flowers, plants and trees, not dirty or messy, and there are servants cleaning it from time to time.

After turning three or two, Lin Bai entered the cave he rented. The place was very small, only three meters long and wide, it could be described as a small dwelling.

There were low stools and a low table, all commonplace, as well as two futons and a low bed.

"There is a rope here." The little girl from the Jiang family also walked into the cave and pointed to a rope on the east wall. "If you are attacked or someone is threatening you outside the cave, just pull the rope and someone will come. If something goes wrong in your practice and you can't get out, you can also pull the rope. However, for rescue, the spirit stones will be charged according to the situation. But if you pull the rope without reason, you will be fined!"

After she finished speaking, she looked around, shook her head, and continued: "It's so small. When Sister Pei comes back, you two won't be able to do anything. You are so cruel."

This little girl from the Jiang family seemed to understand a lot. She spoke without any scruples and was determined to get Lin Bai to rent a better cave.

Lin Bai was very poor, so he just pretended not to understand.

This cave is the cheapest among the Jiang family's assets, costing sixty low-grade spirit stones per month.

Several miles south of Xinyifang are all Jiang family properties, with hundreds of such caves.

Although the single profit is not high, it is the interest earned over the years, and the income is very stable. For a cultivation family, stability is the best.

Although Lin Bai had never seen the Zhu family's property, he felt that the Jiang family was much stronger than the Zhu family.

As a Jindan family, the Jiang family never did such a shameful thing as marrying into the wife's family, nor did they deliberately try to win over independent cultivators. They just acted as businessmen.

Lin Bai was very curious, so he naturally asked the little girl from the Jiang family.

Seeing that she couldn't convince Lin Bai to rent the double cave, Jiang Xiaobai became lazy and no longer enthusiastic, but she still gave a brief talk.

It turns out that the Jiang family has been making golden elixirs for generations, and has never been cut off. When Xinyifang was established, the Jiang family also contributed, so they have a stake in Xinyifang and their influence is not small.

Her family's cave property used to be her family's home. After it was assigned to Xinyifang, it was still managed by her family.

The Zhu family is just a newly-promoted Jindan family. The family power has been established for less than two hundred years and is not yet a force to be reckoned with.

That's fine. If he could produce a few more golden elixirs, after two or three hundred years, he might become a force in Qiaoshan.

But a few years ago, Zhu family's Jindan took the clan's outstanding foundation-building talents on a long journey, and then all of them failed in their foundation-building efforts.

The Zhu family's golden elixir was also seriously injured and died within a few years.

Now the Zhu family’s top combat force is gone, and Junxiu, who had the potential to form a golden elixir, is also gone. It’s like there’s a generation gap between the top and middle levels, and their strength has been greatly reduced.

If the Zhu family had not had some connection with the Qiaoshan faction, the lord of Qiaoshan, it would have been swallowed up and divided long ago.

Lin Bai was extremely thick-skinned. Seeing that Jiang Xiaobai had lost interest, he pretended not to notice and continued to inquire about other matters of the Jindan family.

Although Jiang Xiaobai is young, she is not stupid. She immediately saw through Lin Bai's intention to get something for free.

She quickly stepped out of the cave, and saw Lin Bai still shamelessly following behind her. She immediately greeted a cultivator who was opening the cave.

"Fellow Daoist Yang!" Jiang Xiaobai walked over quickly with a smile on his face, "I heard that your cave is leaking, I'll come and check it out!"

The casual Qi-cultivating cultivator named Yang was bewildered. He looked at his own cave and thought to himself, why didn't I know about the water leak?
Lin Bai was too embarrassed to ask any more questions, so he closed the cave door and devoted himself to practicing.

The spiritual energy here is not very strong, but it seems inexhaustible. Unlike in the past in Tianlang Mountain and Shattered Stone Island, it would be exhausted after a month or so.

Lin Bai heard from the little girl that the underground spiritual vein here extended from the mountain of her Jiang family. Although the grade was lowered a lot here, it was enough for Qigong cultivators to practice.

Since coming to Qiaoshan from Broken Stone Island, Lin Bai has not had much time to practice meditation. However, because of the stone plate, his realm has not fallen behind.

Now he is at the fourth level of Qi training. Although he is still not as good as that little girl from the Jiang family, he is close to the fifth level of Qi training.

As long as you calm down, it won’t take long for you to break through.

However, when living in the market, in addition to practicing, you also need to have a way to make a living. If you only spend but don’t earn, it will not work in the long run.

Therefore, in addition to his daily meditation, Lin Bai would take out two hours to stroll around outside to see if there were any opportunities.

After ten days, Lin Bai found that there were quite a few jobs in Xinyifang that could earn spirit stones.

For example, going out on your own and earning some hard-earned money.

If you think the profit is too little, you can go south into the mountains to pick magical herbs or plants, or capture monsters. There are many teams in Xinyifang that go into the mountains. There are special people to collect the things they get, and the profit is very high.

You can also go north, where the sects are fighting each other all day long, and all kinds of elixirs, talismans and magic tools are sold at high prices. As long as you import a batch of goods from Xinyifang, you can double the profit there.

Anyway, it's good to go south or north, except for one thing: you don't live long. Of course, there are also peaceful and stable jobs, such as refining pills, making talismans, and refining tools. But most casual cultivators don't know how to do these, or they only know the simplest ones and can't make much money.

