Marketplace Opportunity

Putting the empty bowl back on the stall, Li Yuan did not linger for even a moment. He turned and merged into the surging morning crowds of Black Mountain City. The warm current stirred up by the Fierce Beast meat soup still coursed through his limbs and bones, bringing him a Sense of Power while also filling him with an unprecedented craving for more, stronger energy.

His three copper coins had been spent. He needed to find a new source of "fuel." Begging or stealing leftover scraps alone was far too inefficient, and the energy they contained was too meager. He had to find another path.

His feet carried him unconsciously toward the west side of the city. There stood Black Mountain City's largest Marketplace, where all manner of people gathered. There were not only proper shops, but also countless Rogue Cultivators, peddlers, and laborers hawking wares from roadside stalls. Fish mingled with dragons, and opportunity coexisted with danger. Perhaps there, he could find something unusual—some "foreign energy" that Crimson Sun could recognize and devour.

Half an Hour later, Li Yuan stood at the entrance to the Marketplace. A tangible wave of clamor crashed into his face. Hawking cries, haggling, the clash of Weapons, and even the low growls of Fierce Beasts in cages intertwined, forming a living yet chaotic scene.

He took a deep breath and stepped inside.

Shops lined both sides of the Marketplace streets, their banners fluttering in the wind. Stores selling pills, Weapons, cultivation methods, and talismans were bright and impressive, with sharp-auraed guards stationed outside. They were beyond anything he could probe into at present. His target was the roadside stalls, where people spread out a rag on an empty patch of ground and began calling out their wares.

He slowed his pace, his gaze like the finest sieve as it swept over one stall after another.

Most sold common goods: young medicinal herbs, damaged weapons and armor, materials from low-tier Fierce Beasts, and so-called "antiques" whose authenticity was impossible to discern. These things were either useless to him or prohibitively expensive.

The Crimson Sun within him remained quietly suspended in his Sea of Qi, showing no unusual reaction.

Li Yuan was not discouraged and continued searching patiently. He knew well that anything Crimson Sun took notice of would be no ordinary item; it was bound to possess something special.

After passing several stalls selling ores and miscellaneous goods, his gaze stopped on an inconspicuous corner.

The stall was tiny, consisting only of a badly faded blue cloth spread on the ground. Scattered across it were several dull-colored ores, some rust-speckled metal fragments, a few oddly shaped broken pottery figurines, and even several old books with yellowed, incomplete pages. The stall owner was a slovenly old man with white hair and beard, dozing against the wall beside him, barely sparing passing customers a glance.

What caught Li Yuan's attention was a piece of ore on the stall.

The ore was roughly fist-sized, dark gray throughout, its rough surface riddled with holes. It looked utterly unremarkable, like an ordinary volcanic rock. Yet the instant Li Yuan's gaze passed over it, the Crimson Sun deep within his Sea of Qi gave an incredibly slight tremor!

A faint impulse of longing, almost too subtle to detect, passed into Li Yuan's mind.

There was something here!

Li Yuan's heart stirred, but his face remained calm. Pretending to browse casually, he crouched down and let his eyes linger over the other goods before seemingly inadvertently settling on the dark gray ore.

At close range, he could more clearly sense what made the ore different. It gave off an exceedingly concealed aura of... deathly stillness. It was not the actively eroding cold of the Yin Sha Curse, but a silence and desolation of all things ending and returning to nothingness. Ordinary people—and even martial artists—would never notice it without careful Sensing. They would only feel that the thing looked somewhat "inauspicious."

"Boss, how much is this stone?" Li Yuan picked up a more pleasing-looking ore from nearby, one with a faint metallic sheen, and asked in a deliberately childish voice.

If you can't find it by searching the book title, try searching the author instead. It may simply have been renamed!

The dozing old man lifted his eyelids. His cloudy eyes flicked over Li Yuan, then the ore in his hand, and he said lazily, "Red Iron Stone. Five copper coins."

Li Yuan put down the Red Iron Stone, his fingers seemingly brushing the dark gray ore by accident. An icy sensation of deathly stillness traveled up from his fingertips, making Crimson Sun's longing that much clearer.

"What about this one?" He picked up the dark gray ore and weighed it in his hand. It seemed somewhat lighter than it looked.

The old man yawned and waved a hand. "Inauspicious junk. No idea which ancient grave mound someone dug it out of. It's just taking up space. If you want it, two copper coins."

An ancient grave mound? Understanding dawned on Li Yuan. No wonder it contained such pure deathly stillness. To him, this was not inauspicious at all—it was a rare "tonic"!

A trace of hesitation and disgust appeared on his face. He put the ore back down and dusted off his hands, as though he had touched something filthy. "It came from a grave... Forget it. Too inauspicious."

As he spoke, he rose to his feet and made as if to leave.

"Hey, little brother, don't go!" Seeing that he truly intended to leave, the old man perked up slightly. "One copper coin! Take it for one copper coin! It may be inauspicious, but it's hard stuff. Maybe it'll be useful for something else?"

Li Yuan stopped. His face struggled for a moment before he finally Turned Around "reluctantly." He fumbled around in his clothes for a long while—though they were actually completely empty—then said with a pained expression, "Boss, I... I only have one copper coin left. I was saving it for breakfast."

Seeing how destitute he looked, the old man knew he could squeeze no more oil from him. He waved dismissively. "Fine, fine, my bad luck. I'll give it to you! Take it and go. Don't get in the way of my business." He clearly did think the thing was inauspicious and could not wait to get rid of it.

"Thank you, Boss!" At just the right moment, Li Yuan revealed the delight of someone who had picked up a bargain. He hurriedly took the dark gray ore and wiped it with the corner of his ragged clothes, as though scrubbing away its "bad luck," then carefully tucked it into his bosom and quickly left the stall.

Only after leaving the Marketplace and turning into an empty alley did Li Yuan lean against a mottled wall and let out a long breath.

Suppressing the urge to examine the ore at once, he vigilantly surveyed his surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was following him did he take the ore back out from his clothes.

It was still icy to the touch, and that aura of deathly stillness had become even clearer.

A flash of burning heat passed through his eyes.

Without spending even a single copper coin, he had obtained something capable of making Crimson Sun react! This undoubtedly confirmed his guess and opened an entirely new path for obtaining resources—searching for "discarded objects" containing special energy that Ordinary People could not recognize!

He did not return to the Li Family immediately. That cage-like place was absolutely not suitable for testing this ore. He needed to find somewhere completely safe to verify what kind of change this "aura of deathly stillness" could bring to his Crimson Sun!

Li Yuan clenched the ore tightly in his palm, feeling its icy touch and the faint restlessness transmitted by Crimson Sun within him. His gaze turned toward Black Mountain Forest beyond the city.

There, perhaps, lay the answers he needed—and even more... opportunities.