Out on the plains of the Xuanmu Realm.
Ye Qingxuan first laid down a massive concealment formation.
After activating it to block outside perception of this area, he looked around at the dense demonic qi swirling in the air. But he didn’t rush to take out the city components and start building right away.
Instead, he produced a fourth-order Spirit-Cleansing · Nuclear Explosion Pill.
Slowly, he began drawing out the energy within the pill and releasing it into the surrounding space.
The energy from the Spirit-Cleansing · Nuclear Explosion Pill clashed with the demonic qi, instantly producing a harsh, crackling hiss.
Wave after wave of demonic qi was purified by the pill’s energy.
Of course, in the process, the pill’s energy was gradually worn down as well.
However, the demonic qi permeating these plains was only the lowest tier—first-order demonic qi—while the energy inside a fourth-order Spirit-Cleansing · Nuclear Explosion Pill was on the fourth-order level.
So a single wisp of that fourth-order energy could purify dozens of wisps of the plains’ demonic qi.
Since he wasn’t detonating the pill directly, Ye Qingxuan spent a full three hours just cleansing this area of demonic qi.
Once the air was completely clear, he immediately took out all the city components and began arranging them according to the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams layout.
Rows of city walls, palaces, and buildings of all shapes and sizes—all of them rose into the air and assembled under Ye Qingxuan’s control.
In just a few moments, all the components had combined in midair into a small city measuring ten li on each side.
Though it was ten li by ten li, the city wasn’t a perfect square.
The entire structure formed a massive Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams configuration, with eight gates in total.
Once assembled, Ye Qingxuan lowered the city onto the plains under his control.
Then, he began laying down the floor tiles for the city’s streets.
He didn’t go overboard with these tiles—they were made from first-order spiritual materials.
Still, he carved formation patterns into each tile.
After the flooring was finished, Ye Qingxuan activated the patterns on the tiles, fusing them completely with the city.
Looking at the city before him, he nodded in satisfaction.
The city was divided into nine districts, each corresponding to one of the Nine Palaces from the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams system.
He took out thirty thousand top-grade spirit stones and placed them in the central palace position. Then, he began activating the dense network of formation patterns throughout the city, one by one.
As the formations lit up, a faint energy barrier slowly materialized around the entire city.
This barrier could grow stronger depending on the intensity of the attacks it faced.
Its upper limit was set to withstand the maximum attack power of an ordinary early-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator.
From now on, this city would be the foothold of Ye Qingxuan’s avatar—the Mysterious Merchant—in the Xuanmu Realm.
He didn’t overthink the city’s name and simply called it—Mysterious Mall.
Even after activating the formations, Ye Qingxuan didn’t immediately remove the concealment array around the city.
During the time he’d spent building, demonic qi from other parts of the plains had already begun seeping back into the area, refilling the space he’d purified.
But he’d long since prepared for that.
From his storage ring, he took out eighty-one fifth-order Spirit-Purifying Trees.
It had only been about thirty years since the Qingxuan Cave Heaven had advanced to the third order. The thousands of Spirit-Purifying Trees planted later hadn’t yet grown to the fifth order.
These eighty-one trees were from the very first batch he’d planted in the Qingxuan Cave Heaven—the ones he’d never sold.
Each tree had formation patterns carved into its trunk by his main body long ago.
Ye Qingxuan planted these fifth-order Spirit-Purifying Trees around the perimeter of Mysterious Mall.
Then, he activated the patterns connecting them, setting up a rudimentary fifth-order purification formation to amplify the trees’ ability to cleanse foreign energies.
Once planted and empowered by the formation, the trees began actively drawing in demonic qi from farther away.
The demonic qi that had been slowly drifting toward the city was now pulled into swirling vortices, rushing toward Mysterious Mall.
Just before reaching the city, these vortices were absorbed by the eighty-one fifth-order Spirit-Purifying Trees, which steadily converted the demonic qi into rich first-order spiritual energy and channeled it into the city.
Fifth-order Spirit-Purifying Trees could purify up to fifth-order demonic qi.
Cleaning up this first-order demonic qi spreading across the plains was child’s play.
