"Floating Cloud Mountain Range," Crimson Cloud Mountain marketplace.
On the street, two Qi Refining Cultivators wearing Song Family robes carefully carried a huge wooden barrel over three feet tall. Weaving around the crowd, they arrived at the back door of a shop along the street.
The moment they set down the barrel, a shopkeeper at late-stage Qi Refining immediately directed several attendants who had long been waiting there to step forward and remove its lid.
The barrel was filled to the brim with clear water, within which several dozen bluish-green spirit fish, each over half a foot long, swam slowly about.
Seeing that aside from five or six already floating belly-up, most of the bluish-green spirit fish were still lively and vigorous, the shopkeeper's tense expression finally eased.
"Quick, pick out the ones in poor condition first. Put the rest in the pond out back to be raised.
Let me tell you, these Emerald Cloud Carp were painstakingly transported all the way from Qinghe County as an offering to the ancestor on the mountain.
Their lives are precious!
If you fail to take proper care of them, once the ancestor and elders hold you accountable, none of you will have an easy time. You might even be dispatched to guard Jade Bottle Mountain."
Hearing the name "Jade Bottle Mountain," the attendants at work all shuddered inwardly, recalling the news they had heard half a month ago.
The "Jade Bottle Mountain" mentioned by the shopkeeper was a Grade 2 High-grade Spirit Mountain northeast of Crimson Cloud Mountain, where they were located.
Ever since Human Race Cultivators seized Crimson Cloud Mountain's Level 4 Spirit Vein six years ago, the low-grade spirit veins surrounding Crimson Cloud Mountain had gradually fallen under the occupation of Human Race Cultivators as well.
Jade Bottle Mountain was