The Shop's Treasured Item

Li Fan realized that for some people in this world, money truly is more important than life. Imagine being a Foundation Establishment cultivator spy from a demonic sect, held hostage by Golden Core cultivator, and still managing to haggle back and forth – what kind of fearless spirit does that require?

It's truly delightful to have made such a friend at the cost of 50,000 strings of cash.

Cough cough, but money is a small matter, and the pain is only temporary. I can always kill a couple more monsters to make up for it later.

And honestly, a windfall of 100,000 strings of cash that comes easily is more casual to spend than a reward of 20,000 strings of cash earned through hard work and risking one's life.

However, although the dress and a bunch of jewelry and decorations wasted a lot of money, there were still some gains this time, namely the Purple Sash Immortal Clothes and the human skin Daoist robe.

Li Fan first paid half the deposit (and took five sets of human skin Daoist robes). He would wait a week until the shopkeeper of the Heavenly Clothes had finished cutting out the Purple Sash Immortal Clothes and formal dress before he came to pick up the clothes and pay the remaining balance.

Of course, he had to test the effectiveness of these human-skin robes first. If the shopkeeper was just spouting nonsense and trying to rip people off, he would come back, burn down his shady shop, and behead him. If the effect was good, then they could still be good friends.

However, the chances of being scammed are quite small. This is not because Heavenly Clothes is particularly reputable, but because of the effect of the "Immovable Mount Tai" technique, Li Fan himself has personally experienced.

In an instant, Zhang Jiugao transferred away the injuries he had suffered and also imparted to him the life experience of the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword, which was practically equivalent to a spiritual empowerment.

Although using this method of transferring power to take someone's place is indeed Demon Path, Li Fan has to admit that even if he doesn't use such a divine skill as damage transfer, its principles and applications are still worth studying carefully.

Previously, Li Fan had always believed that this kind of divine skill could only be used on one's own blood relatives. However, the fact that the human skin Daoist robe could actually withstand a death calamity meant that, unless the shopkeeper was exaggerating and making unfounded claims, then this skill did not have any taboos related to blood relatives. Or perhaps it had been modified by the remnants of the Black Lotus Sect.

You can't possibly kill a monster and randomly get a human skin, then trace its origins back to its blood relatives and imprint a curse on it just to make a Daoist robe that transfers damage, right? That's just not realistic.

Regardless, these Daoist robes need to be tested to confirm their effectiveness. Fortunately, Li Fan has already thoroughly memorized the "Immovable Mount Tai, Deep Roots and Fruitful Fruits Precious Scroll," and five robes are enough for testing. If they are truly effective, he will have nine human skins in hand. Wouldn't it be better to copy the scriptures himself? Why sell a set of skins for one string of cash and then buy them back for 1,500 strings of cash, letting the middleman profit from the difference?

In short, if he could decipher the secrets of this divine skill of transferring damage using the Mount Tai Sutra and apply it, then Li Fan might truly become invincible.

So Li Fan first went to Lou Guan Tower to hand in the mission. Of course, he only reported that while patrolling near Yangjia Mountain, he discovered the whereabouts of a monster. He then chased it all the way to Fei Mountain territory, but found that a large number of Demon Race seemed to be entrenched there. Therefore, he suspected that Fei Mountain Guard was involved, so he immediately returned to report to the sect and asked the sect to send someone to investigate in detail. That was all.

Li Fan didn't even hand over those many demon cores to claim credit. Since the mountain lord had already bestowed upon him two swords, he didn't need any extra merit in eliminating demons or sweeping away Fei Mountain garrisons. He simply informed his sect that something had happened and received a small sum of one hundred strings of cash.

After all, the Black Lotus Sect members have all set up shops at the entrance of Lou Guandao Pagoda, indicating that the situation inside Ink Bamboo Mountain is far too complicated. If they try to gain some small credit and show off this time, they might attract the attention of various forces.

In reality, Li Fan had already taken a considerable risk simply by informing the sect that something had happened at Fei Mountain. However, he was still a disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain, and since the sect leader and master appreciated him so much, he had to fulfill his duties as a disciple of Ink Bamboo Mountain.

Personally, Li Fan really didn't want to get involved in this undercurrent. He preferred to focus on cultivation. Although he was now rich, had treasures, and powerful backers, and wasn't afraid of fighting, the Black Lotus Sect was too complicated, so he decided to avoid trouble.

