"If this were a Fire Cloud Treasure Robe instead of a Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover, how wonderful would that be!"
Inside the small stone house west of the city, Wei Suo looked at the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover he had thoroughly cleaned and let out another round of mournful wails. The Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover and Fire Cloud Treasure Robe were both quite famous on the Lingyue Continent. They had both been crafted by Wei Huoling, a renowned artifact refiner of the Fire Cloud Sect in Silver Star City. Their materials were Fire Silkworm Silk, Cloud Brocade Stone, and Fire Phoenix Feather. The defensive effects of the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover and Fire Cloud Treasure Robe were roughly equal. The Fire Phoenix and Fire Cloud they unleashed were comparable to the Dharma shields produced by second-tier talismans, able to withstand the spell attacks of a Circulation Realm First Level cultivator. Moreover, as long as there was sufficient True Essence, once the power of the manifested Fire Phoenix or Fire Cloud had weakened, it could be activated again.
It was said that both the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover and Fire Cloud Treasure Robe had been replicated from the magic treasure Fire Kirin Dharma Robe, making them Magic Treasure Replicas as well.
The Unicorn Thunder Viper could probably digest even stones, yet the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover before Wei Suo now looked completely brand-new. Every thread shimmered with an alluring sheen, and it felt incomparably soft and silky to the touch. This showed just how excellent the materials used to craft it were.
Just imagining this Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover being worn by a great beauty like Shui Ling'er made Wei Suo gulp wildly.
If such a Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover were put up for auction at the Golden Jade Pavilion, it would probably fetch at least a thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones. Such things were also priceless and scarce on the market. Wei Suo was currently in desperate need of a powerful defensive spell and defensive magic treasure. If he had possessed a slightly stronger defensive artifact when he encountered the Unicorn Thunder Viper this time, he would not have ended up in such a sorry state. Yet even if Wei Suo obtained a powerful defensive spell now, with his Third Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm cultivation, the defensive spell he cast would likely not even match the power of his previous Earth Shield Treasure Talisman. A Magic Treasure Replica of the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover's level was simply perfect for him.
But the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover was female inner armor, while the Fire Cloud Treasure Robe was attire for male cultivators. For a grown man to wear such a sexy belly-cover beneath his clothes—wasn't that far too filthy?
"Enough. With your current cultivation, you should be thanking the heavens and earth that you managed to keep your life when facing a Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast like the Unicorn Thunder Viper." The Green Robe Old Man, long accustomed to Wei Suo's chillingly lewd laughter and howls, looked at him disdainfully. "Finding armor that barely counts as a Half-Spirit Grade Magic Treasure inside the Unicorn Thunder Viper's belly was already stepping in dog shit luck, yet you're still picking and choosing, screaming as if the sky has fallen."
Wei Suo thought about it and found that reasonable. He stopped wailing and began tallying the day's gains.
After returning to Lingyue City, he had sold all the Iron Wire Snakes and Winged Scale Snakes he had hunted in Myriad Snake Valley, along with the Unicorn Thunder Viper that had nearly claimed his life, to the Golden Jade Pavilion. In any case, the people at the Golden Jade Pavilion thought he belonged to Tie Ce, so they found it unsurprising that a Rogue Cultivator of his level could bring in the corpse of a Fourth-tier Demonic Beast.
The six Iron Wire Snakes had sold for only ten Low-grade Spirit Stones in total, while the three third-tier Winged Scale Snakes had sold for a total of one hundred and fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones. After Wei Suo carefully searched the entire Unicorn Thunder Viper and confirmed there was nothing else inside, he sold it together with its demonic core for two hundred and fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones. Altogether, Wei Suo had earned four hundred and ten Low-grade Spirit Stones.
Wei Suo then counted his Fireball Talismans and found that he had used several dozen of them in Myriad Snake Valley. He had only a little over eighty Fireball Talismans left on him now.
Still, after accounting for the cost of those Fireball Talismans, the Second-tier Golden Bell Spirit Talisman, Ice Talismans, and the rest, Wei Suo had earned at least three hundred-odd Low-grade Spirit Stones that day. Even without counting the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover he had acquired by accident, he could be said to have made a small fortune. With the guidance of an old hand like the Green Robe Old Man, old beyond old, Wei Suo's speed at earning Spirit Stones was likely unmatched among Rogue Cultivators of the same level.
"Damn Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm!" After counting his Spirit Stones like a miser guarding his treasure, Wei Suo picked up a Mid-grade Spirit Stone and prepared to resume cultivating. After all, he had expended a great deal of True Essence today, so the results of cultivation should be good. "What is this?" But at that moment, a bright purplish-red radiance suddenly shone through his clothes.
"Nangong Yuqing is looking for me? What does she want at this hour?"
Wei Suo subconsciously reached toward the source, only to freeze. The objects emitting the bright purplish-red glow were the three communication jade talismans Nangong Yuqing had given him.
The sky outside had already turned pitch-black, but after a brief daze, Wei Suo immediately got to his feet.
"What are you doing?" The Green Robe Old Man's eyes instantly widened, because he saw Wei Suo quickly take off the green cloth robe he wore outside and hold the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover against himself, apparently studying how best to put it on.
