But while the people from both factions felt uneasy, they also felt reassured.
Most of them knew why the two factions' masters had taken Zhang Wan as a disciple.
The heir of the future faction had this kind of personality. Though he might be somewhat troublesome to get along with, a leader like this was also more likely to preserve the faction and let them continue enjoying the glory and wealth they currently possessed.
At the banquet, Zhang Wan met the senior and junior fellow disciples under his two nominal masters, as well as their primary bloodline descendants.
There was also a large number of junior disciples and collateral bloodline members whom he would have to meet later.
Of course, Zhang Wan was not trying to get to know everyone.
That would consume too much energy and was unnecessary.
Getting to know the important figures was enough.
After the banquet, most of his senior and junior fellow disciples and his nominal masters' bloodline descendants left a communication jade talisman for Zhang Wan.
With these jade talismans, Zhang Wan could contact them.
Unfortunately, they only allowed one-to-one communication. Each jade talisman could correspond to only one other jade talisman, making it impossible to use a single jade talisman to contact multiple people over a long distance.
After the banquet, Zhang Wan put on a show of asking his two nominal masters about a few cultivation problems.
Zhang Wan did not need to ask anyone about these cultivation difficulties. He could comprehend them directly by using experience points.
But now that he had taken them as masters, he still had to give his two nominal masters some face and let them feel a sense of accomplishment.
Besides, this was also an excellent excuse.
It could make outsiders believe that his insights into martial arts all came from his masters' guidance.
After all, comprehending cultivation methods and martial techniques without anyone's guidance and steadily raising his cultivation all the way would be rather conspicuous.
Once someone dug into these matters and scrutinized them carefully, labeling him a genius with peerless comprehension would bring him quite a bit of trouble.
Taking two Ninth Level Postnatal martial artists as his masters had already brought him plenty of trouble. If he became any more prominent, he feared he would drown in schemes and machinations.
After finishing all this, Zhang Wan returned to his daily cultivation.
Every day, he would visit the two mu of spirit fields under his care, then chat with Li Sanjian, Wan Xing'er, and some fellow disciples he had screened and deemed worth associating with, deepening their mutual understanding and friendship.
The people from his two factions were also within his circle of associates.
But most of his time was still spent cultivating.
Zhang Wan still did not use spirit stones to cultivate. He planned to save all the spirit stones in his possession and use them to purchase some treasures he wanted.
Even so, his cultivation speed remained far from slow.
Although he had only average aptitude and did not use spirit stones or pills, he relied on his complete comprehension of his cultivation method, the dense spiritual energy in the outer disciples' residential area, and, most importantly, his experience points. His cultivation speed was still impressive.
By controlling the amount of experience points he used on his cultivation, Zhang Wan kept his cultivation speed at a level that was not startlingly fast, yet not slow either.
It was not so fast as to leave people dumbfounded, nor so slow as to disappoint his two nominal masters.
He was steadily advancing upward.
Meanwhile, Zhang Wan continued secretly drawing fire talismans.
However, after learning of the calamities that an Extreme Spirit Planter might bring, Zhang Wan no longer wished to use the Extreme Cultivation Method on a large scale to secretly cultivate spirit plants.
The outer disciples' residential area was, after all, teeming with powerful people, while the small formation in his private residence had pitifully weak concealment.
Until he upgraded the formation to the point where it could isolate the perception of a Seventh Level Postnatal martial artist, he planned to temporarily forget that he knew the Extreme Cultivation Method.
Even if he used it, he would cultivate at most one or two spirit plants.
Because of this, the problems with talisman brushes, talisman paper, and talisman ink became glaringly obvious.
Without the Extreme Cultivation Method, producing these three things himself for drawing talismans would be far too difficult.
Using the Five Elements Spirit Planter's standard cultivation method to cultivate them on a large scale was impractical.
Whether he cultivated them on a large scale in the two mu of spirit fields or in his courtyard, if he kept all three kinds of spirit plants he ultimately produced instead of selling them,
even a fool could guess that he was learning talismancraft.
He still wanted to keep fire talismans as an unexpected trump card.
Selling most of them and keeping only a small portion would be meaningless. That little amount would not satisfy Zhang Wan's needs.
It was also impossible to transfer a few spirit plants into his room from time to time as he had done at the academy.
He had already decided to temporarily forget the Extreme Cultivation Method. Even if he transferred them into his room, without rapidly cultivating and rapidly consuming them, how many could he transfer if they all piled up inside?
It was not worth going to such lengths for that tiny amount.
"Looks like I'll have to take the conventional talisman master route." Zhang Wan prepared to follow the methods of other talisman masters.
In fact, few conventional talisman masters produced and sold their own talisman paper, talisman ink, and talisman brushes as he did.
They basically purchased them from outside, then made talismans and sold them to earn the difference.
Now that Zhang Wan had sealed away the path of producing and selling his own supplies, returning to the conventional route of a talisman master and earning resources was the best choice.
"In fact, having completely comprehended the incomplete version of the fire talisman through experience points, my success rate at making talismans is far higher than that of ordinary talisman masters."
"Even if I take the conventional talisman master route, my profit margin will still be far higher than that of ordinary talisman masters."
"Once I draw the talismans, I'll keep the fine ones and sell the inferior ones. I'll still be able to retain a considerable profit margin."
"That will be enough for me to accumulate a large number of spirit stones while also stockpiling a large batch of fine talismans."
Obtaining talisman paper, talisman brushes, and talisman ink also did not require him to leave the outer disciples' residential area.
The entire Jade Bone Sect controlled a population of more than fifty million, and each academy under its jurisdiction could cultivate roughly two hundred Postnatal martial artists every year.
Taken together, all the academies sent nearly two thousand Postnatal martial artists into the Jade Bone Sect's outer sect every year!
After accumulating over a long period, the total number of outer disciples in the Jade Bone Sect remained steadily above two hundred thousand.
That was even with some outer disciples dying every year. Otherwise, there would have been even more.
Although a considerable portion of the outer disciples were scattered among various branches throughout the territories governed by the Jade Bone Sect, the number remaining in the outer disciples' residential area still hovered around one hundred thousand.
With so many Postnatal martial artists gathered in one place, all kinds of demand naturally arose.
Although the Jade Bone Sect had established a large market called Yifu Market thirty or forty li from the sect's mountain gate, both to meet its disciples' needs and to earn resources from Rogue Cultivators,
it was ultimately somewhat distant from the outer disciples' residential area.
Some outer disciples simply set up small shops in the outer disciples' residential area for trading.
Later, this gradually formed two small markets, one open and one hidden.
The gambling den and charm cultivator establishment Zhang Wan had been dragged to a few days earlier were located in the open market within the residential area.
Zhang Wan did not want anyone to know that he was making talismans, so naturally he could not go to the open market.
The hidden market could also satisfy his needs.
"Although this market formed in the outer disciples' residential area, every martial artist has secrets, and many people don't want to trade many things openly."
"That was how the open and hidden markets came into being."
"The sect also turns a blind eye as long as no one crosses the line."
"That certainly makes things convenient for me."
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