Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Chapter 319 - 257: Demon-Summoning Spirit Soil

The Longevity Vine was still inside the Immortal Mansion Array. But without Demonic Qi, its growth had slowed dramatically.

Fang Qingyuan took the Blood Life Pills he had acquired and went to the largest auction house on the island.

The auction house was a property of the Iron Wind Beast Taming Sect. Its reputation and scale were second to none. Fang Qingyuan planned to sell his five Blood Life Pills to them.

The final price for the five Blood Life Pills was set at one hundred and fifty Top-grade Spirit Stones, a reasonable price for Longevity Elixirs.

A few hundred Top-grade Spirit Stones weren’t enough to make the auction house break its rules. Fang Qingyuan received the Spirit Stones safely, and the entire transaction went smoothly.

In fact, some Elixir Pill shops were willing to offer one hundred and sixty or seventy Top-grade Spirit Stones for the Blood Life Pills, but Fang Qingyuan didn’t trust them.

The Blood Life Pills were useless to Fang Qingyuan; exchanging them for Spirit Stones was the most sensible deal. He needed Spirit Stones to trade for various resources.

After getting the Spirit Stones, Fang Qingyuan didn’t rush to leave. Instead, he spoke to the auction house Steward who had been attending to him:

"I was wondering if your esteemed house has any Demon Summoning Soil for sale?"

Demon Summoning Soil was a Tier Two Lower Grade Spiritual Material that contained some Demonic Qi. Demonic Cultivators from places like Black Wind Valley needed this kind of thing to aid their cultivation when they were away from home.

Furthermore, when used with a Summoning Array, Demon Summoning Soil could summon demonic beasts that loved Demonic Qi from some unknown Void Otherworld.

As for whether the summoned beast would fight for you, that depended on your own abilities.

Fang Qingyuan was interested in the Demonic Qi contained within the Demon Summoning Soil. ’If I can bury the Demon Summoning Soil under the Longevity Vine, won’t I have an endless supply of Life Source Liquid to collect?’

"Our auction house does have some of this Spiritual Material in stock. How many taels might you require, sir?"

The auction Steward was all smiles. He had just acquired a bottle of Blood Life Pills from this person, which could serve as the finale for next month’s auction. Now, he was about to earn back the Spirit Stones he had just paid out. It was truly a double blessing.

"What’s the price?"

Fang Qingyuan slowly asked. The Steward held up three fingers:

"Thirty Low-grade Spirit Stones per tael. If you buy a larger quantity, there’s a discount."

Hearing the price, Fang Qingyuan did a quick calculation in his head. ’Thirty Low-grade Spirit Stones per tael means three Middle-grade Spirit Stones per jin, which is three Top-grade Spirit Stones per hundred jin.’

He had just earned one hundred and fifty Top-grade Spirit Stones, which was enough to buy five thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil.

So, Fang Qingyuan took out the Top-grade Spirit Stones that had just entered his storage bag, handed them to the Steward before him, and said:

"I’ll trouble you, Steward. Please get me five thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil."

At this, the Steward’s expression changed slightly. He explained:

"We don’t have quite that much. Three thousand jin is our auction house’s entire stock. If you need more, sir, you’ll have to allow us to restock first."

Fang Qingyuan’s face showed his disappointment as he took back some of the Spirit Stones.

Seeing Fang Qingyuan’s expression, the Steward felt as if their auction house was being looked down upon, so he said with a touch of pride:

"You’ve come at an inconvenient time, sir. If you had come a few years earlier, I could have found you not just five thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil, but fifty thousand jin."

Hearing the Steward’s tone, Fang Qingyuan became interested. While he waited for the auction house staff to fetch the Demon Summoning Soil, he chatted with the man:

"Fifty thousand jin? Demon Summoning Soil isn’t exactly a mainstream Tier Two Spiritual Material. Did your esteemed house really have that much in previous years?"

The man smiled smugly:

"Back when Sect Leader Zhao was in charge, what rare treasures didn’t our auction house have? A single auction would attract several thousand Cultivators. Some even traveled thousands of miles, taking Teleportation Arrays just to be here. Not like now, where the He Family is stealing all the limelight. It truly gets worse year after year."

Recalling these past moments of glory, the man’s face lit up. It was clear he had been holding in a lot of frustration these past few years.

Fang Qingyuan listened, lost in thought. ’Zhao E Lian seems to have been a truly capable man. How did he manage to acquire so many good things?’

A short while later, three thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil were packed into a storage bag and handed to Fang Qingyuan.

After receiving the Demon Summoning Soil, Fang Qingyuan took it and the remaining Top-grade Spirit Stones and quickly left the area.

After he left, the Steward thought for a moment but decided against sending anyone to follow him.

....

Changing his appearance along the way, Fang Qingyuan activated his Mind Map and checked carefully multiple times. Only after confirming he wasn’t being followed did he step into his small courtyard.

