Lady Cultivator-Chapter 259 - Chores

Upon obtaining a new Immortal’s Cave, Mo Tiange once again had to move residences. Fortunately, she didn’t have too many possessions; the important ones were either inside her Qiankun Bag or in her Virtual Sky World. Thus she only packed up the things she normally used and left the furniture behind then moved to Lord Daoist Xuanyin’s previous cave.

When she first came to Clear Spring Peak, she lived in one of the small caves next to Lord Daoist Xuanyin. It was the first decent Immortal’s Cave she ever lived in. Right now, she had returned but as the master of the main cave.

It had been a long time since Lord Daoist Xuanyin moved to Sweet Dew Peak, and he also brought all his disciples with him, so now, such a big Immortal’s Cave belonged only to Mo Tiange alone.

As a big cultivation group in the Celestial Pole, Xuanqing School was already extremely generous in its treatment towards their high level cultivators, but for it to give an Immortal’s Cave of this scale to a cultivator who’d just formed her Gold Core like her… Mo Tiange knew deep inside that this happened only because of the deep affection Lord Daoist Jinghe had for her.

At this point, a small smile emerged on her face. She could be considered lucky in this life. Although she lost a lot, she also obtained many equally precious things.

She advanced into the Core Formation realm, but because she still had no disciples, the steward’s hall asked permission to send over some disciples to tidy up the cave on her behalf. If she had no objections, those disciples could continue handling the chores for her.

At Xuanqing School, unless they were elite disciples, the disciple rations presented to Foundation Building cultivators were usually insufficient to support their cultivation, so they generally looked for some errands to perform. Even for elite disciples, if their master’s status wasn’t high and they didn’t receive many offerings, their disciple rations wouldn’t be enough for their cultivation either.

When Mo Tiange first came to Xuanqing School, she was brought back by Master Daoist Shoujing who was Lord Daoist Jinghe’s beloved disciple, then she was accepted as Lord Daoist Jinghe’s registered disciple and placed under Master Daoist Xuanyin’s guidance, so she never had to worry about spirit stones. However, ordinary elite disciples certainly didn’t have that kind of luck. Luo Fengxue had quite a lot of spirit stones, but it was only because she worked in the steward’s hall and she was also favored by her master. Even Ye Jingwen also ran errands once in a while to make some spirit stones to support his cultivation. Back when he went to the secular world to take her to Xuanqing School, it was also an errand.

For Foundation Building disciples, the best possible job was none other than becoming a steward in the steward’s hall. The job would give them a bit of power and a stable income of spirit stones. The only drawback was that they couldn’t be in long periods of Closed Door Meditation, thus affecting their cultivation.

The second best job was to handle chores for the school. For some matters, Aura Refining disciples’ cultivation levels were too low, so the school didn’t feel at ease handing them these tasks and asked Foundation Building disciples to take care of them. If they wanted to enter Closed Door Meditation, they’d only need to ask for a leave of absence or entrust the matters to others. The only shortcoming was that the position didn’t offer too many spirit stones and it was also unstable work.

There was also a kind of errand that could be considered both good and bad—working for a Core Formation cultivator. It could be considered good because it was indeed better than the first type of job. One could meet a Core Formation cultivator, and if they performed well, they might even obtain some rewards. However, it was also bad because how could a Core Formation cultivator be easy to wait upon? If one ran into a few bad-tempered cultivators, not only would they be tossed around, but their spirit stones might also be deducted. Besides, generally speaking, most Core Formation cultivators had their own disciples. The easy matters were usually taken care of by their disciples, so what was left were arduous chores.

But working for a Core Formation cultivator who just formed their Gold Core, didn’t have any disciples, and had Lord Daoist Jinghe as their backing like Mo Tiange did was an extremely good choice of errand. She’d just formed her Gold Core and she had no disciples; that meant she wouldn’t be too picky about her workers, and they could have a chance to run better errands for her. Since she had a backing, she’d most likely be rich, so she’d definitely be generous with her rewards.

Nevertheless, just like Martial Uncle Shoujing back then, Martial Uncle Qingwei’s Immortal’s Cave also wouldn’t accept just anybody. They had to find some method through the steward’s hall to be recommended to work in her cave.

Mo Tiange looked at the cultivators sent over by the steward’s hall, feeling her head aching. Sure enough, most of them were her senior martial siblings’ disciples and the rest were those with some connections.

