Market, Immortal Arts

Following the road pointed out by the town guards, Shen Mo soon arrived at Treasure Vase Alley in Cloud-Gathering Town.

Treasure Vase Alley was about three li long.

Its broad streets were filled with a steady stream of cultivators.

Stalls lined both sides of the road.

Spirit herbs, rare treasures, demonic beast flesh and blood, cultivation techniques and martial skills, talismans and arts, divine weapons and sharp blades—everything imaginable was on offer.

Almost anything could be bought at the hundreds of stalls lining the street.

Though the place was bustling and filled with all sorts of people, it was not particularly noisy or chaotic.

That was because the stallholders did not hawk their wares along the street like vendors at a mortal market.

Instead, they put up eye-catching signs in front of their stalls, informing visitors from far and wide what treasures they were selling and at what price.

The cultivators did not refrain from shouting because they were well-mannered or because everyone understood the unspoken rules.

It was the result of regulations imposed by the authorities.

Anyone who broke the market's rules would naturally be punished.

"District Yi, Stall Number Thirteen."

Shen Mo held a stall token in his hand.

The town guard had given him this token before he entered the market. He needed it to set up a stall along the street.

Stall Number Thirteen in District Yi was the spot where he had been permitted to sell his wares.

After a brief search, Shen Mo soon found his stall.

It was halfway down Treasure Vase Alley, directly opposite a teahouse.

Two cultivators had set up stalls on either side of his.

One was selling the hides, bones, and meat of demonic beasts, while the other was offering low-tier pills.

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

"Light Body and Focus Talismans for sale!"

He glanced at the signs on the other stalls to see how they were worded, then quickly followed suit and wrote one of his own.

It detailed the effects of both kinds of talismans, as well as their prices.

With the sign in place and his wares laid out, all he had to do was wait for customers to come by.

"Brother, I'm rather interested in these Light Body and Focus Talismans."

After waiting a little while, a man in a white robe, around thirty years old, came over and struck up a conversation.

"If you need them, feel free to take them at the listed price. If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me."

Seeing a customer, Shen Mo perked up.

"I understand what these two kinds of talismans do." The man in white rubbed his hands. "It's just that the price feels a little high. Could we negotiate a bit?"

"Negotiate? You want to haggle?" Shen Mo raised an eyebrow, losing interest at once.

His prices were not low, but they were certainly not above the going rate.

Naturally, Shen Mo was not keen on haggling.

Light Body and Focus Talismans were among the most common and best-selling low-tier talismans. He had no trouble selling them.

Seeing that the man did not seem like a straightforward customer, Shen Mo's manner turned cooler. "Sorry, the price is firm."

"Come on, business is all about talking things over. Why be so rigid about the price?"

The man in white seemed not to notice Shen Mo's changed attitude—or perhaps he noticed but did not care. He continued ingratiating himself shamelessly, trying to bargain.

Shen Mo would not budge and told him to look elsewhere.

After some back and forth, the man finally saw that Shen Mo would not lower the price and left in disappointment.

Once he had watched the man go, Shen Mo, thoroughly worn out, hurriedly added a line to the wooden sign he had put up: "No haggling. Arguing about the price is bad form."

With that additional notice, the customers who came by afterward were much more straightforward.

The transactions went smoothly.

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

But the good times did not last. Soon, another customer who played by his own rules showed up.

"Little brother, these Light Body Talismans of yours are fine quality."

This time, the customer was a down-and-out middle-aged man in a gray robe. He was disheveled and filthy, and it was hard to say how long it had been since he last washed.

"The price is firm."

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

"I'm not going to haggle. Five Light Body Talismans for one low-grade Spirit Stone—that's a fair price."

The gray-robed man paused, then quickly smiled. "It's just that I'm short on money at the moment and can't pay in Spirit Stones. I'd like to trade something else for the talismans."

Bartering?

Hearing this, Shen Mo asked curiously, "What do you want to trade?"

"An immortal art—the Light Body Immortal Art." The gray-robed man said, "I'd like to trade one Light Body Immortal Art for a hundred of your Light Body Talismans. What do you say?"

An immortal art for talismans?

Shen Mo was taken aback.

An immortal art was worth far more than talismans!

Even the cheapest basic immortal art could easily fetch dozens of low-grade Spirit Stones on the market.

A hundred Light Body Talismans were worth only ten low-grade Spirit Stones at the going rate.

If the man was telling the truth, Shen Mo would be making a killing.

"If you have an immortal art, why are you selling it to me so cheaply?"

With profit on the line, Shen Mo showed no delight. Instead, he asked seriously, "You must know that a hundred Light Body Talismans are worth far less than an immortal art."

Shen Mo believed that people could get lucky and find something valuable for free.

But he did not believe such luck would fall into his lap.

After all, he could see his own destiny. His fortune was merely average; he was no favored son of heaven who ran into benefactors and stumbled upon treasures everywhere.

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

"To be honest..." The gray-robed man gave a bitter smile and spoke first. "I'm an outcast from Lingyun Sect."

To dispel Shen Mo's misgivings, the gray-robed man revealed his background and name.

It turned out the man was called Gu Qingshan. He had once been an outer disciple of Lingyun Sect, but had brought disaster upon himself by overstepping the rules and secretly learning one of the sect's forbidden arts.

When Lingyun Sect discovered what he had done, it ordered an enforcement elder to capture him and planned to cripple his cultivation to prevent the sect's secret art from leaking out.

Knowing things had gone badly, Gu Qingshan did not wait for the elder to come after him. He fled in haste and escaped the sect.

"So you're interested in these Light Body Talismans because you plan to use them to escape?"

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

After hearing Gu Qingshan's story, Shen Mo's doubts eased somewhat.

In that case, it made sense.

"Exactly, little brother. If you're willing, I can teach you the immortal art right now."

Shen Mo did not agree at once.

Instead, he remained hesitant. "If it's an immortal art that Lingyun Sect forbids people to pass on, and I'm not even a disciple of Lingyun Sect, wouldn't it be dangerous to learn it?"

For the various cultivation sects, the immortal arts, martial skills, and cultivation techniques unique to their sects were subject to extremely strict secrecy.

If someone who was not a disciple of a sect learned one of its immortal arts,

it would be fine as long as no one found out. But if the matter ever came to light, there would definitely be trouble.