Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Wine itself was a luxury item. This particular vintage was brewed using Spirit Rice as the base ingredient, following the method Long-armed Apes used to make Monkey Wine. It was further enhanced with various Spirit Fruits and the ever-multiplying hundred-year-old ginseng from the Immortal Mansion. Just a single sip made Shopkeeper Liu feel a great surge of Spiritual Power within him.

After downing a bowl, Shopkeeper Liu let out a hearty belch. He then grinned at the two clerks in the store, gesturing for them to hurry up and try some.

Xiaoyuan and Xiaoliang, the two Qi Cultivation clerks, saw Shopkeeper Liu’s satisfied expression, and each raised their bowl to take a drink.

"It’s a little sweet."

Xiaoyuan’s eyes lit up after he drank, but Xiaoliang said:

"Why does it feel like there are tiny bubbles bursting in my mouth? It’s completely different from any other wine I’ve had before."

The three of them focused on different things. Shopkeeper Liu was concerned with the Spiritual Power contained in the wine, using it to calculate whether the price of fifteen Low-grade Spirit Stones was a good value.

Xiaoyuan, being younger, only cared if it tasted good. Xiaoliang, on the other hand, had tried many Spirit Wines and was captivated by this novel flavor.

Reminded by his two clerks, Shopkeeper Liu also recalled the mouthfeel. He had dealt in many Spirit Wines, but most were either strong liquors or fruit wines.

A Spirit Wine like this—brewed from Spirit Rice, carrying a floral fragrance, yet with such a unique texture—was something he had rarely encountered.

The White Mountain Loose Cultivators could hardly be called wealthy, and since Spirit Wine required materials rich in Spiritual Qi for brewing, it was generally not cheap.

Mundane wine, which contained no Spiritual Qi, was as tasteless as plain water to Cultivators. Only Spirit Wine could give a Cultivator that satisfying buzz.

Therefore, even the lowest-tier Spirit Wine was not something that the low-level Loose Cultivators of White Mountain could afford to enjoy without restraint.

Take Zhang Yuan, for example. In his day, he would trade nearly all the Spirit Stones he earned for wine. Of course, drinking a lot of Spirit Wine did aid one’s cultivation. The Spiritual Qi in the wine could be absorbed by a Cultivator’s body, and compared to absorbing Spiritual Qi from Spirit Stones, this method was much gentler.

The Spiritual Qi in Spirit Stones could be forcibly extracted by a Cultivator for their practice.

However, during their formation, Spirit Stones also accumulated many impurities along with the Spiritual Qi. It was like the crude oil from Fang Qingyuan’s past life; while it could be used after rough refinement, using too much was harmful to the body.

The process of releasing Spiritual Qi from Spirit Wine, however, was much more gradual, making it a healthier method than cultivating while holding a Spirit Stone.

Furthermore, depending on the brewing techniques and the various Spirit Plants and Spirit Fruits added during production, the Spiritual Qi within the wine could be even more abundant. Often, a single gulp of Spirit Wine could make a Cultivator feel as if they were cultivating in a High-level Spiritual Land.

Spirit Wines were also divided into several tiers based on the concentration of Spiritual Qi contained within an equivalent volume.

But even for the lowest-tier Spirit Wine, a single jin’s worth cost at least one Low-grade Spirit Stone.

The main reason for Shopkeeper Liu’s shock was that after tasting the Spirit Wine sent by the sect and sensing the Spiritual Qi it contained, he was stunned by the price the sect had set.

This was clearly a Tier One Middle Grade Spirit Wine, yet it was priced as a Tier One Lower Grade. This was something Shopkeeper Liu simply couldn’t figure out.

’Perhaps this is a promotional discount from the sect to break into the market. Otherwise, this is clearly selling at a loss.’

As this thought emerged, Shopkeeper Liu felt he had finally grasped the sect’s strategy. As for the unique texture his clerks mentioned, he didn’t pay it much mind.

As long as the wine contained enough Spiritual Power, even if it tasted like swill, destitute Loose Cultivators would still flock to it.

"Alright, you’ve had your taste. Now get back to work. Move twenty jars of this Spirit Wine upstairs, then go notify our regular customers. Tell them a new product has arrived—first come, first served."

...

"The Spirit Rice Flower Brew is sold out? There’s no more stock in the Storage Room? This fast?"

At the foot of the Qingyuan Sect’s mountain, Steward Gu, who had descended earlier, was reporting to Jiang Tianfang. Looking at the request slips for more stock from the various shops, Jiang Tianfang was also quite surprised.

"Changfeng, wait here a moment. I’ll go ask the Sect Leader. He’s the one who procured this batch of wine. I’m sure he’ll be surprised it sold out so quickly."

Jiang Tianfang clapped Gu Changfeng on the shoulder, tucked away all the slips, and stood up to head toward the Sect Leader’s residence halfway up the mountain.

When he arrived before Liu Xun’s residence, a disciple at the entrance saw Jiang Tianfang and hurried forward to greet him.

"Chairman Jiang, the Sect Leader is currently meeting with guests, so it’s not convenient for him to see you right now. Why don’t you have a seat for a while? We’ve just received a new batch of Snow Mountain Tea from the Pan Mountain Sect. Would you like to try some?"

Hearing this, Jiang Tianfang could only nod. He entered the inner courtyard and saw more than a dozen Cultivators with unfamiliar faces seated and waiting. Jiang Tianfang observed them carefully and noticed that their cultivation levels were all quite high; there were even four or five Foundation Establishment Cultivators among them.

Moreover, this group wasn’t all together. Based on their seating arrangement, Jiang Tianfang could sense that they likely represented five different powers.

"What guests is the Sect Leader meeting with?"

As Jiang Tianfang asked curiously, the greeting disciple replied with a smile:

"To be honest, Chairman Jiang, the Sect Leader has been busy with the important matter of forming an alliance. These five sects are here precisely for that reason."

"Oh, so that’s what it is. In that case, I won’t ask any more questions."

Jiang Tianfang tactfully decided not to inquire further. This was a matter under Sect Leader Liu Xun’s authority, and he wouldn’t meddle. ’As a Chairman in charge of a department,’ he thought, ’I just need to handle my own affairs. For everything else, I should trust in the abilities of my fellow sect members.’