The ones guarding the main portal gate were still Senior Sister Fang Qing, Senior Brother Fan Ya, and Senior Brother Luo Heng. The posting rotated once every twenty years—each "gate" got one slot. It was considered a pretty nice, cushy job, and every newly advanced immortal who had just established an immortal garden only got one chance to land it.
As for the sub-gates, they were guarded by powerful earth-immortals. Those people basically never wanted to move—once they took a post, they could sit there for thousands of years.
Running the portal consumed a lot of immortal essence. Going out was toll-free, but coming back meant paying double.
Same as usual, Mo Xuan used his long whips to toss, one by one, three pre-selected meteor cores—each about a meter in diameter, Grade B, First-tier—into the immortal garden as payment.
Mo Xuan really was generous. All three immortals couldn't help smiling.
Luo Heng even sent a voice transmission:
"Junior Brother Mo, in half a month our Gu Xin Sect will be holding a small internal trading fair. It'll be in Martial Granduncle Juye's Immortal Heaven, lasting three days. If you're free, you should go take a look—you'll probably gain something."
"Thank you, Senior Brother Luo. I'll go broaden my horizons," Mo Xuan replied, offering his thanks.
Mo Xuan piloted the transport spirit ship into Martial Granduncle Jiang Zou's Immortal Heaven and landed at the meteor workshop. The apprentices immediately went into another frenzy of busywork.
This run earned Mo Xuan 183,000 points. Last time he still had 50,500 left. Altogether that made 233,500 points.
Mo Xuan paid 95,000 points on the spot, completely clearing his debt to Tai Academy, leaving 138,500 points.
Only two work trips in, and Mo Xuan had already overtaken and even surpassed his peers, becoming a minor "immortal tycoon."
He let out a long, heavy breath.
Debt-free felt amazing.
That five-hundred-year debt had been hanging over him like a mountain—miserable. Now it was all gone. From this day forward, the heavens and earth were his to roam.
So satisfying.
Du Min accepted the jade disk, glanced at it, and smiled faintly.
"Congratulations, Nephew Mo. You've broken several records. Tsk… under two years and you've earned four hundred thousand points—making us old immortals' jaws drop."
Mo Xuan smiled modestly and only said it was luck.
Wages collected—now came the big shopping spree.
A Shopping Spree at Tai Academy
Mo Xuan hurried to Tai Academy and docked at the training field in the upper-left corner.
There happened to be a piloting class in session. A teacher was instructing students on how to fly a transport spirit ship. Because there was only one training ship, everyone had to line up. Each student got only half a ke of practice time.
The students watched Mo Xuan drift down from his own ship with unrestrained envy.
Senior Brother Mo went out to work for a trip and vanished for a year or more—driving a transport spirit ship every day.
Must be nice.
Mo Xuan cheerfully greeted the teacher and students, then rushed straight to the Points Exchange Hall.
"Grand Steward Li, I brought you wine!" Mo Xuan offered a jar of the finest hometown liquor with both hands.
Old Immortal Li squinted his eyes open, his snow-white beard trembling as he took it.
"Oh… little Xuan-zi. Back so soon?"
Mo Xuan's mouth twitched.
Could you not call me "little Xuan-zi"? In this world the highest mortal office was governor—no emperor, no eunuchs—yet "Xuan-zi" still sounded unbearably awkward!
Old Immortal Li casually tossed the jade disk to Mo Xuan, broke the seal himself, and began chugging.
Glug-glug-glug—
From the look of it, he intended to finish the whole jar in one go.
Mo Xuan started his shopping spree.
First: the 3,000-point jade disk—he'd wanted this treasure for ages!
He'd already traded for plenty of pills from Uncle-Master Luo Yu, so he grabbed another large batch of thousand-year spirit herbs, and also exchanged for a few three-thousand-year and five-thousand-year pieces as backup—4,000 points gone.
He exchanged for a whole pile of daily immortal necessities too. His storage pearl had plenty of space, so he might as well stock up—another 1,500 points gone.
