Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Chapter 257 Lu Family
There were a few white clouds floating in the sky, and the sea water was as blue and clear as the sky, shining with silver light like brocade. On this sea that was so calm as if it was sleeping, many ships with white sails were rippling and heading towards the Wuchen Island.

There were many ships anchored in the port on the shore of Wuchen Island. Boatmen and porters were busy loading and unloading cargoes, fishermen were cleaning their catches with laughter, and merchants dressed in luxurious silk clothes, surrounded by guards, walked through the crowd with indifferent expressions and boarded the cargo ships. Only when they saw another merchant would they smile and greet each other.

Above the bustling crowd, a monk wearing an inconspicuous gray robe and a dark yellow bamboo hat with the front brim pulled down low, half of his face hidden in the shadow, was flying from a distance.

The mortals on the island were already accustomed to the flying and escaping monks, but every time the light of escape cut through the sky like a rainbow, there would always be some people who would stop and look up.

A young porter looked at the escaping light with envy on his face, even forgetting the heavy sack on his shoulders and the sweat flowing down his neck like a stream.

A wealthy merchant who was surrounded by guards and servants was gazing at the horizon when he inadvertently saw the escaping light. A hint of desire like that of a young man flashed in the depths of his eyes.

Their identities and statuses are very different, but at this moment, they are all mortals without spiritual roots, envying the immortal cultivators who can fly and hide in the ground.

The monk in the bamboo hat's escape light crossed the sky neither fast nor slow, landed in front of the market town of Wuchen Island, and walked slowly into the market town.

Wuchen Island is a small island, but its area is similar to that of a medium-sized island. The market on the island is also quite luxurious and covers a large area. The shops on the street are either elegant and exquisite, or magnificent, comparable to the mansions of the richest merchants in Yuqing Sea.

The monk in a bamboo hat walked slowly in the market and came to a bamboo forest deep in the market.

The bamboo forest is not big. A three-story building is hidden in the bamboo forest. On the plaque are written the three words "Fengyun Building". From time to time, there are monks coming in and out. Most of them travel in groups, but there are also a few who are alone like the monk in the bamboo hat.

The monk in the bamboo hat walked slowly into Fengyun Building. There were square tables in the building, and chairs and stools beside the tables. They were all made of precious huanghuali wood and were worth a fortune. However, in the world of immortal cultivation, they did not have any spiritual energy and could only be made into the most ordinary tables and chairs.

This is a teahouse, a teahouse specially for monks to drink tea.

Although immortal cultivators eat wind and drink dew and do not consume worldly food, every immortal cultivator was once a mortal who has appetites and the need to socialize.

But a cultivator with an immortal demeanor would naturally not sit in front of a table filled with wine, meat and delicacies and eat to their heart's content. That would be too unmannerly and would be despised by others.

They prefer to sit in an elegant and quiet teahouse, sip the best tea, taste rare fruits, and discuss the mysteries of the Tao with friends to relieve the boredom and boredom of their hard practice.

But more cultivators still like to entertain friends in their caves. Fengyun Tower, as the largest teahouse in the market of Wuchen Island, has only half of the square tables occupied by guests, and looks a bit deserted.

But this is exactly the atmosphere that the monks who come here like, elegant, aloof, cool and leisurely.

Most of these cultivators have just embarked on the path of cultivation. They are full of spiritual energy and their Qi Refining stage cultivation is clearly evident.

They are not yet accustomed to decades of hard training. Compared with the indifferent immortal cultivators, their mentality is closer to that of ordinary people.

The monk in the bamboo hat is slightly stronger. Judging from the spiritual energy he exudes, he is a monk in the middle stage of foundation building. He is one of the monks with the deepest cultivation in Fengyun Tower.

The monks at several tables on the first floor were all at the Qi-refining level. When they saw the monk in the bamboo hat, they unconsciously lowered their voices a little, but there was not much fear on their faces.

Everyone knows that Fengyun Tower is the property of the Lu family, the overlord of Wuchen Island. Even ordinary Jindan cultivators dare not act rashly here.

The head of the Lu family, Lu Gui, is a cultivator in the late Jindan stage. He is famous in the entire Qingliu Sea. It is said that he is only one step away from forming an infant. He has the hope of leading the Lu family to become a medium-sized family. Few people dare to come to Wuchen Island to stroke the tiger's whiskers.

The monk in the bamboo hat walked all the way up to the third floor before sitting down at a square table by the window.

A young cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining came over quickly and bowed respectfully: "Excuse me, what can I do for you, senior?"

The monk in the bamboo hat said calmly, "A pot of Liufeng tea."

"Please wait a moment, senior." The young monk responded respectfully and turned to leave.

The monk in the bamboo hat turned his head and looked out the window, waiting quietly. After a while, the young monk came over with a tray and placed the purple pot and porcelain cup on the tray in front of the monk in the bamboo hat: "Please enjoy your meal, senior."

The monk in the bamboo hat nodded slightly, and after the young monk left, he raised his hand and picked up the purple pot. He tilted it slightly, and light yellow tea flowed out from the mouth of the pot and poured into the porcelain cup, rippling slightly, and a fresh fragrance spread.

