Chongming Xianzong

Chapter 18 Master Qi

Nancheng is home to almost all of the larger equipment refining shops in Xuanwei City. Qi's old store is located among them, neither big nor small, and is not very conspicuous.

The old shop owner, Master Qi, was called Qi Buxiu. In his early years, he was from a declining sect and seemed to be a disciple of the headmaster. Later, the sect fell into decline and there was no news of his disciples.

He married into a Qi-cultivating family named Wei and learned the craft of refining.

After his father-in-law, a cultivator, died, he divorced his mortal wife, changed his original surname, and married a female cultivator named Zhao. Together they took over the Wei family's property.

With the above deeds, even if one were to rank among the casual cultivators with extremely low qualifications, this Master Qi would be considered one of the best, able to stand out from the crowd.

Afterwards, he lived better and better relying on his skills, and even his spiritual path became more and more smooth. Finally, he hooked up with a female cultivator named Chu who was in the foundation-building stage. The two of them opened this weapon refining shop together without knowing what was going on.

From then on, he became more and more prosperous. After a few years, he even bought the deed of the weapon refining shop in Xuanwei City. He also employed two or three earth and fire rooms and three or four regular weapon refiners. This one property alone was worth countless Chongming Sect headquarters.

Fortunately, although Master Qi has a bad reputation, he has a low standard.

As long as you give him 200 spirit stones, he will dare to accept you as his apprentice no matter what your background is, and he will not worry at all that someone with poor skills will go out and ruin his reputation.

Just in this way, the quality of teaching can be imagined.

If Kang Dabao had not searched all the channels at his disposal and had not found anyone to introduce him to other weapon refiners, he would never have handed his short and stocky second junior brother over to this person.

Fortunately, Yuan Jin was lucky enough to learn from such a master. It was not in vain that Kang Dabao had to eat coarse food to support his apprenticeship for so many years.

Of course, no matter how despicable Master Qi's character was, he was still Yuan Jin's master who had knelt down and offered him tea, and it was not their turn to comment.

On the contrary, he was considered an elder to everyone in the Chongming Sect, so the etiquette of worshipping him had to be more particular.

Fortunately, Kang Dabao understands Master Qi's hobbies very well after spending several years with him.

It's very simple and straightforward. Thirty spirit stones are neatly packed into the gold-painted mahogany box. I'm sure the old guy will like it.

You have to know that this gift is really not small. In bad years, an experienced peddler like Kang Dabao could not earn this amount in half a year.

In the past few years, the value of the gifts that Yuan Jin sent to Master Qi's family during the three festivals and two birthdays every year was estimated to be around ten spirit stones.

In this way, he was considered very respectful among all the apprentices.

From this, we can see how valuable the gift that Emperor Chongming gave to thank Master Qi for helping Yuan Jin to become a disciple was.

Considering Master Qi's personality, it is not difficult to arrange a day for gift delivery. Yuan Jin came back in less than half an hour after he went out. After receiving the news, Kang Dabao and his two brothers can go to visit him at noon tomorrow.

In the evening, Kang Dabao and Yuan Jin looked at Jiang Qing with complicated expressions as he calmly went out to Miaoyunzhai.

There was no expression on the handsome young man's face, as if he was just going to a street restaurant to have some noodles.

"No wonder this brat always complains that the allowance I give him is not enough. How can it be used to pay for favors when he goes there all the time?"

Kang Dabao felt that the junior fellow apprentice whom he had brought up was not clean, and he felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

He hastily sent away Yuan Jin, who wanted to say something, and asked him to supervise Han Yundao and Duan Anle to finish their evening lessons, and then he went to the tidy bedroom to practice.

A small bottleneck at the fourth level of Qi training has trapped me for who knows how many years. If I don't work harder, I may never be able to break through to the late stage of Qi training in this lifetime.

As for the greatest happiness in the world? You should enjoy it after you are done with this busy period. If you work harder, you may be able to become a golden elixir master in this life, right?
At noon the next day, Kang Dabao felt that if the three heads of the Chongming Sect went to see Master Qi on a donkey-drawn cart, it would be a bit of a loss of Chongming Sect's reputation, so he asked Yuan Jin to hire a cloud-moving beast carriage to go.

After walking for a short while, they arrived at Master Qi's house, which was not comparable to the small courtyard that Yuan Jin rented.

In Xuanwei City, where every inch of land is valuable, Qi Buxiu, a weapon refiner of some fame, lives in a house that occupies five acres of land.

The burly men in black who are on duty at the door are ten mortal martial masters standing in a neat row, and they use the leftover materials produced during the refining process to create a "magic weapon".

Even if a low-level Qi-cultivating cultivator with weaker skills were to meet them alone, it would be hard to guarantee victory over such a figure.

If they were willing to return to certain states and counties, it would not be difficult for them to become a tycoon who bullies men and women in the countryside.

Now he is only used to guard the door. Master Qi is really very impressive.

After rewarding the mortal helper of the Qi family who led the way with two broken spirit seeds, he took the visiting card with a happy face as bright as a chrysanthemum. He bent over and led the three brothers through the three-meter-high lacquered red gate. The scene before them was even more amazing.

Large pieces of bluestone refined by spiritual fire were tightly stacked to form a tall courtyard wall, which was covered with prohibitions. From time to time, spiritual patterns flashed along the wall, making it look difficult to provoke.

