After much thought, Fang Ming asked Lin Zhuyu other questions.
"Has Lin Yao made any moves recently?"
Fang Ming didn't believe that after what he did in the Fenglu Hall, almost destroying all of Lin Yao's influence there, Lin Yao would remain silent.
It was impossible for Lin Yao to not react to being slapped in the face. While some people might remain quiet and not retaliate, Lin Yao was certainly not one of them. Given his arrogant nature, he would surely have come knocking on his door! If he hadn't, it meant he was secretly plotting something. In any case, there would be a reaction.
Fang Ming had a good grasp of human nature. Although he had never met Lin Yao in person, only knowing of him from the memories of his original body, Lin Xuan, Fang Ming felt he understood Lin Yao's personality thoroughly. Asking Lin Zhuyu was merely to confirm whether Lin Yao planned a direct confrontation or a more cunning approach.
"There have been no movements," Lin Zhuyu replied.
Lin Yao was Lin Xuan's enemy, a fact that Lin Zhuyu, as Lin Xuan's only friend, was well aware of. Therefore, she had been closely monitoring Lin Yao's actions. However, despite her inquiries, she hadn't detected any significant activity. It was as if nothing had happened on Lin Yao's end.
No movements.
But Lin Zhuyu also knew that the absence of movement was, in itself, the greatest movement.
"Given his personality, he wouldn't remain unresponsive to such a provocation. It seems he's planning some underhanded trick."
Hearing Lin Zhuyu's words, Fang Ming was certain that someone was up to something devious. However, with his current strength, even if Lin Yao resorted to trickery, it wouldn't matter. He would face each challenge as it came, and with sufficient strength, all conspiracies would be rendered useless. Lin Yao was not difficult to deal with. The difficult one was the Second Elder.
At present, Fang Ming's strength was even inferior to the Third Elder. He could only rely on the cultivation systems from other worlds, which the Third Elder was unfamiliar with, to gain an advantage through surprise. But even with novelty and surprise, it was barely enough to deal with the Third Elder. Against the Second Elder, one of the top experts in the clan, who was at least in the late Dao Foundation realm and had few rivals in that stage, he had no confidence in victory. Currently, he could only preserve his life by virtue of being a disciple of the Lin family.
Although the Second Elder could not disregard everything and attack him with full force, Fang Ming was still planning ahead. In this cultivation world, the Condensing Meridian realm was not the issue, but to advance to the Dao Foundation realm, the Foundation Establishment Pill, a rare treasure, was essential. The Foundation Establishment Pill could effectively assist cultivators at the peak of the Condensing Meridian realm to advance to the Dao Foundation realm. Of course, there were other methods to advance to the Dao Foundation realm, and some could even forge their own Dao Foundation. However, attempting to establish a Dao Foundation without the Foundation Establishment Pill carried a certain risk of failure.
While a failure rate was normal, the terrifying aspect was that if the Foundation Establishment was unsuccessful, and without the Foundation Establishment Pill to protect the heart and soul, the mortality rate was equivalent to one hundred percent. In other words, using the Foundation Establishment Pill did not guarantee success, but it at least ensured survival after failure. Without the Foundation Establishment Pill, attempting to forge one's own Dao Foundation, while having a chance of success, was equivalent to certain death if it failed. Perhaps some would gamble on the probability and risk their lives, but Fang Ming, with his world-traveling talent, had no intention of gambling with his life to forge his own Dao Foundation. His life was too precious to be wasted like that. Therefore, when Fang Ming advanced to the Foundation Establishment realm, he would definitely need the Foundation Establishment Pill to support his heart and soul. All of this needed to be prepared in advance.
"I should go out and see if I can find any rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures that can be used to refine the Foundation Establishment Pill," Fang Ming mused after a moment's thought.
Before his memories awakened, Lin Xuan rarely ventured outside the Lin family. But now, to find traces of heavenly materials and earthly treasures and to obtain the Foundation Establishment Pill, Fang Ming needed to go out and inquire. Moreover, observing the customs and traditions of this world would also be quite beneficial. When Fang Ming arrived in a new world, he naturally had to understand it thoroughly. Only by understanding the world could he make various decisions. And to understand a world, the memories of a fourteen-year-old boy like Lin Xuan were far from sufficient. Lin Xuan had never left home, and his understanding of this world was limited to what he could use within the Lin family. His knowledge was confined to the Lin family, and he had no significant understanding of the vast Kyushu Great World. He didn't even have a concrete understanding of the city where the Lin family resided. These were all things Fang Ming needed to rectify. The true appearance of the Kyushu Great World was something Fang Ming had to discover for himself.
Leaving his own courtyard and walking out of the Lin mansion without any obstruction, Fang Ming arrived at a street. On this street, vendors were selling various goods, there were shops of all kinds, and people were coming and going. As Fang Ming walked through the street, observing the scene, he continuously deepened his understanding of this world. Understanding sometimes lay not in breadth, but in the minute details. From these subtle observations, Fang Ming could make his own judgments.
He listened to the sounds around him.
"Fresh wolf demon beast meat, forty low-grade spirit stones per jin."
"Centennial ginseng from the Great Yan Mountains, twenty mid-grade spirit stones."
"Tuo Yue ghost hair, thirty..."
The calls of street vendors reached his ears. Fang Ming pondered. It was a rather coincidental matter that both the first cultivation world and this cultivation world used spirit stones for transactions. The Kyushu Great World also used spirit stones for currency, but in this world, compared to the first world, the quality of spirit stones was more detailed. In this world, spirit stones had four grades: low, mid, high, and extreme. The exchange ratio for each grade was one to one hundred. For example, one mid-grade spirit stone was equal to one hundred low-grade spirit stones. Although Fang Ming had no spirit stones, each Spirit Essence Pill was worth ten low-grade spirit stones, which meant Fang Ming possessed a considerable amount of spirit stones when converted.
"I should convert the Spirit Essence Pills into spirit stones first, so it will be easier to trade." Fang Ming concluded after a moment's thought.
As for the spirit stones from the first world? Fang Ming would at most use them for private comparison, but he had no intention of directly selling spirit stones from the first world. Spirit stones from other worlds were difficult to say whether they were significantly different from the spirit stones of this world. For ordinary cultivators, it might be fine, but if powerful figures like Nascent Soul realm grandmasters or Ascending realm old monsters saw spirit stones from other worlds and identified their origin... the consequences for Fang Ming, who circulated them, would be unpredictable. Some troubles could be avoided if they could be avoided. If something could be resolved by exchanging Spirit Essence Pills, Fang Ming did not want to bring out spirit stones from the first world and invite trouble upon himself.