Chapter 47 (Part 3)

“Merchants offering discounts?” Hearing this phrase, Yu Yu suddenly thought of how Wuchen had previously asked him about some things from Blue Star. It seemed he had mentioned something called a shopping festival.

It seemed Wuchen had applied it to the shops under the Taizhen Immortal Sect’s name.

Why was Yu Yu so certain?

Because in the immortal market at the foot of the Taizhen Immortal Sect’s mountain, every single shop was connected to the sect.

Yes, they were just that overbearing. The entire immortal market had been built by the Taizhen Immortal Sect itself. The shops inside were either opened by the sect or by the sect’s disciples and elders.

In short, you would not find any outside merchants here, because the Taizhen Immortal Sect did not allow it.

Every year, especially many people came to the Taizhen Immortal Sect to buy supplies. The Taizhen Immortal Sect would never let a duck already in its mouth fly away.

These were all spirit stones. Letting outside shops earn that money? Don’t even think about it.

The sect also had specialized merchant caravans that went to the territories of the major sects to purchase special goods, making the immortal market at the foot of the Taizhen Immortal Sect the place with the most complete range of products.

Those who did not want to run all over the place buying supplies would come to the Taizhen Immortal Sect to shop. Although the prices were a little higher than in the goods’ places of origin, they were not that much more expensive, so everyone was still quite willing to come here for one-stop shopping, because the goods here were the most complete.

On top of that, over the past two years, merchants had started offering discounts around New Year Festival, making the immortal market under the Taizhen Immortal Sect even livelier.

“Little Junior Brother, are you going?”

Lingfeng looked at him rather expectantly.

“Sure.”

Yu Yu did not refuse. He had entered the sect several years ago, and his cultivation had already reached the peak of early Foundation Establishment. He was about to enter mid Foundation Establishment, yet he had never gone down the mountain to see this world.

It was fine when no one mentioned it, but once it came up, he felt a little tempted too.

“Then let’s go!”

Lingfeng grabbed him and ran outside, but before they could even run out of the Bamboo Courtyard, they were caught by several senior brothers waiting outside.

“Lingfeng, where are you taking Little Junior Brother?”

Lingji looked at her with a dark expression and asked.

“Uh… Eldest Senior Brother, I’m taking Little Junior Brother down the mountain for a stroll.”

The initial happiness on Lingfeng’s face disappeared, leaving only nervous unease.

“Little Junior Brother, if you want to go down the mountain, this senior brother won’t stop you. But you should tell Master first.”

After Lingji heard this, he did not continue making things difficult for Lingfeng. Instead, he spoke softly to Yu Yu.

With such blatant favoritism, not a single person present felt there was anything wrong with it.

Little Junior Brother was young, and his cultivation was weak. Was it not perfectly normal for everyone to be a little biased toward him? Lingfeng herself was not angry, so naturally, outsiders had even less right to say anything.

“And Lingfeng, if you drag Little Junior Brother down the mountain like this, do you know how many people there are below? Do you know whether any evil cultivators are among them? Do you know whether someone might set their sights on Little Junior Brother?”

Lingji asked several questions in a row, and Lingfeng could not answer a single one.

She could not very well say that her head had heated up and she had just dragged Little Junior Brother down the mountain.

However, Lingji’s questions also cooled her head. Only then did she remember that Little Junior Brother was more special than the rest of them. He was someone who could tempt even old monsters in life-and-death seclusion. If they went down the mountain like this without any protection, that was not only irresponsible toward herself, but also irresponsible toward Little Junior Brother.

“I’ll go right now.”

Lingfeng corrected her mistake as soon as she realized it and dragged Yu Yu off to see Qingyang.

Yu Yu let her pull him along as they ran. He was not angry either, and even turned back to wave at his senior brothers.

“Only Little Junior Brother has such a good temper. If it were someone else being dragged along by Lingfeng like this, they would have gotten angry long ago.”

It was not that Linglong looked down on his own younger sister. Just from the way she charged forward without turning back, he knew she had forgotten that Little Junior Brother was not Golden Core, but Foundation Establishment.

Little Junior Brother’s feet were not even touching the ground. He was floating in midair as she ran.

“We knew Little Junior Brother had a good temper long ago, didn’t we? Otherwise, would we dote on him this much?”

Lingzhen patted Third Junior Brother’s shoulder. Having a younger sister like this really was hard on him.

After this round of seclusion, everyone’s cultivation had improved.

Linglong was one step away from Nascent Soul, and Lingfeng had entered late Golden Core. As for him, he was also close to Soul Transformation. Then there was Eldest Senior Brother. The aura around him was growing increasingly ethereal, a sign that he would soon undergo Tribulation Transcendence.

Perhaps one day, they would welcome their first senior brother who was a Daoist Lord at the Tribulation stage.

“I’ll protect Little Junior Brother from the shadows later. You two accompany him while he strolls around!”

Lingji assigned tasks to his junior brothers. He definitely was not at ease letting Little Junior Brother go down the mountain alone with Lingfeng.

