Jade River Mountain

Lei Kongming exhales a long breath as he wakes up from his cultivation. Yesterday, after comforting Lei LongWei, he returned to his courtyard and started his cultivation. However, even after cultivating for the whole night, his cultivation didn't improve much. Most of the Qi he absorbed was taken away by the black orb.

'It seems now is the time to go to the market to pick up leaks.'

It has become his habit to search the market every 3 to 4 days to see if he can find anything useful for cheap, using his intuition like partial memory from his second life. You could say it is one of his part-time jobs. Although he doesn't gain much, it usually helps him get some extra income to support his cultivation.

Walking towards the west of the city, Lei Kongming can see rows of luxurious buildings and some street stalls from time to time. The street stalls are actually Lei Kongming's real target because most shop owners have knowledgeable people who can help them identify the value of goods. Due to this, the chances of him finding bargains in these shops are very low.

As he moved towards the west city gate and a little further away from the bustling business center, more and more street stalls came into his view. However, it may be because he was unlucky today that he did not find anything. Yet, he was not disappointed because it had happened a lot in the past.

He walks out of the west city gate and moves towards the Jade River Mountain, which is a part of the Misty Mountain Range where most of the powerful beast clans live.

Compared to the entire Misty Mountain Range, Jade River Mountain can be considered quite small and is separated from the Misty Mountain Range by a river. It is also enveloped in a formation laid by the Purple Cloud Sect, which not only prevents Golden Core beasts from entering the mountain but also monitors the positions of all Foundation Building beasts as well as cultivators. Because Jade River Mountain is separated from most of the Misty Mountain range by a river, it helps reduce the risk of beast tides.

The Purple Cloud Palace builds this formation to train their disciples, but they allow any Qi refining practitioner to enter as long as they pay the fees. However, when it comes to foundation building, only disciples of the Purple Cloud Palace are allowed. If any unknown foundation-building cultivator sneaks in, they will be detected using the formation and captured.

As Lei Kongming reached the foot of the mountain, he found a large area consisting of stalls. This market is under the supervision of the Purple Cloud Palace, which makes it convenient for people entering Jade River Mountain to easily sell their goods nearby and also provide security.

Moving further, Lei Kongming showed his token to the patrolling guards and entered the mountain. It is very difficult to guard the entire mountain and prevent anyone from sneaking in without sealing it entirely. However, if they seal the mountain, it will also prevent beasts from the Misty Mountain range from entering, thereby reducing their numbers. So, the Purple Cloud Palace decided to patrol the outskirts of the mountain and check everyone for tokens.

The token Lei Kongming possessed was given by his clan. The Purple Cloud Palace sells these tokens to large clans so they don't have to wait and buy an entry pass each time they enter Jade River Mountain. Each token also has a one-year limit, as the Purple Cloud Palace reissues these tokens annually, causing the previous ones to become invalid.

After entering the mountain, Lei Kongming moves toward the outer edge of the middle area where most beasts have the strength of peak Qi refining realm, and some are foundation-building beasts. Although he has the strength to fight some weak foundation-building beasts, it is easy to attract unwanted attention, so he still targets those first-grade beasts.

Soon, Lei Kongming reaches a forest, which is also the beginning of the middle area, but he doesn't go inside as it is very easy to encounter Qi refining realm beasts there.

Lei Kongming began moving along the edge of the forest. After some time, he found a group of young rabbits eating near a marsh. These were not ordinary rabbits because they had the cultivation of middle-level of first-grade. They were as big as dogs and also eat other beasts and cultivators.

Each of these rabbits can be sold for 4 or 5 spirit stones, but Lei Kongming doesn't take action because he can't use a space bag, and carrying a large amount of them will easily attract the attention of other beasts as well as cultivators who want to rob.

Lei Kongming slowly lies down on the ground and searches around because these young rabbits are usually led by an adult rabbit, which typically has the strength of a later level of the first grade.

'Adult rabbits can usually be sold for around 10 spirit stones. If I can hunt 2 or 3 of them, it will be worth this trip.'

Lei Kongming started crawling like a turtle so as not to attract attention while looking for his prey.

 "?"

As Lei Kongming entered a large patch of grass, he found a burrow. What puzzled him was that these rabbits don't usually eat near their home to avoid attracting other powerful beasts.

'What careless rabbit parents,' Lei Kongming thought to himself. 

'They don't even teach their rabbit children not to eat grass near home. I should quickly hunt them so they don't mislead their offspring.'

Lei Kongming detoured around the burrow and continued his search, but soon he became puzzled. He found several groups of young rabbits, but not a single adult, and most importantly, they were all eating near the burrow.

'Are these rabbits sent from a neighboring rabbit group?' Lei Kongming wondered. 

"Because they are competing for food, they send some rabbits as bait near their opponent's base? Kill them with a borrowed knife. Now, even rabbits know how to conspire against their opponents."

After much hesitation, Lei Kongming crawled back to the place where he found the burrow and decided to enter and investigate it. The burrow was neither small nor big, just big enough for a medium-sized dog to fit through, and soon Lei Kongming reached its end.

"!!!"

As Lei Kongming poked his head out to peek, he was shocked to find a rabbit as big as an elephant sitting in the center. It was actually the leader rabbit who had the strength of a foundation-building beast. There were also around 15 adult rabbits and nearly 50 young rabbits.

"So, the rabbits outside are not bait sent by their neighbors. Instead, they send them to lure other beasts and cultivators?" Lei Kongming muttered in realization. 

"These rabbits are even more cunning than I thought."

After looking around a bit, Lei Kongming realized that there were actually several flowers behind the leader rabbit. They were azure dew flowers, and all these rabbits were protecting them, probably because a rabbit is going to eat them and try to breakthrough to the second grade.

Azure dew flowers usually grow near rivers and lakes. They are a main ingredient for refining foundation-building pills and are responsible for protecting Mediran as well as calming the mind. Beasts also use them when they attempt to enter the foundation-building realm

'Each azure dew flower can be sold for 300 spirit stones. If I can gather all of them, I will have at least 1000 spirit stones.'

After thinking for some time, Lei Kongming decides to retreat and make a plan. But before that, he observes the structure of the burrow and realizes that there are dozens of paths connected to it. One of them is big enough to fit an elephant, which is probably for the leader, while the others vary in size. However, even the largest of them would not fit the leader.