In the Tianyuan Realm, the preciousness of Spirit Stones surpassed the ordinary.
Every time this happened, An Jing would think of Chongyi Building.
There must still be several Spirit Stones in stock in the building’s warehouse, but those Spirit Stones had been ruined by the birth of the Necrocontroller Demon.
Even now, he felt some regret, "Spiritual Objects and Cultivation Techniques are indeed useful, but Spirit Stones are the hard currency between worlds, and can be used to exchange for the resources most needed."
However, the thing with Spirit Stones is that occasionally coming across one could be considered lucky, but if one were to regularly produce Natural Spirit Stones, even the dumbest person would start suspecting that An Jing had a stable source of Natural Spirit Stones.
By then, the troubles would definitely be greater than one could imagine.
An Jing definitely didn’t want to end up like Embracing the Void in the Tianyuan Realm, having to wander everywhere, so not having too many Spirit Stones wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The contract was signed swiftly; Huo Qing and Manager Lu looked into each other’s eyes, and after their pupils gleamed, everything was concluded.
"Snap." "Thud." "Snap."
Huo Qing snapped his fingers, causing the warehouse lights to turn on and off, and his amused expression proved how much fun he found it.
Authority had been transferred, the transaction was established.
"Then I shall take my leave, Mr. Huo."
Manager Lu, holding the Spirit Stones, greeted him and left directly, "The Puppetry will be delivered to you in about ten days, have a pleasant transaction."
Even You Ruhui from this other world could tell that this man was going to go into seclusion for cultivation.
Ordinary cultivators with no connections, even those at the peak of the mid-Qi Refinement stage, couldn’t break through to the higher level on their own; they had to wait for their higher-ups or company to allocate Spirit Stones to them.
Naturally, if one managed to acquire them from the Black Market or the Wilderness, it would be considered a merit of their own and they could get a promotion and a raise.
This is also why housing prices in the Tianyuan Realm were cheap.
No matter who it was, cultivation was the primary goal. To use Spirit Stones to buy a house instead of saving them for oneself was something that would make others think you were insane.
Just like Manager Lu, who looked at An Jing and the others with a rather strange expression, seemingly quite baffled, guessing whether these were young members of major families sneaking out with family Spirit Stones for fun.
An Jing’s assessment: That’s how it is in poor places.
Only after Manager Lu had left did An Jing turn to Huo Qing and ask, "Is this place protected?"
Huo Qing had just finished reading all the terms of the contract, and his expression was somewhat odd, "But it only has a year left—next, we have to either sign for ten years at ten thousand Good Deeds as a property protection fee, or sign for a hundred Good Deeds a month as a property fee."
"No way, why is it so expensive? Iron Hand’s place is only three hundred and sixty Good Deeds a year!" he complained.
"So the property fee is the major cost." An Jing suddenly realized, "I was wondering why Mount Xiao Zhe would withdraw so abruptly, what the rush was to handle the properties, turns out it’s because of this."
"Don’t worry." He smiled, lifting his head to look at the large gray-white warehouse before him, "A hundred Good Deeds a month is something we can still afford—most importantly, we indeed now have our own territory."
"Open the door, Huo Qing, from now on, this place will be my cultivation ground, and your Formation testing field."
The warehouse interior was extremely spacious, resembling the type typical of storage-style supermarkets, filled with neat rows of empty storage racks that lined the inside, just like what Huo Qing had seen on the Spiritual Network. The warehouse itself was supported by solid metal pillars, very sturdy.
"This warehouse is well-maintained. It’s quite a distance from being old and worn out."
Subdue Evil objectively appraised, "But from start to finish, it’s all in one glance—there’s no seclusion room, though."
"We’ll talk about that later. You Ruhui will tell me where the best spot for cultivation is, and I’ll build a seclusion room there," An Jing said, quite unconcerned. Owning this large warehouse covering over thirty acres meant that even if he used a caravan to transport goods from the Embracing the Void realm, he could at most fill a small corner. Now he wouldn’t have to worry about being unable to transport his goods.
As for the seclusion room, even a few dozen square meters would suffice. He only needed to set up a Spirit Gathering Array to concentrate the spirit qi, requiring not much space at all.
On the other hand, Huo Qing was even more excited. "This space is so large, I can set up several formations at the same time to experiment with control groups!"
"Haha, the junkyard was just too small for me. I haven’t reached the skill level to practice in a snail’s shell; I need to arrange formations in their normal size. Now I finally have the space to do so!"
"That spot there, it’s an Earth Vein Gold Spot."
You Ruhui also directly pointed out an area on the west side of the warehouse, "The fiery point is in the east, opposing each other, achieving balance, yet the metal element prevails. The builder of this warehouse was quite knowledgeable, the construction is very rational!"
This decisive purchase of the property was completed to perfection.
The subsequent renovations and preparations were not things that could be done in a short time.
After taking some quick photos to confirm the actual state of the warehouse, the group returned to the recycling house with a full sense of accomplishment.
Granny Huai had already prepared a table full of food, waiting for their return.
"What?! Uncle came back?"
Upon hearing the message relayed by Granny Huai, Huo Qing suddenly felt a burst of heat on his face—although even if Iron Hand had been there, he wouldn’t regret helping An Jing, and he would even argue his case, trying to convince his uncle to understand An Jing’s capabilities and showing off the various spiritual objects they had earned through their collaboration over the past days.
But taking the car out secretly to buy a house with An Jing was indeed a bit too bold... At the moment, he felt like a student who was caught by his parents on his first secret visit to the internet café, despite going there to work on a school project, not to play games. Still, he found himself somewhat tongue-tied.
Huo Qing hurried to make contact with Iron Hand, and Granny Huai also found An Jing, explaining to him the ’bottom line’ and the cover story she had to reveal during her exchange with Iron Hand, so they could get their stories straight and avoid any slips.
"A sect? Hm... not bad, it certainly fits our identities better than a wilderness tribe."
After some thought, An Jing found that indeed, the persona Granny Huai had crafted was much better—the wilderness tribes might know nothing, but their lives are fraught with tension and excitement, quite different from ordinary people, and their mental state and identities are easily discernible.
And for An Jing, along with potentially others he might bring over in the future, only being oblivious to the safety zones and cities was a reasonable cover, as expecting these wilderness folk to disguise themselves as creatures they had never seen was asking too much.
Therefore, a hidden underground sect was much more plausible than a wilderness tribe.
"In the future, it would also make it easier for me to expand an organization here in the Tianyuan Realm."
With this in mind, An Jing sincerely thanked Granny Huai, "If it weren’t for you, Granny, patching up the holes for me, Iron Hand might have seen through some clues this time."
"He’s not a bad person, really; he values relationships, just like your friend."
Granny Huai shook her head, her opinion of Iron Hand was quite high. "It’s just that he has things on his mind that result in a bit of a surly demeanor on the surface..."
"Let’s not talk about this now, let’s get ready to eat."