A leisurely life in the world of cultivation

Chapter 200 My cause is noble!
Night fell like a giant piece of black jade, slowly covering the Simpson Desert.

The crimson of the Great Red Rock has faded, and under the moonlight, it gleams with a cold, bluish-gray light. The folds on the rock face still hold the heat absorbed during the day, which slowly seeps out along the rock's texture, mixing with the cool night breeze to create a strange blend of warmth and coolness.

Sitting on the big red rock, Xiao Rui leaned even closer into Li Weizhou's arms, the two becoming one...

After a long while, she ran her fingertips along the rough texture of the rock, her soul seemingly returning to her senses, and chuckled, "They say this rock is 600 million years old, older than a dinosaur."

She can't let herself get into this anymore, or she really will die...

As Xiao Rui looked up, the ends of her hair brushed against Li Weizhou's chin, carrying a faint scent of grass and wood. She said, "Experts from the US, UK, and Australia dug here for quite a while, but ultimately returned empty-handed, even suffering considerable losses. This place is no longer called the Simpson Desert; it's called Satan."

Li Weizhou looked down at her profile, illuminated by starlight, and smiled, "Too late."

Xiao Rui asked, "What's too late?"

After taking a peck, Li Weizhou gazed at the brilliant starry sky and said, "They realized it too late, and they acted too late. If they had noticed it from the beginning, they might have had a chance to compete with me. Now, even if they dumped all the nuclear weapons on the planet here, it wouldn't make a difference. As for excavation, that's utter nonsense..."

The Blood Sea is extremely poisonous, even more corrosive than aqua regia; no kind of machinery can penetrate it.

Xiao Rui said, "I heard that they poured fluoroantimony and magic acid deep into the desert."

Fluoroantimonic acid and nitric acid are both super acids, with corrosiveness far exceeding that of aqua regia.

The acidity of fluoroantimonyic acid is 10 to the power of 19 times that of pure sulfuric acid...

Li Weizhou shook his head with amusement and said, "The idea is right, but unfortunately, it's too late. Don't worry about them, let's go home. After a while, I'll be able to take you to the moon."

"Really?"

The most powerful woman in the world today, at this moment, is like a playful and naive young girl, cheering with delight at the pie in the sky that a man casually promised.

Li Weizhou smiled and nodded, saying, "It won't be long."

Xiao Rui smiled broadly and said, "Honey, you're amazing!"

Li Weizhou shook his head and said, "No, it's because you're such a great wife. Let's go home and I'll treat you to something nice!"

Xiao Rui jumped onto his back, wrapped her arms around his neck, and felt the gentle breeze blowing. The scenery around her was changing so much that she couldn't see clearly. She laughed excitedly and said, "Honey, can you reward me while we're flying?"

Li Weizhou: "..."

……

The Five Elements Hall.

When Li Weizhou returned after wandering around Earth for a long time, Zhou Yueniang and the others had not yet come out of seclusion.

But the area outside the Five Elements Sect's mountain gate is becoming increasingly lively, with shouts of fighting and killing echoing across the arena every day.

The number of residents in the tenant area is increasing, and most of them are families who want to send their daughters to the academy.

Anyway, Ximei followed Tao Ling'er and had a great time playing around every day, she was extremely happy.

Li Weizhou didn't rush to join the fun. He took out talisman paper and talisman brush, practiced dozens of times on ordinary talisman paper, and then began to draw storage talismans using superior talisman paper and superior talisman brush.

Compared to the methods of making storage talismans in the spirit world, the talisman-making method he obtained from Xiao Jing was far more complicated.

But the results are also much better.

The storage talisman in the spirit world is something that even wealthy rogue cultivators can afford. Buy one and use it for a year—it's very convenient.

Of course, it's not cheap either; one costs eight mid-grade spirit stones.

The Five Elements Sect's mansion is so nice, yet the annual rent is only two mid-grade spirit stones.

But people still buy them, and quite a few of them do.

