Qi Gathering Realm

A dozen or so households had been reduced to just over a dozen people who had lost their homes and families.

But having been born here, they had long since grown numb, accustomed to such misfortune. They had originally come from several other villages, but after suffering similar tragedies, they had gathered here again.

They had endured the pain of losing loved ones too many times.

Some of the new recruits taken in by the pirates were the young, strong men among them.

In their despair, they had fallen into the embrace of darkness and evil.

This was also why the pirates along the coast had grown increasingly rampant, beyond the Immortal Dynasty's ability to govern.

The appearance of large numbers of low-rank demon spirits also showed that the northern barbarians and the Demon Locking Pagoda were secretly supporting them.

They had wreaked immense havoc across Donghai Prefecture, Beihai Prefecture, Donglai Prefecture, and other regions. The people were impoverished, severely hindering the nation's development.

The barbarians and the Dao Sect had been laying out similar schemes for many years, and now they were essentially bearing fruit.

The Great Jin Immortal Dynasty was weakening as its enemies grew stronger, while internal disorder continued unabated. The day the barbarians descended south was drawing near.

Heavy-hearted, Ming Shu led everyone onward toward Bai Family Village.

The dozen-plus people they had rescued included men and women, young and old. They would become the first farmers under Ming Shu—tenant farmers, to be precise.

Ming Shu would provide the land, tools, daily expenses, and production resources. In return, they would clear and manage the fields for Ming Shu, their landlord.

There was also some grain on the carriage, enough to sustain them for a while. For now, they would first repair the dilapidated Bai Family Village and establish a place to stay.

After daybreak, everyone immediately set out. The village had already become a ruin, and as for the corpses left behind, there was no need to hurry in the dead of winter. They could return and bury them in the next couple of days.

After hastily covering them, everyone set off on foot.

The old site of Bai Family Village was not far from here.

They arrived before noon. The two constables performed a simple handover, and Bai Family Village was renamed [Baishi Village].

Then they hurried back to the county town without stopping.

Before leaving, Old Zhao slipped some silver to the two men and told them not to report the pirate attack.

They had best not mention it privately, either, lest they draw the attention of barbarian spies. There were certainly northern spies within the county town.

Ming Shu had Old Zhao lead everyone in clearing out some rooms that were still habitable. They would worry about the rest after getting through the night.

He himself took Chong Li and Ren Yuan on a tour inside and outside Baishi Village, looking for signs that anyone else might be hiding there.

They also needed to confirm which locations could be defended if they encountered enemies that night.

Bai Family Village had actually been built over many years, and its scale was not small. Though it looked dilapidated on the surface, there were many useful arrangements within.

Chong Li also told Ming Shu that whenever the various clans chose a site, regardless of their size, they would first seek a place with a Spiritual Vein and a Spiritual Eye. Only then would there be spiritual power for cultivation.

Second, such a place could be used to cultivate Spirit Medicine and spirit plants.

When Bai Family Village had originally been built here, the Imperial Clan Court certainly had not assigned the location at random.

As for why no one had come to occupy it during the past ten years, the truth was that the Sky-Toppling Observatory had sealed the Spiritual Vein and Spiritual Eye beneath the ground in advance.

Ordinary minor forces could neither find nor break the seal. As for larger clans that could break it, they felt it was not worth the effort, and so they had allowed the place to remain abandoned.

That was the foresight and ability to plan ten years ahead possessed only by the Sky-Toppling Observatory.

Chong Li said that once Ming Shu had stabilized his situation, she could help lift the seal, allowing them to cultivate spirit plants.

That was how the various clans accumulated their foundations.

Clans with deep foundations could use Spirit Medicine and spirit plants to continuously cultivate experts and cultivators. That was the key to the enduring strength of the millennia-old aristocratic clans.

The Imperial Clan, meanwhile, was the most powerful existence among all the clans. It occupied several of the finest Spiritual Veins in the world and even siphoned resources from every clan each year.

These were the truths of this world!

And this was also one of the Sky-Toppling Observatory's investments in Ming Shu.

