Chaos Begins

As Wu Tao walked out of Shopkeeper Yu's magical refining materials shop, he looked at the surrounding streets. Rogue cultivators walked along them, seeming no different from usual.

These rogue cultivators were low in strength, could not contact sect disciples, and were isolated from information. They had no idea at all that a war was about to break out.

Sigh, no matter which world it was, information cocoons existed. The people above let you know only what they wanted you to know. If they wanted you to remain ignorant, you would never find out.

Living in a daze, as mere dust beneath the wheels of historical progress, one never knew when they would be crushed and obliterated by those wheels.

No matter.

If I weren't an artifact refiner and hadn't established a business channel with Shopkeeper Yu, I would also be like these tens of thousands of rogue cultivators, living in a daze and being crushed to death like an ant when a major disaster struck.

Wu Tao sighed inwardly.

The times were thus, and he was powerless to change them. The only thing he could do was protect his own life.

Adding the fifteen mid-grade spirit stones Shopkeeper Yu had advanced him, Wu Tao now had three thousand one hundred eighty-nine low-grade spirit stones on him. He cast aside his distractions and immediately headed toward the pill shop and the herb shop.

Walking down the street and passing one rogue cultivator after another, just as he neared the pill shop, he suddenly heard a cry of alarm:

"It's a Foundation Establishment lesser true person of Five Spring Mountain."

Wu Tao couldn't help stopping in his tracks and looking up at the sky. He saw a streak of green sword light flashing across the upper air, dragging a green afterimage behind it. Standing upon it was a cultivator in a purple magic robe, whose magic power was incomparably vast.

The speed was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, this Foundation Establishment cultivator flew into Five Spirits Cultivation City and landed in the central district of the city's west side, which was rumored to be the garrison palace of the Five Spring Mountain sect.

"A Foundation Establishment cultivator... Such a powerful aura... I feel like the other party could kill me with a single finger..." some rogue cultivator exclaimed in admiration.

"Bah, you overestimate yourself. With a Foundation Establishment cultivator, you'd be blasted to dust and ashes with a single breath from them." Someone retorted.

Yet undoubtedly, every rogue cultivator's eyes revealed a look of envy. Everyone wanted to achieve Foundation Establishment, but rogue cultivators were completely unbacked, lacking resources and inheritance. Wanting to attain Foundation Establishment was a case of one in ten thousand.

"If only I could become a Foundation Establishment cultivator, I'd definitely be able to join Five Spring Mountain." Someone muttered in a daydream.

The surrounding rogue cultivators looked at him without mocking, because he had voiced what was on everyone's mind.

Wu Tao withdrew his gaze. In his heart, he naturally wanted to attain Foundation Establishment as well, and his face also showed envy, but he carried an extra layer of thought. Foundation Establishment cultivators of Five Spring Mountain rarely left their sect. For this Foundation Establishment cultivator to descend upon Five Spirits Cultivation City, it must have been related to Ghost Dao Sect.

Thinking of this, his pace did not stop, and he quickly arrived at the pill shop. As soon as he reached the pill shop, he heard a rogue cultivator wailing: "Fellow daoist, half a month ago this Condensation Pill was thirty-five low-grade spirit stones per bottle, so how can it cost fifty low-grade spirit stones per bottle today?"

The hired cultivator of the pill shop smiled and said: "Fellow daoist, the price isn't something I can decide. If you feel it's expensive, you can go look elsewhere."

"I'm going elsewhere right now..."

That rogue cultivator left, and the hired cultivator looked at Wu Tao, greeting him: "Fellow daoist, what pills are you looking to buy?"

Wu Tao said: "No rush, I'll go have a look elsewhere."

With that, Wu Tao turned and walked away, thinking to himself: This pill shop definitely has Five Spring Mountain backing it. They found out that war is imminent and raised the pill prices long ago. I should go to those smaller pill shops now to pick up scraps.

This was playing the information gap.

This train of thought was correct. Wu Tao actually managed to buy Condensation pills for thirty-five low-grade spirit stones at a small pill shop, but the quantity was very small and couldn't satisfy his needs at all.

He only bought three bottles of Condensation pills.

It was only enough for a month of cultivation.

His original intention was to buy enough Condensation pills for half a year of cultivation, which was eighteen bottles. At that price, it would only cost six hundred thirty low-grade spirit stones.

Continue.

But when he reached the second pill shop, the shopkeeper told him that there were no pills left in the shop. They had all been bought out by a certain herb shop—mentioning the name of a large pill shop—and said it was thirty-eight low-grade spirit stones per bottle.

