Crafting

Obviously, the boy who kicked the door open was Hector. He had just broke through to the Qi Gathering Realm and wanted to spar against Guihu Luixing again.

"Hector! Congratulations on breaking through!" the muscular boy was naturally happy his little brother managed to breakthrough successfully.

"Thank you, Big brother." Hector said with a happy smile on his face.

"Congratulations, Hector. You really are talented in cultivation, reaching the Qi Gathering Realm in less than a month." the young man said with both happiness and envy of his little brother's talent.

"Thank you, Eldest brother." Hector thanked his eldest brother with a beaming face. He greatly admired hos eldest brother. Recieving such praises from him was even more significant for Hector.

"Hmm. There's just one problem." Hector's eldest brother said with a complicated face.

"Hmm? Big brother is there something wrong with little brother?" asked the boy, the middle sibling.

"Well, not a problem with Hector, but caused by Hector." he said while looking to the door that was kicked off it's hinges and had cracks running all over it.

"What did I do wrong, eldest brother?" asked Hector nervously.

"The door. You broke the door." the eldest brother said with sigh.

"The door? Isn't it just a door? What's so special about it?" asked Hector.

"Of course it's bot just a door. It's a door meant to isolate the cultivation space of a cultivator. While you were inside did you hear any noise from outside? Even though Mund was cultivating just outside, did you feel any disturbance in rhe Qi inside?"

Hector though back to the time he was inside his room and quickly shook his head.

"Of course not." The eldest continued with a defeated expression "The door is made out of Even Propagation Tree wood. Because of it's proprieties, this kind of wood is very sought after as building material, talisman and formation making process."

Realising what he had done Hector asking panicking "Eldest Brother, what should I do? I don't have any money. I spent the last I had to trade for Qi Stones to use in my breakthrough!"

"Don't worry, I can pay for that." The eldest brother said before smiling sinisterly "But you must help me in getting my revenge against Elder Samantha."

Hector and Mund, the middle brother, went pale. Theast time someone helped their eldest brother trying to get revenge against Elder Samantha, that person got all their secrets, abd their families' as well, laid bare.

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Time passed and the night arrived. It was dinner time in the headmaster's house.

Tonight, only the headmaster, his wife, Antonietta, and Guihu Luixing were present.

Remembering about the Heavenly Runes and their power that were specially useful in the crafting professions, Guihu Luixing decided to ask more to his father.

"Father, do you know much about the crafting arts?"

The headmaster thought for a bit before answering. "Ahhh, I see. Because you live here with us in the Core Area of the sect, already started as Direct Disciple and basically secluded yourself in cultivation as soon as you started cultivating, you don't really know about the Sect Facilities and the Sect Specialities."

One should know that even though Guihu Luixing was the son of the headmaster, it wasn't guarantees he would join the sect. It's not that uncommon for people of power in an organisation, like a sect, to send their children to higher ranking organizations in order give them better upbringing and borrow some influence from that power.

In that case, that organisation could steal important information from the sect in case they had some ulterior motives towards them.

To avoid that, children born in the sect usually weren't taught much and weren't allowed to walk freely in many areas of the sect. That way, they wouldn't be able to learn much about the sect in case they were sent away.

"Luixing," the headmaster started explaining "There are five main areas of crafting." He opened his hand showing his five fingers. "They are Pill making, Talisman Crafting, Blacksmithing, Formations and Puppetry."

"What about things like cadaver refining and ghost transformation?" asked Guihu Luixing.

"They are subclassification of the five main areas." The headmaster proceeded to explain in further detail "You see, Luixing, even though these five areas are distinct, they frequently merge in different proportions. For exemple, cadaver refining is a combination of puppetry, formations and talisman crafting. In higher levels, cadaver refining also often utilities poison concoctions and even blacksmithing."

Guihu Luixing was a bit surprised. He didn't know that the crafting part of cultivation could be so deep. He thought only one own combat strength mattered but it seems it possible to gain strength by external methods as well.

The headmaster continued his explanation "Because of the difficulty of training in each pf these areas, organizations usually focuses in a few of them.Our Ghost Fox Valley Sect specialties lie in Formations, Talisman Crafting and Poison Concocting, being one of the top organizations on our level."

The headmaster was obviously proud when he said that. Turning a bit more humble, he continued.

"While we're quite good in terms of Pill Making, Corpse Refining and Puppetry, in our level, there are many organisations that are specialised in those, being much more developed in those areas."

He then said with a frown "In the other areas we are average, quite weak or even straight bad. We scored quite badly in the last blacksmithing competition we participated."

"If we are already the tip when it comes to Formation, Talisman Crafting and Poison Concocting it shouldn't matter too much that we aren't proficient in these areas, right?" asked Guihu Luixing.

The headmaster shook his heas and correct him.

"No, thats wrong. Crafting is used not only to add in combat power, but also in economic power. A sect that is able to produce many different products can sell them in order to amass riches and treasures, which are used to expand."

He continued "There's also the problem when we need certain things, but have no way to produce them. In this case we are the mercy of the other organizations, who might not sell us purposefully or at an exorbitant price, in order to weaken us."

"Does that really happens?" Guihu Luixing had never thought that crafting professions could be that crucial to the cultivation world.

"Of course. It is said the Mountain, Lake and Valley rivalry started because a conflict along those lines. Although it did not develop into full-blown conflict, it is actually quite common to hear that two organisations started a war because of resources."

"I see." Guihu Luixing reflected on his still loose future plans. He had to make sure his future organization had many specialists, of every field and in a bountiful place.

"But why the sudden interest in crafting? You never showed signs of interest before." asked Antonietta.

"I read something about Heavenly Runes and how they are excellent to be used together with crafting. I didn't understand anything though."

The headmaster shook his head "It's only natural. If a book mentions Heavenly Runes, they probably are Grandmaster Level or above. To organizations of our level, it is very, very rare that someone is able to use even one Heavenly Rune. They are usually considered a genius in the level of once in a billion years"

Guihu Luixing got a bit depressed. It seemed he still understimated the difficulty of that mission.

Suddenly.

*Pi piri pi pi ri pi*