Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Jiang Kui smiled and nodded, then replied,

"She has a Middle-grade Water Spirit Root with an aptitude of twenty-three. With this level of talent, as long as nothing goes wrong, reaching the middle to late stages of Qi Cultivation should be no problem. As for whether she can become a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, that will depend on her own destiny."

Upon hearing Jiang Kui’s assessment, Jiang Wanqin’s parents hurriedly knelt and kowtowed. Seeing this, Jiang Kui used her Spiritual Power to lift them back to their feet and continued,

"With Jiang Wanqin’s presence, your status will change from now on. Go back, pack your belongings, and move into the residence on the mountainside. I will assign a few servants to you, and I’ll also give Jiang Wanqin an advance of three Spirit Stones each month to cover your expenses. When she turns three, bring her to me, and I will personally guide her cultivation."

After Jiang Kui finished giving her instructions, Jiang Wanqin’s parents, carrying the swaddled baby, thanked her profusely once more before taking their leave.

Afterward, Fang Qingyuan and Zhang Yuan stepped forward to congratulate her.

"Congratulations, Senior Sister. Our Yuanling Mountain has grown a bit stronger."

Jiang Kui was also quite happy. She was receiving an annual share from the Crimson Iron Ore mine, and now a promising new cultivator had appeared. All of this made her feel that coming to Yuanling Mountain all those years ago had been the right decision.

After offering his congratulations, Fang Qingyuan asked,

"Senior Sister, about that residence on the mountainside you mentioned... I haven’t seen it. Don’t tell me it hasn’t been built yet?"

Jiang Kui gave him an appreciative smile and said,

"Junior Brother, you really do understand me. I haven’t built that big residence on the mountainside yet. Since you were the one to ask, I’ll have to trouble you to see to its construction."

Hearing Jiang Kui’s assignment, Fang Qingyuan’s expression soured. ’Why did I have to open my big mouth? Now I’ve landed myself in a mess.’

Seeing Fang Qingyuan’s expression, Jiang Kui laughed.

"Don’t worry, it’ll come out of the mountain’s accounts; I won’t make you pay out of your own pocket. Besides, I was looking at those two disciples of yours. Their parents are still living at the foot of the mountain, right? You might as well take this opportunity to move both their families to the mountainside. They’ll receive the same treatment as Jiang Wanqin’s family."

After Jiang Kui spoke, Fang Qingyuan’s heart stirred. The families of Liu Xun and Qu Wujie did need to be properly settled, and they certainly deserved such treatment. However, Jiang Kui was mistaken about one thing: he currently had no intention of taking on any disciples.

So, Fang Qingyuan retorted,

"Liu Xun and Qu Wujie are not my disciples. I am simply fulfilling my duty as a Sect Leader. Whatever achievements they manage in the future will belong to Yuanling Mountain. It has little to do with me personally, but it has a great deal to do with you, the Mountain Master. So, you see... it wouldn’t be right if you didn’t allocate a few more Spirit Stones to me, would it?"

"Three hundred Spirit Stones. Not one more. And I’ll be inspecting it when you’re done. No cutting corners."

"Make it five hundred. A little extra for my trouble. I’m a very busy man, you know. Senior Sister, how can you be so heartless...?"

Watching from the side as Fang Qingyuan and Jiang Kui haggled and bickered, Zhang Yuan yawned. Finding it all too noisy, he slowly closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation.

Meanwhile, far away in the Wilderness Forest, the Golden Core Giant Turtle was still eagerly awaiting the four Golden Core Demon Beasts its subordinate had gone to summon.

Perhaps it was because Golden Core Demon Beasts lived much longer than humans, but their sense of time, uncorrupted by human influence, tended to be much more leisurely.

In other words, it looked like the Golden Core Giant Turtle was in for a long wait.

...

「In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.」

Everything on Yuanling Mountain was proceeding as usual. Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation had steadily advanced, and he was on the verge of perfecting the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer.

During those two years, Fang Qingyuan had completely reorganized his Immortal Mansion Space. He relocated the silkworm house and the pond, connecting the newly cleared three-mu plot of Black Land to the existing Spirit Plant nursery. He then planted many new Spirit Plants.

The Purple Bamboo Forest had grown immense, with over a thousand stalks of purple bamboo intertwined, covering a vast area.

The Bee Queen looked the same as ever. Her body had stopped growing after reaching a length of one and a half meters. And since her body was no longer getting bigger, neither was her brain.

The bee colony inside the Immortal Mansion now numbered five thousand. Thanks to Fang Qingyuan’s constant feeding of Golden Jade Flower Honey, three thousand of these five thousand Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees were Mutated Scorpion-tailed Bees possessing the Pigeon Poison talent.

As Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation was about to advance again, the Immortal Mansion Space was due for another expansion. Fang Qingyuan estimated that the land inside would most likely increase to over ten mu this time.

While things were stable on Yuanling Mountain, Northern White Mountain had descended into chaos. Previously, Lu Shiluo had announced his withdrawal from the Artifact Talisman Alliance and rallied Loose Cultivators to begin chipping away at the Wei Family’s territory. The Wei Family, in response, had dragged the Great Zhou Academy into the fray to make a statement. They declared that since Lu Shiluo had left the Artifact Talisman Alliance, he no longer had the qualifications to establish a sect and could only continue to operate as a family. If the Lu Family accepted a large number of outside Loose Cultivators, the Great Zhou Academy would be forced to intervene.

With the Great Zhou Academy getting involved, the Lu Family didn’t dare to confront them directly. However, in the blink of an eye, the Lu Family announced the formation of the "Anti-Wei Alliance." They clarified that they did not seek to absorb the Shandu Wei Family’s lands into their own sphere of influence; they only wanted to see the Wei Family destroyed.

In this strategic back-and-forth, the Wei Family’s move was aimed at the still-hesitant Loose Cultivators. The Lu Family, in turn, took a step back to advance, making their vow to destroy the Wei Family clear in order to reassure their potential allies.

And so, the Lu and Wei Families drew their battle lines. After the initial war of words, it was the Lu Family who launched the first strike.

Within a single month, the dozens of Cultivator Clans and small sects allied with the Wei Family suffered devastating losses. The Loose Cultivators of White Mountain would often use several times the numbers to encircle and annihilate a single target family.