Chapter 369: Chapter 19 The Dispute over Spirit Food_1

“Xuli Sect?”

Wang Ba couldn’t help but frown.

For the past six months, the three major sects hadn’t given him any trouble. On the contrary, the cultivators he came across, even those from the Golden Core realm, treated him with great respect.

Although their inner thoughts might not genuinely reflect this, at least outwardly, Wang Ba’s status in Yong’an City was no less than that of a Golden Core cultivator.

The Xuli Sect was no different.

Only occasionaly Wang Tang from Xuli Sect would come over and attempt to persuade Wang Ba to secretly join the Xuli Sect.

Wang Ba always shrugged it off, and the other party didn’t seem to mind.

So when Wang Ba saw the message from Wen Yong, he was puzzled.

However, Wen Yong didn’t say much in the Sound Transmission Talisman, just mentioned two words.

Spirit food.

“Spirit food…”

Wang Ba thought for a moment as if he had come to a sudden realization.

But he didn’t rush off to confirm his hunch, instead he made breakfast and brought it to the bedside, making Bu Chan blush.

Despite being together for so long, Bu Chan was still as bashful as she was twenty years ago.

After tidying up and feeding the spirit beasts, Wang Ba watched these Spirit Beasts quickly devour several piles of food the size of small hills with a gratified feeling, despite the sting of seeing so much food eaten.

Then he opened one corner of the formation and walked out.

“Master Shen!”

“It’s Master Shen who came out!”

“Master Shen, could you give me a chance to enter the Changyi Society?”

As soon as Wang Ba stepped out, he heard the surprised voices of the cultivators.

He saw the streets were already teeming with people.

The flags in front of the shops opposite him were fluttering in the wind, charmed with a small spell.

And the Rogue Cultivators who had met Wang Ba before were looking at him with faces full of surprise and joy.

Realizing he was being watched by so many people, Wang Ba felt a little awkward at first, but he quickly adapted.

This kind of situation happened almost every time he went out.

But no one dared to approach him too closely due to the cultivators from three major sects stationed outside his home.

The cultivation bases of these few were all at the middle-stage Foundation Establishment. They might not match up to Wen Yong, but when they worked together, they would be hard to rival for most late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Even though the relationship between sect cultivators and Rogue Cultivators seemed to have eased a lot recently, facing these people, Rogue Cultivators still couldn’t help but feel intimidated.

Wang Ba, on the other hand, had no plans to get too close to these rogue cultivators.

If he did so, the three major sects might start having ideas.

He gave a polite nod and a smile, and then calmly walked away from his mansion.

A few of the cultivators stationed at his mansion immediately split up, followed closely behind Wang Ba, ready to protect him at all times.

Of course, Wang Ba also knew in his heart, it would be more accurate to say they were watching him than protecting him.

He didn’t mind this, considering it a justifiable act.

As he walked along, despite his best efforts to avoid too much contact with the Rogue Cultivators, wherever Wang Ba went, he still aroused a lot of attention.

Things were quite different compared to half a year ago.

Because of Wang Ba’s exposure and the courtesy he received, coupled with Shanli’s Changyi Society moving to Yong’an City, and the three major sects continuously operating in the city.

Over the past six months, a lot of Yan’s Rogue Cultivators had been attracted to settle here.

The originally small Yong’an City soon became crowded.

The three major sects took advantage of the situation and made a killing from the rent and transactions taxes they collected.

Wang Ba often wondered why the success of Yong’an City didn’t come sooner. The three major sects clearly had capable people, so why hadn’t they done this before?

Instead, they suppressed the Rogue Cultivators at every turn.

It seemed they were determined not to give the rogue cultivators a chance to rise, acting as if they’d rather lose three hundred of their own while killing one thousand enemies.

If they had built a similar city to Yong’an early on, collecting land rents and taxes might have taken the three major sects even further.

Of course, there might also be things he didn’t know about.

He didn’t think about it too much, and with a wave of his hand, he obscured his features with a spell.

Soon, he stopped in front of a spirit food shop.

The shop was in a good location, right at the intersection of two streets with the highest foot traffic.