Thus, Li Fan, this 'weak early-stage Golden Core cultivator,' patrolled the mountain twice but felt the rewards were meager, so he declined the troublesome mission to continue scouting Fei Mountain areas.

Despite Li Fan's emotional turmoil, the old Daoist priests in charge of the Dao Tower remained calm and composed. They took out their small wolf-hair brushes, recorded the problems he reported, and filed them away without even twitching their eyebrows. They simply dismissed him with a "Cicada."

Okay then, just keep it to yourself.

Li Fan scratched his head, helpless, and went out to continue shopping.

Anyway, he didn't intend to hold onto so much Divine Astral Coin. It's not like money can just be rubbed together to generate more money. Besides, in addition to the shoddy casting in the Immortal Palace, the demons were also smuggling funds into the territory of Ink Bamboo Mountain in batches, which might indirectly cause an economic crisis for Ink Bamboo Mountain. The Divine Astral Coin had depreciated too much, so it was best to spend them as soon as possible.

This time he plans to buy a set of divination tools, including counting rods and a compass.

Although the Taiji Xian Dao was the foundation first laid by the Immortal Palace, it was the Xuanmen forces, led by the Nine Great Xuan Sects, that paved this great path into a smooth road.

Alchemy, weapon crafting, divination, formations, and talismans—these five traditional arts are precisely what the Xuanmen (mystical sect) excels at, and they have built a classic skill tree for the cultivation Immortal Realm based on these.

The most typical example is Profound Heaven Sword Intent. Although he claims to be the head of the Sword Sect and specializes in sword skills, he is undoubtedly a master in the traditional five arts.

The Xuanmen's apprenticeship system is the most rigorous and elite among the Three Great Sects. Not only must one undergo a life-threatening tribulation to reach the Foundation Establishment, but daily sword duels are also required, and the cultivation and training of the Five Arts are equally demanding. Not only is cultivation crucial, but the Five Arts are also tested. From the Golden Core stage onwards, Nascent Soul Stage must be proficient in at least one art and submit works of an entry-level quality to obtain a Dao Certificate. By the Transformation Stage, all five arts must be mastered; failing even one will disqualify one from a position. Elders in the Deity Transformation stage who lack a skill worthy of being called a Grandmaster will be ridiculed for their dullness. The Dao-enlightened sect leader must be exceptionally outstanding, a peerless genius, and excel in all five arts; otherwise, they would have no right to command the old monsters throughout the mountain and sect.

Therefore, it's not an exaggeration to call the Nine Great Xuan Sects the Alliance for the Protection of Traditional Culture in the Immortal Realm!

To put it more dramatically, although the Nine Great Xuan Sects don't have many members, the top sects, even a single sect, can rival the core members of the Three Realms of the Immortal Palace.

Just by looking at the thirty-six grotto-heavens and seventy-two blessed lands within the Twelve Countries of the Central Land, all of which are occupied by the Xuanmen sect, leaving the Immortal Palace with nothing, one can tell which of the Three Great Sects is truly stronger.

However, due to this elite education, the number of people in the Xuanmen sect is extremely small, resulting in a lack of enthusiasm for expansion. These reclusive Hidden Immortal Sect also do not regard the mundane affairs of the Twelve Countries as important, so the conflict with the Immortal Palace is not in Human Dao realms like the Li Country.

Compared to those orthodox ancient sects, Ink Bamboo Mountain can indeed be considered a rural, unorthodox sect. However, Ink Bamboo Mountain's mechanical arts are indeed a newly developed skill, and after the False Moon, the fact that mechanisms can be 'materialized' has shocked the master craftsmen. It has even begun to be singled out and referred to as the sixth art alongside the five arts. Only then do the old artists of the Xuanmen sects barely give Ink Bamboo Mountain a second glance.

In short, all this boils down to one point: any Magic Treasure implements or props involving the Five Arts, if you add the phrase "This is something made/used by the Xuanmen (Daoist sect)," will be priced a hundred times higher than local goods.

"This set is the store's prized possession, specially purchased from the Central Land at great expense. It was made under the supervision of a master from the Emei Sect and is a calculating tool favored by Golden Core Stage. It includes the Thousand Mechanisms Dragon Tooth Calculating Rods and the Tianyu Sect Sanyuan Sanhe Thirty-Six Dragon Seeking Compass."

