These words of Jin Tao had a basis and were not a violation of the rules in the slightest. Newcomers at the Immortal Falling Well first had to receive the guidance of experienced people and only then could they enter the real battleground of the Immortal Falling Well. This was a rule, jointly established by the the five formidable elders and the Sect Masters of all sects. The purpose of this rule was to prevent casualties among newcomers who did not know about the characteristics of the underground spirit beasts.
The reason was completely rational and the rule was also completely faultless without any loopholes to bypass it. Yang Chen didn’t decline Jin Tao’s proposal, despite already being familiar with underground spirit beasts.
But Yang Chen didn’t put down his guard because of Jin Tao’s enthusiastic proposal. He was not so naive to think that, since he had already obtained evidence of Jin Tao’s wrongdoing, he could do whatever he pleased. A foundation stage expert who was blackmailed by a qi layer disciple would not be so delighted to help him. Clearly there was some kind of scheme behind this. Very soon, under Jin Tao’s arrangements, Yang Chen entered Li Lou Village situated at the entrance of the Immortal Falling Well, Li Lou Village was the main hub for replenishing the supplies of cultivators who were entering the Immortal Falling Well. Although Li Lou Village was situated at the mouth of the Immortal Falling Well’s entrance, it was still included in its spell formation. Just in front of the entrance spell formation was Li Lou Village.
The village was also situated underground and similar to the entrance, overhead of it were night pearls, the size of human heads, illuminating the village almost as if it was day time. This kind of extravagance, even if it was the ruler of a country within the mortal world, he would still not be able to present something like this, but in here nobody even cared to look at them.
There were many houses, but all of them were very simple and crude, what surprised most people, was that the spiritual influence was much thicker here, when compared to the outside. Cultivating here was much more effective in comparison. Unfortunately, a person could only remain inside of the Immortal Falling Well for at most ten years, after ten years, they could not enter again, this was in order to balance out the steps each sect had taken to gain control over the Well.
The Li Lou Village was an important supply center for the cultivators entering the Immortal Falling Well, as this was neither their home, nor their own sect, only a supply center. The village itself was a big market, as long as one could enter here, one could conduct business. The transactions, however, were not done like in the world above, using spirit stones, but instead the spirit essences from the bodies of underground spirit beasts were used.
The spirit essence of the five phases was the essence which formed inside of the bodies of underground spirit beasts, thus, when they solidified, they became spirit essences. Compared to spirit stones which were measured in weight, spirit essences were measured by the number of pieces. All spirit essences have the same size and weight. Only the color of the spirit essence was different between the five phases, otherwise they were identical.
Spirit stones could offer spirit power, and they could also be used for cultivation. Spirit essences on the other hand had only one use, that was precisely to increase the rate of spirit power ejection by the underground spirit vein. Generally speaking, ten thousand spirit essence of each phase, for a total of fifty thousand spirit essences, could double the spirit power ejection rate and was sufficient to be used for cultivation until the JieDan stage.
In the Immortal Falling Well, it was very rare that people were able to kill enough spirit beasts in ten years. The usual arrangement was that disciples of the same sect would cooperate with each other to obtain the spirit essences. so that they could improve their spirit vein and at the same time help a few people with cultivation.
Due to this utility, naturally, if anyone wanted to exchange something within the Li Lou Village, everyone was required to use spirit essences for the transaction. Regardless of whether it was a pill or a magic weapon, everything was traded through spirit essences.
Yang Chen had arrived here. Under Jin Tao’s lead, he had a room arranged for him, in which he would stay for ten years. At the same time he received a jade slip, which gave introductions about every kind of spirit beast, so he made himself comfortable.
“Younger Disciple Yang, you must properly study the weak points of all these beasts and by all means learn properly, this concerns your life!”
Jin Tao was afraid that Yang Chen did not know about the seriousness of the matter and spared no effort in warning him repeatedly.
“Wait until you think you are ready for the test, as soon as you pass the test, you can immediately enter the Immortal Falling Well.”
“How can I take this test?”
Yang Chen asked impatiently.
“In the Li Lou Village, there is a testing spot where you have to kill one spirit beast of each of the five phases, after that you have passed the test.”
Jin Tao smiled, downplaying the difficulty of the test the best he could.
“As soon as you are properly prepared, inform me immediately!”
“Many thanks, Senior Disciple!”
Yang Chen courteously sent Jin Tao away. His gaze followed Jin Tao until he left, only then did Yang Chen sit down and probe the jade slip using his spiritual awareness. Immediately a grim smile appeared on his face.
