Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 414: A hundred years of business, a hundred years of cultivation; if people ask for the secret of immortality, keep the heart lamp shining until midnight

In the Heishanfang Market, among the ruins, one day a bright light suddenly shot up into the sky, breaking the haze that had lingered for years.

Lu Cheng stood in the center of the market town, and the thirty-six battle flags in his sleeves flew out in all directions like swimming fish as he injected his magic power.

The golden patterns on the flag flowed, and when it took root on the ground, it forced out all the remaining shallow evil spirits in the earth veins. Those black and red evil spirits twisted and roared like living creatures, but turned into green smoke and dissipated in the array light.

These evil spirits are the resentment of people who died unjustly. If they accumulate too much, at the very least they will make people uneasy, and at the worst they will condense into evil spirits and cause harm to others.

"rise!"

Following the shout, the entire market town shook.

'It's almost enough to do this. Although I can't force out the deep-level evil spirit, the people coming and going in the market are full of yang energy, so I can suppress it and there's nothing to worry about.'

After the battle of Bone Island, the spiritual island turned into a Jedi infested with poisonous insects.

After Lu Cheng negotiated with half of the Black Sea creatures in the shallow waters, the Black Hearted Master withdrew as agreed, and the Black Mountain Market returned to the hands of the Taiqing Sect.

Although, it is a half-abandoned foundation.

The entire Black Sea water creatures on White Bone Island were wiped out, which somewhat deterred the Black Hearted Man and some of the water creatures. Otherwise, things might not have been so smooth.

"Senior Brother Lu, the North District has been cleared!" At this moment Yan Xiao descended on his red escape beam, and the seven Yanhuo Clan cultivators behind him were burning the last few ruins with true fire, preparing to rebuild.

Of course, it was not only Lu Cheng and his men who built the market town. After the Black Mountain Bandits retreated, they released a large number of slaves who they could not use. Although these people no longer had any magic weapons or spirit stones, and they also consumed a lot of food, such a group of people were more suitable for rebuilding the market town and using work as a relief.

Chu Yibai returned from the south on a cloud, with the star disk in his hand flickering with brilliance: "Brother Lu, the protective formation has been arranged according to the formation diagram, but the core is still missing a suppressor..."

"Use this as your eyes." Lu Cheng threw out a pearl the size of a longan without any hesitation.

When the bead was suspended in the air, there was a faint flickering white fire inside - this object was called the Qianyang Bead, and it had been nurtured in the Tiangang atmosphere for a thousand years. At this moment, it was refined into the eye of the formation, and when the formation was activated, it could have the effect of enhancing the yang fire magic power.

Time flies, and several months later, when the first ray of morning light penetrates the mist of Black Mountain, the entire market town has been completely renewed.

On both sides of the bluestone-paved streets, nine-story pavilions are lined up one after another, and the copper bells hanging on the eaves ring softly in the wind, crisp and pleasant.

"Opening of the market——"

With an order from Yan Xiao as the host, the Black Mountain Market, which had been silent for many years, reopened.

The Black Sea creatures who had been waiting for a long time now poured in like a tide. Their bodies were roughly the same size as humans, except that they had gills and their bodies were covered with scales. They behaved in a rough manner, but they also followed the rules.

"The Red Scale Tribe sent a thousand pounds of cold iron to celebrate the reopening of the Black Mountain Market!"

"The Qingya tribe sent a hundred boxes of elixirs to celebrate the reopening of the Black Mountain Market!"

Amid the sounds of announcements, Lu Cheng stood with his hands behind his back on the Guanyun Pavilion, the highest point in the market.

Scanning with his spiritual sense, he could see several aquatic creatures carrying tortoise shells bargaining with human merchants. The Black Sea area was mainly populated by mermen, but there were also other aquatic creatures, but in a relatively small number.

This scene seems to be a microcosm of all the creatures in the universe within this small space.

Those human merchants were, of course, former slave monks. Lu Cheng signed contracts with them, allowing them to do business in the shops they built. Although they are currently employed in the market, they can redeem the shops in the future and turn them into their own property.

In this way, naturally no one would cheat when building shops, or at least the number would be reduced a lot, because they are building their own business.

The goods sold in the shop are the basic spiritual objects that Lu Cheng resold from the mortal world through the Jiuli Ding. Although the mortal world is not as good as the earthly immortal world, Haiyuan City still has great advantages compared to the poor and remote Black Mountain, especially when selling to the Black Sea aquatic creatures:
Spiritual rice, spiritual noodles, magic tools, and elixirs were already luxuries in their eyes at that time.

