Shaking his head, the green-clothed masked man completely ignored the other party’s teasing and hints, seriously asking about the situation in Nightless City.
Property, medical care, food, clothes, culture, transportation, marriage, entertainment, pill refinement, human trafficking, and so on. All kinds of industries developed quite well.
Jiang Li was surprised to discover that this city could practically satisfy all the needs of a cultivator.
One had to know that the development of a city was of utmost importance to the population. Only sufficient demand and consumption could promote the development of an industry.
According to the current statistics of the cultivation world, on average, there would be one person with a spiritual root aptitude among every 6,000 mortals.
However, due to various reasons, not all children of suitable age could have a chance to test the Immortal Opportunity Stone. Therefore, roughly every ten thousand mortals could produce a cultivator.
In this way, even the most useless initial-stage Qi Refinement realm cultivator was actually one in a million among the entire human race.
According to the total population in his previous life, one in ten thousand out of eight billion people was only eight hundred thousand.
Together, they were barely enough for the population of a city.
Jiang Li had originally thought that such a group of people would definitely have an extremely small population. The so-called city would be only a slightly larger market, and it would be formed by a large number of mortals at the bottom of the hierarchy.
However, he clearly ignored the vast territory and huge population of this world.
Jiang Li had not expected that this Nightless City could actually gather so many cultivators and develop to this extent.
After chatting for a while, the female cultivator could only give up awkwardly when she realized that the green-robed cultivator was ignoring her.
She ran to the small room at the side and took out a token that was still burning hot.
“Sorry for the wait. This is your residence permit and entry token.”
“This golden token is the symbol of your noble identity. In the future, as long as you show the token, you can directly enter the city.”
“You can also fly freely in the outer city area, but there are many powerful figures living in the inner city, so please don’t rise into the sky in the inner city.”
The other party mentioned some things to take note of, but for a Golden Core cultivator, many of the terms were actually very relaxed. There were basically no restrictions.
“I understand.”
The green-clothed man took a token from the other party’s hand and a long residence permit that was similar to a contract paper. The procedures here were completed.
Turning over the golden token, there was a sentence written on the back: “Owner: Green Mountain Ascetic.”
Although this Nightless City required registration, one could actually make up a name casually, so private information like background, cultivation level, and spiritual root attributes were all not necessary.
They could not force a Golden Core cultivator to reveal his secrets.
After leaving the wooden building, Jiang Li did not insist on flying over the outer city as he had said earlier, and he walked all the way by himself.
A large number of mortals lived in the outer city area of the Nightless City.
Most of them had one useful skill, and many of them were famous masters from mortal countries.
However, here, they were only serving the esteemed high-level cultivators. They were at the bottom of society.
Jiang Li also saw quite a number of Qi Refinement cultivators here.
Perhaps it was for their livelihood or for their dreams, they came from all directions. They could not live in the gorgeous inner city and could only barely live with mortals in the outer city.
It was said that the City Lord of the Nightless City was only an ordinary worker here in the past. Later on, he rose up through hard work and finally became the City Lord here.
This story could be said to be extremely inspirational. Up until now, its history was probably not any shorter than the Scripture Storage Valley, and it encouraged countless cultivators to work hard for it their entire lives.
However, there were only a few who succeeded in the end.
When he passed by a street corner, the green-clothed person turned around and took a look. In that direction, there was an inn.
At the edge of the outer city area, there was a large inn that was still expanding.
His figure paused for a moment before continuing towards the inner city.
The few passersby on the street glanced at the green-robed man without a trace, then lowered their heads and continued their work.
It was impossible for the arrival of an unfamiliar Golden Core to not arouse vigilance and attention. A bit of necessary surveillance measures was unavoidable. The green-clothed man clearly noticed this gaze and did not pay much attention to it. It could be considered to be a kind gesture to Nightless City.
However, when the green-robed man paused for a moment, two sharp and thick roots instantly burrowed into the ground from the bottom of his feet.
The roots were like fish swimming in water, moving freely under the ground. Their speed was actually not slow at all.
The roots moved towards the inn and silently arrived underground.
On the signboard of the inn, three words were written: “Prosperous Jiang Hong”.
The roots found an underground secret room in the inn with ease.
This secret room was completely covered in special iron and was indestructible. There was even a layer of spiritual carving to resist any escape techniques on the inside and outside.