Those who invest in elixirs, magical treasures, or even their entire fortune are the ones who should buy the most, as independent cultivators are the least secure group.

You should distribute your wealth separately, but you must always keep a portion on yourself.

Even if our base is raided, we won't go completely bankrupt.

Cultivating immortality is truly a feat that even a hero cannot escape with a single spiritual stone...

Therefore, no independent cultivator with a family fortune dared to be careless.

If this is true for independent cultivators, then small and medium-sized families and sects are actually not much different.

They knew perfectly well that their formations couldn't stop real bandits and thieves.

Therefore, they need storage tokens even more, and they are major buyers!
The reason why the three major merchant alliances have been able to maintain their dominant position and other merchant alliances have been unable to surpass them for thousands of years is because they control the production of the vast majority of storage talismans.

That's right, the book "True Explanation of Talismans" contains the method for making storage talismans, but I've never heard of any faction actually making one by following the instructions.

Clearly, the production techniques provided in the official explanation are not complete...

After a short while, Li Weizhou put down his brush and let out a long breath.

He picked up the newly made storage talisman with his fingertips. It was only the size of his palm, but on this small piece of paper, three thousand six hundred runes were engraved, layer upon layer.

The brushstrokes must be swift, as fast as light. If you draw slowly and deliberately, the talisman paper will collapse instantly if you delay even slightly.

But every stroke must be perfect; only when the spiritual energy of each layer converges can a space of about ten feet square be expanded.

Just think how difficult that is...

Without Xiao Jing's transmission of the Dharma, even with the support of a large group of highly intelligent scholars on Earth, it would take Li Weizhou a very long time to achieve this level of mastery through his own study.

Don't underestimate its size. The outer storage talisman is at most the size of a wardrobe. It's quite impressive if you can store some precious magic treasures, pills, and cultivation manuals on jade slips.

And at about ten feet square, it is already three to five times the size of an ordinary storage talisman.

The key is that it's more stable.

Ordinary storage talismans cannot withstand the materials from some extremely powerful spirit beasts at the Spirit Origin Realm, let alone those at the Spirit God Realm.

For example, if you were to remove the reverse scale of that ice dragon and put it into an ordinary storage talisman, the storage talisman would instantly collapse.

However, the kind Li Weizhou created was stable enough to withstand the materials from a Spirit God Realm demon beast, which is equivalent to a Demon King-level spirit beast. The more Li Weizhou looked at it, the more he liked it!

This talisman paper is made of thousand-year-old cloud silkworm silk. The talisman paper itself has a faint jade-colored halo. Its texture is as soft and tough as a newly hatched spirit silkworm cocoon. When your fingertips run across the paper, you can feel the fine lines gently undulating under the skin.

Those were the traces of 1,200 spirit-locking patterns and 2,400 void-absorbing patterns intertwined. Ordinary cultivators would only see them as messy silver lines when they used their spiritual sense to investigate. Only those who had comprehended the power of space could see that those silver lines were actually miniature projections of the chaotic space, and that each turn contained the mystery of "creating something from nothing".

However, they could only vaguely discern some clues, and were completely unable to grasp the true essence.

If the three major business alliances want to forcibly dismantle...

If they had that skill, they wouldn't need to learn Li Weizhou's storage talisman; they could create it themselves...

Tsk tsk tsk, Li Weizhou was secretly delighted. One Ice Heart Pill, one Storage Talisman, and one Azure Origin Pill would completely solidify the Five Elements Sect's position as a giant in the Spirit Realm.

Of course, things should be done slowly.

The Qingyuan Pill is already a big enough draw for people as a prize; the Bingxin Pill can be offered next year.

The storage talisman is for family members to use first. It can be taken out again when he ascends to immortality.

No rush, there's still plenty of time.

……

"I can't live like this anymore!"

"Leaving Huofeng," Su Wan said angrily to Tian Ru.

Tian Ru was sitting under the wisteria trellis at Li Huo Peak, flipping through the list of outer court disciples. The fire spirit vines on the trellis were in full bloom, and petals fell into the teacup beside her, rippling with delicate spiritual patterns.