Ming Shu directly asked Chong Li and Ren Yuan, "Thank you both for looking after me along the way. Now that we've reached our destination, what do you plan to do next?"

Were they going to leave?

"There should be a message arriving over the next couple of days. I'll wait for my teacher's arrangements." Though Chong Li had been expelled from the Sky-Toppling Observatory, her teacher, Supervisor, had continued teaching and supporting her in secret.

The resources she received were in no way inferior to those of her fellow senior and junior disciples within the Sky-Toppling Observatory.

Ren Yuan, meanwhile, said that he would stay. He would remain until Qingtian Gate sent new arrangements.

The two of them had entirely different personalities.

Yet the decisions they made were unexpectedly the same.

They would stay for the time being, which allowed Ming Shu to breathe a long sigh of relief.

The Zhang Family? It did not exist yet.

Chong Li and Ming Shu toured the village once, roughly committing to memory the places inside and outside Baishi Village that needed repairs in the days ahead.

They would discuss the specific implementation with Old Zhao after returning.

All of this would be left to the grand steward to arrange.

At the same time, they needed to inspect the surrounding area and the several villages nearby to see whether any could potentially be brought under their control.

The exploration would be entrusted to Little Zhao and Ren Yuan.

As for Ming Shu, he would first begin cultivating with Chong Li.

That was because, that very night, the Sky-Toppling Observatory's mysterious message arrived.

[Starfall].

The method was just as its name suggested, like a falling meteor streaking down to land directly in Chong Li's hand.

Following the agreed-upon secret technique, Chong Li verified it and opened its contents.

Most importantly, it detailed the resources the Sky-Toppling Observatory would provide Ming Shu in the next stage.

The first item was a path to cultivation.

The second was that they had arranged a marriage for him.

The woman would arrive here in the next few days, and they were to make preparations as soon as possible.

There would be no further support in money or goods.

Because that would be the woman's responsibility.

In other words, the Sky-Toppling Observatory had not only led this risky investment itself, but had also brought in other major forces to invest alongside it.

Ming Shu had also just reached the age of thirteen, the legal marriageable age in the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty.

It was just that Supervisor had arranged everything with such meticulous clarity that Ming Shu felt like nothing more than a tool.

A chess piece.

He still did not know where his destination lay.

But survival was his first priority. He would complete this step before worrying about anything else.

There were internal and external troubles everywhere. Internally, they needed to develop; externally, countless pirates were watching them like tigers stalking prey.

If his side was not strong enough, the pirates could come and plunder them at any time.

The first stage of a warlock's cultivation was called the [Qi Gathering Realm]. The Sky-Toppling Observatory's method was simple and brutal: as long as they deemed you a chosen one, they could forcibly pour power into you and open the path to cultivation.

It was just that those with poor aptitude would progress extremely slowly.

Chong Li was a warlock who had mastered this skill.

Though she had only reached the third rank of warlock, the [Star Condensation Realm].

In the Star Condensation Realm, one condensed a star within the body, and this star could house a demon spirit.

It was the core of cultivation, similar to Dao Sect cultivators forging a Dao foundation and condensing a Golden Core.

As for Ming Shu, he had actually been automatically absorbing the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth all along. Ever since he swallowed the Immortal Pill and fully awakened the Life Book, he had naturally gained this ability.

That was also the fundamental reason the little Stone Pagoda in his possession had always been able to recover its power.

Under normal circumstances, once the power within an external object housing a demon spirit had been depleted through use, it would fall dormant and recover on its own at an extremely slow pace.

It would take an extraordinarily long time.

But the little Stone Pagoda in Ming Shu's hands was held and played with every day. Power flowed through his body and gathered within it, restoring its strength.

So he had actually possessed the substance of the Qi Gathering Realm long ago. He simply did not yet know how to control that switch.

The so-called Qi Gathering Realm meant opening the path to cultivation and using cultivation to gather the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth into one's own body.

It was then transformed into power that could be used by oneself and one's demon spirit.

Different cultivation sects and cultivation techniques produced power with different attributes.