Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Chapter 151 - 131: Preparing to Restock

The Auctioneer opened the shell. Inside, apart from the mark of a black skeletal hand on its inner wall, it was completely empty.

The Auctioneer simply smiled faintly and said:

"I don’t think this needs an introduction, right? Let the bidding begin!"

For an item without even a starting price, the remaining Cultivators frantically raised their bids, breaking the ten-thousand mark in the blink of an eye. All of this left Fang Qingyuan completely bewildered.

In the end, the shell sold for an astonishing twenty-seven thousand seven hundred Spirit Stones. This was the highest price of the entire auction, and yet the item was just an ordinary shell.

But that wasn’t what Fang Qingyuan found most strange. The Cultivator who won the bid took the shell, and when it was time to pay, besides counting out the Spirit Stones, he also placed a letter inside it.

After completing these actions, the black-robed Cultivator closed the shell, turned around, and unexpectedly returned the exorbitantly priced auction item, handing it to the Auctioneer to be put away in his storage bag.

Everything was so bizarre, yet both parties acted as if it were perfectly normal. Apart from Fang Qingyuan, no one else seemed to find it strange.

Fang Qingyuan buried his curiosity deep in his heart and, mimicking the others, remained silent. After the shell was auctioned off, the Auctioneer sold a few more items before announcing the end of the auction.

Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan turned and left. Someone was there to meet him, and after a circuitous journey, he was eventually brought back to the outskirts of Sea Gate Marketplace.

Once back in familiar territory, Fang Qingyuan took a few detours to ensure no one was following him before finally returning to his residence.

Inside his residence, Fang Qingyuan removed his cloak and let out Jinbao, who was nearly stifled. When Jinbao came out, its little face was scrunched up, and it seemed very unhappy.

It made sense. Jinbao had been stuffed on Fang Qingyuan’s back for several hours; it had truly been hard on the little bear cub.

But Jinbao had a pure and good nature. After being coaxed by Fang Qingyuan, it forgot all about the matter and turned to go play with Yinbao.

Fang Qingyuan’s residence was quite large, covering a full half-acre. Inside the Quiet Chamber of his residence, Fang Qingyuan took out the skull. With a thought, he and the skull entered the Immortal Mansion Space.

Within the Immortal Mansion now, the Land Realm’s area had grown to thirteen acres of Black Land. With so much Black Land connected together, it no longer felt as narrow and stifling as before.

When Fang Qingyuan was at the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer, the land area in the Immortal Mansion was about ten acres. Now that his cultivation was at the Eighth-Layer Qi Cultivation, the Immortal Mansion Space had also grown by a third.

Fang Qingyuan planted Spirit Plants on the newly appeared land as usual. By now, ten acres of the Black Land within the Immortal Mansion were all planted with different types of Spirit Plants.

These Spirit Plants constantly released Spiritual Power, just like the purple bamboo, bringing the concentration of Spiritual Power inside the Immortal Mansion to a level nearly approaching a Tier One Middle Grade Spirit Vein Land.

Fang Qingyuan’s soul was no longer as indistinct as before within the Immortal Mansion Space. As his cultivation level rose and he practiced the Soul Dao Technique, his soul’s features were now clear, and its form was much more solid.

Taking out the newly acquired skull artifact, Fang Qingyuan began to try and activate it. The Black Market had already worn away the Divine Soul Seal on this Ghost Dao Magical Artifact, which saved Fang Qingyuan the tedious effort.

As Fang Qingyuan activated it, the skull’s eyes suddenly flashed with light, and a soul form flew out from within.

This soul form was ethereal and indistinct, its features unclear. Without any commands, it could only act on instinct. Now that it was released, the soul form stood motionless near the skull.

Fang Qingyuan looked at the soul form and thought, ’This must be one of the ten Qi Cultivation Stage Ghost Souls sealed within the skull. Inside this skull, there’s also the main soul of a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator and ten sub-souls from Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivators. I’ve only released one sub-soul to test something.’

The Ghost Souls inside the skull were not very powerful. Even the strongest one, the main soul of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator, was only equivalent to a Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer Cultivator when released.

As for the sub-souls, which were originally from Qi Cultivation Cultivators, they were even weaker, only able to deal with Early-stage Qi Cultivation Cultivators. This Ghost Dao Magical Artifact relied on numbers to win. Against a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, it could only serve as a harassment.

However, Fang Qingyuan never intended to rely on this Ghost Dao Magical Artifact for combat. After releasing one Ghost Soul, with a mere thought, the sub-soul dissipated into a cloud of Soul Power that spread out around the skull.

Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan quickly cast the Yindu Black Law Soul-Binding Spell. A long while later, sensing that his own soul had become a bit more solid, a smile appeared on his face.

Then, Fang Qingyuan checked the Spiritual Power within the Immortal Mansion Space and found that its concentration had only dropped slightly. It was no longer like before when practicing the Soul Dao Technique, where nearly all the Spiritual Power in the Immortal Mansion would be drained after each session.

’Indeed, Soul Power is the best resource for practicing the Yindu Black Law Soul-Binding Spell. And now, this skull can still fuel my cultivation a dozen more times.’

After finishing his cultivation, Fang Qingyuan carefully stored the skull away in the Immortal Mansion. ’This Ghost Dao Magical Artifact can’t be kept in a storage bag; it can’t see the light of day.’

The next day, Shi Yuanzhe came to visit. After serving tea, Fang Qingyuan voiced the question that had been on his mind:

"Fellow Daoist Shi, there’s something I don’t understand about yesterday’s events. Was that shell at the end of the auction some kind of special item? Why were so many Cultivators fighting over it?"

Hearing Fang Qingyuan’s question, Shi Yuanzhe smiled.

"The shell itself isn’t valuable, but what it represents is. I’m sure you noticed the black skeletal hand inside the shell. That symbol represents an organization, commonly known as the ’Black Hand.’ The Black Hand is an assassin organization. It’s rumored that if the price is right, they can even kill a Golden Core expert.

"The person who wins the shell gets to hire the Black Hand to kill one person. The shell from last night was black, which means the target can be at most an Early-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator."

After hearing Shi Yuanzhe’s explanation, Fang Qingyuan finally understood. ’But twenty-seven or twenty-eight thousand Spirit Stones to kill a Foundation Establishment Cultivator... are the lives of Foundation Establishment Cultivators here that cheap, or am I just too rich?’

Afterward, Fang Qingyuan took out three hundred Spirit Stones as a fee for Shi Yuanzhe’s information and then sent him on his way.

After Shi Yuanzhe left, Fang Qingyuan entered seclusion for a month. During this month, he converted all the Ghost Souls from the skull-shaped Ghost Dao Magical Artifact into resources for his Soul Dao cultivation. After cultivating with the Yindu Spell more than a dozen times, Fang Qingyuan’s soul became incredibly formidable, even stronger than that of a typical Cultivator at Qi Cultivation Ninth-Layer Perfection.

Finally, looking at the now-empty skull, Fang Qingyuan made a decision in his heart. ’It’s time to go restock.’

...

Half a month later, Fang Qingyuan, with Jinbao in tow, walked into a massive building in the Sea Gate Marketplace.

As soon as he entered the hall, the first thing Fang Qingyuan saw was a wall densely covered with portraits. These people were men and women, old and young, but they all had one thing in common: they were all Cultivators, and moreover, they were Cultivators with bounties on their heads, wanted by the Great Zhou Academy.

In the Chaotic Star Sea Region, the islands were far apart, which led to flourishing trade. This, in turn, gave rise to pirates. They plundered and pillaged, committing crimes everywhere. The Great Zhou Academy couldn’t catch them all, so they issued bounties. As long as these individuals were captured, a reward would be given out—dead or alive. Just bringing back a head was enough.

These people were the equivalent of Demonic Cultivators who had fled into the Wilderness Forest. Compared to the harsh conditions of the forest, the Chaotic Star Sea was much more suitable for hiding.

In the Chaotic Star Sea Region, there were three thousand major islands with names, but the number of nameless small islands and micro-islands that hadn’t even been discovered was countless. As long as one had the patience to stay quietly on a small island, they could probably live out their entire life without anyone ever knowing.

Fang Qingyuan had set his sights on these people. He had already calculated it out: if he caught a wanted criminal, he would gain many benefits—the target’s wealth, the corresponding bounty, and on top of that, their soul and body.

The soul could be extracted with the skull artifact, and the body could be buried in the Immortal Mansion to help increase his own Spirit Root aptitude. He would only need to turn in a head.

This was killing multiple birds with one stone. Even if it was just for the souls and bodies, Fang Qingyuan decided he had to try. In any case, he had made up his mind not to look for powerful targets. He would start with the lowest level.

Thus, Fang Qingyuan shifted his gaze to the very bottom of the wall, looking at the section for Early-stage Qi Cultivation.