Hermit in the Mountains

Ten days later, the weather was clear and cloudless.

On Changsheng Peak, rhubarb patrols the mountains, while a large red ginseng spreads its wings to bask in the sun atop the peak. A green ox sleeps in the cool cowshed, and the earth spirit ginseng is buried in the medicinal field, absorbing "earth energy" to strengthen itself.

Laughter came from inside the wooden house halfway up the mountain.

"Hahaha, the spirit-gathering array is complete."

Inside the living room, Gu Changsheng stared at the spirit-gathering array on the table with a smile on his face. Wood spirit energy particles gathered ten centimeters above the spirit-gathering array.

The Spirit Gathering Array consists of three layers of array stones: outer, middle, and inner.

The outer layer consists of eight crystal-clear jade stones arranged according to the eight trigrams.

The middle layer consists of five crystal-clear jade stones arranged according to the five elements and directions;

The inner layer consists of two crystal-clear jade stones arranged according to the yin and yang principles.

There are subtle, shimmering patterns inside the jade.

Gu Changsheng's gaze passed through the jade and landed on the incomplete Dao patterns inside. Currently, due to the limited raw materials, he could only create a simplified version of the spirit-gathering array.

Jade is not a spiritual material. Each piece of jade can only be engraved with a portion of the spirit-gathering array patterns, resulting in the array gathering spiritual energy in a singular and inefficient manner. Moreover, the jade will shatter after a maximum of one month.

He muttered to himself, "Everything is difficult at the beginning, let's take it slow."

"If there are no spiritual materials, we'll create them; at worst, we'll cultivate our own spirit stones."

Gu Changsheng reached out his right hand and picked up a piece of jade. The spirit-gathering array immediately malfunctioned, but he was not surprised by this.

He meticulously adjusted the placement of the jade stones and the distances between them, knowing that the formation would fail if the jade stones were moved.

Gu Changsheng held the fifteen jade stones of the Spirit Gathering Array in both hands, got up and walked towards the herb field.

In the very center of the medicinal field, Gu Changsheng stood atop the Earth Spirit Ginseng, separated by a 30-centimeter-thick layer of soil. He slowly crouched down and placed the fifteen jade stones in his hand on the ground.

He extended his right hand and condensed a half-meter-long pale blue spiritual energy sword, carving a hole in the ground to the east.

He turned around and dug out another earthen cave in the west, corresponding to the east, thus creating a yin-yang balance between east and west.

Continue to excavate earthen caves for the five elements and eight trigrams.

Once the key points of the array were located, Gu Changsheng dispersed the spiritual energy sword in his hand and placed the jade stones into the corresponding key points one by one, then filled them with soil to seal and fix the key points.

Gu Changsheng stood up, gently patted the ground with his right palm, and with a thought, a wisp of withering and flourishing magic power flew out from his palm, disappeared into the ground and entered the two jade stones on the Yin-Yang array eye.

"Spirit Gathering Array...............Activate........."

As the character "启" (Qi) fell, the incomplete array patterns inside the fifteen jade stones on the ground, which had previously shown no reaction, were outlined together by a force, forming a complete array pattern.

The moment the array patterns formed a closed loop, a pulling force was generated above the array, forming a transparent vortex. The wood spiritual energy within a ten-meter radius was drawn towards the spirit-gathering array.

A portion of the wood-based spiritual energy gathered by the Spirit Gathering Array flows into the array's core to maintain its operation, while the majority of the energy remains concentrated and slowly erodes the surrounding soil.

The Earth Spirit Ginseng seemed to sense the increase in the concentration of spiritual energy around it, and it instinctively began to absorb the surrounding wood spiritual energy.

Gu Changsheng chose to set up the first spirit-gathering array next to the Earth Spirit Ginseng, firstly to accelerate the growth of the Earth Spirit Ginseng, and secondly to test whether the ordinary soil within the spirit-gathering array would transform into spirit soil.

After observing the formation for half an hour and finding it functioning normally, he returned to the living room to continue refining the second spirit-gathering formation stone.

Having learned from his success, Gu Changsheng spent three hours finally carving out all fifteen array stones.

He breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the fifteen jade stones.

Carving array patterns inside jade with divine sense is a delicate skill; if you break the pattern, the entire piece of jade is ruined, and there's no chance to fix it.

