Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Tobacco was a necessity for some Cultivators. In his years of traveling as a merchant, Fang Qingyuan had seen many Cultivators who enjoyed taking a few puffs.

The tobacco of the Southern Border was called Thousand Soul Grass. It was said that if a Cultivator smoked enough of it, they would see many little people, or glowing soul-like entities. Some Alchemists even liked to add it to their Hallucinogenic Elixirs.

Fang Qingyuan sought out Jiang Kui to discuss planting Thousand Soul Grass. Yuanling Mountain was in a remote location, so no one would care if they grew such things.

Jiang Kui had just finished her work at the mine pits and hadn’t had a chance to rest for more than a few days when Fang Qingyuan showed up at her door. She was sprawled inelegantly on a rocking chair and said to him:

"If you want tea, get it yourself. I just finished planting over four hundred Array Banners one by one. I’m exhausted."

The Arrays deployed around the Yuanling Mountain mines each required one hundred Pole Array Banners to be set up. Jiang Kui hadn’t had a moment’s rest for the past half-month.

Seeing Jiang Kui in this state, Fang Qingyuan asked curiously:

"Then what was Zhang Yuan doing?"

Jiang Kui waved her hand dismissively and said casually:

"Zhang Yuan went down into the mines to spread the Earth Dragon Worm Seedlings. You can’t put too many around a single piece of Spirit Vein Soil; the ratio has to be carefully controlled. I estimate it’ll take him another half a month to finish."

’Looks like everyone’s busy,’ Fang Qingyuan thought before saying:

"I’m planning to plant some Thousand Soul Grass on the sunny slope of the back mountain. Thousand Soul Grass is harvested once a year and is relatively easy to care for. The mortals at the foot of the mountain can help look after it during their off-season. It’ll reduce our workload and also give them a source of income."

The mortal population on Yuanling Mountain had grown to six thousand over the past few years. Aside from weaving and farming, they had no other source of income.

They had been relying on Jiang Kui to subsidize them with Spirit Stones, which wasn’t a long-term solution. That’s why Fang Qingyuan chose to plant Thousand Soul Grass, partly to give these mortals a source of income and reduce the burden on Yuanling Mountain.

Hearing that Fang Qingyuan wanted to plant Thousand Soul Grass, Jiang Kui sat up straight. She said slowly:

"Won’t it be trouble to plant Thousand Soul Grass privately, without permission from the Great Zhou Academy?"

Seeing Jiang Kui’s concern, Fang Qingyuan smiled.

"Don’t be so worried. Plenty of sects in the Southern Border grow Thousand Soul Grass, and you don’t see Cultivators from the Great Zhou Academy coming to crack down on them. We won’t be planting much. Even if someone from the Academy sees it, the worst that can happen is a fine of some Spirit Stones. It’s hardly a major crime. Besides, for the sake of the Beast Taming Sect, they’ll probably pretend they didn’t see anything."

As a Spirit Plant, Thousand Soul Grass was only ranked as Yellow Tier Lower Grade, but due to its properties, it was once banned by the Great Zhou Academy. However, it was impossible to completely prohibit such a thing. Over time, seeing that they couldn’t control it and that it wasn’t causing any major harm, the Great Zhou Academy began to turn a blind eye.

They would just occasionally make an example of a few sects, punishing them heavily, and be done with it. Paradoxically, this led to even more people planting it.

But even so, only sects were allowed to grow it. If Loose Cultivators tried to get involved, other sects that grew Thousand Soul Grass would step in to stop them, without the Great Zhou Academy even needing to say a word.

Now Fang Qingyuan wanted to join in and get a piece of the pie. He estimated that with the Beast Taming Sect’s reputation, other sects wouldn’t cause trouble for Yuanling Mountain.

Fang Qingyuan’s words convinced Jiang Kui. She nodded and said:

"Alright, I’ll leave it to you then. Yuanling Mountain’s main business is still raising Spirit Beasts. Planting Thousand Soul Grass will just be a side hustle for a few years. Once those Earth Dragon Worms mature, we should switch to planting other Spirit Plants."

With Jiang Kui’s approval, Fang Qingyuan nodded to reassure her, but inwardly he thought otherwise. ’Once they start making Spirit Stones from Thousand Soul Grass, I don’t believe Jiang Kui will be willing to abandon this business.’

’And once the mortals benefit from this grass, it’ll be difficult to make them give it up.’

After leaving Jiang Kui, Fang Qingyuan took Jinbao and Yinbao and flew out of Yuanling Mountain, heading to the nearest Marketplace to buy Thousand Soul Grass seeds.

