Tianyin City.
A county town with a population of seventy or eighty thousand.
There were plenty of people coming and going. It had a calm, bustling atmosphere that the world of cultivation lacked, making it feel more real to Wen Jiu.
Mortals rose with the sun and rested when it set,
there were street vendors,
hawkers calling out their wares,
and children playing in the streets.
Some people even performed acrobatics by the roadside.
Before long,
Wen Jiu followed the information recorded in the Three Fiends Corpse Raising Method to the north of the city.
The northern district was full of gambling dens, brothels, and other gray-market businesses. As soon as Wen Jiu stepped inside, he sensed someone watching him from the shadows.
A sweep of his Spiritual Sense revealed that they were only mortals, so Wen Jiu couldn't be bothered with them. Instead, he turned into an empty alley. At first, there was no sign of activity, but the farther he went, the wider the alley became. Before long, he could see Wicked Path Cultivators coming and going.
There were ghost cultivators, Corpse Nurturers, and demonic cultivators, among others. They often brushed past Wen Jiu, their sinister, heretical auras far more wicked than those of the Wicked Path Cultivators within the sect.
Compared with them, the sect's Wicked Path Cultivators could hardly be called wicked at all. The sect's cultivators only dabbled in it on the surface.
Before long,
Wen Jiu ran into a middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator at Qi Refining Layer One. Though he was only at the first layer, Death Qi clung to him in thick clouds.
Clearly,
he had killed plenty of people.
The Death Qi wrapped around him had become impossible to shake off.
Wen Jiu immediately stopped him and asked coldly, "Fellow Daoist, how many spirit stones will it take for you to lead me to the trading grounds?"
The middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator looked Wen Jiu over warily and took two steps back. Though he made no move, his eyes still held a glint of murderous intent. Only when his Spiritual Sense reached the Black Zombie did some of the wariness leave his gaze.
"Ten!"
The middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator demanded an outrageous price.
Wen Jiu's expression hardened. "One."
"No. One is far too little."
The middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator shook his head at once.
Wen Jiu couldn't be bothered to haggle. He wouldn't add even a single grain of spirit sand. If he was going to pass himself off as a genuine Wicked Heretic, how could he be so easygoing? "Forget it, then... If you don't want it, someone else will."
"I do, I do!"
Seeing Wen Jiu turn to leave, the middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator hurried after him.
Wen Jiu said nothing. He took out a Low-grade Spirit Stone and tossed it over.
The middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator caught it with a sinister grin, then led Wen Jiu deeper into the alley. Wen Jiu kept his Spiritual Sense trained on the area around them, on guard against an ambush and ready to use Blood Corpse Escape at any moment.
Before long,
Wen Jiu was led to a black wall.
"Go on in." As he spoke, the Qi Refining Layer One Wicked Path Cultivator took out a wooden token and stepped through the black wall.
Four words immediately flashed through Wen Jiu's mind—concealment formation.
With one step,
the world before his eyes changed completely.
Behind the wall was a market—a market underground.
Everywhere he looked, there were Wicked Path Cultivators. As soon as he entered, Wen Jiu saw quite a few young women locked in cages like merchandise, while others picked them out as if they were goods. Some were mortals, others Rogue Cultivators.
Wen Jiu glanced over once, then looked away. His understanding of the Wicked Path Cultivators grew a little clearer.
"Here, take this Black Street Order. You can come and go as you please from now on." The middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator tossed him a black wooden token.
Wen Jiu caught it and carefully inspected it twice with his Spiritual Sense. After confirming there was nothing wrong, he put it away.
Once the middle-aged Wicked Path Cultivator had left, Wen Jiu continued along the underground market. He soon realized there were many stalls selling people.
There were Lineage cultivators,
and even little children—newborn babies.
"No wonder they have to hide this place."
"If it weren't hidden in a mortal city, the disciples of Corpse Peak would wipe it out before long."
Wen Jiu turned away.
He didn't want to meddle in this sort of thing.
And he couldn't do anything about it anyway.