Ordinary cultivators were unable to enter at all. Even if they forcefully broke through the iron wall, they would trigger the array formation and be discovered by the owner.
However, in a corner of the underground secret room, there was a hole in the molten iron wall. It was covered by a tile that was almost metallic in color.
If one did not look carefully, they would not be able to discover it. The tree root did not bend at all and directly tore open the tiles and entered.
The tree root that was the length of an arm burrowed out of the soil. After twisting twice, it quickly swelled and deformed. Soon, Green Mountain Ascetic appeared in the secret room.
It turned out that the one who had just entered the inner city was only an empty shell. The root that had burrowed into the ground was the main body.
However, he was not wearing a mask, so the face that was exposed made one’s hair stand on end.
It was a stiff face covered in wooden rings. Or rather, this face was carved out of wood.
If one found the nest of Scaled Demons back then, they would definitely be abnormally familiar with this green-robed cultivator. This was the reversed statue that they had worshiped for a long time.
Jiang Li’s second Parallel Mind had finally accepted everything about his previous self a few days ago. Then, he discovered to his surprise that the statue that had always been thought to be the trunk of the Nine Nether Wood could actually leave the tree and move alone.
Although the distance from the Nine Nether Wood could not be too far, it was much better than using a few roots to entangle people.
Jiang Li’s main body was participating in the competition and could not leave. There were many things that he and his sword cultivator clone could not do because of their statuses and cultivation.
After thinking about it, he still felt that it was not worth it to let the Nine Nether Wood follow him as a bodyguard.
In the end, he still planned to let his second clone act alone.
For the sake of the Nine Nether Wood’s convenience, he even brought out the Yin Burial Coffin.
The second clone snapped his fingers, and the few oil lamps hanging on the wall automatically lit up, illuminating the small chamber.
There were not many things, just five Soul Capturing Pouches.
While he was away, the Prosperous Jiang Hong Inn had obtained more than 50,000 ghosts and souls.
Jiang Li was very satisfied with this.
After cultivating the Nine Nether Dao Scripture, he needed even more ghosts than before!
Apart from that, ghosts could also be used as fertilizer for the Nine Nether Wood, food for the Ghost Lantern Fish, and materials to refine artifacts. Even the advancement of the Yin Burial Coffin was closely related to ghosts.
Right now, he had a great demand for ghosts. During this period of time, without replenishment, the ghosts in the coffin were already unable to make ends meet.
He took out the Yin Burial Coffin and poured the five bags of souls into the coffin, finally allowing a lot of fresh blood to replenish the inside.
Relying on the fact that the concentration of spiritual qi in the coffin was still rising, it would not be long before these 50,000 souls could become useful ghost soldiers.
He did not know how many souls Yan Hong could bring back from the Southern Seal Kingdom. With the population of the small country, it should not be small.
After putting away his souls, the second clone pushed open the door to the living room and walked out.
This place was still in the basement. However, unlike below, the air here was scorching and noisy. There were forty to fifty children wearing the outer sect disciple uniform of the Scripture Storage Valley who were surrounding a huge furnace and smelting metal.
This was one of the businesses in Prosperous Jiang Hong’s store.
Yan Hong would purchase a large number of ores of different quality at a low price. After smelting them, they would make metal ingots that met the specifications and sell them at a flat price.
Typically, larger shops would choose to directly refine the materials into weapons and artifacts to sell. This kind of profit was clearly much higher.
However, Prosperous Jiang Hong was currently in the initial stage of creation. The craftsmen of the Ghost City who were barely better than mortals could not refine artifacts independently.
Therefore, They could only settle for the next best thing. They could take on some jobs that did not require much skill to earn some hard-earned money.
Jiang Li roughly glanced at them. There were a total of 46 people working in the underground workshop. They were all quite young, ranging from ten to fourteen years old. Half of them had not even reached the Qi Refinement realm.
Yan Hong was very fast. Jiang Li had only spoken for a few days before these people were found.
These 46 people were all outer sect disciples who had just entered the Scripture Storage Valley this year. They were still young and their cultivation was still shallow. Originally, they were also under the protection of the sect, so they actually did not need to come out to carry out missions.
However, the huge mission reward from Prosperous Jiang Hong made it difficult for them to reject.
Senior Brother Jiang Li and Senior Brother Yan Hong were really good people!
