After Chen Jingzhai and Sage Qing Mu returned to Wangdan Pagoda, Zhang Kui and Sage Qing Hui rushed over to meet them.
The latter two purchased some warm jade and two pieces of ocean star black metal ore as they explained the current situation.
Benefiting from the Eastern Ocean Royal House making an order, more and more celestial families came to purchase their puppets.
Their most popular item was still the phone bug.
Now, Zhang Kui focused on creating Grade 1 phone bugs. Every batch was immediately sold out.
These phone bugs even caught the attention of the imperial city as well as the cultivators of various sects.
They each used their own channels to make orders. The numbers were highly astonishing.
Unintentionally, Zhang Kui managed to earn a killing and even made the phone bug a widespread item.
Zhang Kui came over to deliver spiritual stones to Chen Jingzhai. Most of them were water essence stones.
The Eastern Ocean was rich in resources. Various forces all had their own source of water essence stones. Their pockets were quite deep.
Aside from the phone bugs, many other Grade 1 puppets were also purchased.
When Sage Qing Hui delivered a batch of water essence stones to Puppet Hall, he also brought over even more disciples.
This time, even the inner disciples of Puppet Hall came down from the mountains.
If they did not invest more in their workforce, they would surely be unable to complete these orders.
“Are you not taking part in the expedition to the Eastern Ocean Remains?” asked Chen Jingzhai as he frowned.
“The Dragon Qi in my body has yet to subside. So even if I went, I would not be able to enter the cave residence,” explained Zhang Kui as he shook his head with a smile. “I’d better stay in Eastern Sun City and focus on creating puppets. I also like doing so.”
“In the future, Puppet Pagodas will be established in the five states of the Eastern Ocean,” said Sage Qing Hui. “Even the imperial city wants a Puppet Pagoda. It would be best for Zhang Kui to stay behind. We lack manpower.”
“I understand,” said Chen Jingzhai as he nodded his head. Although he felt that it was a pity, he could understand.
Zhang Kui was different from him. Or instead, it should be said that Puppet Hall was different from all the other lineages.
Even the Alchemy Temple would not create a standardized production line to manufacture their magic treasures and spiritual items.
Even if they could, the sect would not allow them to do so.
Aside from wasting materials and the fact that the various disciples would easily grow lazy, there were many other factors to consider.
Puppet Hall was most suitable for such an operation. The puppets they created were originally expendable, so the sect was very supportive of their endeavor.
With these resources, Zhang Kui could progress even further down the Path of Puppets.
The two of them left as quickly as they came. They went with hearts full of joy.
Chen Jingzhai did not head over to the Eastern Ocean anymore. Instead, he began to immerse himself in cultivation.
In his second winter in Donglai City, Chen Jingzhai created a Grade 2 jade talisman.
He made these from Grade 2 warm jade. They were not just single-use items; they could be used repeatedly.
In theory, as long as the jade talismans were not damaged, they could be used forever.
In reality, each time the jade talismans were used, their power would be gradually exhausted.
A thin jade talisman would lose its function after around 30 uses.
Chen Jingzhai created many Grade 2 jade talismans. However, he did not sell them and instead gave them to his four maidservants.
On top of making the jade talismans, he also used the Grade 3 warm jade to carve some ornaments and pendants.
Aside from those he wore, he also made some for his four maidservants and the casual disciples of Wangdan Pagoda.
He used excess material, so they were not as valuable.
Even so, everyone who received them was happy and grateful, treasuring these gifts very much.
This was especially so for the 12 casual disciples, who did not even have spiritual items.
It was a huge surprise to receive such a gift from their Little Master-Uncle, Chen Jingzhai.
These jade pendants would be absolutely precious treasures for their cultivation!
In addition to making jade items, Chen Jingzhai also concocted elixirs.
Although Wangdan Pagoda had closed its doors, Wang Tong occasionally bought elixirs from him.
However, this time, aside from spiritual herbs and seeds, Chen Jingzhai also wanted various treasures from the sea.
He had no use for spiritual stones or water essence stones.
Due to Chen Jingzhai concocting a large number of elixirs of sufficient quality, Wang Tong did not reject his request.
Or rather, the Eastern Ocean Royal House had not rejected his request.
With these treasures from the sea and the spiritual herbs and seeds, his Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens experienced new changes.
In the land of innate five elements, the seeds began to sprout. They were then moved to the herb farms created by the spirit deities.
Chen Jingzhai also buried around 10,000,000 water essence stones in his Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens.
These water essence stones would nourish the soil and provide the spirit plants with nutrients so that they could grow rapidly.
The Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens were covered in Grade 1 and Grade 2 spiritual herbs and spirit plants.
