It all began a little over two months ago.
After Wu Ming and Third Young Master Liu had set a date for the Moli Immortal Mansion inside the Sect Leader Temple that day... everything at Gujian Sect returned to normal.
It would take time for the Wuting Jiangshi Squad to be dispatched, and the Qingluan Post Station was no project that could be completed in a short while. Liu Sanlang was busy handling his Lineage's affairs, with hardly a moment to spare, and could only occasionally send Wu Ming a letter to express his admiration and closeness...
So aside from continuing to farm scripts, Wu Ming didn't really have anything else to do.
He wished he could set off to explore the Moli Immortal Mansion right away, but without enough levels, there was no point in talking about it.
And so, he practiced the Green Pine Stance, Spring Encounter Book, and Spirit-Melting Qi-Transformation Art in the morning; tempered his Physique with Root Stance and the Green Pine Stance at noon; and studied the Human Emperor Scroll in the evening, while drafting teaching materials for Senior Sister Ling Xi...
The days passed in this fashion, and before he knew it, two months had gone by.
His cultivation progress had been orderly and steady: the Human Dao Seal had accumulated to the seventeenth layer, the Spring Encounter Book was on the verge of the fourth level of Qi Refining, Root Stance could carry him through nine consecutive steps, and after repeated tempering, his Physique had grown stronger, with his muscle strength increasing by more than thirty percent.
Then he had amassed 4,800 Spirit Crystals, just enough for three ten-pulls.
Together with the twenty pulls he had already put in, his total of fifty pulls was enough to stir a faint thrill deep in his heart and leave him itching to try.
For his beginner's first ten-pull after crossing over, Wu Ming had gotten the Human Emperor Scroll. The returns from refining it had been quite substantial; one could say it had directly anchored him to a Taiyi Immortal Fate.
So what would the second golden light bring?
Root Stance, Spring Encounter Book, Green Pine Stance, Spirit-Melting Qi-Transformation Art... Any one of them, if refined, could bring about earth-shattering changes in his overall cultivation.
Or perhaps that mysterious golden light would bring an unexpected surprise?
All he could do was wait for the right moment.
One morning, Wu Ming stood atop an ancient tree on Yan Mountain in the Green Pine Stance. From far away, he spotted a streak of rainbow light racing over from the western horizon.
It was the Lingguang Path. After two months of work, Wuting's Jiangshi Squad had finally extended it from the Prefecture City a thousand li away to Yan Mountain.
The instant he saw the Qingluan's radiant trail, Wu Ming's heart gave a faint leap, as though some unseen force had enlightened and inspired him.
Without hesitation, he poured all the resources he had accumulated over the past two months into the Star Vortex.
Twenty-six streaks of blue light slightly improved his base stats.
Three streaks of purple light, combined with months of training in Root Stance, raised his Wood Spirit Root to seventh grade.
At last, that streak of golden light arrived right on schedule.
More than three months after crossing over, Wu Ming had finally obtained his second golden light.
In terms of how quickly one could accumulate resources for the Card Pool, Nine Provinces Online was downright miserly to a deranged degree... But considering that the years he would spend in this world would most likely far exceed the lifespan of an online service game, one golden pull every few months was still acceptable on a cultivation path measured in centuries.
What was harder to accept was that the Card Pool had given him a useless gold.
And this time, it was as if that unseen enlightenment was deliberately teasing him. After the golden light scattered and merged into his body... only a line of unfamiliar text appeared in Wu Ming's mind.
[Wuting Divine Craft Manual]
After that, Wu Ming naturally understood what the words meant.
The Wuting Divine Craft Manual was a compilation of cultivation knowledge accumulated over five hundred years by the Jiangshi Squad of Luohuang Mountain. It included fifty-nine techniques in total, such as the Lightness Technique and Jade Carving Manual, all of them crafts the Wuting artisans relied on to make a living.
So...
What did the Wuting Divine Craft Manual have to do with his current cultivation?