Inside of the jade slip, the weak points of all of the spirit beasts of the five phases were indeed recorded, but only that and nothing more. This jade slip neither contained their strength nor their ranking. Although it did have their weak points, but who did not know that, when encountering a low ranked spirit beast and a high ranked spirit beast, the outcome would be completely different.
Jin Tao had given this jade slip to Yang Chen, so clearly he had malicious intents. Unfortunately, he had encountered Yang Chen, even if all of the knowledge Jin Tao had gained about underground spirit beasts was multiplied by ten, it would still not come close to Yang Chen. These kinds of tricks of his were destined to be a futile and wasted effort.
People don’t intend to harm the tiger, but they have to, or else the tiger would kill them. Jin Tao had once again become Yang Chen’s enemy within his heart. If Jin Tao knew that his current arrangements had thoroughly offended Yang Chen, nobody could say whether he would repent or not.
The room did not have anything special, the only use of the room was to provide Yang Chen a place to rest within the Li Lou Village. It only contained a mat and a couch, but Yang Chen did not care about them in the least, and without even sitting once, he directly left the room and went to the market.
Since the Immortal Falling Well was situated underground, there was basically no difference between day and night. People could be seen entering and leaving the village or the market at any time.
Yang Chen wasn’t as unfamiliar as the other newcomers, but he couldn’t find any open spaces within the already lively market. He immediately started searching for a small open space at the corner. After finding a good spot, he took out a jade bottle from his qiankun pouch and put it on the ground, in front of the jade bottle he placed an eye catching piece of cloth. On top of the cloth was written: ‘second grade yang qi pills, ten for one spirit essence!’ After properly placing it, he did not start shouting, instead he calmly sat on the ground, waiting for customers to drop by.
The people coming to that corner were not many, Yang Chen had a very young face, and moreover he was still at the qi realm, the coming and going foundation experts could immediately determine this using their spiritual awareness, Yang Chen was definitely at a realm where he could not use refining tools. What kind of good items could a qi layer youngster possibly have? Thinking this, nobody stopped at his shop.
Even in this kind of situation, Yang Chen wasn’t anxious in the least. He calmly sat there, unhurriedly practicing the three purities secret. Only the three purities secret could be halted at any time without suffering any backlash.
When Yang Chen had just started training, he sensed many people standing in front of him and simultaneously, he also heard a muffled cry of surprise:
“Do you truly have second grade yang qi pills?”
The other person’s voice contained some surprise, but it was filled with even more suspicion. A second grade pill, even if it was only a yang qi pill, was still not something a qi layer disciple could refine. Moreover, the price quoted by Yang Chen was a bit low, which made people doubtful whether Yang Chen was deceiving them.
Yang Chen didn’t even lift his head and merely opened the jade bottle. Afterwards he took out more than ten pills and placed them on the white cloth in front of him and indicated with his hand that the other party should take a look himself.
The mark of a second grade pill was absolutely clear, moreover its smell was also very pure, there was no doubt in the mind of the other party now in regards of Yang Chen’s pills, so he didn’t haggle over the price and directly took out one spirit essence. After counting the ten yang qi pills, he turned around and left.
These two people only spoke a few words and immediately reached an agreement. The other party of this deal was quite honest, actually Yang Chen was very fond of this kind of transaction. It was a simple business deal, why make it complicated?
After receiving the spirit essence, Yang Chen continued to sit calmly, on one side practicing the three purities secret and on other side waiting for customers to come. However, this time he did not have to wait for long.
After a moment, the person who had just then purchased ten yang qi pills returned again and sat in front of him, asking in a low voice:
“These yang qi pills, however many you have, I will buy them all!”
“Buy them all?”
Yang Chen lifted up his head and found himself looking at delicate and pretty face. The person had quite an honest vibe to him. Nodding, Yang Chen agreed:
“Right now I have five hundred pills, so fifty spirit essences.”
While speaking, he took out five jade bottles and arranged them on the white cloth.
The other person similarly took out fifty spirit essences and took the five jade bottles and got up. Before leaving, he suddenly said:
“In the future if you have more, I will buy them all!”
“I will return and refine five hundred more pills to sell here again.”
However Yang Chen didn’t promise anything, he only smiled and said:
“Let’s leave meeting each other again to luck!”
The other person also didn’t speak any more, just nodded in response. Immediately afterwards he left the market, it seemed to Yang Chen that he was going straight to the Immortal Falling Well and had come back here to replenish his pills and rest for a little bit.
Although Jin Tao didn’t show up, he was monitoring Yang Chen with his spiritual awareness. Seeing that Yang Chen had gone to the market, he followed him to take a look. When he discovered that Yang Chen had surprisingly received fifty spirit essences, he could not help but be amazed.
