Chapter 87

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Chapter 87: The Neighbor Is Fierce

Middle section of the Yunzhong Mountain Range

Lin Jiang was using magic to water the Spiritual Herb Garden. Lin Jiang was quite skilled as a Spiritual Farmer, having been a dedicated apprentice in the past. He had more than enough care and nurturing for the mature Spiritual Herb Garden, although it might be challenging to build one from scratch.

"Chirp chirp…"

Before finishing the task, Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao sent a warning sound to Lin Jiang. Hurriedly, Lin Jiang stopped and put Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao into the Spirit Beast Bag.

Over the years, Lin Jiang’s storage bag had become much more abundant. He had also invested a lot in Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao. Both of them had eaten a complete third-stage Demon Core, although they had not yet made a breakthrough.

Lin Jiang had researched and found that for creatures like Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao, breaking through to the third stage was a life-changing transformation. It required a significant investment, far beyond Lin Jiang’s capabilities. Therefore, Lin Jiang decided to take more time and gradually nurture them over the next hundred or so years.

When Lin Jiang wasn’t going out, he would usually let Big Shadiao and Small Shadiao out. His cave now covered nearly a thousand acres, which was enough for them to play around. Otherwise, if they were kept closed for too long, they would become moody.

"Stay, Taoist friend."

Lin Jiang stood inside the perimeter formation and saw two independent cultivators at the Building foundation level sizing up his cave. He immediately spoke up.

In the middle section of the Yunzhong Mountain Range, conditions were harsh. If there was no activity for a long time, other independent cultivators might assume the owner was dead or away for a long period. In that case, the cave could easily be looted or occupied.

"Master, someone’s here."

The young cultivator at the Building Foundation stage spoke to the elderly Building Foundation cultivator.

"Look and then decide."

The old man named Building foundation nodded and then gestured to Lin Jiang, saying, "Taoist friend, I didn’t mean to offend. Please forgive me, taoist friend."

"Ignorance is not a crime. Taoist friend, you may leave now."

"Taoist friend, my disciple and I have come from afar and have nowhere to stay. I wonder if taoist friend could accommodate the two of us. We will be eternally grateful and remember the great kindness of taoist friend."

"Go south, Yunzhong City is not far away. There are plenty of inns there."

"Taoist friend, my disciple and I come from a small place and have nothing valuable…"

"No spirit stones, but there must be flying swords and storage bags. Let’s sell them."

Lin Jiang’s tone became even colder, and he had already determined that these two people had ill intentions. He wanted to confirm if he was being taken for a fool.

The people on Yunzhong Mountain Range rarely take in strangers. They don’t allow kindness and hospitality from cultivators. Whoever has such thoughts won’t live long.

"Taoist friend seems heartless. All independent cultivators in the world are like one big family. Could Taoist friend bear to see us, an old person and a young person, suffer from wind and sun?"

"Yes, bear it. Have you finished speaking? You can leave now."

"How dare you speak to my teacher like that! Come out, we’ll fight to the death."

The young person at the Building Foundation stage heard Lin Jiang’s rude words and immediately started cursing at him, preparing to duel with Lin Jiang.

Lin Jiang looked at him with a look of disbelief, finding it ridiculous. It’s a low-end tactic to provoke him like this. Lin Jiang alone against the two of them, stepping out of the formation to fight him one-on-one, who would do that if not a fool?

"Don’t blame Taoist friend. I spoiled this disciple of mine, and he doesn’t know his place…"

"Don’t waste your breath, in the middle section of the Yunzhong Mountain Range, cultivators who have lived for more than three years are not fools. If they have their eye on my home, they should come and fight me if they have the ability."

Lin Jiang was getting impatient and wondered what these two guys were thinking. Can they really deceive people with such a low-level act of playing a trick? Are there really so many fools in this world?

"Excuse me, dear taoist friend, we’ll meet again later."

The elderly building foundation finally stopped pretending and smiled at Lin Jiang before turning around and leaving.

"Master, why don’t we take action? That person is only in the initial stage of building foundation, I can defeat him alone."

"The Eight Gate Golden Armor Formation at the third level, you won’t be able to break it even if you fight for a month. It’s a tough opponent."

"But they say that this area belongs to the Lin family, and this Mr. Lin is the richest. His cave used to belong to an alchemist and it has many spiritual medicines."

The young building foundation spoke, they were not newcomers to the Yunzhong Mountain Range, they had been here for several days. During these few days, they had been searching for a suitable cave.

However, most of the caves had poor spiritual veins and didn’t meet their expectations. Through special means, they found out that there was a cave nearby with high-quality spiritual veins and the former owner had left behind many valuable spiritual medicines. That’s why they decided to give it a try.

"Silly child, those people are using us as weapons, with him being a beginner in building foundations, how can he defend this cave?"

The elderly Building foundation replied, saying that in the rivers and lakes, he would not underestimate anyone. If someone doesn’t take action against the treasure in these mountains, it means they can protect it.

"Alright, Master always has good reasons. So where do we go now?"

"We have arrived."

The elderly Building foundation looked at the mist in front of him and said that the mist was produced by an array, which indicates that someone lives here.

"Master, are we still acting?"

"No more acting. Tired. Let’s take action."