This sudden life-skill acquisition seemed to have nothing to do with Wu Ming's cultivation plans... They were two parallel lines that would never intersect.
So, in the end, it seemed safe to sum up the Wuting Divine Craft Manual as: a miss.
After months of grinding through scripts, all he had to show for it was a gold pull gone wrong. It was enough to make anyone scream and claw at the walls. Yet Wu Ming only stood stunned for a moment before calmly accepting the result.
Who ever pulled cards without getting a miss? After years of gaming, this wasn't his first time drawing the wrong card—or rather, he was just as much of a professional at getting misses.
As a professional, the only thing worth considering was how to make the best use of his limited resources.
Besides, whether the Wuting Divine Craft Manual even counted as a "miss" was still up for debate.
On the one hand, Wu Ming had only just seen the Lingguang Path when his heart stirred, and then he drew the Divine Craft Compendium, which was directly related to it. It was hard to chalk that up to coincidence. It seemed more like he had triggered the Card Pool's rate-up mechanism.
In fact, his first golden pull from the beginner pool had also come while he was comprehending the Human Emperor Scroll in front of Dinghuang Prefecture.
Now his second golden pull had come right after he gazed at the Lingguang Path and felt a moment of insight. It wasn't hard to infer that the Card Pool's rate-up depended on the geomantic fortune and timing at the moment of a pull.
If that was the case, then as his cultivation advanced and his knowledge broadened, he could seek out more places blessed with geomantic fortune and draw more powerful golden cards from the Card Pool. The Sanqing Immortal Sect, ancient Immortal Mansions—there were countless such places worth exploring. Perhaps he could even draw some miraculous, heaven-reaching technique on the spot!
As long as the Card Pool didn't give him a miss, he would never suffer the human tragedy of being in the Spirit Transformation Realm and getting Root Stance added to his collection.
Besides, even setting aside his grasp of the Card Pool's rules, the Divine Craft Compendium itself was already worth the price.
Because after the golden light flashed, Wu Ming hadn't received a simple blank manual, but actual knowledge and memories... as though countless master craftsmen had combined and passed down their life's work through an infusion of knowledge.
The experience was rather like his master's Fire Inheritance Book Ash, but gentler and more natural, with almost no side effects. In the blink of an eye, Wu Ming could put all fifty-nine of the Wuting Jiangshi Squad's unique arts to use!
His cultivation still kept him from matching Wuting's seasoned artisans outright, but he had already mastered the principles and practical details behind each technique. He might not yet be skilled enough to put them into practice, but if he argued with someone, he could instantly transform into a top-tier cloud artisan and win every battle.
Of course, as a first-clear expert who believed in civility and setting a good example, Wu Ming never fixated on arguing with others. He soon put his lofty theoretical expertise to proper use—teaching.
Second Senior Sister Zheng Lingxi was his best student.
He had first discovered Zheng Lingxi's talent by accident.
At the time, Wu Ming and Zheng Lingxi had gone down the mountain together to bring water to the craftsmen. He noticed that one of the masters had carelessly carved a parasol-tree jade branch into the wrong shape. Wu Ming casually pointed it out, only for the man to respond with insults and malicious nitpicking.
Wu Ming naturally wasn't about to indulge him. He immediately unleashed the skill of a top-tier cloud artisan and refuted the man until he was left speechless. And once a nitpicker realized he couldn't win an argument, he usually moved on to the next stage: rolling around on the ground and shouting, "If you're so good, you do it!"
Wu Ming's Qi Refining cultivation did indeed keep him from doing it himself. But he happened to have a Foundation Establishment Senior Sister right beside him, so the answer was obvious.
"You're up, Senior Sister Ling Xi!"
"??"
Then, facing Zheng Lingxi's bewildered expression, Wu Ming gave her an impromptu lesson, tailored to her abilities, and passed on a crash course in the Jade Carving Manual.