This set is a fixed price, only 48,000 strings of cash. What a bargain!

Hey, you even left him four thousand strings of cash to starve! Things on this street are so cheap! And yours is more than a hundred times cheaper, it's practically ten thousand times cheaper...

Li Fan glanced at the bamboo-carved set of counting rods and compass beside him; it only cost five strings of cash, and he chuckled. Then he silently considered it.

Actually, it's quite a good deal. Profound Heaven Sword Intent recommended this set to him when we were just casually shopping before.

"They're all trash. You'd be better off using your shopping time for spiritual practice... Oh, that set has decent precision, but don't even look at it, you poor wretch, you have no money!" This kind of recommendation...

Although I knew they were ripping me off, the food was indeed essential.

After all, if there is a core among the Five Arts, it is undoubtedly divination. Mathematics is the common language of all civilizations.

The so-called formations are the creation of heaven and earth, and the divination is the foundation of Daoist magic. Alchemy, talismans, seals, Magic Treasure, sword embryos, incantations, talismans, puppets, and all the myriad paths of the heavens cannot do without the word "calculation".

Just like those diviners of the Emei Sect, who could predict the deaths of the entire Lü Family who had fled hundreds of years ago from thousands of miles away, it shows how terrifying their cunning is. And the importance of using calculations for refining elixirs, making Magic Treasure, and setting up talismans and formations goes without saying.

The Thousand Mechanisms Dragon Tooth Calculating Rods are counting Magic Treasure made by carving symbols onto dragon teeth as the base material.

As everyone knows, counting rods were an ancient calculation tool that had long been obsolete in Li Fan's previous life, but in this world, they have been developed into a specialized calculation Magic Treasure.

The method of calculation begins with recognizing the positions: one vertical line and ten horizontal lines, one hundred standing upright and one thousand standing rigidly, one thousand and ten facing each other, ten thousand and one hundred corresponding to each other. For numbers of six or higher, five is placed at the top, six is not counted cumulatively, and five is not counted alone. This is the decimal system of counting.

The so-called "thousand-counting rods" refers to the ability to infuse Dao Breath and concentrate one's mind, so that in the blink of an eye, one can automatically arrange a thousand counting rods to assist in calculations and counting.

If combined with the foundation of the "Four Elements Calculation Classic" taught by Du Gongshi, it becomes a four-threaded system, capable of manipulating four counting rods simultaneously and performing four thousand calculations per second. It's barely at the level of a human brain calculator.

This is certainly not the limit of divination. The thousand-machine level counting rods are just entry-level magical Magic Treasure, and the Four Elements Calculation Classic is also an entry-level divination mental cultivation method. Not to mention that after reaching the Nascent Soul Stage True Person realm, with the aid of special Cultivation Method, the cultivator's mind and spirit will experience a leapfrog improvement and breakthrough.

Of course, compared to the world Li Fan lived in before, where everyone had a home computer with at least 8 threads and a 3.6GHz CPU, and those national-level supercomputers could process trillions of calculations per second, it still seemed outdated. Hmph, natives.

Despite his inner grumbling, Li Fan couldn't possibly conjure up a computer out of thin air. His computer skills were barely enough to install an operating system and download a movie. Expecting him to grab a handful of sand and sculpt a graphics card was giving him too much credit. So, he still needed to learn and buy the necessary equipment.

The advantage of using dragon tooth counting rods is their wear resistance, and they are not affected by random energies that could lead to inaccurate calculations. However, the material cost for using them as counting rods is too high, making them not very cost-effective.

As for the Tianyu Sect Sanyuan Sanhe Thirty-Six Dragon Seeking Compass, it is actually a compass. Such a famous feng shui tool doesn't need much introduction. In this long name, Tianyu Sect is the ancient Kunlun Xuanmen, the grandmaster of compass feng shui. Sanyuan Sanhe refers to the compass regulations. Thirty-Six Dragon-Seeking refers to a professional compass specifically designed to be used with the "Thirty-Six Dragons" divination book to find opportunities and fortune.

Although they may seem to have the same function as the Si Nan, on the contrary, they complement each other.

To put it simply, divination involves using the hexagrams on a compass to find clues about opportunities. The more precise the compass, the clearer the hexagrams will be, and the more accurate the calculations will be. But if the Si Nan points you in the right direction from the beginning, wouldn't the accuracy and speed of the divination increase exponentially?

