Liu Ruheng was quite disappointed. If Yang Jing had been willing to accept the shop, he could have taken the opportunity to ask Yang Jing to take one of his family’s younger generation as a disciple.

Even just as a Named Disciple, it would have been completely worth it.

Unfortunately, Yang Jing gave him no such chance. Though clearly a Cultivator from an Independent Cultivator background, he was unexpectedly cautious when it came to social obligations.

Ji Feng brought over some Spirit Tea. After staying to drink a few sips, Liu Ruheng rose to take his leave, departing with his two thoroughly disappointed clan members.

Yang Jing’s impression of Liu Ruheng was neither good nor bad; he was a standard patriarch of a Cultivation Clan. He had seen far too many like him in the Northern Domain.

Compared to those other patriarchs, he even seemed a bit more humane. At the very least, he had saved a Foundation Establishment Pill for his daughter, who had a hidden ailment that prevented her from reaching Foundation Establishment.

This was also why Yang Jing was willing to entrust him with the matter of the shop transaction.

Pushing aside his stray thoughts, Yang Jing said to Ji Feng:

"Ji Feng, go to the Ten Thousand Medicine Hall and exchange for a few of every type of Gourd the Sect has in stock. Then, post a bounty at the Household Affairs Hall, stating that I want to collect Gourds that the Sect does not have."

The Immortal Vine Gourd was an exceptionally rare Spiritual Material. Yang Jing planned to select a different Gourd with similar properties to test the Refining Technique for the Immortal Vine Gourd.

With Yang Jing’s current status as a Golden Core Cultivator and True Disciple, he was now qualified to mobilize the power of the Five Elements True Spirit Sect for his own purposes.

Ji Feng accepted the order and departed. Yang Jing, meanwhile, returned to his Quiet Chamber and began looking through the Body Refining Techniques he had previously obtained from the Library Pavilion.

The Body Refining Techniques in the Five Elements True Spirit Sect’s collection came from various origins. Several of them were vastly different from the Body Refining Techniques of the Western and Central Continents, likely sought out by the Sect’s Nascent Soul Ancestors from other Continents.

The Nine Heavens World was simply too vast, and perilous oceans separated the lands. Even for Golden Core Cultivators, their entire life’s range of activity was mostly confined to the Central and Western Continents.

The distant Eastern and Southern Continents seemed to be in another world entirely, and very little news from them ever reached the Western Continent.

Only Nascent Soul Cultivators possessed the long lifespans and immense Power to travel between the various Continents.

However, these few Body Refining Techniques with their distinctly different styles gave Yang Jing a new spark of inspiration.

One in particular, a Cultivation Technique called the Profound Evil Beast Gathering Battle Body, caught his attention. To practice it, one needed to hunt Demons, then combine their Essence Blood and Divine Soul with various Spirit Medicines to concoct a Spirit Liquid. Afterward, one would use Golden Needles to tattoo Restrictions onto the body with this Spirit Liquid.

By doing so, the Demon’s power could be infused into the Cultivator’s physical body. During Magical Combat, one could even use Gang Qi to manifest the Demon’s form to attack enemies, providing far more options than an ordinary Body Refining Cultivator possessed.

The Demon manifested from Gang Qi was in no way inferior to a Qi Cultivator’s Spiritual Artifact, and it was far more flexible and versatile.

Yang Jing took out a sheet of Jade Paper and copied the Restrictions from the Profound Evil Beast Gathering Battle Body technique onto it for careful study.

The Restrictions in this Cultivation Technique were vastly different from those of the Central and Western Continents. Thanks to his experience with Artifact Refining, he had memorized nearly three hundred types of Restrictions; even with a completely unfamiliar one, a single glance was usually enough to guess its general function. Yet now, looking at this Restriction, he was completely baffled, unable to make heads or tails of it.

This sparked a great interest in Yang Jing.

He made another trip to the Library Pavilion and copied every Cultivation Technique and Artifact Refining Technique related to the other Continents. The amount of Merit Points he spent was staggering.

