A Magpie at the Door, a Rabbit in the Courtyard

After returning from Ding Chunqiu's cave abode, Tang Yuan hung a "Closed-Door Cultivation" sign outside his own.

He had no choice. Although he had earned over a thousand spirit coins making arrays over the past two years, after paying off his loan, buying pills and auxiliary materials, covering his living expenses, and "supporting" himself, Hu Mei'er, and Huang You'er in the Demon Realm, Tang Yuan had only two hundred coins left.

Since Ding Chunqiu wouldn't let him sell arrays, and he was only at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, he was truly afraid of encountering someone with ill intentions outside. He might as well stay in his cave abode and carefully study his Cultivation Method.

Once a cultivator reached the Qi Refinement Seventh Layer, the late stage, he had to begin choosing and refining his own natal Law Treasure, preparing for Foundation Establishment after reaching Qi Refinement Great Perfection.

If he waited until the Qi Refinement Tenth Layer, or even Qi Refinement Great Perfection, to choose his natal Dao foundation, his future Foundation Establishment would surely fail, leaving him dead and his Dao extinguished.

After reaching the Middle Stage of Qi Refinement, cultivators ate very little each day, instead needing a great deal of time to meditate and enter a trance.

Every few days, Tang Yuan had Tang Yi, who looked and sounded exactly like him, go buy some food and drink, while he devoted himself to cultivation in the cave abode.

Inside the cave, he lost track of time in the outside world. Tang Yuan had just been roused from his trance by hunger when he heard birds chirping outside the cave abode. He immediately felt a little annoyed.

He was just about to summon Tang Yi from the Mystic Spoon to chase the wild birds away from the cave,

But then he suddenly remembered that he had sent Tang Yi two months ago to the mountains and rivers ten thousand li to the north to "pick up scraps." If all went smoothly, Tang Yi would not return for another month.

From thousands of li away, Tang Yuan could not sense what Tang Yi saw or obtained, nor did he know how he was doing.

"Ha, who would have thought that I'd actually go hungry without my Replica Clone by my side?" Tang Yuan shook his head ruefully and planned to seize the wild bird chirping outside the cave and roast it for a meal.

When he emerged from the cave abode, his annoyance immediately turned to delight: the bird chirping in the courtyard tree was a magpie.

A mortal saying went: when a magpie paid a visit, an honored guest would come through the door.

"Looks like an honored guest will be visiting my cave abode soon." Tang Yuan smiled and took a closer look at the magpie in the tree.

The magpie flew down to the ground one moment and back up to a branch the next, chirping nonstop.

When Tang Yuan got a clear look at the ground, he roughly guessed why the magpie was so busy.

Two years earlier, Tang Yuan had scattered some spirit bean alfalfa seeds in the courtyard, and a patch of it had grown there.

In autumn and winter, Tang Yuan would gather some spirit bean alfalfa seeds to make an appetizing soup.

The magpies in the area would come in autumn and winter to feed on some of the remaining seeds.

At that very moment, a white snow rabbit was frantically gnawing on the alfalfa, even digging up its roots and eating them.

Seeing that the snow rabbit was about to devour the entire patch, the magpie on the branch was naturally anxious and kept trying to drive it away.

Tang Yuan recalled another mortal saying: when a rabbit entered the courtyard, luck in love would follow.

Tang Yuan decided to help neither of them. Like an ordinary mortal, he quietly watched the struggle between the magpie and the snow rabbit.

But before he had watched for even the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the warning jade tablet hanging on the cave door suddenly flashed: a cultivator had come to visit.

Flutter, flutter...

Thump, thump...

The magpie flew away, and the snow rabbit ran off.

Tang Yuan frowned slightly. I don't know anyone well in the Holy Cardamom Sect.

If I had to name someone, Kou Cheng would count.

But that profiteer Kou Cheng thinks about making money all day. He has no time to visit me.

Besides, he doesn't know my address.

Who could it be?

Could Ding Chunqiu have come to kill me?

He has power and influence. Surely he wouldn't risk breaking sect rules

just to kill a little nobody like me...

Before Tang Yuan could figure it out, a familiar voice sounded outside the courtyard gate.

"Junior Brother Tang Yuan, are you there?

"It's Feng Bin from Refining Peak.

"I brought some wine and meat especially to have a drink with you today."

Feng Bin?!

He's a third-grade array master at the Qi Refinement Tenth Layer!

Could he be the "benefactor" the magpie foretold?

Tang Yuan immediately straightened his clothes and went to open the courtyard gate...

...Three rounds of wine had been poured, and the dishes had yielded their five flavors.

Feng Bin, his beard stained with wine, roared angrily, "Damn it! For the opening of the secret realm a few years from now, the sect has started fighting more than a dozen immortal cultivation sects in the north at the same time.

"That's made life miserable for us refiners.

"That damned Outstanding Talent Merchant Association wants to make money, so it's making its refiners work themselves to death refining pills, talismans, artifacts, and arrays.

