Entering the fire chamber, Nie Shiyun closed the door behind him. He listened for a moment as the hesitant footsteps outside gradually faded into the distance before finally entering the jade pendant space. He checked the deadlines for the commissions; the most urgent one still had a generous seven-day window, so there was no need for concern.
Had Nie Shiyun not taken it, and had no other crafter accepted the task within those seven days, the commission would have automatically extended, forcing the practitioner to pay an additional intermediary fee. It was no wonder that even though they were entrusting the work to an unknown crafter, the offered price remained quite satisfactory. Nie Shiyun felt the genuine thrill of earning his first pot of gold in the Middle Layer as he began systematically refining the twenty-odd sets of materials in chronological order.
Naturally, he did not finish them all in one go. When he felt fatigued after refining a few, he chose not to waste medicinal pills, instead sitting in meditation within the space to cultivate and recover his state. This approach not only avoided arousing suspicion by being too fast but also saved him several days' worth of inn fees.
By the seventh day, Nie Shiyun had finished refining all the artifacts.
Before the first deadline arrived, he brought out five completed items. The front desk of the guild worked in shifts, and a different female cultivator was on duty. She was unaware of Nie Shiyun’s feat of taking over twenty wooden plaques at once, and she was visibly startled when she pulled up his records for the day during the handover.
An appraisal crafter employed by the guild arrived shortly after. Of the five Mortal-grade immortal artifacts Nie Shiyun had produced, two were mid-tier and three were high-tier, all possessing a beautiful finish.
Goods were exchanged for payment. Nie Shiyun weighed the immortal crystals in his hand, thinking of the surplus materials he had kept for himself—which could be sold for a small profit later—and returned to the fire chamber feeling quite satisfied.
This place was truly excellent. Although the spiritual energy wasn't as abundant as in dedicated cultivation rooms for rent, it was free! Having completed his tasks ahead of schedule, Nie Shiyun spent a leisurely month and a half cultivating inside. It wasn't until he felt his cultivation hit a minor bottleneck while pushing from the middle stage toward the late stage of the Void Refinement Realm that he finally emerged from the fire chamber.
It seemed that if he wanted to make a breakthrough in the short term, he would need external assistance. Generally, such situations offered two choices: a stroke of serendipity or the right natural treasures. However, the former was hard to come by, and the latter was expensive; neither seemed feasible for the moment.
After delivering the remaining artifacts, Nie Shiyun saw a total of 150,000 immortal crystals enter his account. This was the final amount after the guild had taken its cut from both ends of the market price.
As expected, one's techniques had to keep pace with the times. Nie Shiyun quickly decided that he would buy manuals for Profound-grade immortal artifacts as soon as he had the chance; it was a necessary investment.
After handing over the artifacts, Nie Shiyun glanced at the guild’s "Commission Board." It looked much the same as it had a month and a half ago, though the wall appeared somewhat empty because he had swept away twenty-odd long-standing commissions in one go. While the rewards were decent, the update speed here was indeed slow. The one thing cultivators had in abundance was time; unless it was an emergency, they were willing to wait months, if not years.
With 150,000 immortal crystals in hand, the first thing Nie Shiyun did upon leaving the guild was to find a place to inquire about the cost of a celestial ship to the Upper Layer.
"Five hundred thousand."
Nie Shiyun was no longer surprised by such an answer. Had he just arrived in the Upper Realm, he might have been shocked for a while, but now he merely let out a soft "oh" of acknowledgement. Money was simply something to be earned.
"Just asking, is the price the same to return from the Upper Layer?"
"It’s a bit cheaper. There are many great seniors in the Upper Layer who don't need to take the celestial ships. I hear the ships coming back always have many empty seats, so the price drops a bit."
Nie Shiyun asked a few more questions regarding the Ascension Passages, but that was ancient history, and the shop assistant at the trading house didn't know much. Nie Shiyun had hoped that because the people at the trading house saw so much, he might pick up some intel, but that was clearly not the case.