Watching the first-order spiritual energy gradually thicken inside the city, Ye Qingxuan didn’t look pleased. Instead, he frowned and murmured:
“Looks like I’ll need to find a way to get a fifth-order spirit vein source.”
If he wanted to attract cultivators to Mysterious Mall, spiritual energy inside the city was absolutely essential.
Right now, the city only had first-order spiritual energy. Even though fifth-order Nascent Soul cultivators could absorb and use it, the conversion efficiency was painfully slow.
And if he relied entirely on spirit stones to supply higher-order spiritual energy, he wouldn’t be able to sustain it for long.
He pondered for a moment.
Perhaps once his next batch of several thousand Spirit-Purifying Trees grew to the fifth order, he’d have his fifth-order spirit vein source.
With the city’s overall layout complete, Ye Qingxuan waved his hand, and three hundred second-order wooden puppets materialized inside Mysterious Mall.
After all, running a city couldn’t rely solely on his avatar.
What about recruiting other cultivators in the Xuanmu Realm to help maintain the city?
Well, the cultivators who risked their lives coming here were almost all after the Green Demon race.
Apart from those backed by major powers, ordinary rogue cultivators who built cities could basically forget about hiring anyone else to help run things.
Unless you were willing to hand over a big chunk of the city’s profits to others.
So Ye Qingxuan had never planned on recruiting outside help to run his city in the Xuanmu Realm.
Second-order wooden puppets didn’t have self-awareness, but outside of combat, they were extremely easy to control.
As long as his Mysterious Merchant avatar was inside Mysterious Mall, he could effortlessly direct these puppets with his spiritual sense.
Using these second-order wooden puppets to manage the city’s shops, caves, and maintain order was more than sufficient.
The sixth-order lower-grade Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams formation didn’t just have defensive functions—it also had suppression capabilities.
Inside the city, even early-stage Spirit Transformation cultivators would be suppressed by the formation.
After releasing the three hundred wooden puppets and placing them at the eight city gates and various shop buildings, Ye Qingxuan handed a storage pouch to a puppet stationed in a special building at the city’s center.
Inside the pouch were various resources, from fifth-order down to first-order, that he’d prepared in advance to keep Mysterious Mall running.
Every shop in the mall had a small teleportation array connecting to this building.
This building effectively served as a central operations hub, coordinating the supply chain throughout Mysterious Mall.
With everything ready, Ye Qingxuan walked to the city plaza.
He took out the formation base he’d received from the city lord’s office in Xuanmu City and began setting up a large teleportation array on top of it.
Short-range arrays for teleporting items could be set up by third-order formation masters.
But long-range arrays for teleporting people required at least a fifth-order formation master.
Now that Ye Qingxuan was a sixth-order formation master, and with the help of a pre-forged base, setting up a teleportation array to Xuanmu City wasn’t difficult.
When he finished and activated it—
A glowing portal slowly materialized in Xuanmu City’s teleportation plaza.
Above the portal hung a line of text, reading plainly: “Mysterious Mall.”
The sudden appearance of a portal to Mysterious Mall immediately stirred up a commotion in the plaza.
Cultivators who’d been in Xuanmu City for a while knew exactly what this meant—someone had built a city somewhere in the Xuanmu Realm and just established a teleportation link.
Still, even as the portal drew a crowd of onlookers, no one was rash enough to step through and check it out.
Meanwhile, the Nascent Soul cultivator who’d handled Ye Qingxuan’s registration also sensed the disturbance in the plaza.
Looking up, he spotted the words “Mysterious Mall” above the new portal.
His eyebrows lifted slightly.
“That kid’s city? Already built?”
But he was only surprised by the speed of construction.
Building the city wasn’t the hard part. The real challenge—the make-or-break moment—came after: surviving the inevitable assault from the Green Demon cultivators.
Many who chose to build cities had fallen to those very attacks.
Over the years, cultivators in Xuanmu City had watched countless portals appear in the plaza, only to fade and collapse one by one.
So when Mysterious Mall’s portal appeared, they simply observed—no one was reckless enough to jump right in.
To date, the only cultivators who’d successfully built lasting cities in the Xuanmu Realm were all Nascent Soul cultivators backed by major powers.
Only those who could bring in massive resources and trump cards could truly establish a foothold.
