Chapter 163: Building the Marketplace

Chapter 161

The presence of the sun and the moon meant there was now progression in time.

The heavens appeared to be unchanged. However, on the land, flowers bloomed and died to repeat the cycles of life and death.

The statues of the 12 zodiacs had been completely integrated into the mountains.

The Grade 3 spirit deity in the statue silently merged with the spiritual leylines to become a true spirit.

After the true spirit of the spiritual leylines manifested, it automatically exhaled a steady stream of spiritual energy.

The spiritual leylines had grown since then. There were even spiritual stones that could be found near the spiritual leylines.

But the spiritual leylines were no longer what they appeared to be before; they were no longer clearly visible.

They had gone deep within the interior of the mountains so that it was impossible to locate them by ordinary means.

The mountain ranges were acting as the shell, and the spiritual leylines were the soul. These twelve mountain peaks were now imbued with spirituality.

The mountain peaks had now become a treasured place and would be able to produce a lot more resources in the future.

The Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens, after two transformations, completely broke through the boundary of the Grotto-heavens.

Its size alone had exceeded the limit of Grotto-heavens, and it could now be considered a miniature world.

What was astounding was that the Grotto-heavens divine light was still absorbing essence power.

This time, it was directly collecting the essence fluid, and the billowing essence power was falling as if it was a river from the heavens.

The Seven Star Moon Pool expanded from the size of a small pond to that of a lake, and then to a much bigger lake.

The water in the lake was the essence fluid from the outside world.

This essence fluid was trapped inside the Seven Star Moon Pool, nourishing the ice bluegrasses and the Pure White Lotus.

The Pure White Lotus had bloomed again, and its aura was gradually becoming more perfect.

Chen Jingzhai stretched out his hand to guide three Innate Qi into the white lotus.

At a speed visible to the naked eye, the Grade 4 white lotus grew rapidly, and the lotus seeds from the lotus pods fell into the lake.

Then, the Grade 4 white lotus broke through to Grade 5, and nine lotus seeds took root and sprouted in the water.

The aura of the Grade 5 white lotus diffused, as the white lotus itself stretched and unfurled to the fullest.

The Pure White Lotus was blooming layer by layer, as new lotus seeds had been gestated.

Seeing this, Chen Jingzhai nodded with satisfaction and began working on the mountains and the rivers.

Just some slight repair and rearrangement was enough to guide the essence fluid to flow out of the Seven Star Moon Pool.

The essence fluid nourished the land and its vegetation. It brought benefits wherever it passed through.

The land inside the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens was too vast, with more than just the twelve peaks.

Even if there was a heavenly barrier to allow the essence power to fall evenly, it was not as ideal as the essence fluid was free-flowing.

And this opportunity was used to open up water channels so that all of the lands could be irrigated.

After finishing these tasks, Chen Jingzhai came to the place of the heavenly barrier.

He stood under the innate money tree and gently pulled off a milky white coin.

Without the need to use his special talent, the information naturally passed into Chen Jingzhai’s mind.

Item name: Pure coin

Compatibility: The fruit of the innate money tree

Usage: Assists in cultivation; replenishes spiritual power; natural talisman; natural currency

Chen Jingzhai’s eyes narrowed. This milky white pure coin had the same warm texture as the spirit jade.

But its effect was stronger than that of the spiritual stone. The essence power that it contained was the essence fluid.

This pure essence fluid had no impurities, but its value surpassed that of spiritual stones, spirit pearls, or spirit shells.

It was the most superior resource in cultivation.

Just in terms of the degree of essence power it contained, Chen Jingzhai believed that one pure coin was the equivalent of one hundred spirit pearls.

But if calculated by purity, perhaps one pure coin could be exchanged for a thousand spirit pearls.

If it was to be exchanged for spiritual stones, perhaps even 10,000 spiritual stones would not be able to purchase one single pure coin.

This was the kind of good stuff that was hard to come by.

After all, the pure coin had a variety of uses and was highly adaptable, so it could be used in many different situations, including setting up formations.

“It is finished!”

“I never thought that this fantastic idea would be a reality one day!”

