"In the martial world, one has no control over their own destiny. Thank you, Taoist friend. Come and spar with me at Spring Coming Tower in your next life, since I won't have another life."
Outside the cave, Lin Jiang dealt with Xie Youjia. For a brief moment, Lin Jiang felt a little guilty, but he quickly recovered. The concept of Blue Star had become weaker over the decades, and he had become assimilated into this world.
There is no way around it. If we were to maintain the legal concept of peaceful times, we would have died long ago. The cultivation world simply cannot survive.
Back at home, Lin Jiang opened Xie Youjia's storage bag. Xie Youjia had lost tens of thousands of spirit stones, and his fortune had shrunk to less than thirty thousand. Besides that, there were some miscellaneous items like flying swords, formation discs, and alchemy materials.
Lin Jiang picked out the jade scrolls from inside and took a look. He gave up on any cultivation manuals, as most were of low quality, either yellow grade or lower-level profound grade. He had seen some middle-level profound grade ones before.
Lin Jiang had two profound grade cultivation manuals from fuliu-jian and Shen Bo, but their characteristics were too obvious - all of them were suitable for those with water elemental spiritual roots. He didn't want to learn them, so they were just sitting there.
"I already have hundreds of secret cultivation techniques and skills in my hands. I could set up a small library."
Lin Jiang sighed. Since he started his journey, he had killed many people and obtained numerous storage bags. Almost every storage bag contained some jade scrolls, and together with the ones he had bought, he had accumulated seven to eight hundred. They filled up an entire room, with several cabinets full.
The Complete Guide to Basic Formations
One Hundred Killing Formations
Thirty-Six Variations of Trapping Formations
Two days later, Lin Jiang held the jade slip he found in Xie Youjia's storage bag and read it with great interest. Basic formations, like Pill, Talisman, Item, and Formation, and beginner knowledge like Spiritual Farmer puppet technique, are not difficult because they have been studied by countless people and their experiences are widely known.
However, any craft is easy to learn but difficult to master. If you want to make a living out of it, you have to put in a lot of effort, and it is closely related to talent.
After obtaining Sun Man's storage bag, Lin Jiang became interested in pill refining. Especially since Sun Man had complete records on pill refining, it was perfect for beginners. Lin Jiang also wondered if he could learn the craft of pill refining and try his hand at multiple skills.
But after seriously studying for half a month, Lin Jiang gave up completely because it was too difficult.
To give a simple example, a regular non-Alchemist cultivator in the cultivation world only needs to recognize about a thousand commonly used spiritual medicines to meet basic needs. And if it's finished pills, it's even simpler, just recognizing a hundred kinds would be enough.
But for an Alchemist, even the most basic knowledge of different medicines requires memorizing over thirty thousand types, not just their names, but also their properties, dosages, and many other factors. They need to remember the changes that occur in spiritual medicines in different environments and be able to recall them effortlessly.
Seeing this, Lin Jiang gave up. He had to admit that alchemy is a complex science that cannot be mastered in a few days. Similarly, his talisman technique in painting is also the same. If someone can learn it just by looking at talisman patterns for a few days, then either that person is a genius or just bragging.
"Having many skills doesn't mean you're superior."
"Don't challenge someone's expertise with your interests."
"Mastering one skill is better than being average in ten."
Lin Jiang repeatedly reminded himself. This was also a realization in his life. He wasn't a genius. If he were, it would have shown during his childhood. He couldn't even be considered talented; just an ordinary person.
His advantage was time. Even in painting talismans, he achieved his skills by investing more time than others, rather than learning it instantly.
So, when Lin Jiang looked at the jade scroll about formations, it wasn't because he wanted to become an amazing Formation Master. He just wanted to understand formations better so that he wouldn't be deceived by dishonest traders when buying them in the future.
Emerging from the Yuntuo River, Lin Jiang grumbled because someone had taken some of the spiritual medicines he left behind, causing him to lose money.
In the past, Lin Jiang took in Liu Dong and Liu Siyu and was rewarded. Liu Hui gave him a map of the distribution of some magical herbs at the bottom of the Yuntuo River, not a real treasure map.
Later, Lin Jiang followed the map and found all these magical herbs, but many of them were still young and not valuable yet, so he kept them. He would come back every five years to check on them and take away the mature ones.
But each time he came, there would be fewer herbs, and the people who harvested them were very wicked. They didn't even spare the young plants. If it weren't for Liu Dong compensating him, he would have suffered a big loss that time.
"I'm so angry, I'm going to Spring Coming Tower to ask the little fairy to guide me."
Lin Jiang said angrily in the end, there were very few magical herbs left at the bottom of the river, and he didn't plan to come anymore. He would leave them for other deserving people.