However, strangely enough, compared to the bustling shops nearby, this shop was completely deserted.

Wang Ba looked at the shop’s sign and the flag outside.

‘Xuli Spirit Rice Shop’.

He looked surprised.

“Strange, why are there so few customers… Isn’t the Spirit Rice Shop the pillar industry of the Xuli Sect?”

The four major sects in Yan each had their own industries.

For example, due to its superior strength and having a Nascent Soul cultivator at helm, Zhenling Palace monopolized about sixty percent of the entire Yan’s spirit stone mines, as well as several other spirit mines and medicine fields.

With so many resources, the tool refiners and alchemists within the Zhenling palace were able to get ample practice opportunities.

The magic tools and elixirs produced were of course much better than those of the other three major sects.

They exported their products to neighboring countries, and the resources they acquired in return were used to further feed the Zhenling Palace.

The cultivators of Zhenling Palace improved their strength and expanded outward, encroaching upon the resources of the other three sects.

The resources obtained were used to expand and improve their industries.

This created a positive cycle.

You could say that the most profitable industries were almost all controlled by Zhenling Palace.

If things continue in this manner, in at most a hundred years, Zhenling Palace will be able to accomplish the absorption of the other three sects, thereby monopolizing the territory of an entire country.

This is also the fundamental reason why the Three Great Sects became so impatient once they noticed that Zhang Daobai of Zhenling Palace was possibly in peril.

Let’s put aside these matters for now.

As one of the three sects, the Xuli Sect doesn’t have such great resources as the Danlong School where they have top-notch Cinnabar Spirit Mines and various Spirit Plants used for creating talismans. nor do they have vast experience in crafting disposable magic tools like Huifeng Valley.

Xuli Sect relies on farming.

Due to the crisscrossing spiritual lineages within its jurisdiction, they have many spirit fields and have nurtured numerous Spirit Plant Masters who specialize in growing various kinds of Spirit Plants.

Among them, Spirit Rice, being the most widely-used Spirit Plant, has gradually become the pillar of Xuli Sect’s income.

Every year there are many cultivators who, unable to afford elixirs and relying on Spirit Rice as cultivation resources, contribute their final strength to the rise of Xuli Sect.

Later on, in order to expand the audience for Spirit Rice, Xuli Sect purposely spent a huge amount of Spirit Stones to obtain the inheritance of refining Spirit Plant essence from a Spirit Cook skilled in dealing with Spirit Plants in the Chu Dynasty.

They concentrated a large amount of Spirit Rice to make it into Spirit Rice Essence and then sold it to the public, following the boutique route, similar to the Spirit Chicken Essence.

Of course, Wang Ba’s Spirit Chicken Essence, compared to Spirit Rice Essence, was released much later.

This move indeed brought significant profits to Xuli Sect.

Xuli Sect, originally quite ordinary within the three sects, relied on this to gradually rise, until the emergence of Tianmen Cult, Xuli Sect boldly opened a market, refined ‘Human Pouches’, and secretly captured Rogue Cultivators to sell to Tianmen Cult.

With nearly sixty-seventy years of development, today it is arguably the most powerful leader among the three sects.

All of this, Wang Ba learned from Wen Yong.

Being the descendant of a Golden Core real person, one has to say, Wen Yong indeed knows more than the average cultivator.

And if it were according to Zhao Feng’s words, Xuli Sect seized its own opportunity to rise.

Exactly because he understands all these, Wang Ba finds it even more incredible.

Spirit Rice is Xuli Sect’s foundation, but almost no one enters the store to buy it now. How serious is this situation?

While Wang Ba frowned, he suddenly heard a commotion coming from the Spirit Rice store:

“Ten jin of Class II purple flower Spirit Rice cost seven middle-grade Spirit Stones, are they robbing us?!”

“Oh, they still sell Spirit Rice Essence… A jar of Class I Spirit Rice Essence costs thirty middle-grade Spirit Stones?! Who can afford that?”

“Hmph… If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Who cares! I’d rather save some spirit stones and seize the chance to grab a bottle of Spirit Chicken Essence! It’s not much more expensive overall, and the effect is much stronger than Spirit Rice!”