A Golden Core Cultivator’s Divine Sense was far beyond what a Foundation Establishment Cultivator could compare to. Yang Jing simply sat on his Meditation Cushion, and with a single sweep of his Divine Sense, he committed the contents of all the Jade Scrolls to memory.

After cross-referencing a few of them, Yang Jing confirmed that the Profound Evil Beast Gathering Battle Body technique originated from the Southern Continent.

The Southern Continent was the farthest from the other Four Continents; even a Nascent Soul Cultivator would have to fly over the sea for several months to reach it. According to legend, the Southern Continent was different from the others. When it was integrated into the Nine Heavens World, it was already inhabited by natives who worshipped Witchcraft and revered Celestial Ghosts.

These Celestial Ghosts were not Divine Beings, but the spirits of ancestors. In some Witch Divisions with legacies stretching back ten thousand years, the Celestial Ghosts they worshipped even possessed the might of a Nascent Soul.

The Sects that had migrated to the Southern Continent had difficulty communicating with the Central Continent and were heavily influenced by the local Witch Divisions. After tens of thousands of years of development, their Cultivation Techniques gradually diverged significantly from those of the Central and Western Continents.

The Restrictions recorded in the Profound Evil Beast Gathering Battle Body, for example, were written by combining the Central Continent’s Talismanic Script with the Southern Continent’s Ghost Book. Since Yang Jing had never encountered the Ghost Book before, he was naturally clueless.

Although the Five Elements True Spirit Sect had no dictionary for the Ghost Book, with the calculating ability of his Golden Core Realm, Yang Jing could definitely compile one himself from these Cultivation Technique and Artifact Refining Technique records.

After all, the Restrictions of the Profound Evil Beast Gathering Battle Body couldn’t be directly applied to the Cultivation Technique Yang Jing was preparing to create for Chi Yu.

"Master, it’s time to eat."

Chi Yu walked in balancing a tray, on which was neatly arranged a bowl of Spirit Rice, a pan-fried fish, and a plate of freshly stir-fried Spirit Vegetables.

As a Golden Core Cultivator, he could already abstain from food completely through Fasting, surviving entirely on Spiritual Qi. However, since Yang Jing also practiced Body Refinement, he still needed to eat Spiritual Food every two or three meals to maintain the growth of his vitality and blood.

Indulging his appetite with Spiritual Food was also a small hobby of Yang Jing’s.

He picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks and placed it in his mouth. He found that the fish’s fresh flavor was a bit less than before, and most of the Water Spirit Qi contained within the meat had dissipated.

"Yellow Foot made this fish, didn’t he," Yang Jing said.

"Junior Brother Yellow Foot fried more than thirty fish before he dared to present this one for Master to taste," Chi Yu said, covering for Yellow Foot.

"And the other thirty all ended up in his own stomach, I suppose." Yang Jing glanced at Chi Yu teasingly. "But for someone just starting to learn the way of a Spirit Chef, being able to produce a decent Spiritual Food dish is commendable. I won’t blame him for this small misstep. Tell him to keep up the good work."

As he spoke, he heartily ate every last bite of the fried fish and Spirit Vegetables.

Over the next month, Yang Jing split his time between cultivating, deciphering the script of the Ghost Book, and selecting a suitable Gourd. His days were busy, yet with his five disciples around, they also felt leisurely. Now that Yang Jing was a True Disciple, he only needed to focus on his training; the Sect would never trouble him with trivial matters.

One month later, an elder of the Liu Family came to visit regarding the shop transaction.

The Liu Family’s shop was located in an area that, while not a bustling hub, was by no means deserted—better than the worst, but not as good as the best. However, the Celestial Square Marketplace was far from ordinary. Even a storefront like this was worth a massive two hundred thirty thousand Spirit Stones. The Liu Family had been prepared to let Yang Jing pay on credit, but to their surprise, he promptly settled the entire amount on the spot.

This gave the Liu Family elder a completely new understanding of Yang Jing’s financial resources. He finally understood why Yang Jing had been so nonchalant when they had presented him with a gift that day.

