Myriad Beasts Banner?

Passing through the mist formation, the Secluded Quiet Valley, which appeared shrouded in clouds and mist from the outside, was surprisingly lively.

The streets were filled with cultivators coming and going, and both sides of the streets were lined with many rogue cultivator stalls. Most of these stalls sold Rankless Spirit Talismans, damaged ancient texts, freshly gathered low-level herbs, and some even displayed piles of junk, waiting for someone fated to be hooked.

The Qi Refining cultivators trading in front of the stalls were arguing fiercely over the price of a Spirit Stone, some joyful and some disappointed, a true reflection of the myriad states of human life.

The shops on both sides of the street were clearly much more upscale, with shelves filled with Spirit Talismans, magical artifacts, and rare materials.

In front of a pavilion with red lanterns hanging, Lu Yan even saw some beautiful female cultivators wearing thin long dresses soliciting guests.

These female cultivators were all at the first level of Qi Refining, having just shed their mortal bodies. They were only slightly better off than Lu Yan, who had been toiling like an ox and horse in the Spirit Talisman Shop before.

But they had one major advantage: they were beautiful!

The cultivation world was not short of beautiful female cultivators, especially after reaching a certain realm of cultivation. Washing the marrow and refining the tendons to reshape one's appearance was effortless, and all kinds of beauties existed.

However, these beautiful female cultivators were either powerful or had deep backgrounds, and they would not have any interaction with most of the low-level rogue cultivators.

As for beautiful women in the mortal world, they were easily obtainable for rogue cultivators and could hardly pique their interest.

Thus, an industry chain came into being. Some cultivators went to mortal cities to select beautiful women. Those with good cultivation talent had long been taken by the major sects, and those who remained basically had low cultivation aptitude and found it difficult to make progress on the Path of Xian.

But rogue cultivators didn't need these beautiful women to have high talent. They only needed to teach them specific cultivation techniques and then rely on pills to recklessly increase the speed of spiritual energy cleansing the body, forcibly pushing them into the first level of Qi Refining.

Women who became cultivators through such means had no possibility of further advancement in this life. Some even suffered from the side effects of inferior pills, resulting in shattered Dantians and difficulty even circulating Mana.

However, they had ultimately shed their mortal bodies and become genuine cultivators. With this identity, they could easily gain the favor of some rogue cultivators.

Lu Yan had no sympathy for this. After all, he had truly worked like an ox and horse in the Spirit Talisman Shop and was almost soul-extracted and refined.

In comparison, these women who became cultivators could live for two Jiazi (120 years). After saving up some money in the future, they could also go to mortal cities to enjoy life, which was already a decent way out.

However, given the commonality of version updates, Lu Yan strongly suspected that these female cultivators in the Urban Version might be those borderline streamers on small platforms.

Sighing about the decline of the world, Lu Yan circled the entire Azure Valley Market.

Located on a spiritualmeridian, the spiritual energy concentration in the Azure Valley Market was quite high, about six times that of the Urban Version, but significantly lower than the Apocalypse Version.

If the Moonlight Spiritual Energy and Great Sun Spiritual Energy of the Apocalypse Version were included, the gap between the two would be even larger.

However, the location of this street was only the outer edge of the spiritualmeridian in the Azure Valley Market. The deepest part of the valley was where the spiritual energy was most concentrated.

The market administrators had carved out caves on the cliffs of the valley to be used as cave dwellings for rent. The spiritual energy concentration there was much higher than the outer areas.

Moreover, this was only a first-order spiritualmeridian. Those major sects were often located on third or even fourth-order spiritualmeridian, and their spiritual energy concentration was completely on another level.

With a sigh of emotion, Lu Yan had the idea of temporarily staying in the Azure Valley Market.

But before that, he had to go to the market to buy some necessities and gather information.

Lu Yan did not enter those luxuriously decorated shops but went directly to the roadside stalls. From a stall filled with ancient texts, he casually picked up a copy of the First Order Spell Compendium.

The spells in the First Order Spell Compendium were some of the most basic spells, completely commonplace.

But for Lu Yan, who lacked common cultivation knowledge, the First Order Spell Compendium was exactly what he needed most.

