Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Walking through the quiet back courtyard, around several corridors and small gardens, Shen Shi walked along the corridor road with a expressionless face, feeling the noise getting louder and more lively in front of him, it was a sound he was most familiar with since childhood. Not long after, after turning around a screen wall, a hanging door curtain appeared in front of him, when he got here, the noise suddenly became much louder, and Shen Shi stopped his footsteps, staring at that place, after a moment, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, then stepped forward, and instantly, a wave of noise came rushing towards him.

  A year's plan starts with spring, a day's plan starts in the morning. Although it was still early, Shen Tai, his old father, had just opened Tianyi Building, which he had been operating for over a decade in Xilu City, and the spacious hall was already bustling with people coming and going.

  In the midst of the Hongmeng multiverse, the Hongmeng Realm, also commonly known as the "Hongmeng Main Realm", is the most important and vastest realm. Since ancient times, the overwhelming majority of living beings have gathered in this boundless and unexplored gigantic world. The remaining realms that are known are habitually regarded as subordinate territories to the Hongmeng Main Realm, but can only be reached through some mysterious ancient transmission arrays left over from the primordial era.

  In the midst of all realms, the territory of Hongmeng Main Realm far exceeds the total area of all other realms. Since the ancient Tianyao Wangting era thousands of years ago, there has been a geographical division method known as "Hongmeng Yicheng Jiuzhou". Under this convention, even in today's prosperous human world, this regional division is still widely recognized by people all over the world.

  The so-called one city is naturally the eternal imperial capital, Tianhong City. It is a huge city that transcends tens of thousands of years, known as the gathering place of the essence of the Hongmeng world. Located in the central part of the Hongmeng continent, it borders the eastern coast of the Inner Sea. The city is incredibly vast, to the point where it's unbelievable. Legend has it that even the continuous mountain ranges were enveloped by this city, with two mountain ranges running through it. The population living within the city is countless, numbering in tens of millions, and its prosperity is unmatched, surpassing all of Hongmeng. With the power of just one city, it can overshadow all the major states, making it a sacred imperial capital that everyone under heaven yearns for. If one hasn't visited Tianhong City at least once in their lifetime, they might as well have lived a worthless life.

  The remaining vast territory of the Hongmeng Continent was divided into ninety-nine states, large and small. Although they differed in size, even the smallest state had an area of hundreds of millions of miles, with countless people. In this era when the human race was thriving and the Immortal Dao was flourishing, every place was full of vitality and vigor.

  The place where Shen Shi is located is on the southwest side of Hongmeng Continent, commonly known as "Yin State". It is said that it was named after a huge Tianyin Mountain range that spans this state. Among the 90 states in Hongmeng City, Yin State is located in the southwest corner, but its area is vast and it is considered one of the most prosperous places among several states in the southwest.

  Because the world is now a thriving world of immortals, in Yinzhou there are also many schools of cultivation, especially among them there is one that ranks among the top schools of cultivation today, called "Xuanyin Gate", occupying the most famous cave heaven blessed land Tianyin Mountain within the borders of Yinzhou, with talents emerging from within the gate, it is indeed a thriving scene, in the world of cultivation within Yinzhou's borders, it can be said to be the strongest school.

  Shen Tai was also a disciple of the Xuan Yin Gate in his early years, but this short and stout man had mediocre talent for cultivation. After many years of practice, he was still stuck at the most basic level of refining Qi and couldn't make any progress, unable to break through even the Condensing Yuan realm, which was considered the true starting point of the path to immortality.

  Shen Tai failed in his cultivation and had to give up on the idea of achieving immortality, which everyone in the world yearned for. Under these circumstances, he could only come to Xi Lu City, the largest city within a radius of ten thousand miles at the foot of Tian Yin Mountain, as an outer door disciple, focusing on managing the Tian Yi Building business affiliated with his sect. However, no one expected that Shen Tai, who was not good at cultivating, would unexpectedly display extraordinary talent in business, turning the originally mediocre Tian Yi Building into one of the two largest shops in Xi Lu City within a short span of over a decade. Every day, he earned countless spiritual crystals from those scattered cultivators coming and going from the south to the north, which greatly benefited the Xuan Yin Gate, with the accumulated amount over the years being enormous, enough to be described as a mountain of gold and a sea of silver.