Knowing the final answer first and then working backwards to deduce it is much simpler and easier than calculating it head-on. With this thing working in conjunction with the Si Nan, not only can it assist Li Fan's arithmetic training, but it can also give him an excuse to conceal the existence of this treasure, the Si Nan.

Why am I so accurate with my calculations? Why do I have so many lucky breaks? Hey! Look! This is a super compass I bought for 48,000 strings of cash! It was made by a master from the Emei Sect! Do you have one?! Huh??

"Hahaha! Great! These are the two!" Li Fan said with a beaming smile.

"Oh, just those two... Oh, oh! You really want them! Quick! Quickly bring the shop's prized possessions and wrap them up for the Daoist priest! Daoist priest, please take a seat! Serve tea! Serve tea!"

The owner of the compass shop and Li Fan seemed to hit it off immediately, even swearing brotherhood by beheading a chicken and burning yellow paper. He also gave Li Fan a copy of "The Thirty-Six Dragons of Heavenly Jade: Lingyunzi's Commentary," supposedly a method for finding qi personally annotated by a grandmaster of mathematics from Emei. Li Fan opened it and was greeted by a fragrant aroma. He noticed many delicate and graceful characters written between the pages, indicating it was indeed a rare and insightful edition. Perhaps the author was even a fairy herself—definitely worth collecting!

Li Fan was overjoyed and became good friends with the owner of the compass shop.

Then he spent the remaining four thousand strings of cash, buying a whole bunch of cinnabar ink, talismans, and command flags. Li Fan witnessed the power of the formation firsthand. Although this fighting style wasn't exactly enjoyable, sometimes effectiveness was the most important thing, and preparing some area-of-effect attacks and group damage skills to clear out mobs was also indispensable.

Li Fan wasn't worried at all, having spent all 12,000 guan of cash so extravagantly. After all, there were still a lot of miscellaneous Spirit Stones and materials in the jade pendant that could be exchanged for money, and there was another pendant that hadn't been deciphered yet that might contain something good. In addition, those five palace dresses were also good items, but they might involve a lot of karma, so it was best not to take action in Ink Bamboo Mountain to avoid causing trouble.

If he's short on cash, he can always borrow some more from the monsters. Li Fan has four flying swords and a handful of talismans; he's just worried about where to put them to use!

However, there was no rush. Looking at the sky, there was still time to test the authenticity of the human skin Daoist robe. So Li Fan flew around the bamboo forest outside the town again. With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he found a group of monkeys. He immediately flew over on his sword, and with a flick of his wrist, he used the Five Ghosts to control a bunch of spiked clubs, knocking the Thunder Monkeys to the ground with the clubs.

Li Fan then took out a human skin Daoist robe, draped it over the monkey, and smashed the monkey's brain with an iron mace, killing the monkey.

Li Fan frowned, took the robe, tore it open to see that the human skin inside was intact, thought for a moment, and then covered the monkey's head with the robe.

With another strike, Li Fan clearly felt the mace pierce flesh as usual, and blood seeped from his robe. Lifting it, he saw a mace wound on Monkey B's head. However, despite the broken skull, Monkey B was clearly not dead. On the contrary, the wound began to disappear at a visible speed, and the monkey moved its fingers, showing signs of waking up.

Li Fan looked at the robe again; the human skin had been smashed to pieces.

Li Fan thought for a moment, then took a second Daoist robe and covered the monkey's head with it. Holding the double maces, he used all his strength to stab the monkey's head with both maces, rubbing them so deeply that they pierced two bloody holes. He even managed to insert the maces, along with the Daoist robe, into the monkey's skull. But when he lifted the robe, he saw that even with two deep holes pierced in the monkey's skull, it was still not dead!

Looking at the Daoist robe in his hand, the flesh inside began to rot instantly, and the entire robe looked as if it were covered with a layer of bloody mud.

From this perspective, the human skin Daoist robe does have some effect in transferring damage, but it's limited. It's not as swift as Zhang Jiugao's initial spell, and it can only transfer damage to the area where the skin made contact. However, the fact that he survived an attack that pierced his brainstem does mean he could indeed withstand a fatal blow, so it's not entirely useless.

Li Fan nodded in satisfaction. One thousand five hundred strings of cash for a life was enough. Okay, then we can still be good friends.