Beast Taming: I Have an Immortal Mansion

Within the Immortal Mansion, in a specially designated area, pile after pile of Spirit Rice was being preserved by special means.

Fang Qingyuan’s consciousness floated over, gazing at the glistening white, dense, fragrant mounds of Spirit Rice. A look of pure satisfaction spread across his face.

’All this Spirit Rice... I finally have a way to pour it into the market without holding back.’

This was the fourth year since the Immortal Mansion had been greatly expanded, and the Spirit Rice within had already been harvested three times.

Aside from the first year, when the harvest was relatively small due to a lack of Spirit Field Puppets, the other two years had both yielded bumper crops.

As the harvests of Spirit Rice continued, Fang Qingyuan discovered a problem: the rate at which he sold the grain could no longer keep up with the Immortal Mansion’s production speed.

Before Fang Qingyuan reached Core Formation, the amount of Spirit Rice produced by the Immortal Mansion, while considerable, could always be sold off over the course of a year through his shop in Nine Stars Square.

But once the Immortal Mansion’s area expanded a thousandfold, a single Spirit Rice shop was completely unable to handle the output.

Fang Qingyuan had calculated that this much Spirit Rice was more than enough to sustain fifty or sixty thousand Qi Cultivation Cultivators for a year.

How many Qi Cultivation Cultivators were even in the entire White Mountain Territory? There were fewer than one hundred fifty thousand cultivators in total. To rely on a single shop to sell such a massive output of Spirit Rice—how long would that take?

Furthermore, though many merchants sold Spirit Rice, they were mostly old, established businesses that sold a set amount each year. If Fang Qingyuan were to disregard everything and just dump his supply on the market, it wouldn’t be two years before someone came knocking on his door looking for a fight.

That was tantamount to cutting off someone’s livelihood, and people would start investigating how Fang Qingyuan could possess so much Spirit Rice.

Spirit Rice production was generally stable; it was rare for there to be a sudden, drastic surge in supply.

Therefore, even as the Spirit Rice piled up, Fang Qingyuan acted with caution. He sold only a small portion and stockpiled the rest, waiting for the right opportunity.

Now, that opportunity had clearly arrived.

The Pill Alliance was tightly blockaded by the Spirit Wood Alliance and the Li Huo Alliance, cutting off its channels for gathering external resources. Furthermore, Fang Qingyuan knew that in the Thick Earth Desert of Western White Mountain, the White Mountain Sword Sect and the Illusion Sword Alliance were locked in a fierce battle with the Thick Earth Alliance and the Sharp Gold Alliance.

The two sides had committed a total of nearly forty thousand cultivators to a standoff in the Thick Earth Desert. The Sharp Gold and Thick Earth Alliances focused on defense, using a massive defensive array they had constructed to resist the onslaught from the two Sword Cultivator sects, the Illusion Sword Alliance and the White Mountain Sword Sect.

Faced with this iron-turtle-like defensive array, the two Sword Cultivator sects were temporarily at a loss. Thus, both sides fell into the tempo set by the Sharp Gold and Thick Earth Alliances: a war of attrition.

This was a situation the Pill Alliance was loath to see. While the Sharp Gold and Thick Earth Alliances were on the back foot in the Thick Earth Desert, here in Southern White Mountain, the Pill Alliance itself was being pushed to the brink by the Spirit Wood and Li Huo Alliances.

Once the Pill Alliance fell, the Spirit Wood and Li Huo Alliances would mobilize their main forces and head west to reinforce the Sharp Gold and Thick Earth Alliances. At that point, it would be four against two, and the Illusion Sword Alliance and the White Mountain Sword Sect would inevitably be defeated.

Among the ten great Nascent Soul Powers of White Mountain, only the Lianshui Alliance, the Star-Picking Pavilion, and the Hehuan Sect had yet to enter the fray.

The Star-Picking Pavilion had always held a detached position, and with only a few hundred cultivators in their entire sect, they never got involved in such chaotic wars.

The Lianshui Alliance, on the other hand, had never been interested in conquest. Over the years, it had focused solely on developing its own territory. As a result, while its domain wasn’t the largest, its population was, and its foundations were exceptionally deep.

As for the Hehuan Sect, this major power, which boasted two Nascent Soul Cultivators, had now also revealed its stance.

