Eternal Life Begins with Learning

However, that was the extent of his understanding.

Taking another step would require a major commitment.

Spiritual Fire, a Pill Furnace, Spirit Plants and Spirit Medicine...

With such a massive hole to fill and his current meager income, he had no plans to get involved anytime soon.

Chu Mu took the Spirit Stone Bag from his robe. Four months, one hundred and twenty-eight Broken Spirit stones!

The bag was bulging, but when converted, it amounted to less than thirteen Lower Grade Spirit Stones. In Jade Emperor Valley, its purchasing power was extremely limited.

’It’s a shame I don’t have a Storage Spiritual Artifact. So much Spiritual Qi has been wasted!’

Placing the Spirit Stones back in his robe, Chu Mu felt a pang of heartache, thinking about how much of their Spiritual Qi he had probably absorbed unknowingly over the past few days.

But Spirit Stones were too precious; he had no choice but to keep them on his person. Otherwise, if they were stolen, he would be truly out of luck.

As for storage-type Magical Artifacts, he had naturally made inquiries about them over the past few months.

However, Storage Spiritual Artifacts were not as he had imagined—cheap enough for every Cultivator to own one.

Instead, they were truly priceless and unavailable on the market!

The reason was simple: the Refining of a Storage Spiritual Artifact required a crucial Spiritual Material that possessed the Spatial Attribute.

And Spiritual Materials with the Spatial Attribute were, without exception, Tier Three or higher!

According to the grading system of the Cultivation Immortal Realm, Tier One’s three grades corresponded to the early, middle, and late stages of the Qi Cultivation Realm.

Tier Two’s three grades corresponded to the Foundation Establishment Realm, which was above Qi Cultivation.

And Tier Three’s three grades corresponded to Golden Core True Masters, who were above the Foundation Establishment Realm!

What did it mean to be a Golden Core True Master?

The Sun Family, which controlled the Eight Commanderies of Great Chu and over fifty Marketplaces of various sizes, had only one Golden Core True Master in their entire clan. And it was said that he had only recently broken through to the Golden Core Realm!

A single Golden Core True Master was the sky itself over this land for thousands of miles around!

With a single thought, they could decide the fate of countless Cultivators.

Here in Jade Emperor Valley, a being at the Foundation Establishment Realm was practically the sky!

A Tier Three or higher Spiritual Material that also possessed the Spatial Attribute was a world-class treasure!

The moment one appeared, even Golden Core True Masters would likely fight over it!

Forget about a minor figure like him at the Qi Cultivation First Layer; even among the seniors of the Foundation Establishment Realm, probably very few possessed a true Storage Spiritual Artifact.

Chu Mu even felt that an item Refined from a Tier Three or higher Spiritual Material probably wasn’t even a Magical Artifact anymore, but something on the level of a Magical Treasure, fit for a Golden Core True Master.

However, from what Chu Mu had learned, it wasn’t that the Cultivation Immortal Realm had no other types of storage items. In the Talisman Shop in Jade Emperor Valley, it seemed there were Storage Talismans for sale.

Not only was the price exorbitant, but they supposedly only lasted for a very short time. If the time limit was exceeded and the items weren’t removed, they would vanish along with the disintegrating Storage Talisman.

This kind of flashy but impractical item was obviously not something Chu Mu needed to consider.

What he needed to consider now was how to spend the one hundred and twenty-eight Broken Spirit stones he had accumulated.

Magic... Alchemy... Puppets... or supplementing his knowledge of the Cultivation Immortal Realm...

Chu Mu had many options. Nearly half a year had passed, and while his knowledge of the Cultivation Immortal Realm had grown significantly, that knowledge was all superficial. Any deeper information was held firmly in the grasp of an invisible hand.

Without paying a price, one couldn’t hope to learn a single thing.

This was true even with Cultivators he was acquainted with.