Yuanling Mountain was near the Wilderness Forest, and the closest Marketplace thrived mainly on the forest’s produce. This Marketplace had a strange name, Jiuye Square, and was jointly funded and established by nine Foundation Establishment Clans.

Once inside the Marketplace, Fang Qingyuan didn’t wander around. He headed straight for a shop that sold Spirit Plants.

Jiuye Square wasn’t large, and many of the shops inside were owned by the nine Cultivation Clans themselves. They likely had an agreement, as there was only one shop for each type of business, such as Artifact Refining, Alchemy, selling Spirit Plants, or running an inn.

The shopkeeper of the store Fang Qingyuan entered was a middle-aged, Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator with the surname Ye. Fang Qingyuan had been here several times over the years and was on familiar terms with the owner.

When Old Ye saw Fang Qingyuan, he greeted him warmly.

"Fellow Daoist Fang, you’ve come! What catches your eye this time? Pick whatever you like, I’ll give you a twenty percent discount on everything."

In response to Old Ye’s eagerness, Fang Qingyuan got straight to the point:

"Old Ye, give me some Thousand Soul Grass seeds. And don’t tell me you don’t have any."

Old Ye’s expression changed, and he forced a smile.

"Thousand Soul Grass seeds? I really don’t have any of those. How about something else?"

Fang Qingyuan gave a cold smile and said:

"Do you think I don’t know you? Thousand Soul Grass is nothing. You have plenty of contraband here. Do you want me to list them one by one?"

Jiuye Square was no ordinary Marketplace. It was close to the Wilderness Forest, only a little over three hundred li from its border. For a Qi Refining Cultivator, that was a journey of just over an hour.

Jiuye Square could be said to lie on the dividing line between the Barbaric Wilderness and human civilization. The people here were not the gentle and modest folk of the Qi Yun Territory. To gain a foothold here, selling some contraband was nothing; some went even further, directly supplying the Demon Cultivators hiding in the Wilderness Forest, those wanted by the Great Zhou Academy.

Otherwise, with the harsh environment of the Wilderness Forest, some of the weaker Demonic Cultivators wouldn’t have been able to stay hidden for twenty or thirty years without outside support.

Jiuye Square was famous for recognizing money, not people. As long as you had Spirit Stones, that was all that mattered. The shopkeepers in the Marketplace didn’t care if your Spirit Stones were stained with blood.

That was why, when Fang Qingyuan wanted to buy Thousand Soul Grass seeds, he came here instead of Celestial Gate Mountain or Black River Square. He knew what this place was really like.

Called out by Fang Qingyuan, Old Ye gave an embarrassed smile, then took out a storage pouch and asked:

"How much do you want?"

Fang Qingyuan held up his fingers to show a number. Old Ye was startled and said in surprise:

"Three hundred mu? That’s no small amount."

Fang Qingyuan lowered his hand and smiled faintly.

"It’s three thousand mu. What good is three hundred? If you’re going to do something, go big."

Hearing the quantity Fang Qingyuan requested, Old Ye was truly stunned this time. He never expected Fang Qingyuan to go so big—planting three thousand mu of Thousand Soul Grass. ’This guy really isn’t afraid of an investigation.’

Fang Qingyuan truly wasn’t afraid. If trouble arose, he could ask Lechuan to smooth things over. After all, the Southern Border Beast Taming Sect was supposed to get a cut of the profits from the Thousand Soul Grass.

Stunned by Fang Qingyuan’s grand scale, Old Ye glanced at the storage pouch in his hand. After a few moments, he said:

"I don’t have enough seeds for three thousand mu here. Give me half a day, and I’ll go round some up for you."

Fang Qingyuan nodded. He let Old Ye go out to find the goods while he left the shop and began purchasing some spiritual materials in the Marketplace.

When he returned, Fang Qingyuan planned to switch to cultivating the "True Manual of the Five Spirits Form-Refining." His body was currently full of Wood Spiritual Power. If he converted it into the Wood Spirit Dragon Form, one of the five spirits, he didn’t know how much would be left.

To prevent his cultivation realm from regressing, Fang Qingyuan decided to spend a good sum of Spirit Stones on a few bottles of high-quality Elixir Pills to stabilize his level.

Tier One Middle-Lower Grade Elixir Pills, like Yellow Bud Pills and Qingfeng Pills, could only temporarily increase a Spirit Root’s perceptiveness. Higher-grade pills, however, could also increase a Cultivator’s total amount of Spiritual Power.

This was the kind of elixir pill Fang Qingyuan was looking for. But these pills were expensive, and the average Qi Cultivation Cultivator couldn’t afford them.

