84: Chapter 84 Renting a Cave Dwelling

The Immortal Cave rental office was located in a quiet alley in the west of the city, with a plaque hanging above the door that read "Affairs Pavilion."

It had black lettering on a gold background, the characters carved in a rigid, formal script.

Two dwarf pines were planted in the courtyard, their needles covered in a fine layer of volcanic ash. They looked gray and dusty, and a gust of wind would stir up a cloud of gray dust.

Inside the main hall sat a manager from the Li family, at the Qi Refining Stage 5.

The man was about forty years old, wearing a cyan dharma robe with the character "Li" embroidered in a dark pattern on the cuffs.

His face was gaunt, his cheekbones high, his chin sharp, and his lips as thin as two razor blades.

Spread out in front of him was a thick animal-hide ledger, its edges frayed from frequent flipping, and the pages were densely packed with records of Immortal Cave rentals.

The ink varied from new to old; the latest line was not yet dry, glistening with moisture in the sunlight.

"There are still a few Low Grade Immortal Caves available," the manager said while flipping through the ledger, pointing to a page with his finger.

His nails were trimmed neatly, without a speck of dirt in the crevices. "One is in the North District, right next to the shanty town, for one hundred Spirit Stones a year. Another is in the West District, also for one hundred Spirit Stones a year. The Spiritual Qi concentration is the same, equivalent to a Medium Grade Spiritual Vein."

"The West District."

"West Seventeen." The manager took an iron-wood token from the drawer and placed it on the table.

The token was the size of a palm, with the number "West Seventeen" carved on the front, and a simple ownership-binding Restriction engraved on the back that connected to the Immortal Cave's Formation.

The pattern of the Restriction was very simple, with only three circuits; once refined, one could freely enter and exit the Immortal Cave.

Jiang Yan counted out one hundred Spirit Stones.

The Spirit Stones were stacked in ten piles on the table, ten in each pile.

The manager scanned the quantity with his Divine Sense, swept the Spirit Stones into the drawer, and pushed the token over.

"Let me state the rules first," the manager's voice was devoid of emotion, as if reciting a clause he had read thousands of times. "You may not damage the Immortal Cave, and you may not alter the main Restriction of the Immortal Cave without authorization. You may not sublet the Immortal Cave to others. Violators will have their Immortal Cave reclaimed, and the Spirit Stones will not be refunded."

Jiang Yan nodded, picked up the token, turned, and left the courtyard.

West Seventeen was in a remote alley in the west of the city.

At the entrance of the alley stood a crooked locust tree. The trunk was as thick as a bowl, and a large chunk of the bark had been gnawed off by something, revealing the grayish-white wood underneath.

At the end of the alley was a circle of low stone walls. The walls were no more than a zhang high, built from the most common black volcanic rock in Black Stone City, the stone surface riddled with pores.

Embedded in the top of the wall was a Formation Plate, octagonal in shape, with several simple identification Restrictions carved on its surface.

He pressed the token against the Formation Plate.

The moment the Restriction on the back of the token touched the identification Restriction on the Formation Plate, both Restrictions lit up with a very faint cyan halo.

A stone door slid open on the stone wall; as the door moved, it ground against the gravel on the ground, making a dull, rumbling sound.

The courtyard was five or six zhang long and wide, the ground paved with bluestone slabs.

The gaps between the stone slabs were filled with withered moss; it rustled when stepped on, and one could feel the subtle sensation of the moss crumbling underfoot.

In the center of the courtyard was a stone well, the mouth of the well surrounded by a waist-high stone railing.

Four two-story stone houses were located at the four corners of the courtyard.

Each was independent, two stories high, with withered vines crawling all over the stone walls. The branches of the vines were brittle and snapped into pieces at the slightest touch.

The one to the east shone with a very faint cyan Formation light, as did the one to the north. The windows of both houses were tightly shut, and the curtains were drawn tight.

The ones to the south and west were dark, their windows open, revealing empty stone walls inside.

Jiang Yan chose the one to the west.

When the token touched the Restriction node on the door, a very faint cyan light flashed across it.

The stone door slid open silently.

Entering the door was a hall about two zhang square.

Embedded in the stone walls were several fist-sized night-luminescent pearls, their luster mostly faded, emitting a dim, eerie green light.

Following the stone stairs up to the second floor, there was a bedroom and a Cultivation room.

There was only a stone bed in the bedroom.

In the center of the Cultivation room was a simple Spirit Gathering Array. The pattern radiated outward from the center; the flow of the lines was reasonably regular, but the depth of the carvings varied, clearly not the work of a high-level Formation Master.

He injected a wisp of spiritual power to activate the Spirit Gathering Array.

The Formation pattern lit up with a faint milky-white halo that spread from the center to the surroundings. After it washed over the entire pattern, the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the Cultivation room began to rise slowly.

The speed of the increase was very slow, like scooping water into a water vat with a spoon.

He stood in the Formation for a while, feeling the change in the concentration of Spiritual Qi.

It was at the level of a Medium Grade Spiritual Vein. It was about thirty or forty percent richer than the outside world.

For him, this amount of Spiritual Qi was a drop in the bucket if he wanted to improve his cultivation.

