Seeking the Dao with Gold

"That fellow Daoist seems to bear some hostility towards me!"

As Li Qingyun was about to turn back into his room, his peripheral vision caught sight of a young Daoist standing under a red maple tree to his left. The young Daoist was looking towards him with a face full of jealousy and anger.

"How boring..."

He gave a dismissive smile, too lazy to bother, and went back into his room to continue meditating.

"Hmph, just a fool who only knows how to meditate indoors. What does Senior Sister Lu even see in him!"

Wang Baiying stood under the tree, muttering curses filled with jealousy, stomped his foot, and turned to leave.

Inside the room, Li Qingyun sat cross-legged, holding the Precious Furnace Qi Absorption Art, studying it intently.

Combined with Lu Liqian's guidance, after reading it through again, there was no longer any difficulty or confusion.

He only needed to maintain a standard meditation posture, and the Daoist effigy phantom would "take over" the cultivation of mana.

Therefore, he could completely pursue both paths simultaneously, such as meditating while reading scriptures and practicing techniques.

The light and shadows inside the room shifted several times.

Li Qingyun looked up at the outside and stopped cultivating.

His daily cultivation limit had been reached again, causing his meridians to ache faintly!

However, the results were remarkable; his body now quietly possessed mana equivalent to five furnaces!

He rummaged through the cabinet for gold, silver, and jewels, picking out all the gold ingots and the pearls of superior quality. After wrapping them up, he tucked them into his embrace and then walked out of the room.

At this moment, the afternoon sun painted a brilliant gradient of red and yellow across the sky west of Maple Mountain. He was in a good mood and quietly admired it for a while, sighing inwardly at the magnificent scene of Maple Mountain at sunset.

"It's beautiful, but for some reason, it feels a bit too red, as if stained with blood..."

He shook his head, dispelling the sudden thought that crossed his mind.

Confirming his direction, he set off towards the Scripture Repository.

The mountain wind blew, his green robes fluttered, revealing the young man's figure, like a jade pine in spring.

A night had passed, and his height had increased by a few inches. Although his complexion could still be maintained as pale, his eyes were now more spirited, no longer carrying the sickly look of yesterday.

"I'll go to the Scripture Repository first to learn a few techniques. Yin Huan said the ones sold there are very expensive, but more reliable!"

Li Qingyun suppressed the fluctuations of his mana, walking among the maple trees and bamboo, his mood as clear and bright as the azure sky above the crimson maple mountains.

The valley was tranquil, his steps followed the scenery, and the back mountain was quite vast.

A disciple token hung from his waist. Whenever he approached areas that were hazy and indistinct, it would glow softly, dispelling invisible restrictions and allowing him to pass.

The entire Lingbao Temple, and even Maple Mountain, was covered by a grand formation. His disciple token, with its "shallow Dao affinity," could only grant him access to less critical areas. If he wandered off course, he would undoubtedly hit an "invisible wall" or fall into an illusion.

He walked along winding paths, past pavilions that appeared and disappeared.

Occasionally, he encountered other Daoists on the road, both male and female, many of whom were accomplished cultivators. Li Qingyun maintained a gentle and courteous demeanor, nodding or bowing in greeting.

Some Daoists would politely return his greeting with a hint of curiosity.

Others, with a more imposing aura and arrogant expressions, merely snorted and walked past without even looking at him.

Li Qingyun paid them no mind.

The path of the Dao is long; there's no need to compete for momentary superiority. In the eyes of those accomplished disciples of Lingbao Temple, he was perhaps nothing right now.

But in the future, these arrogant disciples of the temple would be nothing more than fleeting passersby on Li Qingyun's own journey to immortality!

After many twists and turns, a beautifully crafted, three-and-a-half-story Scripture Repository finally appeared before Li Qingyun's eyes.

The Scripture Repository was not as bustling as Li Qingyun had imagined; on the contrary, it was very quiet, with few people entering or leaving.

Considering Lingbao Temple's style, he felt it was understandable.

"Lingbao Temple is merely one of many Daoist temples established in the mortal world by the Lingbao Sect behind it. How many truly accomplished disciples can there be in this entire temple right now? Moreover, Yin Huan mentioned that the Scripture Repository is prohibitively expensive for disciples like us, so it's normal for it to be so deserted..."

He mused to himself and then quickened his pace towards the entrance.

Two young Daoists with swords strapped to their backs stood guard at the entrance of the Scripture Repository.

Li Qingyun's eyes flickered slightly as he noticed the tokens hanging from their waists, engraved with the characters "Patrol Monitor".

Only official disciples of Lingbao Temple wore more formal tokens, often engraved with titles like Patrol Monitor, Record Keeper, Storehouse Keeper, or Guest Welcomer.

The token Li Qingyun wore at his waist was the lowest-ranking identity token.

In the eyes of those official disciples, Li Qingyun and many other disciples like He Xiao, who had paid to enter the temple, were merely idle guests being housed within the temple.

Lingbao Temple valued "wealth," and disciples like Li Qingyun, who came to gain prestige and pass the time, were a means to an end for both sides.

"Junior Brother, halt. You look new; you haven't been to the Scripture Repository before, have you!"

The guarding disciple at the entrance called out to Li Qingyun, tilting his head slightly and addressing him with a condescending gaze.

"Let me tell you, our temple's techniques are not lightly transmitted. Entering the Scripture Repository requires a fee of ten taels of gold. Furthermore, each copy of a cultivation technique requires an additional fifty taels of gold or five spirit stones! Also, disciples who are not official members of the temple can only view texts on the first floor..."

Hearing the string of numbers tumbling from the other's mouth, Li Qingyun's eyelids twitched involuntarily.

"What a way to say 'techniques are not lightly transmitted,' but this is just too expensive! Are you telling me the money I painstakingly brought into the temple is only enough to learn two techniques?"

Even though he had prepared himself mentally, having come with a substantial amount of gold, hearing the astonishing prices now truly made him gasp.

In a mortal town, fifty taels of gold would be a colossal sum, more than an ordinary person could earn in a lifetime!

At Lingbao Temple, however, it was merely the price for a low-level spell.

"It seems that without becoming an official disciple for a day, we're just leeks being farmed by Lingbao Temple."

Despite his musings, Li Qingyun still handed over ten taels of gold and entered the Scripture Repository.

The first floor of the Scripture Repository had only about five or six rows of bookshelves, simple and straightforward, yet also a bit shabby.

A faint scent of ink permeated the air. Most of the books on this floor were handwritten copies.

There were only a few people browsing for scriptures and seeking the Dao on the first floor, just one or two Daoists with official tokens hanging from their waists.

The fluctuations of mana emanating from them were evident, clearly indicating they were elite disciples who had achieved success in Qi refinement.

Li Qingyun had learned from Yin Huan that official disciples of the temple could freely browse the Daoist scriptures and techniques on the first floor, but the second floor and above required merit and contribution points.

Those two official disciples on the first floor likely weren't willing to spend their contribution points and were here to get their fill for free.

"What I need right now is a cultivation technique to conceal my aura, followed by the subsequent levels of the Precious Furnace Qi Absorption Art..."

Li Qingyun calmed himself, approached one of the rows of bookshelves, and began to search.

He didn't immediately rush to the spell techniques.

Since entering the building cost ten taels of gold, he wanted to get as much free reading as possible.

He walked to the bookshelf filled with general Daoist scriptures and techniques, selecting a few books, including the Treatise on Yin-Yang Qi, Compendium of Daoist Magic, and Lingbao Dao Lord's Solutions.