Eternal Life Begins with Learning

Li’s Ore Materials.

In the back courtyard, Chu Mu followed close behind a middle-aged man with a Fu Manchu mustache, matching his every step.

"The back courtyard is quite large. This row here, near the front shop, is the living quarters. By custom, all the workers at our trading house live here. Everyone gets their own room, but there’s no Spiritual Qi supply."

"However, the rooms do have small partitioning Restrictions that can block Divine Sense and sound, so the privacy is pretty good."

"Behind this is where the daily work gets done. It’s mainly for smelting various Ore Materials."

"Your job is to smelt Spirit Ore Materials. You’re paid by the catty. Refining ten catties of Spirit Ore Materials earns you one Broken Spirit, and a hundred catties gets you one Spirit Stone. There’s no upper limit."

"Refining Spirit Ore is very simple. It’s really just a matter of removing impurities and keeping the essence."

"For the next few days, just spend some time in the warehouse. Watch and learn."

"As for other benefits, the trading house workers get a meal of Spirit Rice at the end of each month, and you get one day off."

"Also, there’s a bonus at the end of every year. The rewards vary, depending on the Shopkeeper’s mood, but they’re usually pretty good—worth about a month of your Monthly Stipend..."

"That’s the situation here at our trading house. If you’re willing, go to the front hall and sign the contract. You can start work today..."

Chu Mu silently sized up the courtyard before him. It was called a courtyard, but in reality, it was just a large workshop.

The very front was the street-facing storefront. Behind the shop were the workers’ living quarters, and behind that was a large warehouse, enclosed by walls on three sides and open on one.

Standing at the warehouse entrance, he had an unobstructed view of the scene inside.

All sorts of ores were piled up in categorized heaps, with Cultivators in varied attire bustling about. It didn’t look much different from the small factories of his past life.

However, there was another partition at the back of the warehouse, which seemed to conceal more space within.

"Alright, I’ll go to the front and sign the contract."

Chu Mu didn’t hesitate for long. Outside Jade Emperor Valley was the Land of Chaos, but within the valley, the rules were extremely strict!

"Okay, then. You go sign the contract first. Afterward, I’ll take you on a tour of our trading house so you can get familiar with things."

"Thank you for your trouble, Steward."

Chu Mu cupped his hands, exchanged a few pleasantries, and headed for the front hall.

Soon, a contract was placed before Chu Mu.

The contract looked like paper, dark yellow in color, about a palm long and three fingers wide. It only had a few short lines of text, similar to the contracts of his previous life, but without all the convoluted clauses.

The gist of it was the amount of the Monthly Stipend, the job responsibilities, and then a series of prohibitions, such as forbidding any actions that would harm the trading house’s interests or leaking its secrets while employed...

The entire document was filled with prohibitions, yet it mentioned no punitive measures whatsoever.

Chu Mu looked questioningly at the young man before him, who appeared to be the Shopkeeper’s own son...

"This is a Divine Soul Contract. Once signed, it binds your Divine Soul. If you violate it, you will suffer the contract’s backlash!"

"For anyone below the Foundation Establishment Realm, a light offense will result in severe damage to the Divine Soul. A grave offense will cause the soul to be utterly annihilated!"

A chill went down Chu Mu’s spine. His gaze fell upon the contract once more, and he carefully weighed every single word.

It was quite fair. Aside from a few restrictions for confidentiality, the rest were only limitations during his employment. Once he left the job, these restrictions would become null and void.

Seeing Chu Mu’s cautious expression, the young man, clearly used to it, spoke nonchalantly:

"There’s no need to worry. A Divine Soul Contract acts on the Divine Soul. You can perceive for yourself what is right and wrong within it."

Chu Mu tentatively released his Divine Sense to touch and perceive it. Just as the man had said, the terms of the Divine Soul Contract became perfectly clear to him.

There were no loopholes, nor could there be. A Divine Soul Contract that exploited loopholes could not be formed in the first place.

This premonition, originating from the unseen world, was very distinct.

With a thought from Chu Mu, the Divine Soul Contract flickered faintly, and the two words "Chu Mu" abruptly appeared on it.

The young man chuckled and said, "Alright. Now that you’ve signed the contract, you’re one of us at Li’s Trading House. Work hard, and you won’t be treated poorly."

Chu Mu nodded and offered a few perfunctory words, not saying much more.

’Anyone can make empty promises.’

’It’s best just to listen. Only an idiot would actually believe it, especially here in the Cultivation Immortal Realm...’

Returning from the front hall to the back courtyard, Chu Mu saw that the Steward was clearly still waiting. He walked over and followed the Steward on a tour of Li’s Ore Materials.

Chu Mu observed his potential long-term home very carefully.

The business of the trading house was quite clear: process raw ore and sell the refined Ore Materials.

As for the processing and smelting of the Ore Materials, it was different from the secular world’s method of using furnaces to smelt iron. Instead, it used a Cultivator’s Divine Sense and Magical Power to manually remove impurities from the raw ore.

Although the efficiency wasn’t high, the quality of the ore processed through the wonders of Divine Sense and Magical Power was clearly excellent.

The trading house’s organizational structure was also very clear.

At the top was the Shopkeeper, named Wu Han. He seemed to be a Cultivator at Qi Cultivation Perfection and spent his years in secluded Cultivation, never to be seen. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Next was the Shopkeeper’s own son, named Wu’an, who was mainly in charge of running the front shop.

