Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Ore Materials Erosion

’Evil Cultivators... Changning Marketplace, industry relocation?’

Chu Mu followed silently behind them. As their faint voices reached his ears, he couldn’t help but ponder.

The few words exchanged by the Cultivators ahead revealed some undoubtedly astonishing news.

Since they were Evil Cultivators—not a sect, a Clan, or any other organized force—it meant the attackers were more or less like common bandits and thieves from the mortal world.

A single attack from a group of bandits could be understood as a raid, but to repeatedly attack the same place and force a Cultivation Immortal Clan to relocate its entire business...

The situation was clearly far more complicated than it seemed.

Chu Mu gave it a moment’s thought but didn’t dwell on it. Matters like this were still too far removed from him.

The only part that was even remotely related to him was the Sun Family moving their business to Jade Emperor Valley.

What kind of industries existed in the Cultivation Immortal Realm?

It was, of course, the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal.

If any one of these skills were to establish itself in Jade Emperor Valley, it would inevitably generate a whole series of new demands.

Take Artifact Refining, for example. Based on the descriptions in the Puppetry Skill, it involved a staggering number of things.

To refine a Magical Artifact, one needed the corresponding blueprints, Ore Materials, smelting techniques, Array Runes, and a whole host of other skills.

And each of those skills would, in turn, involve a large number of associated Cultivators.

It was just like in his past life when a major corporation relocated to a new area. It would inevitably cause shifts in the upstream and downstream industries, creating countless changes in consumer demand and job opportunities...

If he continued to stay in Jade Emperor Valley, he would definitely be affected.

He just didn’t know if the effect would ultimately be for the better or for the worse...

Chu Mu pursed his lips, lost in thought. For the past several days, he had been mulling over what kind of work he could find to satisfy his need for Spirit Stones.

His ideal scenario, of course, was to become an apprentice in the Alchemy Skill.

With his mortal-world foundation of understanding people and medicine, coupled with the legacy from Elder Li, his path would suddenly become much wider.

His second choice would be a job related to Artifact Refining. This would allow him to build a foundation for his Puppetry Skill and broaden his understanding of Artifact Refining.

As for anything else, as long as the pay was high and the hours were flexible...

As these thoughts swirled in his mind, Chu Mu eventually suppressed them.

He had been wandering around Jade Emperor Valley for a while, after all, and had gained some understanding of how things worked.

What he wanted was exactly what every other Cultivator wanted!

As for the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal, what Cultivator could possibly refuse even the slightest chance to learn one?

In the mortal world, having a craft meant you would never have to worry about food or drink.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm,

even here in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace, every single shop was inextricably linked to the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal!

Mastering even one of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal was like owning a Treasure Basin!

If such a lucrative position really existed, there would be a huge crowd of people willing to work for free just to compete for it!

Besides, most of the shops in Jade Emperor Valley were clearly Clan businesses. And why would a Clan business ever hand over such an opportunity to an outsider!

’I need to get that kid Xu Yuan over here as soon as possible...’

Chu Mu thought to himself. In this Cultivation Immortal Realm, going it alone was ultimately too difficult.

Having a reliable person who you knew inside and out to help would make many things much simpler.

If nothing else, two Monthly Stipends could buy more than his single one!

Chu Mu wandered through the Marketplace, carefully screening the job postings that passed before his eyes.

Excluding jobs that were far beyond his reach—like recruiting Alchemists, Artifact Refiners, or Spirit Plant Masters—all the other postings in the Marketplace were for basic tasks related to the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal.

However, this wasn’t "basic" in the sense of entry-level training, but "basic" in the most literal sense of the word.

For instance, mining could be linked to Artifact Refining, and clearing Spirit Fields could be linked to a Spirit Plant Master...

They were all jobs that required no technical skill, and you couldn’t expect to learn anything useful from them. Or rather, the jobs where one *could* learn useful knowledge had nothing to do with the vast majority of ordinary Cultivators.

From what Chu Mu had observed, there were a few larger shops in Jade Emperor Valley that also recruited apprentices. They all seemed to be businesses owned by various powers in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

However, due to the limits of his knowledge, Chu Mu couldn’t be sure and could only guess.

After all, in all the time he’d been in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, aside from that Wang Mazi, the time he bought the Flame Decision, and when he had his Spirit Root Talent measured, he really hadn’t spoken much with any other Cultivators.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but that he couldn’t find the opportunity, nor did he dare.

A Cultivator’s wariness was far greater than that of a mortal.

Without a proper reason or setting, if he rashly went up to strike a conversation, he wouldn’t be gathering information—he’d be asking for trouble!

He could only truly befriend some Cultivators and gain sufficient channels of information if he were in a stable environment with long-term contact.

Take the residences in this Marketplace, for example. If he could afford to rent one and live there for a few months, befriending his neighbors would be a natural process.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t afford it. Since entering the Cultivation Immortal Realm, he had been struggling just to get on the Path to Immortality and hadn’t settled down at all, so everything else was out of the question.

’Stability, laying low...’

