A few days later, Anping County City, Clearwind Courtyard.
In the past few days, Chu Bai has been busy with Demon-Suppression Office Demon-Slaying Squad's general affairs, allocating manpower, checking files, and almost never touched the ground. It was not until today that he finally stepped into the mansion donated by Wu Household for the first time.
Pushing open the heavy black door, you will see a screen wall. After walking around the screen wall, a quiet breath hits your face.
This is an authentic two-entry courtyard with a spacious front yard and a quiet backyard. There are several green pines and cypresses dotted in it, making it look well-proportioned.
Chu Bai walked around the house and saw that the windows were bright and clean, and the furniture and furnishings were all made of fine pear wood. Obviously, before the handover, Wu Household had sent people to meticulously clean and decorate the house inside and out.
"This house is a quiet place amidst the bustle of the city. The market price is about one hundred and fifty taels of silver."
Chu Bai stood in the corridor of the main hall and nodded slightly, "Wu Ping That old fox is really thoughtful."
Two years ago, one hundred and fifty taels of silver was still an astronomical figure to him, but now that he has been promoted to Principal Ninth Rank Demon-Slaying Token, his monthly salary has increased to one hundred taels of silver, and it is not difficult to buy such a house.
It's just that he was preoccupied with the case before, and later he was busy changing positions, and had neither the energy nor the time to take care of his residence, so he has been living in the official residence Quiet Chamber at Demon-Suppression Office.
Now that Demon-Slaying Squad has a stable structure, and Feng Qin and Hu Hao have a tacit cooperation with each other, he, the captain, can finally withdraw from trivial official matters and reinvest his energy into the fundamental matter of cultivation.
While he was thinking about it, there was a gentle knock on the door.
"Great Zhou Astronomical Bureau Li Feng, at the request of Lord Wu Household, come to see Master Chu."
Chu Bai recovered his thoughts, flicked his long sleeves, and the courtyard door opened without any wind. "Please come in."
A young man of about thirty years old walked in outside the door. He was wearing a blue robe that was washed slightly white, with a bronze medal of the Astronomical Bureau hanging on his waist. He had a calm temperament and exuded the elegance of someone who has been studying formations all year round.
Li Feng As soon as Fang stepped into Clearwind Courtyard, he saw Chu Bai standing in the corridor with his hands behind his back. His steps could not help but stagnate slightly, and a trace of surprise that could not be concealed flashed in his eyes.
He had long heard that Anping Demon-Suppression Office had produced a ridiculously young newcomer Demon-Slaying Token, who killed False God with thunderous means and was famous.
But when he saw him today, his face still looked a bit juvenile, which still shocked him.
At such an age, he already has such official authority and Killing Intent. As time goes by, this Great Zhou Immortal Dynasty's Dragon-Tiger Ranking will definitely have its place.
Chu Bai nodded slightly, and Divine Sense swept past quietly like a tide.
This person's cultivation level is around Qi Refining Fifth Layer, his aura is average, and there is a faint spiritual light emerging from Divine Soul, which shows that he is a monk who has received the Great Zhou orthodoxy [White Ordination].
Li Feng is the fourth generation formation master of Li Household, and was officially assigned to the Astronomical Bureau. In addition to official duties, he often takes on some formation work for private wealthy families. He is very popular in Anping County's practice circle and official circles.
At this moment, he didn't dare to ask for help, so he quickly bowed and saluted. "Li Feng I have met Mr. Chu, your young hero. When I saw you today, you really have extraordinary bearing."
"Master Li, you're welcome. Please sit down." Chu Bai led him into the side hall.
After exchanging a few words, Li Feng got into the mood.
He stood up and walked around Clearwind Courtyard to investigate, sometimes stopping to measure the direction, sometimes calculating the flow of ideas with his fingertips, and his expression became extremely professional.
Half an hour later, Li Feng returned to the hall, looked at Chu Bai and asked about his needs, "Mr. Chu, Clearwind Courtyard is located on the edge of the busy city. Although it is obscured by downtown fireworks, Earth Vein is relatively stable and suitable for formation. However, this Spirit Gathering Formation also has many details. I wonder which one you prefer?"
He paused and explained in detail, "Great Zhou Law Net envelopes the world, filtering all the original and mixed auras and Killing Intent between heaven and earth, and turning them into the 'Pure-Origin Spiritual Qi' that our monks most often absorb. Ordinary formations intercept these Pure-Origin Spiritual Qi and gather them in the mansion."