As he continued on, Wen Jiu saw plenty of stalls selling Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. The stallholders were all more than a little strange. Even after spending so long in the Dead Corpse Land, Wen Jiu still felt a chill whenever they stared at him.
After searching around, Wen Jiu spotted something at a stall that looked a lot like Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water.
The stallholder was an old cultivator with a scarred face, reclining to one side as a scantily clad Yin Ghost kneaded his shoulders.
When Wen Jiu approached, the old man narrowed his milky eyes. His voice rasped like grains of sand rubbing against one another.
"What are you looking for, young friend?"
Wen Jiu looked at the Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water, carefully sensing their auras. Then he said, "I want Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water."
"Blood Fiend Crystals, twenty each. Heavenly Fiend Water... fifty for a jug." The old cultivator with the scarred face named his price without hesitation.
Wen Jiu turned and walked away.
He couldn't be bothered to say a word.
The old cultivator chuckled and hurried to his feet to call after him. "Fellow Daoist, you should've said you weren't a first-time visitor! Blood Fiend Crystals are eleven each, and Heavenly Fiend Water is twenty a jug. You get a discount if you buy in bulk, but you'll need to take at least five."
Only after the old cultivator finally quoted a reasonable price did Wen Jiu turn around. "Will you sell ten Blood Fiend Crystals for ten spirit stones?"
"Ten? I can't sell them for that. You know how fierce things have been in the Blood Fiend Abyss lately. It's not easy to get your hands on Blood Fiend Crystals." The old cultivator shook his head.
Wen Jiu glanced at the stall's five Blood Fiend Crystals and six jugs of Heavenly Fiend Water. "I'll take all the Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water."
"Fifty-five... one hundred and twenty... give me one hundred and seventy, and we'll call it even," the old cultivator said.
Wen Jiu carefully checked them again with his Spiritual Sense. Once he was sure there was nothing wrong, he put them in his Storage Bag and took out one hundred and seventy Low-grade Spirit Stones. Then he asked, "What's been happening in the Blood Fiend Abyss lately?"
"Seems you haven't been there recently... That's just as well. You've been spared running into that pack of bastards. Who knows what those people from the Blood Robe Tower are doing in there? They've made the demons in the Blood Fiend Abyss especially agitated."
The old cultivator spoke in irritation.
Wen Jiu didn't ask any more. Instead, he continued looking over the old cultivator's stall and bought a few more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.
He spent more than eighty Low-grade Spirit Stones.
They were all materials needed to craft a Corpse Raising Coffin.
After that, Wen Jiu made a few more rounds. To his delight, he actually managed to gather all the materials he needed for the Corpse Raising Coffin.
As expected,
the things needed for Wicked Path cultivation were far easier to buy from Wicked Path Cultivators.
It seemed he'd have to visit Tianyin City more often from now on.
However,
just as he was about to leave,
Wen Jiu realized he was being watched again.
The other party kept following him even after he left Tianyin City.
Wen Jiu had been about to use Blood Corpse Escape when a voice suddenly reached him through Spiritual Sense. It was Mu Canglong.
"Kid, keep walking. Lead him out of the city!"
Wen Jiu froze.
Steward Mu was here?
That made sense.
If they wanted to investigate the Blood Robe Tower, this trading ground was probably the best place to start.
No one else knew where it was, but how could a descendant of the man who created the Corpse Raising Method in Yinzhou not know?
So Wen Jiu continued toward the outskirts of the city. He had gone about ten miles out when the rogue cultivator who'd been following him finally appeared—it was the old man with the scarred face.
The moment he appeared, the old man rode in on a ghost.
He cackled with a sinister grin,
as if Wen Jiu were already his prey.
Just then, Mu Canglong, Liu Xiao, and the others suddenly shot out of the woods on flying swords. They hurled more than a dozen talismans straight at the old man. The talismans not only blasted the ghost apart, but also knocked the old cultivator with the scarred face unconscious.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Once they were done, Mu Canglong immediately used a flying artifact to carry the old cultivator and Wen Jiu away. They flew a full ten miles before stopping.
"Brother Liu, Steward Mu!"
Once they had landed, Wen Jiu immediately bowed.
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