Then he browsed other treasures.
The void was dangerous. He should really get a life-saving artifact.
After a long search, he finally set his eyes on a crystal-clear sphere the size of a fist, called Ice-Seal of Ten Thousand Years. It could turn into a massive block of ice, encasing an immortal in distress and putting them into long-term slumber. It wouldn't actually last ten thousand years, but holding out for two or three thousand years was no problem. It also had a function to periodically broadcast a distress signal.
It ranked fourth on the life-saving artifact list.
But it cost 20,000 points.
Not cheap.
In the end, Mo Xuan couldn't bear it. Securing Little Que'er's cultivation slot would be difficult enough—twenty thousand points wasn't pocket change.
He decided to save it.
He didn't bother looking at offensive artifacts. He handed the jade disk back to Old Immortal Li.
He still had roughly 129,500 points left.
Old Immortal Li's "Show-and-Tell"
"The wine's not bad—tastes like home. Bring me another jar next time. Here—give me your storage pearl."
…Huh?
Mo Xuan blinked, but still pulled out the storage pearl from his robe and handed it over.
No need to worry—at his age, what treasure hadn't Old Immortal Li seen?
Old Immortal Li swept it with his gaze, nodded slightly, and said:
"Earth-grade, First-tier. No wonder you kept it hidden. Honestly, I haven't seen Earth-grade First-tier goods in years. Back then even Heaven-grade First-tier didn't impress me, but now Earth-grade First-tier is real quality—those three little brats probably don't even have one yet. Hm? Water-light mixed type too. That's a treasure. You really are lucky."
Mo Xuan scratched his head with a dumb grin.
The "three little brats" Old Immortal Li referred to were the three Dao Lords. If even Dao Lords might not have it… you could imagine how precious that little sun truly was.
Old Immortal Li packed all of Mo Xuan's exchanged items neatly into the storage pearl and casually tossed it back.
Mo Xuan hurriedly caught it with both hands, checked it, and tucked it away.
Old Immortal Li chuckled.
"You think I'm going to steal your little trinkets? Let me broaden your horizons."
As he spoke, Old Immortal Li pulled out a black, fist-sized meteor core. It looked ordinary—black as ink—but it possessed an endless gravity. The light in the entire hall warped and twisted around it!
"Whoa—what is that?!" Mo Xuan stared, dumbstruck.
Old Immortal Li stroked his beard, smug.
"Heaven-grade, Second-tier. Pure magnetic attribute energy crystal. Fuse a piece the size of a fingernail into a star battleship and its overall performance improves by fifty percent. I'll take a loss and trade it with you."
…Uh.
Mo Xuan shook his head like a rattle drum.
This thing might be amazing, but it was useless to him. Forget a star battleship—he didn't even own a transport ship of his own yet. And his little sun was meant for establishing his immortal garden; it would be hugely beneficial for cultivation and growth. No way he was trading it away.
"If you won't trade, then forget it." Old Immortal Li shrugged helplessly and put the black core away.
The hall—nearly collapsing under warped gravity—finally returned to normal.
Mo Xuan bowed and fled like smoke.
Behind him, Old Immortal Li smacked his lips and muttered to himself:
"I'm such an idiot. The kid doesn't even have an immortal garden yet—of course he won't trade. But water-light mixed meteor cores are truly rare. This is the first Earth-grade First-tier I've ever seen. Tsk. It would be extremely beneficial to my Immortal Heaven…
Hmm. I should find some treasure he can't resist. Having too many things is such a hassle…
Ah—got it. I'll trade him my star battleship. That's worth ten million points. Little Xuan-zi will definitely crave it.
Let me see… huh? Where did it go?
D*mn it—Qianzao that little girl borrowed it to harvest meteors and still hasn't returned it!"
Mo Xuan Finally Gets His Own Jade Disk
Mo Xuan went to Tai Academy's office to register the jade disk, bind it to his identity, and—done.