In fact, Lin Jiang had a lot of magical herbs. All of them were inherited from Sun Man. He had hundreds of acres of ordinary second-tier magical herbs, and there was even a fourth-tier magical herb in the garden behind the house. However, the fourth-tier magical herb was not mature yet, and Lin Jiang was still investing in it. It was estimated that it would take at least a hundred years.
As a matter of fact, Lin Jiang had harvested a batch of the second-tier Spiritual Herb Garden and had achieved a good cultivation cycle. New seeds had fallen and taken root.
It was thanks to this income that Lin Jiang was able to focus on cultivation in these years and reduce the time spent drawing symbols. Otherwise, half of his day would be spent on drawing symbols to make money, and there wouldn't be time for cultivation.
Actually, this is also the dilemma of most lower-class independent cultivators. They have to spend a lot of time working to earn money, but the money they earn is only enough for rent and basic needs. They are unable to invest enough resources into their cultivation, so their progress is slow. And because their cultivation is not high, they don't earn much money and have to spend more time to make money. It's a vicious cycle, and they never have a breakthrough in their lifetime.
So, for the low-level cultivators, the only chance to overcome this difficult situation is to gather together, form a sect or family power, and then sacrifice some of their cultivation to concentrate resources on those with better talent and comprehension. Once this group becomes stronger, they can protect these people and use violence to acquire more resources, creating a positive cycle.
Unfortunately, this path is not suitable for Lin Jiang, and that's one of the reasons why he left the Lin family. Even if his talent is poor, as the second generation of the Lin family, his treatment would not be so bad.
When Lin Jiang arrived at Spring Coming Tower, he encountered some familiar faces. In fact, the circle was small. Although there were many cultivators in the Building Foundation Period in Yunzhong City, compared to independent cultivators, there were much fewer. Lin Wu had used his identity for many years, so he had at least had a few interactions with most of the independent cultivators in the Building Foundation Period, even if they weren't familiar.
The only benefit is that Lin Jiang doesn't have to change his identity frequently. With a lifespan of two hundred years in the Building Foundation Period, he can use this identity for more than a hundred years.
The incident in Anhua City brought some negative impact on Lin Jiang's reputation. Some people think Lin Jiang is malicious and colluded with Anhua City to harm them, so they keep their distance from Lin Jiang.
Lin Jiang readily accepts this. He doesn't need those useless social interactions, only maintaining basic social connections is enough for him.
(Translated by Gravity Tales 😂)
"Master, I'm your little Yuanyuan, do you remember me?"
"Master, it's me, Amei. We were together a few days ago..."
"Master..."
Lin Jiang has been a loyal customer of the Spring Coming Tower for a long time. As soon as he enters, a bunch of birds and swallows come to him. And then, about ninety percent of the people have had a heart-to-heart talk with Lin Jiang, and now they all come rushing in. Lin Jiang is starting to feel overwhelmed. He is a person with thin skin.
"Um, what's going on here?"
Lin Jiang quickly pulled over the mother of many fairies and asked.
"Oh, well, it's all because of Anhua City..."
The elegant old madam complained to Lin Jiang. Anhua City is being too kind, not scamming poor people. This time, the ones being scammed are either at the mid or late stage of Qi Refining, or at the Building Foundation Period.
The early to middle stage of Qi Refining is too poor and weak. They want to go to Anhua City to make some money, but they can't, they don't have the capital. And those in the Golden Core Period don't care about this small income.
Coincidentally, those in the late stage of Qi Refining and the Building Foundation Period are the middle class in Yunzhong City. They are also the largest customer base for industries like the Spring Coming Tower, after all, the poor can't afford it and the rich don't need it. Unintentionally, the entire industry in Yunzhong City has been severely affected.
"Am I that awesome?"
Lin Jiang was dumbfounded. Did his actions have such a big impact?
"Master, my daughters have had a hard time. How about you call a few more daughters today to practice the art of Dao with you?"
After the madam finished complaining, she sadly said to Lin Jiang, "No business means my daughters are also having a tough time."
"Ahem, I suddenly remembered that I have something to do today. I have to leave. Please use this spirit stone to treat the little fairies to tea."
Lin Jiang left behind two spirit stones and quickly ran away. He couldn't handle the weight of the stones or his own waist.
Leaving the Spring Coming Tower, Lin Jiang turned and headed to Baihua Tower. Since he didn't know many people there, Lin Jiang felt more relaxed. He could freely have heart-to-heart conversations with the little fairies. Normally, Lin Jiang wouldn't have the same conversation with a fairy twice to protect himself, so he wouldn't return to the Spring Coming Tower for a long time unless all the little fairies there were replaced.
"Man, you are really heartless."
Lin Jiang self-mockingly said, "Everyone scolds scumbags, but everyone wants to become one."

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