53: Chapter 53 Wang Qingyan of Yunfang Market

A Puppet beast can release a Tier 1 Spell, and once released, it possesses solid Qi Refining Early Stage combat power.

Furthermore, Puppets are tireless and fearless of death or injury, capable of casting Spells repeatedly on the battlefield. Based on this point alone, they are more cost-effective than cultivating Qi Refining Early Stage Cultivators with heavy investments.

Although Puppet beasts still require human control, and such Puppet beasts cannot withstand arbitrary attacks from Cultivators, they have truly achieved this—this is a genuine combat Puppet.

"Is this really my daughter? She actually accomplished something that the entire Wang Family couldn't do?!"

Wang Yaozu suppressed the surging shock in his heart, sat back down, and said with a solemn expression, "Qingcheng, how did you solve the joint linkage of this Puppet Rat? And the carving of the spirit-transmitting formation and the Mud Swamp Spell formation, tell your father about it."

...

The spiritual fields on Qinhu Mountain also ushered in a bumper harvest this year.

After Wang Shouren went into seclusion, Wang Shouxin shouldered the responsibility of tending to the spiritual fields alone.

He was naturally a steadfast and hardworking person, and now without Wang Shouren around to guide him, it instead drove out a stubborn and unyielding fierce drive within him.

He chewed over the spiritual plant insights left behind by Wang Shouren no less than ten times, and shamelessly sought guidance from several old spiritual planters in the clan, recording the mastery of the Spirit Rain Spell, the water volume during the grain-filling period, and the timing of the harvest one by one onto a Jade Slip.

The sowing, grain-filling, and pest control of spiritual rice were quite cumbersome to Cultivate. To study how to achieve high yields, he simply built a thatched shed on the ridge of the field and guarded it day and night.

Inside the shed, apart from a thin quilt, there were a few bottles of Bigu Pills and around a hundred Spirit Stones.

Xiaotian also accompanied him, lying on the field ridge with its ears perked up to keep watch for him, giving low growls to warn of any disturbance.

On the day of the autumn harvest, the spiritual rice yield on Qinhu Mountain broke the record of past years, reaching a full nine hundred catties.

Wang Shouxin packed the harvested spiritual rice into bags one by one, applied sealing strips, and separately picked out the seed-saving rice ears, tying them into small bundles to dry in a ventilated place.

Wang Yaowen personally brought two accountants to tally the inventory, and after looking at the numbers on the ledger in astonishment for a good while, he patted Wang Shouxin on the shoulder.

"When your brother Shouren handed these spiritual fields over to you back then, he really picked the right person. You're good material for a spiritual planter."

During the clan's year-end awards, Wang Shouxin received a Medium Grade Magical Artifact and three hundred Spirit Stones.

He put the Magical Artifact into his Storage Pouch, but distributed one hundred of the Spirit Stones to those old spiritual planters who had guided him, and also entrusted someone to send twenty catties of the best new rice to Wang Shouren's parents, Chen Yirou.

At the end of the year, a major event was completed on the southern foothills of Wogui Mountain.

On New Year's Eve, Lotus Pier was brightly lit.

After a full year of preparation and construction, the stone platform on the mountainside was no longer just a temporary resting place for Loose Cultivators.

Building upon the original stone platform on the mountainside and following the terrain, the Wang family constructed three-tiered progressive market streets, hired a specialized Formation Master to lay down a Spirit-Gathering Formation and a Defensive Formation, and recruited a few experienced old Loose Cultivators who understood management to act as stewards.

The name was also very unpretentious: 'Qinglian Market'.

On the day the market opened, Lotus Pier was decorated with lanterns and colored banners, and Qinglian Market was even more lively than Chinese New Year.

Loose Cultivators from the Three Counties flocked to show their support, packing the newly opened streets to the brim.

Wang Yaozu personally presided over the opening of the market, and Wang Chongyang rarely came down from the back mountain for once, sitting at the market entrance to drink a pot of tea with several old Loose Cultivators and chat for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Although the market was small, built only halfway up Wogui Mountain covering less than a thousand square meters, it had all essential functions.

There were shops acquiring spiritual materials, counters selling Medicinal Pills, Artifact Refining stalls repairing Magical Artifacts for others, and a teahouse jointly run by several Loose Cultivators specifically for passing Cultivators to rest and exchange information.

Even Wanbao Pavilion came to make inquiries, wanting a storefront.

Just from the shop rentals alone in the entire market, the Wang family had an income of one thousand Spirit Stones every month, amounting to twelve thousand Spirit Stones a year.

