Starting with the creation of the Immortal Clan through the compilation of the family genealogy.

Chapter 40 Opening Up Channels, the Lady Advances
The "Benefit-the-People Pharmacy" operates openly, progressing steadily amidst praise and underhanded attacks, while the clandestine "Spiritual Plants for Capital" scheme teems with danger, like dancing on a knife's edge.

The Hebei-North Sichuan line has finally received a response.

Through covert observations while selling monster materials in town after several hunting trips, and by using his extensive network of contacts at the county docks to screen and test people, a key figure was brought into Meng Xihong's view.

Qingzhou is known for its martial spirit, and its atmosphere is quite different from that of Yunzhou.

Most cultivators in Yunzhou gather in the spiritual lands of the prefecture, and are rarely seen in the counties and towns; however, in the counties of Qingzhou, there are often traces of rogue cultivators. Although most of them are low-level cultivators at the first or second level of Qi Refining, it is enough to show the local people's worship of spirituality and martial arts.

Zhao Tieshan, a peak fourth-level Qi Refining cultivator, is a senior escort at the Weiyuan Escort Agency in Qingzhou. He has been escorting goods between the three counties of Linjun for many years and has extensive connections. He is especially renowned in the gray areas of the martial arts world for his "honor of promises, loyalty, and tight-lipped nature."

Ji Beichuan once vaguely mentioned that Zhao Tieshan seemed to be related to a declining small cultivation family in Qingzhou, and his vision and knowledge were far beyond those of ordinary martial artists.

Their first contact was arranged in an abandoned hunter's cabin deep in the Old Immortal Mountain.

That night, the moon was hidden and the wind was high, and the sound of the forest was like a roar.

Meng Xihong and Zhang Xianghua both covered their faces with black cloths, concealing their presence to the minimum. Inside the wooden house, Zhao Tieshan was already waiting.

He was a burly man with a thick-backed machete at his waist. His eyes were sharp as a hawk's, and he exuded a faint aura of bloodlust and the wariness of someone who had been through many trials in the martial world. He did not light any lamps, but only used the dim light from the window to observe the visitor.

"Goods." Meng Xihong deliberately lowered his voice to a hoarse tone, placed a rough wooden box on the table with a thin slab of ordinary "sinking wood" as a barrier, and lifted the lid.

Three stalks of calming grass lay quietly among them. Their leaves were lush and green, with a faint silver sheen running through their veins. A cool and refreshing aura that calmed the mind and dispelled all distracting thoughts quietly permeated the air, instantly dispelling the oppressive atmosphere in the room.

Zhao Tieshan's pupils suddenly contracted. He took a step forward, but instead of touching it, he bent down and took a deep sniff, then focused intently on it.

He traveled all over the country and had seen real spiritual plants at the county town's grand auction house.

These three herbs, though their spiritual energy is as faint as a candle flickering in the wind, possess a pure life essence, a flawless plant form, and an inherent natural Daoist charm... making them far from ordinary wild plants.

This is definitely a spiritual plant seedling, and the cultivation method is extremely skillful, with its vitality well preserved. Its value far exceeds that of an equal weight of gold.

He suddenly looked up, his gaze shooting towards Meng Xihong like lightning, trying to pierce through the black cloth. But he only felt that the other party's aura was as solid as a mountain, and his eyes were as deep as a cold abyss, which made even this man who had tasted blood feel a sense of awe.

He suppressed the turmoil in his heart and kept a calm expression: "A good thing. Although the spiritual energy is thin, the origin is pure and the vitality is abundant. It is a top-quality auxiliary material that alchemists would love to obtain. What do you wish to exchange it for?"

"Fifty catties of refined iron ingots, twenty catties of quenching stone powder, plus three pieces of 'fire-patterned copper'," Meng Xihong announced the list he had prepared beforehand. Refined iron and quenching stone are the basic materials needed for refining artifacts; fire-patterned copper contains a weak fire elemental power and is an auxiliary material for refining low-level magic artifact embryos, which is already rare in the mortal world.

Zhao Tieshan frowned slightly. The price was exorbitant, but considering the value of the spiritual plants... After a moment's consideration, he gritted his teeth and said, "Deal! However, there are only two pieces of Fire Pattern Copper Eye. Could you add another ten catties of 'Cold Iron Sand' for cooling and shaping? The transaction will be completed here again at midnight five days from now!"

“Okay.” Meng Xihong closed the wooden box without hesitation, and he and Zhang Xianghua quickly retreated into the darkness outside the house, disappearing without a trace.

