’I didn’t expect to be back so soon...’

Bai Zichen carried the Forbidden Token for the Three Thousand Six Hundred Rings Water Smoke Array, so he could come and go as he pleased.

With a light wave of his hand, the watery mist parted, and he entered Feiyue Lake.

A few days ago, news had finally arrived. The matter of the new Tier Three Spirit Lands had been settled, and each had found its owner.

Bai Zichen had successfully obtained one of the Tier Three Mid-Grade Spirit Lands. Barring any grave mistakes or a personal desire to move, he could use this Spirit Land until the end of his days.

After packing his belongings and giving instructions to his servant disciples, he headed straight for Feiyue Lake.

Along the way, the six original transfer stations were now occupied by Cultivators. They had clearly exchanged their pioneering merits for the Spirit Veins.

In just a few years, once these forces established a firm foothold, the Qingfeng Sect’s sphere of influence would have genuinely expanded thousands of miles deeper into Black Mountain.

’It looks like there are a lot more people now. I hope the construction at Feiyue Lake can speed up, since I’ll be living here for the foreseeable future.’

Bai Zichen watched the dense crowd of Cultivators moving back and forth on the ground. They were all disciples from the Spirit Plant Hall, tilling the Spirit Fields.

The entirety of Feiyue Lake remained largely as it was when it was first conquered.

Following the map provided by the Array Hall, he soon arrived at a stretch of mudflats.

This had once been the territory of the thousand-year-old turtle, a Tier Two Peak Demon Beast. After the Array Hall set up a Gathering Spirit Array, a Tier Three Mid-Grade Spirit Land with a ten-zhang radius formed around a small hillock.

The rest of the mudflats remained within the category of a Tier Two Top-Grade Spirit Land. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

’It’s a shame the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall won’t be helping me build a Cave Mansion this time... Everything at Feiyue Lake is just starting out, and they’re short on manpower. I probably wouldn’t get my turn for eight or ten years. I’ll have to figure it out myself later.’

Bai Zichen waved his hand, casting out several Array Banners. He set them in the Three Talents formation, and within the array, the mud and water rapidly dried, solidifying into clean, hard ground.

At the same time, any standing water on the ground automatically receded from the array’s perimeter, not a single drop seeping in.

It was a basic cleansing array, impervious to wind and rain, but that was all it did.

Bai Zichen sat cross-legged on the ground. ’Looks like the conditions will be a bit rough for the first few years,’ he thought.

’The Vermilion Fruit Purifying Heart Pills are enough to neutralize the Fire Poison from my cultivation for five years. I don’t have to worry about that for now.’

’As for Body Refining Elixirs, I only have a six-month supply of Three-Turn Dragon Power Pills... It’s a pity I ran out of Spirit Stones. I’ll have to buy another batch when I get the chance.’

Bai Zichen took stock of the essential cultivation supplies he had on him, checking for anything he might be missing.

On his way to Feiyue Lake, he had first made a trip to the Market to see Brother Jin.

Brother Jin was overjoyed to receive the Blood Flame Bag and threw a grand banquet, complete with several troupes of beautiful dancers to sing and serve wine.

Bai Zichen discovered that these dancers actually had cultivation. Though it was only the First or Second Layer of Qi Refining, they were still Cultivators, which made their status different.

Upon asking, he learned they were all descendants of the many Loose Cultivators and Mortals living outside the Market, and many of them had Discarded Spiritual Roots.

It was nearly impossible for them to embark on the path of cultivation on their own, so Brother Jin had selected the most attractive among them, trained them as dancers, and had them entertain his honored guests.

Bai Zichen didn’t take a single one of the four thousand Spirit Stones promised for the Blood Flame Bag. Instead, he exchanged the full amount for Vermilion Fruit Purifying Heart Pills and Three-Turn Dragon Power Pills right then and there.

Limited by the amount of Spirit Stones, he couldn’t get as many as he would have liked.

The good news was that a large number of Vermilion Fruit Trees had been discovered on Monkey Mountain, yielding a huge harvest of ripe Vermilion Fruits.

The price of Vermilion Fruit Purifying Heart Pills had dropped since the last time he bought them.

And it wasn’t likely to rise for a good while.

As for the Three-Turn Dragon Power Pill, which was highly effective for tempering the bodies of Foundation Establishment Cultivators, its main ingredient, Dragon Saliva Grass, had also been harvested in vast quantities on the central island of Feiyue Lake.