Seeing that he was only there to chat, the assistant’s face showed a hint of impatience.
Nie Shiyun keenly sensed the other's mood and pivoted just in time. "Ah, right. I’d like to repair this immortal robe. Do you have any suitable silk thread?"
He pulled out the Purple Violet Immortal Robe, which had been gathering dust in his storage bracelet for half a year due to several large holes.
"Wow, that’s some thorough damage," the man from the trading house remarked, frowning as he looked at it.
Fortunately, he didn't bluntly state it was beyond saving like the cultivators in the Lower Layer. Instead, he leaned in to closely examine the threads around the holes and replied, "Purple Cloud Silk! This stuff isn't exactly rare, but we just happen to be out of stock. Fellow Daoist, I didn't realize you were an Immortal Weaver?"
Nie Shiyun shook his head. "No, I am an artifact crafter."
"An artifact crafter? Then even if you get the silk, you won't be able to patch these holes!" the assistant said helplessly.
So, in this place, those who wove immortal artifacts were called Immortal Weavers.
Nie Shiyun had to admit he hadn't invested any points into that particular skill. He could manage adding some decorations or an array to a garment, but weaving cloth from silk from scratch was beyond him. Usually, the only wearable defensive treasures he excelled at making were armor-type pieces.
"How about this? Sell it to us as is. The trading house will find someone to repair it. Although it's badly damaged, it is still a high-tier Profound-grade robe. We’ll give you twenty-five thousand."
Hearing this, Nie Shiyun raised an eyebrow. After all his questioning, this man likely took him for a fool.
Nie Shiyun politely declined and turned to leave. As expected, the man grew anxious and tentatively raised the offer to thirty thousand. Nie Shiyun remained unmoved. Through this back-and-forth, he roughly guessed that the robe would sell for much more once repaired. He could obtain the Purple Cloud Silk himself, and perhaps he could even find an Immortal Weaver at the guild to commission for the repairs.
In the end, Nie Shiyun did not sell the robe. Setting aside the fact that the trading house’s price wasn't honest enough, it was currently the only Profound-grade treasure in his possession. He decided to keep it for a while longer, as it might come in handy later.
However, it was a woman’s garment after all. Unless it was absolutely necessary, Nie Shiyun would not easily put it on himself...
Having been in the Middle Layer for over a month, Nie Shiyun hadn't really explored. Leaving the trading house, he looked up the habitats of Purple Cloud Silkworms while searching for the locations of other guilds in the Middle Layer. He planned to make a circuit, checking the recruitment boards of every guild along the way to earn some extra cash.
This circuit took quite some time. He traveled with frequent stops, sweeping clean all the Mortal-grade commissions he could accept from various guilds. Unfortunately, winter had arrived, and Purple Cloud Silkworms were hard to find in the wild. Nie Shiyun eventually found some stock at a trading house in another town. The silk itself wasn't particularly expensive; after inquiring about the amount needed, he bought double the required silk and went straight to the Immortal Weavers' Guild to post a request.
"Please take this; it is a one-way communication stone. We will notify you whether the commission is completed or if it expires without being accepted," the receptionist said.
Nie Shiyun took it, hoping for the best. The price he offered was fair, and he gave a deadline of a full three months. Because he wasn't sure if he would make a push for the celestial ship next spring or simply stay in the Middle Layer for a whole year, he set the date for shortly before the ships were scheduled to depart the following year.
With his artifact crafter’s token, Nie Shiyun only needed to accept a single crafting commission to linger in a free fire chamber for a long time. Few cultivators were willing to sleep in the stuffy, cramped fire chambers, but since his space had a bed and plenty of spiritual energy, Nie Shiyun spent the winter moving between locations, essentially living underground in various Crafters' Guilds.
By saving on inn fees—which were even more expensive than in the Lower Layer—and taking on numerous odd jobs, Nie Shiyun’s savings grew steadily, even if it wasn't as exhilarating as receiving a single large sum.
