Chapter 9 : The Troubles of a Bottom-Tier Cultivator

Chapter 9: The Troubles of a Bottom-Tier Cultivator

Returning once more to his residence, Long Tao felt as if an entire lifetime had passed.

Honestly speaking… he had not planned to come back alive from this task.

The steady mentality that supported him throughout—preventing him from wetting his pants and even allowing him to play hide-and-seek with a Foundation Establishment Wolf King—had relied entirely on a simple yet powerful belief: I transmigrated! Even if he died, maybe he would transmigrate back to Earth.

If he had been a native-born local who valued his life more than the heavens, his mentality would probably have collapsed before even setting out.

At the same time, he also guessed that the System would most likely not issue only one pitfall-ridden task.

He needed to be prepared at all times.

And in this cultivation world, what was the most important preparation…

Strength!!

In this world, if one’s personal strength was insufficient, one was not even qualified to be cannon fodder.

Qi-Refining Fifth Layer was truly too weak—no, even the word “weak” did not suit it! At most, it could be considered chicken feed! Even the weakest chicken could at least squawk twice before being slaughtered, but mortals and Qi Refining cultivators—those truly died without making a sound.

In a world where flying-through-the-sky-and-escaping-into-the-earth big shots roamed everywhere, he did not dare to hope for a seat at the table, but at the very least, he needed the right to breathe.

What was the right to breathe? Long Tao gave himself a definition: when a Golden Core-level expert released pressure, he would at least not pass out on the spot.

Otherwise, he would not even be qualified to be a background extra.

If one day the System sent him into a place where Golden Core and Nascent Soul experts were everywhere, those big shots might not even intend to crush him like an ant.

They might just unconsciously leak a bit of pressure, and snap—he would faint on the spot.

How the hell would he complete any task then?

So first… he had to reach Foundation Establishment! Even if it were the kind of Foundation Establishment forcibly piled up with massive amounts of pills, a completely watered-down version only good for appearances, it still had one greatest use: anti-fainting! Facing the pressure of a Golden Core big shot, even the most watered-down Foundation Establishment could still stay conscious enough to shout, “Spare my life, senior!” Even if, at that moment, his internal organs were displaced, blood was gushing three liters from his mouth, and he was kneeling with both knees shattered…

But even Foundation Establishment—this cannon-fodder realm in many novels of his previous life—was currently an unattainable dream for Long Tao.

Reality was just that cruel.

Before transmigrating, he too had been one of those misled by all kinds of wish-fulfillment novels.

He thought that if a cultivation world really existed, Qi Refining would be like elementary school, Foundation Establishment like middle school, Golden Core like university, and so on.

Only after coming to this damned place did he realize that the academic credentials of the cultivation world were terrifyingly valuable.

Inflation? That did not exist! It was severe deflation!

Being able to reach Foundation Establishment was already equivalent to getting into university.

Cultivation was not about grinding problems and test papers—it burned real spirit stones, one-in-ten-thousand talent, and the accumulated karmic fortune of eighteen generations of ancestors!

Most independent cultivators and ordinary disciples would stop at late-stage Qi Refining for their entire lives.

It was not that they lacked ability or willpower, but because the resources required to break through to Foundation Establishment were already beyond what ordinary people could afford.

Many clans would exhaust the strength of the entire family just to nurture a few Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Even that was enough to protect the family for a hundred years in the mortal world.

As for Golden Core… that required ancestral graves to emit green smoke.

He remembered that in many novels he had read, any random city clan had over a dozen Golden Core cultivators guarding it, Nascent Soul elders sipping tea and playing chess, and Deity Transformation ancestors cultivating in seclusion in the back mountains.

Thinking about it now was truly laughable.

But for now, there was no need to think so far ahead.

Breaking through to Qi-Refining Sixth Layer was the top priority.

This realm—one that wish-fulfillment protagonists could break through just by drinking some water—had blocked him for quite some time.

Previously, he had muddled through with a salted-fish mentality and did not care much.

Now, however, he truly had to risk his life.

At the very least, he had to bring out the desperate drive he had back in his final year of high school in his previous life.

…………

However, to cultivate properly, the four essentials—wealth, companions, methods, and land—were all indispensable.

Wealth:

This was not something to worry about for the time being.

Tomorrow! Just tomorrow! That foolish—no, kind and generous—Junior Brother Nan would兑现 his token of gratitude! It was something he had exchanged for his life while completing a task, so taking it could hardly be more justified.

Moreover, he still had several plants he had pulled from the Wolf King’s den yesterday.

Anything that could absorb spiritual energy beside a Nine-Leaf Ganoderma could not possibly be roadside foxtail grass, right? Adding in those few spirit fruit pits, it counted as a small windfall.