“The next step is to rearrange everything in the heavens!”

Chen Jingzhai felt such joy in his heart, that a dazzling smile appeared on his face.

As to how to use the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens, Chen Jingzhai already had an idea from some time ago.

The spiritual leyline was the root, while the sun and the moon formed the basis, and the coin was the key.

Now that all three were gathered together, Chen Jingzhai’s idea suddenly contained a very huge possibility of being a reality.

He took a deep breath, then waved his sleeves suddenly as he levitated into the air.

All the deep ocean rocks and other debris that he had collected earlier now appeared in front of him.

Under the will of the Grotto-heavens Master, these items which he could not process before quickly changed forms.

The rocks became square and even in shape, fell directly from the sky, and piled up around the jade statue.

Soon, the jade statue was lifted up. There were thirty-three steps leading to the front of the statue.

This made the jade statue look more magnificent.

Later, Chen Jingzhai used the rest of the materials to create a splendid palace.

The palace fell behind the jade statue, and there was a huge plaza between the statue and the palace.

All of the rocks in the plaza were collected by Chen Jingzhai from the deep ocean canyon.

After finishing all the preparations, Chen Jingzhai moved the thirteen palaces that were built earlier.

More precisely, the rearrangements were made with the jade statue as the center.

There was a total of fourteen palaces surrounding the jade statue in the shape of the Eight Trigrams.

A formation manifested naturally; it was the Nine Palaces Cloud Formation.

Immediately after the formation took shape, clouds and mists gathered together, as celestial clouds floated underfoot. The whole place was now resembling a heavenly palace.

After everything was done, Chen Jingzhai stood in mid-air to recover his consciousness.

After all, he was leveraging the power of the Grottos-heavens to manipulate Grade 4 materials—it was not an easy task.

But looking at the palace complex, however, Chen Jingzhai had a look of satisfaction on his face.

He took a piece of warm jade and began carving it with the help of the power from the Grotto-heavens.

The front was of the jade statue and the palace, and the back was of the innate money tree. The carving looked intricate and beautiful.

Chen Jingzhai also cast the primordial essence curse into it, as well as a ray of the Grotto-heavens divine light.

Thus, any cultivator who possessed this jade card may gain entry to the palace complex with the help of the Grotto-heavens divine light.

“A key to getting inside the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens,”

“Let’s call it Essence Refinement Card!”

Chen Jingzhai played with the card in his hand and murmured softly.

It was far beyond the capability of one man to build the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens.

Under the premise that he could not rely on the power of the clan, he had to get a little creative in order to do it.

Referring to the memories from his past lives, Chen Jingzhai had the vision to build the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens into a Grotto-heavens Marketplace.

Everything was most difficult at the beginning. Before, it was just an idea, but now it was different.

The Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens had been elevated to a Primordial Essence miniature world.

In the Primordial Essence world, Chen Jingzhai had more power. Here, he was a divine spirit.

He could crush everything here; even Grade 4 was not a problem for him to suppress.

The martial force was the foundation for ensuring the security and order of Grotto-heavens Marketplace.

There was also the question of characteristics and products.

It was not difficult to send cultivators in here, but how would he make sure both parties benefitted?

The characteristics that Chen Jingzhai had in mind were naturally the various coins from the innate money tree.

The pure coin alone was something that would not be ignored by many cultivators.

Not to mention, there were other kinds of coins.

To raise all of them by himself would be a very slow process. Chen Jingzhai needed the help of other cultivators.

In addition to the innate money tree, there was also the environment for cultivation.

After all, the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens was a miniature world that could allow physical bodies to come in.

Chen Jingzhai made arrangements for all fourteen palaces.

But cultivators who came in first were only allowed to cultivate in the plaza.

Even so, the essence power in the plaza was far more pure than the outside world.

It had even reached the level of a larger secret zone.

Chen Jingzhai, on the other hand, would also make adjustments to the concentration of the essence power as the situations changed.

“It’s best to set up some restrictions,” Chen Jingzhai narrowed his eyes slightly in thoughts, “I can’t be too careful!”

His hand that held the card tightened. Then, he quickly instilled the restriction according to his thoughts.