Refining array stones consumes more spiritual energy than alchemy or casting spells.

His soul underwent a transformation into a Yin spirit, which then evolved into the ultimate divine power. Day and night, he absorbed the power of the moon and the purple aura of the primordial sun, making his foundation even more solid.

Only then can a simple spirit-gathering array stone be crafted in just three hours.

Because of his solid foundation of spiritual consciousness, he possesses extraordinary comprehension and super strong spiritual power, which allows him to comprehend cultivation techniques, deduce spells, and cast spells with ease.

Gu Changsheng carefully put the fifteen jade stones into a wooden box, and then pushed all the forty-odd jade stones on the table to the edge of the table with his right hand.

"Jingle bells..."

The jade fell along the edge of the table into a bamboo basket, where it landed on the discarded jade pieces that were already in the basket, making a crisp sound.

The bamboo basket was full of jade stones. Some of the jade stones were covered with cracks, some were broken in half, and some had intact surfaces but hidden cracks inside. Nearly a hundred jade stones had been ruined.

Gu Changsheng glanced at the bamboo basket full of jade stones, a look of heartache flashing in his eyes.

It would be a lie to say I don't feel bad. Every piece of jade is a carefully selected top-quality jade, and each one is worth around 100,000 yuan.

He spent nearly ten million to successfully refine two sets of simple spirit-gathering array stones. That's incredibly expensive.

Fortunately, he had good comprehension and strong spiritual sense; otherwise, even burning millions wouldn't have been enough to create a spirit-gathering array.

Gu Changsheng was certain that weapon crafting was expensive, while alchemy was the least expensive skill.

The success rate of refining Qi-Nourishing Pills and Yang-Boosting Pills reached 70%, and the material consumption was less than 30%. In contrast, the material consumption of refining Array Stones reached 90%, which was simply burning money to gain experience.

Gu Changsheng deeply understood why "wealth" was the foremost among the four treasures of spiritual practice: "wealth, Dharma, companion, and place."

Our ancestors already provided the answer: "Study hard if you're poor, practice martial arts if you're rich."

As the saying goes, "What kind of immortality can you cultivate if you have no money?"

In the world of cultivation novels, it's not without reason that many cultivators who master a cultivation technique are revered as masters. Being called a master means that the person has access to a lot of resources and also has good comprehension.

With comprehension and resources, it can be inferred that their cultivation level is not low. For this reason, cultivators are generally quite polite to those who have mastered cultivation techniques.

Who knows how many connections a person with cultivation skills has, how many cultivators and sects owe them favors, and how many people are waiting to cooperate?

Whether in a technological society or a world of spiritual practice, talent and technology remain the rarest resources.

The reason why the top leaders of China and the State Spirit Bureau are so concerned about Gu Changsheng is because Gu Changsheng possesses unique alchemy techniques, and the secrets he holds are also something they desperately want.

In their eyes, Gu Changsheng was a treasure, but the difference was that this treasure was mobile, possessed unknown attack methods, and was full of unknown dangers.

Gu Changsheng became increasingly important in their eyes because the National Spirit Bureau and other cultivators had not yet replicated Gu Changsheng's alchemy techniques, and the quality of the pills they produced was still slightly inferior to the lowest-grade minor spirit pills in Gu Changsheng's possession.

The high-ranking officials of China already knew that the highest quality of the small spirit pills that Gu Changsheng had taken out was grade six, but they had only come into contact with grade three small spirit pills. Grade four to six small spirit pills only circulated within a small circle under Gu Changsheng's command, and not a single one had flowed out to the outside world.

The only good news for them was that Gu Changsheng changed the cooperative relationship. The resources they collected were exchanged for Lesser Spirit Pills, which significantly increased the number of pills obtained compared to the cooperative pill refining.

Since the cooperation on alchemy was established, Gu Changsheng has only produced two batches of pills for the National Spirit Bureau, yielding thirty-six pills. For the Chinese leadership, this efficiency is far too low.

The exchange of resources between the two parties is far more efficient than cooperation in alchemy.

The National Spirit Bureau has accepted Zhang Yuanfu's commission to exchange Small Spirit Pills for Deep Sea Cold Iron, Earth Core Fire Copper, the heartwood of Dead Wood Reviving, and Twin Lotus, among other items.