Chapter 405 - 374: A Class of Its Own

Chapter 405: Chapter 374: A Class of Its Own

Time flowed on, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Moonlight Street, once an unremarkable corner of Chixia City, had gained a measure of fame over the past year.

The source of this newfound renown was a shop on the street called the "True Understanding Pavilion."

Even in the early morning, the street was bustling with people, and the towering True Understanding Pavilion was noticeably busier than any other shop.

Inside, Chang Er, clad in a fine brocade robe, greeted customers with a wide smile. His former destitution, like the horrifying scales that once covered his body, had long vanished.

As people came and went, each addressed as "Fellow Cultivator," his smile grew ever wider. He felt a complex, indescribable emotion, especially when he saw his old colleagues leading visiting Cultivators down the street.

While the shop was bustling, the backyard of the True Understanding Pavilion remained quiet and serene. Chu Mu was in a leisurely mood, tending to the Spirit Field and Spiritual Plants in the courtyard.

He hadn’t moved the Spirit Field from his Cave Mansion on the mountain; instead, he had established a new one here at the True Understanding Pavilion, planting a fresh batch of Spirit Medicine.

After a year of growth under his personal care, the Spirit Medicines were flourishing.

After tidying up the Spirit Field and Spiritual Plants, Chu Mu ambled over to the stone pavilion in the bamboo grove.

"Master."

"Master."

Seeing Chu Mu approach, the three youths chatting in the stone pavilion quickly rose and bowed respectfully.

Chu Mu produced three Demon Beast bones. With a wave of his hand, they floated in the air before the three youths.

"Go to the Artifact Room and practice. Before sunset tomorrow, smelt these bones, remove their Demon Nature, and retain fifty percent of their Spiritual Material Essence."

"Yes, Master!"

The three youths took the bones and acknowledged the order in unison.

Chu Mu waved his hand dismissively, and the three youths immediately turned and headed back toward the main courtyard.

Chu Mu watched their retreating figures for a moment, then couldn’t help but shake his head and smile.

’This past year has certainly been eventful,’ he thought.

Over the year, there had been no unexpected developments. Everything had unfolded in an orderly fashion, just as he had planned.

From making a name for himself at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion to striking a deal with the Mountain Alliance and establishing the True Understanding Pavilion.

With his skills, it had been a simple matter to make the True Understanding Pavilion a household name in Chixia City.

Ordinary Artifact Refiners mostly just followed templates, becoming proficient in one specific area at best. An Artifact Refining Master like Chu Mu, who was versed in the entire Artifact Refining System, was undoubtedly a rare sight.

In Chixia City, at least, his Artifact Refining Skill was in a league of its own.

Even a casual piece he made for practice, when placed in the shop, became a Supreme Treasure that countless Low Tier Cultivators would fight over.

If he put in even a little effort, the resulting artifact would be considered a fine treasure even for those in the Foundation Establishment Realm.

He also aggressively collected Demon Pills. Any that didn’t suit his or Wangcai’s Cultivation, he would refine into Elixirs. Besides trading them with other Cultivators for rare Spiritual Materials, he would occasionally sell them in the True Understanding Pavilion.

It went without saying how popular Flawless Pills were in Chixia City.

With all these factors combined, his fame spread far and wide, just as it had in Jingmen. This time, however, his fame was tied to the True Understanding Pavilion itself...

With his great fame came the benefits he sought. In just one short year, his Sound Transmission Order had accumulated nearly a hundred new transmission Seals.

These hundred Seals belonged mostly to Foundation Establishment Cultivators from the Vast Sea, both within and outside Chixia City. He had even had dealings with two of the three Golden Core True Masters stationed in the city.

He had undoubtedly crashed the party with an extremely aggressive posture, carving out a huge slice of Chixia City’s "cake" for himself.

Pocketing such great profits naturally required some necessary quid pro quo.

The two other Named Disciples, besides Changfang, were part of that exchange.

Both youths were about the same age as Changfang, but their backgrounds were far more powerful than his.

One was named Chen Hanyu, the youngest son of the city’s Chen Hanyun, making him the direct grandson of Celestial Cloud True Master.

The other youth, Fu Hao, was the youngest son of a Fake Pill Elder from the Yun Xiao Trading House, Chixia’s largest merchant guild.

However, Fu Hao didn’t want to learn his orthodox Artifact Refining Skill; he wanted to specialize in Puppetry Skill.

All three Named Disciples were the result of transactional relationships.

To him, it was nothing more than a master-disciple relationship in name only, involving some instruction in his spare time.

What he received in return, however, was a great deal more...

Of course, the most important thing was that having Named Disciples born of mutual benefit meant he had far less of a psychological burden.

At least, beyond teaching them the skills, he didn’t have to worry about any other aspect of their lives.

Their Cultivation, their resources, even their safety...

He didn’t need to worry about anything besides their technical training.

His relationship with these so-called Named Disciples was less that of a master passing down his legacy and more a simple teacher-student arrangement.

As his thoughts drifted, Chu Mu let out a long breath. A moment later, with a mere thought, the Light Curtain Panel materialized before his eyes.

Over the past year, the Light Curtain Panel hadn’t changed much.

With the aid of ample Elixirs, his Cultivation had progressed steadily.

Without the tension and bloodshed of Demon Hunting overseas, his Sword Intent’s progress had slowed.