Winter in the cultivation world was usually the quietest time. People rarely traveled, mostly focusing on secluded cultivation in their caves. However, the Middle Layer of the Upper Realm became incredibly lively in winter. The shopping streets of many large towns even held year-end sales, leaving Nie Shiyun dumbfounded. The place felt so full of the vibrancy of the mundane world, vastly different from the "ancient times" he had known. Even after living for a hundred years, one could still succumb to impulsive shopping. Nie Shiyun browsed through various shops and, as expected, bought two very expensive items.
The first was a Profound-grade artifact crafting manual that Nie Shiyun had been eyeing for a while but couldn't afford. Even with a discount, this single volume cost almost all the rewards he had earned from refining those twenty-odd artifacts two months prior.
*Money must be invested to make more money...* Nie Shiyun chanted internally as he handed over a massive pile of immortal crystals.
If his crafting level was to rise, his cultivation had to keep up.
The second item was a Smoke Cloud Fruit, which helped cultivators break through minor realms. These fruits displayed different colors depending on the spiritual roots they suited. Nie Shiyun spent the rest of his savings to buy a Gold and a Fire fruit, planning to rely on them to advance to the late stage of the Void Refinement Realm. If he was lucky, he might even reach Great Perfection without hitting another bottleneck.
When he had walked into the shopping street, Nie Shiyun’s purse had been full; when he came out, his pockets were entirely empty. He looked at the streets teeming with cultivators and the shops competing secretly—most likely belonging to different families and sects—and felt an unexpected sense of familiarity. He quite liked this atmosphere. If Bairong was interested in such an environment in the future, they could find a way to settle on this layer. If they wanted a leisurely life, they could return to the Lower Layer for their "retirement." He hadn't touched the Upper Layer yet, but he had heard it was a gathering place for seniors and core members of great families; for now, he withheld judgment.
These weren't things he should be thinking about yet. Nie Shiyun took a deep breath. The icy winter air filled his lungs, making him feel instantly refreshed after leaving the noisy shops.
At this time every year, he would remember the first year he was separated from Zhai Bairong, looking at the snow-covered mountains and missing him from afar. Whenever they recalled those times, they would huddle together in their cave dwelling, warming a pot of wine to share. Occasionally, they would go out and walk on the mountain like mortals, looking together at the beautiful snowy scenery that he once gazed upon alone, but which now reflected the silhouettes of two people.
To ensure they could both establish themselves leisurely in this Upper Realm, he had to work harder now. So Nie Shiyun thought.
With renewed motivation, Nie Shiyun walked briskly toward the town's Crafters' Guild.
He had been staying in this town recently, spending nearly eighty percent of his time soaked in the fire chambers here. Although news didn't travel instantly between different guilds, after a few months, scattered rumors had begun to emerge—tales of a "young crafter sweeping up all Mortal-grade commissions" or a "male cultivator who has lived in every guild fire chamber."
Nie Shiyun laughed it off. While becoming famous for something so strange wasn't part of his plan, having a reputation was never a bad thing when one wanted to make money.
"Crafter Nie, you’re here again." The receptionist, who usually wore a professional smile, relaxed slightly upon seeing a regular customer of several months, her smile becoming a bit more genuine.
"Yes. The shopping street had a sale, so I went to buy a few things." Nie Shiyun walked straight to the wooden board, scanned it briefly, and snatched up the last two Mortal-grade commissions. He handed them to the receptionist with practiced ease and stood aside, waiting patiently for her to record them and grant him access to the underground fire chambers.
"...All set. I’ll have the materials sent to the fire chamber in a moment. Still the one at the very end?"
"Thank you," Nie Shiyun smiled, heading down the stairs with practiced familiarity.
The receptionist felt a momentary flash of confusion. Was this a Crafters' Guild, or was it an inn...?
***
Enjoying the story? Rate this novel:
Transmigrated into a Total Shou Novel as a Cannon Fodder, but Ended Up 1v1-ing the Male Lead | Chapter 165 | The Fire Chamber Resident | Novela.app | Novela.app