"What else could I be doing? Wearing it. I happen to need this sort of defensive magic treasure right now, and no one will see it if I wear it underneath." As he spoke, Wei Suo put the Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover on beneath his clothes.
"Damn, you..." The Green Robe Old Man was utterly speechless as he watched Wei Suo wearing the belly-cover. Having lived for so many years, he had never seen a male cultivator wear such sexy female innerwear. The Green Robe Old Man decided that if anyone ever asked about Wei Suo in the future, he would definitely say he did not know him. This was simply too embarrassing.
"Lewd. Extremely lewd." As Wei Suo draped on his green cloth robe and headed out, he actually felt rather filthy himself. Wearing a smooth female belly-cover underneath made him quite uncomfortable, but when he thought of how his life was more important than anything else, he decided to swallow his shame and wear it for now. He could replace it later once he found something suitable.
Since he thought Nangong Yuqing must have something urgent to seek him out at this hour, Wei Suo rushed from the house like the wind, heading straight for the place they had agreed to meet: the largest bulletin board at the northern market of Lingyue City.
"Desire Sea Sinful Fate Pills for sale at a high price. Let you and your Dao companion climb to the peak, wave after wave rising higher..."
"Long-term high-price purchase of third-tier demonic cores, with all kinds of talismans for sale. Fair prices, no deception of young or old..."
"Urgently in need of Spirit Stones, selling one Qi Refining Art at a low price..."
The largest bulletin board in the northern part of the city was still covered in all manner of notices, but after looking left and right before it for a while, Wei Suo saw no trace of Nangong Yuqing.
"Is your surname Wei?" Just as Wei Suo began to suspect that Nangong Yuqing had stood him up, a little girl of about seven or eight, dressed in a floral cloth outfit and seemingly from one of the nearby shops, ran over and asked him.
Wei Suo looked blankly at the little girl. "My surname is Wei. Why?"
"What's your name?" The little girl, with two horn-shaped braids and a bit of snot beneath her nose, asked very seriously.
"My name is Wei Suo. What is this about?"
"Wei Suo—then I got it right." The little girl immediately brightened, then complained, "Why did you take so long? I've been waiting for you forever."
"You've been waiting for me forever?" Wei Suo was dumbfounded.
"Yes." The horn-braided little girl rolled her eyes at Wei Suo. "A pretty older sister told me to wait for you here and give this to you. Who knew you'd come so slowly?"
The moment the sniffling little girl with horn braids said this, Wei Suo knew Nangong Yuqing had certainly asked her to wait for him here. He accepted the small sheepskin scroll the displeased little girl handed him and saw that Nangong Yuqing wanted to gather something and needed him as a helper. She told him to meet her at the Stone Maggot Cave on Sheep Bone Mountain.
"What could she possibly need to gather at night?"
Wei Suo could not help muttering as he looked at the sheepskin scroll Nangong Yuqing had left him. Wei Suo knew of Sheep Bone Mountain. It lay twelve hundred miles east of Lingyue City, and because many exposed rocks there resembled strips of white sheep bones, it was named Sheep Bone Mountain. Sheep Bone Mountain covered an enormous area, with five or six mountain ranges. Stone Maggot Cave was a massive cave within a mountain range on the southernmost side of Sheep Bone Mountain. It contained underground rivers, countless stalactites, and a kind of Second-tier Demonic Beast Stone Maggot that fed exclusively on rotting flesh. These Stone Maggots looked somewhat like silkworm larvae enlarged many times over, except they were born with petrified skin. When fighting enemies, their originally soft skin could secrete a solution much like stalactite fluid, forming a hard rocky shell across their surfaces. These Stone Maggots could also spray streams of this fluid, trapping people within a shell as hard as stone.
"And she has to crawl through caves too? Usually it's male cultivators who are more interested in drilling into holes. What's a great beauty like her doing running off to drill into such a filthy cave this late at night?"
Getting to the Stone Maggot Cave on Sheep Bone Mountain was not difficult. Lingyue City had a Teleportation Array linked to Sheep Bone Mountain. But for cultivators, vision and judgment were greatly restricted at night, while many Demonic Beasts had eyesight and senses far surpassing those of ordinary cultivators after dark. In addition, many Demonic Beasts that were active only at night appeared after nightfall. Leaving the city at night was several times more dangerous than during the day, which was why many Rogue Cultivators preferred to pay some Spirit Stones to spend the night within Lingyue City. This was especially true inside the winding, interconnected caves, where it was even darker and the circumstances more complicated. But after muttering this to himself, Wei Suo could not help asking the sniffling little girl with horn braids, "There are so many people coming and going here. How did you immediately ask whether I was Wei Suo? How did you know I was Wei Suo?"
"That pretty older sister told me." The little girl glanced at Wei Suo. "She said that the one with cropped hair who looked a little lewd was him."
"..." Wei Suo broke out in a cold sweat. He was speechless before the little girl as well. Touching his nose, he sped off toward the Teleportation Array connecting the eastern side of Lingyue City to Sheep Bone Mountain.
Before you continue