"As you said, let's go with this one, Eighty-five Horse Hoof Lane in East City." Yuan Ming handed back the Jade Scroll and said.

This house was somewhat secluded, with a yearly rent of one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones.

"Fellow Daoist has a good eye. This house not only faces the street, but also has good size and layout. It can be used both for business and as a living space for cultivation. It's truly the best of both worlds," said the cultivator in white.

"This is the first year's rent. Hu Tu, a Loose Cultivator from Yue Country." Yuan Ming figured that if he spent one Spirit Stone daily on expenses and accommodation, it would still be more cost-effective to rent a place directly, so he took out a small bag of Spirit Stones and placed it on the table.

The white-robed cultivator efficiently counted them and, without asking further about 'Hu Tu's' background, handed over a set of keys and a token with Hu Tu's name and the proof of residence for Little Lake City, and said, "Fellow Daoist can make any changes inside the residence, but do not tamper with the walls. The bricks and stones in our city are specially crafted, with some protection against prying. You'll need to compensate at cost if they're damaged."

Indeed, quality comes at a price.

"Sorry for the disturbance." Yuan Ming nodded, took the keys, and got up to leave.

He first wandered around the workshop area and spent fifty Spirit Stones on two sets of simple House Protection Arrays for decorating cave mansions, then he headed eastward.

When he arrived at Horse Hoof Lane, he found it more secluded than he had imagined, with few people around.

Yuan Ming quickly located house number eighty-five.

The house faced the street and had a garden in the back, along with two inner rooms. The layout and setting were indeed nice.

However, the place had not been lived in for a long time and was covered in dust.

After cleaning up, Yuan Ming just settled in one of the rooms in the backyard, but then he thought again and returned to the rental place.

He soon was back at the rental property.

Using the name 'Hagon,' Yuan Ming rented the house across the street at number eighty-six. During this rental, he used an Illusion Technique on the person responsible for the rental, quickly completed the procedures, took the token, and left.

Having offended Chang Chun Temple, Yuan Ming spared no expense in preparing an extra residence for emergencies, even spending a hundred Spirit Stones on a short-range Teleportation Array, with three Spirit Stones placed at the Array Eye.

Yuan Ming set up the Teleportation Arrays between the two houses and returned to house number eighty-six.

This house had the same layout as number eighty-five. He chose a room in the inner house as his personal cultivation space and set up the entire set of House Protection Arrays there.

The other set of arrays he installed around the perimeter of the entire backyard, forming two layers of defense.

By the time he was done, it was already dark.

Looking at his day's work, Yuan Ming was quite satisfied. Though it was still somewhat simple, he finally had a proper residence and began planning his following cultivation practices.

For him, the most important thing was certainly the improvement of his cultivation level. Although the Nine Elements Technique was performing well, cultivation at the Foundation Establishment Stage was still quite slow. If assisted by elixirs and Spirit Incense, the process would naturally be much more effective.

Although he had already purchased a batch of Four Spirits Pills, such Foundation Establishment Stage elixirs were indeed expensive. With his modest amount of Spirit Stones, it would not take long before he ran through them unless he established a sustainable way to make money.

He had rented these two street-facing shops with that in mind.

Yuan Ming pondered his current capabilities and after careful consideration decided to make and sell Spirit Incense.

He had looked around the market district the day before and found no shops selling Spirit Incense here.

Spirit Incense was not valued in Southern Border, and probably the same in Da Jin, but he believed this had much to do with the marketing philosophy of Immortal Xuanhua. Although inferior to similarly priced elixirs in effect, the auxiliary benefits of this product were actually quite significant.

In a Cultivation World like Da Jin, there were always cultivators and sects who were not short of Spirit Stones, just lacking in promotion.

With the varieties of Spirit Incense he currently mastered, as long as he operated properly, making Spirit Stones should not be difficult.

Thinking further, now that his cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, using Spirit Incense for possession to influence Immortal Xuanhua's behaviors would be easier, and learning to create new varieties of Spirit Incense was feasible without worrying about not being able to introduce new products. Eventually, he would master all the skills of Immortal Xuanhua.

Yuan Ming returned to house number eighty-five via the Teleportation Array, went out, and bought a batch of materials for making Spirit Incense and items needed to set up shop, such as counters and shelves, and started recruiting a shopkeeper.

Ten days later, a brand new shop opened at Eighty-five Horse Hoof Lane: "Xuanhua Spirit Incense Shop."

The shopkeeper was named Mu Yang, a Qi Refining Third Level Cultivator whom Yuan Ming had recruited. After some investigation, he found that Mu Yang's master was a Loose Cultivator who had passed away and knew a few low-level Earth Magic spells. Yuan Ming hired him for ten Spirit Stones a month to open the shop during the day and sell incense.

The shop opening did not attract much attention, and the shelves were filled with common Spirit Incense for blessings, ghost banishing, and calming minds. The only valuable item was the "Qingxuan Incense," priced at one Spirit Stone each.

As for higher-grade Spirit Incense like "Purple Mysterious Incense", he planned to stock them later.

