Lakir Clan's lush farmlands. Wuyum County. Rokur Kingdom.
At this moment, just when the dawn was about to make its presence known in the twilight sky, a teenage boy appeared mysteriously inside his own house without letting anyone know.
"Haah! It– it'll be a while before I get used to this feeling of teleportation."
Aksai gasped for breath when he returned to his farmland in Wuyum County.
He then looked around himself carefully and observed that everything was just as he had left it the night before. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he confirmed that his little adventure was successful.
"Technically, my 1st Rank body shouldn't be able to survive the side effects of teleportation. This artifact is indeed special."
Aksai raised the painting in front of him and looked at it adoringly. After all, it was the most precious thing for a poor Spirit farmer like him.
Aksai realized that the scenes in the painting had changed once again after he used it again. This time, it depicted the same mysterious farmland he had spent his whole night in.
"Now, where do I put this thing?"
Aksai thought out loud. He didn't want to put the painting back in its usual place anymore. He didn't care about the painting before, even when his father had told him that it was a family heirloom. However, after realizing what it could do, Aksai couldn't be as carefree as he was before.
Aksai soon found a safe spot inside his farmhouse to hide the painting. After making sure that it was hidden from everyone's sight, Aksai breathed a sigh of relief before hitting the bed. He decided to catch some sleep for a few hours and get some rest after the hours of excitement he had experienced the night before.
***
"Big brother, why are you still sleeping? Don't you have work?"
Aunt Reta's son tried to wake Aksai up after coming into his home through the half-open window. This small boy didn't need an invitation or an open door to enter Aksai's house. He was as nimble as a little monkey and would often sneak behind Aksai to catch him by surprise and have some fun.
"Hm? What... what time is it?"
Aksai rubbed his eyes and sat straight from his lying position. He then looked at the window outside and immediately understood that it was close to afternoon.
Aksai quickly drew Reta's son, Ruan, away after chatting with him for a bit. He mentioned that he had come to meet Aksai because he had to give him a message from his mother. Aunt Reta warned Aksai not to visit any local markets nearby for some reason.
Aunt Reta was a Talisman maker who made some low-grade Talismans and sold them in the market to make a living. She herself decided not to open her stall in the market after some mysterious disturbance.
After hearing about Ruan's brief, Aksai could sense that something must have happened in the region for Aunt Reta to get spooked like this. Despite his immediate need to sell the herbs he could harvest from the mysterious farmland, he decided to heed Aunt Reta's advice and stay put in his dilapidated farmhouse.
It took a while for Aksai to finish his daily chores. By the time he finished all his affairs and met Aunt Reta, evening had arrived.
After freshening up, Aksai lit an earthen oil lamp beside him to accompany him in the darkness of the night. He sat cross-legged in a meditative pose on a rattan mattress and thought about his next steps.
"It seems the unrest in the market isn't going to die anytime soon," Aksai sighed as he recalled the news Aunt Reta had told him in detail after he met with her in the early evening.
"The Wilben Clan from Ragui County has declared war against Lakir Clan, claiming that it had occupied Wuyum County's resources illegally.
A clash between two clans with Foundation Building Experts acting as the respective grand elders isn't going to be easy. Both counties share a border together and both of them are a part of Rokur Kingdom.
I wonder who the Purple Clan Sect supports in the end? Whoever it supports will eventually win the dispute," Aksai concluded and looked around himself with a dignified look.
After his father's death, Aksai had experienced many years of peaceful cultivation and farming. However, it looked like he wouldn't be able to continue acting like a poor Spirit farmer for long.
"The Lakir Clan has started recruiting drifting cultivators for the inter-clan war," Aksai caressed his chin as he thought.
"It has even started to recruit its own Spirit farmers as part of the clan's militia by offering them various rare resources. However, I will not fall for this trick.
The fight between the two clans has nothing to do with me. If the Lakir clan wins the dispute, I'll stay farming here.
If the Raguil clan wins the dispute through its iron fist, I'll abandon this farm and go somewhere else. After all, as long as I have my treasure and the neural link fabric, my future as a cultivator and a farmer is limitless.
I'll not risk my life for meager gains, especially to further someone else's interests," Aksai concluded with determination.
Aksai then started cultivating in peace.
He began his Tantra practice and waited for the automated cultivation prompt to show up in front of him, half-expecting it to give him a pleasant surprise. Sadly for him, the prompt only showed him the reality of life.
[ The Sixth Layer of the Basic Greenwood Tantra is not suitable for the host who is in the 7th Stage of the Spirit Refining Realm. The Tantra can now only be used to replenish the host's lost Spirit Essence ]
"Sure enough, I can't use the 6th Layer of the Tantra to achieve progress in the 7th stage. But if I go and ask the Lakir Clan to hand me the complete Basic Greenwood Tantra, it would force me to join this fight.
I don't want to take part in the fight, and I don't want to stagnate my cultivation progress. What should I do now?"
When the other drifting cultivators and even some young and hot-blooded Spirit farmers saw this conflict between Lakir and Raguil Clan as an opportunity to gain valuable resources, spells, and complete versions of the Tantras, Aksai only saw trouble and death traps in the situation.
The Basic Greenwood Tantra was given to all the Spirit farmers by the Lakir clan who employed them. This was so that the Spirit farmers would be able to tend to their Spirit farms better and allow the clan to make huge profits.
The Tantra wasn't given as a goodwill gesture for the casual cultivators after all.
Furthermore, it would have been troublesome for Aksai to approach the Lakir clan and ask for the remaining three layers of the Tantra even if the war-like situation wasn't there. After all, he had cultivated secretly and hid his cultivation from the Mongoose.
Thus, Aksai had no plans to depend on Lakir Clan's benevolence to continue his cultivation. Instead, he thought of another way to sort out the dilemma.
Black market!