Mei Lihua and her private retinue waited at the South Gate of Tianbao with the other protectors. In front of them was Elder Qing, and all the members of the Qing clan he had escorted to the fortress city.
"Are you sure you want to leave now?", Lei Huang asked the beast tamer elder.
"Actually I'm very reluctant to go", Qing Yun admitted, "And what I bring with me is very important for the family."
"Still, your departure is very different than your arrival", Jin Tianxuan smiled as he clasped his hand with Qing Yun's.
When the Qing clan arrived, they had flown on giant eagles that supposedly had bloodline that descended from rocs. Those same eagles were also here today as the Qing clan was in the process of preparing to leave, only this time each member had one or more spirit beasts following them around.
"Expect to see travel her more often", Qing Yun told the group, "Even though the young ones will learn proper taming once I get these pods installed, we still have to return to purchase the exclusive spirit beasts sold by Owner Fang."
Suddenly, the discussion was interrupted as the largest eagle that served as Qing Yun's mount screeched extraordinarily loud. Before he could investigate the cause with his spiritual senses, Mei Lihua sighed and walked towards him.
"Daoist Qing, as you know I am also due to return to me sect once my junior sister arrives to replace me and it seems your eagle detected her first", she informed Qing Yun and the others.
"I see", Qing Yun replied, "Then I will wait for her to land to prevent any misunderstandings."
By this time everyone from the Qing clan, with the exception of Qing Yun, was already ready to go. Qing Yun sent word to his group about the slight delay and the reason why, and in response, all the younger tamers pulled out their Tianmu 'phones' and started watching shows or playing games.
"I wonder if it is wise to allow the younger ones to buy that artifact", Qing Yun's voice was full of suspicion.
"It is troublesome", Xu Ling agreed, "But it also has some many practical uses. I don't restrict my disciples from having it, but I do make sure it doesn't affect their cultivation."
As the other Nascent souls nodded in agreement, Shui Yan pointed towards the sky.
"They're here", she said.
Everyone noticed the multiple small black spots off into the distance that were rapidly growing larger as they approached the gate. Soon, the dark blobs shifted into more recognizable shapes such as giant leaves with the main flying ship designed as a lotus blossom. At first, it seemed as if the fleet of flying boats would pass over the wall but as the spinning lotus blossom grew closer it shifted its route towards the South Gate. All the other boats also changed their direction as well and in the time it would take to drink a pot of tea, the small fleet of boats landed in front of the gate.
Once the lotus blossom landed, several petals made a particular move and a ramp was formed as a beautiful lady walked from the top of the blossom that was then main cabin.
"Senior sister Mei", the woman in light green robes spoke as she exited the flying boat and made her way to the group, "Congratulations on your promotion to the Late stage."
"Junior sister Lui", Mei Lihua responded, "How was your trip? It doesn't appear you had any trouble."
"No trouble at all", Lui Qinglan answered.
"This must be an auspicious occasion", Mei Lihua laughed, "We were about to send off Fellow Daoist Qing, and just heard word of your arrival. You should be aware of the Qing clan, right?"
"Greetings, Daoist Qing", Lui Qinglan slightly bowed, "I'm indeed familiar with your clan, and sorry it seems we're passing by each other now."
"Daoist Lui", Qing Yun returned the greeting, "It was good fate to meet you here, but now that we have, I'll be off."
Qing Yun quickly mounted the largest eagle, and with a quick hand gesture, the flock of eagles opened their wings. This disturbed the younger members who had gotten engrossed watching their phones. A wave of embarrassment was seen on these Qing clan members as they quick stowed their artifacts, and established communications with their mount. Qing Yun saluted everyone one last time, and then the entire flock of eagles were airborne.
Once the eagles were out of sight, Mei Lihua turned back to Lui Qinglan, "Junior sister, let me introduce you to your fellow protectors, though I doubt they will be here for much longer."
Lui Qinglan's brow furrowed at this statement, but she said nothing as Mei Lihua continued, "This is Daoist Jin Tianxuan from the Heavenly Forge sect, Daoist Lei Huang from the Thunderheart clan, Daoist Xu Ling from the Shadow Veil sect, and Daoist Shui Yan from Crimson Tide sect."
"Greeting to my fellow daoists", Lui Qinglan slightly bowed to everyone, "I also have someone to introduce as well. Rou'er, come out to greet your martial aunts and uncles."
A teenage girl somewhere between 14-16 with the same color robes as Mei Lihua and Lui Qinglan quickly and gracefully walked over. The feature the stuck out the most was her skin that was the same color as the full moon.
"Greetings to all the martial aunts and uncles", the girl said, "This one is Yue Ruochen."
