Family Cultivation: Rise of the Wilderness

Chapter 416 Puyin Mountain Trading Post
The changes in Monkey Valley go far beyond this. Hu Qidao went deeper into the valley and soon discovered a huge square with a circular building in the center.

Strangely, the building's windows are interconnected, arranged in a circular line, and one can vaguely see the people inside.

"Brother Hu, what is this?"

The young man next to Hu Qidao looked shocked and couldn't help but ask.

"Let's go over and have a look."

Hu Qidao was also very curious and strode forward. Before he even reached the building, a gaunt old man poked his head out of a window and waved: "Over here!"

"Old Man Yang?"

Hu Qidao was even more surprised. He quickened his pace and called out, "Old Yang, what are you doing here?"

Old Yang chuckled: "I'm getting old, so I don't want to go into the mountains anymore. I might as well find a job in Monkey Valley. Look at the environment here, isn't it nice?"

Hu Qidao peeked inside and found it to be very spacious. The most eye-catching feature was a stone pillar that served as the main structure, covered with densely packed pieces of paper.

Apart from that, all that remained for him was a sense of mystery and cleanliness.

"Old Yang, where is this place?"

Hu Qidao asked cautiously.

Old Yang pointed outside, "You, can't you even look at the sign?"

Hu Qidao quickly turned around and saw a long stone tablet standing not far away, with the words "Puyin Mountain Trading Company" engraved on it.

"This"

Hu Qidao and the young people around him looked at each other in bewilderment.

When did the Puyinshan Trading Post become so grand?
"The important figure above said that the original intention of establishing the Puyinshan Trading Company was to hope that merchants could do business with everyone in accordance with the principles of fairness, impartiality and transparency. This building was built for this purpose."

Old Man Yang stroked his beard and spoke eloquently: "From now on, our trading house will regularly publish the purchase prices of monster materials. You won't need to haggle with itinerant merchants or anyone else anymore, and you won't have to worry about being cheated. For any material, don't hesitate, just sell it here. The price we offer is absolutely the fairest price in Puyin Mountain."

Hu Qidao seemed to be deep in thought.

In fact, Puyinshan Exchange had already done this a few years ago.

Its emergence caused the traveling merchants to cry out in despair. Some of them couldn't get any benefits and had to leave Puyin Mountain, while others chose to join the Puyin Mountain Guild Hall and become part of the Puyin Mountain Exchange.

That's right, the Puyinshan Exchange can be manipulated.

Any cultivator or organization that wants to acquire materials from demonic beasts must cooperate with the Puyin Mountain Guild Hall when they come to Puyin Mountain.

Otherwise, the Puyin Mountain Guild Hall would instruct the exchange to raise the pre-purchase price of monster materials.

The pre-order price is Zhao Jindou's "great" invention.

When the price of a certain material increases, traveling merchants will spread rumors, and the trading post will announce a pre-order price to attract the attention of demon hunters.

Demon hunters are already at the end of the information gap, and having heard all sorts of rumors, they naturally believed it without a doubt, concluding that the material was valuable, at least at this stage.

As a result, they would flock to Puyin Mountain to hunt down the corresponding monsters and hoard the "precious" materials, waiting to sell them at a high price.

This is what makes Puyin Mountain special.

In many people's common sense, the materials from demon beasts in the hands of frontline demon hunters are often the cheapest.

But Puyin Mountain is different!

Here, the price published by the exchange is the lowest price for the material.

If a businessman from out of town offers a purchase price that is comparable to or even lower than that offered by the exchange, he will not be favored by the demon hunters.

But if you want to sell at a price higher than the exchange price, wouldn't that be a loss?
In that case, why not prepare a kickback and purchase it directly from the association at the normal price?
It is based on this logic that Puyinshan Guild Hall has made a fortune over the years.

They not only meddle in materials from demonic beasts, but also sell elixirs and talismans, practically monopolizing all commercial activities in Puyin Mountain.

Do you want to do business here?

No question, I'll join the Puyinshan Association first.

Hu Qidao didn't understand much about these intricacies.

But as a demon hunter, he has his own understanding and ideas.

Although the guild halls have absolute power in Puyin Mountain, it must be said that their sudden emergence has improved the overall market environment of Puyin Mountain. At least for novice demon hunters, they only need to worry about whether they can survive in the mountains.

And you don't have to worry about the monster materials you obtained after risking your life to get going unsold.

Even the once scarce spirit wine has become commonplace—a natural consequence of the existence of a massive commercial group.

However, now that the Li family has returned to Puyin Mountain, they have not only promoted the merger of the two major demon-hunting groups, Jin Guang and Ling Tong, but also carried out a comprehensive expansion of Monkey Valley, such as transforming the former exchange into the current trading house.

What is the underlying meaning?
Hu Qidao vaguely understood something and gasped.
-
In a secluded room of the Taibai Restaurant, the light was soft yet bright.

