Chapter 319: Chapter 247 Self-Reliance
“I was really foolish, truly. I only thought about how Yun Shu came from a wealthy family, but I forgot about her current situation!”
Atop North Forest Peak, Jiang Cheng held his head with both hands, filled with regret.
In theory, Jiang Cheng’s guess wasn’t wrong at all. Yun Shu had a Mahayana realm father and grew up with the backing of Wan Yue Mountain Sect, one of the seven main peaks of the Tongtian Sect. Resources, magical treasures, Spirit Stones—she had everything she could wish for.
But the problem is, just because Yun Shu’s family was rich, it didn’t mean she was rich herself.
Yun Shu is a rich lady, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t experienced poverty!
The period Jiang Cheng had been witnessing was the poorest time in Yun Shu’s life! So poor that it stirred the heart, and she displayed a heroic spirit.
Five hundred years ago, Yun Shu was only at the Core Formation stage, while many of her peers had already reached the late Nascent Soul stage or even the Divinity Transformation Realm!
Wan Yue Mountain Master Yun Zaiyuan had urged her to study multiple times, but Yun Shu remained indifferent, carefree, and unmoved.
Angered by her lack of ambition, Yun Zaiyuan, despite the rarity of offspring for high-level cultivators, and having finally had a daughter, couldn’t bear to expel his precious child from the family to fend for herself. In a moment of anger, he confined Yun Shu to her cave dwelling and set up a Divinity Transformation restriction to force her to cultivate.
Although harsh, this method proved effective. Yun Shu, driven to madness by the confinement, with only dew to drink and utterly bored, found life meaningless.
At that time, her cultivation level was Core Formation, and the level of the restriction was Divinity Transformation. To break out, she might as well just cultivate to Divinity Transformation in one go, then shatter the restriction and be reborn!
Yun Zaiyuan’s actions, while yielding great results, also caused a rift in the father-daughter relationship. Yun Shu was accustomed to doing as she pleased and naturally did not want to be confined again. After gaining her freedom, she decisively left home and set up her own sect on North Forest Peak.
Yun Shu indeed had money, but by now, five hundred years had passed since she came to North Forest Peak.
She didn’t care for cultivation, didn’t take on missions, didn’t engage in trading, had no idea how to manage finances, and lacked thriftiness…
With all these bad habits combined, it was only natural that her pockets were empty over time.
However, relying on her father’s name, Yun Shu had been used to throwing her weight around within the Tongtian Sect and didn’t think that being penniless was a big issue.
But it was different for Jiang Cheng.
Being a reasonable person, he naturally wouldn’t practice Yun Shu’s brash ways, and of course, he couldn’t even if he wanted to.
Yun Shu was indeed very poor now, but the good news was, as long as her relationship with her father improved, all financial problems would be easily solved.
But then again, how long would it take for their father-daughter relationship to improve?
Ten years?
Twenty years?
A hundred years?
Jiang Cheng was uncertain.
Because a hundred years in the life of a high-level cultivator is just the time for one closed-door cultivation session.
In history or game background stories, it only needs three words, “a hundred years later.”
But such light and breezy descriptions, for ordinary people at the Qi Cultivation Stage, mean an entire “lifetime.”
While Jiang Cheng pursued a life of comfort, he wasn’t just a pretty face.
Now that he couldn’t rely on Yun Shu, he could only try to be self-reliant.
The first step in self-reliance was naturally to resolve the living arrangements with Liu Qing.
Though North Forest Peak had long been neglected, it was initially built to the standard specifications of a junior sect of the Tongtian Sect.
A specialized construction team was responsible for the construction of the infrastructure. Although the facilities were covered in dust, fortunately, they were complete. This was also why the Enforcement Hall always came to reclaim North Forest Peak.
Yun Shu didn’t take in disciples, which did not meet the conditions for occupying a mountain peak, so the Enforcement Hall had to inventory the assets and hand over North Forest Peak to someone else.
But now Jiang Cheng had arrived, so the crisis of North Forest Peak’s closing was temporarily averted. The originally empty facilities, which Yun Shu had ignored, now all belonged to Jiang Cheng alone.
“You sleep in this room, I’m next door,” Jiang Cheng said, pointing at two dormitories to Liu Qing.
But Liu Qing obviously didn’t want to. She was used to living with Jiang Cheng. Why couldn’t she continue living with him?
“Two beds,” Liu Qing glanced at the double dormitory.
“You’re a female cultivator,” Jiang Cheng tried to reason.
“It’s fine.”
Jiang Cheng always felt that Liu Qing trusted him a bit too much. No matter how he looked at it, he was a male cultivator, naturally different from her.
There’s a saying about men and women not giving or receiving anything from each other, wasn’t Liu Qing afraid that he would take advantage of her?
Perhaps she relied on her Mahayana cultivation level and indeed had nothing to fear.
“We’ll put a screen in the middle of the bed.”
“Okay.”
After settling the living arrangements, the next step was to clean the dusty facilities.
This would normally be an extremely time-consuming and tedious job, but fortunately, Jiang Cheng was a Talisman Master. Even if he learned a second-order dust removal Talisman right now, it would still be in time.
A week later, North Forest Peak was completely transformed, looking clean and tidy, not like a place that had been uninhabited for five hundred years.
Aside from drawing talismans and cleaning these past few days, Jiang Cheng also took the time to practice the Dayan Sect cultivation method discreetly, elevating his Qi Cultivation Stage from the seventh level to the ninth level.
Yue Linger had just sent Jiang Cheng a communication Talisman yesterday, saying that she and Shen Menghan were ready for Foundation Establishment and would be out of contact for a few days, asking him not to worry.
Jiang Cheng wasn’t worried about Yue Linger and the others. With ample spiritual energy and excellent feng shui, the success rate of Foundation Establishment was very high in the Immortal Sect, and failing would actually be quite strange.
It was his own Foundation Establishment that he needed to think about.
Jiang Cheng had quite a few Foundation Establishment Pills, which he had bought before coming to the Immortal Sect. Therefore, his Foundation Establishment shouldn’t be a problem. The main issue was Liu Qing’s Foundation Establishment, which was a bit troublesome.
Liu Qing’s Foundation Establishment was purely a matter of cultivation improvement, and it wouldn’t attract Heavenly Tribulation. If discovered by someone with intentions, it could easily reveal her identity, which was indeed problematic.
Jiang Cheng’s solution was to have Liu Qing undergo Foundation Establishment with him!
During Foundation Establishment, he would give Liu Qing an “Electro-Purification Talisman” to simulate the effects of foundation establishment’s Heavenly Tribulation with a talisman.