"Shall we go back into the inner city instead of standing outside the walls?", Shui Yan suggested.
"An excellent idea", Lei Huang replied, "I'm sure they would like time to recover from their time traveling. But Daoist Lui, I hope you can attend a banquet this evening."
"Of course", Lui Qinglan responded, "I'll offer my apologies now since I have nothing to contribute to it."
By now, most of the morning had already gone by and soon it would reach the middle of the day. Just as the four protectors were about to return to their own courtyards, a incident occur that caught everyone's attention. Yue Ruochen had been returning to her own flying leaf boat when something had happened, and she fainted in front of all of them.
"Ruo'er!", Lui Qinglan exclaimed as she rushed over.
Fang Shi was proudly looking over the system panel as he read the message, [Construction completed].
"Just a few more days until the puppet arrived at the other location, and then everything will be ready", he spoke to himself, "Let's order a snack to celebrate."
Just as he summoned his phone to order, alarms from the system blared in his mind, [Multiple Naacent Soul realm cultivators and spirit beasts are converging here. No weapons have been drawn, but this unit detects that their mental state is abnormal].
This surprised Fang Shi because the system usually handled the defense of the store, so he considered the situation and ran downstairs to the first floor.
'The only Nascent Souls around here are the protectors and spirit clan leaders', he reasoned, 'And they regularly shop here, so it has to be them who are coming here. The spirit beasts are probably just responding to cultivators flying this way.'
Upon reaching the first floor, Fang Shi exited the Main hall and headed towards the main gate where he met a tense situation. He recognized Mei Lihua, Shui Yan, and Xu Ling, but an unknown Nascent Soul was carrying a young lady he hadn't seen before. This new cultivator had a sword with a blade shaped like a leaf drawn and pointed towards the spirit beast leaders as she shouted and threatened them.
"Fellow Daoist", he called out to them, causing everyone but the mysterious cultivator to fall silent, "Normally, I would judge this situation very harshly but there seems to be some kind of circumstance. I must insist that you sheath your weapon."
"Who are you?", the woman angrily responded, "Where is the great healer that supposed to be here with the exceptional medicine? Why has some weak foundation establishment cultivator come out to question me?"
"Lui Qinglan", Mei Lihua was trying to restrain the other woman with hurting her or the young lady being carried, "I told you, you must show respect to the senior here or you will be expelled for a week."
Fang Shi placed the pieces together in his mind: an injured junior, a frantic master, the sudden trip causing anxiety for the spirit beasts of the forest.
"Daoist Mei", he addressed the woman he knew, "You know this isn't a clinic, why have you brought this trouble here?"
"I'm sorry, Owner Fang", Mei Lihua felt embarrassed, "We tried to examine and determine the cause of this disciple condition ourselves, but failed. I was hoping to offer a favor to your senior to assist us."
"I understand", Fang Shi sighed in relief, "Unfortunately, panic won't help solve an problems."
Fang Shi made a few hand gestures, and the new nascent soul was trapped causing her to drop the fainted young lady.
"Daoist Mei, please pick her up and we will go to the cultivation hall", Fang Shi instructed, "I'm afraid I can't take anyone directly to the senior, but he can perform and examination using the pod. I guess everyone can come along as well."
By now, the disturbance at the gate had drawn a large crowd, and many of the guests had taken out their phones as they snapped pictures of the scene. While one of the reasons for this was because some many high level cultivators were gathered in one place, the biggest reason why would be the woman trapped inside a ball like seal. Ever since being captured, she had shouted, attacked the seal with her sword, and finally spread seeds around before sprouting them causing the floating ball to look like a terrarium.
Fang Shi did his best to keep a straight face as he turned around, and guided everyone toward the cultivation hall. Once inside, he brought the group to an empty pod.
"Alright Daoist Mei, please place inside", he advised her.
With a smooth motion, Mei Lihua place Yue Ruochen into the pod and closed the door. Fang Shi sent a command to the system, and it quickly activated before performing a scan on the occupant. Once everything was completed, the lights on the pod faded and it reopened.
"Daoist Mei, can I presume that these two that are part of your sect?", Fang Shi inquired.
Mei Lihua simply nodded.
"Then please follow me, and bring your sect's disciple", he added, "I'll give you the result away from prying eyes and ears."
Understanding his comments, Mei Lihua picked up Yue Ruochen as Fang Shi directed the ball behind him until they reached a private cultivation room. Once inside, he had Mei Lihua sit in a chair after she laid the young lady down on a sofa.
Fang Shi turned towards the bubble holding Lui Qinglan, and made a few more hand motions, "Greetings fellow Daoist, I'm Fang Shi, owner of the Heaven & Earth pavilion. I have changed the seal on you so that you can hear me, but don't try to escape. I would like to release you so that I can speak to you about your disciple, so please give me a signal that you understand and will comply."