The neighboring businesses were quite curious about this obscure product, discreetly inquiring one after another.

The business at Xuanhua Spirit Incense Shop was very average, often going several days with just one transaction. Those people soon lost interest and no longer visited. As for the dismal state of the incense business, Yuan Ming was not in a hurry; business also depended on opportunities, and tireless promotion was useless without them.

All arrangements were set, and Yuan Ming's life entered a proper routine.

He returned to number eighty-six and alternatively engaged in incense making and consuming elixirs he had bought to enhance his cultivation, studying the spells recorded in the book during his idle moments.

Moreover, he specially took three days to fly far to the edge of another small city in the Thunder Continent, sending a letter to his parents and Liu Tianming to report his safety, but he did not disclose his current whereabouts.

Along with the letter, he also sent "Mr. Sheng's Eastern Travelogue," compiling his experiences traveling to Yue Country and hunting beasts at sea into a new storybook, with Tianming Bookstore as the recipient.

As days passed, Yuan Ming overcame the initial discomfort and increasingly felt that the decision to stay in Little Lake City was correct.

He didn't have to look at anyone's face or worry about exposing his secrets and could freely arrange all his time.

He often visited the workshop and tea houses, chatted with other cultivators, learned about the dynamics of the Cultivation World, and met many cultivators. Though busy every day, his life was exceptionally fulfilling, and he was growing to like it more and more.

Hua Zhi was naturally active and had endured while they were traveling, but now that Yuan Ming had settled down, Hua Zhi could no longer bear it and insisted on going out.

Yuan Ming could not resist it and had to release it from the Spiritual Beast Bag.

Hua Zhi did not take the proper path but directly tried to tunnel under the earth to leave Little Lake City and enter the marsh outside the city, yet it was blocked by the city's formation, so it had to obediently shrink inside the bag and follow Yuan Ming through the city gate.

This swamp was known as Rain Ruins Swamp, covering a vast area and was one of the notorious dangerous places in the Thunder Continent. Due to humid climate and constant rainfall, it was filled with poison miasma and housed many poisonous insects and demon beasts.

Hua Zhi was not weak in strength and had even learned earth tunneling, so Yuan Ming was not worried about its safety.

Another month passed in a blink of an eye.

In the room of number eighty-six, Yuan Ming chanted spells and made gestures with his hands.

An invisible protective shield appeared around him, encompassing a radius of four to five yards, and all external sounds disappeared, completely isolated.

A satisfied smile appeared on his face; this was the "Soundproofing Technique," considered one of the more complex techniques in that magic book, which ordinary cultivators might need a long time to master.

With his Foundation Establishment cultivation and strong Divine Sense, Yuan Ming had learned it in just two days.

He then tested other effects of the soundproofing technique and, quite satisfied, dismissed the technique with a wave of his hand.

Yuan Ming picked up the magic book beside him and put it away.

He had already learned all the spells in this book, which filled the gap he had in spells.

Unfortunately, the spells recorded in the book were ordinary, sufficient for everyday use but ineffective against strong enemies.

However, Yuan Ming was not worried; he had seen many Foundation Establishment Cultivators from Chang Chun Temple and other sects of Da Jin during the inheritance ceremony. Possessing those people and suggesting them covertly to steal some spells should not be a difficult task.

He took out the Stealing Heaven Tripod and inserted a stick of Black Incense into it.

This stick of Black Incense was made using the incense ashes from Xuanhua Temple, into which he had mixed some previously acquired Fire Pine Wood, curious about its effectiveness and ready to try it out.

Yuan Ming lit the Black Incense and after a brief contemplation, he locked onto an old woman with a cane from the Bailuo Manor in his mind.

Her cultivation level was not very high, and she was very old and weak, making her easier to control, so he decided to start learning with her.

The Black Incense quickly ignited, and Yuan Ming's vision darkened. When he came around, he had already possessed the old woman with the cane.

The place seemed to be a spacious and unoccupied cave mansion, where the old woman was meditating. Air continuously streamed from her mouth and nose in wisps of purple qi, which rapidly traveled around her body before slowly merging into her fingernails.

Her fingertips gradually turned purple, appearing strikingly exotic.

Yuan Ming was surprised and was about to sense the old woman's consciousness when a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"After possession, shouldn't I only be able to observe the surroundings through the possessed person's viewpoint? Why can I see the surroundings when this woman is meditating with closed eyes?"

It seemed he had experienced something similar a couple of times before, but he had not paid attention to it back then.

"Could it be due to my improved cultivation or the continuous enhancement of the Black Incense?" Yuan Ming speculated.

He quickly stopped his pointless thinking and focused on sensing the old woman's cultivation status.

The technique she was currently cultivating seemed to be a poisoning spell; the wisps of purple qi all contained intense poison, which, once merged into the nails, layered the poison deeper, ready to be released when necessary.

This method not only made poisoning convenient but also strengthened the toxicity. The intense poison in the old woman's nails had evidently reached an astonishing level, and she was very cautious herself.

Yuan Ming was quite interested in this technique and, after careful realization, quickly learned it fairly thoroughly.

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