Lingfeng had never been reliable. Once she went down the mountain and saw something lively, she might forget Little Junior Brother entirely.

“Good.”

Lingzhen and Linglong accepted Eldest Senior Brother’s arrangements.

After Lingfeng and Yu Yu asked Qingyang for permission, they met up with the other two, then went down the mountain together to stroll through the immortal cultivation market.

It was Yu Yu’s first time leaving the sect. When he passed through the mountain-protection array, he discovered that the scenery inside and outside was completely different.

How should he put it?

The plants inside the sect were more lively and spiritual, and the spiritual energy was also not something the outside could compare to.

The spiritual energy outside was relatively thin, far less dense than the spiritual energy inside the sect. After becoming used to staying in the sect, suddenly coming outside made him somewhat uncomfortable.

“Little Junior Brother, are you all right?”

His senior brothers and sister gathered around Yu Yu, who was lacking spiritual energy, and quietly waited for him to get used to the outside world.

“I’m fine.”

Yu Yu took several deep breaths. Once his body adjusted to this environment, he spoke to his senior brothers and sister.

It seemed he could not just stay blindly inside the sect. He also had to come outside occasionally and adapt to the outside world.

Inside the sect, there was the mountain-protection array as well as abundant spiritual energy. Compared with the outside world, the environment could be considered the Immortal Realm.

No wonder there were so many loose cultivators in the outside world, yet very few had profound cultivation. It was not that they did not want to cultivate deeply, but that the outside world was far crueler than the sects.

Never mind the thin spiritual energy. Many resources could only be accumulated bit by bit through their own efforts. Sometimes, for spiritual plants that seemed worthless to Yu Yu, several groups of people would fight like dogs.

It was not because their character was poor, but because most of the outside world’s resources were controlled by the sects. Limited resources had to support a large number of loose cultivators, so they had no choice but to fight and seize them.

Regarding this point, Yu Yu truly had no way to make light of things from a position of comfort. He could only remain silent and say nothing.

A sect was equivalent to a nation in his previous life. If a nation wanted to develop, it had to have money and all kinds of resources.

For the sake of money and resources, which nation would not fight with everything it had to protect them? Everyone could only take care of the citizens of their own country and occasionally reach out to help other countries.

A country could not oppress its own citizens for the sake of outsiders.

So Yu Yu could only pretend he did not know. The human heart was biased.

He only needed to be responsible for the people of the Taizhen Immortal Sect, just as when he had been on Blue Star, the only one he needed to be responsible for was Huaxia. Whether other countries were good or bad had little to do with him.

The immortal cultivation market had a barrier, which could be considered a smaller version of the mountain-protection array. Its main purpose was to protect those living inside.

There were not only cultivators inside, but ordinary people as well. Once night fell, the immortal cultivation market would close, and no one could enter or leave.

With the barrier in place, evil cultivators had no way to enter the immortal cultivation market and kill people.

As soon as he entered the immortal cultivation market, Yu Yu saw this special shopping street.

It really was one single street. There was not a second one. But this street was especially long. Without using spiritual power, one could not see the end at a glance.

Aside from that, it was no different from other places. Shops and residences stood on both sides, and a road ran through the middle for everyone to walk on.

“At the far end of the immortal cultivation market, there are also flying birds and beasts for travel, but their prices aren’t cheap.”

Lingfeng began introducing the immortal cultivation market to Yu Yu, and even pointed out a shop for him to see.

“This is the Pill Pavilion opened by Senior Martial Uncle Qingyao. Everything sold inside is practice work made by the disciples of Pill Peak.”

“Then what about the精品 goods?”

The practice work was placed in the Pill Pavilion for sale. What about the pills they refined carefully?

“Ahem. Generally speaking, the sect consumes them internally. If there are extras, they’re placed in the sect’s pill shop for sale.”

Lingfeng was a little embarrassed. Senior Martial Uncle simply did not want to deal with these pills of less-than-great quality, so he opened the Pill Pavilion.

“But don’t worry. The price is half that of normal pills.”

The anxious way Lingfeng explained made Yu Yu want to laugh.

“Senior Sister, you’re not even a Pill Peak disciple. Why are you so anxious?”

Yu Yu’s words made Lingfeng suddenly understand.

Right. Why was she anxious?

“Hey, isn’t it because I’m afraid you’ll misunderstand our sect? Although they’re all pills of poor quality, they’re much better than the ones those loose cultivators outside sell. On top of that, the price is half as much, so quite a lot of people buy them.”

After Lingfeng finished introducing the Pill Pavilion, she dragged Little Junior Brother off elsewhere.

“Little Junior Brother, hold on to my hand. I’ll protect you and won’t let you get lost.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, her entire person suddenly grew excited.

“Little Junior Brother, look over there. Someone is gambling on stones. Let’s go take a look.”

When Lingfeng saw someone setting up a stone-gambling stall, she could not help saying this to Yu Yu. As she spoke, she squeezed toward the crowd. In the end, she did not even realize when she let go of Yu Yu’s hand.

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