Chapter 310: Chapter 212: Hundred Days of Fetal Nurturing, Yellow Springs Dao Seed

When Bai Qi and his group returned to Black River County, it was already daybreak.

The Wuyan Python’s sinew, scales, and extracted venomous fangs were traded to Village Chief Song for six to seven thousand taels of cash silver.

The estate outside the city wasn’t large, so it was impossible to take out such an amount immediately. They had to inform the Master of Chai Market, and later have the steward of the Charcoal Workshop personally deliver it to the mansion in the Inner City.

"The sinew can be used to make bow materials, the scales are more than enough to make a few pieces of inner armor, and the fangs can be ground into medicinal powder... processing them further before selling could easily bring ten thousand taels of silver."

Bai Qi had no interest in self-production and self-sales. It took time and consumed energy; if it weren’t for the fire kiln being in abundant supply of such items, he would have left them to Master Li to fiddle with.

"Thank you, Master Bai!"

Village Chief Song beamed with joy. Completing such a profitable business deal made him so happy, he wished he could worship Bai Qi as an ancestor.

After all, Black River County and its surrounding villages had always been peaceful. Apart from the time when the Red Eyebrow Bandits attacked the city, when else had they ever encountered a thousand-year-old demon?

Once these fine materials were detoxified and artisans carefully tanned them, selling them in the County City wouldn’t be a problem at all.

"Bring your Young Master over; this is a rare opportunity to forge important connections."

Bai Qi pulled Village Chief Song aside and quietly instructed.

He asked him to arrange a boat for Guan Xingmiao and Tao Yun, thereby selling a favor to Chai Market, and called that kid Song Qiying to personally come and escort the two high-status figures from Yihai Prefecture.

One was the second master from the Jade Shop Guan Family, the other the eldest son from the Rice Shop Tao Family.

Enough to make Chai Market eager to curry favor.

"Tonight was truly rewarding."

On the return journey, Bai Qi looked at the Tai Sui Chen Earth in the basin, pondering how to divide the spoils.

He was never the type to hog everything for himself. Forget everything else, just building the Treasure Basin for gathering and shifting the earth’s energy, Qi Yan and Master Lv Nan exerted quite a bit of effort.

Let alone exploring the mountain to procure treasures and scouting locations, which also relied on them. Even if it’s not meritorious, there’s hard work.

"At that time, I’ll ask them how much they each need. Always keeping the benefits to oneself, who would be willing to help out in the future?"

Bai Qi thought it over clearly, leaving the junior brothers from Wild Maoshan, and knocked on the vermilion gate of the mansion.

He himself, Qi Yan, and Lv Nan are open people and don’t need to beat around the bush and test each other.

Sit down, sort out the accounts clearly, and divide things as they should be; it would actually be more straightforward.

"Master Qi, would you like some supper? Have something to eat and then bathe and rest?"

The gatekeeper Uncle Qin, recruited from the fish stall, asked attentively.

Since moving into the Inner City, Bai Qi once envisioned the luxurious life of living in a mansion, marrying a lovely wife, and having beautiful maidservants, which was about one-third achieved.

Although he temporarily had no lovely wife or beautiful maidservants, the gatekeeper old man, the laundry woman, all were adequately arranged.

Furthermore, they were all live-in, arranged in the side rooms.

It’s worth noting, while there were plenty of slave households in Black River County, most were laborers, divided into temporary and long-term workers.

The former were for temporary help, paid after work was done and then left, while the latter signed contracts through a brokerage, defined for periods like three to five years or even ten to twenty years.

Laborers were not household slaves, life and death in the hands of the master; they were relatively free. Some of the washing women worked as temporary workers for several households in a day, increasing their livelihood through washing and mending.

So generally, big families would never possibly maintain household slaves, or they’d arrange seven or eight live-in long-term workers for each room, for various tasks, making continued expenditure excessive and uneconomical.

In need of a groom, mason, or the like, they’d directly employ through a brokerage.

Keeping them at home doing nothing but eating is too extravagant and wasteful.

"No need, just heat a bucket of hot water. Is Ah Di asleep?"

