My dreams can simulate the future.

After hearing Jiang Chen's question, Old Zhang sighed, a hint of helplessness on his face.

"What other price could there be? It's just that we have to accept some orders from the garrison command at a low price."

Also, you need to report to the garrison headquarters in advance if you leave the market town.

This price was not unexpected for Jiang Chen, since joining the garrison command would grant him the benefits of being a patrol guard.

The guards of Blackrock Mountain Market are well-paid. The garrison commander provides them with a medium-sized residence, a monthly salary of thirty spirit stones, and exemption from all taxes.

In addition, there is a 20% discount when purchasing spirit items from shops run by the town's guardians.

Selling talismans to the town's guardians at a low price is acceptable, as long as the share isn't too high.

The rule that you must report when you go out is, in effect, a prohibition on going out.

After all, every craftsman who joins the town's defenses is a fine beast of burden, and the town's defenses certainly wouldn't want to let them go easily.

The condition that he could not easily go out in the future made Jiang Chen hesitate.

Staying in the market is fine for now, but to break through to the Foundation Establishment realm in the future, you will need a Foundation Establishment spiritual item.

You can enter your dreams to simulate the future and explore dangerous places, which may yield some good results.

However, if one stays in the market, the chances of obtaining a Foundation Establishment item are extremely slim.

Seeing his hesitation, Old Zhang chuckled and said, "You're probably worried that after joining the garrison, you won't be able to leave the market at will, right? For an old man like me, that's certainly the case."

"But you are still young. If you join the Garrison Command now, you will have the opportunity to become an outer disciple of the Golden Cauldron Sect in the future."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen immediately became interested.

As a talisman master, his life was much better than that of an ordinary rogue cultivator, but rogue cultivators were ultimately not as good as sect cultivators.

If one can join the Golden Cauldron Sect, even as an outer disciple, one can still access a high-level inheritance.

Moreover, outer disciples have channels to obtain Foundation Establishment spiritual items.

"I've heard that the Golden Cauldron Sect requires its outer disciples to have a fourth-grade spiritual aperture or a third-grade dantian spiritual aperture, and to be under thirty years old."

The so-called spiritual aperture is the medium through which cultivators absorb and refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. It is formed by the absorption of innate essence through meridians and acupoints.

The grades of spiritual apertures are divided into nine levels, from low to high. The higher the grade of the spiritual aperture, the faster the cultivation speed.

Generally speaking, those with first or second-grade spiritual apertures have almost no hope of establishing a foundation, and the success rate of establishing a foundation with a third-grade spiritual aperture is less than 10%.

In addition, different locations of spiritual apertures generally bring different talents.

For example, if the spiritual acupoint is in the leg, the speed will generally be faster.

The three dantian are the most talented among those with spiritual abilities.

The spiritual aperture is located at the Yintang acupoint in the upper dantian. Those with this acupoint are born with a powerful soul, rapid growth of spiritual awareness, stronger comprehension, and extremely high talent for cultivating various arts of immortality.

The spiritual aperture is located in the middle dantian, specifically the Tanzhong acupoint. Its characteristic is that it absorbs and refines magical power extremely quickly, making its cultivation speed far superior to that of cultivators with other spiritual apertures of the same grade.

The spiritual aperture is located at the Guanyuan acupoint in the lower dantian. The person's natural blood and qi are far superior to those of other cultivators of the same level. The physical body is strong, and the absorption rate of pills and spiritual items is extremely high.

Old Zhang laughed and said, "You don't know this, but the Golden Cauldron Sect has established a new rule."

Those who master valuable cultivation arts such as alchemy, artifact crafting, talisman arrays, Shennong (a legendary Chinese physician), and puppetry, and who have reached the first-rank high level and are no more than sixty years old, have the opportunity to become outer disciples of the Golden Cauldron Sect.

After becoming an outer disciple, one can naturally enter and leave the market freely.

"However, there is a prerequisite for this path: one must have worked in the Golden Cauldron Sect's businesses for more than ten years. In the Black Stone Mountain Market, only by joining the Garrison Command can one have the opportunity to take this path."

