The Dharma Derivation Society
According to the rules of Azure Luan Immortal City, no one was permitted to enter a cave abode during the lease period without its owner's permission. Violators would be severely punished by the City Lord's Manor's enforcement team.
Thus, when cultivators in the city visited friends, they would use a Message Transmission Talisman to notify the host upon arriving. Under normal circumstances, few people would rashly touch another person's cave abode's protective formation, as such behavior was considered rude.
"I only arrived in Azure Luan Immortal City recently, and I don't know many people. How could anyone be looking for me?"
Though puzzled, Mo Wen opened the protective formation and stepped out of the cave abode.
Only then did he discover that his visitor was a middle-aged cultivator in Daoist robes, with striking features.
When the man saw Mo Wen emerge from the cave abode, he bowed from a distance and said, "I am Yun Qing. I took the liberty of calling on you and have disturbed you, fellow Daoist. Please forgive me."
Mo Wen returned the bow and said politely, "Not at all. Fellow Daoist Yun, you've honored my humble abode with a visit. May I ask what brings you here?"
Yun Qing wasted no words and stated his purpose directly.
As it turned out, Azure Luan Immortal City had more than five hundred Foundation Establishment Rogue Cultivators, among whom dragons and snakes were mixed together, including quite a few secret agents of immortal sects and members of cultivation lineages. Add to that the forces of the City Lord's Manor and several other Golden Core cultivators, and the situation in this immortal city was a tangle of coiled roots and knotted branches, complicated in the extreme!
Azure Luan Immortal City had a population of over a million, and the interests to be found within it were astonishingly great. Who wouldn't drool three feet at the sight? But to claim a greater share, one had to strengthen one's own side as much as possible.
Thus, whenever a newcomer appeared in the cave abode district, many forces would compete to recruit them. After all, anyone who could secure a place in the cave abode district had to be exceptional in some way, even if they were still at the Qi Refining stage.
Yun Qing had come this time to invite Mo Wen to join an organization called the Dharma Derivation Society.
According to Yun Qing, the Dharma Derivation Society had been founded by High Person Mo Yan, a prodigy who loved studying spells.
High Person Mo Yan came from a powerful Foundation Establishment lineage, and he possessed a wind-attribute Variant Spirit Root. His lineage regarded him as the one who would restore it to prosperity. Yet High Person Mo Yan paid little attention to cultivation, instead being utterly obsessed with studying spells.
Because he spent years studying spells, High Person Mo Yan's cultivation progressed more slowly than even that of the Three Spirit Root cultivators in his lineage. Although his elders often advised him otherwise, he remained as he was.
It was only later, when one of High Person Mo Yan's closest relatives was killed by a Foundation Establishment Devil Cultivator, that he finally came to his senses and began focusing on improving his cultivation. Several years later, High Person Mo Yan achieved Foundation Establishment and mastered nine second-tier superior-grade spirit techniques.
After mastering those spirit techniques, High Person Mo Yan searched the world and finally found the Devil Cultivator's whereabouts. With his Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivation, he unleashed seven superior-grade spirit techniques in succession and slew the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage Devil Cultivator in one fell swoop!
When word spread, everyone marveled, believing that High Person Mo Yan had the makings of a "grandmaster of spells."
After killing the Devil Cultivator, High Person Mo Yan did not remain with his lineage. Instead, he came to Azure Luan Immortal City to continue his pursuit of spell research.
Decades passed, and his cultivation reached the Foundation Establishment Late Stage. The Dharma Derivation Society he had founded also became a considerable force. By now, the Dharma Derivation Society had thirty-three Foundation Establishment high persons and more than two hundred Late Qi Refinement cultivators.
"Fellow Daoist Yun, I have a question. How did you know I'd moved in here?" After listening to Yun Qing's account, Mo Wen fell silent for a moment before asking.
"Fellow Daoist, that was a coincidence! The cave abode I rent is also a property of Fortune Prosperity Brokerage. When I went to pay my rent a couple of days ago, I happened to discover that a new fellow Daoist had moved in nearby. That's why I took the liberty of calling on you," Yun Qing hurriedly explained.
Fortune Prosperity Brokerage was the agency through which Mo Wen had rented his cave abode. Yun Qing might have had some connections there, allowing him to obtain information about Mo Wen.
"Fellow Daoist Yun, I've only just arrived in Azure Luan Immortal City, and I'd like to learn more about the situation here first. If I decide to join a faction in the future, I'll certainly consider the Dharma Derivation Society first," Mo Wen said, politely declining.
Yun Qing was not discouraged. He went on to describe some of the benefits offered by the Dharma Derivation Society, but seeing that Mo Wen remained unmoved, he had no choice but to leave.
"I'm afraid more people will be coming to call. What a nuisance!" Mo Wen sighed softly, then turned and went back into his cave abode.
Sure enough, people came to invite him from time to time over the following days, and Mo Wen politely declined them all. Once the various forces saw that Mo Wen truly had no intention of joining, no new factions came to bother him.
With peace and quiet restored, Mo Wen continued to shut himself inside his cave abode and cultivate diligently. In his third month in Azure Luan Immortal City, he finally finished refining all the Demon Beast Essence Blood he had on hand.
"Nurturing a primordial embryo isn't something I can do in a year or two. Besides, I still need to earn Spirit Stones. I'll just take it step by step from now on."
Thus, he suspended his cultivation of the Ten Thousand Blood True Body Instruction and picked up the main Cultivation Methods on his panel again. Each day, he set aside one two-hour period to draw talismans, spending the rest of his time cultivating the Azure Wood Instruction, the Sun Essence and Moon Radiance Life-Praying Technique, and other Cultivation Methods.
The talismans he drew were still mainly First-Tier Middle-Grade, with a few superior-grade talismans mixed in from time to time. It had to be said that the cultivation environment in Azure Luan Immortal City was indeed excellent. First-Tier Middle-Grade talismans were extremely ordinary on the market, and even First-Tier Superior-Grade talismans were common. Correspondingly, the profit from each middle-grade talisman was considerably smaller, only about seventy percent of what it had been in Red Leaf Market.
Although the profit was lower than before, Mo Wen's Talisman Dao had now advanced to First-Tier Superior-Grade, and his success rate at drawing First-Tier Middle-Grade talismans had increased by around sixty percent. In one two-hour period, he could draw five or six middle-grade talismans and one superior-grade talisman. In this way, he could make a profit of nearly a hundred low-grade Spirit Stones at minimum each day.
An income of more than thirty thousand low-grade Spirit Stones a year was enough to cover his daily cultivation needs, with a considerable amount left over. This showed just how comfortably a superior-grade talisman master could live!
However, for a cultivator, no number of Spirit Stones was ever enough! Fine pills, superior-grade Law Artifacts, high-grade cave abodes-which of them didn't cost Spirit Stones? Add expenses such as inherited Cultivation Methods, a dao companion, and concubines, and even an entire Spirit Stone mine could be spent clean!
Mo Wen had no other thoughts for now. All he wanted was to grind away in peace until he reached Foundation Establishment. When the time came, whether he joined a sect or founded a cultivation lineage would be up to him!
In the blink of an eye, Mo Wen had been in Azure Luan Immortal City for more than half a year. During that time, he spent most of his days cultivating diligently in his cave abode, occasionally going out to sell the talismans he had drawn and buy cultivation resources such as Demon Beast Essence Blood and fine pills.
He wanted to establish an identity as a superior-grade talisman master in Azure Luan Immortal City, so he no longer changed his appearance. Gradually, his name as a talisman master began to spread around the cave abode district.