After taking over the shop, Yang Jing went to take a quick look. He found it was a small, three-story building with a Spatial Restriction inside, which made the interior feel quite spacious upon entering.

He named the shop "True Spirit Lineage," hired Ren Xingzhou as the Shopkeeper, and had him manage the storefront on his behalf.

"Brother Yang, I’ve never managed a shop before. If you hand such a large establishment over to me and it fails, how could I ever face you?"

When Ren Xingzhou learned that the Shopkeeper’s salary was a full three thousand Spirit Stones a year, he repeatedly refused. He knew that Yang Jing had spent a staggering two hundred thirty thousand Spirit Stones to acquire this shop, and had also hired four clerks at a monthly salary of twenty Spirit Stones each.

With such a massive investment, if he, a complete novice, ran it into the ground, he felt that even dying ten thousand times wouldn’t be enough to atone for it.

"Brother Ren, there’s no need to worry. Inside the shop, you just need to keep an eye on the hired clerks. My disciples will come to check the accounts once a month. As long as the books are in order, even if we lose money, I won’t blame you."

As Yang Jing spoke, he had Ji Feng take out the Spiritual Artifacts he had recently refined.

Previously, when refining Spiritual Artifacts for the Cultivation Clans in the Northern Domain, Ji Feng had secretly pocketed a considerable amount of Spiritual Materials. Now that True Spirit Lineage was opening, Yang Jing used those materials to refine six Spiritual Artifacts to attract customers.

Having knocked around the Five Elements True Spirit Sect for so many years, Ren Xingzhou’s judgment was naturally sharp. He could tell with a single glance that these Spiritual Artifacts were all Upper Grade, worth anywhere from eight or nine thousand to tens of thousands of Spirit Stones.

These few Spiritual Artifacts alone were enough for True Spirit Lineage to establish a foothold in the Celestial Square Marketplace.

"This... this..."

He was dumbfounded. He never would have imagined that Yang Jing would become so wealthy after just one trip to the Northern Domain.

Yang Jing then had Ji Feng bring out the various Tier Two Elixirs refined by Iron Head and the Tier Two Talismans drawn by Yinjiao.

The more Ren Xingzhou took inventory, the more shocked he became. The goods Yang Jing had brought out were highly sought-after even within the Five Elements True Spirit Sect. Even an idiot could run True Spirit Lineage without losing money.

It was clear that Yang Jing had seen how he toiled day and night for his wife’s Heart-Opening Pill, leaving him little time to cultivate, and had specifically offered him the Shopkeeper position to help him out.

"True Spirit Lineage will also offer custom refining services for Magical Artifacts, Spirit Pills, and Talismans. After you accept an order, just contact my disciples. They will also let you know if there are any Spiritual Materials they need on a regular basis."

Ren Xingzhou took a deep breath and nodded solemnly. In the Celestial Square Marketplace, custom refining for Magical Artifacts and Elixirs was a huge business. It was just that most ordinary trading firms couldn’t afford to support Alchemists and Artifact Refiners, so they were unable to offer such services.

"Brother Yang, I definitely will not disappoint you."

Yang Jing nodded.

In the Northern Domain, through his Artifact Refining business with the Cultivation Clans, Yang Jing had acquired a large number of precious Spiritual Artifact Refining Atlases. The prosperity of the Celestial Square Marketplace far surpassed that of the Northern Domain; he hoped it would bring him even greater surprises.

Ren Xingzhou placed the Spiritual Artifacts, Spirit Pills, and Talismans Yang Jing had given him into his Storage Bag. Even though the Celestial Square Marketplace was extremely safe, he felt like everyone he saw was a Tribulation Cultivator. He didn’t relax until he contacted a friend in the Sect and had a Thousand Transformation Treasure Array set up in the shop.

This Array was specifically designed for shops. It could place a Restriction on every treasure within the store. Without the Array Token to release the Restriction on an item, it was impossible to take that item out of the Grand Array.

It took Ren Xingzhou a full seven days to finish all the various miscellaneous tasks before True Spirit Lineage could finally open for business.