Spirit Pearl Space

When he was little in his previous life, Wang Daoyuan had put this pearl through no small amount of abuse—slashing it with knives, burning it with fire, smashing it with stones... Yet after enduring all that torment, it remained completely unscathed. Other than that, it had shown nothing extraordinary. He had never expected it to be a spatial treasure.

"Since this space is inside the pearl, I'll call it the Spirit Pearl Space!" Wang Daoyuan muttered to himself.

At the edge of the Spirit Pearl Space stood a tiny thatched cottage. The cottage was utterly ordinary, yet it gave Wang Daoyuan an intensely familiar feeling.

When his divine sense entered the cottage and saw its furnishings, Wang Daoyuan froze. This was clearly the home where he and the old Daoist had lived for many years in his previous life. It was in this very thatched cottage, while sorting through the old Daoist's belongings, that he had been struck by lightning and transmigrated.

In the center of the room stood an old Eight Immortals table. Against the back wall was an altar table, upon which sat a memorial tablet bearing the words: "Memorial Tablet of My Late Master, Wang Yan."

Everything was as it had been, except the old Daoist had long since ascended from this world, while Wang Daoyuan himself had been reincarnated into another realm.

On the Eight Immortals table lay the belongings left behind by the old Daoist: several old thread-bound books.

With a thought from Wang Daoyuan, one thread-bound book vanished from the space and appeared in his physical hand. Then, the book disappeared from his hand and reappeared atop the Eight Immortals table within the space.

Clearly, the Spirit Pearl Space could store and retrieve objects. Wang Daoyuan was beside himself with excitement. A space ten mu in size, hidden within his Sea of Consciousness—even if it could only store things, it was still a priceless treasure.

Wang Daoyuan tried to draw his own body inside, but no matter how he urged his divine sense, nothing happened. It seemed that he himself could not enter the space.

After cultivating in the Lineage for more than ten years and reading all manner of books, Wang Daoyuan knew quite a bit about spatial treasures.

There were many spatial treasures in the cultivation world, with Storage Bags being the lowest grade. Storage Bags did not contain much space and had weight limits. Storing overly heavy items could cause the space inside the bag to collapse.

However, Storage Bags were merely the lowest-grade spatial treasures. Their principle was to use secret arts or artifact-refining inscriptions to warp space, turning a small space into a large one. A second-rank Artifact Refiner could make one, and the materials had no special requirements beyond being sturdy, so their prices were quite low.

The common Storage Bags on the market were only about one zhang square and could hold three to five hundred jin of goods. They were worth several Spirit Stones. Better Storage Bags could be two zhang square and hold a thousand jin, but cost dozens of Spirit Stones. Such Storage Bags were relatively rare and difficult for Qi Refining cultivators to obtain; they were commonly used by Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

For an even larger space or the ability to store heavier objects, the requirements for artifact-refining materials rose dramatically. The value for money was far worse than simply carrying several small Storage Bags.

More advanced ones were called high-grade spatial treasures, such as Universe Rings and Universe Bracelets. They had no weight limit for stored objects, and their internal space generally exceeded five zhang square.

Refining this sort of spatial treasure required materials with spatial attributes, such as Void Stone and Hollow Willow.

Moreover, high-grade spatial treasures placed extremely demanding requirements on artifact-refining skill. There were only a handful of Artifact Refiners capable of producing them. Thus, such treasures were exceedingly rare, and even most Violet Mansion Cultivators could hardly obtain one.

The highest grade was top-tier spatial treasures. Their interiors were complete small worlds where living beings could survive and reproduce.

However, such treasures existed only in legend. They were made by immortals who had transcended the cycle of reincarnation, collecting naturally formed small worlds and refining them. As for the method of refinement, it was even more unheard of.

Besides these, there was another special type of spatial treasure—the Spirit Beast Bag. Although Spirit Beast Bags could also contain living creatures, they were not the same as top-tier spatial treasures.

A Spirit Beast Bag could only ensure that a living creature did not die. It did not even provide room to move, much less allow creatures to reproduce and thrive.

Spirit Beast Bags were generally low-grade spatial treasures on the same level as Storage Bags, though they could bear greater weight and cost more. A small number were also high-grade spatial treasures.

The Spirit Pearl Space was larger than an ordinary Universe Ring. Furthermore, unlike a Universe Ring, whose interior was nothing but pitch-black emptiness, it contained clearly visible soil and thin spiritual energy.

Though it had no sun, moon, or stars, it was not dark. Its brightness resembled daytime outside during rainy weather.

