"Since you want to buy them, I'll sell you these two."
Lu Yuan pulled out the True Essence Blood Refining Pills he had taken from the Conical Hat Man.
"You do business well, sir. This is the second time you've sold these True Essence Blood Refining Pills, isn't it?" the tall Black-robed Man said with a faintly amused smile.
Lu Yuan's expression didn't change. "How many times I sell them is none of your business. Do you want them or not?"
"We do! Of course we do!"
The tall Black-robed Man answered firmly, then continued, "But we don't just want two. We want two hundred, two thousand. However many you have, we'll take them all!"
He stared intently at Lu Yuan.
"So, do you have that many?"
Lu Yuan's tone remained even. "I only have two. If you want more, you can come buy them next time I set up a stall."
"Fine. Here are three thousand four hundred silver notes."
The tall Black-robed Man took a stack of silver notes from his robes and slowly placed them on the ground, then backed away.
Keeping an eye out for an ambush, Lu Yuan bent down to pick up the notes. Only after confirming they were genuine did he set down the medicine box.
The two seemed afraid that Lu Yuan might attack, too. They waited until he had put down the box and backed away before stepping forward to inspect it.
Both sides confirmed everything was in order, and the deal was done.
"I'm Li Mu. May I ask your esteemed name?" the Black-robed Man introduced himself.
There was no need to think twice: that name was fake.
"Zhang Wuji."
Lu Yuan had discarded "Qiao Feng" and switched to "Zhang Wuji." Next time, perhaps he'd be "Linghu Chong" or "Yang Guo."
"I often come to the Ghost Market. I hope we can trade again the next time it opens."
Li Mu continued to show goodwill.
Lu Yuan remained unmoved. "Next time, for sure."
They watched each other as they slowly retreated, only turning to walk normally once the other had completely disappeared from sight.
"Do you think the two of us could kill him if we worked together?" Li Mu asked, turning his head.
"The odds are slim."
The shorter Black-robed Man shook his head. "His footwork is excellent. I'm no match for him. If he's determined to run, the two of us can't stop him... And you noticed it too, didn't you? He was on guard the entire time and gave us no openings. Most importantly, did you notice the knife at his waist? He never drew it."
"For someone skilled with weapons, there's a difference in strength depending on whether the weapon is in hand. If he had his knife out, he'd be even stronger."
Li Mu nodded. "You observed him closely. Did you notice that although Zhang Wuji could lower his voice, I could tell he was young? He's definitely under twenty-five, perhaps even younger."
"If we get the chance, we can bring him into my Holy Cult."
Just as Lu Yuan had guessed, Li Mu had noticed him selling True Essence Blood Refining Pills at a stall in the Ghost Market from the very beginning. He'd never intended to pay for them. He'd simply kept watch, waiting for Lu Yuan to leave so he could follow him. His intentions had been plain as day.
But the strength Lu Yuan had displayed made them wary. Li Mu himself had nearly died at his hands, so they could only change their plan and pay for the pills.
You could say they'd bought their lives with money.
"Li Mu wanted to buy True Essence Blood Refining Pills from me. Maybe he really wanted them, or maybe he was planning to bring enough men next time and ambush me."
Lu Yuan considered it, but decided he wouldn't return to the Ghost Market anytime soon. There were too many people there with hidden agendas.
After taking a long detour and changing his appearance, Lu Yuan returned to the Ghost Market. He wanted to see if there was any information about the "Great Dao Seed" or "Taisui Stone."
So he focused on the stalls selling books.
As it turned out, he managed to find two books: a travelogue and a collection of wild histories.
Back at the inn, Lu Yuan opened the travelogue. He had no idea whether its contents were true, so he treated it as a story.
The travelogue's account was fragmented, its information scattered.
"The Great Dao Seed has existed for no more than ten thousand years. But what was this world like even further back, before those ten thousand years?"
"The history of that distant past is impossible to investigate. Only a few myths and legends have survived."
"I have traveled all over the world, visiting countless places where myths and legends were said to have unfolded. From them, I pieced together what I believe may be the truth... Of course, it is only a guess. I don't know whether it's true."
"My guess is that tens of thousands of years ago, or even further back, immortals existed in this world. The so-called immortals were those who had fused with and refined a Great Dao Seed."
"I don't know when the world underwent a great change. Countless immortals vanished, but their Great Dao Seeds remained. They took on unknown forms and hid somewhere in this world..."
The man called Tianji Sanren had recorded all his conjectures in the travelogue, filling tens of thousands of words.
After reading it carefully, Lu Yuan realized that, according to Tianji Sanren's theory, immortals had once filled this world. They had disappeared, but the "Great Dao Seeds," which seemed to be formed from the gathering of the world's laws, would not disappear.
Lu Yuan closed the travelogue with a faint sigh. There was no way for him to know whether its contents were true.
He opened the wild history next.
It was wilder still.
It recorded the development of martial arts.
"The origins of martial arts are impossible to trace, but it can be said with certainty that martial arts became an established system beginning with the First Emperor. It is said that before him, martial arts had no coherent structure and remained fragmented."
"The First Emperor rose to prominence in that era, bringing the great achievements of martial arts together. He gathered talented people from across the realm and established a martial arts system, truly opening a path to the heavens."
"So the First Emperor was both the first emperor to unite this vast land and the Martial Emperor of martial arts."
"The First Emperor set the pinnacle of martial arts at the Martial Saint realm, and he was the first Martial Saint. For ten thousand years after him, the Martial Saint realm remained the most sacred aspiration in the hearts of countless martial artists."
"Yet in the five hundred years after the First Emperor unified the realm, not a single Martial Saint was born throughout his entire dynasty."
"Only after the state founded by the First Emperor collapsed, plunging the realm into chaos as warlords vied for supremacy, did a second Martial Saint emerge!"
"The Overlord! This peerless powerhouse, who towered above all the heroes of the realm, founded a state of his own, just like the First Emperor."
"Strangely, not a single new Martial Saint emerged throughout his dynasty either. The Martial Saint became a legend."
"Dynasties rose and fell, and the cycle repeated. The realm descended into chaos once more, and after decades of bloodshed, a Martial Saint rose to prominence."
"Only three Martial Saints had emerged in a thousand years. They became the highest beings under heaven, more exalted than emperors. Given the choice, anyone would choose to become a Martial Saint rather than an emperor."
"To the realm, a Martial Saint was an uncrowned king. Every emperor had to treat one with respect."
"As time passed, people seemed to notice a pattern: Martial Saints appeared only when a dynasty collapsed and the realm fell into chaos. Some speculated that large-scale warfare was the prerequisite for a Martial Saint's emergence."
"From the First Emperor to the Overlord and then Guan Sheng, each rose to prominence amid endless war, killing, and violence."
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