Cultivation Starts with Rejuvenation

Passing through the front hall, they arrived at the back hall.

From afar, they saw an elder carefully examining a table full of spirit talismans.

"Fu Yuanjiang from Guan Mountain Bamboo Sea greets President Yuan." Fu Yuanjiang hurried a few steps forward, leaving Li Ji'an behind, and greeted the elder first.

The elder withdrew his attention from the spirit talismans and greeted them with a smile: "Haha, Patriarch Fu, you are too polite, please come quickly."

"Oh, this fellow cultivator..." Yuan Shunyi slightly paused when he looked at Li Ji'an.

His cultivation was in the late Foundation Establishment stage, and he possessed treasures for nurturing the divine soul, almost touching the threshold of a Fake Pill True Man, thus instantly sensing Li Ji'an's disguise secret technique.

However, he could only sense it but couldn't see through it, which proved the other's true divine sense was at least above Fake Pill, perhaps even early-stage True Core.

This surprised him somewhat, as the Si Shui Commerce Association essentially recruited middlemen for their merchant trades to help acquire talismans.

This was the first Fake Pill True Man in such business.

While his mind raced, he chose not to expose Li Ji'an's deliberate disguise as a middle-stage Foundation Establishment aura, as in his view, a Fake Pill True Man doing second-hand business was undignified, and he believed this was why Li Ji'an disguised himself to meet.

"This way, fellow cultivator, please." Yuan Shunyi also welcomed Li Ji'an inside.

Upon entering the inner hall, Li Ji'an saw seven stewards busy in the hall, sorting talismans, annotating and organizing, and sealing them in batches, in an orderly manner.

"Thank you all for your help, saving us much effort. I thank you on behalf of the Commerce Association." The elder led Li Ji'an and Fu Yuanjiang to the large jade table for selecting spirit talismans and slightly bowed to them.

"President Yuan, you're too polite, but really, we should thank the Si Shui Commerce Association for providing ways to profit within the domain; otherwise, how could merchants earn such ample profit by just running errands?" Fu Yuanjiang modestly returned the greeting, though his words clearly distinguished his identity from ordinary merchants.

Li Ji'an slightly nodded, signifying a response.

"President Yuan, I know you're busy, so I won't waste your time. These represent my family's effort for the Commerce Association, please review them." Fu Yuanjiang confidently lined up five jade boxes.

Yuan Shunyi, seeing this, showed a slight expression of delight.

This time, the mid-region cultivation war was a significant opportunity he valued highly.

After fleeing the Ten Thousand Merchants Domain for hundreds of years, it was the first time he saw hope to return to his homeland again.

Everything in the Celestial Cyan Domain is fine, but resources are excessively concentrated at the top, the Holy Palace Sect is too rigid, and the overall business environment doesn't quite align with the thousand-year-old commercial philosophy of the ancestors. Most profitable businesses are monopolized by the Holy Palace Sect, leaving them with mere scraps and dribbles, impossible to replicate the ancestral glory even after thousands of years.

Therefore, the lifelong wish for this clan is to return to the Ten Thousand Merchants Domain.

This mid-region war finally allowed them to reach a cooperation intention with Wanfu Commerce Association, one of today's three major associations within the Ten Thousand Merchants Domain, promising assistance in returning if they completed the task.

However, this task was not easy, as the counterpart assigned them the procurement and trade of talismans along with the need to meet their required quota.

The craft of talisman making, ranking highly among the Hundred Skills of Cultivation, is renowned for its immense power and low usage requirements, making it the best method for surprise attacks and survival.

However, the drawbacks are evident, with costs being extremely high, and significant divine soul and magical power requirements for creating talismans, necessitating even greater comprehension. The higher the tier, the harder they are to make, and the lower the success rate.

Hence, there are naturally few high-tier talisman masters in this world.

Additionally, in the Celestial Cyan Domain, due to the Holy Palace Sect controlling most resources, loose cultivators find themselves in difficult cultivation positions, without extra spiritual talent to foster high-tier talisman masters.

As for geniuses within the Holy Palace Sect, having the sect cover their cultivation resources, they focus solely on enhancing their cultivation and magic technique, lacking motivation for deep research in talisman making.

For those elderly whose path to immortality seems bleak, even if they achieve something in talisman making, most supplies go to the sect.

This results in a scarcity of second-tier or higher talisman masters within the Celestial Cyan Domain, with second-tier and higher spirit talismans being extremely rare.

Of course, this is also related to the demand for high-tier talismans.

Apart from cultivation wars, ordinary cultivators seldom use second-tier talismans unless in urgent times or ensuring great benefits.

As one second-tier talisman costs at least a thousand spirit stones, even the ancestors of average Foundation Establishment clans aren't willing to frivolously squander it.

Mostly they are used merely for survival purposes.

Since the mid-region situation manifested and conflicts intensified, since the Si Shui Commerce Association formed a contract with Wanfu Commerce Association almost a month ago, by hardly splitting profits out and even adopting a break-even strategy for second-tier and higher talismans, they finally managed to gather talismans close to the agreed total number.

However, the bulk are still tier-one, and genuinely second-tier and higher ones account for too little; therefore, recent acquisitions focus on second-tier.

At this moment, seeing Fu Yuanjiang bring forth nearly a hundred spirit talismans at once, all second-tier and higher, Yuan Shunyi couldn't help feeling delighted.

However, when he personally opened the jade boxes and sorted the talismans, he couldn't avoid disappointment.

Nearly half were barely lower grade talismans, with poor efficacy.

And the highest was only second-tier middle-stage upper grade quality.

"Thank you, Patriarch Fu, for your strong support, much appreciate it." Yuan Shunyi did not express any dissatisfaction, still smiling in gratitude.

After all, the talismans collected by other merchants were also of average quality, and in lesser quantity than Fu Yuanjiang's.