Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion-Chapter 109 - 107: Jiang Kui’s Foundation Establishment

Chapter 109: Chapter 107: Jiang Kui’s Foundation Establishment

The height of summer had arrived once again. Stepping off the Floating Cloud Giant Ship, Fang Qingyuan gazed at the familiar Celestial Gate Mountain Pier, a sense of relief finally washing over him.

A month ago, he had killed two Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivators outside Cliff City. From what he could piece together from their words, there were ten more just as powerful as them.

Fang Qingyuan believed that after causing trouble, one should immediately retreat to their own den. Standing around waiting for retaliation wasn’t a sign of bravery; it was just plain stupid.

Now that Fang Qingyuan was back at Celestial Gate Mountain, on his own sect’s territory, his courage finally returned in full.

With Yinbao laden with goods, Fang Qingyuan navigated through the crowded pier. Once clear of the docks, the Silver Treasure Bat spread its wings, and the man and his two beasts flew toward his small courtyard.

Upon arriving home and leaving the crowds behind, he found his courtyard overgrown with weeds. Fang Qingyuan paid them no mind, first unloading all the goods from Yinbao’s back.

These goods were just a cover to avoid suspicion. Although there seemed to be a lot, they weren’t worth many Spirit Stones—only about two thousand in total.

Meanwhile, inside his Immortal Mansion, goods worth over thirty thousand Spirit Stones lay waiting for him to sell off slowly.

After unloading the cargo, Fang Qingyuan went out to find a neighboring sect member and bought ten Pig Fish, returning to feed them all to Yinbao.

Yinbao drooled at the sight of the Pig Fish, then devoured them one by one. In just a moment, not a single one of the ten Pig Fish was left.

During the previous battle, Yinbao had carried Fang Qingyuan with incredible agility, running circles around the Snake-faced Cultivator. Fang Qingyuan didn’t have any Pig Fish for Yinbao on the Floating Cloud Giant Ship, so now that he was home, he immediately bought ten as a reward.

After eating the Pig Fish, Yinbao felt a little tired. The space on the Floating Cloud Giant Ship had been cramped, forcing it to remain curled up in one spot, which was naturally uncomfortable. Now, back in its familiar nest, it began to grow drowsy.

Fang Qingyuan cleaned out Yinbao’s beast cage before letting it lie down to sleep. By the time he finished these chores, the sky had already grown dark.

Fang Qingyuan thought for a moment, then took out the Small Five Elements Inversion Illusion Array and set it up in his courtyard.

He hadn’t set up an illusion array before simply because he was poor. Now that he was a bit more well-off, it was natural to implement the necessary protective measures.

After arranging the illusion array, Fang Qingyuan felt a greater sense of security. Although outsiders couldn’t enter his sect’s territory, adding another layer of protection helped put his mind at ease.

With the illusion array properly set, Fang Qingyuan finally took Jinbao into the Quiet Chamber.

Upon entering the room, Jinbao saw its familiar little bed and happily pounced on it. It buried itself in the covers and, before long, also drifted off to sleep.

Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan felt he should also get a good night’s sleep. After traveling for three months, the first thing he wanted to do upon returning home was to sleep until he was fully rested.

But Fang Qingyuan couldn’t rest just yet; he still had many things to take care of.

He took out two jade boxes and peeled off the sealing Talismans on top. Inside each box lay a ten-unit storage bag.

These two storage bags had belonged to the Snake-faced and Chicken-faced Cultivators. At the time, Fang Qingyuan had been in a hurry and hadn’t dared to linger in the tribes along his route, so he had simply sealed them away, planning to open them at a more opportune moment.

During the month on the Floating Cloud Giant Ship, Fang Qingyuan had been using his Divine Sense to slowly wear away the original owners’ imprints on the storage bags.

Because the original owners of these two bags were both at Late-stage Qi Refining, the Divine Sense seals on them were quite strong. It had taken Fang Qingyuan over a month of patient effort to grind the seals down to their final layer.

Fang Qingyuan had obtained storage bags before. The four he acquired before his first trip to Shandu Mountain had only taken him two or three days to open.

