After leaving Five Qi Pavilion, Chen Qing had planned to look for a shop that sold talismans. But as he passed a stall piled with miscellaneous books, he suddenly stopped.
Yellowed books lay heaped across the stall. Several incomplete cultivation manuals had been deliberately placed where they would catch the eye, with hefty price tags attached. But manuals like these were often riddled with fatal flaws, so they weren't what he was after.
"Looking to hunt for a bargain, fellow Daoist?" The stall owner was a lean man, his eyes darting about. "These are all ancient inheritances. Why not buy one and give it a try? Maybe you'll land a real bargain!"
Chen Qing feigned nonchalance. "Do you have any records of ancient anecdotes?"
"Looking to trade them for Spirit Marrow at Five Qi Pavilion? Too bad—you're too late!" The stall owner gave him a knowing smile, then pulled two booklets out with a mysterious air. "These are all I have left. Three Spirit Marrow, and they're yours."
Chen Qing flipped through them casually. They were nothing but shoddy, cobbled-together histories. He shook his head and was about to leave when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a dusty booklet in the corner. Three faded characters marked its cover.
Record of Absolute Items.
Chen Qing picked it up. The cover felt rough, its pages yellowed and brittle, and it gave off a musty smell of age.
"Oh, you've got a sharp eye, fellow Daoist!" The stall owner's eyes lit up as he leaned closer. "This book may not be a cultivation manual or secret scripture, but it records all sorts of treasures that have gone extinct! You never know when one might come in handy! Just look at this Illusionheart Grass..."
He pointed at several crude yet distinctive ink drawings on the page, ready to launch into a lively pitch.
"They're all extinct. What use are they?" Chen Qing said, noncommittally.
The stall owner hurried to defend it. "A lot of things are only extinct on the surface. Find something similar, with the same medicinal properties, and you can still put it to use, can't you? These used to be closely guarded secrets! One Spirit Marrow, and this book is yours!"
Chen Qing closed the booklet and shook his head. "They're all extinct, so they're useless. I'll offer one spirit plant at most, just to have something to read in my spare time."
"A spirit plant?" The stall owner's eyes widened. "This is a unique copy! Look at the paper—it's at least several hundred years old!"
"This paper's so old, it could fall apart at any moment." Chen Qing made as if to put the booklet down.
The stall owner hurriedly held it in place. "Wait, wait!" Gritting his teeth, he pulled an even more battered booklet from beneath his backside. "Add this Ancient Pill Remnant Formula, and you can have both for one Spirit Marrow. How about it?"
Chen Qing took a look. The paper of the Ancient Pill Remnant Formula was blackened and frayed at the edges. The pill recipes inside were quite unusual, calling for ingredients he'd never even heard of.
"These were all copied from ancient ruins!" the stall owner stressed. "Sure, the ingredients are hard to find, but what if you happen to come across them?"
Chen Qing's heart stirred.
In the present world, those ingredients were rare. But in the immortal dynasty of his dreams, these extinct items might still exist!
"Five spirit plants for both," he said firmly.
The stall owner put on a pained expression. "Fellow Daoist, that price is just too..."
Chen Qing turned and walked away.
"Deal!" The stall owner grabbed him. "Let's call it making a new friend!"
With the two incomplete scrolls in hand, Chen Qing and the stall owner both smiled.
Turning the street corner, he stopped in front of a talisman shop.
"Fellow Daoist, care to see some freshly made talismans?" called an old woman in gray robes. The table before her gleamed with talisman paper of every color.
Chen Qing stopped to take a closer look.
"Newly refined Mystic Armor Talisman," the old woman said, picking up a talisman wreathed in blue light. "It can block a full-force strike from someone at the Second Realm. Even against a Third Realm cultivator, it'll keep you alive through the first blow!"
"How much?" Chen Qing asked directly.
"Three Spirit Marrow."
The corner of Chen Qing's eye twitched. That was nearly half of everything he'd gained today. But thinking of the possible retaliation from Sea Abyss Temple, he gritted his teeth and said, "One."
"You jest, fellow Daoist." The old woman shook her head. "Talismans are difficult to refine..."
"I'll add a Startling Swan Talisman." Chen Qing didn't bother responding. Instead, he pointed to a talisman paper covered in layered bird patterns.
After a round of haggling and verbal sparring, he finally got the deal for one and a half Spirit Marrow.
Chen Qing tucked the two talismans into his robe, then spent another half Spirit Marrow on three Spirit Sparrow Talismans for signaling danger.
Feeling the talismans in his robe, Chen Qing felt a little more at ease. Before leaving, he remembered to pick up some pastries and copybooks for his two junior nephews.
As the sun slanted westward, Chen Qing returned to the entrance of Lesser Yingzhou. When he reached the bridge, the old man in gray called out to him.
"Someone just asked about Hidden Star Gate. This old man claimed not to know anything. Judging by their clothes, they were from Sea Abyss Temple."
Chen Qing's pupils contracted. He cupped his hands. "Thank you for the warning."