This Liufeng tea is the signature tea of ​​Fengyun Tower. It is made from tea leaves from century-old tea trees mixed with the century-old spiritual herb Liufeng flowers. It has a refreshing and pleasant fragrance.

The monk in the bamboo hat picked up the porcelain cup, and the clear flowing tea reflected his face hidden under the bamboo hat. It was Chen Yuan.

He took a sip of Liufeng tea, put down the porcelain cup, turned his head slightly, and looked at the quiet bamboo forest outside the window. His spiritual awareness quietly spread out, covering the entire teahouse, and every word of the cultivator was clearly heard in his ears.

"Did you hear, Brother Xi, that the head of the Li family on Maple Forest Island returned home seriously injured last month? It seems that he encountered a level six blue-eyed eagle in the ink sea and almost died..."

"The figure of Fairy Qinglu, wow, if I could get a taste of her beauty, I would be willing to die..."

"Fellow Daoist Gongsun, that villain Liu Hao is truly abominable. If you are willing to help me kill this villain, I am willing to offer you one hundred low-grade spirit stones as a reward..."

In Fengyun Tower, besides Chen Yuan, there were only three foundation-building cultivators, and the highest cultivator was only in the late foundation-building stage. The spiritual barriers they set up were completely unable to stop his spying, let alone detect any traces of his spiritual consciousness.

A cultivator in the early Jindan stage cannot do this, but Chen Yuan's spiritual awareness is comparable to that of a cultivator in the middle Jindan stage. He is unable to break through the spiritual awareness barrier set up by a cultivator in the middle Jindan stage.

He drank Liufeng tea, listened to the conversations of the monks in Fengyun Tower, and collected the information he wanted to know.

This was not the first time he had done this. In the past two months, Chen Yuan came to Fengyunlou to taste tea every day, but he appeared in a different image every time.

Yesterday he was a low-level cultivator at the eighth level of Qi Refining, sitting in the corner of the first floor, drinking a pot of the cheapest spiritual tea. Today he has become a cultivator in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, coming to the elegant seat on the third floor, sipping a pot of Liufeng tea that cost three medium-grade spiritual stones.

It was not until dusk that Chen Yuan had just finished a pot of Liufeng tea. He left three medium-grade spirit stones on the table and slowly walked out of Fengyun Tower.

Throughout the day, he heard dozens of monks talking, but most of what they said was useless. Only a few mentioned the Lu family, which helped Chen Yuan get what he wanted. Two months ago, Chen Yuan came to Wuchen Island, and six hundred years ago, this island was called Qianlang Island.

The inheritance recorded in the jade map is on Wuchen Island, but Chen Yuan cannot take the inheritance away because Yanhui Mountain where the inheritance is located is located in the Lu family's land and is protected by the Lu family's protective formation. If an outsider enters, he will be detected immediately by the formation.

The Lu family is a small family that emerged more than 600 years ago. Its ancestor Lu Yan was also known as Wuchen Zhenren. After occupying Qianlang Island, he renamed it Wuchen Island.

Today, the head of the Lu family, Lu Gui, has reached the late Jindan stage, and there are two early Jindan stage cultivators in the family. They command a thousand-mile sea area and are becoming increasingly prosperous.

Chen Yuan obtained all this information from the Zhengqi League’s stronghold on a medium-sized island thousands of miles away.

The Righteous Alliance had strongholds throughout the Yuqing Sea, and they were fully aware of the rise and fall of forces in each sea area. Relying on his status as a guest elder, Chen Yuan was able to grasp all of the Lu family's past experiences without spending any spirit stones.

The Lu family is very powerful and has a large clan protection formation to protect them, so Chen Yuan dare not act rashly.

It would definitely not work if they approached the door openly and asked for cooperation. The Lu family cultivators had long regarded Wuchen Island as their own property, so how could they give up the inheritance in Yanhui Mountain?

It would be impossible to force his way in. He had Zhu Yan's true blood in him, so he was not afraid of the Jindan cultivators of the Lu family. Even if Lu Gui attacked him, he could still escape with his life. However, the Lu family's protective formation was so powerful that even Yuanying cultivators could resist it. Chen Yuan had no way of breaking the formation.

The only way is to infiltrate the Lu family, and this requires Chen Yuan to have sufficient understanding of the Lu family.

The Qingliu Sea is far away from the sea area under the jurisdiction of the Zhengqi League. The Zhengqi League and the Lu family do not deal with each other on a daily basis and only have the most basic understanding of each other. If Chen Yuan wants to obtain more information, he can only do it himself.

It happened that Fengyun Tower was a gathering place for nearby monks, so he came to Fengyun Tower every day to drink tea, secretly gather information, and think of ways to infiltrate the Lu family.

Two months later, he finally had some clues.

At the beginning, Chen Yuan had thought about making friends with the Jindan elders of the Lu family in the capacity of a guest elder of the Zhengqi League, and it should not be a problem to infiltrate the Lu family.