Spells like the Spirit Fire Technique, Flight Technique, Light Feather Technique, and Invisibility Technique did not have much offensive power, but they were extremely practical in many situations, especially for Lu Yan, who traveled between different versions.

Although Lu Yan had many Spirit Talismans, they were ultimately not as convenient as directly using spells.

And most importantly, Spirit Talismans cost money, but spells don't.

The First Order Spell Compendium on the stall was clearly acquired from someone else; it was almost worn out from being flipped through. Some pages even had casting techniques and tips for using spells recorded by cultivators, making it quite practical.

"How much is this book?"

The stall owner sized Lu Yan up and down before speaking:

"Twenty-five Spirit Stones."

Lu Yan scoffed at the price, threw the book down, and turned to leave.

A brand new First Order Spell Compendium only cost thirty Spirit Stones, and it even had the spiritual charm carved by cultivators to aid in comprehending spells.

An old book that had passed through who knows how many hands would be worth fifteen Spirit Stones at most.

"Just kidding! Just kidding!"

Seeing Lu Yan turn to leave, the stall owner immediately changed his tune:

"How about this, you can have it for twenty Spirit Stones."

"Ten Spirit Stones."

"Your bargaining is too ruthless. Although this is a used book, the spells inside are well-preserved, and there are even annotations from other cultivators. How about fifteen Spirit Stones?"

"Twelve Spirit Stones."

After some haggling, Lu Yan finally bought the First Order Spell Compendium for thirteen Spirit Stones.

Although the stall owner kept muttering about losing money, the joy in his eyes couldn't be hidden. After all, the First Order Spell Compendium was one of the more expensive books on his stall, but there were few people who needed it.

Any cultivator with a proper inheritance wouldn't lack these First Order spells, which made the spell compendium a difficult-to-sell item, like a chicken rib. It had been in his hands for two full years.

Being able to sell it today was a good thing for him.

Noticing the change in the stall owner's expression, Lu Yan half-squatted down, rummaging through the books while casually saying:

"I've just arrived in this area. I heard from other fellow Daoists that this area hasn't been very peaceful in the past few months."

"What's not peaceful? It's just the Bamboo Forest..."

Mid-sentence, the stall owner seemed to suddenly realize something and quickly changed the subject:

"Ahem, our Azure Valley Market is backed by a Direct Disciple of the Azure Parasol Sect. That's a top-notch major sect in the Southern Border area, fellow Daoist can rest assured."

Lu Yan's heart sank slightly. The stall owner mentioning the Bamboo Forest Market was likely related to Gongyang Xuanming's death.

While thinking, Lu Yan heard the stall owner change the subject again:

"However, speaking of not being peaceful, there have been some changes in the three thousand li Witch Mountain recently. If fellow Daoist plans to enter the mountain to hunt demonic beasts in the near future, you'll need to be careful."

Lu Yan showed curiosity upon hearing this and cupped his hands in a salute: "Please elaborate, fellow Daoist."

The stall owner had a somewhat gloating smile on his face:

"Hundreds of years ago, a Golden Core True Person from Ten Thousand Spirit Mountain attempted to breed spiritual beasts. They raised a large number of spiritual beasts in Witch Mountain and had them mate with ordinary beasts, hoping to screen for spiritual beast bloodlines through crossbreeding.

Ten Thousand Spirit Mountain spent hundreds of years and only crossbred a batch of wild beasts with weak spiritual beast bloodlines. Their numbers were so vast they spread throughout the three thousand li Witch Mountain range.

But these wild beasts had imbalanced bloodlines and incomplete three souls and seven spirits, let alone breeding spiritual beasts from them. This result made Ten Thousand Spirit Mountain a laughingstock among the sects in the Southern Border.

But for some unknown reason, three months ago, a madman suddenly appeared in Witch Mountain and began to slaughter wild beasts on a large scale to extract their incomplete souls.

At first, Ten Thousand Spirit Mountain didn't pay attention, but the madman's slaughter became more and more intense. In just three months, he slaughtered over a hundred thousand wild beasts with weak spiritual beast bloodlines, which attracted the attention of the elders of Ten Thousand Spirit Mountain."

"Some people claim that the madman, referencing the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, developed a Ten Thousand Beast Banner using ten thousand beasts as a guide, and his slaughter of wild beasts is for refining the Ten Thousand Beast Banner!"