He heard the Alchemy Hall had been firing up its furnaces continuously but had used less than a tenth of the supply so far.

He believed that before long, the Three-Turn Dragon Power Pill would be listed in the Alchemy Hall, available for exchange with Sect Contribution points.

With all matters sorted out, Bai Zichen closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and circulated the Fire Dragon Returning Essence Scripture, beginning to refine the surrounding Spiritual Qi.

A Tier Three Mid-Grade Spirit Land was truly extraordinary. A single circulation of his cultivation technique allowed him to refine twenty percent more Spiritual Qi than in the Quiet Chamber at Moon-Locking Pool.

Within his Qi Sea, a drop of Spiritual Liquid fell with a soft PLINK, adding one more drop to his reserves of Liquid Magical Power.

...

The sun and moon spun in their cycles, and the years passed by.

Two years later, Feiyue Lake had begun to take on the air of an immortal paradise.

Several flocks of immortal cranes were being raised on the lake. They were all of excellent quality, with snow-white feathers—Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Beasts that the disciples of the Spirit Beast Hall had painstakingly tamed.

Among the vast Spirit Fields, farmhouses had been built one after another, each with an experienced Spirit Farmer leading a few disciples to care for a plot of land.

Due to the massive demand for cultivating the Spirit Fields of Feiyue Lake, the Qingfeng Sect had once again opened its gates last year, recruiting new disciples from all the Cultivators in Black Mountain.

This time, the requirements were relaxed; any Cultivator with experience in Spirit Plants was accepted, regardless of age or cultivation level.

Many Discarded Spiritual Root Cultivators were also successfully admitted, as long as they were young and passed the temperament evaluation.

In this recruitment drive, the Qingfeng Sect took in six hundred servant disciples and fifty Outer Sect Disciples, the largest number in its history.

The reason, of course, was the plan proposed by Deputy Sect Leader Gu Xisheng to develop fifty thousand mu of Spirit Fields at Feiyue Lake within ten years.

Around Feiyue Lake, there were five hundred mu of Tier Three Spirit Fields and eight thousand mu of Tier Two Spirit Fields. As for Tier One Spirit Fields, no one had even bothered to count them.

No human Cultivator had set foot here for thousands of years. Almost any fertile patch of land could be converted into a Tier One Spirit Field with just a little work.

If they truly had fifty thousand mu of Tier One Spirit Fields, all the Qi Refining Disciples in the Qingfeng Sect could enjoy the benefit of eating Spirit Rice daily. The effects would become apparent within a single generation.

To achieve this ambitious plan, the current number of disciples in the Spirit Plant Hall was certainly far from enough.

Of the six hundred new servant disciples, nearly five hundred were assigned directly to the Spirit Plant Hall.

The proportion of existing sect disciples who transferred to become Firework Daoists or Stewards and were assigned to the Spirit Plant Hall also increased significantly.

After all, tending to Tier One Spirit Fields didn’t require profound cultivation. Anyone at the second or third layer of Qi Refining who had learned a few basic Spirit Plant Techniques, like Cloud Formation and Rainfall or pest removal, could generally handle it.

If any complex situations arose, they could simply call upon the experienced Spirit Farmers from the Spirit Plant Hall.

On the lake’s surface, several docks had been built.

A few black-canopied boats sailed on the lake, fishing for its fish and shrimp.

During the great battle, ninety percent of the Demon Beasts in Feiyue Lake had been killed, along with countless ordinary fish.

But in a place where Spirit Veins converged, the population of ordinary fish and shrimp recovered quickly within a few years.

Nurtured by the abundant Spiritual Qi as they grew, the lake’s fish and shrimp had tender flesh and had already reached the standard for being used in Spiritual Cuisine.

Along the lakeshore, a few scattered pavilions had also been erected, serving as residences for the sect’s administrative Stewards.

On the hundred-zhang-long mudflat, many large turtles were slowly crawling ashore, digging holes to lay their eggs and birth a new generation.

"These turtles show up all day long. They’re starting to treat this place like their own home!"

Lu Song, dressed in a black robe, was in high spirits, looking completely transformed from a few years ago.

"There’s nothing to be done about it. Junior Martial Uncle Bai said that Ancestor Yangg has already taken the ancestor of this turtle flock as his Spirit Beast, and they will guard the Sect in the future... So, these turtle children and grandchildren are basically our own people. This was their original habitat anyway, so we can’t just chase them away."

