Ximen Immortal Clan

Chapter Seven: Ximen Cangjian

Successfully purchased the eggs of the Stone-Eating Gold Ants. Ximen Changqing was secretly delighted; once the eggs hatched, the benefits would be immeasurable.

He had used up all his spirit stones, but quickly obtained a hundred low-grade spirit stones from his grandfather as a reward for identifying the Xuan Yin Iron.

With the knowledge from those rare books of heaven and earth, Ximen Changqing could easily find bargains.

In the following day and a half, he identified several high-value second-tier spirit materials, much to Ximen Rende's delight.

In three days, Ximen Rende spent a total of five thousand spirit stones, purchasing a considerable amount of spirit materials, the true value of which was at least thirty thousand spirit stones.

The trade fair lasted a month, but Ximen Rende only participated in the first three days; there wouldn't be any new goods appearing afterward, and staying would only waste time.

He had already made arrangements with the patriarchs of the Pan and Wu families to return as soon as possible to deal with the demon beast matter.

"Changqing, this is from your seventh uncle, take it."

At the farewell, Ximen Renzheng smiled broadly, his tone brooking no objection.

"Thank you, Seventh Uncle." Ximen Changqing accepted the gift without hesitation.

"Seventh Brother, no need to see me off. Everything as usual. Keep a close eye on the movements of Yunjian Mountain."

Ximen Rende released two Wind Chasing Beasts from his spirit beast pouch, and he and Ximen Changqing mounted them.

Ximen Renzheng nodded and watched the two ride away.

On horseback, Ximen Changqing used his divine sense to probe his storage pouch and found that it contained 500 jin of White Jade Spirit Valley and more than a dozen spirit fruits.

The moment he saw the White Jade Spirit Valley, Ximen Changqing understood that his Seventh Uncle had already discovered his theft of the spirit valley, but had been pretending not to know.

A sense of shame lingered in his heart. His elders' care for him was genuine, and he had actually tried to be clever.

The Wind Chasing Beasts galloped south for ten days, and the grandfather and grandson left Yunzhou and entered Cangzhou.

Qingyang County, where the Ximen family lived, was located in the center of Cangzhou, the core of the nine counties of Cangzhou. After traveling for another five days, they returned to Qingyang Ward, the center of Qingyang County.

Qingyang Market was a market jointly built by the ancestors of the Ximen family, the Pan family of Jinlian Mountain, and the Wu family of Yanggu Mountain.

The market was only 500 li from the Ximen family's mountain gate, but a full 5,000 li from the other two families.

The spiritual vein where the market was located belonged to the Ximen family, so they naturally held a 40% stake, while the Pan and Wu families each held 30%.

Originally, the Ximen family could have built Qingyang Market themselves, but their ancestors considered its advantageous location and the substantial profits it would generate. They also felt

that the Ximen family's strength alone was insufficient to guarantee the market's safety. Therefore, they contributed a portion of their profits to secure two staunch allies, ensuring greater security.

This proved true; after its completion, Qingyang Market quickly became the most bustling market in the nine prefectures of Cangzhou.

There were nearly twenty Foundation Establishment families and many independent cultivators in the nine prefectures, and many had designs on Qingyang Market. However, with the joint support of the three families, the market repeatedly escaped danger.

Over the past six hundred years, the three Foundation Establishment families have experienced ups and downs, each facing a crisis of decline, but driven by shared interests, the other two families always stepped in to help.

Over time, the bonds between the three great families deepened, leading to numerous intermarriages among both cultivators and mortals, further binding their interests together.

Qingyang Market had over three hundred shops, with each of the three Foundation Establishment families occupying a dozen or so of the best locations, and the rest rented out.

The annual rent for their cave dwellings and shops reached seventy to eighty thousand spirit stones, and after deducting necessary costs, the annual profit exceeded fifty thousand spirit stones.

Such high returns naturally attracted attention, and for this reason, Ximen Cangjian, the pillar of the Ximen family, had remained stationed in the market for over sixty years.

Ximen Cangjian was the nineteenth great-uncle of Ximen Rende, the strongest member of the Ximen family, possessing a ninth-level Foundation Establishment cultivation, an eighth-grade fire spirit root, and a second-grade metal spirit root. He was a dual cultivator of swordsmanship.

He cultivated the family's secret-grade fire-based technique, "Burning Heaven and Boiling Seas," and the family's sword technique, "Mountain Dwelling Sword Intent," making him far stronger than the average ninth-level Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Now one hundred and twenty years old, with eighty years of lifespan remaining, he appeared remarkably robust.

As a second-tier low-grade weapon refiner and array master, he spent all his time outside of cultivation in the Earth Fire Chamber, refining various magical artifacts and occasionally low-grade spiritual artifacts.

At the foot of the spiritual mountain where Qingyang Workshop was located, there was a small fire vein with more than ten Earth Fire Chambers. Half were used for alchemy and half for weapon refining, the three major families each occupied two chambers, and the remaining chambers were rented out.

At this moment, the Earth Fire Chamber was filled with various ores. Ximen Cangjian was refining a top-grade magical artifact, and on the table beside him were more than ten completed magical artifacts.

"Ancestor."

"Nineteenth Uncle."

The grandfather and grandson returned to Qingyang Workshop and immediately went to the Ximen family's Earth Fire Chamber.

"Haha! Changqing, you've grown taller again." Ximen Cangjian greeted them with a smile.

"Ancestor, Grandpa and I went to Yunjian Workshop and bought you a lot of ores. They're all here." He then opened his storage bag and poured out the ores.

Ximen Cangjian, a weapon refiner, possessed a far superior knowledge of ores than Ximen Rende, recognizing most of the spiritual materials at a glance.

"So many spiritual ores, worth at least 30,000 spirit stones! Rende, when did the family accumulate so many spirit stones?"

Picking up a piece of ore, Ximen Cangjian asked excitedly.

Ximen Rende glanced at his grandson and hurriedly said excitedly, "Nineteenth Uncle, these were bought for 5,000 spirit stones."

"5,000 spirit stones! Haha! That's a huge profit!"

Ximen Cangjian identified each type of ore, though he didn't recognize a few correctly.

"Ancestor, these dozen or so pieces aren't ordinary Xuan Tong ore. The surface patterns are wrong; they contain Xuan Yang Copper inside."

"Xuan Yang Copper?"

Ximen Cangjian used a low-grade spiritual weapon forging hammer to crack open the ore, immediately seeing the Xuan Yang Copper inside, and was instantly overjoyed.

"Xuan Yang Copper is a second-tier high-grade. It seems the value of these ores is still over 50,000 spirit stones. This brat, he's really missing out by not learning weapon refining!" Ximen Cangjian was delighted.

The Ximen family's greatest strength lies in weapon crafting, and Ximen Changqing naturally wouldn't give up learning this skill.

Not only does he need to learn weapon crafting, but he also needs to learn alchemy and talisman making. As for array formations, he's already a first-tier, low-grade array master.

Just as the Ximen family has stumbled upon a lucky break and their family's foundation has strengthened, a new round of conspiracies targeting them is quietly brewing.