While answering, Bai Qi marveled at how he could now afford to support quite a few people.

The gatekeeper in the front courtyard, the cook in the kitchen, the laundry woman, along with Old Xu taking care of the horses in the backyard.

In total, there are about eight or nine, quite a substantial household by the standards of Black River County.

Of course, this still seemed rather plain and humble for Bai Qi, the Master of the Fish Stall.

Previously, when He Wenbing went out, he was always flanked by a huge entourage. Inside the mansion, there were no less than fifty hired guards, each trained in martial arts, exuding great authority, and displaying ample pomp.

"Young Master Ming hasn’t yet; he was sitting at the entrance earlier, saying he wanted to wait for you to return, and then he went back to his room to practice martial arts."

The gatekeeper Uncle Qin, a former fisherman who practiced martial arts for a few years, was quite attentive to Uncle Changshun. Now his son worked at Bai’s Fish Stall, and as he couldn’t stay idle, he was appointed to the new mansion as the gatekeeper by the master.

"My brother is truly a workaholic."

Bai Qi muttered to himself, and then thought:

"I do indeed have the momentum to surpass Song Qi from Chai Market and become the top person in this county, but maintaining a low profile is a principle of conduct, so there is no need to deliberately flaunt and parade."

He placed the treasure basin filled with Tai Sui Chen Earth inside the room and planned to have the workers dig the soil early tomorrow morning. According to Qi Yan and Lv Nan’s advice, it would be turned into an excellent pool for nourishing spirit rice, cultivating treasure plants, and producing great medicines. He then went next door to the main house to check if Ah Di had fallen asleep.

He saw Bai Ming sitting cross-legged on the bed, practicing breathing techniques with long and short breaths, a fine airflow coiling around his nose like a long serpent.

Evidently, he had crossed into the First Realm of Dao Skill, practicing the eating elixir and avoiding grain, and was beginning to reach a meditative state.

"The inner pill of the thousand-year-old great demon, used to brew the soup, is enough to replenish the deficiencies of Ah Di’s weak body. The vocabulary scroll he practices is a life-nurturing superior martial art, with spirit and flesh complementing each other, subtly merging into one."

Bai Qi stood at the doorway, silently observing for a moment, witnessing Ah Di Bai Ming’s martial and Dao skills advancing side by side, and he felt an intense paternal satisfaction in his heart.

He gently closed the bedroom door and went to bathe and change clothes, letting his hair down. Returning to the room, he lit the Cross-Sea Incense given by Chen Zhao.

Then he sat on the bedside, taking out the Ascension Order made of wrought iron.

"Thanks to this item, my ’Flood Dragon Subdues Yellow Springs Sutra’ broke through the first layer, with my thoughts becoming more concentrated and almost forming. The next step is to complete the hundred-day embryo nurturing."

Bai Qi calmed his mind, gradually entering a state of meditation. It was as if the ’Flood Dragon Subdues Yellow Springs Sutra,’ engraved like knife and axe imprints, added seven or eight hundred tiny tadpole-like characters, resembling shimmering stars, emitting brilliance and containing profound meaning.

"Ordinary people have nothing to nourish within them, with their spirit scattered and without refuge, during the day the spirit resides in the mind, and at night the spirit emerges from the body. Only when the spirit merges with the body, things cannot tempt, all evils cannot affect, the departure from life and death depends on me. The spirit does not stagnate, the soul resides within me, this is the work of creation... nurturing the holy embryo, capturing the essence of the moon, the brilliance of the sun..."

Bai Qi silently contemplated the true meaning of the sutra, with various techniques and their effects enhancing, particularly coagulating the ’Dragon Strategy’ divine seed, making his comprehension increasingly profound.

These obscure and complex mysterious phrases required repeated savoring, slowly settling in his heart, quickly transforming into clear insight.

It was as if spring rain moistened the fields, with round droplets sprinkling down, creating a misty spiritual fog, causing his concentrated and bright thoughts and soul to expand several times.

"Hiss!"

Bai Qi couldn’t help but draw a breath of cold air, his whole being filled with a light, transcendent comfort, utterly indescribable in words.

