Ways to Make Money

This handbook on survival for outer disciples, containing Chen Shouguang's seven years of painstaking effort, went into extraordinary detail on how newly initiated disciples could earn money, save money, and avoid being swindled out of money.

Xu Yuan read intently for a while. By the time he set the book down again, he already had a plan in mind.

For outer disciples like them, there were really only two ways to make money: sell their time, or sell their bodies.

When it came to selling time, Chen Shouguang's top recommendation was mining. It required no capital and no special skills; anyone with a bit of strength could do it.

Besides mining, the other two options were tending spirit herbs and standing duty in Biyou Market—the communal settlement where Xu Yuan and the other outer disciples lived.

However, those latter two options came with certain thresholds. Tending spirit herbs required specialized knowledge of medicinal materials, as well as at least one spell related to cultivating spirit plants.

As for standing duty in Biyou Market, there was a cultivation requirement: one had to be at least in the middle stage of Qi Refinement, and one also needed connections.

And if one did not want to waste time mining or tending spirit herbs, outer disciples had a second path: selling their flesh.

This selling had two meanings. Regardless of gender, any cultivator with good looks and no serious illnesses could find an undignified job in one of Biyou Market's Desire Immortal Pavilions—a job that felt good and earned spirit stones...

However, the immortal prostitutes here differed from those in the mortal world. After entering the Desire Immortal Pavilion, they had to sign an additional contract with the pavilion master, after which they would be granted a dual-cultivation technique. That way, their cultivation would not fall behind while they indulged in pleasure.

Xu Yuan recalled how someone had nearly grabbed his crotch when he first arrived, and cold sweat immediately broke out on his back. That person had probably been selecting male prostitutes.

The other kind of selling one's body was completely literal. It was also one of the three great treasures of Biyou Market's lowest-ranking cultivators: selling blood, selling flesh, and testing medicine with one's body.

Blood sold for two lower-grade spirit stones per jin, flesh for three lower-grade spirit stones per jin. As for testing medicine, payment depended on the drug's properties—the dangerous ones paid more, while those that were not dangerous, or might even be beneficial, paid little or nothing at all.

Of course, of course—those were the choices of ordinary outer disciples. If one truly had great abilities, one could also wait outside the Merit Hall at the start of every month, where some sect missions would be posted.

Completing those sect missions could earn not only generous spirit stone rewards or material rewards, but also sect merit.

But here came the problem. After all these years of development, especially with the influx of all sorts of small families in recent years, Biyou Market had long since become overcrowded. With too many monks and too little porridge, a mere first-layer Qi Refinement cultivator who dared compete for missions was simply courting death!

"Sigh, it seems mining is the only road left to me."

With a sigh, Xu Yuan had not expected that after all those twists and turns, he would ultimately return to where he started.

He had thought that once he refined Qi and ascended toward immortality, entering an immortal sect would let him sleep with his head on a high pillow and cultivate in peace. It seemed he had still been far too naive.

Having made up his mind, Xu Yuan saw that it was already late today and decided to visit the mine tomorrow to ask around. Then he assumed a stance in his room.

After breaking through to Qi Refinement, he could choose more advanced breathing techniques, such as the Dharma Repository's Moon-Gazing Breathing Technique.

But Xu Yuan knew his own circumstances well. With spiritual roots as mixed and ill-formed as his, it was only with the assistance of the [Innate Martial Bones] trait that he could cultivate the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art so quickly. If he casually switched to another breathing technique, he would be completely at a loss.

Most importantly, even if he mastered one, given his spiritual roots' affinity for spiritual qi, the speed at which he absorbed qi might not actually surpass the speed at which he refined essence into qi.

Since that was the case, he might as well continue cultivating the Little Blue Mountain Essence-to-Qi Art. Once he added the powerful [Five Elements Spirit Nurturing] trait in the future, he could think about what came next.

His body completed one movement after another as though by instinct. Xu Yuan's mind gradually sank into stillness, casting aside every distracting thought and devoting himself wholly to cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, a day passed.

Early the next morning, feeling that his cultivation had advanced by another sliver, Xu Yuan stretched his body and pushed open the door.

Bi Qiong's door was tightly shut, and he did not know whether she was home. Xu Yuan hesitated for a moment but chose not to disturb her. Instead, after winding through several paths, he arrived on the main street.

Having changed into disciple robes, Xu Yuan was no longer stopped by a crowd trying to sell him things as he had been yesterday. At last, he had the time to take a good look at this bustling immortal marketplace.

Just as his gaze settled on a stall selling talismans, a sudden commotion erupted in the street. A fully armed patrol squad, accompanied by two towering ghost soldiers, whistled past right in front of him.

Seeing their aggressive bearing, Xu Yuan wondered whether some trouble had broken out. He quickly asked someone nearby.

"Fellow Daoist, what kind of spectacle is this? A law enforcement squad and ghost soldiers—could it be that some demon beast is causing trouble?"

The person he asked gave a cold laugh. "Hmph. It's far more serious than that."

"Hm?" Xu Yuan's heart tightened. "Could some outside force be invading?"

"Mm, more or less. Someone reported this morning that cultivators on the edge of the market illegally built houses and, without knowing the immensity of heaven and earth, privately set up a spirit-gathering formation. They're simply looking to die!"

Xu Yuan: "?"

Watching the law enforcement squad disappear into the distance, Xu Yuan silently withdrew his gaze.

Losing the mood to keep wandering around, he headed straight northeast. After traveling roughly three hundred zhang beyond the market, he saw a huge mine entrance ahead.

From far away, Xu Yuan could hear someone wailing.

"Sir, sir, I beg you, let me go in and mine for another two hours. I'll do anything. My child enrolled in a spell academy some time ago, and we desperately need spirit stones right now. Please, just let me go in again."

Only when he drew closer did Xu Yuan see that it was a gaunt-faced man in a disciple's long robe. The man was clinging to a burly fellow dressed in the Hidden Moon Sect's standard uniform, tears and snot nearly dripping onto him.

"Damn blood slave! You sold blood, carved off flesh, and now you still come to my place to mine? If you die in there, that's one thing—but if the Law Enforcement Hall investigates me afterward, that's the real problem! I don't have that much time to waste on a poor bastard like you!"

He viciously shoved the man to the ground, then fiercely kicked him in the stomach. Only when he saw that the man looked half-dead did he finally stop.

"Hmph. You've got mixed spiritual roots yourself—what promise could any child you produce possibly have? An old beast like you, wasting so many spirit stones on a little beast like that. Trying to climb to heaven, are you?"

After spitting on the ground, he signaled with his eyes to either side. Several people immediately stepped forward, hauled up the gaunt man, and threw him out.

Only then did Xu Yuan notice the many depressions across the man's body. Even the intact parts of his hands had been stuffed with things that looked like weeds.

Xu Yuan's heart chilled. He watched the man stagger to his feet and leave with despair written across his face. Just then, the person in charge over there finally seemed to notice Xu Yuan as well.

"You there—is that you here to mine?"