But he quickly rejected this idea. The business of the Righteousness League spread throughout the Yuqing Sea and even had contacts with the Jiuxian Continent. He also needed to sell demon pills and demon beast materials and buy spiritual herbs through the Righteousness League and could not abandon the identity of a guest elder.

After all, the Lu family is a subsidiary force of the Zhenhai Sect. The ancestor of the family, Lu Yan, is an elder of the Zhenhai Sect. After he founded the family in his later years, the Lu family has always been a vassal of the Zhenhai Sect.

The Zhenhai Sect is the largest sect with the longest heritage in Yuqinghai. The inheritance of the great monks has never been interrupted. When the Righteous Alliance was at its peak, its power was not as strong as that of the Zhenhai Sect. Now, it will not easily provoke a conflict with the Zhenhai Sect.

It was no big deal for Chen Yuan to offend a small family, but if he offended the Lu family, which was protected by the Zhenhai Sect, he would definitely lose his status as a guest elder of the Zhengqi League.

But later, based on the information about the Lu family he got from other cultivators, he finally figured out a way to sneak into the Lu family.

In the past hundred years, the Lu family has been thriving. Eighteen years ago, they just eliminated another small sect, the Haiyan Sect, and expanded the sea area under their jurisdiction by one third.

The expansion of the family allowed the Lu family to obtain many cultivation resources. Compared with eighteen years ago, the Lu family now has two more late foundation building cultivators, three middle foundation building cultivators, nine early foundation building cultivators, and hundreds of Qi refining cultivators.

The elixirs, spiritual weapons, and talismans that were originally in sufficient supply began to become scarce after the size of the Lu family's cultivators expanded and their cultivation level improved.

Spiritual weapons can also be purchased from the market. A cultivator needs two or three spiritual weapons at most. Talismans are also relatively simple to make, but elixirs are always in short supply.

But the Lu family is just a small family with only seven alchemists, of which there is only one master alchemist. The large number of hundred-year-old and three-hundred-year-old spiritual herbs are not enough to be refined into pills.

There is no way around it. A furnace of foundation-building pills takes at least half a month to refine, and a late-stage foundation-building pill takes even more than twenty days. A master alchemist can only refine no more than twenty furnaces of pills a year.

The only alchemy master of the Lu family is named Lu Dongji. His alchemy skills can only be said to be average. The success rate of refining elixirs for the early and middle stages of foundation building is only 40%, and the success rate of refining elixirs for the late stage of foundation building is only 30%. He can produce at most 100 pills a year, which is not enough to supply the more than 50 foundation building cultivators of the Lu family.

The Lu family is also doing its best to train a master alchemist, but a master alchemist needs a strong spiritual sense to be able to survive the long process of alchemy and avoid mistakes when condensing the pill. In this small family, very few cultivators have this kind of talent. More than ten years have passed, and they still haven't trained a second master alchemist.

The monks of Lu family could only pay high prices to buy elixirs and spiritual tools in the market, or ask outsiders to refine elixirs and tools. Many monks of Lu family who came to Fengyun Tower for tea complained about this and were extremely dissatisfied with the people of the Alchemy Hall, Tool Hall and Talisman Hall.

Chen Yuan saw an opportunity in this. He was proficient in alchemy, which was exactly what the Lu family monks needed. It should not be difficult for an alchemy master who was proficient in alchemy to sneak into the Lu family.

……

The next day, Chen Yuan came to the market of Wuchen Island and bought a simple shop.

The name of this shop is Yuan Fu Tang. It is located in a corner of the market town. It sells talismans. It is not as magnificent or exquisite as other shops in the market town. It is no different from the street shops in mortal cities.

The original owner of Yuanfu Hall was Ding Yuan, a talisman maker who was at the tenth level of Qi Refining. Although he had not been able to build a foundation due to his poor aptitude, he was proficient in the art of talisman making. The talismans he made were of excellent quality, and Yuanfu Hall's business was very good.

Three years ago, Ding Yuan died unexpectedly and left the shop to his son Ding Hao, a tenth-level Qi Refining cultivator with mediocre talisman-making skills and talent.

Ding Hao's aptitude is worse than Ding Yuan's. It is considered poor among the cultivators with four spiritual roots, and can almost be compared with the cultivators with five spiritual roots. He practiced all the way to the tenth level of Qi Refining, which consumed a large amount of spirit stones.

It was precisely for the purpose of training Ding Hao that Ding Yuan had not renovated Yuanfu Hall.

Ding Hao spent almost all his time on cultivation. His talisman-making skills were mediocre. After he took over Yuan Fu Tang, the business plummeted. Until today, the business has been extremely bleak and he has no intention of becoming an elite.

Chen Yuan accidentally learned about this from other people's gossip and kept it in mind. Today, he came here and used the only foundation-building pill he had left and thirty medium-grade spirit stones to buy Yuanfu Hall.

That afternoon, he posted a couplet outside the door, sat in the main hall, and waited for guests to come.

Thanks for the reward from the Four Gods of Heaven's Wrath!
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(End of this chapter)