The first transaction was successfully completed amidst this silent probing and the intertwining of enormous profits. Both parties tacitly understood: this was a perilous path strewn with thorns, yet potentially leading to treasure; asking few questions and speaking little was the only rule for survival.

This hidden channel, like a hidden vein in the human body, began to pulsate quietly. From then on, approximately every twenty days, a silent transaction would take place again in that remote mountain cabin. The goods traded mainly fell into two categories.

One type is quasi-spiritual herbs, such as Qingxin Grass and Ninglu Grass, both of which were cultivated by Bai Muyun herself.

She used the earth-elemental spiritual power of the "Flowing Earth Life Technique" and her own meager water-elemental power to nurture and guide the best-growing ordinary herbs in the herb garden, which were closest to the core area of ​​the Spirit Gathering Stone, day and night.

Then, by irrigating them with diluted spiritual spring water, their medicinal properties are pushed to the limits of the mortal realm, and a faint trace of spirituality is nurtured within them. These carefully selected "pseudo-spiritual plants" are of perfect quality and pure vitality, enough to fool the real thing.

Secondly, there were materials from demonic beasts, which Meng Xihong and Zhang Xianghua obtained by venturing deeper into the Old Immortal Mountain.

These included a treated iron-backed lizard skin suitable for defense, several tempered horn cores from barbarian rams that could be used to make talisman pens, and a small jar of sealed extract from the venom glands of a rotten toad. All the materials were repeatedly washed away by Meng Xihong with his spiritual power to erase their original scent, and then masked with the smell of ordinary herbs.

The items exchanged gradually accumulated into the family's wealth and resources.

They often used these materials to exchange for smelting resources such as refined iron ingots, quenching stones, cold iron sand, and fire-patterned copper.

Meng Xihong handed these materials over to a trusted old blacksmith in the county town to forge them into excellent knives, which were then distributed to the core, loyal local militia. At the same time, he also re-forged and improved the weapons in the hands of Ji Beichuan and Zhang Xianghua.

Most recently, Zhao Tieshan gritted his teeth and sent a piece of "warm jade raw stone" the size of a pigeon egg, which could weakly stabilize spiritual energy and nourish spiritual consciousness. The price was three "dew-condensing grasses" and a complete iron-backed lizard skin.

The most surprising thing was that they received five discarded pills that resembled "Huangya Dan" in exchange. These pills were grayish in color, with blurred patterns, and almost no medicinal fragrance. Zhao Tieshan was very secretive about their origin and resolutely refused to reveal a single word.

These "waste pills" were like a drop in the ocean for Meng Xihong's sixth-level Qi Refining cultivation. But for Bai Muyun, who was stuck at the peak of the first level of Qi Refining and at a bottleneck, they were a ray of light in the darkness!
Inside the quiet room, Bai Muyun sat cross-legged, with the best-quality discarded pill placed in front of her.

She began to practice the "Flowing Earth Life Technique" that Meng Xihong had acquired from the black market.

According to the seller, this technique is a must-learn method for cultivating spiritual plant masters in large families. It is mostly used as an auxiliary method to make the spiritual energy more gentle and abundant, and it also has some healing effects. It is best for those with dual spiritual roots of water and earth or triple spiritual roots of water, wood and earth to cultivate. The effect is halved for those with a single spiritual root. Meng Xihong used this to force a price reduction, which is why he bought it back at a very low price.

She adjusted herself to her peak condition and swallowed the waste pill in one gulp.

The bitterness dissipated, and a faint but several times purer heat flowed through her meridians. She immediately guided this external force, transforming it into a sharp cone, and fiercely pierced the tough bottleneck.

She drew the faint light of the spirit-gathering talisman into her body with all her might. Sweat instantly soaked through her heavy clothes, her face was as pale as paper, her body trembled slightly, and her meridians throbbed with pain.

"Hold on, Yunniang! You must rise from the ashes." Meng Xihong's voice resounded in her mind like a great bell, filled with encouragement and protection.

"Break!" Bai Muyun shouted in her heart, and with the dissipating medicinal power, she slammed into the indestructible barrier.

"boom!"

It felt as if the shackles inside my body had shattered!
A surge of powerful and unstoppable spiritual energy, both profound and enduring, instantly coursed through his body, causing his dantian to expand nearly twice its original size!
Reaching the third level of Qi Refining is a natural progression!
(End of this chapter)