Building a sect from scratch.

"Uh, I know it sounds strange, but could we see what this so-called 'Soul Eater' looks like?"

The Jade Emperor asked Chakta with some hesitation.

Renxin Huadao nodded vigorously like a chicken pecking at rice, and then said, "That's right, that's right! This is related to our mission to find the Sword Sect!"

"This……"

Chakota looked at the players with expectant and even eager expressions, his expression strange, and said, "Tonight, maybe...maybe you'll see them. They usually only appear at night, and sometimes they can even break into the barrier..."

Renxin Huadao became even more excited: "Can we stay here tonight?! We can pay for the accommodation!"

Chakota didn't refuse, but hesitated and said, "There's no need for lodging... You've come from afar, so if you don't mind, you can stay at my house. However, the food here is simple, there's no spiritual food, only mortal fare. I don't know if you'll be able to eat it..."

"It works, it works!" Renxin Huadao nodded vigorously again, and started rambling on, "Most of the food in our Chang'an City... ah, I mean, our Taiyin Sect is ordinary food! Only a small portion is spiritual food, and even that's the kind that mortals can eat! But it doesn't sell very well because it's too expensive!"

"Then please follow me..."

Chakota led the way, asking curiously as they walked, "Does your Taiyin Sect also have mortals and cultivators living together? I've heard that outside, cultivators and mortals never live together?"

“Other sects seem to be like this, but our Taiyin Sect is different! Our Taiyin Sect advocates that everyone should cultivate! However, there are always some ‘crippled’ people like you mentioned, who even have difficulty sensing Qi. So, while everyone can cultivate, not everyone is truly a cultivator. In that sense, it’s like cultivators and mortals living together!”

The Jade Emperor boasted incessantly, "And precisely because of this, our Chang'an City... ah, Chang'an City is currently the largest city of the Taiyin Sect! In our Chang'an City, all aspects of the mortal world are available! Not to mention food and drink, everything we use, play with, and wear is a mixture of things with and without spirits, and most of the things that do have spirits can be used even by those with celestial disabilities!"

Chakota was somewhat skeptical: "It sounds like a paradise on earth?"

The Jade Emperor hurriedly said, "You can go and have a look! We have a teleportation array that can take you around. Uh... I don't know if we can take you. I'll ask our sect leader later. It should be fine... Or you can spend some money to ask the Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity Merchant Guild to help you hitch a ride on their flying boat!"

Chakota gave a rare, stiff smile on his usually expressionless face: "This...heh, never mind, it's hard to leave one's homeland, and the Central Continent is just too far away..."

As they chatted, they arrived at Chakota's house.

Chakota lives alone. According to her self-introduction along the way, there aren't many people in the entire Hu Buyu clan who can be considered cultivators. She could barely be considered one. Today happened to be her turn to guard the barrier, which is why she inquired about the players' situation earlier. As for the other cultivators in the Hu Buyu clan, the one with the highest cultivation level was actually the priest Niuhelu, who looked like he was about to fall over at any moment!
Niuhelu, by all accounts, possessed the cultivation level of a Nascent Soul cultivator! The remaining seven or eight, the highest being equivalent to the Golden Core stage, while the lower-level ones, like Chakota, were just at the Foundation Establishment stage, and would likely remain there until their deaths. Even so, Chakota was still considered a "high-level fighter" among the Hu Buyu clan. Her house was noticeably better than the others', firstly because it was more spacious, and secondly because it had a small courtyard filled with vegetables and fruits, giving it a very homey feel.

With so many players, two had to squeeze into one room, and they were housed in four side rooms on the east and west sides. The rooms were warm, just like the temple, but there were no blankets or pillows, only a bare, empty bed board filled with straw. The straw was covered with a very rough, thick linen cloth that was hard and scratchy. If the players were real people, they probably wouldn't even be able to lie down properly!

It is astonishing that a cultivator who calls himself "Earthly Deficiency" and has already established his foundation would live in such a simple place. This gives players a deeper understanding of the poverty and harshness of Liuzhou.

To improve relations, Nietzsche suggested that while it was still early, everyone should try trading with Chakota. After all, many people had various forgotten spiritual herbs and plants, as well as various elixirs, in their backpacks, and this was a good time to "build goodwill".

Indeed, when Chakota saw the various spiritual herbs and plants that the players had brought out, his eyes lit up. He immediately took out a bunch of colorful, gem-like Kunwu stones, intending to barter with them.

Although Kunwu stone is a mineral, its name ends with "stone" instead of "mineral" because its appearance is very different from that of ordinary metal ores.

Kunwu stones are mostly translucent colored stones, like crystal or agate, shimmering with iridescent light, and glowing faintly at night.

Different colors of Kunwu stone have different spiritual attributes, and the degree of transparency represents its purity; the purer it is, the better its quality.

The best quality of the Kunwu stones that Chakta brought out was a blue-purple one, about the size of a fist. It wasn't very transparent, but its size made it quite valuable.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were drawn to the Kunwu Stone, Chakota introduced it, "This one belongs to the Thunder and Water element, with more Thunder element. It's not a top-grade Kunwu Stone, but it's definitely a high-grade one. Not to mention the market price, if the Fulu Shou Merchant Guild were to come and buy it, it would fetch more than three thousand spirit stones!"

Then, she pointed to a piece of Kunwu stone that was very bright red and said, "This red one is of the fire element. Don't be fooled by its small size, it is the highest quality here. Such a pure Kunwu stone with a single attribute is really rare. It will cost more than three thousand!"

As Chakta said, although this red Kunwu stone was less than a third the size of the blue-purple one, it was a very pure red and very clear, with no impurities visible inside. Even without Chakta's words, one could tell how precious it was.

"Besides forging and melting it down, this piece can also be used for inlaying!"

As Chakota spoke, he pointed to several pieces of Kunwu stone that were not small in size but rather murky in color: "These few are no good. They can only be used for forging. They won't have any effect on inlaying. However, they are also cheap. The largest one is only a few hundred spirit stones, and the smaller one can be used as a bonus. They are not worth much!"

As the only player who had ever handled Kunwu Stone, Guantangbao was already dumbfounded: "My God! The two stones I got from the quest are even worse than the two worst stones she got here!" (End of Chapter)