Even with Kang Dabao's limited knowledge, he could vaguely see the layout of several formations in the courtyard, not to mention those that Kang Dabao could not see.

There were also many monks who led ferocious beasts and formed a guard to patrol the courtyard. All of them were at the middle stage of Qi training, and the leader was even at the late stage of Qi training. Compared with these, the carved beams and painted buildings, rockery and flowing water were nothing special.

After passing through the front yard, there is the magnificent reception room. The throne room Kang Dabao had seen in his previous life was not as luxurious as this one. The floor is made of pure gold! How much is this worth for a down payment!

Master Qi is quite capable, but a mere cultivator in the Qi training stage like him cannot afford to live in such a luxurious house. After all, his skill in refining equipment is not as good as his skill in coaxing women.

Master Qi and his second son Qi Duoluo stood up to greet them with smiles. The father and son seemed to be cast in the same mold, both with sinister looks, and did not look like good people.

"It's been a long time since I last saw you two nephews. Nephew Kang has made great progress. I am so happy. Duo Luo, quickly serve your two brothers some good tea."

Master Qi took the gift box and secretly scanned it with his spiritual sense, his smile widening. He was extremely satisfied with Yuan Jin.

He is an honest man, smart, efficient at his job, and his family is willing to pay him. Where can you find such an apprentice?
"Master Qi, you are too kind. My brother has a stubborn temper. It is all thanks to Master Qi's generous teachings that I have achieved what I have today. Kang is the head of the Chongming Sect, so I have to come to you to express my gratitude."

Kang Dabao said this seriously. Today he was wearing the Taoist robe of the head sect leader, which he rarely wore on weekdays. When he said this, he looked cheerful and elegant, which was very different from his usual mercenary appearance.

"Master He has indeed taught a good disciple." Qi Buxiu smiled and narrowed his eyes when he heard Kang Dabao's words, and his polite words were filled with a hint of sincere praise.

He had practiced Taoism for decades and had seen countless small sects fall into disarray due to internal strife after the death of their leaders. There were quite a few with a better foundation than Chongming Sect, but there were few who could hold up the sect like Kang Dabao.

Don’t think that Chong Mingzong is almost the same as he was fifteen years ago, he is still a kitten.

But Jiang Qing had good aptitude and was a sword cultivator. What was even more rare was that he was likely to have the potential to build a foundation. Someday in the future, he might become a rare and outstanding figure in Yunjiaozhou.

This disciple of mine is quite talented in refining weapons. To be honest, all he lacks now is just some experience.

Apart from the few skills I had hidden away in my heart, I had nothing else to teach him.

In time, his skills will definitely surpass mine.

It’s a pity that he can only be exploited for two more years, and then he can only watch helplessly as he becomes Chongming Zong’s cash cow.

Apart from the generation of the founder of the sect, when has their Chongming Sect ever had a weapon refiner?

As for Kang Dabao, he is a leader, and he is so humble that he can earn money by doing business in the surrounding markets like a peddler. He does not sell off his sect's assets to make a living like most prodigal sons.

That’s right, it seems that Emperor Chongming didn’t have much left to sell at that time.

But the most difficult thing is to have a clear mind.

When the leaders of many sects were in decline, they liked to look for so-called "reliable" and "innocent" independent cultivators to serve as their followers in order to expand their influence, but in the end they were usurped by a group of outsiders and taken advantage of.

But Kang Dabao never does such things.

He was willing to give up his own cultivation, but spared no effort to support his two fellow disciples in their cultivation and learning, so that the Chongming Sect is still clean and orderly today, with an appearance of brotherly love and respect.

I heard that the Jiang family business was robbed a few years ago, and he was among them, yet he managed to escape unscathed in the end. His subordinates must have some real skills.

Who knows, under his leadership, the Chongming Sect could really prosper again and become one of the most powerful foundation-building sects in the vicinity.

In general, these three disciples of the previous leader of the Chongming Sect will probably be able to make something of themselves in the future.

When Qi Buxiu thought of this, he turned around and looked at his second son, and became extremely angry.

"I have eighty-three children in my life, but the only one with spiritual roots has only learned how to be a prostitute and pimp over the years. It's hard to keep such wealth."

I also thought about how I had known that senior for many years, but we still had no children.
With that person's bad temper, I can still coax him while I am still around. But if I am gone, who in the Qi family can have a say in front of him?

After a hundred years, if she forgets our past relationship and finds someone better, then the property that I have spent most of my life building up despite all the criticism I have endured, will it end up in the hands of the new person?
Then, will the hundreds of people in the Qi family still have enough food to eat?

No, I have to start making plans for my retreat. Be careful that after I bury him, I won't even get any food or incense from my descendants. Qi Buxiu looked at Yuan Jin and thought, and a plan came to his mind.

After the host and the guest sat down, they each chatted for a few paragraphs, which were nothing more than some nonsense about Qi Buxiu praising the friendship between the emperor and his subordinates and the respect between brothers, and Kang Dabao praising Qi Buxiu for his noble morals and his virtues being passed down to his descendants.

The host invited the guests to dinner and they followed the host's wishes. They talked and laughed for a while at the table. After both parties finished their official business, Kang Dabao took his two fellow apprentices and said goodbye.

"Second Brother, I think you and your Junior Brother Yuan should get closer."

　Haha, thank you @米汤大哥老哥 for your follow-up reading and valuable suggestions.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)