Cai Heng’s tone was forlorn. Looking at Lu Song beside him, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t jealous.

Ever since the pioneering war, it was as if Lu Song had suddenly been enlightened.

First, he broke through the Late-Stage Qi Refining bottleneck, and then last year, he smoothly advanced to the Eighth-Layer Qi Refining.

Meanwhile, Xun Shuang, who had remained at the main sect, had also broken through to the Qi Refining Seventh Layer. Both were now Inner Sect Disciples.

Although they were too old to have any hope of becoming True Disciples, the status of an Inner Sect Disciple was still enough to make him deeply envious.

Among the few who followed Junior Martial Uncle Bai, Su Lie was a Steward in the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall, Lu Song had leveraged his Eighth-Layer Qi Refining Cultivation to land a position as a Steward in the Spirit Plant Hall, and Xun Shuang had become an Inner Sect Disciple.

Only Peng Jinhua remained, simple-minded and foolish, spending his days tending to flowers and plants, still only at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

But he had a good clan uncle, Elder Peng Chong of the Artifact Refining Hall, so no one dared to look down on him.

In contrast, Cai Heng had gone from his initial leadership position to being just a Firework Daoist.

"Yeah, Demon Beasts already have long lifespans, especially turtle-type Demon Beasts... That old turtle possesses a trace of Dragon Blood. If it can advance to Tier Three and awaken its bloodline, it will become a Dragon Turtle! Its lifespan would be far longer than even a Nascent Soul True Monarch’s!"

A look of fascination appeared in Lu Song’s eyes. A lifespan of several thousand years was something only a Divinity Transformation Great Power among human Cultivators could hope to achieve.

Besides locking his body in its peak state, unafraid of the effects of age, the Seven Luminaries Spiritual Body also seemed to have improved his aptitude.

Judging by his current cultivation speed, reaching Foundation Establishment was very hopeful.

"We need to build two more pavilions tomorrow. Senior Brother Lu, have you made arrangements with the people from the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall?"

Cai Heng gazed at the magnificent pavilion above the mudflats. For the past two years, their top priority had been to first build Junior Martial Uncle Bai’s residence.

The few of them had poured countless hours of effort into it, working day and night. They coordinated with the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall disciples and recruited a large number of servant disciples from outside, finally gathering enough manpower.

During that time, they landscaped with exotic flowers and fragrant Jade Grass.

It was already beginning to look like an Immortal Cave Mansion.

Next, it was time to build the houses for Cai Heng and the others.

They would build along the edge of the Gathering Spirit Array, consciously moving back three zhang before starting construction.

"Don’t worry. Elder Tong has a lot of influence in the Spirit Plant Hall now. With him stepping in, the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall has agreed to send thirty disciples... Add to that the hundred people the Spirit Plant Hall is reassigning, and building two pavilions in a day will be no problem at all."

Lu Song sounded completely confident, giving his full assurance.

The Miscellaneous Affairs Hall was naturally enthusiastic about building a residence for the renowned Elder Bai.

But when it came to building houses for Elder Bai’s escort, they were less eager to be ordered around.

Fortunately, the Spirit Plant Hall had the most people and the greatest influence at Feiyue Lake now. With his farming skills, Elder Tong had been promoted to a Tier Two Spirit Plant Master and was highly regarded by the supervising Elder.

Before any of the Spirit Fields could be planted, Elder Tong had to inspect them before the seeds could be sown.

For the past two years, Elder Tong had been begging Lu Song for a chance to meet Elder Bai, so he was very attentive to matters on this side.

When he stepped up to organize things, the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall and the Spirit Plant Hall each contributed some manpower, and the personnel were gathered in no time.

Just as the two were chatting, they saw a red light shoot toward the sky from the magnificent pavilion, which had been named the White Jade Tower. The arrays flickered. Knowing that Elder Bai was about to emerge from his seclusion, they immediately went to wait outside.

"Congratulations on your great progress in Magical Power, Junior Martial Uncle! May your path to the Great Dao be long and prosperous!"

Half an hour later, an elegant figure walked out of the White Jade Tower, the burning red glow in his eyes yet to fade.

Lu Song and Cai Heng fell to their knees. Their eyes met—the pressure emanating from Elder Bai seemed to have grown stronger again!