Wang Daoyuan guessed that the Spirit Pearl Space was definitely more advanced than an ordinary Universe Ring. It might even be the legendary top-tier spatial treasure with a small world inside.

To verify this guess, Wang Daoyuan casually caught several insects outside his cave dwelling and placed them into the Spirit Pearl Space. He then took out several grains of spirit rice from the storage bag distributed by the Lineage and planted them in the soil within the space.

After observing them for several hours, the insects were still lively and kicking, proving that animals could survive in the space. The spirit rice, however, showed no movement at all.

A day later, the spirit rice sprouted. The few insects were gnawing on the rice seedlings, so Wang Daoyuan casually gave them a humane destruction.

The space could grow spirit rice and raise Spirit Insects. This truly was the legendary top-tier spatial treasure.

Wang Daoyuan thought smugly, The Spirit Pearl Space has ten mu of Spirit Fields. Although its spiritual energy is thin and only suitable for growing low-grade first-rank spirit plants such as spirit rice, it still must not be underestimated.

Spirit rice generally yielded around two hundred jin per mu, and ten jin of spirit rice could be sold for one Spirit Stone. Ten mu of Spirit Fields could yield two thousand jin of spirit rice in one season, selling for two hundred Spirit Stones. Spirit rice could be harvested three months after sowing, allowing four harvests a year—that was eight hundred Spirit Stones. Below Foundation Establishment, few cultivators could earn so much.

Round it off a little, and that would be...

Ahem. Keep a low profile, keep a low profile.

With such abundant resources, a ray of hopeful dawn appeared on his bleak road of cultivation.

Thinking of this, Wang Daoyuan could not help humming a little tune from his previous life. "Today is a good day..."

After his bout of giddy elation, he could not help feeling regret for the old Daoist from his previous life.

With his current understanding of cultivation, he knew that the old Daoist had indeed possessed cultivation, but only around Qi Refining Layer Two or Three, and the cultivation method he practiced had merely been a basic Qi Refining technique. If the old Daoist had reached Qi Refining Layer Four and cultivated divine sense, he would have discovered the Spirit Pearl's secret.

In that world of Blue Star, where spiritual energy was nearly nonexistent, the old Daoist had managed through his own exploration to enter the Qi Refining Realm. With the vast resources provided by the Spirit Pearl, Foundation Establishment would have been effortless, and opening a Violet Mansion would not have been difficult either.

While lamenting the old Daoist's fate, Wang Daoyuan thought of the kindness of raising him and the kindness of teaching him. His eyes blurred of their own accord.

The past stood vivid before his eyes. From the time he could first remember, the old Daoist had taught him without holding anything back. At five, he began learning to draw talismans, laying a solid foundation for becoming a Talisman Master in this life.

At six, he was taught martial arts. At seven, he was taught the ways of the world: be kind to others, the bird that sticks its head out gets shot, wealth should not be displayed...

Thinking of wealth not being displayed, Wang Daoyuan's thoughts ran wild. He thought of "a child carrying gold through the market," "the crime of possessing a jade," "elephant tusks bring about the elephant's death"... Before he realized it, cold sweat had already soaked through his clothes.

The Wang Clan was merely an ordinary Foundation Establishment Lineage, with only the clan leader, Wang Zhian, as a Foundation Establishment Cultivator. In the cultivation world, it could only be considered a bottom-tier force, barely stronger than Rogue Cultivators and Qi Refining Lineages.

With such little strength, possessing a legendary top-tier spatial treasure—never mind a top-tier spatial treasure, if word got out that they possessed even an ordinary Universe Ring, the Wang Clan would be marked for extermination.

If he wanted to live, he absolutely could not let a single scrap of information leak out.

With that, Wang Daoyuan's beautiful dream of selling spirit rice for huge profits in Spirit Stones was shattered.

Because spirit rice was cheap yet indispensable to low-level cultivators, the spirit rice produced by every faction was consumed internally, with very little sent out for sale.

Once Wang Daoyuan's several thousand jin of spirit rice entered the markets around the Wang Clan, it would inevitably cause a huge stir. Any anomaly would attract the attention of those with ulterior motives. They would follow the vine to find the melon, and it would be easy to discover that the issue lay with the Wang Clan, eventually leading them to him.

When that time came, his little life would be in danger, and the Lineage might be dragged down with him.

To ensure both his own safety and the safety of the Lineage, he absolutely could not let anyone notice anything unusual about him, nor could he attract outsiders' attention.

Holding a treasure yet unable to use it—this feeling was truly like asking how much sorrow one could have: like a crowd of eunuchs entering a brothel.