Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

There's something else that Lin Zhao is reluctant to admit, but it's there nonetheless.

He came out this time supposedly to participate in the Immortal City Grand Auction, but in reality, it was somewhat like he was "kicked out."

The Core Formation successor of the Zi Xuan Dynasty, True Person Chongguang, has completely taken control of the entire dynasty.

Of the nineteen wards and markets of the dynasty, eighteen submitted to Chongguang Pavilion, and now only Cangyun Mountain Ward and Market remains.

They didn't do anything.

There was no deployment of troops, no pressure exerted, and not even the use of covert means.

It's about overwhelming them with sheer force—Chongguang Pavilion and Chengtian Dynasty have connections, they have more resources, wider channels, and lower prices.

For the first time in years, Lin Zhao felt powerless to use her strength.

It's not that he lacks the skills, it's that his scale is far too small.

The resources and foundation of a dynasty cannot be shaken by the intelligence and wisdom of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Master Chongguang did nothing, yet easily broke all of his moves.

That's the most frustrating part.

Lin Zhao stood at the bow of the ship, looking in the direction of Cangyun Mountain in the distance, and remained silent for a long time.

However, it's not without a chance to turn things around.

He touched the storage ring on his hand.

At this auction, he spent over two hundred high-grade spirit stones to buy more than a dozen bottles of second-tier top-grade soul pills.

According to his estimate, it would have taken him more than ten years to break through to the Core Formation stage, but now it would only take a few years.

With the breakthrough in his divine sense, his Dharma Domain will also break through. At that time, even in the wild, he will be able to go toe-to-toe with a Core Formation True Person.

In addition, there's the newly acquired Tier 3 magic weapon, the Mysterious Yin Ghost Hand.

That thing is perfect for surprise attacks.

If Master Chongguang didn't have any defensive magic treasures on him, he would have been severely injured, if not killed, if hit by this.

Of course, we haven't reached that stage yet.

For now, the competition between Chongguang Pavilion and Cangyun Mountain is merely commercial.

In matters that are out in the open, it's all a matter of individual ability.

Rules are sometimes worthless, and sometimes they are very valuable.

Ultimately, he has not yet achieved the Core Formation stage.

It would be unwise to directly clash with a Core Formation cultivator now.

Once he truly forms his core, it's uncertain who will follow the rules then.

-----

Ten days later, Cangyun Mountain came into view.

The market was much quieter than when I left.

The streets were still bustling with people, but the number of caravans that had come from other markets had dwindled significantly.

Old He was waiting at the gate of the garrison. When he saw Lin Zhao return, he went up to him with a bitter smile on his face.

"Governor, you're finally back."

Lin Zhao nodded and walked into the garrison headquarters.

Old He followed behind, giving a long, detailed report on the events of the past few months.

As expected, business dropped by several percent again.

The current profits are only slightly better than when Lin Zhao first arrived.

"Should we continue like this...?" Old He hesitated, then stopped.

Lin Zhao waved her hand: "No rush."

He first arranged two second-tier cave dwellings for Lin You and Ye Xiaoxiao so that they could settle down first.

Then he looked at the recent transaction ledgers in the garrison headquarters and took a walk in the market.

The second-tier top-grade spirit stone mine below the market is still there.

This stuff is the lifeblood of the Cangyun Mountain base. Mid-grade spirit stones are a necessity for Foundation Establishment cultivators, and they are indispensable for both trading and cultivation.

With just this one spirit stone mine, the Zixuan Dynasty could not possibly completely isolate Cangyun Mountain from trade.

With him stationed here, even Core Formation cultivators dare not make a move easily.

Maintaining business stability in the market shouldn't be a problem.

In the days that followed, Lin Zhao adjusted the industries in the market while teaching Lin You and Ye Xiaoxiao how to cultivate.

After all, he was born into the Holy Sect, and with his knowledge from his previous life, he had seen far more than Old Man He.

The market's industries were reorganized, some unprofitable businesses were cut, and resources were concentrated on spirit stone mines and related industries.

Furthermore, through the channels of the Blue Ocean Chamber of Commerce, several kinds of pills and magical artifacts popular in the Tongming Domain were introduced.

Business has slowly started to recover.

Although it's not as good as its peak, at least it's not declining any further.

Sometimes, when Lin Zhao stood at the highest point of the garrison headquarters, watching the people coming and going in the market, he would wonder if he should cause trouble for Chongguang Pavilion and give them a piece of his mind.

Let's challenge them with some technical skills, have a few alchemy and weapon-forging matches, and put their arrogance to rest.

Either engage in a literary battle, write a few articles to criticize them, and vent your anger.

But after thinking it over and over, I decided against it.

There are too few capable people on our side. The only ones we can count on are Elder He and Yan Lie, a few Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Even if they initially gained the upper hand with a bit of cleverness, given Chongguang Pavilion's resources and scale, they could easily regain the upper hand and simply couldn't outlast them.

Yan Chiheng is indeed a capable fighter, but when Lin Zhao returned before, she "secretly" told him that she had hunted down a Core Formation cultivator during the auction, which greatly upset him. He is currently in seclusion and cultivating diligently, so he cannot be relied upon.

The world of cultivation is far more lively and complex than he initially imagined.

When he first arrived, he thought it was just an ordinary ancient world of cultivation, where cultivators lived in caves, spent their time refining pills and drawing talismans, and occasionally flew up to fight and that was it.

After a while, I realized that it wasn't like that at all.

The world was more powerful and prosperous than he had imagined, but it was also more cruel.

In a normal world, only one in ten thousand mortals might have the spiritual root to cultivate immortality. Based on this ratio, a dynasty with hundreds of millions of people would at most produce around ten thousand cultivators.

However, the Cangyuan cultivation world has existed for too long, and mortals and cultivators have long been intertwined. Now, one in a thousand mortals can be found with spiritual roots.

So, if we calculate it this way, a dynasty with over 100 million people could produce over 100,000 cultivators, with nearly 10,000 at the late Qi Refining stage and nearly 1,000 at the peak Qi Refining stage. Among them, there could be at least 100 Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Moreover, Foundation Establishment cultivators live long and can cultivate their descendants generation after generation. In addition, with the various secret techniques of Core Formation forces, it is not uncommon for a dynasty to have hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators. The strongest of the three dynasties, the Southern Li Dynasty, has as many as a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Not to mention the methods used by those Nascent Soul cultivators.

Take Tongming Immortal City for example. It can control the Tongming River, which is tens of thousands of miles long and hundreds of miles wide at its widest point, ensuring that the river does not overflow or breach its banks, and safely irrigating billions of lives on both banks. He never dared to imagine such a dispatching ability and skill before.

There's also the sect's communication system, which allows messages to travel within a million miles. Not to mention the sect's grand undertakings in the past, such as expanding its territory, dividing the sea, and controlling the spiritual veins within a million miles.

Lin Zhao felt a headache coming on whenever she thought about these things.

He also recalled those jokes from his past life: opening a gap in a mountain, installing railings on a river, tiling the Great Wall—in this world, it's actually possible to do those things.

Therefore, the cultivation world was never as backward as he thought; some things were even more advanced than in his previous life.

He looked at the rolling mountains outside the market and took a deep breath.

There's no rush regarding Chongguang Pavilion; let's take our time.

He has several years ahead of him, there's no need to rush.