Rogue cultivators and members of minor factions almost always failed.
In the past decade, most city-builders had been individuals or small groups.
For the major powers, the meager resources from the Xuanmu Realm’s limited foot traffic weren’t worth the trouble.
Their main hunting ground for resources was still the Dìxuán Realm—their home base.
They were more than happy to join battles against the Green Demon race.
But wasting resources to build a city in some small, fallen lesser realm below? That, they weren’t eager to do.
In their eyes, it was a drain on time and energy—trapping their disciples in one place and slowing their cultivation progress.
As for the mid-tier powers—
Even if they had enough resources, they wouldn’t squander them on building a city, gambling on its future in the Xuanmu Realm.
Because even if they developed a city here, the returns were just low-order resources or low-order Green Demon corpses.
And low-order resources wouldn’t help them advance.
So building a city in the Xuanmu Realm felt like a missed opportunity, yet not quite worth the effort—there simply wasn’t enough motivation.
Only a very few small powers at the bottom rung—
They were like gamblers, betting large amounts of resources on building a city in the Xuanmu Realm, hoping to break through their limitations.
After all, if they actually succeeded in developing a city, the low-order resources and low-order Green Demon corpses they obtained could significantly boost their overall strength.
Maybe they could even climb higher.
The greater the goal, the stronger the drive—cultivators were no different.
That’s why most city-builders in the Xuanmu Realm were individuals or small groups. Very few entire powers bothered to send people down to build cities.
But among individuals and small groups, ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators—even if they got a city up—didn’t have the trump cards to defend it.
Only disciples from major powers, who could more easily obtain high-order resources, had the qualifications to hold a city against the Green Demon’s assaults.
That said, most of those major-power disciples preferred to trust in their own strength.
They were reluctant to get tied down by uncertain external factors, stuck defending a single city.
Sure, building a city could bring substantial gains—but they valued personal cultivation more.
A city might let them acquire some Green Demon corpses, but most of those would be low-order ones that other cultivators didn’t want.
For gifted disciples of major powers, a poorly managed city could actually drag down their own progress.
So only a very small number of major-power disciples were willing to take the plunge.
Most cultivators and powers preferred to stay flexible across the nine fallen lesser realms, hunting Green Demons to strengthen themselves.
That’s the real reason why, in the Xuanmu Realm, only one or two out of ten city-builders actually succeeded.
Those with the strength to build cities mostly looked down on the returns.
They could kill Green Demons, contribute to the Dìxuán Realm’s efforts, and boost their own cultivation at the same time.
Those without enough strength, on the other hand, might covet the benefits—but most of them couldn’t hold the city.
The Nascent Soul cultivator handling city registrations knew all these factors inside out.
From start to finish, he never believed that a mere Golden Core cultivator like the Mysterious Merchant could successfully build and hold a city in the Xuanmu Realm.
Looking away, he muttered softly:
“Kid… hope you last a while.”
On the other side—
At Mysterious Mall’s plaza, after finishing the teleportation array to Xuanmu City, Ye Qingxuan deactivated the concealment formation around the city.
To celebrate the founding of his first city, Mysterious Mall—
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
From his storage ring, he took out eight third-order Nuclear Explosion Pills.
He hurled them in eight directions around Mysterious Mall and detonated them immediately.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—!
Explosions thundered one after another.
The blasts and violent energy fluctuations quickly caught the attention of both human and Green Demon cultivators in the two mountain ranges bordering the plains.
And that was exactly Ye Qingxuan’s main goal.
If he didn’t make some noise, how else would he attract more Green Demons to attack the city?
To avoid spooking them, he deliberately used third-order Nuclear Explosion Pills.
A third-order Nuclear Explosion Pill’s detonation was comparable to a Violet Mansion realm cultivator’s self-destruction—roughly equivalent to a full-powered strike from a Golden Core cultivator.
This level of energy fluctuation was enough to grab attention from the mountains nearby, but not enough to make the Green Demons wary.
And sure enough, the commotion from the eight pills successfully caught their attention.
After the energy ripples subsided, the powerful figures among the Green Demons began probing toward Ye Qingxuan’s Mysterious Mall.
