The Market, Immortal Arts

Following the long street, Shen Mo followed the path indicated by the guards and soon arrived at Treasure Vase Alley in Cloud-Gathering Town.

Treasure Vase Alley was about three miles long.

The wide street within was packed with an endless stream of cultivators.

On both sides of the road, numerous stalls were set up.

Spiritual herbs, rare treasures, monster flesh and blood, cultivation techniques and martial arts, talismans and Daoist arts, divine weapons and sharp blades—everything one could imagine was there.

At the hundreds of stalls lining the street, one could buy almost anything.

However, despite the clamor of voices and the mix of people from all walks of life, it did not feel noisy or chaotic.

This was because the stall owners did not hawk their wares along the street like those in a mortal market.

Instead, they placed eye-catching signs in front of their stalls to inform visitors of the treasures for sale and their prices.

The lack of loud hawking was naturally not because the cultivators were particularly well-mannered or had some unspoken mutual understanding.

Rather, it was the result of strict rules enforced by the powerful authorities.

If anyone dared to defy the market rules, there would naturally be someone to mete out punishment.

"Zone Yi, Stall Number Thirteen."

Shen Mo held a stall token in his hand.

This token had been given to him by the guards before entering the market; only with this token could one set up a stall along the street.

And Stall Number Thirteen in Zone Yi was the spot he had been permitted to use.

After searching for a moment, Shen Mo soon found his stall.

It was located in the middle section of Treasure Vase Alley, directly opposite a teahouse.

On either side of his stall were two other cultivators also selling their goods.

One was selling monster furs and bones, while the other was selling some low-grade pills.

Shen Mo walked straight to his stall, spread out the long cloth he had prepared, and took out the mountain of Lightness Talismans and Focus Talismans he had brought.

"Selling Lightness and Focus Talismans!"

He looked at the format of the content written on the others' stalls and soon followed suit, writing out a sign.

On it, he detailed the effects of the two types of talismans as well as their prices.

With the sign set up and the stall arranged, all that remained was to wait for customers to come knocking.

"Brother, I am quite interested in these Lightness and Focus Talismans."

After waiting for a short while, a man in his thirties wearing a white robe walked over and initiated a conversation.

"If you have a need, please feel free to take what you want at the listed price. If there is anything you don't understand, you may ask me."

Seeing that business had arrived, Shen Mo felt a surge of energy.

"I understand the effects of these two talismans well enough," the white-robed man said, rubbing his hands together. "It's just that the price feels a bit high. Could we discuss it a little?"

"Discuss? You want to haggle?" Shen Mo raised an eyebrow, his interest immediately waning.

The price he was asking was not low, but it was certainly not above the market rate.

Shen Mo was naturally unhappy with this kind of haggling behavior.

Lightness Talismans and Focus Talismans were the most common and best-selling items among low-end talismans; he had no worries about selling them.

Seeing that this fellow was not a generous customer, Shen Mo's attitude cooled significantly, and he said indifferently, "Sorry, the price is fixed."

"Don't be like that. Business is all about give and take; why be so rigid with the price?"

The white-robed man didn't seem to notice the change in Shen Mo's attitude at all—or perhaps he didn't care—and continued to shamelessly try to get close and haggle.

Shen Mo remained unmoved and told him to go look elsewhere.

After some back-and-forth, seeing that Shen Mo was absolutely unwilling to lower the price, the man left in a huff.

Watching him leave, Shen Mo, who had been quite annoyed by the ordeal, quickly added a line to the wooden sign he had set up: "Haggling refused; it is unseemly to argue."

With this supplementary slogan, the customers who came afterward were much more straightforward.

The transactions went quite smoothly.

In less than an hour, Shen Mo had sold over thirty talismans.

But the good times did not last long; soon, another customer who didn't play by the rules arrived.

"Young man, the quality of your Lightness Talismans is quite good."

This time, the customer was a down-and-out middle-aged man wearing a gray robe, disheveled and dirty, as if he hadn't washed in ages.

"The price is fixed."

After sizing up the man's appearance, Shen Mo pointed to the notice on the sign and spoke in advance.

"I am not here to haggle with you. Five Lightness Talismans for one low-grade spirit stone—that price is very fair."

The gray-robed man was slightly taken aback, then soon smiled. "It's just that I am currently short on funds and cannot produce spirit stones. I would like to use other items to trade for your talismans, young man."

Barter?

Hearing this, Shen Mo asked with curiosity, "What do you wish to trade with?"

"An immortal art, a lightness immortal art," the man in the gray robe replied. "I wish to trade one lightness immortal art for one hundred of your Lightness Talismans. Is that acceptable?"

An immortal art for talismans?

Shen Mo was somewhat startled.

The value of an immortal art was far higher than that of talismans!

Even the cheapest, most basic immortal art could easily sell for dozens of low-grade spirit stones on the open market.

One hundred Lightness Talismans, at market price, were worth no more than ten low-grade spirit stones.

If this man's words were true, Shen Mo would be making a massive profit.

"If you possess an immortal art, why would you sell it so cheaply to me?"

With profit right before him, Shen Mo showed no signs of joy, asking instead with a serious expression, "You should know that one hundred Lightness Talismans are worth far less than an immortal art."

Shen Mo believed that there were such things as free lunches in this world.

But he did not believe that such a thing would fall into his own lap.

After all, he could see his own destiny, and it was merely average—not the kind of flourishing fortune that would allow him to encounter benefactors or stumble upon treasures everywhere he went.

Naturally, he would not fantasize about pies falling from the sky.

"To tell you the truth," the man in the gray robe said with a bitter smile, taking the initiative to speak, "I am an expelled disciple of the Lingyun Sect."

To dispel Shen Mo's concerns, the man in the gray robe revealed his background and name.

As it turned out, this man was named Gu Qingshan, formerly an outer disciple of the Lingyun Sect, who had caused a great disaster by overstepping the rules and stealing the sect's secret arts.

Upon discovering this, the Lingyun Sect ordered their law-enforcement elder to apprehend him, intending to cripple his cultivation to prevent the sect's secret arts from leaking out.

Knowing the situation was dire, Gu Qingshan did not wait for the elder to catch him; he fled the sect in a panic.

"So, you have your eye on these Lightness Talismans because you intend to use them to escape?"

"And the technique you want to trade with me is the secret art you stole from the Lingyun Sect?"

After listening to Gu Qingshan's account, Shen Mo's suspicions eased somewhat.

If that were the case, it made sense.

"That is correct. Young man, if you are willing, I can impart this immortal art to you right now."

Shen Mo did not agree immediately.

On the contrary, he remained hesitant. "Since this is an immortal art that the Lingyun Sect forbids from being spread, and I am not a disciple of the Lingyun Sect, I fear that if I learn it, it will not be able to see the light of day, will it?"

For all major cultivation sects, there were strictly enforced confidentiality protocols regarding the unique immortal arts, martial techniques, and cultivation methods within their ranks.

If someone who was not a disciple of the sect learned their internal immortal arts, it might be fine as long as it went unnoticed, but once discovered, it would undoubtedly lead to trouble.