Chapter 115

“I must’ve owed you something in my past life...” Han Luo muttered as he tied on a flowery pink apron and picked up a spatula and ladle.

Clang, clang, clatter—
A plate of fragrant egg fried rice was soon ready.

As soon as Shen Xian’er finished eating, she bolted out the door like a wild monkey. Watching her vanish, Han Luo couldn’t help but sigh, Looks like wild game really does taste better.

But whatever the case, with Shen Xian’er gone again, peace and quiet finally returned.

A rare moment of serenity.

Having been under pressure for so long, Han Luo decided to give himself a little break. With Jiutong beside him, he rowed a small boat out onto Luoxian Lake and spent the day fishing.

Sipping warm wine as the breeze brushed past, he felt completely at ease.

“Life isn’t actually that stressful. It’s the endless desires that bring trouble. Isn’t that right, Jiutong?”

“Woof! Woof!”

Jiutong barked cheerfully at the fish tugging on the line.

“No rush. Let it bite a bit longer.”

Han Luo leaned back, hands behind his head, legs crossed, humming a little tune as he gazed at the sky. Jiutong, understanding his master’s mood, laid down quietly beside him, tail wagging gently.

Such happy moments are always fleeting.

After his brief vacation, Han Luo got back to work, beginning preparations to refine supreme-grade Foundation Establishment Pills.

However, the ingredients were extremely hard to find. Relying solely on the few peak masters and even his uncle-master Yunyangzi would take years. And Han Luo had no interest in leaving the mountain himself.

So, he came up with an alternative strategy.

He posted a bounty at the exchange hall, offering high-grade Foundation Establishment Pills as a reward to anyone who could help him collect the necessary ingredients.

Fortunately, Luoxian Sect still had a decent number of disciples in the Foundation and Qi Sea stages. By enlisting their help, the search for rare materials would become far more efficient.

He handed several bottles of pills to senior sister Lou at the exchange counter to manage the rewards, paying a “considerable” price for her help.

While waiting for materials to be gathered, Han Luo kept busy. In the mornings, he refined Foundation Establishment Pills to keep his skills sharp. In the afternoons, he immersed himself in the library, studying books on magical tools, puppetry, and divine arts.

On weekends, he gave himself time to relax—fishing, walking Jiutong, teasing Xiaobai, or preparing delicious meals to share with Shen Xian’er.

It was a leisurely cultivation life—peaceful and free of conflict, filled with simple joy.

In this carefree rhythm, time flew by.

Six months later, Li Jun became the first of their generation to reach the Foundation Establishment stage. Shortly after, Chi Xiao also succeeded, stepping into a new realm of cultivation.

Over the next six months, more disciples began breaking through one after another. Perhaps it was thanks to the increased physical resilience brought on by the refinement formations, but this year saw a record number of disciples successfully reaching Foundation Establishment—many times more than previous years.

Once a cultivator reached Foundation Establishment, they could begin cultivating true techniques, using divine arts and magic tools in real combat. Their strength underwent a dramatic transformation.

Because of this shift, the sect didn’t bother organizing a new Luoxian Assembly. Instead, the disciples began to duel and spar on their own initiative.

Now that they had formed their foundations, they could no longer lounge about in the sect as they had during the Qi Refining stage. Responsibilities were starting to fall on their shoulders.

Luoxian Sect, after all, was a mid-tier sect—not just a place where everyone meditated in seclusion, waiting to ascend.

To begin with, the lands surrounding the sect were rich in natural resources: spiritual stone mines, spirit iron veins, and more.

Spirit iron alone came in many varieties—cold iron, red iron, meteorite iron—each containing incredible spiritual properties. Most types were key components in crafting magic tools.

Aside from minerals, the sect also protected rare spirit woods found in nearby forests. Many of these trees required unique environments to grow.

Take the famous purple bamboo, for example. It could only thrive on Purple Mountain. All attempts to transplant it elsewhere had ended in failure.

These spirit woods, whether used for alchemy, formations, or crafting magical treasures, were extremely valuable—but also immovable.

Hence, disciples were needed to guard, harvest, and process them.

But the cultivation world wasn’t as peaceful as Luoxian Sect.

If your land produced top-quality resources, other sects would covet it. Clashes were inevitable, and sometimes people even died.

Losing such conflicts meant handing over some of your resources to rivals.

You could, of course, avoid conflict by using formations to seal off your lands. But doing so would make you a target—of taunts, provocations, even surprise attacks during resource transport.

Your weakness would become a scent in the wind, attracting vultures from the shadows.

These weren’t members of any sect—they were drifters, madmen, outcasts. Some were disciples cast out due to poor talent. Others were bitter cultivators who sought revenge on the world. Still others were professional scavengers who preyed on the weak.

They were like beasts, ripping through your supplies, consuming your treasures, then vanishing into the night.

The cruelty of the cultivation world was most vividly seen in these resource struggles.

According to decrees from the Eastern Domain's imperial capital, cultivators above the Qi Sea stage were not allowed to take part in such disputes.

On the surface, this seemed like a bizarre law.

But upon reflection, it made sense.

Only those who could survive this brutal gauntlet of competition would be eligible to join the Golden Battlefield and fight the demon race.

If they couldn’t even hold their own against a few rogue cultivators, how would they fare against demons?

Han Luo understood this all too well—the cunning and power of the demon race were beyond imagination.

And aside from resources, sects also had another sacred duty: to protect mortal cities from demonic beasts and rogue cultivators.

Heaven was fair.

It gave cultivators power, but took something in return.

That price? The ability to reproduce.

The more talented a cultivator, the lower their chances of bearing children.

Mortals, on the other hand, had high fertility rates. From their vast numbers, future cultivators would emerge like seeds scattered by the wind.

So while mortals appeared fragile and insignificant, they were essential to the survival of the Eastern Domain’s human race.

The larger the population base, the more likely gifted individuals would arise.

Protecting mortals meant protecting the sect’s future.

In short, as this new generation of Luoxian disciples reached Foundation Establishment, they were soon assigned real responsibilities:

Some were sent to help mine spiritual veins.

Some to harvest spirit woods.

Others were dispatched to mortal territories to fight beasts and purge evil.

A wave of industry and urgency swept across the entire sect.

Everyone was hard at work.

Everyone—except Han Luo, sitting quietly atop Luoxian Mountain.