They had issued a clear decree forbidding any combatant cultivators from heading north or west. While this appeared to be a neutral stance, it effectively cut off any possibility of the Li Huo and Spirit Wood Alliances sending large-scale reinforcements to their western allies. It was quite obvious which side they were favoring.

However, the Spirit Wood and Li Huo Alliances weren’t in a hurry to push south either. Positioned to the northwest and southeast, they had the Pill Alliance in a pincer. Their objective was clear: eliminate the immediate obstacle, then turn back and settle things with the Hehuan Sect.

Meanwhile, the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect was still waging war in the Barbaric Wilderness. And so, three years after the death of the Divinity Transformation Cultivator of White Mountain, the curtain rose on a massive, chaotic war that would engulf the entire region.

It was under these exact circumstances that Fang Qingyuan could fish in troubled waters.

War meant destruction. Many Spirit Fields that were once peacefully cultivated now lay abandoned.

War also meant the severing of trade and transport. Due to blockades, resources from other regions could not be delivered in a timely manner to the various sects and powers within White Mountain.

In times like these, Spirit Stones were rapidly depreciating. Only tangible resources and food were hard currency. Under such conditions, no one had the inclination to investigate where Fang Qingyuan was sourcing such a vast quantity of Spirit Rice.

...

「Ten days later.」

A train of Silver-backed Manta Rays flew in a long line, their massive, bat-like wings beating in unison as they arrived at a remote territory near the Barbaric Wilderness.

The Manta Ray leading the group was none other than Yinbao. His body was piled with a small mountain of grain sacks, so heavy that even with his immense strength, he wobbled as he flew.

Fortunately, flying alongside the Manta Rays were over a hundred disciples of the Qingyuan Sect, each riding a Four-winged Cyan Jade Dragonfly. They weaved back and forth around the convoy, standing guard and driving away any malicious Spirit Birds and Demon Birds.

Thousands of birds and beasts stared greedily at the Manta Ray convoy, drawn by the overwhelmingly sweet and fragrant aroma of the Spirit Rice on their backs.

But with the Qingyuan Sect disciples on guard, no matter how much they coveted the cargo, the creatures dared not approach to tear at the grain sacks.

Atop Yinbao’s back, Fang Qingyuan sat cross-legged. Seeing that they had reached the predetermined location, he ordered everyone to halt and descend.

With a series of thunderous thuds, nearly twenty Silver-backed Manta Rays touched down. The Qingyuan Sect disciples immediately and efficiently set up defensive arrays and took up guard positions around the perimeter.

After a long while, Han Ping and his party slowly emerged from the Barbaric Border. When they arrived before Fang Qingyuan, every one of them was visibly excited.

Such a vast quantity of supplies was a magnificent sight, one rarely seen even before the Pill Alliance had been blockaded.

"Where are my things?"

Fang Qingyuan’s voice snapped the excited Han Ping out of his reverie. He hurried over to Fang Qingyuan, pulled a storage bag from within his robes, and handed it over.

The storage bag had no Divine Thought Restriction on it, so Fang Qingyuan could easily perceive its contents. He pulled out four jade boxes—one large and three small—and opened them all in front of Han Ping.

Inside were three types of Elixir Pills and the Eight Sceneries Red Dust Lamp, a magical artifact.

Fang Qingyuan first inspected the Elixir Pills. After confirming that they matched their descriptions, he turned his attention to carefully examining the Eight Sceneries Red Dust Lamp.

Visually, it was no different from the illustration in the guide, but it was warm and smooth to the touch, and much smaller than Fang Qingyuan had anticipated.

Fang Qingyuan had originally thought it would be the size of a human head, but the actual object was several sizes smaller.

While Fang Qingyuan was intently examining the magical artifact, Han Ping ran over to the other Manta Rays, inspecting the sacks of Spirit Rice loaded on their backs.

After a quarter of an hour, Fang Qingyuan stored all four items in his Immortal Mansion. Once anything entered the Immortal Mansion, its connection to the outside world was completely severed. Any enemy hoping to use these items to track Fang Qingyuan was dreaming.

"There’s no time to lose. Let’s get going."

Han Ping urged Fang Qingyuan after his initial inspection of the Spirit Rice. Fang Qingyuan gave a slight nod. The next moment, the swarm of Manta Rays took to the air one by one, and escorted by the squadron of Cyan Jade Dragonflies, they flew onward along the Barbaric Border.