"I don't have a damn bit of time to cultivate my Cultivation Method and improve my cultivation."

The Barbarian Di Secret Realm was about to open.

So that some disciples with "connections" could grind combat experience, the sect had sent, sent large numbers of Meridian Opening Realm cultivators and cultivators at the Early Qi Refinement and Middle Stage of Qi Refinement to the north to plunder small, reputable orthodox sects.

For this battle, participation was entirely voluntary for Qi Refining Realm cultivators, while many Meridian Opening Realm Late Stage disciples had to take part.

One general's glory was built on ten thousand bleached bones. For a single Qi Refinement disciple to improve his cultivation and grind combat experience, who knew how many dozens of Meridian Opening Realm disciples would have to die?

Tang Yuan had sent Tang Yi north precisely to see whether he could "pick up scraps"...

"Everyone is doing it for the sect." Tang Yuan could only offer that perfunctory remark.

"Tang Yuan, I'm already one hundred and fifty-seven this year.

"If I can't break through to Qi Refinement Great Perfection within the next two years, I'll have no hope of Foundation Establishment in this life, and only a little over ten years left to live.

"I have a Thunder Spirit Root, and cultivating a Thunder Method already damages my lifespan. So if I don't break through to Foundation Establishment, I'll live to be one hundred and seventy at most.

"I can't accept it...

"I'm not close to anyone in the entire sect. You're the only one I've hit it off with.

"You have to help me." Feng Bin actually burst into tears, snot and tears streaming down his face.

"But I'm only at the Qi Refining Second Layer. I have neither power nor influence, much less any backing.

"How can I help you, Senior Brother Feng?" Tang Yuan wore an expression of helpless sympathy.

"The next two years are crucial for me, so I plan to enter closed-door cultivation.

"The great war in the north will probably last another two or three years.

"The arrays the sect needs are all entry-grade arrays, so the Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Array will do for the job.

"Over the next two years, help me refine two thousand Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Arrays.

"For each array...

"I'll pay seven spirit coins." Feng Bin cupped his hands in salute.

So Feng Bin sees that I'm young and thinks it doesn't matter if I lose a little of my lifespan, is that it?

Drawing on the thunder meridians to refine thunder-attribute arrays shortened one's lifespan.

Refining two thousand Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Arrays would cost at least ten years of lifespan.

Of course, Tang Yuan didn't care, because refining thunder-attribute arrays was all Tang Yi's job.

Tang Yi, as Tang Yuan's Replica Clone, also knew that he was destined to be expendable.

If Feng Bin paid seven spirit coins for each array, after deducting the three-spirit-coin cost, he could make eight thousand spirit coins from two thousand arrays.

With eight thousand spirit coins, he could buy pills and weapons to prepare for the opening of the Barbarian Di Secret Realm in two to five years.

"Senior Brother Feng, you've treated me well.

"But Ding Chunqiu won't let me make and sell the Lesser Heavenly Gang Soul-Extinguishing Lightning Array. Although these arrays will ultimately go to the Outstanding Talent Merchant Association, if he picks at the wording, I'll still be making and selling them.

"Ding Chunqiu is a steward of the Outstanding Talent Merchant Association. Although he's only at the Middle Stage of Qi Refinement, I've heard that even the Foundation Establishment High Persons in the sect don't dare provoke him lightly." Tang Yuan looked troubled.

"Who the hell does Ding Chunqiu think he is? Isn't the one backing him just High Person Kui Xuan of Kui Wood Peak, who's at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage?

"I'll tell you more about Ding Chunqiu's strength in time.

"If you want to cultivate in peace in our Holy Cardamom Sect, you need a Foundation Establishment High Person watching your back." Feng Bin curled his lip.

"Don't worry. With a single word from me, Ding Chunqiu won't dare touch you over this.

"Besides, if he did touch you, wouldn't that affect the delivery of the arrays?

"Tang Yuan, I've said this much. Are you taking the job or not?"

So when the sect's war ends two or three years from now, Ding Chunqiu can settle the score with me then?

But eight thousand spirit coins really was a huge sum for him at present.

Chances to make a fortune were few and far between. When one came along, he had to seize it.

Tang Yuan pondered for a breath, then said fiercely, "I'll do it!"...

...Feng Bin and Tang Yuan chatted idly for a while longer, and by the time Feng Bin left, the sun was sinking behind the western hills.

Before Tang Yuan could enter his cave abode, a coquettish female voice sounded outside the courtyard gate:

"Senior Brother Tang Yuan, are you there?

"It's Du Qing.

"I went to Gang Lightning Mountain to refine a Law Artifact and lost track of time.

"It's already late, and it would take me several hours to return to the sect gate.

"Senior Brother Tang Yuan, may I stay the night?"

Outside the courtyard gate stood none other than the "chicken-catching female cultivator" he had seen at Refining Peak years ago.

Tang Yuan smiled knowingly. "The magpie left, and sure enough, the rabbit came."...