A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Chapter 59: Chapter 58: Mundane Mortals

After passing the swamp, the road was almost all downhill.

The deciduous trees lining the road gradually gave way to various evergreens.

This meant the group had entered the Yanling Mountain Range.

They only needed to travel for two more days to reach the Yanling Mountain Market.

Lü Zhong had only learned that the Yanling Mountain Market belonged to the Golden Rainbow Sect after inquiring with a cultivator from the Treasure Workshop. The Golden Rainbow Sect was a Major Sect with a Golden Core Ancestor watching over it, its dominion stretching for thousands of miles.

The Golden Rainbow Sect was a rare Sword Cultivation Sect, and as such, it had only a little over a hundred disciples.

Perhaps due to their small numbers, the Golden Rainbow Sect’s management of the Yanling Mountain Market was quite hands-off. Aside from periodically sending disciples down the mountain to collect money, they almost never involved themselves in the market’s affairs.

Thus, power in the Workshop Market had fallen into the hands of its current administration.

The reason was simple: they always managed to pay the taxes mandated by the Golden Rainbow Sect on time and in full.

It was this very administration that had brought about the current prosperity of the Yanling Mountain Market.

Anything not forbidden is permitted, provided you have the money.

Everything could be bought, and everything could be sold.

And if you couldn’t sell something, it was only because you hadn’t given the Tax Officer enough Spirit Stones.

...

Evening fell once again.

This time, instead of finding a place to camp for the night as they had before, the group hung Bright Moon Beads from the carriages, apparently intending to travel straight through until morning.

When he asked a cultivator from the Treasure Workshop, Lü Zhong learned that this stretch of road was notorious for being overrun by Evil Cultivators. There were no safe places to stop ahead, and an attack could come at any moment.

The mortal villages along the road were bad news.

In the lawless Yanling Mountain region, mortal villages, in order to survive the harsh environment, would either seek the protection of a powerful cultivator or become the eyes and ears of Evil Cultivators, helping the villains. Some of the larger villages did both.

Under these circumstances, traveling through the night was a reluctant but necessary choice.

They traveled for most of the night, until it was nearly dawn.

Perhaps because they feared the might of the Treasure Workshop, the anticipated attack from Evil Cultivators never came.

In the distance, the horizon was beginning to show the pale white of dawn.

As the night faded, vast fields began to appear on both sides of the road.

The fields were filled with lush, green rice shoots that were already half the height of a man. Raggedly dressed farmers toiled among them. Not far off, a peasant woman with a child in tow walked along a ridge, carrying two buckets of liquid fertilizer on a shoulder pole.

Judging by their sallow faces and matted hair, their lives were anything but easy.

The boy with the peasant woman was a particularly sorry sight. Though he was old enough to have an Adam’s apple, he stood just over three feet tall. His face was visibly swollen, and one glance was enough to see he was severely malnourished. He was completely naked, his belly round and distended.

When they saw the Treasure Workshop caravan approaching, all the mortals on the road revealed expressions of fearful reverence. They knelt and prostrated themselves, pressing their trembling bodies as low to the ground as possible, lest they accidentally offend the Immortal Masters in the party.

But Lü Zhong could see through their facade. ’On the surface, these mortals are utterly docile, but their hearts are filled with hatred for Cultivators. They just hide it incredibly well, never daring to let it show. This hatred is born from a yearning to become Immortal Masters, but because they lack Spirit Roots and cannot practice cultivation, that yearning has festered under terrifying, day-to-day oppression, twisting into an extreme desire for destruction.’

’Given the chance, these villagers would drag the high-and-mighty Immortal Masters down into the mud with them.’

’Is this what mortals are like in the Cultivation Realm?’

Lü Zhong sighed, filled with emotion. He couldn’t help but feel grateful that he possessed a Spirit Root.

’Even if it’s just a common Four Spirit Roots, it still represents a sliver of hope.’

After passing the farmland and rounding a bend in the mountain, a small mortal village came into view. It was enclosed by a rammed-earth wall, about a third of a mile in circumference, filled with nothing but low, thatched huts that sprawled in a chaotic mess. Every detail bespoke the filth and poverty of the place.

’How unfortunate to be born in a place like this!’

As they pressed on, the scenery began to quietly change.

At first, the farmland grew denser, and each new mortal village they passed was larger than the last.

Gradually, paved bluestone roads replaced the dirt tracks, and houses made of brick and tile began to appear.

However, no large-scale mortal settlements ever appeared. This was likely due to the Golden Rainbow Sect’s policy of non-involvement. Without the dedicated protection of a Sect, mortals, with their meager strength, had no hope of surviving in the harsh Southern Barbarian Land.

It was not until dusk that they came upon a market town of a respectable size.

But by then, the Yanling Mountain Market was already in sight.

It was a massive Workshop Market built into the side of a mountain. Aside from its gentler south-facing incline, the other three sides were sheer rock cliffs. Buildings cascaded in tiers down the gentle slope.

A haphazardly constructed gatehouse stood at the sole entrance to the Yanling Mountain Market.

The gatehouse was now brightly lit with lamps. Several caravans, large and small, were queued up at the main gate, waiting for entry. The air was filled with shouts and arguments, creating a chaotic scene.

This was where Lü Zhong had to part ways with the group; the caravan wasn’t responsible for escorting people into the Workshop Market itself.

Arriving at the gatehouse, a stranger in a strange land, he didn’t approach recklessly. Instead, he activated his Stealth Technique to minimize his presence, planning to observe from the sidelines for a while.

He could see quite a few other cultivators who, like him, were preparing to enter the Yanling Mountain Market.

Unlike the main gate for caravans, there was a small side gate designated for cultivators.

He noticed their treatment fell into two categories. The first group presented a black iron or Jade Token. They only needed to pay the Tax Officer at the entrance a few talismanic coins before being allowed into the Workshop Market.

The second group consisted of those without a Token. They were directed to a small house off to the side.

When they emerged, every one of them wore a pained expression, as if they’d just lost a pound of flesh. Each now carried a ragged old hoe, which clashed bizarrely with their otherwise tidy attire.

Then, when paying the Tax Officer, they had to fork over a whole Spirit Stone before being allowed to enter.

’This is outrageous!’ Lü Zhong hadn’t expected the disparity in treatment between the two groups to be so vast.

He asked around and soon learned it was all because of a rule established by the Golden Rainbow Sect.

According to the rules set by those Sword Cultivators, there was a requirement for entry into the Yanling Mountain Market: one had to have mastered one of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation.

In theory, cultivators who hadn’t mastered a skill weren’t allowed inside. The secret, however, was in that little house. For a ”painfully” large fee of Spirit Stones, one could be certified by the administration as a Spirit Plant Cultivator, thereby gaining the right to enter the Yanling Mountain Market.

’No wonder they’re so strict about enforcement... They’re just using the Golden Rainbow Sect’s rule as a pretext to line their own pockets!’

Lü Zhong understood everything now and couldn’t help but feel a grudging admiration.

’You have to admit, these people really know how to make money, coming up with a scheme like this.’