As for Artifact Refining and Alchemy, his fame this year had brought an abundant supply of Spirit Materials and Spirit Medicine, just like in Jingmen. Through repeated practice, his experience and foundations in these arts had naturally deepened considerably.

Notably, two new skills had appeared on the Light Curtain Panel at some unknown point: Array and Spiritual Plants. This seemed to be a result of his dabbling in the cultivation of Spirit Medicine and his research into Puppet Arrays.

However, since he hadn’t deliberately focused on them, the Grades for these two skills shown on the panel were still extremely low.

They were both merely at the Tier One Lower Grade, which was just the entry level.

After a quick glance, he dismissed the Light Curtain Panel with a thought. Chu Mu’s gaze swept over the courtyard’s bamboo grove, finally landing on Wangcai, who was lying amongst the stalks, gnawing on some Demon Beast Flesh.

As if sensing Chu Mu’s gaze, Wangcai lifted its head slightly, let out a low whine, and then buried its face back in the bloody meal.

The sounds of its chewing were crisp and clear, and blood had long since stained a large patch of the bamboo grove red.

After watching for a moment, Chu Mu finally pulled his gaze away. He waved his hand, and a projection materialized, hovering over the stone table.

The projection flickered to life, showing the bustling scene inside the shop.

Chang Er was quite efficient. Under his management, the shop, which Chu Mu had only roughly laid out, was now perfectly organized.

The ground floor of the shop, which covered nearly a mu, was clearly divided into several sections.

The far left was the Elixir Medicine District. It had everything from unranked Grain Avoidance Pills to Tier Two Upper Grade Elixirs, covering major categories like healing, Magical Power recovery, and Cultivation Support.

The central shelves displayed all kinds of Magical and Spiritual Artifacts: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, Banner Flags, and Dharma Robes—a vast assortment.

The far right, however, was the Puppet Zone. It was the largest section and the primary reason the True Understanding Pavilion was so popular among Vast Sea Cultivators.

Vast Sea Bloodlines were prevalent, and Demon Beast Bloodlines tended to focus on strengthening the physical body. As a result, the development of skills relying on external tools in the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World lagged far behind that of the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World.

While ordinary Artifact Refining and Alchemy were still somewhat common, advanced skills like Puppetry, which required an extremely high level of Artifact Refining Skill, were exceptionally rare.

Although there were other shops in Chixia City that sold Puppetry Tools, they mostly offered only rudimentary Puppet Artifacts.

Chu Mu had yet to see another shop as comprehensive as his True Understanding Pavilion.

The projection froze, displaying the various Puppets in the Puppet Zone.

Human-shaped Puppets, Beast-shaped Puppets, reconnaissance puppets, melee puppets, Magic Technique puppets, Spirit Plant Type Assistant Puppets, and Armor-type Puppets—nearly a hundred different kinds of Puppetry Tools were on display throughout the zone, a dazzling collection.

Gazing at the scene, Chu Mu couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride.

Unlike Artifact Refining and Alchemy, which he pursued out of necessity, Puppetry Skill was his true passion.

He still clearly remembered the indescribable thrill he felt when he first saw the Bright Moon Battle Armor at the underground auction on Fengming Mountain.

Driven by that unforgettable thrill, he had never stopped delving into the art. By now, his Puppetry Skill had nearly reached the absolute peak possible for someone at his Cultivation level!

As long as he had sufficient Spiritual Materials, he was confident he could even refine a Tier Three Puppet!

Although the Puppets for sale in the True Understanding Pavilion were only his second-rate creations, even these "second-rate" works represented the pinnacle of Puppetry Skill in all of Chixia City.

Watching the projection of his shop, the corners of Chu Mu’s mouth lifted into a smirk. He let out a soft chuckle, his pride more apparent than ever.

With its nearly unparalleled skills, the True Understanding Pavilion could be described as a veritable gold mine.

Even without counting the commissions he accepted for Artifact Refining and Alchemy, the True Understanding Pavilion’s daily revenue alone easily amounted to ten or twenty thousand Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

And that income was only part of the benefit.

Since opening, he had established several rules. For example, the shop would buy any amount of Tier One Upper Grade and above Spiritual Materials. Furthermore, customers who used Tier One Upper Grade or higher Spiritual Materials and Objects to pay for their purchases would receive a discount...

Thanks to these measures aimed at acquiring Spiritual Materials and Objects, the shop’s greatest value to him—aside from the massive daily influx of Spirit Stones—was the joy of what was essentially opening loot boxes.

There were hundreds of thousands of Cultivators in Chixia City, and countless more throughout the Vast Sea, not to mention the unique nature of the Endless Vast Sea itself.

It wasn’t impossible for even a Low Tier Cultivator to possess High Tier Spiritual Materials and Objects, whether through a stroke of luck or as part of an inheritance.

With the True Understanding Pavilion’s Puppets standing in a class of their own in Chixia, it was clearly not difficult to gather rare Spiritual Materials.

The True Understanding Pavilion had only been open for a year, yet he had already acquired a significant number of rare Spiritual Materials and Objects through it.

More than half a year ago, a Qi Refining Perfect Cultivator, after taking great pains to disguise himself, had even traded a thousand-year-old Spirit Medicine for a Tier Two Puppet...

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