However, Fang Qingyuan was currently worth seventy to eighty thousand Spirit Stones. No matter how expensive these pills were, he could afford them.

However, when Fang Qingyuan arrived at the shop that sold Elixir Pills, he was informed that the Tier One Upper Grade True Essence Pills and the Tier Two Lower Grade Spirit Gathering Pills were all sold out. Only a few bottles of Tier Two Middle Grade Dust-Reduction Pills remained.

Fang Qingyuan was puzzled by this. ’Why are the pills that no one was usually willing to buy suddenly sold out?’

In response to Fang Qingyuan’s question, the shopkeeper silently handed him a notice. Fang Qingyuan took one look at it and understood. War had broken out again over at White Mountain.

The whole affair began after Wei Tong’s death. Lu Shiluo, the Patriarch of the Lu Family who had signed the armistice agreement with Wei Tong five years ago, had suddenly led his family to withdraw from the Artifact Talisman Alliance a few days ago. He also announced that he was no longer bound by the three-family peace treaty.

Furthermore, Lu Shiluo issued a widespread call to arms, urging the Loose Cultivators of White Mountain to join him in attacking the Shandu Wei Family. Lu Shiluo promised that everything within the Wei Family’s territory—their sect’s Spiritual Land, Spirit Ores, and Spirit Fields—would belong to whoever could seize it. As for the consequences, he, Lu Shiluo, would bear them all himself.

The White Mountain Loose Cultivators were stirred into a frenzy upon hearing this. Not only those from Northern White Mountain, where Shandu and the Lu Family were located, but also Loose Cultivators from the eastern, western, and southern parts of White Mountain began to gather. Even some Cultivators from the Southern Border wanted to join the excitement. The fact that the notice had even reached Jiuye Square showed the scale of the publicity and the magnitude of the temptation.

Lu Shiluo was a Golden Core Cultivator from the Artifact Talisman Alliance. During the second war at Celestial Attraction Mountain, his family had suffered the greatest losses at the hands of the Wei Family. Their main mountain was burned down, and he himself was severely injured. ’His breaking away from the agreement so fiercely now shows he’s been holding onto that grudge all this time. Wei Tong is barely cold in his grave, and he’s already jumping at the chance for revenge.’

’But how could Lu Shiluo possibly take on the Wei Family with his own strength alone? The Wei Family still has Wei Xuan and that Spiritual Flood Dragon. And there’s also Huo Hu, that powerhouse capable of fighting a Golden Core, who could be tricked into joining the fray again at any moment.’

These thoughts flashed through Fang Qingyuan’s mind, but he also knew that Lu Shiluo wouldn’t have made such a move without some aces up his sleeve.

And sure enough, Fang Qingyuan then learned from the Pill Room Shopkeeper that Lu Shiluo had announced he would offer the Lu Family’s main mountain in the Artifact Talisman Alliance as payment to hire Elder Green Robe, a Late-stage Golden Core Loose Cultivator of White Mountain. He would also offer a family heirloom, a Secret Treasure, to hire Nankun, an Early Stage Golden Core Cultivator from the Li Huo Alliance in southern White Mountain!

With that, the Lu Family’s side now had three Golden Core cultivators, while the Wei Family only had Wei Xuan and the Spiritual Flood Dragon. With tens of thousands of Loose Cultivators swarming in, the Wei Family was now in real danger of being overthrown.

’But all of this is happening far away from me. Northern White Mountain is a long way from Yuanling Mountain. As long as I don’t get involved, it doesn’t matter how fiercely the war in White Mountain rages; it won’t affect me.’

’The only thing to worry about is, with the Wei Family in trouble, will Lechuan go to help them again? And if he does, what if he takes the opportunity to send Jiang Kui to the front lines?’

Fang Qingyuan didn’t let these worries show on his face. He winced as he bought three bottles of the Tier Two Middle Grade Dust-Reduction Pills. Then, after Old Ye returned, he purchased enough Thousand Soul Grass seeds for three thousand mu of hillside land before mounting Yinbao and flying back toward his own sect.

Upon reaching Yuanling Mountain, Fang Qingyuan didn’t go to see Jiang Kui first. Instead, he gathered the numerous mortals and began to tell them about planting Thousand Soul Grass.

Several thousand people were spread out across a flat piece of ground. Fang Qingyuan hovered in mid-air, using his Spiritual Power to project his voice into every mortal’s ear. They heard him say:

"It’s been almost five years since you all came to Yuanling Mountain. I know that life hasn’t been prosperous for you during these years. To change this, to help you all become wealthy, I’m going to lead you in planting something good!"