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The government was supportive of Phoenix Mountain’s market town.

With the growing number of cultivators and the related population, at some point, there had to appear a public trading platform recognized by all sides. Online trading was not secure enough; also, it had to be a physical facility, so the location became an issue.

Both Tianzhu and Emei had scientific research bases with large mines and pharmaceutical companies, which were all full of confidential knowledge. With its harsh environment, Tianshan was out of the question.

The government also could not just pick any other place. If the party running the place could not stop conflicts from breaking out, the area would fall into chaos. Hence, the bottom line was: a neutral location far from densely populated areas and with enough force to stop conflicts.

Therefore, Phoenix Mountain was the only choice.

Xiaozhai saw through the monastery and the authorities behind it. After slowly going through the booklet, she made her pick.

“The Beast-controlling Technique, Rising Manual, Small Cloud & Rain Technique, Lucky Smoky Gourd, and Small Universe Technique—I’ll take these five.”

“Sure!”

Everything but the Cloud & Rain was within Chao Kongtu’s expectation.

The first four were explained already. Then, what about the Small Universe Technique? It was basically a storage skill that could put a lot of things in a very small container.

That was what Phoenix Mountain had been looking for all along. Xiaojin still carried her Thunder Cloud Grit around in a big gourd. With this technique, she could fit it into a small gourd. It would also work with storing things like Dan pills or spiritual liquor. It was quite versatile.

This technique required quite an advanced level of cultivation as well—only those with innate state or above could use it, and how much stuff one could fit into a containers solely depended on their ability.

Xiaozhai was amused to realize that ancient cultivators seemed to have a hard time making up names as well and simply decided to use the plain “big” and “small”. Skills such as the Small Moving Technique, Small Universe Technique, and Small Confinement Technique had names that indicated that they were delicate and neat and did not exert too much power.

Deducing from this logic, there should be skills such as Big Moving Technique or Big Universe Technique, which could probably move mountains and seas and contain heaven and earth.

“Since you’ve shown your sincerity, I’m going to be honest with you as well. You have kept things to yourselves, so neither are we going to exchange with our fundamental skills. But, all in all, we’d like to see everyone improve together and get to communicate with and teach one another.” Xiaozhai kicked her sister out of the confinement again. “Here are Small Moving Technique, Void-arranging Technique, Small Confining Technique, Storage Technique, Water-walking Technique, Whisk of Tranquility, and recipes of Evil-expelling Dan and Essence-gathering Incense. You can choose from these.”

She explained them in turn after that. Everything was quite specific—apart from the Whisk of Tranquility, which was a refined instrument recorded in the Seal of Patriarch Sa. Since no one on Phoenix Mountain was using a whisk, the method had been sitting there idly.

“…”

Chao Kongtu considered for a very long time after that and finally chose five as well: Small Moving Technique, Small Confining Technique, Storage Technique, Whisk of Tranquility, and the recipe of Evil-expelling Dan.

“Haha, you’re a clever man!” Xiaozhai praised him wholeheartedly, not feeling regretful to give out any of the skills at all.

The monastery had kept things to itself—such as the Talisman Water Technique. It could cure diseases and dispel plagues, which would work wonders in winning people’s hearts. They also did not mention the Soul-calming Mirror, which could stabilize the spirit of any living creature. On the other hand, Phoenix Mountain kept their own secrets as well, omitting things like the Shadow-switching Technique and the conjuring skill.

What they exchanged would become the basic laws of the cultivation community.

For example, the Storage Technique. From now on, cultivators would use jade slips to store information. Those that still tossed booklets around would be considered bumpkins.

Another example would be the Small Universe Technique, which would be the prerequisite skill until they discovered the legendary “storage bags”.

Using these in their daily cultivation life would be like eating with chopsticks, having soup with a spoon, going out with clothes on, and stripping to have sex… hence they were called the basic laws.

Chao Kongtu was mainly here to express their goodwill, but was pleasantly surprised with Phoenix Mountain’s sincerity as they had given some substantial skills back in turn. As a result, everyone was happy.

The two soon reached an agreement. After a pause, Xiaozhai said, “Since you’re taking the Dan recipe, I’d like to give an advice. I think you should make more of it and give it out to expertises of various professions, especially those that could affect people’s livelihood.