She mused to herself. Back then, Senior Martial Brother Shoujing seemed to not really like having other people entering his Immortal’s Cave, so he only chose a few people among the disciples of several of his senior martial siblings when he needed disciples to handle some chores. However, Mo Tiange wasn’t as fastidious. Although she also wasn’t too fond of noise, her cave was indeed very big—it wouldn’t do to have nobody taking care of the chores. It was just that there were too many people—she really didn’t know what to do with them. She wondered whether it would matter if she refused the potential hires with connections.

Consequently, Mo Tiange sent out a Summoning Talisman, consulting Luo Fengxue about the matter. Luo Fengxue often encountered this kind of matter, so she could most likely give Mo Tiange some good suggestions.

Before long, Luo Fengxue sent a Summoning Talisman back. “If you’re not happy, you can just decline. You don’t have to worry about offending others. You’re grandmaster’s official disciple now, and you’ve also formed your Gold Core—those martial uncles won’t take offense just because of this matter. If you don’t feel like dealing with this at all, just take the list of the chores out and give it to the steward’s hall. The steward’s hall will sort it out properly on your behalf.”

Mo Tiange was enlightened. Right! After she formed her Gold Core, she wasn’t just Lord Daoist Jinghe’s disciple; she was also an elder at Xuanqing School. Why did she have to worry about offending others? Her senior martial siblings certainly wouldn’t blame her just over a few small disciples. The steward’s hall must also want to curry favor with her, so they certainly wouldn’t dare to be careless if she told them to do something.

Now that she had a plan, Mo Tiange immediately listed the chores that needed to be handled and gave the list to a steward from the steward’s hall. She told him which chores needed to be performed by Foundation Building disciples and which didn’t require disciples with a specific cultivation level. As for selecting the people and the cost, she let the steward handle all of that. At the same time, she also mentioned in passing that she didn’t like to be disturbed by others, so it’d be better if fewer people were employed.

The steward went about carrying out her order and sure enough, he handled everything properly. Feeling pleased by his work, Mo Tiange rewarded him well.

In fact, this was also luck. Before she formed her Gold Core, she entered the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation and obtained many spiritual plants from it. When she was out, those spiritual plants were submitted by Ye Zhenji. Her luck was good; the reward she got from those spiritual plants was ample. After she came to, she originally wanted to let Zhenji keep the reward, but he firmly refused. He said he already had the disciple ration he got from his master. He said she was also in the Foundation Building realm, so she shouldn’t expend too many of her things for him. Mo Tiange gave it some thought then gave up and directly put those spiritual panaceas into her Qiankun Bag. Now was the perfect time to take them out and give them to those disciples as a reward.

Upon seeing how generous she was, the disciples, who came to perform chores for her, became even more diligent.

However, as she sat in her new Immortal’s Cave thinking about Ye Zhenji, she once again sank into a dazed state.

When she and Qin Xi were both in Closed Door Meditation, Ye Zhenji went down the mountain alone. He’d said that although his cultivation level already reached the peak of the early stage of the Foundation Building realm, his mental experience was lacking, so he ought to go out and experience more.

He now had a master after all, and Qin Xi didn’t oppose his plan, so Mo Tiange didn’t object either and let him go as he wished.

Besides, Zhenji was indeed lacking experience. Always keeping him at their sides wasn’t a solution. For example, although her cultivating journey could be considered smooth after she came to Xuanqing School, how much did she have to go through in her younger days? Her experience had long fostered her resolute and courageous temperament, but Zhenji wasn’t the same. His cultivating journey had been too smooth, so he practically had no mental experience at all. If he didn’t go out and obtain more experience, he wouldn’t be able to grow.

In the sixteen years she was in Closed Door Meditation, Zhenji came back once. However, at that time, both she and Qin Xi were still in Closed Door Meditation. Zhenji stayed for two years before he finally left the mountain again and hadn’t returned ever since. After careful consideration, it must’ve been almost eight years since then.

Mo Tiange couldn’t help but feel a bit worried. In the past eight years, Zhenji never sent any messages back; he couldn’t have had an accident, could he? Earlier, he left his blood essence behind and it was kept at Qin Xi’s place. Since Qin Xi didn’t say anything, Zhenji was presumably alright. But where did he go in the end? He obviously knew she was going to form her Gold Core, but he actually hadn’t returned for eight years. This was just too strange.

Once Mo Tiange’s thoughts reached this point, she sent a Summoning Talisman to the steward’s hall, entrusting them with the task of finding Ye Zhenji’s whereabouts—maybe that child was trapped somewhere and needed help.

Aside from her Immortal’s Cave and Zhenji, there was still one other matter that gave her a headache.

