Chapter 147: External Environment
"That’s so cheap!" Yang Yingjie said in surprise.
To him, the shield Fang Yun was holding was worth at least one hundred fifty Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
This meant Fang Yun was selling it to him for sixty-six percent of its value.
"This is a normal price. If other senior brothers or sisters came to buy it, they’d also only offer around one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones," Fang Yun said frankly.
Yang Yingjie thought it was cheap mainly because he desperately wanted this Upper Grade Magical Artifact.
Indeed, for people like Lu Zefeng and Zhang Cailing who frequently took on missions in the territory of the Black Ghost Cave, this Upper Grade Magical Artifact might not even be worth one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
"Hahaha! Junior Brother Yang, after what Junior Brother Fang just said, are you still going to complain that the price is too low?" Wu Junxin teased Yang Yingjie.
The fact that Fang Yun and Yang Yingjie were getting along so well, with Fang Yun willing to sell him a Magical Artifact directly, was exactly what Wu Junxin wanted to see.
As the one who had introduced them, he was delighted.
"Senior Brother Wu, I wasn’t complaining at all!"
"Then why haven’t you taken the Magical Artifact from Junior Brother Fang?"
"Oh, right."
Yang Yingjie took the Profound Iron Shield and quickly stored it in his Storage Pouch.
"Junior Brother Fang, I’ll be sure to get you these one hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones within a month." At the moment, Yang Yingjie only had five Lower Grade Spirit Stones and three Sect Contribution Points to his name.
He was practically broke.
"Mm, if you can’t find me, you can just give them to Senior Brother Wu."
Fang Yun had just gained a more complete understanding of Yang Yingjie, so it was perfectly normal for him to have no Spirit Stones on him.
As soon as he earned any Spirit Stones or Contribution Points, Yang Yingjie would quickly convert them into raising his Cultivation and increasing his strength.
Disciples with Three Spirit Roots who had joined the sect around the same time as Wu Junxin and Yang Yingjie were now generally at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.
The fact that Yang Yingjie had reached the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, especially while spending most of his time away from the sect, was proof that he had consumed a considerable amount of resources.
However, the resources Yang Yingjie had consumed paled in comparison to Fang Yun’s.
Fang Yun approved of Yang Yingjie’s cultivation strategy, but if it were him, he would still keep some Spirit Stones in reserve, just in case he needed them for something unexpected.
For example, after breaking through to the later stages of Qi Refining, he always made sure to keep his personal supply of Lower Grade Spirit Stones above three hundred.
Lately, because he was preparing to refine a Spiritual Artifact and had to consider the cost of the Spiritual Materials, he planned to keep his personal reserve of Spirit Stones above five hundred from now on.
The four of them gradually finished the Spiritual Food on the table.
The meal was drawing to a close.
At that point, Wu Junxin looked at Huang Mengzhu and asked.
"Junior Sister Huang, are you also planning to become an Alchemy Master or an Artifact Refiner like your Brother Fang Yun in the future?"
Through their conversation, Wu Junxin had gotten a general idea of the relationship between Huang Mengzhu and Fang Yun.
He was quite surprised by their relationship.
He had assumed that Huang Mengzhu and Fang Yun were cousins, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Previously, they had simply been neighbors on good terms.
Fang Yun clearly doted on Huang Mengzhu like an older brother, which made Wu Junxin respect him even more. It also reaffirmed his belief that connecting with Fang Yun at the Smoke Cloud Pavilion and establishing their current bond as sect brothers had absolutely been the right decision.
"No." Huang Mengzhu shook her head after swallowing a bite of meat. "I want to become a Spirit Chef in the future."
"A Spirit Chef is a good choice, too. If you have the talent, you could work here at the Smoke Cloud Pavilion in the future." Wu Junxin was a little surprised, but he approved of Huang Mengzhu’s idea—on the condition that she had the necessary talent.
"After July, you can come over to Smoke Cloud Peak to take on some odd jobs and see if you have a talent for being a Spirit Chef," Fang Yun said to Huang Mengzhu.
Right now, Huang Mengzhu was already close to reaching the peak of the Qi Refining Third Layer.
Barring any surprises, in about two weeks, she would complete her training and break through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.
At a mid-stage Qi Refining level, it would be much easier for her to find work on Smoke Cloud Peak.
"Junior Sister Huang, once you become a Spirit Chef, I’ll go to the Supreme Profound Mountain Range and hunt a Demon Beast for you to use as an ingredient."
"Then I’ll thank you in advance, Senior Brother Yang." Huang Mengzhu glanced at Fang Yun, and only after he nodded did she voice her thanks.
「A short while later.」
The four of them had polished off every last bit of Spiritual Food on the table.
After Wu Junsin settled the bill, the four of them said their goodbyes at the foot of Smoke Cloud Peak.
Before heading back, Fang Yun first had to take the young girl back to her residence.
As he ran with Huang Mengzhu on his back, Fang Yun mentally organized the information he had gathered that day.
For him, aside from befriending Yang Yingjie, the most important thing was the information he had learned from him about the outside world.
Organizing all the information he had gathered so far led to a conclusion:
Six years ago marked the high point for the Celestial Cloud Sect’s external environment. If one were to visualize this environment as a line on a graph, it peaked six years ago and has been in constant decline ever since, with no upward trend.
Fang Yun pictured the corresponding chart in his mind.
’I’m actually very lucky...’
Although the line was in constant decline, it was descending from a high point of stability. This meant that the external environment over these years, while worsening, was still relatively stable.
Such an environment was undoubtedly suitable for his current growth.
If the environment outside the sect became truly unstable, he wouldn’t be able to remain unaffected, much less continue to grow in peace.
’In the next few days, I need to hurry up and master the Spirit Pattern Compendium, then refine a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact...’
Fang Yun mentally laid out a more detailed plan for the coming days.
After dropping Huang Mengzhu off at her residence, Fang Yun gave the young girl a few final words of advice.
Huang Mengzhu nodded repeatedly. She watched until Fang Yun’s back had disappeared from view before returning to her residence to begin digesting the Spiritual Food she had eaten and increasing her Cultivation.
She had her own goal as well.
She was determined to break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining before the end of the month.
...
「On the first day of late March.」
Fang Yun’s figure appeared on Artifact Casting Peak.
Having completely mastered the Spirit Pattern Compendium, he decided it was time to begin refining a Spiritual Artifact.
He was now extremely confident in his ability to refine a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact!
The main source of his confidence was his four-star Artifact Refining talent.
When it came to refining a Spiritual Artifact, his current Realm at the Qi Refining Eighth Layer was a hindrance.
But Fang Yun felt that waiting until he reached the Qi Refining Ninth Layer would be too late.
"Steward Cai, I need to rent the top-tier Artifact Refining Room today."
Unlike the other Artifact Refining Rooms, there was only one top-tier room.
For someone about to refine a Spiritual Artifact, an upper-grade Artifact Refining Room was clearly no longer sufficient.
"So you’re finally going to refine a Spiritual Artifact." Steward Cai’s eyes lit up; he seemed even more excited about the attempt than Fang Yun. "This is the Token for the top-tier Artifact Refining Room."
Fang Yun took the Token and set down thirty Lower Grade Spirit Stones.