Chu Mu stopped daydreaming and began to carefully sort through his current needs, cross-referencing them with the job postings in the Marketplace.

After wandering the Marketplace streets for a long time, Chu Mu arrived at the Marketplace’s Mission Hall. This was the "Cultivation Immortal Realm Talent Exchange Market" he had seen on his first visit to the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace, though the Cultivators of Jade Emperor Valley usually just called it the Mission Hall.

The name was simple and easy to understand, and quite fitting.

Although it wasn’t his first time seeing the circle of large screens, Chu Mu still couldn’t hide his amazement upon seeing them again.

Each screen was a Magical Artifact.

The dozens of screens in the hall were dozens of Magical Artifacts.

With his legacy of the Puppetry Skill, Chu Mu felt an almost indescribable desire to explore these kinds of Magical Artifacts!

What was the principle that allowed this block of iron to display images, and even sound, just like the screens from his past life?

Looking at these screen-like Magical Artifacts, it seemed that many things from his past life could be easily brought into existence using this technology.

For example, cell phones, surveillance cameras, computers...

Chu Mu even suspected that the things he was thinking of probably already existed in the Cultivation Immortal Realm. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

After all, with such miraculous skills, it was merely a matter of a different way of thinking.

The Cultivation Immortal Realm had existed for who knows how many years, and countless Cultivators had dedicated their entire lives to exploring the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal.

However, given the current monopoly on knowledge and materials, even if such things existed, they were clearly not something he could come into contact with at his present level.

When you’re penniless, it’s pointless to think about anything!

’Ore Materials smelting and processing...’

As he scanned the board, his gaze settled on one particular listing.

The job posting was quite ordinary, just for smelting Ore Materials, something he was already aware of.

Spirit Ores in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, much like Iron Ore in the mortal world, were mostly raw ore when mined. They required further smelting and processing to become usable Spirit Ore Materials.

He also remembered the merchant firm that posted the job. It was a shop on Jade Emperor Valley’s main street, near the inner valley. The name was very common: Li’s Ore Materials.

It seemed to be a private firm that mainly dealt in selling various Ore Materials. He had only glanced at it from the entrance and didn’t know the specifics.

The reason this job posting caught his eye was that, from his memory, it had been posted here since his very first visit to Jade Emperor Valley.

And the Cultivation requirement was restricted to the Qi Cultivation Third Layer or higher!

But now, after all this time, the posting was still here, and the Cultivation requirement had been changed from "Qi Cultivation Third Layer or higher" to simply "Qi Cultivation Realm"...

The Monthly Stipend was listed as "negotiable based on Cultivation"...

Such a change must have a reason behind it!

Thinking of the various Spirit Ores inside the Li’s Ore Materials shop, Chu Mu pursed his lips. As he glanced around, an idea began to form in his mind.

About fifteen minutes later, after asking around for information, Chu Mu’s brows were tightly furrowed, clearly contemplating something.

There was, as expected, a clear reason for the change in Li’s Ore Materials’ job posting.

In fact, from what he had gathered, Li’s Ore Materials had a permanent job posting in this Mission Hall, year in and year out.

The main reason was that the primary work at Li’s Ore Materials was smelting Ore Materials.

The various Spirit Ores in the Cultivation Immortal Realm all possessed different, mysterious properties. Long-term exposure, especially the kind of contact involved in smelting and processing, would cause a certain degree of erosion to a Cultivator’s Magical Power, body, and even their Divine Sense.

Although this erosion was relatively easy to dispel, working at Li’s Ore Materials meant contact with more than just one type of ore. The mixed erosive effects from various different properties could easily produce even more unpredictable changes.

And while they could all eventually be dispelled, it would inevitably consume a great deal of unnecessary time and energy.

A time-consuming job where, on top of the job itself, one had to spend a lot of time and energy just to get rid of its side effects...

For the vast majority of Cultivators, earning Spirit Stones was all for the sake of Cultivation.

It wasn’t about earning Spirit Stones at any cost. That would be putting the cart before the horse, and the losses would outweigh the gains.

Under the influence of these factors, it was only natural that Li’s Ore Materials was constantly hiring.

The drawbacks were significant, and the Monthly Stipend was probably just average. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to be hiring all year round.

Of course, that was for ordinary Cultivators. After all, they didn’t have a legacy of the Puppetry Skill.

But this was precisely what Chu Mu was considering.

He had the Puppetry Skill legacy, but its content was too profound and covered too broad a range of fundamentals. If he didn’t fill in the gaps in those fundamentals, he would never be able to study it and produce any results.

And Ore Materials were one of those crucial fundamentals.

It would allow him to earn Spirit Stones and build up his own foundation. Even with the drawback of erosion, for him at this moment, the pros outweighed the cons.

Chu Mu swept his gaze across the large screens in the hall one more time. Still seeing no posts for his preferred field of Alchemy, a glint flickered in his eyes as he made a decision.

’Anyway, the job is right here in Jade Emperor Valley. I’ll give it a try first. If it really doesn’t work out, quitting shouldn’t be a big problem...’

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