Then there was the Steward Wu who had been guiding him. He was Wu Han’s younger brother and was responsible for the ore processing and smelting in the warehouse.

And finally, there were the workers like him.

Including Chu Mu himself, there were only eight people who actually did the work.

The reason the Shopkeeper’s surname was Wu while the business was called Li’s Trading House was because the Shopkeeper was said to be the disciple of a certain Foundation Establishment master in the Marketplace with the surname Li. Thus, the name "Li’s Ore Materials" was born.

After wandering around for the better part of the afternoon, as the sky began to darken, several people could still be seen bustling about in the warehouse under the piece-rate pay system. Others had returned to their rooms early, clearly intent on Cultivation.

Parting ways with Steward Wu, Chu Mu went straight back to the room assigned to him.

The room wasn’t large, no different from his bedroom in the secular world. It was just a single room.

Chu Mu tentatively touched the walls and wooden door with his Divine Sense, and a faint sense of obstruction immediately met him.

Apparently, what Steward Wu had said was true. These seemingly ordinary rooms did indeed have Restrictions.

He just wondered about the "Spiritual Qi supply" the steward had mentioned, and if his own assumptions about it were correct.

Closing the door, Chu Mu was about to look for an oil lamp to light when the door had just shut and the room grew dim. At that moment, a glazed lamp on the table lit up by itself.

The light was soft yet extremely bright, illuminating the entire room.

Slightly taken aback, Chu Mu walked over, picked up the glazed lamp, and studied it for a moment, slowly coming to a realization.

It was probably a creation similar to the lamps in the Marketplace. The light source was a round stone. Although the base was made of glaze, faint patterns were clearly visible within it, which were obviously some kind of sensory mechanism... or Runes.

His interest piqued, Chu Mu figured that since it was placed in his room, it couldn’t be anything too precious. Under his "Spiritual Radiance Blessing," he focused his Divine Sense and immediately began to analyze the patterns within.

The patterns seemed simple at first glance but were actually quite complex, and some parts were even difficult to make out clearly.

As he studied and pondered, clues gathered bit by bit, and Chu Mu’s eyes grew brighter.

He didn’t understand Runes and had never encountered them before, but he could sense Spiritual Qi!

He knew how to follow the clues.

With his Divine Sense, he could clearly perceive an extremely faint fluctuation of Spiritual Qi emerging from within the lamp.

Following the trail, he soon pinpointed one of the Runes.

The faint Spiritual Qi fluctuation was emanating from this particular Rune.

’Is it absorbing the ambient Spiritual Qi from the world?’

Chu Mu frowned, carefully sensing the Spiritual Qi fluctuation. As he focused his Divine Sense, he could see motes of Spiritual Qi light converging on this Rune. Vaguely, he could even feel the Rune’s power to absorb Spiritual Qi.

The Spiritual Qi entered the Rune. As the Rune flickered and its lines flowed, the final destination was clearly the glowing stone inside the lamp.

’So, this Rune’s function is to absorb the ambient Spiritual Qi from the world and replenish the Energy of this glowing stone.’

’Then... there should be another Rune that senses light and darkness, acting as an automatic switch...’

Chu Mu muttered to himself as his Divine Sense scanned the lamp bit by bit.

But no matter how he observed it, he couldn’t find the other Rune he had theorized about.

’That can’t be right...’

Puzzled, Chu Mu thought, ’No matter how magical it is, it still has to follow basic principles, right?’

If there’s a Rune to replenish its Energy, there must be a control switch that senses light.

Otherwise, how could the lamp be controlled?

’Is it hidden that well?’

After observing for a long while, Chu Mu almost couldn’t stop himself from cursing out loud.

The Rune he had been looking for did exist.

But it was hidden in the center of the round, glowing stone!

Chu Mu opened the door. Under the light of the setting sun, the lamp instantly went out. He closed the door, and in the dimness, the lamp instantly lit up again.

Yet, within his Divine Soul Perception, he couldn’t detect any activity from that Rune.

Chu Mu observed it closely. His Divine Sense, which should have been able to perceive the tiniest details, was inexplicably met with multiple illusions!

’Is there an anti-prying measure?’

Chu Mu frowned and, refusing to give up, observed it again, but the result was the same.

The same thing happened when he tried to look with his naked eye. A cursory glance was fine, but the moment he tried to focus and look closely, it would be obscured by layers of illusions, making it impossible to see anything clearly.

Chu Mu even had a feeling that this illusion-generating mechanism was probably linked to the lamp’s two Runes. If he tried to forcefully suppress it, the outcome would be the destruction of the Runes and the ruin of the lamp.

’They’re so protective of even such a minor trick...’

Chu Mu shook his head. He suddenly felt that the Puppetry Skill inheritance in his mind was probably far more precious than he had imagined!

After all, this little lamp before him only had two Runes. Even a novice like him could analyze the gist of it, so the technical skill involved definitely wasn’t high.

But here in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace, lamps were indispensable on every street, and such lamps were a necessity in every Cultivator’s home...

Behind this seemingly insignificant lamp was a massive market...

Two such unremarkable Runes held such enormous financial value.

This just went to show the importance of technical knowledge in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

And it also showed just how important the basic inheritance of the Puppetry Skill in his mind was, and how terrifyingly immense its financial value must be!

...