  It's been years since Shen Tai, as a outer door disciple, has gradually gained the appreciation of some elders within the Xuan Yin Gate. He was promoted all the way to the position of Grand Manager of Tianyi Building, not to mention his only son, Shen Shi, who recently received news from the Xuan Yin Gate that he would be allowed to bypass the strict selection process and directly enter the mountain gate, just like some of the descendants of the vassal families that have been attached to the Xuan Yin Gate for hundreds of years. This is also a means for the Xuan Yin Gate to attract talent.

  At this moment, the Tianyi Building, which had opened early, was bustling with activity. Under Shen Tai's management and planning over the years, the Tianyi Building was no longer just a small shop that sold some shallow Daoist scriptures and spiritual materials that were casually discarded by the Xuanmen Sect. In the spacious store, there were dozens of large cabinets filled with all sorts of spiritual materials related to the current cultivation path, including Daoist scriptures, secret manuals, medicinal herbs, minerals, demon pills, talismans, spiritual medicines, and more. Among them, there were also rare and precious spiritual products, but the prices of these good things were naturally extremely expensive.

  At the same time, on the west side of the store, there is a long counter where Tianyi Building buys and sells spiritual materials. For any past cultivators who want to sell some spiritual materials for various reasons, Tianyi Building will also be willing to buy them. Of course, in this process, Tianyi Building naturally has ways to resell them at a higher price.

  Anyway, there's buying and selling, business is booming.

  Shen Shi had been playing around the Tianyi Building with his father since he was a child, and almost all of the staff inside were from the Xuan Yin Gate. However, those who became staff members of the Tianyi Building were naturally also outer door disciples who failed to cultivate their Tao. Everyone recognized the young master of the shopkeeper, and those who saw him smiled and greeted Shen Shi, who looked as usual, with a smile on his face, familiarly calling out "brother" and "sister" along the way, greeting them, his footsteps not urgent, but still heading towards the entrance of the Tianyi Building.

  In the spacious store, light shines in at the entrance, and people's shadows move in and out, as if they are already close at hand.

  Shen Shi's heartbeat accelerated somewhat uncontrollably, but he still managed to control his words and actions. Just as he was walking towards the door, suddenly, from the left side of a counter in front of him, a woman who looked about twenty years old poked her head out and called out to Shen Shi: "Little Stone, wait a minute."

  Shen Shi's body stiffened, and a strange noise seemed to reverberate in his mind. He stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath, turned around, and looked over with a hint of a smile on his face: "Little Red Sister, is there something going on?"

  The woman's name was Xiaohong, and she wore the same uniform as the other shop assistants. At this moment, she was beckoning to Shen Shi, smiling and saying: "Little Stone, come over quickly and help your sister take a look. There is a customer here who wants to sell spiritual grass, but I'm not quite sure about it."

  Shen Shi hesitated for a moment, raised an eyebrow and replied decisively: "Alright." He then strode over to the long counter where purchases were made.

  Tianyi Building, backyard.

  Shen Tai left the quiet room and walked into the courtyard, looking up at the distant mountain range shrouded in dark clouds, a complex and inexplicable expression flashing across his eyes.

  Many years ago, he also lived deep in the mountains with many companions of similar age, holding the same dream and yearning for the Supreme Tao, full of hope to start his cultivation journey.

  It was at that time that he met the gentle woman.

  Later...

  He suddenly closed his eyes, shook his head violently, as if to shake out some thought from his brain. When he reopened his eyes, his face had regained its calmness and serenity. He quietly took a last look at the mountain, then turned around and left.