“What’s up? Want to fight? I’m not scared!”

As the cultivator spoke, he angrily stormed out of the house pushing the door.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He couldn’t help but turn back to yell, but then he noticed the word ‘Xuli’ written on the signboard of the store, his pupils instantly contracted, and cold sweat poured down his face.

Immediately, he didn’t dare to say another word, he turned around and slipped into the crowd.

Seeing this, Wang Ba was silent for a moment, and it suddenly became clear what Wen Yong meant.

Clearly, the Spirit Chicken Essence being sold by Changyi Society is now subtly affecting the spirit food business of the Xuli Sect.

Unlike mortals who can’t survive without food, cultivators in the Qi Refining stage can survive without food as they have spiritual lineages and the Fasting Pill.

So they can entirely cut down their purchase of Spirit Rice, save up Spirit Stones, and scramble for Spirit Chicken Essence when the Changyi Society operates.

Of course, ordinary Qi Refining Rogue Cultivators may not have the financial resources to do this, but then again, the Qi Refining Cultivators who can afford Xuli Sect’s Spirit Rice probably aren’t many among the Rogue Cultivators.

You can only say, there are a large degree of overlaps in their target groups.

“It seems that it’s time to moderately reduce the production of Class I Spirit Chicken Essence….”

After contemplating for a while, Wang Ba secretly made up his mind.

Over the past half year, he has been wholeheartedly refining Spirit Chicken Essence, both to supply the Changyi Society and to demonstrate his abilities to the Three Great Sects.

This indirectly solidified his position.

So he produced quite a lot of Spirit Chicken Essence.

And if a bottle of Spirit Chicken Essence were used sparingly, it would be enough for a Qi Refining Cultivator to use for several years.

Some cultivators gathered spirit stones to buy it.

In addition to the cultivators who save spirit stones to buy it, looking at the situation, it seems that Xuli Sect’s Spirit Rice store has indeed suffered recently.

If it were for short term, it would be okay. But being cut off from its source of money for a long time, even if Xuli Sect initially had no intentions, they might have to think of ways to deal with him.

Fortunately, he realized this thanks to Wen Yong’s reminder.

Wang Ba didn’t feel regretful:

“Just so, it’s time to bring the focus back to my own cultivation.”

He has now achieved part of his goals as he wished.

He barely established his position in Yong’an City. Whether it’s a rogue cultivator or a sect cultivator, not to mention the whole range of Yan State, at least within Baiyun Prairie and the Three Great Sects, almost everyone knows him.

In the short term, he doesn’t have to worry about safety issues.

And as the Changyi Society grows stronger, the dividends can bring him continuous income. As long as he ensures the supply of a portion of Spirit Chicken Essence every month, it would be enough.

The rest of the matters, let Wen Yong worry about it.

Then he took another round.

He wanted to see if there were any spirit materials he needed.

Not only the materials for Jia 15’s Bloodline Breakthrough, but he also spent some time contemplating the Wu Monkey King, and came up with a recipe.

However, he doesn’t know enough about Class III materials after all, so a lot of it is all conjecture, he can’t guarantee that this recipe will be effective for the Wu Monkey King.

But one can only know the result through trials and experiments.

Unfortunately, the stalls and stores in Yong’an City almost all sell Class I and Class II treasures. Once it involves Class III, it becomes a blank space, as if someone is deliberately controlling it, and it’s easy to guess who the controller is.

Compared to that, the Linglong Ghost Market is better.

“Adding it up, the opening day of the second floor of Linglong Ghost Market is also approaching.”

“Tang Ji should be back, and my senior brother…”

Wang Ba contemplated for a while.

Although he felt a bit disappointed that he couldn’t buy Class III spirit materials, he still returned to his mansion and began to focus on cultivating.

However, just as he entered meditation, he suddenly heard a loud voice from outside the formation:

“Shen, open the door quickly, I have brought you the things you wanted!”

Hearing this voice, Wang Ba, who was in the middle of cultivating, his eyes lit up immediately.