"But some Aristocratic Clan families have different needs due to their different inheritance of skills."
Li Feng stretched out his hand and said, "For example, if some Lineage major in Metal Element Kung Fu, they need to place Geng Metal spiritual objects in the core of the formation to convert the spiritual energy into sharp Metal Energy; or they need to trap the cold air to nourish Bing Xin.
This kind of formation with specific attributes often affects the feng shui of the house, causing the vegetation and creatures to change according to the formation."
He looked at Chu Bai with inquiring eyes, "Sir, you have achieved profound cultivation at a young age. I wonder if you are pursuing the most comprehensive 'Pure-Origin Spiritual Qi', or do you have a specific Five Phases preference?"
Chu Bai tapped the tea cup with his fingertips, and after thinking for a moment, he slowly said, "The exercises I practice are quite special, and I need Five Phases all kinds of spiritual energy.
Master, if you can build a Five-Element Spirit-Gathering Array in this Clearwind Courtyard, so that the five qi of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are complete and form a self-contained circle for me to breathe in and out every day, I wonder if it can be done?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Li Feng, who had originally looked calm, suddenly froze in his movements, and his eyes showed deep astonishment.
"Five Phases Everything is complete? Do you still have to make a loop of your own?"
He repeated it subconsciously, looking at Chu Bai with cautious eyes.
After ordinary monks enter the Qi Refining stage, most of them will specialize in one area based on their own spiritual roots. The most taboo is having mixed spiritual powers.
The so-called biting off more than one can chew, forcibly devouring spiritual energy with multiple attributes can easily lead to conflicts within the body, which can range from stagnant cultivation to obsession.
But the young Demon-Slaying Token in front of him actually did the opposite and asked Five Phases to practice together.
Li Feng was secretly surprised in his heart: Could it be that Master Chu has some great ancient inheritance, or is his physique inherently gifted and able to reconcile Five Phases?
However, as a formation master, it is taboo to ask your patrons about their practice secrets.
He quickly calmed down and said with a troubled expression, "Sir, although this Five-Element Spirit-Gathering Array is also a type of Spirit Gathering Formation, due to the need to maintain the balance of the five qi and make them mutually reinforcing and endless, the arrangement is indeed several times more troublesome than a single-attribute formation.
This kind of formation requires extremely high requirements for the position of the opponent's eye and the purity of the materials. Although I have the inheritance of Li Household, my experience in setting up such a composite formation is still limited."
He paused and then added sincerely, "I will do my best to deduce it for you.
If something goes wrong along the way, I will go home and ask my old man to help, otherwise your money will be wasted."
Chu Bai Hearing his frank words, he didn't put too much pressure on him. Instead, he felt a little more trusting and nodded slightly to indicate that he should continue.
Seeing that Chu Bai had no objections, Li Feng began to introduce the price in detail, "As for the cost of this formation, I, Li Household, have always been fair. Usually I only intercept the Spirit Gathering Formation of the 'Pure-Origin Spiritual Qi' filtered by Law Net, and it can be completed for about a hundred taels of silver.
And if those large Lineage require specific attributes, such as pure Metal Energy or fire energy formations, the price usually ranges from two hundred to five hundred taels of silver depending on the scale."
"As for the Five-Element Cycle formation that you requested..." Li Feng pondered for a moment and held out five fingers, "To form a system and ensure stability, the total price will be about five hundred taels of silver. Of which the material cost will account for three to four hundred taels, and the rest is Li's labor costs and Li Household's reputation money."
Five hundred taels of silver.
Chu Bai secretly calculated in his mind that this was almost equivalent to five months of his salary. Even in Anping County city, it was enough to buy three houses like Clearwind Courtyard.
But he also knows that cultivation is a business that consumes extremely material.
The mansions of the wealthy families in the city are full of clever ideas and have many masters, all of which are built with formations built with such heavy money.
"After the formation is deployed, although Heaven-and-Earth Spiritual Currents can be intercepted and form a loop of its own, the source of the spiritual energy needs to be found by the adults themselves."
Li Feng explained seriously, "Adults need to put the corresponding spiritual objects into the Five Phases array eye as a primer, so that the array can operate normally and continuously produce Five-Element Spiritual Qi."
