Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Evening, Jade Capital South City.

An abandoned high-rise building flickered with dim lights, seeming to seep out from holes, making the entire dilapidated building appear even more eerie and sinister.

”Is this the black market?”

As night fell, Zhang Fan followed Shi Shougong and Su Shiyu to the black market, to broaden his horizons.

However, he didn’t expect that the black market in Jade Capital was hidden in this abandoned building.

”Not far from here is an urban village. This building has been unfinished for more than ten years. After the last crackdown, the black market moved here; few people usually come by.” Shi Shougong explained.

Beside the abandoned high-rise, wild grass grew everywhere, along with piles of construction debris and trash.

Passing through the wire fence, Zhang Fan caught a whiff of a peculiar scent, which was pungent yet somewhat fragrant.

”Fragrance Barrier?!”

”Exactly, it’s a Fragrance Barrier, also to prevent ordinary people from wandering in.” Su Shiyu whispered in a lowered voice.

The greatest limitation for ordinary people is that their Primordial Spirit is dormant and their Consciousness is restless, perceiving the world through their five senses, so what they see, hear, smell, touch, etc., is greatly limited.

In the Daoist Sect, there’s a technique called Fragrance Barrier, which uses fragrances refined from Pill Remnants. When ordinary people smell it, their Consciousness becomes even more restless. What they see, hear, smell... is not just limited, but disordered.

In the eyes of those who have inhaled the Fragrance Barrier, this building might resemble a foul sewer, a waste treatment site, etc., and even if they see it, they’d steer clear of it.

In fact, many famous mountains and rivers also employ this technique.

People often speak of countless ancient cultivator stories, yet with such advanced modern technology and convenient transportation, which major mountain hasn’t been developed, which scenic spot hasn’t been turned into a tourist attraction, how come they’ve never encountered any?

In fact, those cultivators and those cultivation places are right in front of us, amidst the Red Dust, blending in with the surroundings, only blinded by the senses, ordinary people can’t see them at all.

Mundane people have barriers, and cultivators have barriers too.

Mundane people find it difficult to see cultivators, just as cultivators find it difficult to see Immortals.

Zhang Fan once heard an interesting story from Jiang Hu.

A couple of years ago, an Immortal who had refined a horse went on a trip to Lu Mountain with a friend. While climbing, from a distance, he spotted an animal hidden in the woods, huge in size, covered in mane.

The Immortal quickly urged the friend to look, but his friend, following his direction, saw nothing.

Later, they arrived at a Daoist temple on the mountain.

Lu Mountain Taiyi Temple is a place of the Taiyi Celestial Venerable of Salvation. They wandered inside for a long time, and suddenly, in a side hall, they saw a painting from the Tang Dynasty era, depicting the Dharma Aspect of the Taiyi Celestial Venerable of Salvation, which greatly differed from the common depictions nowadays.

The Immortal, at just a glance, couldn’t help but exclaim, because the mount beneath the Taiyi Celestial Venerable of Salvation portrayed in the painting was exactly the same as the strange animal he had seen.

Soon after, less than half a month after returning, that Immortal who had refined a horse passed away.

This piece of rather recent news, upon careful reflection, is quite mysterious.

”Brother Fan, let’s go in.”

Shi Shougong’s voice brought Zhang Fan’s thoughts back.

”Alright!”

Zhang Fan followed them into the abandoned building. It’s unclear who had connected the water and electricity here, but every stall was brightly lit, almost filling the empty and deserted floors.

”There are stalls from the first floor to the seventh floor here,” Shi Shougong introduced. ”As long as you have money, you can buy anything.”

Zhang Fan glanced around; it was indeed bustling, reminiscent of a bustling marketplace.

”Hmm!? What’s this?”

Approaching a stall, Zhang Fan saw a rusty wire cage containing a large rat, its body a dull gray, with a tuft of golden hair at the tip of its tail, and eyes glowing red.

”This is a ’Shuo Rat,’ an unusual species,” Su Shiyu, a Snake Demon, was knowledgeable about rodents.

The times have changed, the climate and environment have shifted, and many species are no longer visible today. Such unusual species can only be found in places like Ailao Mountain, Changbai Mountain, and Kunlun Mountain, within those Mountains and Seas Desperate Realm.

They aren’t like Spirit Monsters, which develop intelligence and understand cultivation, but they each hold their own mysteries.

Much like the ’Shuo Rat,’ Zhang Fan had once seen related records in the ’Dao Secret Record.’

In the early Tang era, in Dongyang Town, there was a prodigal son who indulged in eating and leisure every day, soon squandering the family fortune, eventually retreating to the countryside, relying on neighbors for support.

He didn’t live like this for long before he somehow got some money, started a business, and his ventures quickly grew, recovering all the lost family assets. People who knew him found it incredible.

Rumors spread, claiming that the prodigal son kept a rat at home, worshipping it with incense, feeding it fish and rich chicken.

The rat, initially palm-sized, gradually grew to resemble a hunting dog. To the point where the prodigal son specifically built a room in the backyard to worship this rat. Every midnight, strange noises emanated, terrifyingly loud.

One day, the prodigal son suddenly disappeared. That night, someone saw a massive gray shadow darting from his home, leaving behind footprints as large as millstones. The lock was broken on the backyard room, appearing as if bitten through.

When the Daoists of Zhongnan Mountain heard of it, they shook their heads and said that the prodigal son was serving a ’Shuo Rat,’ suppressing it within the home, accumulating wealth and ensuring safety.