Hearing Su Wan's angry voice, she looked up and saw the Lord of Qingshui City clutching a handkerchief, the pearl hairpin at her temple swaying crookedly, clearly furious.

"Your fire could probably ignite the underground fire pool at Li Huo Peak."

Tian Ru pushed a freshly brewed cup of spirit tea onto the stone bench opposite her. A petal of a flame flower floated in the tea. She teased, "Sit down and rest. Your city lord's seal is almost crushed. What's wrong? Why are you so angry?"

Su Wan sat down with a thud, slamming her handkerchief on the stone table. The two characters "Qingshui" embroidered on the corner of the handkerchief were crumpled into a ball. She said, "Rest? How can I rest!"

She pointed down the mountain and said angrily, "That scoundrel Hou Haikun ransacked my Qingshui City's spiritual materials shops, magic artifact shops, and even the storytelling teahouses! Now, the market outside the Five Elements Sect's mountain gate even has the same wooden signs for collecting debts as those in Qingshui City! Has he no shame?"

She paused, picked up her teacup, and then slammed it down abruptly. A few drops of tea splashed onto the stone table, emitting tiny white steam. Clearly, she was genuinely angry, unable to suppress her spiritual energy. She said, "I thought you'd only cause trouble for three days, but who would have thought that more than half a month would pass, and it's getting more and more chaotic every day. If this continues, all my market managers will be packing their bags and coming to you for refuge!"

Upon hearing this, Tian Ru slowly stirred the tea with a tea whisk, the petals of the Flame Flower swirling in the water, and laughed, "You've always been so magnanimous, why are you so angry this time? Besides, Xuan Tian Pavilion already plagiarized the three major merchant alliances..."

Su Wan was taken aback, but still retorted defiantly, "Xuantian Pavilion copied it, but Qingshui City didn't!"

Tian Ru put down her tea whisk and smiled, "Yes, you are arrogant and think that what the three major merchant alliances can do, you can also do, and you have indeed done quite well. But will the three major merchant alliances be unable to continue just because merchant alliances in other regions of the Spirit Realm are imitating them?"

Su Wan glared at her and laughed angrily, "Your life is really getting better and better now. I used to be the one comforting you. Now it's the other way around! Putting everything else aside, that Hou brat is really ruthless. He's taken my place and added new things. He has everything I need for food, drink, and entertainment. I don't know where he got all those weird things. I heard someone say that someone was selling stinky tofu around the Five Elements Tower, and it was incredibly smelly, but the rogue cultivators were lining up to buy it. I didn't believe it, but when I came to see for myself today... my god. Is he possessed?!"

Tian Ru laughed so hard she almost fell over, saying, "That Hou Haikun truly lives up to his reputation as the top outer disciple appointed by Zhou; he's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve."

Su Wan snorted, "Whether it's his idea or someone else's, it's hard to say. If he really has so many methods, why didn't he mention them back at Xuan Tian Tower? All sorts of fancy pastries, all kinds of spiritual fruit milk tea... I bet it's mostly your good disciple's idea! No wonder he only accepts female disciples. I saw that outside the pastry and milk tea shops, there were lines of little girls. And all sorts of headdresses and clothes, not even magic artifacts, not a trace of spiritual power, yet he dares to accept spirit stones?!"

Tian Ru laughed, "It's cheap! Such beautiful headdresses only cost two or three low-grade spirit stones. And those clothes are quite nice for casual wear at home. Look, isn't this what I'm wearing now? Isn't it pretty?"

Su Wan laughed and said, "What if I use my spiritual power and someone pulls you so your butt doesn't show?"

Tian Ru glanced at her and said, "It's not that exaggerated. As long as you don't lose control of your spiritual power, it'll be fine. With my disciple here, I can't think of anyone in the Five Elements Territory who could make me lose control of my spiritual power. By the way, let's get down to business. Don't get worked up. Can we really go against each other? Wei Zhou guessed you were going to come and cause trouble for me, so I'm telling you in advance that I have something to discuss with you. I'll send a letter to him right now, and you can have a good talk with him. It'll definitely be beneficial."