As for these goods, Chu Yibai, Yan Xiao and the others were not surprised. They just thought that Senior Brother Lu had a large storage magic weapon on him, which was not uncommon in the world of immortal cultivation. At most, they were a little worried about the capacity of the storage magic weapon and whether the goods in it could be sold and consumed in an endless supply.

"Brother Lu." At this time, Chu Yibai came over with the account book in his hand, and his eyes were full of shock: "Only half a day's trading is equivalent to the previous month's trading in the Black Mountain Market..."

"This is normal. The aquatic creatures in the Black Sea have a demand for spiritual creatures on land, and so do the independent cultivators in the Black Mountains. Without these external environmental foundations, the sect would not have planned to build a market here. Look, almost all the aquatic tribes that signed contracts with us have come here. They have been eating aquatic plants and black fish for half their lives, and they also want to change their taste.

For us humans, it's the same: we find seafood tasty occasionally, but if we don't have rice, flour or meat, we'll want to kill people in no time. These aquatic creatures are more adaptable than us, but they also have their limits."

"Senior Brother Lu, I'm a little worried now. Can a large industry like Black Mountain Square be maintained by just a few of us?" Chu Yibai said with some concern.

Hearing this, Taoist Lu Cheng turned around, smiled slightly, patted the female cultivator on the shoulder and said, "At least they won't attack us right now. The Black Mountain Bandits, the Deep Sea Tribe, and even the Taiqing Sect's mountain gate, they all want to eat us, but their appetites are different.

In a dozen years, the Black Mountain bandits will start plundering again. In a hundred years, the aquatic creatures in the deep Black Sea will have something to do with us. In a few hundred years, the sect will want to take back the management power of the Black Mountain Market and transfer us back.

But they won’t make a move now. If we are still at the same level of cultivation as we are today after a few hundred years, then we can’t really blame the sect.”

After hearing this, Chu Yibai pondered for a moment and gradually understood:

"Brother, you are right. The fate of a cultivator is ultimately in his own hands. Mana power and practice are the foundation. Playing tricks is not what we should do. I was wrong. Thank you for your advice."

Back then, Chu Yibai was the senior sister of Lu Cheng, Zhou Zijing and others, but since some time ago, Chu Yibai started calling Lu Cheng "senior brother".

At the same time, some members of the Yanxiao tribe returned to the Yanhuo tribe's territory and informed the tribe leader of the prosperous development of the Heishan Market. On the one hand, they hoped that the tribe leader would increase investment in the Heishan Market, and on the other hand, they also hoped to bring a group of Yanhuo tribe members to the Heishan Market to settle down and create a new foundation for the tribe.

This group of cultivators from the Yanhuo Clan were later integrated by Lu Cheng into the good families of the Black Mountain Market, forming a guard force to protect the market. If the order of the market was really maintained by relying on the power of a group of robbery cultivators, wouldn't it be a huge joke?

At the same time, Black Mountain Market is also building its own caravan system. As long as the profits are high enough, caravans from outside will naturally come. Lu Cheng had previously promised Tian Yunzi a 40% profit increase and tribute. In this way, it will be difficult for Black Mountain Market itself to generate any profit. After all, most of it has to be offered to the sect.

However, the reselling of goods between the two realms in Lucheng itself, hidden in the cargo throughput of the market itself, generates huge profits. The scissors gap between the two realms itself attracts more people to the Heishan market, forming a positive cycle.

With the reputation of Taiqing Sect as a guarantee, Heishan Market attracts human cultivators and spiritual beings from all over the area to come and trade and settle down.

At the same time, the market also allows grassroots independent cultivators to set up stalls in the market, as long as they pay part of the management fees. This is also a source of income.

The night sky of the Black Mountain peaks is so thick that it seems to be able to overflow with ink.

A young monk named Zhou Yunxian curled up in the crevice of the rocks, listening to the roar of wild beasts in the distance, and broke the hardened Linggu cake in his arms into two halves.

This was his last supply of food, and it was also the thirty-seventh time he had struggled on the brink of life and death since he left the small family that was slaughtered by the robbers.

As she approached her deathbed, Zhou Yunxian seemed to hear her mother's crying again.

"Go and beg your father, go and beg your father! You will die, child, you will die if you go out like this!"

The Zhou family is a small family in Montenegro. If there is anything commendable about this family, it is that the Zhou family secretly passes down a set of skills, called Xuanwu Zhengong, which is said to be passed down by a large sect and is extremely powerful and profound.

In Xuandu City at the foot of Taiqing Mountain, skills such as the "Taiqing Nine-Turn Golden Elixir Sutra" can be practiced casually, but the vast majority of Black Mountain cultivators will never reach Xuandu City in their lifetime.