To his surprise, Zheng Lingxi proved more than capable. With the advantage of her Foundation Establishment cultivation and her unique insight into jade carving, she learned most of it on the spot. Then she picked up a carving knife and mallet, corrected the lazy craftsman's mistake, and made it even better than the original design.
Afterward, the usual clichés followed: the nitpicker was mocked by everyone, the workers expressed their admiration and surprise, and the foreman came over to apologize... But in Wu Ming's eyes, all these trivialities were beneath notice.
Because the instant Zheng Lingxi mastered the Jade Carving Manual, an incredibly pleasant system notification rang in Wu Ming's mind.
Jade Carving Manual teaching guide completed. Received 50 Spirit Crystals as a creation reward...
In that instant, Wu Ming understood everything.
The proper use of the Wuting Divine Craft Manual wasn't for him to cultivate on his own, but to start classes and teach others!
And the students' cultivation progress was directly tied to the creation rewards... That was, after all, the whole point of creation rewards.
If a guide wasn't written for people to read, what value did it have!?
Once he realized that, what came next was only natural.
Senior Sister Ling Xi's cultivation had always been the most easygoing and relaxed in Gujian Sect. After all, local resources were limited, and even when she wanted to cultivate hard, there wasn't much to cultivate. So rather than have her run all over the mountains every day to make friends with a bunch of wild "big brothers," she might as well learn a craft from her junior brother!
Fortunately, although Zheng Lingxi was usually laid-back, she wasn't lazy. She was simply curious about everything under the sun, like a child. The Wuting Divine Craft Manual and the little worksite at the foot of the mountain were both right up her alley!
By now, Wu Ming had trained his Second Senior Sister into a reliable monthly pass, one who could provide a steady income of dozens or even over a hundred Spirit Crystals almost every day. In just over half a month, he had nearly earned back a third of his investment!
Now, after Zheng Lingxi had skillfully carved a few stubborn stones and turned them into spirits, Wu Ming had, as expected, received another creation reward.
But at this point, Wu Ming didn't have much left to teach her. The Divine Craft Compendium contained a great many techniques, but not all of them were useful for immediate instruction. And Zheng Lingxi really did have the physique of a born construction worker; she learned and absorbed things even faster than he had expected. So...
Who should he find next to renew his monthly pass?
His master was out of the question. The old man had lived a long life and weathered all kinds of storms; squeezing Spirit Crystals out of him would be as awkward as a thirty-four-year-old studying full-time for the civil service exam. Besides, Wu Ming strongly suspected that his unfathomable master might have a deeper grasp of the construction arts than he did.
The First Senior Sister wasn't a good choice either. Compared with Zheng Lingxi, whose cultivation was easygoing, Zhu Ying's schedule was practically that of an overworked beast of burden. Especially after returning from the demon hunt and breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage, she had suddenly gained a great deal more cultivation homework. She barely even slept these days.
Just as he was thinking this, he heard a commotion from the craftsmen not far away.
"Here it comes, here it comes! The Qingluan's here!"
With the post station nearing completion, a Qingluan had set out from the Prefecture City and flown over for a test run to verify the Lingguang Path's effectiveness.
The bird on its test flight was only a fledgling, about three meters long, with a young man sprawled across its back.
He wore a golden brocade Daoist robe and was surrounded by spiritual light, which made his frame seem particularly tall and heroic. His handsome features were extraordinary. He was none other than the employer of this Wuting Jiangshi Squad, Wu Ming's brother in all but blood, Third Young Master Liu—Liu Qi!
A moment later, the Qingluan landed on a parasol tree's highest branch. Liu Qi leaped down from high in the sky, touched down lightly, and smiled as he cupped his hands toward Wu Ming.
"Brother Wu, it's been a long time!"
Wu Ming smiled with genuine warmth. "Brother Liu, want to learn a craft? (Become my monthly pass?)"
"...?" After a brief moment of bewilderment, Third Young Master Liu wisely chose to change the subject.
"Brother Wu, we may be able to move up the date for our trip to the Moli Immortal Mansion!"
Before you continue