She advanced to the Core Formation realm at the age of eighty four years old, thus causing another sensation in west Kunwu. Many cultivators from other cultivation groups paid a visit to congratulate her. If she refused to meet them, she’d certainly seem too haughty. But to meet them… she really couldn’t stand these social functions. In the end, it was Luo Fengxue again who gave her a suggestion. “When Martial Uncle Shoujing advanced to the Core Formation realm, he was the same. He made the excuse that he needed to stabilize his realm, entered Closed Door Meditation and didn’t come out for a long time, and let the supervising disciples deal with the matter. Isn’t this also a good excuse? No one can say anything about it. You might as well do the same.”

Mo Tiange had a sudden realization. Right! After a cultivator made a realm-breakthrough, the most important thing for them was to stabilize their realm. If she said that, it would be inappropriate for others to blame her.

After she handed the matter over to the supervising disciples just like Luo Fengxue said, Mo Tiange shut herself inside her cave and no longer left, both to avoid those troublesome matters and also because she indeed had to stabilize her realm.

After forming her Gold Core, Mo Tiange could now take out the two Foundation Building puppets openly. With her identity as a Core Formation cultivator and Lord Daoist Jinghe as her backing, the fact that she possessed two Foundation Building puppets would only make people feel a bit surprised at most.

In addition, aside from stabilizing her realm, there was still one other matter of great importance—she ought to refine her natal magic weapon.

She’d long given the refining formula for the Heaven and Earth Fan to Lord Daoist Jinghe to be evaluated. Lord Daoist Jinghe only had praise for this magic weapon formula, and he felt even more amazed when he found out a female cultivator from several thousand years ago was the one who came up with it. He seemed to be itching to go back to that era and have a chat with Primordial Lady Bishui.

Mo Tiange didn’t tell him that Primordial Lady Bishui was her ancestor, Mo Yaoqing. Regarding what occurred in Linhai, she only talked about it generally. She focused her story on Ren Yufeng-related matters and gave the stone tablet she took from Ren Yufeng to Lord Daoist Jinghe to be studied.

Since Lord Daoist Jinghe was also full of praise for this Heaven and Earth Fan, Mo Tiange intended to refine it as her natal magic weapon. While its materials were hard to find in Linhai, it wasn’t necessarily impossible to find them in the Celestial Pole. Only a few of its materials were really hard to find, and they were worth quite a bit. Coupled with the connections Xuanqing School had, it was still very possible to refine the fan, so Lord Daoist Jinghe wasn’t against her plan either.

Mo Tiange asked Lord Daoist Jinghe about some of the materials she wasn’t familiar with then informed the steward’s hall to put out a notice, telling them to give their all in finding the materials.

Among the materials, the hardest ones to find were a millennium year old Chalcedony and a piece of Qiyun Stone. Although the other supplementary materials were rare, as long as Mo Tiange offered generous prices, the chance of finding them was still very high. These two things, however, could only be encountered by luck. Among the two, Qiyun Stone was the one Mo Tiange had no idea about. When she asked Lord Daoist Jinghe about it, he only said he read about it in some ancient records, but he never saw it in real life.

Because of this, Mo Tiange specifically told the steward’s hall that if there was a Qiyun Stone, they had to get it regardless of the price. In any case, with her current wealth, she could offer what could be considered an astronomic price among ordinary people. Even if her spirit stones weren’t enough, she still had a master standing behind her!

Aside from refining her natal magic weapon, other post-core-formation matters included changing her cultivation technique into a Core Formation realm technique and taking Core Formation realm spiritual panaceas.

However, Mo Tiange didn’t need to be troubled by these things. The Taiyuan Record Zhong Muling gave her could be used until the Deification realm, while Sunu Art of the Origin could be practiced until the Nascent Soul realm. Zhong Muling once said that if she practiced Sunu Art of the Origin, she could naturally come up with another cultivation technique based on her own specific condition after she entered the Deification realm, so she didn’t need to worry about her cultivation technique.

She even had less need to worry about spiritual panaceas. Right now, she didn’t need to concoct any for the time being. Originally, for the sake of honing her concocting skills, she concocted many Soul-Solidifying Pills and Clear Sky Pills. Those, coupled with the numerous medicinal pills and spirit stones the school rewarded for her core-formation, would at least allow her to enter Closed Door Meditation for several years without having to fret over medicinal pills.

Therefore, in the following days, she just continued cultivating to stabilize her realm while waiting for news about the materials for the Heaven and Earth Fan. Of course, she could still collect magic weapons. After all, a Core Formation cultivator’s capabilities in fights of magical power still depended on their magic weapons.