Such soul-deep refreshment surpassed any physical indulgence in extreme pleasure.

"No wonder the Daoist officials in the prefecture city and county city all enjoy closing off to meditate.

The enhancement and gradual strengthening of thoughts and the divine soul have a subtle influence on the heart.

Subdue the heart, dominate oneself... this feeling is too marvelous.

If martial cultivation is the ultimate transformation of the physical shell, then Dao cultivation seeks transcendence!

Transcending beyond the mundane and material world, thus leaping beyond heaven and earth, no longer bound by forms, worried by life and death, or troubled by emotions and desires."

Bai Qi’s mind became clear, as if clearing away clouds to see the sun and moon, dispelling the occasional confusion and bewilderment of the past.

As his intention gradually settled, it was like a heavy shackle fell, his thoughts became solidly firm, suddenly emerging into a mass of swirling airy currents, where reality and illusion intermingled.

Perhaps due to practicing the ’Flood Dragon Subdues Yellow Springs Sutra,’ at first glance, it appeared as if giant flood dragons were swimming through the vast waters, baring fangs and claws, swallowing clouds and exhaling mist.

"Dao Skill Second Realm, after entering meditation, it becomes embryo nurturing. Using the method as the foundation, coagulating the shape of an infant embryo. Nurturing and growing, transforming into the divine soul.

For the next one hundred days, there must be continuous growth of the physical shell and nourishment of thoughts, so that the ’embryo does not die in the womb,’ avoiding breakthrough failure."

Bai Qi opened his eyes, his gaze seemed covered with a layer of brilliant light, bright and shining, leaving a memorable impression at first glance.

"That inner pill of the thousand-year-old great demon is timely, providing support like a pillow for a sleepy head, sufficient to support the completion of the hundred-day embryo nurturing, allowing the divine soul to land."

He slightly released his spirit, and in the usually imperceptible void, traces suddenly appeared, like an invisible curtain covering all directions, only touchable through the divine soul, beyond which stars densely fill the space, incalculable, flickering, appearing and disappearing, buried deep within the Inner Scenic Land.

Upon closer sensing, the outlines of mighty beings spanning all directions stand starkly, stirring heaven and earth.

Resembling a great sun bursting with light, intensely bright, reflecting within the mind.

"Five... they should be the Mountain Gates opened by the five great Taoist Sects of the Red County Divine Land in the void."

Bai Qi collected his thoughts, his divine soul roamed the grand void, naturally shedding spiritual light, akin to walking the night with hands on a lantern, potentially attracting unclean and eerie entities.

His heart slightly trembled, and a black talisman spun brilliantly, suddenly condensing into a golden Dao Seed.

"Derived from the ’Flood Dragon Subdues Yellow Springs Sutra’..."

Bai Qi glanced at it, and a multitude of information flowed forth like tides.

[Yellow Springs (Dao Seed First Level)]

[Progress: 1/800]

[Brush away distractions, cleanse imprints, turbulent currents eliminate past traces]

"This Dao Seed... can wipe away the impurities of others’ thoughts, erase the spiritual imprints left behind. In this way, in the future, when I take treasures... ahem, the magical artifacts acquired from robbing the rich to benefit the poor, won’t they be easily refined and made my own?"

Bai Qi was quite pleasantly surprised, not expecting the ’Yellow Springs’ Dao Seed condensed from the ’Flood Dragon Subdues Yellow Springs Sutra’ to have such miraculous effect.

"It’s said, three thousand years ago, in the secret caches of the Taoist Sects, many ghost immortals who broke the barrier of life and death sat and scattered, their bodies decayed but their thoughts lasted.

Thus often it is told, some Dao cultivator inadvertently steps into the Inner Scenic Land of a ghost immortal power, closes off for a hundred years to refine thoughts, and subsequently experiences an extraordinary story of sudden ascent.

My ’Yellow Springs’ Dao Seed is perfect for cleansing the spiritual imprints left by remaining thoughts. If fortune sufficient, it might directly lead through the Dao Skill Fourth Realm..."