“With every extra year of their life, they’ll bring more contributions to the mankind as a whole. The world is kind of a sh*thole now, and we’ll have to depend on them if we want to slowly improve it.”

“Yes! Of course!”

Chao Kongtu cupped his hand and made up his mind.

“Since you’re here, stay for a few more days and let Xiaojin show you around. Bai Town is changing so fast these days. I still have errands to run. See you around.”

Removing the confinement, Xiaozhai left promptly and heartlessly, leaving behind young Priest Chao with his shocked face and our Xiao Jin Jin that had long become bristled like an angry kitten.

***

After Xiaozhai got the new Taoist skills, she gave the Small Cloud & Rain Technique to Old Gu to study and went into seclusion herself. The Small Universe Technique and Rising Manual were relatively easy to learn, while there was no need to make the Lucky Smoky Gourd at the moment, so she started with the Beast-controlling Technique.

She was actually surprised to see that the monastery was willing to put this one on the table, for it had so much potential. The technique contained a complete system of training spiritual beasts. Had it not been for the fact that it did not come with a Qi-refining method, it could almost work as a heritage of a sect.

The technique talked about how to build the master-servant relationship, in what proportion the food should be prepared, and how to train the beasts to raise their levels. With this technique, when a spiritual animal reached the limit of its growth, it could even break through its own limitation and reach a new level of life.

After reading through it, Xiaozhai activated her mental force and made a summoning command.

“Hiss!”

Before long, Xiao Qing knocked the window open and slithered in. Raising its head that looked like a little green melon, it looked a little confused. Immediately after that, there was a loud clunk and a ball of meat also rolled into the room—that was Brother Fatso, who was hanging out with the green snake all the time.

These two were fellow wanderers on the mountain now. Their owners doted on them in the beginning, but as Gu Yu and Xiaozhai moved higher in their cultivation levels, they seldom saw their pets anymore and the two poor things would go without being summoned for months. So, naturally, they stuck to each other.

“…”

Looking at Brother Fatso, Xiaozhai suddenly had a wonderful picture in her head of Gu Yu holding his Red Sun in one hand and riding on the back of a squirrel. She shuddered at that image. “There’s nothing I can do about you. You can live happily for hundreds of years eating around the mountain—a fantastic mascot you will be.”

She then turned to the green snake. “You haven’t improved at all after being around me for all this time. I can’t blame you, though. The Snake-controlling Skill my master taught me was so simple and crude that it was a waste of your spirituality. You can’t be my ride… haha, stop squirming! Don’t worry, I won’t leave you behind.”

The green snake stuck out its two-pronged tongue and licked the palm of its master, looking very anxious. With a flip of her wrist, Xiaozhai let the green snake coil around her arm. She then lifted it up and examined it carefully.

“You’re pretty enough, but still a good-for-nothing. Since you’re fast, I’m gonna make you faster.”

Looking into the snake eyes that had almost turned emerald green, she chuckled. “Work with me. You’ll become a dragon one day.”

***

Northern Fujian Province, Gutian County.

Min River ran through Fujian, originated from Junkou Town at the juncture of Fujian and Jiangxi, made its way through most of the province, and finally entered Donghai Sea at Langqi Island. The river had a total length of 562 km.

The river had countless tributaries, and Gutian Creek in the country was one of the bigger ones. It was named “creek”, but with its length and the area covered by it, it could almost be counted as a big river.

“Wu You, come on! Let’s go catch some fish!”

“Yes, coming!”

Outside a house of Xizhou Village, a few teenage boys were beckoning at their playmate inside the courtyard. The one being called wolfed down a couple mouthfuls of food, then tossed his chopsticks away and ran out. They were all boys around 15 or 16 of age and had zero control over their impulsiveness.

The village sat right by the river. Growing up playing with water, they loved catching fish more than anything else.

It was early March now, and northern Fujian was pretty warm. The water was still a little cold to swim in, but the youngsters did not mind that at all. They reached the river in no time and stripped until they were down to their underwear. They then jumped right in.