He had tossed the Demon Summoning Soil and the Top-grade Spirit Stones into the Immortal Mansion right from the start. If anyone had tried to tamper with them to track him, their efforts would have been completely in vain.

The Immortal Mansion was sealed off from the outside world, a completely separate dimension. Besides Fang Qingyuan, there was no method to get past the Immortal Mansion’s barrier and make contact with anything inside.

Although the Iron Wind Beast Taming Sect’s auction house had a good reputation, Fang Qingyuan still went through his standard precautionary procedures. After all, he couldn’t entrust his own safety to someone else’s credibility.

Entering his Quiet Chamber, Fang Qingyuan lit a stick of meditation incense and then immersed his consciousness into the Immortal Mansion.

Arriving before the Array that contained the Longevity Vine, Fang Qingyuan took out the storage bag holding the Demon Summoning Soil. He didn’t rush to put it inside, instead choosing to first observe and record the Longevity Vine’s changes.

A thick main stalk, like that of a gourd vine, poked out from the black soil on the ground. Its dark, lustrous surface bore some resemblance to the seed it had grown from.

The main vine snaked for seven or eight zhang, nearly covering all the black soil within the Array. The space above the Array was now empty, a result of Fang Qingyuan using the Elixir Recipe Secret Technique to extract the Life Source Liquid.

Fang Qingyuan had tossed the residue from the extraction into the pond to feed the fish. The Spirit Fish he was raising were quite fond of this food.

Without a supply of Demonic Qi, the Longevity Vine now looked no different from a normal plant, but Fang Qingyuan knew this was just a disguise.

Opening the storage bag, Fang Qingyuan took out a few jin of Demon Summoning Soil and suspended it in mid-air with his Divine Sense.

This Tier Two Demon Summoning Soil was dark and heavy, looking like shattered pieces of a magnet and giving off an unsettling feeling.

A few jin’s worth was only about the size of a fist, clearly indicating its high density.

Fang Qingyuan opened a corner of the Array and tossed the clump of Demon Summoning Soil inside. The next moment, the space within erupted into a frenzy.

Like a startled python, the Longevity Vine coiled rapidly toward the clump of Demon Summoning Soil. Before the soil could even hit the ground, the vine snatched it and dragged it to its roots.

Then, the Longevity Vine swelled abruptly and began to grow rapidly. Branches and leaves sprouted from nothing in just a few breaths’ time.

After a moment, the Longevity Vine inside the Array fell back into its previous dormant state, though its body now looked several sizes larger than before.

’The Demon Summoning Soil really works.’ A hint of joy appeared on Fang Qingyuan’s face. He then opened the storage bag and began pouring its contents into the Array.

「Three days later.」 The three thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil had been completely consumed, and in exchange, he had obtained ten drops of Life Source Liquid.

One drop of the liquid, plus supplementary materials, could be refined into five Blood Life Pills. Five Blood Life Pills could be sold for one hundred and fifty Top-grade Spirit Stones, and those Spirit Stones could, in turn, buy five thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil.

Through this series of conversions, Fang Qingyuan understood one thing: ’I might actually be about to strike it rich.’

’Of course, this is all under the most ideal conditions. The price of Demon Summoning Soil will definitely increase as I buy more, and the Bee Queen won’t succeed with every batch of pills. Even a hot commodity like the Blood Life Pill will depreciate in value as large quantities flow into the market.’

’Selling too many might even attract the covetous eyes of others. These are all problems that need to be considered.’

’But no matter what, a nearly tenfold profit is worth the risks.’

’But there was a very important problem at hand: where could he find so much more Demon Summoning Soil?’

The auction house, the largest goods distribution center on Iron Wind Island, only had three thousand jin of Demon Summoning Soil. Other smaller shops probably only had a hundred jin or so.

Some shops didn’t even carry this type of Spiritual Material at all.

’Without Demon Summoning Soil, how could this grand money-making scheme of mine continue to turn?’

At this thought, Fang Qingyuan began to ponder. ’Where can I quickly obtain a large amount of Demon Summoning Soil, or even Demonic Magical Artifacts?’

Just then, a location flashed in Fang Qingyuan’s mind: ’The Black Market!’

’Compared to a legitimate business like the auction house, the Black Market is bound to have more Demon Summoning Soil. And there should be no shortage of Demonic Magical Artifacts either.’

’But before going to the Black Market, there’s someone Fang Qingyuan needs to see—the Cultivator from whom he got the Longevity Vine seed.’

’Fang Qingyuan wanted to ask him where he had obtained the seed. If possible, he felt he should go check out the location himself.’

After thinking through his plans, Fang Qingyuan sealed the Array tightly and then took the Life Source Liquid to the Purple Bamboo Forest where the Bee Queen resided.

In the days to come, the Bee Queen would have plenty of work to do.