Lingyun sat inside a pavilion and looked outside into the vast forest. The pavilion was right at the cliff, giving him a nice view as he drank his tea. He smiled and thought to himself 'Well, the last lifetime was truly worth it. Instead of cultivating, spending most of my time in a hidden room, practicing creation arts and spells is a lot better!
Especially those basic spells' as he said this, he raised his hand and the whole pavilion seemed to be moving, chairs and tables rearranged, the smallest decorations were moved around, even the tiles of the pavilion formed a different pattern.
This was the popular object control spell. It could be used freely because he had reached the perfect state of it! There are five ranks of spells: entry, small success, great success, perfect and dao. The three first stages only make the use easier and the consumption less, perfect spells can be used freely without any obstruction, a fireball can be enlarged or even put into different shapes, for example.
The dao stage on the other hand is deeper – it's to understand the laws behind the spells, something Lingyun hasn't achieved with any of his spells just yet.
He moved his hands again and the previous arrangement was recovered, then he moved out of his pavilion and walked down the mountain path.
"Young master, the elder called you!" a young boy in neat clothes rushed up the path, when he saw Lingyun, he bowed and told him the reason he came.
"I know, I will go there." Lingyun smiled lazily and walked down.
'This is the first time in my six lifetimes that I am born into a foundation-building clan, haha, six times' the charm, maybe.' Although he was born in different families before, not once did he have foundation-building relatives, so he was more hopeful of this.
Still, this did not change his attitude towards cultivation. He felt that after so many lives of working hard, even if there was a danger he wouldn't reincarnate, he wouldn't regret it and rather spent his life enjoying the sceneries of the different worlds and exploring the myriad skills that can come with him to the next life, than to work hard on cultivation.
On one hand, he will take any opportunity he can get, on the other hand, he is unwilling to force things and miss out on life. He experienced old age three times, always seeing people who started with great motivation and then became old people with dejected expressions. He'd rather not be like them, even if he doesn't succeed, at least he enjoyed every step!
Of the other two times, once he died in the process of foundation building, the other he died at the hands of a robber, whom he managed to pull with him into death. Every time he thinks of this, he still laughs, after all, he sacrificed himself to kill the person, but he still remembered his past life while the other person would be truly dead!
Lingyun walked down the mountain path slowly until he reached the midway, from here he took a different path and walked up another mountain. The pavilion and his courtyard were on his own mountain, he had reincarnated into this world for over twenty years by now, already a late stage qi refining cultivator, so he could have his own place.
It's not that he works hard, but his proficiency in certain cultivation arts is just higher. This lifetime he had three roots of wind, water and wood. His second and fourth life he had specialised in a wood cultivation arts, so it was easier for him to cultivate these.
With his age, he's somewhat of a prodigy with only thirty two years old.
From experience he knew that he would basically awaken his memories the moment he started cultivating, he wasn't sure why but cultivators and mortals are inherently different from the moment they start, he guessed it was his soul that was special, and with the initiation of cultivation, he would remember everything.
He was thankful of this, at least he didn't have to spent a decade as a baby without any chance of doing anything. Generally, cultivation starts around the age of ten, which gave him a certain minimum of privacy and freedom.
Lingyun soon arrived at a different mountain – the Merit Hall. This was basically present in most organisations, it was the exchange centre, and sometimes the place to accept missions if the organisation was too small to have a mission hall.
He entered, the people on the way making space, the boy that called him waited outside. A few called out to him with "Uncle Lingyun" and he just nodded. Fortunately, he didn't know why, but he always had the name Lingyun. As for his last name, when he was in a family, he would keep it, if he was a casual cultivator, he would change it towards his own.
In the inner yard of the hall, there was an old man waiting. The merit hall was split into inner and outer, the outer yard was for normal dealings while the inner yard was for important things.
Lingyun stepped forward and bowed "Grandpa!" the Merit Hall's Elder is his grandfather, which gave him a deeper background. Only ninth stage qi refining cultivators can become elders in their family, the two foundation building ancestors usually stayed in seclusion, so it was the elders and the clan leader that handled the clan matters.
Yeyun nodded and gestured Lingyun to sit down, he smiled an said "You have been in the seventh stage for a year now and have long stabilised, the clan now requires you to take a mission. Alas, it would be better if you could focus on cultivation, but we don't have enough cultivators in the late stage."
Lingyun shook his head "You don't have to say this, grandfather. The clan cared for me and I should pay them back, it's natural for me to put in the effort! I wonder what missions there are for me to choose from?"
What Lingyun didn't say was that he wanted to focus on learning creation arts for a long time in this lifetime, else the time he spent here would be wasted. Cultivation is fleeting but arts and spells are eternal! All the while he already perfected another spell in these twenty years, of course this was because he had a foundation in that spell, but just cultivating one spell is not only inefficient, it's also boring.
Yeyun was satisfied with Lingyun's answer and explained that he had specially saved three missions in this year for his grandson "You can choose however you like. The first mission is to go to the cultivator gathering market and take up the post of our Spirit Store, the second is to be the overseer of the black iron ore mine and the last is to take care of the spiritual garden."
Gathering places of cultivators are ranked into different stages, markets are those places in the intersection of different powers, the customers are generally the local rogue cultivators and small families. Cultivator Towns on the other hand are around resource points such as near beast territories, natural phenomena or the like. Cities are independent organisations themselves, where the core area is the headquarters of the organisation.