The bags from the Liu Brothers had also taken a long time to break into. But the hard work had paid off, as their contents were very rich. It was thanks to the Liu Brothers’ storage bags that Fang Qingyuan had started to accumulate some capital.

As for the two bags before him, setting aside the value of their contents, the ten-unit storage bags themselves could be sold for over two thousand Spirit Stones.

Fang Qingyuan first picked up the Snake-faced Cultivator’s storage bag. He swept his Divine Sense over it, and a perfect, detailed image of the bag’s size and shape appeared in his mind.

Sensing the final, thin membrane of the seal, Fang Qingyuan’s Divine Sense suddenly surged forward like a small hammer. With a CRACK, like shattering an eggshell, the image of the storage bag in his mind abruptly shattered.

Immediately after, his mind was flooded with a multitude of items, packed so tightly it felt like an entire room’s worth had been stuffed inside.

Fang Qingyuan jolted. The feeling of overflowing abundance shifted from his mind to the palm of his hand. For a moment, his palm seemed to swell; he was no longer holding a small storage bag, but a house filled with all sorts of miscellaneous objects.

Calming himself, Fang Qingyuan sensed the items within, and his joy surged. The Snake-faced Cultivator had a lot of things in his storage bag. It seemed he had done quite a bit of "no-cost business" before trying to rob Fang Qingyuan.

But now, it was all his.

At that thought, Fang Qingyuan manipulated his Divine Sense, pulling the items out one by one. After about ten minutes, the ten-unit storage bag was completely empty.

The floor of Fang Qingyuan’s Quiet Chamber was now covered with all sorts of Magical Artifacts, shimmering with spiritual light of various colors. To Fang Qingyuan’s eyes, it was like looking into a kaleidoscope.

Looking at the pile before him, Fang Qingyuan steadied his breath and began to sort everything. After a while, he had organized the items into three simple categories.

The first category was various spiritual materials. Most were Tier One Five Elements Spiritual Materials, but there were also a few Tier Two Spiritual Materials. This pile was worth around eight thousand Spirit Stones.

The second category was about twenty Magical Artifacts. Fang Qingyuan saw that none of them were of high quality—all Tier One junk—but selling them all off would still fetch ten thousand Spirit Stones.

The third category consisted of a few cultivation technique jade slips and some unused Talismans. Fang Qingyuan glanced at the jade slips and found they were all fire- and earth-attribute Cultivation Techniques popular in the desert, which didn’t match his own attributes.

In the end, Fang Qingyuan calculated that his haul from the Snake-faced Cultivator amounted to a gain of twenty thousand Spirit Stones.

This was no small sum. The entire net worth of an Inner Sect Disciple from the Beast Taming Sect was only around three thousand Spirit Stones.

As the saying goes, ’Murder and arson pave the road to riches.’ Living dangerously on the edge could make one wealthy overnight, but sooner or later, they would fall. The Snake-faced Cultivator had toiled for days, only for it all to end up in Fang Qingyuan’s pocket.

After sorting through the Snake-faced Cultivator’s storage bag, Fang Qingyuan opened the one from the Chicken-faced Cultivator. However, this cultivator’s fortune was not as impressive as the first.

Fang Qingyuan recalled the battle that day. The Chicken-faced Cultivator had resorted to using Mortal Swordsmanship to fight Jinbao. ’So that’s why,’ he thought. ’Jinbao must have destroyed all his magical artifacts.’

At this thought, Fang Qingyuan felt a sense of resignation. ’Should I scold Jinbao for not taking better care of the enemy’s magical artifacts?’

But even though the Chicken-faced Cultivator’s magical artifacts were all shattered, they would serve as perfect food for Jinbao, so it wasn’t a total waste.

In the end, the two plundering Late-stage Qi Refining cultivators had brought Fang Qingyuan a total of forty thousand Spirit Stones. Adding what he had earned from his trading ventures, Fang Qingyuan’s net worth was now close to eighty thousand Spirit Stones.