Jiang Chen quickly realized that the Golden Cauldron Sect had established this rule to recruit cattle and horses.

Those who master alchemy, artifact crafting, talisman arrays, and other skills to a high-level first rank are quite capable of making money. After joining the Golden Cauldron Sect, they don't need much training to bring considerable benefits to the sect.

Even so, this path is still very attractive to Jiang Chen.

He bowed deeply to Grandpa Zhang and said, "Thank you for your guidance, Grandpa Zhang."

After chatting for a while, Jiang Chen took the magic weapon and left the weapon-refining shop, returning to his own courtyard.

Following the rules of business, Old Zhang, with a beaming smile, saw him to the door.

After he left, Old Zhang sighed inwardly: "Old Jiang's skills are far inferior to mine. But he only has this one grandson, who is much better than all my descendants."

In his early twenties, he was already able to establish himself in the market and would have the opportunity to join the Golden Cauldron Sect in the future.

If any of my descendants were as accomplished as him, I wouldn't have to worry.

Thinking of this, he stormed into the backyard. There, several young men were busy around the stove.

A young man who looked quite similar to Old Zhang made a mistake while inscribing the artifact's patterns. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration appeared, and the spiritual energy within the inscription dissipated.

Old Zhang slapped him across the face: "You're hopeless! I've taught you this simple first-grade armor-piercing artifact pattern at least fifty times, and you still can't learn it."

"Once I'm buried, do you think you can stand firm in this Black Stone Mountain Market with your limited skills?"

"Everyone, get back to training! If anyone doesn't improve, they'd better go out and hunt monsters instead of getting in my way."

Over the next few days, ghostly wails and howls could be heard from the backyard of Zhang Laokou's shop.

-----------------

As Jiang Chen left Zhang Laokou's weapon-refining shop, two middle-aged cultivators dressed in animal skin robes were watching him from a distance.

One of the burly cultivators, carrying a heavy sword, whispered, "Just now, when the signboard in front of Old Zhang's shop fell down, Jiang Chen leaped away. His magical power fluctuations already indicated he was at the fourth level of Qi Refining."

No sooner had he finished speaking than another middle-aged cultivator holding a folding fan chimed in, "Old Zhang personally saw him out with a forced smile; Jiang Chen must have bought quite a few things from his shop."

"More than twenty days ago, Hou Ming, who lived next door to Jiang Chen, was selling mid-grade first-rank talismans. The technique he used to make those talismans was quite similar to Jiang Yun's."

"Now it seems that Jiang Chen is definitely capable of refining mid-grade first-rank talismans, and his skills are quite good."

"In that case, Jiang Chen is qualified to join the Garrison Command. With his skills, he can get the treatment of a patrolman after joining the Garrison Command and obtain a house in the southeast or northeast ward."

"It will probably be very difficult for us to do anything to him again in the future."

The sword-wielding cultivator asked, "Then what should we do?"

The cultivator holding the folding fan shook his head: "This is not our business. We are only responsible for gathering information and reporting what we see and hear to Boss Black Wolf."

"However, we still know too little information. We need to go to the West Market and the South Market to inquire. The more information we report, the more Boss Black Wolf will see our hard work."

The sword-wielding cultivator gave a thumbs up: "Scholar, you scholars really do have a lot of tricks up your sleeves. If Boss Black Wolf gives us a few more rewards, we'll have the resources to break through to the late stage of Qi Refining."

After saying that, the two of them went to the West Market first. There were many monks setting up stalls on both sides of the street.

At this moment, Gu Laohu's raspy voice rang out.

"You don't know, Grandpa Jiang's grandson has really made something of himself. I saw it clearly yesterday; he has already broken through to the fourth level of Qi Refining and can even draw mid-grade first-rank talismans."

"Unfortunately, he sold all his talismans to Hou Ming, so we don't have a chance to buy them anymore."

After saying that, she gave Hou Ming a fierce look, her eyes filled with envy, jealousy and hatred.