His Bloodthirsty Demon Scripture required a large amount of Yao Beast essence blood or high-level Spirit Medicine to advance quickly. Relying on absorbing this thin Spiritual Qi while meditating, it would take years to go from the Middle Stage of Qi Refining Level 6 to Perfection.

But it was barely enough for restoring spiritual power and daily Cultivation.

He checked the Formation of the entire house.

The defensive Formation was only Low Grade—the defensive Restriction engraved on the stone wall was only a thin layer in his Divine Sense perception, like a transparent eggshell wrapped around the house.

It could block a Fireball Technique from the Early Stage of Qi Refining, but if it encountered a full-force strike from the Middle Stage of Qi Refining, it would shatter in a few hits.

Fortunately, it was also layered with a warning Formation and a soundproofing Formation.

The warning Restriction's light membrane covered the entire courtyard, and any spiritual power fluctuation crossing the courtyard wall would be sensed.

The soundproofing Restriction shut out the noise from outside the alley—after he activated the soundproofing Restriction, the chirping of several sparrows on the crooked locust tree at the alley entrance vanished instantly, and the courtyard became quiet enough to hear his own heartbeat.

He took the Formation Plate of the Li Fire Killing Array out of his Storage Pouch.

The seven Formation patterns on the fire copper Formation Plate glowed with a very faint red light under the eerie green light of the night-luminescent pearls, and the fire jade Formation eye still retained the residual warmth from the last time it was activated.

The power of this set of Formation Plates could trap and kill a Cultivator at the Late Stage of Qi Refining, but he did not intend to set it up directly outside the Immortal Cave.

That would be too conspicuous—a Loose Cultivator at Qi Refining Level 6 setting up a High Grade Killing Array on the courtyard wall; it would be hard for the neighbors not to notice.

He planned to upgrade the Formation eye of the Li Fire Killing Array, then use a new Formation Plate to make the Li Fire Killing Array the inner core of the Immortal Cave's defense, with a layer of Medium Grade concealment Formation on the outside.

This way, from the outside, the Immortal Cave's defense would only be at the Medium Grade level, unassuming and low-key.

If someone really tried to force their way in, the Li Fire Killing Array would activate on the inner layer.

Upgrading the Formation eye required a few pieces of better-quality spirit jade.

The fire jade Formation eye itself was Medium Grade. If he could embed another High Grade fire-attribute spirit jade into it, the power of the Formation could be increased by another thirty percent, and the duration could be doubled.

He would deal with this tomorrow.

He put the Formation Plate back into his Storage Pouch and walked to the window.

The window faced the courtyard, and he could see the stone well in the center of the courtyard and the stone house directly to the east.

Twilight had already descended. The mouth of the stone well in the courtyard was covered with a thin layer of night fog, which surged out from the bottom of the well, forming a grayish-white vortex above the mouth.

The Formation lights of the two houses to the east and north were particularly conspicuous in the twilight.

The window of the stone house to the east suddenly lit up.

A blurry silhouette appeared behind the curtain; the figure was not tall, with narrow shoulders, looking like a female Cultivator.

The figure swayed behind the curtain and then disappeared, and the lamp also went out.

The one to the north remained dark. But in his Divine Sense perception, the Spirit Gathering Array of that house was operating at full speed—someone was Cultivating inside.

Jiang Yan drew the curtains.

He sat cross-legged in the center of the Spirit Gathering Array in the Cultivation room and re-counted all the Spirit Stones, Spirit materials, Medicinal Pills, and Magical Artifacts in his Storage Pouch.

The Vermilion Fruit lay quietly in the jade box, and he could still feel the warm pulse through the box wall.

The purple cloud ganoderma and several other Spirit Medicines were categorized and stacked in another corner; those for which jade boxes were insufficient were wrapped in silk cloth and stored separately.

The flame gold flying sword, the purple-veined thunder sword, the top-quality Flying Sword, the god-slaying flying knife, and the Yan Jin Sword Array—he checked all the Magical Artifacts one by one; the spiritual light was intact, and the Restrictions were stable.

There were nearly three hundred Spirit Stones left.

It was enough as his starting capital.

He put everything away again and sat cross-legged in the Spirit Gathering Array.

He prioritized the things to be done next in his mind.

First—start refining Magical Artifacts and Medicinal Pills to sell.

Artifact Refining and Alchemy were currently his most stable and efficient sources of Spirit Stones.

The profit from a High Grade Flying Sword was over two hundred Spirit Stones; refining two would allow him to upgrade the Immortal Cave to a medium level, and refining five would allow him to exchange for a set of High Grade defensive Formations.

Second—re-arrange a sufficiently hard defensive Formation for this Immortal Cave.

After upgrading the Formation eye of the Li Fire Killing Array, it would serve as the inner core, with a concealment Formation layered on the outside.

In a place like Black Stone City where Loose Cultivators gathered, the defense of an Immortal Cave was his second life.

Third—go buy the few auxiliary medicines needed for Alchemy with the Vermilion Fruit.

Swallowing the Vermilion Fruit directly was a waste; refining it into Vermilion Fruit pills would at least double the medicinal effect.

In the future, after dispersing his cultivation and starting over, these few Vermilion Fruit pills would be the key to his rapid recovery of cultivation in the Early Stage of Qi Refining.

He drew a shallow horizontal line on the windowsill with his finger.

Then he closed his eyes and began to operate the Taixu Nourishing Spirit Art.