Lui Qinglan casted a spell in response that caused all the greenery inside the ball to disappear, and begrudgingly gave him a nod.
Fang Shi took a moment to check the system, and after getting a satisfactory response, he undid the seal.
"Now that's the four of us are in here, I will share what was found", he said as he eyed Lui Qinglan, "Your disciple has the Nine Yin Lunar body."
"I've never heard of this kind of constitution before", Mei Lihua was processing what was just said, "Does the senior know much abojt this?"
"Yes", Fang Shi was confident, "As the name suggests, your disciple cultivates best under the moonlight and her practice of Yin type techniques would be absurdly fast. Also, she should have an easier time than most using array formations. Now for why she collapsed earlier, it's an imbalance of Qi in her dantian."
When he finished his sentence, Lui Qinglan frowned deeply and pointed at him, "And I bet you're going to suggest that Ruo'er has to dual cultivate to balance and correct her qi, aren't you?"
Fang Shi was shocked because in his past life, there were numerous novels where this exact thing happened often to the main character, but he did his best to not let it show on his face.
"Actually, that's wrong", he clarified further, "In her case, she has too much Yang qi in her dantian and meridians at the moment. Not only that, she has built up a thick layer of pill toxins as well. I can only imagine that someone was giving her low quality pills or they were pills she bought for herself."
Lui Qinglan was about to launch another accusation when Fang Shi's comments stopped her, so Mei Lihua spoke instead.
"What is the best way to treat this then?", she asked.
"I've already begun the process", Fang Shi assured her, "My alchemists have already started refining cultivation pills that will match her constitution and spirit roots exactly, but in the mean time, I would suggest you send someone to the restaurant and purchase these meals and drinks."
Fang Shi had displayed the menu from his restaurant, and pointed out to Mei Lihua which meals and drinks would start to purify her qi and remove impurities from the body.
"Next, whether you do it yourself, or have another female disciple do it, take her to the bathhouse and use the bath specifically for yin aligned cultivators. Finally, bring her back to a cultivation room like this or rent a villa, and have her refine the pills my alchemists are making. But she has to do it during the most effective times, when the moon is out."
Without any hesitation, Mei Lihua picked up Yue Ruochen, thanked Fang Shi, and walked out. Lui Qinglan was suprised by her actions, but she was more concerned with her disciple, so she glared at Fang Shi one more time before leaving to catch up.
As he sat there, he could only wonder to himself, "If you live in a world like this, is it evitable for this situation to happen?"
Several days later, Fang Shi heard great news as he woke up. The puppet had made it to Blue Moon city and the other end of the teleportation array was built. The weather in Tianbao was early season of the white tiger, with the hottest days of the Phoenix passed by. The robes he had been wearing lately was slightly thicker as the temperature was lower than before, but today he wore his thinnest robes meant for the season of the Phoenix. Once dressed, he left his floor and went to the elevator before pressing a secret sequence of buttons that caused the platform to descend. Instead of stopping at the first floor, the elevator continued to go down until it reached an underground chamber that had recently been dugout.
As Fang Shi entered the room he could see all the formations that had been setup to hide and protect the chamber from others, but also a few artifacts that had a different purpose. Once a week, the teleportation array would collect enough power to operate and he would activate it. This transport all packages for that week in between the two stores, and the artifacts would sort everything and send them to the post office that would open starting tomorrow. Several new additional applications would be available on the pod and Tianmu phones for guests to acquire: one for online shopping, and one for third party auctions. He didn't have an clever names for these new apps, the online store would be called Heaven & Earth virtual store, and the auction app was call H&E auction.
Now that he was ready, he ordered the system, "Activate the portal."
A large circle of lights glowed as a sequence began ultimately culminating together as a silvery water like substance filled an empty doorway set in the middle. Fang Shi looked at the new 'door', and remembered a film he watch in previous life called Star Gate. Gathering his nerves, he briskly walked towards the gate and like doing the first cannonball into a cold pool, he dove in. When his feet touched the ground, he stopped and braced himself. After a few breaths, nothing happened but he didn't move.
[Host, this unit would never set up a low quality teleportation array. This system's quality is guaranteed.]
Feeling like he had his mind read, Fang Shi stood up and looked around. This room was exactly like the one he just left except for one difference. Each room had a different code etched into the wall with Tianbao coded as TFCG and Blue Moon city coded as BMCG. Seeing BMCG in front of him, he knew he had successfully made it so he went to the elevator door. Selecting the first floor, he entered the elevator, ascended to the floor and exited, "Hey everyone, guess who's back?"