Ji An and Wei Songnian quickly packed up the stall, bought three bottles of spirit wine and a few side dishes from the Hundred Flavors Pavilion, then mounted their talisman birds and flew toward the western side of Bihai Lake.
That was where the sect had designated fishing ponds. It was said a spiritual spring gushed from the lakebed there, constantly pouring out spiritual water.
As dusk deepened, cranes cried and egrets called, their voices echoing into the heavens.
"Junior Brother Liang rented one of the outermost ponds, Pond No. Bingshou. Look over there, see the bamboo building with the flag marked 'Liang'? That's his place."
When they landed in front of the bamboo building, they happened to see Liang Qiu rowing back on a little skiff, the boat piled high with green duckweed.
"Junior Brother Liang! Let's have a drink!"
Wei Songnian waved the spirit wine in his hand, calling warmly.
"You two are rare guests indeed."
Liang Qiu laughed heartily, quietly forming a hand seal to lift the protective array around his house.
"Go on inside, I'll just toss this feed into the pond."
Ji An and Wei landed at the bamboo house and waited while he worked.
Liang Qiu moved his hands and, with a simple controlling spell, scattered all the duckweed into the pond. Then he scooped up two half-foot-long silver-scaled fish and tossed them into a basket.
He rowed back to the bamboo house, leaped ashore carrying the basket, and Ji An immediately stepped forward to secure the boat's rope.
"Much obliged, Junior Brother."
Liang Qiu let out a wry smile and sighed.
"After renting the pond, I bought a batch of silver carp and golden carp fry. Most of my spirit stones are already gone. I can barely afford fish feed now, so I've had to scrape up duckweed to get by.
"It'll be at least half a year before I start seeing returns. Until then, things are going to be rough."
"Better days lie ahead. Junior Brother, you're a man with an industry now. From here on, you'll save spirit stones and contribution points much faster."
Wei Songnian's voice carried genuine envy. His own business kept him endlessly busy buying, selling, shuttling goods back and forth, all propped up by a circle of old clients.
On the surface, it looked profitable, but after subtracting his cultivation expenses, nearly all his crystals were tied up in stock.
Years ago, one of the Wei clan had entered Falling Maple Valley. With great talent, he'd been taken as a disciple by a late-stage Foundation Establishment elder.
The family poured their resources into him, leaving little for the rest. When he finally repaid the clan, who knew how many years would have passed?
Wei Songnian's greatest dream was to save enough spirit stones to, with family backing, establish a shop in Azure Cloud Immortal City.
But that all hinged on one thing: he had to establish his foundation. Without that, he couldn't even keep such a shop, nor would the clan entrust it to him.
Given his mediocre aptitude, foundation establishment would inevitably require a Foundation Pill. And such a pill was far easier to obtain within the sect than outside.
The sect had agreements with the great clans: as long as a cultivator served the sect for at least thirty years after establishing a foundation, they would be permitted to return to their clan.
The condition was that in times of war, they must heed the sect's summons.
Because of this, the clans were willing to send their more promising juniors into the sect to be trained.
Of course, the very best of the main bloodline were kept at home; otherwise, they might grow loyal to the sect instead of their clan.
For the sect, this policy had benefits too. By granting access to vacant spiritual veins, they could win the loyalty of cultivators without family ties, binding their interests to the sect and slowly cultivating a sense of belonging.
And what better way to bind someone's loyalty than with shared interests?
"Haha, may Senior Brother's words prove true. I'll go cook these fish, make yourselves comfortable."
Liang Qiu pushed open the door, invited them inside, then busied himself in the kitchen.
Ji An followed to fetch a few plates, laying out the side dishes they had bought.
When the chores were done, he pulled a bundle from his robe and pushed talisman paper and ink toward Wei Songnian.
"Senior Brother, do you still have any Canyuan Pills left?"
"I knew you'd ask." Wei Songnian chuckled. "I set aside five just for you."
Wei Songnian smiled, eyes crinkling, as he handed over a white jade bottle and began counting the talisman paper.
With more and more late-stage Qi Refining disciples among his regular clients, his profits had improved considerably compared to his early years.
"Many thanks, Senior Brother, you know me well."
Ji An took the jade bottle, poured out a pill, held it to his nose, and inhaled lightly. Satisfied, he nodded.
When Wei Songnian finished tallying everything, he grinned.
"Two hundred fifty-four sheets of low-grade first-tier talisman paper, one hundred eighteen sheets of mid-grade, ten bottles of low-grade talisman ink altogether, that comes to 1,548 spirit crystals.
Junior Brother, shall we stick to the old arrangement?"
He had done the math in his head: Ji An's talisman-making seemed to have hit a bottleneck; his rate of producing high-quality talisman paper hadn't increased. That gave Wei Songnian a sense of relief. Ji An's planting skills were already exceptional; if his talisman craft surpassed the norm as well, it would keep him awake at night with jealousy.
"This time, Senior Brother, prepare materials for twenty bottles of talisman ink for me. When I get back today, I'll open up another five mu of spirit fields.
Three months from now, I intend to make a killing in spirit stones."
Ji An had already planned this out. Most of the cultivators he knew were reaching late-stage Qi Refining, all of them about to face the struggle for Foundation Establishment Pills. He couldn't count on borrowing many spirit stones from them.
It might still be a long road before foundation building, but it's worth preparing early. After all, even once he'd saved enough contribution points, he would still need to line up for his turn to receive a pill.
Wei Songnian blinked.
"Can you really manage that many fields?"
Even Old Huang only farmed ten mu.
"More or less. At worst, some fields just won't yield as much."
"As long as you've thought it through."
Wei Songnian nodded, producing twenty sets of talisman ink materials. He chuckled.
"With so many sect disciples and itinerant cultivators flooding into Mo Ya Mountain, treating it like a supply base, talisman sales are booming.
If you truly become a talisman master, Junior Brother, your prospects will be limitless."
He leaned closer, lowering his voice with a conspiratorial air:
"I heard the sect has once again dispatched Foundation Establishment uncles to seize territory deep within the Ten-Thousand Mountains. As the supply bases push further inward, more and more cultivators will be drawn into the beast hunts.
Heh. The sect has been dormant for so many years; it's about time they expanded their borders. Word is, there aren't enough spiritual vein nodes left to go around for all the Foundation Establishment cultivators."
So it had begun? Ji An's brows furrowed slightly, a sense of urgency rising within him.
The sect was moving on schedule, just as he had anticipated. He needed to learn protective spells quickly, and if possible, advance to Foundation Establishment as soon as he could.
"Good news, too. They say purified beast cores at the Foundation level can be used as main ingredients for Foundation Establishment Pills."
There were many recipes for Foundation Establishment Pills, and in the days of fierce conflict between humans and demon beasts, beast-core-based formulas had been extremely common.
Not only Foundation Establishment Pills, but also other cultivation-boosting pills could be refined from beast cores.
But such medicines were notoriously violent in effect. Overindulgence was said to warp the mind, and they required far more time to refine away the impurities.
"Exactly!"
Wei Songnian clenched his fist. Pills made from beast cores had harsher side effects, but they were cheap.
A single Foundation Establishment Pill might not guarantee his success, but with two? If he still couldn't build his foundation, then he might as well go home and serve as a stud horse, helping the clan spread its bloodline.
"Twenty sets of talisman ink materials, that'll be 420 spirit crystals. Junior Brother, that leaves you with 1,128 crystals. Want to buy anything else?"
Ji An pushed forward seventy-two spirit crystals and added one spirit stone.
"Here, this settles what I still owed you from last time, for the Canyuan Pills and peach seeds. I still owe you ten spirit stones in total."