The small cabin was divided into several areas:

There was an indoor Spirit Field Area, where some Spirit Rice and Spirit Plants were grown.

There was an Alchemy Room. Although the Pill Furnace was old and battered, it would definitely be fine for refining some common, low-grade Elixirs.

An Artifact Refining Room and a Talisman-Making Room. Though they were a bit small and the tools weren’t all there, they were barely usable.

Surprisingly, there were even dedicated workshops for crafting Puppets, forging Dao Soldiers, Refining Spirit Stones and various Spiritual Materials, and even a station for further refining Spiritual and Magical Artifacts.

Truly, it was small but perfectly complete.

There were also a few quiet rooms for cultivation. The place had a Tier One Upper Grade Spirit Vein, which was a bit of a stretch to maintain the Tier Two Grand Array and also supply two Qi Cultivation Cultivators for their cultivation. It would definitely slow down their cultivation speed significantly.

Fortunately, Du Youqian had come prepared. He had bought plenty of Elixirs at the Marketplace, and with his own Five-Flower Qi Storage Pills and Dragon Kui Purple Extreme Pills, it would be enough to manage.

That Luo Jinyu fellow didn’t follow Du Youqian; he had run off somewhere to slack off.

Du Youqian found a quiet room and sat down. After a moment’s thought, he used the three new copper coins he had refined to perform a divination for Luo Jinyu.

’The "Tong Ren" hexagram?’

Fellowship in the open; success. It is favorable to cross the great river. It is favorable for the superior man to be steadfast.