From now on, this jade disk was his personal terminal: network access, video chat, shopping, data lookup…
This was exactly what he'd dreamed of for years.
In Qingyuan Minor Immortal Realm, there were three Dao Lords, so there were three sects:
Taiyi Sect
Qianzao Sect
Guxin Sect
Dao Lord Taiyi came from a "tall-rich-handsome" background, so Taiyi Sect was wealthiest and most powerful.
Dao Lord Qianzao widely accepted female disciples—beauties everywhere. Very popular.
Dao Lord Guxin, like Mo Xuan, was a classic grassroots origin. Guxin Sect was mostly poor disciples, relatively strapped.
Naturally, the realm's network system was divided into three camps as well.
The moment Mo Xuan logged in, it felt like joining the Guxin Sect's QQ group—except far more high-end.
In a huge "square," countless immortals' full-body projections gathered. Many immortals harvesting meteors in the void were also present—only because they were so far away, communication sometimes lagged by an hour or two, even a day or two.
Senior immortals from Guxin Sect showered him with virtual flowers and encouragement. Petals filled the sky; the atmosphere was wildly enthusiastic.
Mo Xuan hurried to greet everyone.
He couldn't keep up, and in the end he just did a blanket salute:
"Hello senior brothers, hello senior uncles, hello granduncles…"
Oh? Was that Uncle-Master Luo Yu? Why did he log off?
The seniors had already heard about Mo Xuan's work results—very impressive.
He had set several new records:
First work run exceeding 200,000 points
Fastest time for a newly advanced immortal to pay off Tai Academy debt
Shortest time and highest yield across two consecutive work runs for a new immortal
The younger generation was truly formidable.
And Mo Xuan was also famous for poetry. That recent "Quiet Night Thoughts" had such lingering mood—when they recited it while lonely in the void mining meteors, tears would spill without them noticing.
What a poem.
Mo Xuan responded modestly, glanced around, and didn't see Teacher Kong.
After the hype cooled, the conversation naturally shifted to the trading fair in half a month—basically an early warm-up.
Many immortals were already calling out offers: trading certain meteor cores for specific items, or trading treasures for cores of a fixed attribute.
Mo Xuan stared in amazement.
It gave him the exact feeling of the first time he'd followed his mom to a vegetable market on Earth.
Newcomer's rule: don't talk big, don't rush in.
Watch more. Speak less.
Very quickly, Mo Xuan realized: the trading items were unbelievably varied—strange, bizarre, and countless. And a lot of it was so cheap.
Meteor cores and spirit artifacts were relatively pricey, but pills…
Pills were so cheap it made his jaw drop.
A Rejuvenation Pill's price was not even one-fifth of Tai Academy's 3,500-point price. Other common longevity pills were also much cheaper—even cheaper than what Uncle-Master Luo Yu had sold him.
This… this…
Mo Xuan finally understood.
Holy sh*t.
He'd been scammed.
That "shaved-the-goose-even-as-it-flew-by" b*st*rd had clearly taken advantage of a newbie who didn't understand the market.
And Mo Xuan had even thought he'd profited!
Turns out he'd taken a huge loss.
Even worse, wood-water mixed energy crystals were far more valuable than Mo Xuan had imagined. Many immortals urgently needed them, offering powerful price tags to acquire them.
This was the downside of information asymmetry.
If he'd had a jade disk earlier, would Uncle-Master Luo Yu have been able to butcher him like that?
Mo Xuan smiled bitterly.
Forget it.
Take the hit, learn the lesson.
He'd even foolishly exchanged for two Rejuvenation Pills at Tai Academy at the outrageous cost of 3,500 points each—he'd just treat it as donating to his alma mater.
After thinking it through, he finally understood the logic:
Once immortals established immortal gardens, they generally grew spirit flowers and herbs. With dense spiritual energy, herbs could reach thousand-year potency in a hundred years. In an earth-immortal's realm, herbs matured even faster.
With so many herbs… their value naturally declined.
But meteors and spirit artifacts remained scarce—so their prices stayed high.