Taking the chance to clear up Li Qingyun's confusion, these people enthusiastically began hawking their businesses as well:
"Junior Brother Li, if you need Minor Grass Pills in the future, come find me. I have connections, and they're two cents cheaper than the pill room in the monastery!"
"Qingyun, your senior brother here also has some resources. For those commonplace cultivation manuals and essential formulas from the Scripture Repository, I have cheaper channels!"
"Top-grade talisman paper, peachwood, even refined iron—I have abundant stock here. I guarantee Junior Brother the best prices!"
"Qingyun, if you have a Qingyang Fish source, you might as well sell to us first..."
Every last one of them was shrewd as a fox, each with their own way of making money. No wonder they spent so lavishly in the Dining Hall without batting an eye!
Li Qingyun ate and chatted with He Xiao, Yin Huan, Ge Xiaohong, and the others, and before long they had become much more familiar with one another.
As the third young master of Marquis Qinghe's Estate, he was also someone He Xiao and the others particularly wished to befriend.
They did not yet know that Li Qingyun was actually someone who had been "cast aside," no longer able to draw support from his family—much less provide Qingyang Fish.
Otherwise, these senior brothers would surely have worn entirely different faces.
After eating, everyone left the Dining Hall.
Halfway there, He Xiao, Ge Xiaohong, and the others threw their arms around one another's shoulders and headed off to attend some Dharma Discussion Gathering that evening.
Li Qingyun, meanwhile, called out to Yin Huan, with whom he had gotten along quite well earlier.
"Brother Yin, you mentioned having channels for acquiring spells. I wanted to ask whether you can get methods for expelling Gu worms, or perhaps some other solution?"
A Spirit Devouring Gu lurked in his heart, devouring greedily without limit. Naturally, it had to be removed as soon as possible.
"Expelling Gu? There are certainly spells for that, but I see that Junior Brother has not yet cultivated mana. Even if you had the method in hand, you would not be able to use it."
Under the lamps of the night, Yin Huan looked at Li Qingyun's pale face with greater seriousness. After pondering briefly, she made her suggestion.
"Qingyun, I know a Martial Uncle within the monastery. If it is to expel Gu for you, I can ask him to act. It is merely some unorthodox trickery—he will certainly leave behind not the slightest hidden danger! But the price is a bit steep: at least ten spirit stones, with the final cost depending on the difficulty!"
At least ten spirit stones!
Li Qingyun was immediately struck speechless, sighing inwardly.
"Brother Yin, then let's see about it later. Actually, it was a friend of mine who was afflicted with Gu. I just wanted to see whether there was a solution in the monastery..." He could only decline tactfully.
Li Qingyun knew the importance of spirit stones. They were the true circulating currency and cultivation resource among cultivators.
One spirit stone was worth at least ten taels of gold, yet no matter how much gold one possessed, it might not be enough to exchange for a spirit stone.
In this world, the boundary between mortals and cultivators was not so clear-cut as the waters of the Jing and Wei. Instead, they were intermingled. Many unorthodox factions, Transcendent Aristocratic Clans, and Rogue Cultivators all held sway over parts of the mortal world.
With demons running rampant and Ghostly Creatures appearing and disappearing, mortals simply could not survive and multiply without the protection of Transcendent Cultivators.
As for the so-called You Kingdom, its imperial family itself was the most powerful Transcendent Aristocratic Clan among mortal powers. It was said that an exceptionally dominant sect stood behind them.
Thus, as the years accumulated, spirit stones and even magical artifacts inevitably found their way into mortal hands.
A few years ago, relying on the Marquis's Estate's influence and the knowledge and acumen from his previous life, Li Qingyun had managed local affairs and built up industries on a grand scale. He had even received several dozen spirit stones, only for them all to fall into Cui's hands now.
Maple shadows swayed, crimson leaves drifting like blood. The two parted ways at a fork in the mountain path.
Li Qingyun had no mind to wander about and returned directly to the Bamboo Lodge.
I refuse to believe that with my mana flowing without end, you can swallow every last bit of it...
With that thought, he continued meditating.
The phantom in his mind appeared at once as well. "He" wore a tranquil expression and sat cross-legged, while an illusory booklet of the Precious Furnace Qi Absorption Art floated before him.