A combination restriction was centered around the primordial essence curse, restricting the use of the card in any way by Grade 4 Nascent Zhenjuns.

After all, Nascent Zhenjuns were old monsters whose Nascent Souls were leaving their bodies; who knew what kind of special tricks they may have. It was additional trouble that Chen Jingzhai wanted to avoid at all costs.

Every Grotto-heavens was precious, so with these Grade 4 Nascent Zhenjuns aside, even Grade 5 True Venerable Spirits would take action.

Therefore, even if Chen Jingzhai had the power to suppress Grade 4 cultivators, he had to set the restriction as a safeguard.

He could slowly open it up once his cultivation level improved again.

“There are still too few attractions. I have to find more ways to increase its appeal.”

“Spiritual herbs are fine, but another idea could be the buying and selling of elixirs.”

“I need followers; I have to create them myself.”

Chen Jingzhai thought about it for a while and waved his hand to summon some spirit servants.

These spirit servants were all the enemies he vanquished from Kumu Island, and this included Sage Kumu. All of them were being dispatched to the plaza.

Chen Jingzhai started again and made some wooden buildings and placed them around the plaza.

The palaces were all hidden within the clouds, protected by layers and layers of restrictions and formations.

There was a great space between the palaces and the plaza, and the plaza itself had plenty of space.

After these wooden buildings were arranged, they formed four blocks of streets.

Although they did not look as impressive and splendid as the palaces, they were more appealing.

When Chen Jingzhai saw this, he nodded with satisfaction, and let Sage Kumu go to the elixir pavilion.

Sage Kumu knew alchemy, and his technique was not bad.

At the very least, he could communicate with the Golden Core Sage of Mystic Sound Pavilion. His attainments were pretty good, so he was a qualified tool for this purpose.

The cauldron that belonged to Sage Kumu during his lifetime was now returned to him.

Chen Jingzhai then appointed about a hundred spirit servants as medicine boys.

These medicine boys were responsible for collecting medicines from the lower realm and bringing them to the elixir pavilion.

There were tens of thousands of people on Kumu Island, and Chen Jingzhai had use for most of them.

He appointed the soul remnants of some female cultivators and turned them into goddesses, stationed at Full Moon Tower.

Full Moon Tower was a place for spiritual foods, singing, dancing, and listening to music. It was a place for entertainment.

He also appointed dozens of old men and sent them into the brewery.

These old men specialized in brewing because they already had this skill. The necessary materials were being collected by the brewing boys from the lower realm.

There were hundreds of brewing boys, all of whom were assisting the old men in brewing.

After Chen Jingzhai set up everything, the entire heaven palace inside the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens became very lively. It was no longer as cold as it was before.

Chen Jingzhai sat on the balcony of the Full Moon Tower, and casually made a hunchbacked cook, as well as burly butchers. Butchers were able to go to the lower realm and hunt demonic beasts as materials.

They were all soul remnants. However, under the will of Chen Jingzhai, they were reborn with new purposes.

They became the tools in the hands of Chen Jingzhai. It was no comparison to being spirit deities.

But as far as being tools, they were absolutely perfect.

After everything was done, Chen Jingzhai made over a thousand of Essence Refinement Cards.

He was not going to release these Essence Refinement Cards right away, because that would be too obvious and abrupt.

A True Venerable Spirit’s former residence would be a pretty good place to disseminate them.

When the time came, he would just have to secretly release these Essence Refinement Cards from there. Even if there were some predictions to be made, it could only be determined that these Essence Refinement Cards were coming from True Venerable Spirit’s former residence.

Chen Jingzhai was protected by the divine stone so he could not be revealed or predicted beforehand.

“It’s best for the rogue cultivators to obtain them; they lack resources and will be more desperate.”

“The Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens lacks soul remnants, and the innate money tree lacks flesh and blood.”

“Tsk tsk!”

Chen Jingzhai smiled curiously. With a wave of his hand, a bank appeared at the entrance of the plaza.

With another wave of his hand, a pawnshop appeared on the other side of the entrance.

At this point, the arrangement was completed. All that was left was to wait for the bait to work.