Su Wan blinked upon hearing this and said, "He guessed that I was coming to settle scores with you?"

Tian Ru ignored her, sent out a paper crane, and continued drinking her tea.

Su Wan actually felt a little envious of this former sister who had fallen on hard times...

When did life become so leisurely and carefree that I don't even want to get involved in any annoying trifles?

She asked, "Hey, I heard that the people from the Liuyun Sect of Zhongzhou came on the third day, and your disciple suppressed them severely. After that, there has been no further movement? The Liuyun Sect has something going on in the Northern Spirit Domain. I heard they went down to the Northern Spirit Profound Abyss. I wonder what they want to do."

Sure enough, Li Weizhou arrived in less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. He was all smiles, and being handsome to begin with, he no longer put on airs, so he looked just like a dashing young master.

Tian Ru said, "Wei Zhou, look, City Lord Su is here. If you have anything to say, just tell her. She was just complaining that Hou Haikun was selling those headdresses, rouge, and clothes to cheat young girls out of their spirit stones."

Li Weizhou clicked his tongue, dissatisfied, and said, "What do you mean by 'deceive'? City Lord Su can go and see how much joy those little trinkets bring them, and then he'll know whether those three or five low-grade spirit stones were worth it. City Lord Su, how about we cooperate?"

Having governed the city for many years, Su Wan was no naive or innocent girl. She understood Li Weizhou's meaning immediately and said, "You want me to help you sell those trinkets?!" The disdain in her tone was unmistakable.

Li Weizhou smiled and said, "I'm afraid even City Lord Su doesn't know how many people or cultivators there are in the Spirit Realm. But there are already countless cultivators in the Northern Spirit Region, and naturally, there are many cultivation families as well. Although each grain of sand is small, they add up to a considerable number. The important thing is that this is an exclusive business for us."

Su Wan frowned and said, "How can it be an exclusive business? There are plenty of ordinary cities."

Li Weizhou chuckled and said, "City Lord Su can go and see if he can find these things produced by the Five Elements Sect."

Seeing his confidence, Su Wan began to ponder, saying, "If it's truly not available in the mortal realm... then three or five spirit stones would be reasonable. However..." She frowned slightly, "If only disciples from aristocratic cultivation families buy them, they can't buy too many. It's mainly the independent cultivators, but they earn spirit stones by risking their lives. Is it not morally right to profit from their hard-earned spirit stones?"

Li Weizhou shook his head and said, "They work hard but don't earn many spirit stones, so they can't buy their children nice robes or small spirit artifacts as toys. But can't poor children enjoy happiness? Spending just a tiny bit of spirit stones can bring them joy and happiness, and I think it's worth it. What we're doing is noble!"

On Earth, they're already researching various toys suitable for the spirit world; they just need a distribution channel.

Seeing that Su Wan was still hesitating, Li Weizhou chuckled and said, "If it weren't for the fact that our ancestor, the Five Mountains True Lord, offended the three major merchant alliances so badly back then, cooperating with them would actually be the best option. However, two thousand years have passed, so perhaps it's not impossible to cooperate."

The Blood Sea is the root cause. Although the number on Earth can still be expanded, the quality is no longer sufficient.

Li Weizhou didn't even know if reshaping a physical body at the Spirit God Realm would directly drain his Blood Sea until he reached the Immortal Spirit Realm.

Therefore, he needs to collect the corpses of spirit beasts and sinful races on a large scale in the spirit realm.

The name of the Dragon Marrow Bloodwood can conveniently cover it up.

However, the higher the level of the spirit beast's corpse, the more expensive it is.

So in the end, it all comes down to spirit stones.

That's good. He doesn't need to be too distracted by cultivation. He can just spend his time studying the way of formations every day, and spend the rest of his time figuring out how to make money!
……

(End of this chapter)