That shopkeeper wore an expression as if he had made a killing.

Wu Tao couldn't help saying: "Fellow daoist, wouldn't you consider delaying your sale by two days? To see how the market goes?"

The shopkeeper replied: "In my small-scale business, I've never encountered such high prices. Primordial Spirit Pavilion is willing to buy my pills at a high price, so naturally I have to sell. What if I delay and the price drops again? Wouldn't I lose out?"

Sigh, this damned information gap.

Wu Tao did not waste time. He continued traveling through the marketplace, making a full round, and found that all the pills had been bottom-fished by the dozen or so large pill shops in the marketplace.

Damn it!

Wu Tao cursed inwardly, and had no choice but to return to the pill shop where he frequently bought Condensation pills, purchasing fifteen bottles at the price of forty-eight low-grade spirit stones per bottle, totaling seven hundred twenty spirit stones.

He was losing money up to his ancestors' graves.

Next was the herb shop. Fortunately, he was at the flesh-refining stage, and the age required for his medicinal herbs only needed to be thirty years; they were not true spiritual herbs, so no matter how much the price rose, it wouldn't go up by much.

Originally, five portions of medicinal herbs cost one hundred low-grade spirit stones, and now they cost one hundred twenty low-grade spirit stones.

One portion a day meant thirty portions a month, which was seven hundred twenty low-grade spirit stones. He only had two thousand three hundred sixty-four low-grade spirit stones left on him, and he had to keep at least two hundred low-grade spirit stones on hand just in case.

Therefore, Wu Tao only purchased medicinal bath herbs for three months.

He was left with only two mid-grade spirit stones and four low-grade spirit stones.

"I've become poor again!"

Wu Tao walked on his way home, feeling his flattened spirit stone bag and wearing a bitter expression: I need to stock up a bit on spirit rice and monster meat too. Let's stock up for one month first, and then wait until the spirit stones from Boss Yu's side come through.

He couldn't possibly spend all his spirit stones.

When buying spirit rice, Wu Tao remembered his friendship with Han Tiezhu and obscurely informed him to be careful during this period. Han Tiezhu immediately thought of the previous devilish cultivators and assumed it was devilish cultivators again, hastily saying he would stay in the fields during this time.

He bought three hundred jin of spirit rice, and another thirty jin of monster meat. Because there were too many things and he had no storage bag, he could only hire a porter in the marketplace for the price of ten fragmented spirit stones to help him deliver them to his home on Sincere Tea Street.

Returning home, Wu Tao locked himself in his room.

The soundproof anti-peeping formation was fully activated. Looking at the supplies in the room, his heart finally settled down quite a bit.

Step up cultivation, raise my strength, and go out less unless necessary.

Wu Tao made his decision in his heart, and then opened his personal status.

[Name: Wu Tao]
[Lifespan: 25/85]
[Realm: Third Level of Qi Refining]
[Cultivation Technique: Three Yang Technique: Qi Refining Chapter (Third Layer): 2%]
[Spells: Fireball Technique Novice (95%), Cleaning Spell Novice (1%)]
[Divine Abilities: None]
[Primary Profession Refiner]: Mastered Restrictions: First-Order Level 1 Cooling Restriction, First-Rank Level 2 Wind-Speed Restriction, First-Order Level 1 Dust-Repelling Restriction, First-Order Level 1 Rain-Repelling Restriction, First-Rank Level 3 Small Spirit Light Shield Restriction, First-Rank Level 4 Spirit-Absorbing Restriction.
[Secondary Profession Cultivator: Dragon Spear Body Tempering Art: Flesh Refining (47%), Dragon Spear Sweep Proficiency (28%), Dragon Spear and Thunder Proficiency (39%)]

"Cultivate!"

Closing his personal status, Wu Tao immediately took out a Condensation Pill and began practicing the Sanyang Technique.

Now his life consisted of only three things: practicing the Sanyang Technique, practicing the Dragon Spear Technique, tempering his flesh, and refining magic robes to deliver goods to Shopkeeper Yu.

The next day.

Wu Tao had just refined a Condensation Pill when the soundproof anti-peeping formation sounded a prompt—someone was knocking on the door outside.

Hearing the knock, Wu Tao felt a bit nervous, but then he thought that if it were devilish cultivators, they wouldn't be so polite as to knock; they would just smash their way in.

Relaxing slightly, he still looked through the peephole.

Reflected in his eyes were a Demon Slaying Hall cultivator and two patrol squad cultivators.