On the other hand, a practice like "Taiqing Nine-Turn Golden Elixir Art" which focuses on accumulation and is weaker than fighting, and is intended to develop the potential of cultivators, is actually not suitable for most cultivators to practice, unless they can be sure that they will hardly need to fight and will hardly encounter danger before refining the golden elixir.

As a mother who was a casual cultivator, she married Zhou Yunxian's father as a concubine in the hope that he would be taken care of and that her children could learn the Xuanwu True Art.

But there was nothing. The Zhou family neither took care of the poor woman nor could they teach the family's secret skills to a bastard.

When he was young, Zhou Yunxian was arrogant and proud. After he could no longer improve on his mother's Qingmu Jue, he left home to venture out and seek his own destiny. At that time, his mother held him and cried, asking him to ask that man to teach him Xuanwu Zhengong. He pushed her away and left resolutely.

The passion of young people is so precious, yet it is often wasted. Many years later, Zhou Yunxian finally realized how precious a great technique is, and finally understood why the Zhou family regarded that technique as a treasure.

In the night many years later, Zhou Yunxian, who had been worn out by many life-and-death ordeals, curled up in a crevice in the mountains to avoid wild beasts, licking the last crumbs in his palm, feeling that he was almost at the end of his rope.

"It turns out that what my mother said was right... It is better for low-level monks to accumulate from generation to generation, rather than go out and take risks. There are too many dangers and too few benefits."

Suddenly, a golden light appeared on the ridge in the distance. The light was as small as a bean at first, then gradually turned into a stream of fire, and finally connected into one in the dark mountains. It was the light of a market town!

There is no curfew in the Black Mountain Market, and trading is carried out day and night without any prohibition.

Zhou Yunxian saw the light from afar, and the strength that surged from somewhere made him crawl towards the light.

Fortunately, the fire also scared away the wild beast, otherwise, given his current condition, he would probably have died from the beast's bite.

When Zhou Yunxian rushed to the foot of the mountain breathlessly, he ran into a group of black-robed monks parading the corpse of a robber monk through the streets.

After seeing people, his body went limp and he fell forward. While he was still in a state of blurred consciousness, Zhou Yunxian felt someone stuffing food and pouring water into his mouth. Although the movements were not gentle, he could realize that he had reached a safe place.

Right now is a time when there is a shortage of people everywhere in the Black Mountain Market, so they will naturally not let a strong laborer lose his life in vain.

What followed was decades of stability, prosperity and development. Relying on the profits gained from market transactions, Lu Cheng, Chu Yibai and Yan Xiao also devoted themselves to their own cultivation.

The news brought back by the seven Jindan cultivators received a response. The Yanhuo Clan increased their investment in Yanxiao and Lucheng. Not only did the seven Jindan cultivators' relatives and disciples come, but also a Yuanying cultivator from the Yanhuo Clan, although he was an extremely old and nearly dead Yuanying cultivator.

However, the appearance of this Nascent Soul cultivator still balanced the power balance among the parties.

Forty years later, on the night of the winter solstice, a light snowflake was falling in the Heishan market.

Clang clang clang clang...Inside Zhou Ji's Fire Refining Workshop, there was an endless sound of hammering and refining.

Zhou Yunxian rubbed the scar on his hand and took the newly formed "Black Water Fire-Repelling Sword" in his hand to admire it.

This is his unique magic weapon that he refined by quenching it with Xuanming heavy water. In recent years, it was finally rated as a lower-grade third-level magic weapon by the market.

Today, Zhou Yunxian has cultivated to the foundation-building stage, and his natural life span is 240 years. He is also a third-level weapon refiner. Although he was seriously injured many times in his early years and overworked afterwards, which reduced his life span, he still has at least a hundred years to live.

In addition, there is no innate realm in the earthly immortal world, so according to the standards of the mortal world, Zhou Yunxian is already a fourth-rank weapon refiner.

"Master!" The door of the shop was pushed open, and a young apprentice holding a gilded invitation gasped: "Master Lu... Master Lu has posted, and it's... it's you!"

The four characters "Zhou's Weapon Refining" on the gold-embossed paper made the apprentice's hands tremble slightly.

Not to mention him, even the young man who was trying to survive in the crevice of the rock back then would never have thought that one day he would attend the Banquet of Hundreds of Merchants held in the Zhaixing Pavilion by the Black Mountain Market.

Forty years of hard work seemed to have paid off at this moment.

At the same time, in the Zhaixing Pavilion, Lu Cheng, Chu Yibai, and Yan Xiao were digesting the news they had just received:

The Taiqing Sect suddenly took action and broke through the Mulong Ridge Wanmu Tongxuan Formation in one day, killing the Muling Clan's ancestor Lianxu. All the Muling people there were demoted to slaves. It was an extremely tragic event that shocked the world.