Chu Bai nodded to express understanding. "The price is reasonable, and the required materials can be pointed out by the array master."
Li Feng heard this, took out the pen and paper he carried with him, and quickly made a long list.
The most eye-catching one is that it costs fifty Spirit Stones.
"These fifty Spirit Stones are the power source of the formation disk and are extremely difficult to raise." Li Feng explained.
Chu Bai glanced at the list and said calmly, "Spirit Stones I have some inventory on hand, so I can use it to offset part of the material cost."
In the following time, Li Feng was busy in the hospital again.
Holding Dingluo Compass in his hand, he repeatedly surveyed the gate, main house, screen wall, and dry well in the backyard, and roughly confirmed the specific location of the Five Phases formation.
"The location has been decided, the next step is to prepare the formation flag and carve the talisman formation."
Li Feng put away his tools and saluted Chu Bai with cupped fists, "Sir, once all the materials are ready, it will take Li some about half a month to complete the formation. Once the formation is launched, this Clearwind Courtyard will become one of the best places of practice in Anping County's city."
Chu Bai stood up to see off the guests, looking at the background of Li Feng leaving, a flash of expectation flashed in his eyes.
Half a month.
As long as this Five-Element Spirit-Gathering Array is completed, the next practice should be much faster.
After Li Feng left, silence returned to Clearwind Courtyard.
Chu Bai stood alone in the center of the courtyard, his eyes sweeping over the several formation positions designated by Li Feng just now, and he couldn't help but feel a little emotional in his heart.
"If you can practice these various arts of immortality to a profound level, it will indeed be a shortcut to great wealth."
He secretly calculated that Li Feng would earn more than a hundred taels of net profit in half a month from setting up the formation, and as Astronomical Bureau's ordained monk, this work would neither delay his official duties nor affect his daily practice. He was really envious of others.
However, Chu Bai also knows that there is a threshold for this kind of income.
Li Household has been operating formations for four generations. What Li Feng has mastered is not only the formation techniques, but also the deduction experience and formation diagrams accumulated by Li Household for hundreds of years.
If it were an ordinary monk, just to get a feel for the formation, I'm afraid he would have to spend a lot of resources to practice, and he might not be able to succeed in the end.
And for Chu Bai, who is burdened with [Relentless Toil]Fate Destiny, what he lacks most is time.
At this stage, he has not considered distracting himself from studying these complicated skills. He only has one idea: to deploy Spirit Gathering Formation as soon as possible, so as to quickly improve his realm.
"Although the formation is good, if we want Five Phases to move together, I have to put some thought into this 'introduction' myself."
The core of Spirit Gathering Formation is to intercept the spiritual energy under Law Net to form a self-circulating loop, thereby speeding up the efficiency of breathing and breathing.
But Li Feng also made it clear just now. If you want to cultivate a specific Five-Element Spiritual Qi, you must enshrine the corresponding spiritual object in the eye of the formation as the source of output.
Chu Bai looks inside himself. Although the "Origin Return Formula" he has cultivated has been perfected and Five Phases is flowing smoothly, the Five-Element Spiritual Power in his body is currently unbalanced.
The three qi of gold, wood, and fire are all obtained from the Dao Academy Spirit Pavilion, and the selected qi are all rare and of high quality, so they are naturally sufficient.
In contrast, the two qi of water and earth are now slightly absent, which results in the Five Phases large loop not being full and round during operation.
"I don't have any treasure on hand that can produce spiritual energy for a long time. It seems I have to go to Cultivator Market."
Great Zhou has an extremely serious monopoly on cultivation resources, but low-level spiritual objects aimed at Qi Refining monks are also circulated among the private government-run Cultivator Market.
Chu Bai already has some concerns in mind.
Those Earthly Treasure that can produce spiritual energy for a long time are often priceless. Even with his current wealth, he may not be able to afford them, but he can buy some low-level spiritual objects to replace them temporarily.
These low-level spiritual objects are mostly medicinal materials, ores that are relatively young, or scraps that have been influenced by spiritual energy.
Although they cannot last forever and will turn into mortal objects once their spiritual energy is exhausted, with the blessing of the formation, they can be enough to supply Chu Bai's retreat needs in a short period of time.
"As a result, I'm afraid most of my monthly salary will go into this Five-Element Cycle hole."
Chu Bai shook his head helplessly.
