Several more days passed, and after spending over three months in the cave, Ji Yuan finally left the place.
He returned to the mountain peak Daoist temple, said a few words to Xia Dong, and then departed from the Nine Xuan Sect, traveling a hundred miles to a market town.
However, unlike in the past, this time as he entered the town, he did not go directly to Ming Xin Xuan but to a courtyard instead.
This place was already his property and the dwelling of many of his subordinates, who were scattered cultivators.
As soon as he entered, Ji Yuan saw Li Buwei, who was in the courtyard with a few people, seemingly discussing something.
"Young Master!"
The group immediately stood up, calling out with smiles.
It was no wonder they were all smiles. In the three months they had been here, they had been well-fed and treated to spiritual meals and teas, with no worries about the cultivation resources they needed.
Such a comfortable life was infinitely better than being scattered cultivators out in the wild.
Not to mention that upon their arrival, they had received several cultivation manuals from Ming Xin Xuan. Besides one that led directly to the peak of the Third Realm, the rest could at least allow for smooth cultivation up to the Third Realm.
And the one who provided them with all this was the young man in Daoist robes before them.
Besides Li Buwei, there were also Zhu Tao, Cheng Junjie, and the Mountain Daoist. Only Liu Qi, who claimed to be an external employee of Fei Yun Chamber of Commerce, was not present.
As if guessing Ji Yuan's thoughts, Zhu Tao quickly said, "Liu Qi left on business, saying he wanted to resign his position as an external employee. He should be back in a day or two."
Since they had enjoyed the benefits and saw hope for the future, they naturally wanted to be more sincere. Although Fei Yun Chamber of Commerce itself didn't care about the status of an external employee, who knew if the new owner would mind?
It was better to be proactive and avoid any misunderstandings that might cause suspicion from the new owner.
"What are you all chatting about?"
Ji Yuan nodded slightly, scanning everyone with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Li Buwei raised his eyebrows, and the others beside him broke into smiles.
"This matter, perhaps Fellow Daoist Zhu can explain."
The former smiled mysteriously and then turned his gaze to the side.
Seeing this, Ji Yuan couldn't help but feel a bit curious, wondering if they had prepared some surprise for him.
Feeling the gazes converged on him, Zhu Tao couldn't help but smile bitterly. "To speak of it, I must ask for your forgiveness, Young Master. I took the liberty of using the silver you left behind to purchase some properties."
More than two months ago, Li Buwei and the others finally arrived in this market town with the Nine Xuan Sect's contingent.
A few days later, the Mountain Daoist chanced upon some friends, from whom he heard that a small sect a thousand miles away was selling off its ancestral properties due to poor management.
At first, they thought it was a trap, but at Zhu Tao's insistence, they still assembled a team and rushed a thousand miles to investigate.
After some investigation, they found that this small sect was indeed selling its assets, and only a small mountain peak remained.
Zhu Tao did not hesitate and bought the mountain peak, costing only three thousand taels of silver. The various procedures afterward cost no more than a hundred taels of silver.
"Although the mountain peak is not large, it has everything it needs. After all, it is a sect that has been passed down for two to three hundred years,"
Zhu Tao said with a smile. "The mountain peak is already well-constructed, and only a few dozen taels of silver were spent on renovations. We won't need to undertake major construction ourselves in the future."
This was equivalent to picking up a ready-made item, and it was no exaggeration to say they could move in immediately.
The most important point was that this mountain peak, which no one had thought much of, even the inheritor of the original sect, was actually a private property!
As the Great Yu Dynasty conquered a vast territory, most of the land on its territory had been reclaimed by the court.
Except for powerful sects, and powerful existences like the Nine Xuan Sect, even sects that had been passed down for hundreds of years had their sect locations belonging to the Great Yu Dynasty.
These sects and powers were required to pay a fixed rental fee to the court annually and must diligently manage the property, otherwise, the court would have the right to reclaim the leased land on the grounds of damaging the local landscape and fortune.
Private properties like this were extremely rare in the Great Yu Dynasty.
"I inquired about it. This sect was once glorious two to three hundred years ago. It saved the life of the then prefect and rendered great service to the court, thus gaining private ownership of that mountain peak,"
The Mountain Daoist said with a smile.
Hearing this, Ji Yuan's eyes immediately lit up. He hadn't expected them to bring him such a surprise.
A privately owned mountain peak, no matter how small, was of immense value, unimaginable to ordinary cultivators.
Its value was not reflected in gold and silver, but rather in something that was hard to articulate.
For instance, within private property, as long as one did not commit acts of rebellion, the court, without the owner's consent, could not send anyone to enter it.
Even on one's own territory, one could establish deities and build temples to receive incense offerings from the people, without needing the court's decree.
Originally, Ji Yuan had been troubled. If he were to refine a divine incarnation, he might be limited to the Third Realm in the future, unless he received a decree from the court.
But in doing so, he would be subject to others, and a mere decree from the court could easily shatter his golden body.
Although such a possibility was extremely remote, what cultivators hoped for most was the remote possibility, and what they worried about most was also this remote possibility.
Now, with a privately owned mountain peak, this worry could be alleviated. If his divine incarnation had the opportunity to enter the Golden Body realm in the future, he could choose this small mountain peak as his dojo.
"After purchasing the mountain peak, I took the liberty of using your name, Young Master, to ask Ming Xin Xuan for assistance in surveying the area inside and out."
Zhu Tao apologized, then continued, "After the survey, we discovered that within the boundaries of the land deed, there is an inconspicuous river whose end leads to the great river of Fei Yun Prefecture – the Fu Yuan River!"
Deep beneath the mountain peak, there was the source of a small river, which led to the Fu Yuan River tens of miles away.
If one were to be precise, this small river could barely be considered one of the sources of the Fu Yuan River. Because of this, the water vapor in this area was dense, containing a wisp of water fortune.
It seemed that the sect that originally occupied this place had no one skilled in this aspect. Otherwise, if they had managed it for a long time, they might have been able to transform this wisp of water fortune into a water root, and then nurture a mountain spirit within the mountain.
With such a configuration of mountain spirit and water root, even though the mountain peak was small, it could have created a spiritual land for cultivation, benefiting generations of disciples.
"You are truly my lucky stars!"
Ji Yuan's eyes flashed with brilliance, and he had already begun to make plans for that small mountain peak.