Because he was a true disciple of the Taiqing Sect, Lu Cheng received some details in the intelligence he obtained: the Wood Spirit Clan of Mulong Ridge could already control a large number of wooden puppets and corpses, and they were not afraid of life and death and were quite powerful.

If Taiqing Sect had not taken sudden action and secretly mobilized a number of combined cultivators, it might not have been possible to break through the defense line of the Wanmu Tongxuan Array in the first place.

The Wanmu Tongxuan Array is a void-refining realm array that connects to the earth veins. A void-refining realm cultivator in it can be as powerful as a fusion realm cultivator.

"This time, the sect acted cleanly and neatly, and did a great job. Given the current situation of the sect, it would be best if we don't take action. If we do, it must be with great force to shock the rebels.

The most taboo thing is to get stuck in a long battle and fail to break through the Ten Thousand Trees Array. At that time, it will be like a fire on all sides. "

Although the Taiqing Sect has not had a Mahayana cultivator for ten thousand years, there are still many cultivators in the Fusion Realm. However, these people usually have to guard various key points. This time they were able to gather together silently and launch a thundering attack. I don't know how much calculations and fights must have taken place in secret.

The benefit of success is that they can rob the Mu Ling Clan of Mulongling of their accumulation of ten thousand years and enhance the prestige and momentum of Taiqing Sect.

However, if they fail and the battle is unsuccessful for a long time, there will be countless alien races in the Earthly Immortal Realm who will openly or secretly help the Wood Spirit Clan and consume the power of the Taiqing Sect.

Not to mention other things, the Wood Spirit Clan in the Earthly Immortal Realm is not limited to the Mulongling branch, just like the human race is not limited to the Taiqing Sect branch. It’s just that the spiritual world is so vast that it is difficult for them to help each other.

“After this deterrence, the black-hearted people should be more restrained. They have robbed our caravans several times over the years, and several chambers of commerce have given up doing business with us.” Chu Yibai said as he put down the jade slip.

"No, as long as the Black Hearted Man still wants to cultivate to become a god, he will not be easily satisfied. This man is greedy, vicious, cruel and reckless. However, it is a good thing to have him constantly gathering Tribulation Cultivators near the Black Mountain." Lu Cheng said this after putting down the jade slip in his hand.

Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, more than a hundred years had passed, which was enough to turn a barren mountain into a magnificent city.

The white-haired old monk Zhou Yunxian, leaning on a dragon-head staff, stood on the observation deck of the Zhou mansion, overlooking the view of the Black Mountain below.

Today's Black Mountain Market has undergone seven expansions. The spiritual light of the mountain protection formation flows day and night. Even the once dreaded Black Sea has now become a prosperous waterway for merchant ships.

"Great Grandfather!" The chubby great-grandson came running over holding his newly refined first-level magic weapon. The jade pendant on his waist jingled and the fat boy gestured excitedly:

"Great grandfather, great grandfather! I have refined a magical weapon!"

The old man smiled and rubbed the child's head, but his eyes passed through the rows of buildings and fell on the always bright Star-Picking Pavilion on the top of the mountain.

It is said that Master Lu is still studying and practicing Taoism there.

When the evening breeze brought the familiar scent of tea, Zhou Yunxian suddenly started coughing violently. Amid the panicked shouts of his children and grandchildren around him, he vaguely saw a Taoist sitting in the clouds, holding a book in his hand, but looking down.

"Are you leaving?" The Taoist asked casually, as if he was asking about tomorrow's weather.

Zhou Yunxian wanted to nod, but found that her body was as light as a feather. Two hundred years of memories flowed before her eyes: the cold night in the cracks of the rocks, the fire in the equipment shop, the red makeup of her Taoist partner when she first got married. Finally, they were fixed on the crying faces of her children and grandchildren around her.

"It's not a loss. It's not a loss in this life." The old man grinned, with ashes left over from refining weapons in his wrinkles.

That night, Zhou Yunxian regained his composure for a moment and established a family motto for the Zhou family:

"It is hard to beg for life in a crack in the rock on a cold night; half of one's life is in turmoil and half is in peace.

Don’t envy the dangers on the path to immortality, but accumulate firewood to lay the foundation.

There is a scar in front of the refining furnace, and snow covers the crown outside the Star-Picking Pavilion.

If people ask for the secret of longevity, keep the light of your heart to illuminate the night." After that, he passed away peacefully.

A meteor streaked across the sky above the brightly lit Black Mountain peaks. The copper bell on the eaves of the Star-Picking Pavilion rang gently, and the ding-dong sound spread far, far away.

(End of this chapter)