Because of this, the poorer they become, the more they will venture out; and the richer they become, the more reluctant they will be to leave their comfort zone.

Lin Bai carried a stone plate on his body and learned things very quickly. He was determined to learn how to make talismans and refine pills, but he had no idea how to get started.

The shops in Xinyifang do not accept outsiders, and capable independent practitioners are also very careful about what they have, for fear that they will starve to death if they teach their disciples.

That afternoon, Lin Bai went out as usual.

"Fellow Daoist Yun, there is a Taoist gathering tonight. Do you want to come?" As soon as I went out, I saw Fellow Daoist Yang next door speaking with a smile.

"Of course I want to go and appreciate the elegance of all of you Taoist brothers!" Lin Bai bowed.

The so-called Taoist meeting sounds very lofty, but it is actually just a gathering of a few people practicing Qi.

Most of the Qi-cultivating practitioners living here have a hard time, and few of them have a legitimate livelihood.

But even so, not all the independent cultivators are desperate criminals who are willing to commit murder and robbery.

After all, as a cultivator, the free and easy spirit of seeking immortality and truth has not been fully polished.

In the past ten days, Lin Bai has also dealt with the independent practitioners who are practicing here.

There are many kinds of people, and so are monks. Some are cold, some are enthusiastic, some are polite, some are sneaky, and some have many connections.

The commonality is poverty.

A few days ago, Lin Bai was invited to a party, which was held in the pavilion in the garden next to the cave.

It was specially built by the Jiang family as a place for leisure and gathering.

There were at least three or five monks, and at most more than a dozen. They exchanged some spirit stones to buy a jar of wine, and drank slowly while chatting at the party.

Although it cannot be called music and dancing, it is still interesting in its own way.

Everyone would chat about interesting things in the market, or the scenery of other places. They would even do some matchmaking, which was considered a group warming up, but it was very loose and the friendship was not deep.

Of course, the most important thing is to ask those with the highest level of cultivation to share their experiences in cultivation.

Most of the independent cultivators had no inheritance, so the purpose of this exchange was to inspire each other. Therefore, no matter how high or low their cultivation was, as long as they had something to say, they could all say a few words.

However, no one talks about tasks that require a living, such as refining pills and making talismans.

After exchanging a few polite words with Fellow Daoist Yang, Lin Bai walked out of the gate of the Jiang family business.

But as soon as he walked out of the door, he saw the little girl from the Jiang family walking on the street, smiling and pulling a young female cultivator. He didn't know what they were talking about, but the female cultivator's face was very red.

Jiang Xiaobai is not very good at her job, but she is also a member of the Jindan family. Lin Bai doesn't want to get involved with her, so he just nodded slightly at her and was about to leave.

"Friend Yun, don't go!" Unexpectedly, Jiang Xiaobai asked to keep him.

"What's the matter, Brother Jiang?" Lin Bai put on a hypocritical smile.

"Of course I have something to ask you!" The little girl from the Jiang family pulled the female cultivator to Lin Bai and whispered, "Fellow Daoist Yun, this fellow Daoist is also here to rent a cave house, but he doesn't have any spirit stones and he doesn't have anything to pledge. See if you can lend a hand."

I haven’t figured out what to do yet!

"Little Daoist Brother Jiang, I can't even make ends meet." Lin Bai was so angry that he laughed.

"You are used to complaining about being poor." Jiang Xiaobai didn't believe it at all, and then smiled and said, "Then I won't embarrass you. What are you doing this time? I see you go out every day, and you don't bring a companion back. That's why I came to ask you, thinking of introducing one to you."

"I'm going to find a way to earn spiritual stones." Lin Bai confessed honestly, and then casually said: "Little Daoist Jiang, if you have any way, please help me keep an eye out for it."

"Making a living?" The little girl from the Jiang family became interested and asked, "Aren't traveling north or south both ways to earn spirit stones?"

"Friend Jiang, how many lives do you think I have?" Lin Bai spread out his hands. "I just want to learn some skills like alchemy and talisman drawing, so that I won't starve to death in the future."

"Is that so?" The little girl from the Jiang family nodded thoughtfully, then patted her chest confidently and made a promise, "Just wait, I'll go ask."

Seeing her seriousness, Lin Bai thought to himself that he didn't expect that although this girl was unreliable in doing things, she was a loyal person.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Jiang!" Lin Bai bowed.

"Okay, okay." Jiang Xiaobai nodded nonchalantly. After Lin Bai walked away, she looked at the female cultivator again and said, "See? As long as you live in my Jiang family's property, I will really help you if you need help!"

Lin Bai strolled outside and found nothing.

However, he did not go home directly, but lingered at the roadside stall for a long time, hoping to find a bargain.

During the Taoist meeting two days ago, Lin Bai heard from a casual cultivator that there was a casual cultivator in the Southern Sky Region who got a ring by chance in the market, and it turned out that there was a residual soul of the Divine Transformation in it. That residual soul taught the casual cultivator all the way, and in the end, the casual cultivator easily achieved the Nascent Soul stage.

Lin Baila visited several stalls, but because he had little experience, he didn't gain anything in the end.

"External objects can only serve as supplements, your own cultivation level is the most important."

Lin Bai made up his mind, prepared some clean water and dry food, went back and casually participated in the Taoist meeting, and then went into seclusion and no longer went out to wander around.

(End of this chapter)