Black Mountain Market

[After entering the Qi Refining Stage, you vaguely sensed changes in the world around you, but you could not say exactly what had changed.]

[You knew perfectly well that your cultivation was still insufficient. The Qi Condensation Stage had nine levels, and you were merely a minor cultivator at the first level.]

[You took out the "Qi Introduction Art" and read through it again.]

[After entering the Qi Refining Stage, you faintly sensed that this "Qi Introduction Art" seemed different.]

[Finally, you fixed your gaze on the last page of the "Qi Introduction Art." Your cultivator's senses told you that this page contained an extremely faint trace of "qi."]

[You tried channeling the "qi" condensed within your body into the last page of the "Qi Introduction Art."]

[At once, the page began to blur, and a map appeared.]

[The map marked cultivation factions large and small, as well as several dangerous locations.]

[*That ancestor of the Lin Household really thought of everything,* you thought as you studied the map.]

[For a cultivator who had just set foot on the path of immortal cultivation, this map would undoubtedly provide invaluable guidance.]

[You studied the map and discovered that the cultivation faction-or rather, the gathering place for cultivators-closest to the Qian Kingdom was called "Black Mountain Market."]

[The map also included some information about "Black Mountain Market."]

[You had already decided to head to "Black Mountain Market."]

[The path of immortal cultivation depended on wealth, companions, methods, and a suitable place to cultivate. To go further, you had to interact with other cultivators.]

[Black Mountain Market was built atop a second-tier spirit vein. Cultivating in such an environment often yielded twice the results for half the effort.]

[Your spiritual root aptitude was far from ideal. To pursue the immortal path, you had an even greater need for favorable surroundings and external resources.]

[As for avenging your parents and brothers? The Fourth Prince was now the emperor of the Qian Kingdom, far beyond the ability of a mere first-level Qi Condensation cultivator like you to contend with.]

[You needed greater strength.]

[You took Dachun with you and followed the map's directions toward Black Mountain Market.]

[Two months later, you and Dachun finally reached Black Mountain Market.]

[Black Mountain Market stood at the summit of Black Mountain, wreathed in clouds and mist and protected by a formation.]

[Only true cultivators could see through the clouds and mist and enter.]

[You settled Dachun at the foot of the mountain.]

[Dachun was not a cultivator. Even if you led him inside, he would be discovered and expelled from the Market District.]

[Black Mountain Market spanned ten li. Terraced spirit fields surrounded its outskirts, while orderly streets lined with buildings of widely differing styles filled the Market District itself.]

[You saw cultivators continually taking off and landing as they entered and left the Market District.]

[Cultivators guarded the Market District entrance, and everyone entering had to register.]

[After revealing the fluctuations of your Qi Refining Stage spiritual power, you received an identity token from a guard.]

["Anyone entering the Market District must not stay overnight unless they lodge at an inn or rent a cave abode. Nor may they sit in meditation and draw in spiritual energy. Those who break these rules will bear the consequences."]

[The guard's tone was cold.]

["Understood."]

[You naturally understood the reason for these requirements.]

[They were intended to prevent visiting cultivators from "freeloading" off the spirit vein here.]

[Every spirit vein had a limit to how much spiritual energy it could release.]

[After entering Black Mountain Market without incident, you immediately sensed abundant fluctuations of spiritual energy.]

[You suppressed the urge to sit down and cultivate on the spot and began examining your surroundings.]

[Having just entered the cultivation world, your most pressing task was to find a "job" that would earn you a steady supply of spirit stones.]

[Spirit stones were the universal currency of the cultivation world. Cultivators needed them for cultivation, and laying formations required them as well...]

[Over the next two months, you made inquiries everywhere and finally gathered some useful information.]

[First, Black Mountain Market recruited spirit farmers year-round.]

[So-called spirit farmers were much the same as farmers in the mortal world.]

[The difference was that spirit farmers tended spirit plants.]

[Large quantities of spirit plants were grown around Black Mountain Market.]

[A spirit farmer's work consisted of monitoring the plants' growth and casting a cloud-and-rain spell at specific times to water them.]

[Simply put, being a spirit farmer consumed a great deal of time and paid poorly, so any cultivator with even a little ambition would refuse to do it.]

[A spirit farmer tending ten mu of spirit fields earned around thirty spirit stones a year.]

["A spirit farmer?"]

[You did not want to become a spirit farmer.]

[There was no future in farming. Any cultivator could become a spirit farmer with a few days of practice.]

[You were far too easily replaceable in this job.]

[Most importantly, it paid far too little.]

[Only thirty spirit stones a year?]

[Your goal was not to become a spirit farmer, but to learn a genuine craft, such as pill refining, artifact refining, or talisman making among the hundred arts of cultivation.]

[These were the most sought-after trades.]

[Black Mountain Market did indeed offer ways to learn these crafts.]

[The first was to become a disciple: prepare an apprenticeship gift and seek out a pill refiner, artifact refiner, or talisman master in the Market Ward to take you as a disciple.]

[According to the information Zhou Qing had gathered, even the cheapest apprenticeship gift cost five hundred spirit stones. Nor did paying the gift settle everything. After being accepted as a disciple, you still had to pay a certain number of spirit stones every year as "tuition."]

[The second was to become an apprentice.]

[Quite a few pill refiners, artifact refiners, and talisman masters in Black Mountain Market were recruiting apprentices.]

[Although apprentices did not need to provide an apprenticeship gift, they had to remain constantly at their masters' service.]

[Before becoming an apprentice, you would sign a spiritual contract, selling yourself into the service of a pill refiner, artifact refiner, or talisman master for the next ten to thirty years.]

[Compared

with disciples, apprentices had no right to choose and had to obey orders completely.]

[Of course, during those ten to thirty years of bonded service, apprentices could also learn some genuine skills while working.]

[Both routes had their advantages and disadvantages. The first was naturally better, but it required substantial wealth. An ordinary cultivator could not produce five hundred spirit stones.]

[At a spirit farmer's rate of income, saving five hundred spirit stones would take more than ten years without spending anything on food or drink.]

[You sank into thought, facing a crucial choice.]

[One: choose to become an apprentice.]

[Two: choose to save spirit stones, then use them to become a disciple.]

[Three: choose neither. If there is no place for me here, there will be elsewhere. Leave Black Mountain Market and seek your fortune somewhere else.]