Staring at the hexagram for a long while, Du Youqian’s furrowed brow gradually relaxed.

~~~~~~~~~

In the blink of an eye, Du Youqian had been living in the small cabin for nearly a month.

The conditions here were naturally harsh.

But for Du Youqian, who was single-mindedly focused on his arduous cultivation and only wanted to reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible, it was no different from paradise.

There was nothing to distract him.

Every day, aside from cultivating and crafting a suitable set of Spiritual and Magical Artifacts for himself, he would chat with Luo Jinyu.

Luo Jinyu still had that exhausted look, as if he could never get enough rest.

He didn’t seem particularly wary of Du Youqian, but he did seem to have a bit of social anxiety. He was listless all day and didn’t feel like talking.

However, thanks to Du Youqian’s deliberate efforts to befriend him, the two gradually became more familiar.

Luo Jinyu sporadically revealed some things about his past.

Du Youqian learned that Luo Jinyu had once been a young man who yearned for the Great Dao with all his heart.

But after being tricked—no, after struggling and finally managing to join the Holy Blood Sect—the bloody and brutal reality of his surroundings terrified him out of his wits, and he lost all desire to participate in its cruel competition.

So, despite clearly possessing an Upper Grade Spirit Root and having a chance to compete to become an Inner Disciple, he "willingly degenerated." He refused to participate in any competition that involved rankings, simply wanting to avoid being drawn into conflict.

However, in the eyes of some fanatics, just having an Upper Grade Spirit Root was an original sin. It meant you were a potential rival.

’You don’t want to compete now?’

’But one day you’ll come to your senses and join the competition.’

’And a dead rival is the only good rival.’

After a few near-death experiences, Luo Jinyu simply exiled himself to this godforsaken place.

As a cultivator with an Upper Grade Spirit Root, if he were in a third or Fourth-class Sect, he would certainly have been treasured and nurtured.

The few who weren’t treated like treasures certainly had their reasons.

For instance, in Du Youqian’s previous life, there was someone with an Upper Grade Spirit Root whose cultivation was crippled for offending him. In reality, that person had long been disloyal, repeatedly asking about ways to join a Second-class Sect not far from Feixian Peak. This had already been reported to the Sect’s upper echelons, but they had been holding back, waiting for a suitable opportunity to deal with him.

So, after the incident where the person harassed Du Youqian, the higher-ups immediately used him to make an example.

Had it been any other cultivator with an Upper Grade Spirit Root who was completely loyal to the Sect, they would never have been wasted like that. At most, they would have received a punishment like "thirty years of facing the wall," which seemed harsh but was actually a measure to help their cultivation.

But in a First-class Sect, an Upper Grade Spirit Root... well, it wasn’t really a big deal.

It’s not that they were as common as carp crossing a river.

In any case, on a single trip to the Scripture Room, you could run into eight or ten of them.

Wasting a single, ordinary Upper Grade Spirit Root was just that—a waste, not something worthy of too much attention from the Sect’s upper and middle management.

In Du Youqian’s opinion, Luo Jinyu was a bit depressed.

At twenty-five or twenty-six years old, he was at the Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer. His cultivation wasn’t low, which meant he must have previously been a virtuous ascetic capable of enduring solitude.

Yet, after exiling himself to this Evil Pool, despite the cultivation conditions not being too bad, his cultivation hadn’t progressed an inch in two years.

’Going around every day looking like you can’t wake up—are you even a cultivator?’

’Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were trying to achieve Immortal Cultivating by watching scantily clad girls dance on their phones all night.’

Du Youqian wasn’t a therapist, nor did he have the spare time to counsel Luo Jinyu.

Although the "Tong Ren" hexagram suggested that gaining Luo Jinyu’s sincere allegiance would be like giving a tiger wings.

But Du Youqian had more confidence in his own personal power.

As for anything else, it would merely be icing on the cake.

If he spent a lot of time winning the allegiance of a large group of Foundation Establishment Cultivators but neglected his own cultivation, all of those Foundation Establishment cultivators combined couldn’t withstand the crushing force of a single finger from a Core Formation Lord.

The logic of the Cultivation Realm was just that simple, unadorned, and dull.

Uneventfully, another month passed.

Du Youqian had now been garrisoning the Evil Pool for two months.

During these two months, a few Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivators had come to borrow the Evil Pool for Condensing Evil into the Body to enhance the power of their Demon Path Techniques.

Those who spoke politely and paid the required price were permitted by Du Youqian.

Those who were short on funds but begged pitifully, Du Youqian also permitted, not wanting to waste time.

When he encountered fools who didn’t know their place, Du Youqian would simply activate the Grand Array and slowly wear them down.

If the other party still didn’t know when to back down, he would release his Flying Sword and kill them.

With the power of the Tier Two Defense Grand Array, killing an ordinary Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivator was not difficult.

He would then use the belongings of these slain Foundation Establishment cultivators to make up for the losses incurred from his earlier acts of mercy. He didn’t lose out; in fact, he could even turn a small profit.

It was only a small profit, of course.

These slain Foundation Establishment cultivators were all dirt-poor.

If they were truly wealthy, they wouldn’t have tried to welsh on the fee for condensing evil energy.

Welshing on the fee itself wasn’t a huge deal, but they failed to consider whose resources they were trying to use.

Did they really think it was so easy to take advantage of the number one Demon Sect?

It was precisely because most of them were paupers that Du Youqian had no intention of setting up a sting operation.

The time investment wasn’t worth it.

After witnessing Du Youqian take action a few times, Luo Jinyu’s attitude quietly began to change, gaining a bit more awe and respect.

He had previously seen Brother Zhang Zifan, who was at Qi Cultivation Perfection, in action.

Zhang Zifan had talked a big game, acting incredibly arrogant and implying that, aside from the True Inheritors and a few exceptionally outstanding Inner Disciples, he looked down on everyone.

He was always saying he was about to go back and achieve Foundation Establishment, fighting his way to the status of an Inner Disciple.

But comparing the two, Brother Zhang’s strength was clearly far inferior to that of the quiet Brother Yu.

And when "Brother Yu" continued to treat him as usual—slightly aloof, but polite—unlike Brother Zhang, who had constantly mocked and belittled him, Luo Jinyu actually felt a bit overwhelmed by the favor. He no longer held back in his words, clearly harboring some thoughts of pledging his loyalty.

This was a case of unintentionally planting a willow.