Volume One: Xuan Yin Mountains
Chapter 1 Lin Yi
Within the territory of the Southern Tang Kingdom, there exists a place regarded as sacred by all, from the imperial relatives down to the common people. Every family in the nation dreams of having their children admitted to this place. Once a family has someone selected, the entire household can instantly rise to prominence, becoming elites and enjoying all the glory and wealth.
As a result, every household stepped up their efforts to have more children, hoping to realize the dream that "when one person attains the Dao, even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven". However, very few are truly qualified to enter.
And this place is the Xuanyin Mountain Range.
The entire Xuanyin Mountain Range stretches for thousands of miles, with ancient trees towering into the sky, blocking out the sun. At a glance, it is a sea of green. Within a radius of five hundred miles around the mountain range, there is not a single household. It is as if getting close to the mountain range would desecrate its sanctity.
Lingwu Mountain is one of the many peaks in the Xuanyin Mountain Range. It is not the steepest nor the most majestic; on the contrary, it looks quite unremarkable, shrouded in a faint mist all year round. But this mountain has a spiritual vein, the only one in the Xuanyin Mountain Range, which makes Lingwu Mountain suddenly become a hot commodity that everyone covets.
From a distance, Lingwu Mountain is indistinct, quite like a fairyland.
On Lingwu Mountain, there is a sect called the Dianxuan Sect. Thanks to having a spiritual vein, the Dianxuan Sect has produced two cultivators at the Core Formation stage, becoming the leader among the four major sects in the Xuanyin Mountain Range, with strength far surpassing that of the Mengxuan Sect, Xuanling Sect, and Xuanfeng Cave, which have no Core Formation cultivators. Therefore, to become a disciple of the Dianxuan Sect, one must have outstanding talent. Those with inferior spiritual roots are absolutely unable to enter the Dianxuan Sect.
Of course, that is under normal circumstances, and there are exceptions to everything.
Lin Yi is an exception among the disciples recruited by the Dianxuan Sect. He did not enter the Dianxuan Sect through normal channels, but because he accidentally saved Lei Xiaotian, an elder of the Dianxuan Sect. Coincidentally, Lin Yi, who was a teenager at that time, had a strong dream of cultivating immortality. Somehow, he learned that the Dianxuan Sect was the leader of the four sects in the Xuanyin Mountain Range, and insisted on joining it.
To repay Lin Yi for saving his life, Lei Xiaotian brought him to the Dianxuan Sect. After discussing with the sect leader, he made Lin Yi an outer disciple of the Dianxuan Sect.
Lin Yi has the qualification of five spiritual roots, the most inferior and mixed qualification in immortal cultivation, and it is impossible for him to cultivate immortality in his lifetime. In the six years since he joined the sect, his cultivation has only reached the first level of the Qi Refining stage, which he achieved four years ago. Gradually, Lin Yi's dream of immortality was shattered. He began to give up cultivating immortality and gradually sank... sank! Until he became a down-and-out low-level cultivator, squatting in a corner of the market with a stall selling shoddy goods, while his eyes kept glancing at the graceful figures of passing female cultivators.
Generally speaking, outer disciples of the Dianxuan Sect more or less need to do some chores, but Lin Yi became a disciple of the Dianxuan Sect through Lei Xiaotian, so no one为难 him, and he lived a carefree life. What's more, Lin Yi treated the two outer deacons to meals and drinks from time to time, and never forgot to share any benefits with them. Therefore, he got along very well among the outer disciples.
On this day, the weather was clear and the sun was shining brightly.
As usual, Lin Yi didn't get up until the sun was high in the sky. After a quick wash, he was ready to go out to the market. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a middle-aged man standing outside, raising his hand as if to knock.
"Oh? Isn't this Senior Brother Luo? What can I do for you?" Lin Yi exclaimed in surprise, immediately putting on the amiable smile he had cultivated since setting up his stall.
Luo Huapeng did not answer but asked instead: "Junior Brother Lin, how's your business going lately?"
"Don't laugh at me, Senior Brother. I'm naturally dull and have no connection with immortal cultivation. I can only make a living by doing small business," Lin Yi said with a sheepish smile.
Luo Huapeng naturally knew about Lin Yi's five spiritual roots, so he didn't know what words of encouragement to say. After a pause, he said: "Junior Brother, I wouldn't come to you for no reason."
"Senior Brother, just tell me what you need. As long as there's something I can do, I'll do my best," Lin Yi said sincerely.
Upon hearing this, Luo Huapeng smiled faintly, then took off the storage bag from his waist and handed it to Lin Yi, "Junior Brother, I'm in urgent need of spirit stones. Take a look at the things in this storage bag and estimate how many spirit stones they are worth."
"Senior Brother, do you need the spirit stones today, or can you wait for a day or two?" Instead of rushing to scan the contents of the storage bag with his spiritual sense, Lin Yi asked.
"I need them today," Luo Huapeng replied without hesitation.
Hearing this, Lin Yi stopped talking and scanned the storage bag in his hand with his spiritual sense. After half a stick of incense, Lin Yi suddenly let out a soft "Eh". With a thought, a circle that looked like stone but not ordinary stone appeared in his hand. It could be regarded as an unpolished bracelet, covered with small holes. And when held in the hand, this bracelet was as light as nothing.
