Vessel of Worlds

Having given the youth his instructions, Andy mounted the Wind-Treader Dragon and flew for West Star Island.

A few days later, standing in the West Star Island market, Andy frowned slightly as he gazed at a churning, head-upon-head throng packed into the market's middle section.

"Brother Zhao! It's been too long!" A refined young scholar, paper fan in hand, saluted him with clasped fists.

"Fellow Cultivator Yi! A dozen years and more—congratulations on your cultivation's advance!" Andy recognized him at a glance and returned the salute.

Andy had known this young scholar for decades—the young proprietor of a text shop in the West Star Island market. Andy had bought texts there often, and with age and cultivation so close between them, the two had grown familiar.

The scholar shook his head, smiling. "I merely scraped my way from early- to mid-stage Foundation Establishment by luck. Against Brother Zhao's peak late-stage realm, the gap is embarrassing."

Andy smiled. "I only met with a little good fortune. You're too modest."

"And this visit to the market—preparations for the attempt at Core Formation, I take it?" the scholar asked, a thread of envy in his voice.

"Just so. Which reminds me—do you know whether any cultivator near West Star Island has formed a golden core these past dozen years?" Andy's interest sharpened. The scholar lived year-round in the market and heard everything; this was the moment to ask.

"No Core Formation phenomenon has appeared over West Star Island in a dozen years. Though rumor says that tens of thousands of kilometers away, cultivators witnessed a strange celestial sign—by the descriptions, very possibly the heaven-sign of a golden core forming. Why do you ask?"

"Ah—a pity. I'd hoped to beg some insights from a newly minted Core Formation senior about the breakthrough itself. The ones who formed their cores long ago won't spare a glance for Foundation Establishment cultivators like us." Andy let his regret show, then asked: "I've been long in seclusion—what great events on the island have I missed? Enlighten me."

The scholar transmitted in a low voice: "Great events—there have been a few. Most shocking: three years ago, Senior Cai San was ambushed on his way back to West Star Island—and perished."

"Cai San? The island lord Hermit Tianhe's third disciple? He formed his core decades ago!" Andy transmitted back, startled.

"Exactly. Which is why the ambusher is thought to be mid-stage Core Formation at least, perhaps late-stage. Against a mere early-stage peer, even losing, Senior Cai San could surely have fled back to the island," the scholar said. "They say the island lord was in a towering fury and pursued the matter personally. The island's cultivators above mid-stage Core Formation number only seven or eight, and every one was investigated—yet the killer was never found. The general guess was a passing cultivator from one of the other great islands. Since then the Core Formation seniors haven't dared range far from the island, let alone Foundation Establishment cultivators like us. That lasted a year or two; nothing similar happened again, and things have slowly returned to normal. Brother Zhao—Core Formation may be in your sights, but do be careful."

"My thanks for the warning, Brother Yi," Andy said, saluting.

"As for the rest—there are odds and ends, but nothing worth mention beside Senior Cai San's fall. Though this lively spectacle before us—might Brother Zhao be interested?" the scholar said with a smile.

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"That's precisely what I meant to ask you. What's set the market boiling like this? There must be over a thousand people!"

"Heh—this is the island lord's grand gesture. A great power of the Immortal Island of Yingzhou transferred to the island lord—half sold, half gifted—several dozen furnace-cauldrons of superb looks and cultivation alike. And the island lord has put a portion of them up for open auction in the market. Today is the day," the scholar said, smiling.

"Furnace-cauldrons? Are they... reliable?" Andy asked, frowning.

He had met the term more than once in the texts. Unlike ordinary dual cultivation, male cultivators who practiced the harvesting arts regularly required congress with young women, drawing yin to replenish yang and advance their cultivation. At bottleneck-breaking, the ideal partner retained her primal yin—and the higher her cultivation, the better. The girls so freely harvested were called furnace-cauldrons: vessels that produced medicine, like a pill furnace or an elixir bowl—a term of open contempt. And unlike dual cultivation, the cauldron herself gained nothing whatsoever from the process.

"Quite reliable, they say. All of them are bound by restrictions laid through special techniques—incapable of resisting their masters in the slightest. Every one a beauty, and every one of primal yin body!" the scholar said with faint excitement—then sighed in mock sorrow. "Of course, none come cheap. Even a Qi Condensation cauldron is beyond an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator's purse. As for the Foundation Establishment ones—those are pleasures for Core Formation seniors, or beings like the island lord himself."

Andy smiled thinly. "I'm an ascetic by temperament and know little of the harvesting arts—I'll spare myself the crowd. I've sundries to buy; let us part here."

The scholar didn't press him, and after an exchange of courtesies, waded off into the throng.

Andy made another round of oblique inquiries through the market, then teleported to the Immortal Island of Penglai.

Penglai held several spirit veins of the true first grade—peak-grade veins—and Penglai Peak itself was hailed as the first spirit vein of the entire Star Sea. Its density of spiritual power was beyond anything on West Star Island, to say nothing of his own Luojia Island.

The veins were vast, with dwellings available for rent upon them. The fees were crushing, but the spiritual energy so abundant that plenty of wealthy cultivators gladly paid mountains of stones for long-term leases.

Andy meant to find a suitable dwelling and, borrowing that dense spiritual energy, break through the Core Formation bottleneck in a single stroke.

For at the moment of forming the core, one drew on the surrounding environment's spiritual energy to flood the body—so the denser the energy, the higher the odds of success.

Every year, then, cultivators like Andy—who practiced elsewhere but rented dwellings on Penglai when a bottleneck loomed—came in large numbers.

Upon arriving, Andy promptly hired a guide—an old man at the fourth or fifth layer of Qi Condensation. Despite his years, the man seemed cowed by Andy's cultivation, timid and sparing of speech: a question got an answer; silence got a bowed head and obedient stillness aboard the Wind-Treader Dragon. It put Andy in mind of talkative Old Man He. Decades had passed—that old man's lifespan was likely near its end. And his granddaughter, little Qianqian of the rare ice spiritual root, must be long grown by now. With aptitude like hers, she had surely achieved Foundation Establishment already—a cultivator who would address him as an equal.

The guide brought Andy to a three-storied building set against the mountainside, each floor with its own separate entrance. This was where Penglai administered the rental of dwellings. The first floor served Qi Condensation cultivators—mostly shared lodgings, some single rooms, no true cave dwellings at all. The second floor served Foundation Establishment cultivators like Andy: smaller dwellings, in middling locations. The third floor was reserved for Core Formation cultivators—large dwellings in excellent positions near the heart of the spirit vein, where the energy ran thickest.

As for Nascent Soul cultivators—they were the summit of the Star Sea. Old monsters of such terrifying power were courted everywhere and crossed nowhere. Any Nascent Soul cultivator willing to reside long-term on Penglai received at once a vast dwelling in the finest location, free of charge—plus the island's standing tribute: rare treasures delivered by the armful, year upon year.

After a brief inquiry into the difference in price between Foundation Establishment and Core Formation dwellings, Andy abandoned all thought of the third floor without hesitation.

To him, the cost was merely a number. But to expose himself before the eyes of all those cultivators for the sake of a somewhat better dwelling—that he would never do.

This Penglai might style itself the heart of the Orthodox Dao Alliance, but nothing was less scarce here than gentlemen in appearance—and murderers for treasure underneath.