This fortune was enough to buy the head of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator on the Black Market. A Golden Core Stage Ancestor might even take the job if they were short on cash.

Fang Qingyuan had previously heard rumors from his fellow sect members about a Black Market in Black River Square. They sold all sorts of contraband there—Female Cultivator’s Tripod Furnaces, Ghost Dao Techniques, you name it. There was even an organization called the Black Hand that, for the right price, would assassinate even a Golden Core Ancestor for you.

Of course, these were just rumors he’d heard. He had never dared to visit the Black Market, let alone inquire about something like a Female Cultivator’s Tripod Furnace. When it came to such matters, Fang Qingyuan had always been more curious than courageous.

Fang Qingyuan stored all the items in his Immortal Mansion. An inventory of such immense value would likely take a year or two to sell off completely.

After taking stock of his newfound wealth, Fang Qingyuan sighed. A sense of worry began to creep in. What if he attracted unwanted attention by continuously selling off such valuable goods?

’I’m just a Mid-stage Qi Cultivation Inner Sect Disciple, yet I have more wealth than a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and no powerful backing. Am I not just a walking fat sheep waiting to be fleeced?’

Thinking of this, Fang Qingyuan decided to change his plan. Instead of selling everything in one or two years, he would now stretch it out over five. At the very least, he would wait until he reached Late-stage Qi Cultivation before selling off his goods in large quantities.

’I have to control my greed. If I keep this up, I’ll expose myself sooner or later. It’ll be too late for regrets then.’

After dealing with these matters, Fang Qingyuan took out two small, black, winged daggers. These magical artifacts, also from the Snake-faced and Chicken-faced Cultivators, were meant to be their trump cards. Unfortunately for them, they ran into Jinbao, their natural counter, which rendered the daggers largely ineffective.

Looking at the daggers, which clearly emanated the aura of the Demonic Dao, Fang Qingyuan hesitated for a moment before placing them in a jade box and hiding them in a corner of his Immortal Mansion.

’Magical Artifacts themselves are neither good nor evil,’ he reasoned. ’I’m already practicing Soul Daoist Techniques, so using a few Demonic Magical Artifacts won’t make much difference. I just have to make sure I’m not seduced by their power and stray from my path.’

With everything finally sorted, Fang Qingyuan could no longer resist the profound exhaustion welling up from deep within. He collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep sleep. Yet, in his dreams, he had a nagging feeling that he had forgotten something. He didn’t dwell on it, simply turning over and sleeping on.

Meanwhile, inside the Immortal Mansion, the Bee Queen was still eagerly awaiting the Golden Jade Flower Honey Fang Qingyuan had promised it. To appease the Bee Queen after half of her Scorpion-tailed Poison Bees had died, Fang Qingyuan had promised to bring her one hundred catties of Golden Jade Flower Honey so she could eat her fill all at once.

But now, in his daze, Fang Qingyuan had completely forgotten about it. The Bee Queen waited for a long, long time, but the familiar figure never appeared. Dejected, she finally retreated into her hive, crouched in a corner, and hid her body in the shadows.

’Master, why haven’t you come? Did I ask for too much? Ten catties would be fine, really. Just please, appear soon.’

...

The next day, Fang Qingyuan was nudged awake by Jinbao. He watched as Jinbao opened its mouth and pointed to its little belly pouch. Only then did Fang Qingyuan remember: he still hadn’t bought the Golden Jade Flower Honey he had promised the Bee Queen.

Ignoring Jinbao’s pitiful expression, Fang Qingyuan rushed out to the market to buy the flower nectar. This time, he spent over a thousand Spirit Stones to buy nearly two hundred catties of Golden Jade Flower Honey, almost causing a shortage at Celestial Gate Mountain before hurrying back to his courtyard.

He had just reached his gate when he saw that fellow Zhang Yuan was there. And the moment Zhang Yuan opened his mouth, his words stunned Fang Qingyuan:

"Senior Brother, Senior Sister Jiang Kui has successfully reached Foundation Establishment! She’s preparing to have you marry into her family. Come with me, quickly! Your lucky day has arrived."