His few colleagues at the ore materials shop were fine for idle chatter on a normal day, but the moment the conversation turned to anything remotely deep, it was all about Spirit Stones. Without Spirit Stones, they wouldn’t reveal a single shred of useful information.

After a while, Chu Mu couldn’t be bothered to maintain such pointless relationships.

’In this Cultivation Immortal Realm, relationships are unreliable. Only benefits are king!’

’When your Cultivation and status are weak, no amount of effort to maintain ties is useful. Once your Cultivation and status are strong, countless people will rush to curry favor with you.’

By the time Chu Mu reached the street, it was nearly dusk. After almost half a year, the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace had undergone immense changes.

The news Chu Mu had heard when he first entered the Marketplace months ago had slowly become a reality in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace.

Dozens of trading houses moving into Jade Emperor Valley one after another had brought about an almost complete transformation.

Originally, the heart of Jade Emperor Valley was the main street that followed the river through the valley. While the adjacent streets were also lined with shops, the difference in quality was clear to the naked eye.

But now, with the influx of dozens of trading houses, the development of Jade Emperor Valley had clearly reached a new level.

After several months, the streets on either side of the main thoroughfare were now hardly inferior to the main street itself.

The massive influx of Cultivators that followed undoubtedly pushed this prosperity even higher.

Jade Emperor Valley was clearly adapting to this change as well. The once-empty lake surface was now dotted with many new buildings.

The gorge that Chu Mu used to enter and exit frequently had been leveled over three months ago. The Marketplace expanded, and a large cluster of new residences was built on the flattened ground. The rent was just one Spirit Stone a month, and it even came with a supply of Spiritual Qi.

Perhaps because the rent was only one Spirit Stone, this new block of residences even caused a frantic rush in Jade Emperor Valley!

Several Cultivators were even executed on the spot by the Law Enforcement Team over it!

Chu Mu had watched the commotion from a distance at the time. When he saw the sudden bloodshed, he immediately slipped away and returned to the ore materials shop.

He only heard about the rest of the excitement later. But with the Marketplace’s expansion, the foot traffic in Jade Emperor Valley had truly surged.

Walking down the street, if you weren’t careful, you’d be caught in a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.

’They’ll probably have to expand again!’

Chu Mu mused to himself as he watched the bustling crowd on the street.

With the influx of dozens of trading houses, the positioning of Jade Emperor Valley naturally changed as well.

Before, the rent of three Spirit Stones a month had basically eliminated any possibility for Low Cultivation Cultivators to survive in Jade Emperor Valley.

Jade Emperor Valley’s identity had always been stuck as a "high-tech" Cultivation Immortal Marketplace.

But the dozens of trading houses that had moved into Jade Emperor Valley recently were, according to Chu Mu’s observations, mostly resource and labor-intensive industries, such as Ore Materials, Spiritual Plants, and Talisman Paper materials.

Their technological level wasn’t high, somewhat similar to Li’s Trading House, but their scale was clearly much larger.

As such, they naturally required a large number of "consumables."

But a rent of one Spirit Stone was still too high for Cultivators with Low Cultivation.

This problem was clearly becoming imminent.

This was clear from the various recruitment notices in the mission hall and the growing number of Cultivators sleeping rough outside the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace.

However, Chu Mu guessed that even if they expanded again, the newly built residences would probably lack a Spiritual Qi supply.

He had often gone to observe during the previous expansion. Building houses for Cultivators was different from worldly construction; it took dozens of Cultivators nearly two months to lay down all the various Arrays and Runes and build with Spirit Wood and Spirit Iron.

’The cost must have been immense!’

’With a rent of one Spirit Stone, it would likely take a very long time just to break even.’

’If they lowered the rent any further while still having to lay down Arrays and Runes and supply Spiritual Qi, they would basically be running a charity.’

’Something as good as a pie falling from the sky was obviously impossible in this Cultivation Immortal Realm, where benefits are king... ’

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