"Okay."

The young Building foundation was overjoyed upon hearing this and without hesitation, directly cast a spell to attack.

"How dare you, who is attacking my residence?"

Soon, a loud shout came from within the white fog, but when he saw two construction workers outside the door, he immediately closed his mouth.

"Break it for me."

The older construction workers became even more fierce and stopped wasting words, starting to attack.

······

"Friend Taoist Lin, be careful. If you get attacked, immediately send me a Distress Talisman, and I will come to assist."

"Friend Taoist Lin, I have brought the information you wanted. Take a good look."

"I have heard about the people who came this time. They are····"

Another half month passed, and Lin Jiang took off the Distress Talismans that were spiraling around the outer layer of his cave, reading the messages. These Distress Talismans were sent by independent cultivators in the middle section of the Yunzhong Mountain Range, and there were even many that he didn’t recognize, marking his first encounter with them.

The reason these people were so enthusiastic was not that Lin Jiang was cute and popular, but because powerful individuals had arrived in the Yunzhong Mountain Range, the same ones he had encountered half a month ago, a pair of master and disciple independent cultivators.

These two master and disciple cultivators are extremely fierce. They arrived at the Yunzhong Mountain Range less than a month ago and have already hunted down and killed five independent cultivators at the Building Foundation Period. They looted all the treasures in their cave and now they live not far from Lin Jiang. A few months ago, that place was still Xie Youjia’s cave, but after Xie Youjia was killed by Lin Jiang, it was occupied by someone else, and then taken over by these two master and disciple cultivators.

Based on information provided by other independent cultivators, the older one at the Building Foundation Period is called Shao Xiong, and the younger one is called Shao Jie. Shao Jie is an orphan adopted by Shao Xiong and is both his disciple and son.

Shao Xiong used to roam the northern part of the Yunzhong Mountain Range, constantly fighting against demonic beasts. It is said that he was notorious in the north and no one knows how many independent cultivators died by his hands.

Shao Jie is also fierce and formidable. He has been following Shao Xiong since the early stage of Qi Refining, killing his way through the Wilderness. His combat power is extremely strong.

This time, the Shao family master and disciple came to the southern part of the Yunzhong Mountain Range for the Yunzhong City Centennial Celebration that will take place in thirty years. It is certain that the Five Elements Golden Fruit Pill will appear during the Yunzhong City Centennial Celebration, and they are preparing for Foundation Establishment.

The Five Elements Golden Fruit Pill can always be sold at sky-high prices. According to the auction prices of multiple Five Elements Golden Fruit Pills, the average price is around one million spirit stones, and occasionally, it may go up to one million five hundred thousand. The auctioneers often make additional demands, such as substituting with some genius treasures, instead of just spirit stones.

This price has already discouraged ninety percent of the Building Foundation Period independent cultivators, and only the particularly strong ones have the financial ability to compete with those sects and clans.

Last time during the Yunzhong City Centennial Celebration, Lin Jiang was still weak and hiding in Yunzhong City. However, he still heard about the chaos here. Almost after every big celebration, the independent cultivators at the Building Foundation Period in the Yunzhong Mountain Range changed, which is also why the independent cultivators in the Yunzhong Mountain Range mostly stay at the early and middle stages. They were all killed and became resources for others to advance.

"More and more powerful and ruthless people will come here in the future, it’s really dangerous. But I can’t bear to leave this cave."

Lin Jiang was very conflicted. The Shao’s master and disciple had just arrived. They were still 30 years away from the Centennial Celebration. As time passed, more and more fierce people would come, and Lin Jiang would surely be targeted.

But the problem was, Lin Jiang didn’t want to leave this cave. Just think about it, he had already invested tens of thousands of spirit stones into those twelve fourth-level spiritual herbs after taking over. If he abandoned them, he would suffer a big loss.

"I want money, not my life. I don’t mind sacrificing a few thousand years of lifespan."

After much consideration, Lin Jiang finally decided not to run away. He was going to fight them. He signed a contract for more than 160 years. After deducting the lifespan consumed by the Explosive Element Technique, he still had about 50,000 years left. It was more than enough.

After making up his mind, Lin Jiang took out the Sound Passing Talisman and wrote a reply to the independent cultivators. These people wanted Lin Jiang to keep an eye on the Shao’s master and disciple, and inform them if anything happened. As for their promise to help in the fight, Lin Jiang didn’t believe it and didn’t count on it.

Lin Jiang just hoped to have a mutual exchange with them, keeping an eye on the Shao’s master and disciple. Now he was forced to stay at home and couldn’t go out. If he waited for the Shao’s master and disciple to leave, he could go to Yunzhong City and gather some supplies.

After sending the Sound Passing Talisman, Lin Jiang checked the formation again and prepared enough spirit stones for it. The spiritual energy in this cave was not enough to fully power the formation unless he gave up all the spiritual herbs and drew out all the spiritual energy flowing into the Spiritual Herb Garden. But in that case, all the spiritual herbs would be destroyed, so he had to use spirit stones as the energy source.

After dealing with everything, Lin Jiang started drawing talismans again. Spiritual talismans were one of the best ways to improve strength in the short term. He definitely couldn’t do without them in a real fight.