Companions:

No need to think about this for now.

Methods:

This unexpectedly became his strong point.

As a super sect, Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect’s foundational Qi Refining cultivation method, the Nine-Xia Qi-Guiding Art, could be said to be one of the best Qi Refining methods in the entire world.

Complaining about that would be pure affectation.

Land:

This was his current pain point that most urgently needed improvement.

He was definitely not staying in the menial disciples’ communal dormitory anymore.

Having just been promoted to an Outer Sect Disciple, he was now qualified to apply for a personal room.

Of course… if he had money, he could also find a place within the sect to build a standalone small house.

After all, the sect was enormous.

But it was not as if one could just build a house anywhere.

Places with spirit veins had long been divided up by big shots and the sect itself.

Areas with relatively abundant spiritual energy would certainly not be allocated to ordinary Outer Sect Disciples.

Long Tao knew that if he directly applied to the sect for land, the higher-ups would definitely send him to some desolate, uninhabited, yet labor-intensive hellhole.

So at times like this, it was a test of one’s usual connections and intelligence network.

……

Taking a Cloud Vessel, he arrived at the sect’s Tiangong Square—also known as the Tiangong Pavilion.

Just from the name, one could tell that this was the stronghold of the sect’s craftsmen and Mechanism Arts.

Due to the special nature of Mechanism Arts and the manufacture of various artifacts, the Tiangong Pavilion was not located on any mountain peak.

Instead, it lay on a plain, precisely at the convergence point of two spirit veins—truly a treasure among treasures.

This also showed Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect’s emphasis on Mechanism Arts.

Of course… because of the corresponding dangers, it was also quite far from the sect’s core regions.

“Old Dong!”

Long Tao skillfully arrived at a workshop filled with the smell of scorching.

At the entrance were placed the keel of a small Cloud Vessel and a pile of strangely shaped artifact remnants.

The person who heard the shout put down his work and turned around—it was Dong Jiayuan, the fellow townsman who had previously told him about the cleaning task.

“Oh! You’re back? Finished the task? Looks like you didn’t get gnawed to pieces by the bugs on the mountain.”

Dong Jiayuan naturally had no idea about Long Tao’s brush with death this time.

He only thought that Long Tao had just finished sweeping mountain paths, so his tone carried a bit of teasing.

Long Tao did not respond.

He glanced around, then crooked his finger at him and said,

“Come over here. I need to tell you something.”

Seeing that Long Tao’s expression was rather serious, Dong Jiayuan patted his clothes, stood up, and walked over with a curious look.

“What is it? Acting all mysterious. Did you really pick up some ancient big shot’s discarded junk in the mountain backwoods?”

With a smug expression, Long Tao laid out those few spiritually infused weeds and the spirit fruit pits for him to see, showing that his trip had indeed not been in vain.

Dong Jiayuan picked up one of the plants, then weighed a fruit pit in his hand.

A trace of surprise flashed through his small eyes.

“Not bad. You really fished up some stuff. Then you should repay the money you owe me, right?”

“Sigh… look how anxious you are. These are just the scraps. The real treasure is beyond my ability to handle, so I entrusted another fellow disciple to help. He’ll deliver it to me tomorrow. When the time comes… hmph… it’ll scare you to death.”

“Enough, enough. You daydream about this stuff all day.” Dong Jiayuan waved his hand impatiently.

“Sell these things quickly and go exchange them for some pills. You’ve been stuck at the fifth layer for quite a while. It’s time to prepare for a breakthrough.”

He obviously did not believe that Long Tao had found any real treasure, but it was already good enough that the trip had not been wasted.

He also had not expected that Long Tao would actually go to Windless Cliff just because of a fortune-teller outside.

Long Tao naturally did not expect him to believe right away.

Even he himself did not yet dare to fully trust that Nan Yuchen would honor his promise.

After all, they had only just met, and no one could truly say what kind of person the other was.

“All right, believe it or not. Let’s talk about proper business then. Old Dong… I’ve been promoted to Outer Sect Disciple, and I’m planning to set up an independent residence. Does the sect have any promising plots of land lately?”

Hearing this, Dong Jiayuan also became interested, because he had long had similar thoughts himself.

It was just that good land was really not something that appeared just because one wanted it.

“There has indeed been some related news recently, but I’m just an Outer Sect Disciple myself, so I don’t dare to be certain about the specifics.”

“Just tell me first. We can investigate from multiple angles later.”

“Mm… last time, Elder Gongyang of Fish-Tail Peak came to find that old Liu to repair some equipment. He seemed to mention… that the sect was preparing to develop the spirit stone mine along the river. They planned to establish a new town there or to the north of the river. I heard there would not only be Cloud Vessel routes, but possibly even a Teleportation Array.”