The old man lowered his voice further. "I hear Sea Abyss Temple has found traces of the Floating Divine Mountain and is inviting people to explore it. Be careful they don't use it as a pretext to make trouble for you."
"The Floating Divine Mountain?"
"Supposedly, it's an ancient peak that floats through the skies, wandering the world under the name Void Abyss. It reaches Eastern Spirit Continent once every four or five hundred years, with its first stop in the southern coastal lands. The mountain has a long history, dating back to the era of Central Spirit Continent. They say it holds many rare treasures, and people are always drawn to explore it."
"Thank you for the warning, senior."
After thanking the old man, Chen Qing turned toward Hidden Edge Tower, thinking that the ancient peak likely held true Central Spirit Continent inheritances. There, he spent one Spirit Marrow to buy a Blood Steel Short Sword.
Its blade was etched with dark, hidden patterns, and it slid from its sheath without a sound.
"Mystic Armor Talisman for defense, Startling Swan Talisman for a quick escape, Spirit Sparrow Talisman for a warning, and this dark sword on top of that—even if someone at the Third Realm comes after me, I should be able to put up a fight! What a pity I can't find a Third Realm cultivator to practice on..."
After all that running around, by the time Chen Qing stepped out of the illusion array, dusk had fallen.
He'd come away with a good haul. Not only had he replenished his supplies, he'd also gotten a feel for the going prices. Next time, he wouldn't need to feel things out as cautiously as he had today.
On top of that, he'd found another way to earn Spirit Marrow—a precious opportunity.
"Once I've sorted out more stories about the immortal dynasty in my dreams, I'll send them to Young Master Bai in a few days..."
With the moon rising over the eastern hills, Chen Qing finally returned to Mingxia after shaking off a few tails.
The protective array's glow had dimmed even further since he'd left, but lights still gleamed among the mountains.
"Uncle-Master!" Fang Da'ao hurried over. "You're finally back! Another peddler came down the mountain just now. He said..."
"Seal the mountain starting today." Chen Qing raised a hand to cut him off. "No outsiders are to be seen."
Fang Da'ao froze, then nodded firmly.
That night, Chen Qing first went to the sect's quiet chamber and retrieved two booklets. Then he hung a Spirit Sparrow Talisman from the rafters and tucked the Mystic Armor Talisman against his body.
After that, he sat cross-legged and took out the Record of Absolute Items and the Ancient Pill Remnant Formula, intending to read through them first.
A few pages in, a picture of a scarlet scorpion caught his eye—
"Earthfire Crystal Scorpion. Its whole body is like red jade, and its qi blends fire and earth, resembling the fire-venom of earth veins. The fire-venom in its tail sting can be refined into Vein Burning Powder, a substance of overwhelming potency! Red Vein Stone grows alongside its nest. It can quell the agitation of fire-venom and harmonize yin and yang."
Harmonize yin and yang?
Chen Qing thought to himself, Princess Xiyao's yin and yang are in disorder. This Red Vein Stone might be just what she needs.
And its qi blended fire and earth, resembling the fire-venom of earth veins. That confirmed his master's warning: "When one of the five elements is excessive, it becomes poison."
"If these strange treasures still exist in the world of my dreams, there must be so many ways to use them."
After studying the pill formulas for a while, he was astonished to discover that most of the incomplete recipes were meant to suppress the various abnormalities that arose during cultivation. They addressed not only disorder of yin and yang, but also collapsing qi and blood, sunlight scorching the spirit, thunder shaking the soul, and other hidden hazards of cultivation at higher realms.
"Ancient pill formulas focused more on repairing the damage caused by cultivation than on assisting advancement beforehand..."
Once he'd committed the general contents to memory, he put the booklets away and opened the ones he'd taken from the quiet chamber. They contained cultivation insights from his own master, his senior fellow master, and even his grandmaster.
He focused mainly on the material about condensing a Life Talisman.
The Life Talisman was the very foundation of a cultivator in the late Second Realm.
Neither gold nor jade, it was formed from Supreme Harmony Qi, fused with one's cultivation insights, the characteristics of one's cultivation method, and the thoughts at the core of one's being. Its form varied from person to person: some were like mountains, others like rivers, and still others like dragons or phoenixes. The differences arose from the cultivator's method and temperament.
After roughly memorizing the sect's predecessors' insights on condensing talismans, Chen Qing put the booklets away and went to sleep fully clothed.
In his dream, he'd have all the time he needed to study.
"This time, I'll use my dream self to condense my first Life Talisman and gain some experience..."
When Chen Qing opened his eyes again, he was back in the Primordial Immortal Dynasty. A fierce mountain wind roared toward him!
His dream self wasn't in the quiet chamber at Listening Wind Courtyard. He was standing on a sheer cliff.
Clouds churned beneath his feet, and distant mountains rose like swords, stabbing straight into the sky.
"Five years have passed in the dream again..."
Chen Qing looked astonished.
"But where the hell have I ended up this time?"
Please show your support, dear readers! This newbie is suffering, suffering, suffering! If you happen to pass by, give me a follow, and drop by to read when you have a moment!
Before you continue