On the other side, Nie Shiyun arrived alone at the Shang family’s refining workshop.
This was a suburban estate, and its scale was much larger than Nie Shiyun had imagined. Refiners, alchemists, talisman masters, and array masters each had their own separate courtyards. The people here performed the most basic tasks on a daily basis. Unless someone was exceptionally talented and promoted to the city, most of them had never even met the prominent figures of the Shang family. Their daily interactions were limited to attendants and the estate’s manager.
The core of a great family consisted of blood relatives, but the various industries established under the family's banner did not necessarily require family members to run them. These people were primarily responsible for providing basic commodities for various shops and the monthly supplies for the family’s attendants.
The manager explained the situation to Nie Shiyun. It was the first time he had learned that attendants in great families could receive a certain amount of medicinal pills and talismans every month. While durable items like magical treasures and immortal garments could not be claimed monthly, the supply was still more than sufficient.
Previously, he had wondered how great families found so many servants, given that most cultivators were proud and arrogant. In sects, the tradition was for juniors to serve seniors, but one could eventually work their way up. Families were different; outsiders would always remain outsiders. However, looking at it now, the conditions they offered were indeed generous.
"Let me be clear: we aren't short on hands right now. Even if you want to work hard, you probably won't find much to do," the manager said bluntly, seeing Nie Shiyun’s high spirits and the many questions he asked along the way.
Many young people who first arrived at the external workshops of these great families were full of passion, working hard to stand out in hopes of a future promotion. But reality was not so simple. To put it bluntly, as long as the few refiners in the main residence didn't die, they wouldn't vacate their spots. If they didn't leave, this workshop wouldn't produce a replacement for them in hundreds of years.
Engaged in mechanical, repetitive labor year after year while receiving a stable monthly salary, most cultivators gradually lost their passion and began to simply drift through their days.
"I’m very grateful just to have a place to stay. If there’s any grunt work, feel free to call on me," Nie Shiyun replied, not at all discouraged by the manager’s cold words. He thought to himself that having no work meant peace and quiet—wasn't that a good thing?
Hearing that Nie Shiyun came from the lower realm, the manager gave him a few more indirect pointers, essentially telling him not to think that the middle realm was full of opportunities or that hard work would lead to promotion. Nie Shiyun wasn't particularly interested in that anyway; he only wanted to see his bedroom and their refining rooms. If permitted, he also wanted to visit the workspaces of the alchemists and talisman masters.
Seeing that this newcomer was unmoved by his advice, the manager stopped bothering. After leading him in a large circle around the estate, he dropped Nie Shiyun off at the refining workshop.
The news of a new Grade Two refiner didn't cause even a ripple of excitement. After the manager finished introducing the layout of the estate, everyone in the refining workshop came out for a brief meeting. They all looked listless, nodding in acknowledgment before returning to their respective rooms.
A Grade Two refiner was nothing special here. There were over a dozen of them in this workshop, and almost all were Grade Two. Only two were Grade Three, and it was said they had been idling here for hundreds of years.
Nie Shiyun recalled that Madam Shang had agreed just the day before to let him move to the city workshop once he advanced to Grade Three. He couldn't help but feel that the world was truly unfair... but since he was the beneficiary, he naturally didn't plan to say it aloud, lest he be beaten.
Each cultivator had their own room. This estate had clearly been built specifically to house craftsmen, so there were an especially large number of rooms compared to a normal residence, making the individual rooms feel somewhat condensed. Nie Shiyun walked into his room and looked around. Though small, it had everything he needed. While not as luxurious as the guest room he had slept in the night before, as a temporary lodging, it was certainly better than a volcanic fire chamber.
Life at the Shang family estate was exactly as Nie Shiyun had expected: very leisurely, and somewhat boring.
Because Nie Shiyun was new, the other refiners didn't give him much work. At first, they wouldn't even let him touch the furnaces, saying that before he could start a fire and work, he had to practice, master the molds, and prove he could refine nearly identical items.
If Nie Shiyun’s previous work had been "custom commissions," then what they were doing now was "mass production." Based on feedback from the shops, they refined large batches of magical treasures with similar materials and quality according to old molds—essentially assembly-line work.
His ability to adapt had long since been maxed out, and his basic skills were naturally beyond reproach. It took Nie Shiyun only a few days to hand in his practice pieces. Only after seeing them did the group of refiners nod and agree to let him join the main force to share some of the workload.
After working at the estate for nearly a month, a few cultivators finally began to speak to him occasionally.
"This month's quota is finished..."
"It’s so cold. As expected of the first month of the year... What year is it again? Forget it, it doesn't matter."
"You said you're a rogue cultivator from the lower realm? That couldn't have been easy. Although life here is boring, at least it's stable, right?"
It was winter, and the cold wind whistled through the courtyard. Combined with the deathly stillness of these refiners, hearing such remarks made Nie Shiyun feel, for the first time, that time was passing incredibly slowly.
Other than that, he had no complaints at all. During this period, Madam Shang, worried about him, invited him to the town twice for a chat. When asked, Nie Shiyun always expressed that he was very satisfied.
Fortunately, early spring soon arrived, and the ice and snow began to melt. After a few busy days in the workshop, there would often be several days without a single task. Seeing the warming temperatures, Nie Shiyun thought he finally had a chance to wander the nearby outskirts and mountains. The wilderness of the middle realm was much more dangerous than that of the lower realm, but generally speaking, the closer one was to a town, the safer it was. Taking advantage of his recent breakthrough past a minor bottleneck to reach the late stage of the Void Refinement realm, and having no more worries about buying a ferry ticket, Nie Shiyun prepared plenty of pills and talismans and began exploring the surroundings of the town.