  The courtyard was quiet, with most people busy helping out in the front hall shops. Only occasionally would a few figures dressed in Xuan Yin Men's disciple attire flash by in some secluded corners, they were the special guards of Tian Yi Building. Today, Tian Yi Building is booming with business, earning a large amount of spiritual crystals every day, and Xuan Yin Men is placing more and more importance on this place.

  Although Shen Tai's Taoist cultivation was lowly, he had the prestige of being the master of Tianyi Building, and ordinary Xuan Yin Gate disciples did not dare to underestimate him. After all, no one wanted to offend this god of wealth, especially since it was said that several high-ranking elders within Xuan Yin Gate valued Shen Tai greatly. As a result, at least in the eyes of ordinary disciples, Shen Tai, the master of Tianyi Building, was indeed an anomaly who had broken through the convention of strength being respected in the cultivation world, yet despite his weak Taoist cultivation, he could still gain people's respect.

  As for the actual situation in private, what's behind the scenes is another story, and no one knows.

  Shen Tai walked along, encountering the gatekeepers of Xuan Yin Men. They all nodded in greeting, and occasionally, when he met someone slightly familiar, they would exchange a few words, looking no different from usual. The Xuan Yin Men disciples who could guard here basically all had some accomplishments, at least having entered the Condensing Yuan realm, completely different from those outer sect disciples in the front hall who had no hope of cultivating and could only come to be servants.

  After walking for a while, passing through two courtyards, Shen Tai arrived at a secluded courtyard outside. This place was clearly different from the surrounding courtyards, with many more Xuan Yin Men disciples guarding it. Above the entrance, the words "Warehouse" were prominently written, marking this as the important storage site of Tian Yi Lou where all sorts of spiritual materials were kept.

  Seeing Shen Tai coming over, several disciples of the Xuan Yin Gate who were guarding this place all smiled and greeted him, without any suspicion. Shen Tai was the manager of Tian Yi Building anyway, and he often came here on ordinary days, what's strange about that?

  Shen Tai was as usual, smiling and chatting with the crowd for a few words, then walked into the yard, took out a bunch of keys from his waist, opened the warehouse door, and calmly walked in under everyone's gaze.

  The door creaked shut behind him with a soft "creak".

  The warehouse was very large, but due to the closed doors and windows, the light seemed somewhat dim. The smile on Shen Tai's face gradually faded away.

  He gazed coldly at the spacious room, at the piles of priceless spiritual materials, and at how they were neatly categorized and placed on shelves. Everything here was the result of his own hands' creation over the years.

  Every inch of this place is so familiar to him.

  Maybe after today, he will never see these things again.

  The short, stout man suddenly smiled and stepped forward, walking towards the front. The sound of his footsteps echoed between the shelves, neither slow nor hurried, as he walked past one shelf after another until he reached a certain place deep in the warehouse. In front of him was a shelf that was different from the other shelves around it, which were filled with all sorts of goods. This shelf had very few things on it, just a few jade boxes. On the back of the shelf, a white paper was stuck, with four words written on it:

  Elderly worship.

  Shen Tai reached out and opened one of the jade boxes. As the lid flipped open, a soft blue light slowly flowed out, casting a beautiful glow in the somewhat dim storage room, illuminating Shen Tai's face.

  He gazed at the object in the box, and after a moment, his mouth corners twitched slightly, then he smiled coldly. He reached into his bosom to search for something, and then pulled it back out. A familiar blue light suddenly lit up, flashing between his palms.

  That was a strange and beautiful gem that shone with a bright blue light, crystal clear, as if countless waves were rising and falling within the gem. Shen Tai's breathing suddenly became somewhat urgent, and in the warm blue light, he seemed to grit his teeth before gently placing the blue spirit pearl into the jade box. A moment later, when he withdrew his hand, another spirit pearl appeared in his hand, almost identical to the previous one, except that the blue light was not as strong and gorgeous as before, but compared to the previous one, this gem seemed to have a softer and clearer luster.

  "Bang!"

  Shen Tai closed the jade box and hid the blue gemstone in his bosom, then turned around and left.

  There is still one more chapter at 7 pm tonight...

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