Li Xiangming sat cross-legged on the mat, breathing deeply, with a faint white mist rising around him, swirling like a light veil.

"Master, Madam Feng and the others wish to see you."

There was a knock at the door, followed by a respectful announcement.

Li Xiangming slowly opened his eyes, the spirit stone in his hand instantly turning into fine powder that slipped from his fingers. "Let them in."

"Here?"

The person outside the door was clearly taken aback.

"Ah."

Li Xiangming didn't explain much. He took out a pill from his storage bag, swallowed it, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

It has been more than three months since I returned from Suyunling.

During this period, he stayed at the Taibai Restaurant to cultivate.

Thanks to the Enlightenment Spring and the evil green robe, he not only made rapid progress in cultivating the magic of the Green Cloud Cave, but also became adept at breathing in and out magical power.

As his internal magical power grew stronger, Li Xiangming also became "inflated" and began to try to break through to the Spiritual Aperture.

The spiritual apertures are invisible and intangible, also known as hidden acupoints. They are numerous, totaling 36,000, and are distributed around the 720 acupoints in the human body.

Everyone knows that the path of cultivation is for the pursuit of immortality.

How can one achieve immortality?

Only by relying on magic power!

Magical power can create countless things and is omnipotent. Taoism believes that as long as one cultivates magical power to the highest level, one can remain young forever and be immortal. This is the origin of the term "immortal".

However, as early as ancient times, Qi cultivators discovered that the amount of magical power that the dantian could hold was limited—of course, back then it wasn't called magical power, but simply spiritual energy.

When the threshold is reached, no matter how hard a Qi cultivator tries to breathe, the excess "spiritual energy" will escape from their body.

This phenomenon has troubled the cultivation world for many years.

It wasn't until Chen Zu proposed the "theory of spiritual roots" and the "theory of cultivation" that the concept of "spiritual root cultivation" was clarified, and "spiritual energy" and "magical power" were defined in detail.

The Qi cultivators then realized that once spiritual energy was exhaled into the body, it was no longer harmless spiritual energy, but magical power capable of summoning wind and rain.

In that era, Qi cultivators' desire to explore magical power reached its peak, not only giving birth to all sorts of bizarre spells, but also establishing a new realm of cultivation.

Indeed, some people have discovered that when breathing in spiritual energy, the energy is "absorbed" in certain places, thus generating a trace of magical power.

Qi cultivators call these places "spiritual apertures".

The discovery of the spiritual aperture caused a sensation. Soon, someone had a sudden inspiration and tried to use magic to attack the spiritual aperture.

This is incredible! Because the spiritual aperture has been opened, it can not only generate magic power faster, but also store magic power, which is equivalent to a "small dantian"!
The Qi cultivator, who had been struggling with limited magical power, suddenly had a breakthrough.

Therefore, using spiritual apertures for cultivation and developing the body's hidden potential has become a consensus in the cultivation world.

Once a certain number of spiritual apertures are developed, a "barrier" will be encountered. Only by breaking through this barrier can one continue to find the next spiritual aperture. This barrier is the major hurdle of Foundation Establishment.

From then on, the cultivation world had a second realm: Foundation Establishment!

The subsequent realms are roughly the same.

The so-called cultivation is to continuously explore one's own spiritual apertures and increase the magical power within the body.

However, the spiritual aperture is not so easily subdued.

Even with all his magical power, Li Xiangming only managed to break through the first spiritual aperture after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

To break through the second one, one must wait for the dantian's magical power to recover and fully cultivate the magical power of all the developed spiritual apertures in one's body before being qualified to attempt the remaining spiritual apertures.

But it's just a qualification; the spiritual aperture is stubborn, and most people can't complete it in one go.

If the attempt fails, all magical power will be exhausted, and months of hard work will be wasted.

This is precisely why the path of spiritual practice is so long.

Throughout a cultivator's life, they are constantly in a cycle of absorbing and consuming magical power.

It's not uncommon for people who aren't well-prepared or have bad luck to be trapped in a spiritual realm for over ten years.

The Spiritual Aperture stage is already so difficult; the subsequent Golden Core stage is even more challenging, not only difficult but also fraught with danger.

At worst, failing to break through to the spiritual aperture is just a waste of magical power. However, if one is careless at major hurdles such as Foundation Establishment or Golden Core, the consequences can range from minor damage to the meridians and closure of the spiritual aperture, leading to a regression in cultivation, to severe backlash from the magical power, resulting in death.

Li Xiangming silently recovered his magical power, and before long, there was another knock on the door.

"Come in!"

A still-attractive woman in palace attire was the first to step across the threshold. Her gaze swept across the room and quickly focused on Li Xiangming. She curtsied and said, "Madam Feng greets Hall Master Li!"

"It's been several years since we last met, and you've changed quite a bit too," Li Xiangming replied casually.

Once upon a time, Madam Feng dressed simply and devoted herself wholeheartedly to her career.

Now they've started dressing up in fancy clothes.

(End of this chapter)