This sum was truly not small, yet they did not overcharge; instead, it was much cheaper than the rent of ordinary markets.

Old Daoist Chen also became one of the market's stewards, strolling down the street every day leaning on a bamboo staff, smilingly greeting everyone he met, looking even happier than if he had obtained Spirit Stones.

...

Qingyun Market in the prefecture city of Beiyue Prefecture, a thousand miles away from Wanshan County.

Wang Qingyan handed the shipping manifest for the final batch of Spiritual Fish to the steward of Qingyun Market. After verifying it without error, the other party respectfully presented a heavy Spirit Stone pouch with both hands.

After counting and verifying, she signed her name on the manifest, her handwriting clear, elegant, and upright.

Sixth Uncle Wang Yaocai looking at that handwriting, nodded in satisfaction: "Qingyan, your handwriting is much better than those brothers of yours. In the future, Sixth Uncle will slowly teach you the accounts for this trade route."

The Wang family cannot rely solely on having hard fists; someone must also prop up the business.

Wang Qingyan nodded in agreement, put the shipping manifest and the Spirit Stone pouch into her Storage Pouch, and bid farewell to Sixth Uncle at the market street entrance.

The night breeze was slightly cool, and the night market of Qingyun Market was just beginning.

Spirit lamps along the street lit up one after another, and vendors selling Magical Artifacts, Medicinal Pills, spiritual fruits, and spiritual tea set up their stalls in sequence, their cries rising and falling one after another.

Wang Qingyan strolled slowly along the street alone, her jade pendant chiming lightly with her steps, her expression still maintaining that aloof and icy appearance that kept strangers at a distance.

Yet when she passed by a stall selling spiritual candied haws, her pace involuntarily slowed down.

The stall owner was an old Loose Cultivator at the Qi Refining Third Stage, who had strung red spiritual fruits on bamboo skewers, coated them with a layer of crystal-clear syrup, glistening with an amber light under the spirit lamps.

Wang Qingyan looked at them several times, and ultimately fished out a Spirit Stone from her sleeve to buy a skewer. Holding it in her hand, she was not in a hurry to eat, but simply watched that layer of syrup reflecting the light under the lamps, the corners of her mouth curving up slightly.

Ever since she was brought to Lotus Pier at the age of six and grew up in a Mortal farming family, she had been accustomed to thrift since childhood.

Although she was supplied with Spirit Stone resources every month, she basically used all of them to Cultivate.

Buying a spiritual candied haw to eat was already a rare occurrence.

Wang Qingyan raised the spiritual candied haw to her lips and gently bit off half of it.

The sugar shell shattered crisply between her teeth, the sweet-and-sour taste of the spiritual fruit melting on the tip of her tongue, and a faint wisp of Spiritual Qi sliding down her throat, causing her to narrow her eyes slightly.

Her long eyelashes cast two shallow shadows in the halo of the spirit lamps, and the curve of the corners of her mouth, which was usually pressed into a straight line, unconsciously curved up at this moment—curving extremely faintly and lightly, like a wisp of spring light accidentally revealing itself beneath the ice surface.

The hustle and bustle of the night market quieted down by a few shades at some unknown point.

The vendor selling spiritual fruits next to her forgot to shout his wares, a young Loose Cultivator chatting and laughing with his companion lost his voice halfway through his sentence, and even several Cultivators sitting by the window on the second floor of the teahouse across the street stopped their cups and saucers, their gazes unanimously falling upon that plain white figure.

The young maiden wore white robes like snow, and her temperament was as cold and stern as frost. Yet the moment she bit into the candied haw and narrowed her eyes, the iciness collided with the sweet-and-sour flavor, like a flower suddenly blooming in the snow, so beautiful that people forgot her frost.

Qingyun Market was a prefecture city with strict rules, and the patrolling city guards were right at the street corner.

No one stepped forward to strike up a conversation; they only watched from afar, their gazes filled with amazement and appreciation, like looking at a painting that no one dared to reach out and touch.

A burst of playful laughter between a man and a woman suddenly came from the corner of the market.

A youth dressed in a moon-white long gown, embracing a woman, walked out from the spiritual clothing shop opposite.

The youth had fair skin and was toying with a gold-inlaid folding fan in his hand, the fan surface painted with peach blossoms and a line of small characters: "A pot of wine among the flowers".

The woman nestled in his arms with a slender and graceful figure. A Disciple uniform of the Baihua Sect set off her skin as white as snow, and the magnolia flowers embroidered on the collar had been creased by the youth's arm.

They were precisely Hua Shaoyang and Ning Liandie.