The Dao-image phantom lowered its eyes, sitting still as a stone statue. Yet wisps of clear qi began to rise continuously from above its head.
Within Li Qingyun's body, Mana Glimmers sprang up one after another throughout the meridians and acupoints that crisscrossed like waterways—here a little, there a little, with no particular pattern.
These Mana Glimmers illuminated the dark void within his body.
This inner dark void could not be measured by the spatial dimensions of external reality. Just like the meridians and acupoints, how much capacity could they possibly possess when assessed by outward measures?
Yet cultivators with profound cultivation could open heaven and earth within their acupoints, containing surging mana and nurturing treasures and magical artifacts. It was mysterious beyond mystery.
The dark void within a cultivator's body was often defined in Daoist scriptures and cultivation manuals of this world with concepts such as inner landscape, Divine Treasury, and Heart-like.
The Precious Furnace Qi Absorption Art also mentioned the dark void within the body in a single line:
"Once Refining the Three Treasures is accomplished, one may observe the inner Divine Treasury and excavate greater potential..."
It did not elaborate further.
As Li Qingyun looked inward, he found the seemingly boundless dark void within his body incomparably mysterious and wondrous, even feeling a measure of awe and unease toward the unknown.
Perhaps after reading more profound cultivation manuals and Daoist scriptures in the future, he would understand more.
But for now, he could only keep this doubt in his heart.
Very quickly.
Within Li Qingyun's body, the scattered Mana Glimmers were drawn toward one another and once more gathered into a thin stream of mana.
Then the Spirit Devouring Silkworm, growing increasingly pale and plump in the depths of his heart, wriggled its body again. Opening its mouth, it inhaled and greedily devoured that stream of mana.
This appetite is a bottomless abyss!
He was secretly alarmed, not knowing where the limit of this Spirit Devouring Silkworm's consumption lay.
Before heading to the Dining Hall, it had already squandered the mana from one or two furnacefuls of his cultivation!
But then, let it continue!
Mana continuously surged forth, and the Spirit Devouring Silkworm never stopped eating, swallowing it all.
Its sickly pale silkworm body continued expanding outward, becoming rounder, fatter, and more bloated.
No one knew how much time had passed before threads of yellow radiance began to crack and spill from the surface of the Gu worm's body.
Li Qingyun's spirits stirred. At last, he saw hope.
"This Gu worm has kept devouring, and it is finally becoming somewhat saturated."
Under his observation, the fat silkworm was nearly bursting from being overstuffed, yet it could not control its mouth. It continued gulping greedily, consuming every strand of his mana.
"This Gu worm must have had a spell placed on it. It can only keep devouring!"
"Cui cannot tolerate me cultivating mana, but how could she have imagined that now, so long as I meditate, mana will arise within me without end..."
Time passed, and it was already deep into the night. The moon shrouded Maple Mountain in a desolate crimson glow.
At last, he delightedly discovered that after the Spirit Devouring Silkworm's body had swelled several times larger, its speed of devouring mana had finally slowed.
It even began resisting the intake of mana.
But compelled by its command, it could only continue swallowing in anxious unrest.
It instinctively began saving itself. Its plump silkworm body joined head to tail, coiling into a fat ring that flashed with yellow light as it sought to enter some kind of metamorphic state.
The moment Li Qingyun saw this, his heart grew even more urgent. He knew he could not give it the chance to catch its breath.
Otherwise, all previous efforts might go down the drain!
He had a premonition that once this Gu silkworm transformed, its ability to devour would surely increase drastically, and he would become even more passive.
"Tonight, you must eat yourself to death..."
Two hours passed.
Having maintained the meditative posture for so long, Li Qingyun once again felt his muscles go limp and his bones weaken. His limbs tingled and numbed, his meridians throbbed with swelling pain, and stars even began to dance before his eyes.
This physical body of his remained a wretched vessel, even after being nourished a little by mana. It could not withstand the prolonged stimulation of mana.
But for the sake of his Dao Path, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and persevere.
Between the Spirit Devouring Gu and himself, only one could remain tonight!
Bzz!
Suddenly, as though from the depths of the unseen, an unusual sound like muffled thunder rang out.
The entire Bamboo Lodge shook at once, dust sifting down from the roof.
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