The monthly salary of one hundred taels of silver is an astronomical figure in the eyes of mortals, but in front of a monk pursuing Five-Element Perfection, it is only the basic expense to maintain the speed of practice.
However, cultivation is essentially seeking the Tao.
Now that the environment has been laid, the subsequent consumption of resources is a very necessary investment.
After leaving Qingfengyuan, Chu Bai walked through several familiar streets and came to the largest and most profound city in Anping County.
In the center of the street, a majestic three-story building with carved beams and painted columns and a large lacquered gold plaque "Treasure Pavilion" rises from the ground.
This is the property of Wang Household, a wealthy family in the city.
Today's Anping County Magistrate Lord Wang comes from this lineage. With this background, Treasure Pavilion almost monopolizes nearly 30% of the trading of spiritual objects in the city.
"Master Chu! Why do you have time to come here in person today?"
As soon as Chu Bai stepped into the door, the sharp-eyed waiter recognized the recently famous Anping captain Demon-Slaying Squad, and hurriedly trotted up to meet him.
When Chu Bai was still Patrol Banner Commander, in order to maintain the high-intensity practice brought by [Food Injury Leaks Elegance], he often came here to buy some Spirit Rice and Foundation-Stabilizing Pills medicine. Although he was not a big spender, he was not a stranger.
The waiter's attitude was obviously much more respectful than that towards ordinary monks - everyone knew that Master Chu was now in control of Principal Ninth Rank Demon-Slaying Token, so how could he dare to neglect him.
"Where's Shopkeeper Liu? I have some materials I'm looking for." Chu Bai looked indifferent and nodded.
"Here, there! Shopkeeper, Mr. Chu is here!"
The waiter shouted at the top of his lungs, and a moment later, a middle-aged deacon with a fat body and a smile on his face hurriedly walked out of the back hall.
Seeing Chu Bai, Shopkeeper Liu bowed his hand and did not dare to show any slightest indifference. "Master Chu is here, Treasure Pavilion is really shining brightly.
Your Excellency, please have a chat in the private room on the second floor. If you need anything, just give me an order."
After taking a seat, Chu Bai got straight to the point and explained his purpose.
"I need to find some spiritual objects that can produce water and earth energy. I don't need to be of extremely high quality, but the spiritual energy must be stable, and it is best to be able to last for several months."
When Shopkeeper Liu heard this, a look of thought appeared in his eyes. After a moment, he clapped his hands and said with a smile, "It's a coincidence that your request comes at a good time. A few days ago, a batch of 'Half-Pond Silt' was picked up from a spiritual cave downstream of the Three-Bath River, which meets your needs."
Not long after, two men carried a small, sealed wooden box.
Shopkeeper Liu carefully opened a corner, and a smell of moist water vapor and thick earthy fragrance suddenly filled the elegant room.
What is contained in the box is a kind of sludge with a dark gray luster and a consistency as thick as paste, and a faint spiritual light can be vaguely seen flowing in it.
"This [Half-Pond Silt] is the spiritual soil that was washed away by the Three-Bath River water veins over the years and combined with the Earth Vein turbid air.
Although it cannot produce that kind of pure and flawless Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, it is the most suitable material for Qi Refining monks to supplement their Five Phases and take care of themselves daily." Shopkeeper Liu introduced.
Chu Bai stretched out his fingertips and Divine Sense turned around in the mud.
Indeed, as Li Feng said, this kind of spiritual object is a consumable.
The meaning of water and earth contained in it is extremely rich, and it is suitable to be placed in Five-Element Spirit-Gathering Array's array eye as an introduction, and the aura is soft and easy to absorb.
"What's the price?" Chu Bai asked.
"It is not easy to extract this stuff, and its production is extremely unstable. If it were sold to Rogue Cultivator, it would cost at least twenty-three taels of silver per pound.
But Mr. Chu is a regular customer here and a distinguished guest in the department. I would like to give you a sincere price - twenty taels of silver per catty. What do you think?"
One pound of spiritual soil, under the continuous consumption of Spirit Gathering Formation, I don't know how long it can last. We still need to try.
Chu Bai knocked on the table. "Okay. Get me three kilograms first. From now on, set aside some share for me every month, and I will send someone to pick it up regularly."
"That's right! It's great, sir!" Shopkeeper Liu smiled so hard that he couldn't even see his eyes.