Lin Yi was very curious and couldn't help but channel a weak stream of spiritual power into the bracelet. The spiritual power circulated in the bracelet once and then returned to Lin Yi's body.
"Senior Brother Luo, what is this? Why can't I detect any abnormalities when I channel spiritual power into the bracelet? Could it be just an ordinary stone?" Lin Yi asked in confusion.
"I don't know either. However, I found this in an abandoned cave. It was placed on the offering table at that time, so it shouldn't be an ordinary thing," Luo Huapeng shook his head and said.
"But there's no response at all when spiritual power is channeled into the bracelet. To be honest, Senior Brother, I'm afraid no one will buy this bracelet," Lin Yi said with a look of embarrassment.
"If it can't be sold, I'll give it to you, Junior Brother," Luo Huapeng thought for a moment and said. In fact, since he got this bracelet, he had tried every means to find out how to use it, but had no results. He even showed it to his master for inspection. Of course, he said he bought it in the market at that time, not that he got it from an abandoned cave. And the final result was that he was severely scolded by his master for being foolish to spend money on an ordinary stone circle.
Since then, Luo Huapeng has gradually accepted that this bracelet is useless, just an ordinary bracelet. So he generously said that if it couldn't be sold, he would give it to Lin Yi.
"In that case, I'll try to sell it for you, Senior Brother! I roughly estimated that the things in this storage bag are worth about eighty low-grade spirit stones," Lin Yi nodded and said.
"Eighty low-grade spirit stones?" Luo Huapeng's expression darkened, and he murmured to himself.
"Senior Brother, I just made a moderate estimate. It might be higher, or it might be lower."
"All right! Then I'll trouble you, Junior Brother."
"No need to be polite, Senior Brother. I'll send the spirit stones to you tonight."
Next, Luo Huapeng chatted with Lin Yi for a while, then took his leave. And Lin Yi hurried to the market. Having been in the market for nearly two years, he was very familiar with this small market. Along the way, after greeting everyone he knew, he walked into a small shop called Fan's General Store.
"Oh! Brother Yi, what wind brought you here today? Instead of looking at beautiful women, you came to me? Why, haven't seen you for a few days, did you miss me?" A clever-looking teenager, about fourteen or fifteen years old, saw Lin Yi at a glance and joked familiarly.
It was obvious that the two had a very good relationship.
The teenager's name was Li Shun. He had set up a stall with Lin Yi for a while before. They could be said to be like-minded, both good at staring at passing female cultivators. It's just that Lin Yi did it openly, while Li Shun was a little more reserved. So they soon became close friends. Later, because of life's pressures, Li Shun found a job in this Fan's General Store. But this did not affect their relationship. Whenever they had time, they would hang out together, daring to do anything except kill people.
"Tch! With your skinny look, would I miss you? Don't be disgusting," Lin Yi curled his lips and severely despised Li Shun.
Li Shun just laughed it off. Their relationship was such that they could make all kinds of jokes with each other without worrying about being misunderstood.
"Take a look at these things and see how much they are worth at most?" Lin Yi directly took off the storage bag hanging from his waist, threw it to Li Shun, and said.
"Wow! Brother Yi, have you made a fortune recently? No, you have to treat me to a drink tonight, and we'll get drunk," Li Shun, who was not a cultivator, had to pour out all the things in the storage bag. He held a disc-shaped instrument in his hand and checked the things one by one. But after checking for a while, he began to make a fuss. Fortunately, there were no other customers in the shop except the boss, otherwise it would have attracted a lot of strange looks.
"Come on. These things are not mine. I'm helping a senior brother sell them," Lin Yi despised his friend again.
"I don't care. Even if the things are not yours, according to your rules, you can get a tenth of the profit, which is still a lot of spirit stones. In short, you can't escape the drink," Li Shun said domineeringly while checking Luo Huapeng's things. The two indicator lights on the disc-shaped instrument in his hand flashed with various colors, such as red, green, blue and so on. Each color represented a different level and function.
"Let's see how much these things are worth first," Lin Yi said.
"Hey! All right!" Li Shun said with a sneaky smile, full of energy. Basically, when Lin Yi said this, it meant he agreed.
"Hmm?"
Li Shun couldn't help pausing, looked at the bracelet, then looked up at Lin Yi, and said: "Brother Yi, you wouldn't make a bracelet out of a stone to fool me, would you?"
"D*mn it, what are you talking about. This thing is a treasure, obtained after breaking through many restrictions on the offering table in an ancient cave. Who am I? What's our relationship? How could I get a stone to lie to you!" Lin Yi boasted about the bracelet, which he thought was made of an ordinary stone, as if it were some powerful treasure. But when he talked later, he himself felt a little guilty. After all, he couldn't tell whether the bracelet was an ordinary stone or a treasure.
"The detector shows nothing. I dare not make a decision. I'd better show it to the boss first," Li Shun said, then took the bracelet to the about sixty-year-old man sitting behind the counter, who was moving an abacus in his hand, as if doing some accounts. "Boss, could you please have a look at how much this bracelet is worth?"