Grade 3 spiritual herbs and spirit plants grew in their own areas and were protected by Restrictions.
Sea monsters inhabited the seas.
Chen Jingzhai had purposely captured large quantities of ordinary creatures from the Eastern Ocean to add to the Primordial Essence Grotto-heavens. There was a myriad of creatures in its ocean waters.
Chen Jingzhai also discovered that the number of living creatures in the Grotto-heavens had increased. As a result, the space within the Grotto-heavens had also expanded.
Even though the expansion was minuscule, he could still sense it.
Therefore, he brought his four maidservants to the Eastern Ocean again. Each night, he would capture a large number of living creatures.
As the number of living creatures increased and they began to populate the space, his control over the Grotto-heavens improved daily.
The last snow of winter fell upon Donglai City.
Possibly due to the changes in essence power, there was always snow even though the city was near the ocean.
Watching the waves crashing onto the shore on a snowy night was a different experience.
As time passed, Chen Jingzhai could activate even more of the Origin Power of the Grotto-heavens.
He lifted the clouds away from the surface of the Grotto-heavens as he looked up at the sky in pride.
Then, he took a piece of warm jade that was 30 feet tall and carved out the image of the Supreme Sky Master.
With this jade statue as the center, he used the remaining warm jade to create a formation foundation, establishing a complete restricted formation.
He formed the Mountain River Wind and Rain Restriction within the Small Heavens Cloud Forbidden Restriction.
The light of the restricted formation began from the clouds and shone down on the entire Grotto-heavens.
This caused another transparent shroud to appear in the sky above the Grotto-heavens, which soon disappeared from sight.
Henceforth, aside from Chen Jingzhai, the other spirit deities needed to go through the palace to reach the surface.
He was not done yet. Chen Jingzhai activated the Origin Power of the Grotto-heavens and showered it down onto the jade statue.
With the jade statue as its core, the restricted formation would slowly merge with the Grotto-heavens.
From then on, the Grotto-heavens were divided into two parts, the sky, and the earth.
After he completed this task, he clearly sensed that the Origin Power had decreased.
However, his control over it had gone up a level.
Next, he took out the Innate Spirit Seed from the Seven Stars Moon Pool.
After having some time to cultivate, this Spirit Seed had already grown seven roots.
More importantly, cracks appeared on the surface of the Spirit Seed, and a tiny sprout was beginning to emerge.
The succulent sprout was greenish bronze in color.
Since Chen Jingzhai’s aura was linked with the sprout, he could sense a miraculous connection with it.
The rest was actually not that complicated.
To grow the innate money tree, he had to constantly water it with various powers.
The Spirit Seed floated before Chen Jingzhai as he first channeled three bursts of Innate Qi into it.
The sprout of the Spirit Seed rapidly grew seven inches. It now had a total of 13 roots.
Next, Chen Jingzhai took out various spiritual stones, Essence Power Pearls, and water essence stones.
The roots of the innate money tree wrapped around the spiritual stones as though they had sentience.
In the time it took for a breath, the spiritual stones were reduced to dust. Likewise, the Essence Power Pearls and water essence stones also disappeared without a trace.
The innate money tree continued to grow until it was a foot long. Then its growth began to slow down.
One day, Chen Jingzhai threw a Grade 3 sea monster at the roots on a whim.
The innate money tree did not turn down his offer.
The roots jabbed into the body of the sea monster, and the innate money tree grew to one foot three inches. It also grew its first branch.
Chen Jingzhai was greatly surprised. He continued to hunt down and capture Grade 3 sea monsters.
The innate money tree consumed these Grade 3 sea monsters, leaving no trace behind.
In return, the entire innate money tree and its branches continued growing.
The innate money tree grew its second leaf after consuming 18 Grade 3 sea monsters.
This leaf appeared on the first branch. There were red patterns on the leaf.
When spring came, Chen Jingzhai came across a heavily injured Grade 4 sea monster in the depths of the Eastern Ocean by chance.
Chen Jingzhai successfully absorbed it with some effort, using the divine light of the Grotto-heavens.
He offered it up to be consumed by the innate money tree.
This time, the innate money tree’s trunk immediately shot past two feet, reaching two feet and three inches.
Its branches were five inches long, and there were four more leaves. At the end of the branch was a blood-patterned coin.
Its roots increased to 24.
Chen Jingzhai was very interested in the blood-patterned coin.
The more the innate money tree grew, the closer his connection was with it.
According to the innate money tree’s feedback, it seemed that the blood-patterned coin was born from the consumption of sea monsters.
This was a type of fruit that could also be used as a coin.
As to how exactly it could be used, he would need to wait for it to mature to find out.
Chen Jingzhai was full of anticipation as he hunted the sea monsters with increased vigor.
