Chapter 103: Chapter 101 Cave Mansion l
Translator: 549690339
In the serene and quaint room.
Lu Xuan placed several items on the table, looking at them carefully.
By this time, it had been two days since he officially entered the Sky Sword Sect.
Though his talent was average, it remained an indisputable fact that he had reached the Qi Refinement Eighth Level at less than twenty years of age. Among the fellow cultivators who signed up, he was of upper-middle rank. In addition to having the Azure Cloud Order as a guarantee, he easily and effortlessly became a disciple of the Sky Sword Sect.
After officially becoming an Outer Sect Disciple of the Sky Sword Sect, he assembled along with every other member at a spacious square. There, they listened to the admonitions made by the Sect’s leader before receiving the essential items for new disciples.
These items primarily included two similar standard Daoist robes, each embedded with simple formulas for dust removal, water resistance and fire resistance. There was also a standard flying sword of Second Grade, albeit of average quality, much inferior compared to the Two Grade Sword Grass in Lu Xuan’s possession.
Besides these, there was another critical object—a black nameplate. It was imbued with a drop of Lu Xuan’s essence blood, tying him inextricably to the artefact.
This identity plaque represented the identity of the cultivator. It allowed the disciples of the Sky Sword Sect to freely move through the sect’s premises and gain access to a majority of the sect’s areas. Furthermore, it recorded the number of Sword Marks held by Outer Sect Disciples.
Simultaneously, new disciples could use this identity plaque to collect one Cultivation Technique and two Formula Methods from the Scripture Treasury Pavilion. However, these were limited to those suitable for the Qi Practicing Stage.
Advanced stages or other techniques could either be taught by high-order cultivators or traded with Sword Marks.
After receiving the necessary items, Lu Xuan picked out his cave mansion within the sect, under the guidance of other sect cultivators.
Each Outer Sect Disciple had the freedom to choose their cave mansion, although it was subject to certain range limitations, and couldn’t be too large.
Lu Xuan conducted a field survey for a day and finally selected a secluded cave mansion on a tall mountain peak.
The mansion location was remote, with not many fellow sect members living nearby.
At the center was a house with quiet rooms for Lu Xuan’s cultivation, a studio, and a magical artifact room, where he could make some simple elixirs and magical artifacts.
As an older disciple informed him, this cave mansion once belonged to a gifted Outer Sect Disciple of the Sky Sword Sect. However, many years ago, they broke through the Foundation Establishment Stage, joining the Inner Sect and vacated their mansion. Because its location was rather remote, no other Sky Sword Sect Cultivator had chosen to live here since then.
Being remotely located was precisely what Lu Xuan wanted. He cultivated spiritual plants and nurtured spiritual beasts. Especially with the existing White Light Group, the more remote the location, the better.
The whole cave mansion was situated on a mountainside, abundant and enriched with spiritual energy. It was about six acres large, much larger than the one-acre-plus yard he had rented in Linyang Market.
After Lu Xuan had advanced to the Qi Refinement Eighth Level, there was quite a lot more spiritual power in his body, which allowed him to cast more Spirit Rain Techniques, Earth Pulling Techniques, and other Spirit Plant Methods. Although six acres was big, it was still within his capacity.
There were four square Spirit Fields in the mansion, but because there were no Spirit Plants grown in them for a long time, there were many weeds sprouting in the abandoned fields.
These weeds, having grown under such a dense spiritual energy environment, were way tougher than regular grass. Fortunately, Lu Xuan’s Earth Pulling Technique had reached the small accomplishment level.
By extending his Spiritual sense into the Spirit Soil, he could perceive each tiny root of the weeds. Following this, the Earth Pulling Technique allowed him to precisely control the changes in the Spirit soil, thereby easily pulling out the weeds.
He piled all the weeds together, dropping a raging fireball on it, which soon turned them into a pile of black ash.
Black ash makes the Spirit Soil more fertile. He evenly spread it across the four Spirit Fields.
Apart from the Spirit Fields, there was also a spring eye in the mansion, with Spirit Spring Water gushing out from it to create a naturally formed Spiritual Spring Pool.
Several odd rocks were set in the Spirit Spring Pool. With the abundant Spirit Spring Water washing over them day and night, naturally formed patterns appeared on the surfaces of the rocks, adding an aura of natural mystery to the Spiritual Spring Pool.
Near the spring eye, the former mansion owner had dug a small well, with its edge made of silver-white bricks engraved with faint patterns.
The well was not too big and its depth was over a half a feet. Lu Xuan scooped up a handful of well water finding that besides the pure spiritual energy of the spring itself, there was also a hint of chill, making the well water more suitable for alchemy and brewing spiritual wine.
Additionally, at the back of the residence, there was a beast shed that could be used to raise spirit beasts, to keep them obediently inside.
Behind the beast shed, there was also a cave full of odd-shaped rocks, showing no sign of any man-made traces.
” This will be my cave dwelling for quite a long time to come.”
Lu Xuan stood on a high place, overlooking the whole cave, full of mixed feelings.
Originally, his small courtyard at the periphery of the market, with less than half an acre of spirit field, the mixed and turbid spiritual energy, the hodgepodge of cultivators, he lived in constant fear every day.
Then the residence near the heart of the area, a spirit field of more than one acre, and a small spiritual spring. Both the concentration of spiritual energy and safety had greatly improved.
And now, the cave with nearly six acres, natural spring well, and the newly built beast shed. The concentration and purity of spiritual energy, not to mention safety, had been enhanced significantly.
All these enormous changes sent Lu Xuan into surrealism. He took a deep breath, then curled up his lips, filled with a rush of pride.
“Such a great cave-dwelling would be embarrassing if I didn’t cultivate some good stuff!”
He adjusted his mentality and took out the Life Bag.
Numerous spirit plants and beasts had already been waiting in the Life Bag for a whole month!
The first one to come out was the Cloud Leopard. Its massive paws landed on the ground, its pair of green eyes lightly assessing everything around it.
Seemingly a bit discontented with Lu Xuan, the Cloud Leopard, which usually loved to howl in front of Lu Xuan, strangely stayed silent.
Lu Xuan knew that it was because it had been kept in the dark chaos of the Life Bag for too long and was a little moody. He softly reassured it, and tugged at the two tufts of grey hair on the tip of its ears.
“Roar…”
The Cloud Leopard uttered a hoarse sound, elegantly walked away, and started familiarizing itself with the cave dwelling.
Next was the Grass Puppet, who seemed clueless. In the Life Bag, it had done who knows what. Much of its grey grass was knotted and tangled.
As soon as it landed, its large grey grass head kept turning, seemingly discovering that the spirit field it had inspected countless times had undergone earth-shattering changes.
The simple-minded Grass Puppet could not deal with such a drastic change, and halted on the spot. Tangled grey grass on its body moved slowly, unraveling bit by bit.
Four Iron Claw Crab Juveniles fell on the ground. One of them rolled over, supported by its large blue-black claw feet.
Being in the Life Bag for so long, although their vitality was still good, they lost considerable weight due to lack of feeding, even their claw feet felt weak when opening and closing.
Seemingly detecting the location of the Spiritual Spring, the four Iron Claw Crab Juveniles simultaneously crawled into the spring, hiding under the odd rocks.
Nourished by the rich spiritual energy, they suddenly became lively. With their sharp claw feet raised high and their bulging eyes seeming rather contemptuous.
Seeing that the Iron Claw Crabs were still as wild as ever, Lu Xuan finally set his mind at ease..