Gutian was very lucky. Unlike the fishing villages by the sea, the mutated water creatures were not only not ferocious, but were fat, tame, and delicious. Had it not been for their low fecundity, they would have become the new special local product by now.

“Haha! I got one!”

In merely two minutes, a boy came back up holding a big fish, which he tossed onto the bank. The fish writhed around wildly before another kid picked it up and threw it into a bucket.

“I’ve got one, too! Wow, a big crab!”

“Your crab is nothing! I’ve got a soft-shelled turtle here!”

Momentarily, a hubbub filled the air, and all kinds of aquatic creatures were being tossed around.

Wu You also caught some fish. Half-submerged in the water, he watched his young friends enjoying themselves and suddenly lost interest in the game. “Hey, how about we go up to the island? Staying in the river the whole time is so boring!”

“Are you nuts? There are lizards on the island, you know that!”

“So what? We’ll stay near the water; they can’t catch up with us.”

“How do you know they can’t? My uncle’s broken leg is not healed yet!”

His friends all gave him that “you poor fool” look. Frowning, Wu You was noticeably impatient for a second, but he soon fought it back and stopped talking.

A while later, all the buckets were filled with aquatic creatures, and the kids left the water. Licking his lips, Wu You suddenly said, “I have some errands to run in town. You guys go back first.”

“Ok. We’ll see you tonight!”

None of his young friends suspected anything as they left carrying the buckets.

After they walked out of sight, Wu You trotted along the river towards the opposite direction and did not stop until 20 minutes later.

Not far into the river was a small alluvial island, which was covered by lush plantation and surrounded by a stone bank. A bridge used to connect the island to the village, and there had been a plan of developing the island into a park. However, after the mutation began, a bunch of giant green lizards suddenly showed up and killed quite a few people.

Fearing that the lizards might crawl over, the village removed the bridge right away. They then realized that the lizards couldn’t swim and were stuck on the island, so no further measures were taken.

“Stupid little kids. They know nothing of what I can do!”

Seeing that no one was around, Wu You suddenly blurted out those words. He then jumped into the river and swam to the island.

Splash!

In a moment, he reached the island and climbed ashore through the stone bank with much difficulty. The boy was apparently quite experienced in what he was doing. As soon as he climbed up, he crouched down and hid in a cluster of tall bush. Only when he made sure that all was quiet did he move again.

Creeping onward, he made his way easily to a bent tree, where he picked up a small shovel and began digging. The soil was quite loose, and a small pit was soon dug out. There was then a clank, as if the shovel had hit something hard.

Wu You’s face lit up. He pushed the soil away with bare hands and yanked, pulling a sword out of the pit!

The sword was a little over a meter and looked ancient. It was pitch-black from the tip to the end and none of its part reflected any light. It was silent and cold like a lifeless abyss.

Wu You now had an obsessed and delightful look in his eyes. As he carried the sword in both hands and dashed into the woods, he looked like a different person.

The morning of the same day.

Meng Haoze walked into the courtyard of the county government building as usual.

He was the deputy departmental head of the second Investigation Department of Fujian sub-bureau of the BIMAUP. Last year, he was delegated to the local offices to search for the leads on none other than the six escaping swords and one Sword Seed of Fish Mountain.

The mountain collapsed before dawn, when most people were sound asleep.

The treasures flew in all directions with no fixed pattern at all. Even if someone did spot them, all they saw was a light flash across the sky, and they couldn’t even tell which direction it had gone to.

They also made no obvious sound when they landed. Once on the ground, they hid all their splendor away and remained dormant.

This was an impossible task; the BIMAUP was driven insane! They made painstaking investigations, looking into the tiniest evidence. Finally, they were able to confirm the whereabouts of one of the swords, which was right here in Gutian County!

Hence, Meng Haoze led the team himself and remained stationed here, setting up a temporary office in the county government with himself taking charge of everything. After a lengthy investigation, they were finally able to locate the individual a couple of days ago.

“Chief! Chief!”

He was in his office and was about to take a sip of water when a subordinate officer rushed in.

“What happened?”

“That kid went into the island!”

‘!!!’

Meng Haoze was shocked by the news and bolted to his feet.

“Let’s go!”