Nanling Ghost Market

Lu Chen didn't dare delay. As soon as he returned to the Corpse Handling Room, he immediately began his careful preparations.

He tucked away the few Blood Activating Powders he had saved up, along with that single Qi and Blood Pill, close to his body, and slipped the Boning Knife he handled best into the most concealed spot at the small of his back.

This was his first real contact with the outside world, and his heart was filled with both anticipation and vigilance.

The next evening, Lu Chen followed behind a team of ten Demon Suppression Division Warriors, pushing a cart piled high with stinking Monster Materials waste, and left Nanling Prefecture City.

Before he even drew close, a complex mixture of qi—monster qi, spiritual qi, medicinal qi, and even human qi and ghostly qi—rushed at him from every direction.

At the entrance to the valley stood an archway built from enormous beast bones, hung with two lanterns that gave off a faint, ghostly green flame.

Stepping into the valley, the sight before him made Lu Chen's heart tighten in alarm.

The valley was brightly lit and crowded with people, yet eerily, there was hardly any noise.

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

Some stall owners were Rogue Cultivators with long swords on their backs and sharp, fierce auras.

Others were scions of noble families, dressed in fine robes and wearing haughty expressions.

But most were shady figures shrouded in wide cloaks, their auras cold and sinister.

The goods on display were even stranger and more bizarre.

There were fragments of Magic Items that glimmered faintly, their authenticity uncertain.

There were strange herbs that gave off peculiar medicinal scents. There were all sorts of dismembered demon parts, and even a few cages holding live, low-growling lesser demons.

Walking in the team, Lu Chen felt like an ant that had stumbled into a land of giants—every person he passed seemed to radiate a presence far stronger than his own.

He had little money and low cultivation, so he could only minimize his presence, staying close behind the Warriors.

As he pushed the cart, he used the corner of his eye to cautiously and curiously observe this bizarre new world.

The Warrior Team delivered the cart of waste to a designated recycling point in the Ghost Market, exchanged it for a few paltry copper coins, and then scattered in twos and threes to browse the stalls that caught their interest.

Lu Chen, being the lowest in status, naturally had no one watching him.

He moved alone, carefully weaving through the crowded flow of people.

With his meager possessions, he didn't even have the right to ask prices.

Just as Lu Chen passed a remote stall at the very edge of the Ghost Market, one that hardly drew any attention, the system stirred without warning.

The newly unlocked function, [Trace Source], produced an extremely faint, barely perceptible resonance!

Lu Chen's heart tightened, and he stopped in his tracks without making a sound.

His gaze followed that thread of resonance and finally landed on a pile of scrap metal in the corner of that stall.

It was a palm-sized, utterly unremarkable rusty iron slab.

The slab was caked with dried, blackened demon blood, mixed in with broken armor and shattered blades—if the system hadn't alerted him, he wouldn't have given it a second glance.

The stall owner was a gaunt, sickly-looking old man, listlessly dozing on his stall, paying no attention to passersby.

Lu Chen's heart pounded violently.

He forced down his excitement, put on a bored, aimless expression, and slowly ambled over to the stall.

First, he picked up a broken dagger and examined it, then hefted a damaged chest guard, and only finally, as if by chance, fished the rusty iron slab out of the pile of junk.

"Old sir, how much for this pile of scrap?" Lu Chen asked, feigning casualness.

The stall owner lazily lifted his eyelids, swept a glance over Lu Chen's lowliest Demon Suppression Division servant's uniform, and a flicker of contempt crossed his eyes. "A pile for ten coppers. Take it or leave it."

Lu Chen's heart leaped with joy, but he furrowed his brow and put on a troubled look. "Ten coppers? That's too expensive. I don't have any money on me—just a few healing powders. Want to trade?"

With that, he pulled out the small paper packet of Blood Activating Powder from his chest, poured out three pills, and placed them on the stall.

Though this Blood Activating Powder was crude, it was fairly effective against ordinary cuts and sword wounds, and could fetch three to five coppers in the Ghost Market.

Seeing the powder, a glimmer of light finally appeared in the stall owner's murky eyes.

He picked up one pill, sniffed it, scraped off a bit with his nail to taste it, and only then nodded reluctantly.

"Fine, deal."

Lu Chen's heart was wild with joy, but he kept his composure, gathered the rusty iron slab along with a few other genuine scraps into his arms, turned, and quickly left the stall, afraid the man might change his mind.

Once Lu Chen was far away, the stall owner finally revealed a smug grin.

"That fool thinks he's found a treasure. If the writing on that rusty slab could be read, would it still be waiting for some Corpse Handler to pick it up?"

Lu Chen didn't linger in the Ghost Market. He found the Warrior Team's assembly point and returned with the main group to the Demon Suppression Division.

As soon as he was back in that familiar, moldy-smelling Corpse Handling Room, he immediately bolted the stone door shut.

He couldn't wait to take out the rusty iron slab, fetched a basin of clean water, and used a rag to carefully wipe away the grime and bloodstains.

As the rust and blood were gradually scrubbed away, the slab revealed its true form.

Its material was neither metal nor iron—it felt cold to the touch, yet was exceptionally tough.

And beneath the layers of bloodstains, it was covered in countless mysterious patterns finer than a strand of hair, intricate and profound, as if they contained some fundamental truth of heaven and earth.

He had struck gold!

Lu Chen's breathing grew rapid.

He tried to slowly infuse the faint wisp of Turtle Breath Inner Qi from his dantian into the iron shard.

The moment the inner qi entered, the fine lines on the iron shard suddenly lit up with a dim luster, then quickly faded back to their original state.

Confirmed! This was definitely a treasure.

Without hesitation, Lu Chen sank his mind into his consciousness and issued a command to the system.

"System, use Trace Source to analyze this iron shard."

[Command confirmed. Beginning analysis...]

[Detected that the target contains a fragmented high-grade energy imprint. Analysis requires consumption of Demon Devil Lifespan.]

[Consume 3 months of Demon Devil Lifespan to proceed with analysis?]

"Yes."

[Consuming 3 months of Demon Devil Lifespan. Analyzing...]

[Analysis complete. Fragmented information discovered...]

[Shadow Step (Fragment)]

[Grade: Suspected Mysterious Grade Low Rank]

[Description: Suspected to be the foundational movement technique of an ancient assassin sect. When cultivated to mastery, one can transform into a shadow, moving without form, especially adept at stealth in shadows and darkness.]

[Status: Severely incomplete. Only scattered fragments of the introductory chapter remain.]

A Mysterious Grade movement technique!