Returning to his room, Yang Chen didn’t waste any time hiding his concocting skills and immediately took out his Profound Spirit Furnace to begin concocting pills. He could refine a hundred yang qi pills at a time. For second grade yang qi pills, to produce one furnace worth of them would require two hours. Yang Chen refined five furnaces worth and then he began his everyday regular activities. After swallowing a thousand year Profound Yang Fruit, he began to cultivate the Five Phases of Yin and Yang secrets.
There was no day or night underground and Yang Chen also didn’t follow any specific routine. After training, he went to the market again to sell his second grade yang qi pills. There were very few people at that corner, but still someone would see it and usually after someone tested the pill, he would immediately purchase all of the pills from Yang Chen.
This kind of routine continued for more than ten days and within one or two hours of a day, Yang Chen would get fifty spirit essences after selling the pills. This kind of income made Jin Tao, who was monitoring Yang Chen, very jealous. Even after staying here for four years, he had only obtained three thousand essences but within the brief period of ten days, Yang Chen had already obtained several hundred essences, already close to one thousand, this speed, how could it not make him drool?
But this was also good, the more spirit essences Yang Chen earned, the more he would get, when an accident happened to Yang Chen at the test. Jin Tao was very impatient in his heart, but he still did not act recklessly.
This continued for more than twenty days. After that, Yang Chen used up all of the raw materials he had brought with him. In exchange he had obtained one thousand and three hundred spirit essences of all kinds.
Since he had no more raw materials, Yang Chen finally decided to enter the Immortal Falling Well. After making some preparations, Yang Chen started to look for Jin Tao, to ask him to make the preparations for the test.
Jin Tao sneered within his heart when he saw Yang Chen looking for him. He led Yang Chen to the testing stage, while giving him instructions with false care. After Yang Chen entered the stage, Jin Tao started the spell formation and removed the restrictions on the underground spirit beast. After that he began to wait outside of the spell formation. As long as Yang Chen perished inside, Jin Tao would secretly exchange the jade slip and those spirit essences in Yang Chen’s qiankun pouch with the objects in his pocket.
But this was still an extremely pleasant surprise for him, originally he just wanted to teach a lesson to Yang Chen, but currently he had also gotten the chance to obtain more than a thousand spirit essences, and all he had to do was pretend to be sad about his death. One thousand spirit essences was equal to Jin Tao’s earnings of one year.
As for Yang Chen being killed by the underground spirit beasts, it was quite a common occurrence. Even if it was a great foundation expert, like Jin Tao, if he was even a little careless in the Immortal Falling Well, he would immediately be killed by underground spirit beasts. Who told him to overestimate his capabilities, a disciple of the qi layer initial stage wishing to challenge a high level underground spirit beast, dying would serve him right. If he wanted to blame someone, he could only blame the person who gave him the command tile while fully aware that his cultivation was quite lacking, but still allowed him to come to the Immortal Falling Well.
Who could find out that Jin Tao hadn’t registered the correct information about the underground spirit beasts? Furthermore, instead of releasing low level beasts one by one, he had instead released the high level spirit beasts of all five phases at the same time. Even if he, who was at the foundation stage, was in Yang Chen’s place, facing those five high levelled spirit beasts at the same time, would have to fight for several days, slowly wearing down their strength and only then would he be able to kill them. Sometimes encountering spirit beasts of the five phases and being massacred by them was the most tragic reminder of this, in the Immortal Falling Well. For Yang Chen’s first time in coming in contact with spirit beasts of the five phases, Jin Tao was guessing how long it would take to settle this. Five breaths? Ten breaths?
Once the testing stage’s spell formation was activated, any great affair happening inside would not alarm the people in the village. Just as Jin Tao felt at ease and was waiting with outrageous leisure for some kind of accident to happen on the stage, dreaming about the thousand spirit essences he would receive, a thunderous sound echoed on the stage behind his body, the spell formation opened and from the inside, Yang Chen could be seen coming out very slowly.
“Unexpectedly the spirit beasts of the five attributes were all subdued by only my fire attribute!”
Across Yang Chen’s whole face, a smile could be seen with no trace of being exhausted in the slightest. Laughing happily, he cupped his hands towards Jin Tao and said:
“Many thanks, Senior Disciple, for your care and consideration, which allowed this Younger Disciple to enter the Immortal Falling Well!”
In this moment, Jin Tao’s expression was of extreme disbelief. Looking at Yang Chen’s smiling face, Jin Tao felt an intense need to start crying.