His colleagues at the Shang family workshop usually spent their days off recovering their state and seizing the time to cultivate for a few days. If a cultivator truly wanted to make progress, they usually had to go into secluded meditation for many years. However, since they had work every month, they couldn't do that and had to settle for the next best thing—accumulating progress bit by bit whenever they had the chance. These two things alone were enough to exhaust them. Seeing that Nie Shiyun still had the leisure and interest to go exploring on his days off, many refiners shook their heads repeatedly.
Many whispered behind his back that Nie Shiyun was simply too young. In a few hundred years, he certainly wouldn't have the energy to run around like that. However, some didn't even notice that as they spoke, their eyes revealed a hint of envy and nostalgia. Presumably, they had once been like that a long time ago.
Completely unaware that he was being discussed, Nie Shiyun had a very productive day. Because he had spent so much time with Zhai Bairong, although he didn't understand alchemy, his ability to distinguish herbs and vegetation had improved. For the same batch of spirit herbs growing in the same environment, digging them out in the most complete manner would fetch more money. Once Nie Shiyun mastered this technique, he tirelessly traveled back and forth between the town and the wilderness every day.
Just as he was preparing to head straight for the herb shop in town—and perhaps stop by the Refiners' Guild to see if there was any profit to be made—Nie Shiyun heard a commotion near the entrance of the largest tavern in town.
He looked from a distance and saw several cultivators shouting loudly while handing out things that looked like flyers to passing cultivators.
Nie Shiyun couldn't help but be curious. After all, the last time he had joined a crowd to see what was happening, he had stumbled upon a great stroke of luck. Thus, he changed his destination and headed toward the other end of the street.
Along the way, many people walked past holding flyers, but few were discussing them, and their faces were expressionless. If they were so uninterested, why bother taking one? Nie Shiyun grew even more puzzled and quickened his pace.
"At the end of this month! The Refiners' Convention hosted by the Lan family of the middle realm is about to begin. Registration for the preliminaries requires a refiner's badge, and the rewards are generous—"
Nie Shiyun only heard what the two cultivators were shouting once he got closer, and his spirits immediately lifted.
With such an event happening, why was there no movement at all in the Shang family workshop? Not a single person had even discussed it. If he hadn't stumbled upon it today, he would have missed this good opportunity while staying in the suburbs.
The Lan family was also a great family of the middle realm. He had heard that many guilds were backed by their full support, so this competition should carry significant weight. Yet, looking at the cultivators around him, most just took the paper and walked on with blank expressions. Even the two men shouting lacked any real passion; they were just loud. Nie Shiyun couldn't figure out the reason, only tentatively guessing that perhaps this competition was held so frequently that everyone’s interest had waned.
"Please give me one. Is registration at the guild?" Nie Shiyun approached and asked for a flyer. Seeing that the flyer only listed the time and location without any details regarding registration, he inquired politely.
The two cultivators were dressed plainly, but they wore tokens engraved with a special pattern on their waists, likely servants of the Lan family. Seeing Nie Shiyun actively ask for a flyer and read it carefully after receiving it, they exchanged a glance with subtle expressions.
"Is this fellow Daoist perhaps a refiner?"
"Yes. Oh, I only recently arrived in the middle realm and am not yet used to wearing my refiner's token on my person..." Nie Shiyun took his badge out of his spatial storage. He had always been puzzled by why people in the middle realm loved to display their status so much. Especially these professional badges—it cost a fee to replace them if lost, yet everyone loved to hang them out. He almost suspected this was a side scheme dreamed up by the great families to increase the loss rate and make money.
"So you just arrived in the middle realm. No wonder..."
"No wonder?"
Nie Shiyun asked, confused. But the two cultivators gave a dry laugh and quickly said, "It’s nothing. This competition is held every few years. Refining, alchemy, talismans, arrays, immortal weaving... every profession has one."
Nie Shiyun nodded; that seemed quite reasonable.
The two men glanced at Nie Shiyun’s badge. Seeing that he was a Grade Two refiner, they somehow seemed relieved.
"A Grade Two refiner—very promising. You can participate in the preliminaries first. Although there is a registration fee, as long as you pass the preliminaries and get a participation prize, you’ll not only make your money back but also get immortal pills as a bonus."
"Oh..." Nie Shiyun didn't know how to respond. The two had immediately slotted him into the "if you're lucky, you might get a participation prize" category. However, their expressions didn't seem like they were looking down on him; rather, they were quite cheerful, so Nie Shiyun found it hard to say anything. Perhaps the competition here was truly that fierce.
Having learned the basic situation, Nie Shiyun tucked the flyer away. The time marked on the paper was for the preliminary round. Three days after the preliminaries, several rounds of semi-finals and the finals would begin. Since refining took a considerable amount of time, the competition was dragged out over several days. Nie Shiyun calculated the dates. Next month was when the immortal ferry would dock, and it would depart about ten days after docking. If there was a conflict between the two, he would definitely choose the ferry and skip the excitement.
Pondering this, Nie Shiyun returned to his original path and sold a portion of his spirit herbs as planned. He kept a few of the best quality ones and decided to pay a visit to Madam Shang to ask about the ferry’s departure schedule and, while he was at it, consult her on why the cultivators of the middle realm were so lukewarm toward this Refiners' Convention.