Their efficiency was very low. In fact, it was completely unworthy of the remuneration they received.
However, Yan Hong did not mind. He only told them to work in peace and not think too much.
Today, an unexpected guest came to their workshop.
“Sir, have you come to the wrong place? The dining area is above.”
A disciple wiped the sweat on his face and looked at his clone. However, the ashes in his hand rubbed a large area of black on his face.
The customers of the Prosperous Jiang Hong Inn were all kinds of demons and spirits. The image of the Nine Nether clone looked like a tree demon, so it was natural to think that it was a guest who had taken the wrong path.
“Zhao Ah-san, initial-stage Qi Refinement realm with a wood attribute spiritual root. Not bad.”
The second clone reached out and grabbed a wooden tablet on the other party’s chest to take a look. He was very satisfied.
On the necks of these disciples, there were wooden tokens with such simple information so that they could easily identify and manage these subordinates.
Below the wooden sign, there was an inconspicuous black dot.
That black dot meant that he was on the list of 2,121 people.
Jiang Li had specially instructed Yan Hong to gather as many disciples as possible on the list and arrange them separately from the other ordinary disciples.
Therefore, these 46 people were all targets.
The second clone stretched out his hand and grabbed the other party’s neck, lifting this seemingly simple and honest youth into the air.
“There’s no need to pretend in front of me.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. Before an artificial spiritual root grows to a certain extent, it can’t affect the host’s mind.”
The Nine Nether clone’s hand gradually tightened like an iron hoop. Zhao Ah-san’s face turned red and his eyes bulged.
A moment later, his greasy black hair suddenly turned white from the end. His muscles lost their flexibility, and his skin became dim and wrinkled. His life was being rapidly sucked out by something!
“Sir! This is the Prosperous Jiang Hong Inn, the property of the Scripture Storage Valley. We are all outer sect disciples of the Scripture Storage Valley. If you don’t stop, we’ll call for help!”
The commotion on Jiang Li’s clone’s side was not small, and it attracted the attention of many people. A few outer sect disciples at the side shouted as they quickly ran towards the exit.
However, a coffin that was thrown over blocked their path.
“Don’t you know? I arranged for you to come here and mine because of the soundproofing.”
A dense number of flexible roots suddenly stretched out from the coffin, wrapping around the remaining 45 people and pulling them into the coffin bit by bit.
The cultivation levels of these disciples were practically dispensable. They simply had no ability to resist.
Pew!
A moment later, Zhao Ah-san opened his mouth and spat out a shriveled seed.
These 46 people were the 2,000 plus children that Jiang Li and the others had discovered during the mission of the Southern Seal Kingdom and brought back to the sect.
Relying on them, Jiang Li had obtained the recognition and reward of the sect all those years ago. Moreover, he used the Scripture Imparting Token to obtain the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra that had benefited him endlessly until now.
However, it was also because of this that Jiang Li buried 2,121 time bombs in his sect.
Jiang Li had always taken this matter to heart, but he was unable to directly express the reason to the sect and was afraid that the parasitic cultivators that might be hiding in the shadows would take revenge, so he never made a move.
However, it seemed that everything was somewhat predestined.
Without the contributions of these 2,000 disciples with artificial spiritual roots, he would not have obtained the scripture token. Without it, he would not have been able to obtain the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra.
It was precisely because of the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra that he had successfully grasped the Nine Nether Branch and made it his second clone. Following that, he could use it to resolve these unstable factors now.
As expected, the one who started the trouble should end it.
He had to deal with this himself.
However, the more benefits there were, the better.
Jiang Li controlled his spiritual root clone and threw the seed into the coffin.
In the coffin, the Nine Nether Wood Branch looked a little shriveled.
The portion of the statue left the main body and became the Golden Core cultivator, Green Mountain Ascetic. The trunk of the main body only had a layer of bark left, looking a little pitiful.
Even so, dealing with these newbies was not a problem.
Spiritual root seeds were squeezed out from their bodies.
Creating a new spiritual root seed was quite troublesome. Not only did it require specific resources, but it also required time to accumulate.
Back then, when the Scaled Demon was captured by the convoy, the Scaled Demon Tribe attacked the convoy with great fanfare for a seed.
If he took away the 2,000 plus spiritual root seeds in the sect, wouldn’t that Spiritual Root Branch Branch be so heartbroken that it would go crazy?