Purchasing Spirit Beasts

Han Changjiong shook his head and said, "I don't know, but I've seen the power of the Fire Carp Beast before, so I have a feeling it will win. Ninth Brother, do you want to buy a spirit beast? You can play with it when you're bored to relieve some stress."

Han Changming felt a bit tempted. He had over three hundred spirit stones in his storage bag, so buying a spirit beast wouldn't be a problem. After seeing others beast-fighting, he had indeed developed an interest in spirit beasts.

"Alright, let's go take a look! I'll buy a suitable spirit beast."

Han Changjiong and Han Changming stood up and left. Han Changjiong returned the token to the attendant and received forty spirit stones back.

They arrived at a spacious and bright hall where many large iron cages were placed on the ground, housing various large spirit beasts.

There were green giant dogs with two heads, golden giant eagles with two pairs of wings, giant tigers with three eyes, and scorpions with two tails.

These were all first-order spirit beasts. Behind a long bluestone counter, there were a dozen huge iron cages containing second-order spirit beasts.

Han Changjiong walked up to the counter and said to a green-robed attendant, "I want to buy a first-order spirit beast. Show me the catalog."

The green-robed attendant took out a thick tome and handed it to Han Changjiong, who then passed it to Han Changming.

Han Changming flipped through it carefully; the tome recorded many spirit beasts.

Giant-Toothed Rabbit, low-grade first-order spirit beast, runs fast, can cast fire-type spells, price: one hundred spirit stones.

Wind-Chasing Leopard, low-grade first-order spirit beast, runs extremely fast, can cast wind-type spells, price: one hundred and thirty spirit stones.

Earth-Shaking Rhino, low-grade first-order spirit beast, thick-skinned and sturdy, knows the Stone Skin technique, price: one hundred and fifty spirit stones.

······

Han Changming read for half an hour, still wanting more.

To be honest, he was interested in several types of spirit beasts, but their prices were too high. The cheapest one cost one hundred spirit stones, but Han Changming didn't think much of it.

Suddenly, a look of joy appeared in Han Changming's eyes.

Alligator Turtle Beast, skilled in earth-type spells, thick-skinned and sturdy. A high-order Alligator Turtle Beast can easily crush an enemy's defensive barrier. Price: one hundred and eighty spirit stones.

If he had had an earth-attribute spirit beast to help him during his last encounter with the evil cultivators, he wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state.

"Can this Alligator Turtle Beast be a bit cheaper?" Han Changming asked, pointing at the tome.

There was a picture in the tome of a massive yellow turtle biting a huge green tiger, looking somewhat bloody.

"There are spirit beast eggs for thirty spirit stones each. Hatching a spirit beast egg takes at least a year or half a year, which is quite time-consuming. Furthermore, the hatching process requires placing the egg on a spirit vein or building a small nest with spirit stones to incubate it. The more abundant the spiritual energy, the shorter the hatching time."

Han Changming nodded with a smile, "I'll take two Alligator Turtle Beast eggs."

Two spirit eggs cost only sixty spirit stones, which was much cheaper than a hatched Alligator Turtle Beast.

The green-robed attendant brought over two oval-shaped white spirit eggs, which emitted faint fluctuations of spiritual energy.

After Han Changjiong checked them to ensure there were no issues, Han Changming readily paid the sixty spirit stones and spent another fifty to buy a three-foot-long spirit beast bag.

Back at the Spirit Talisman Pavilion, Han Changming took out thirty spirit stones, piled them up, and placed the two spirit eggs on top of the pile.

He bit his finger and used his blood to draw two mysterious blood-red runes on the spirit eggs.

The two spirit eggs emitted a faint spiritual glow, and the blood-red runes vanished.

According to the green-robed attendant, the spirit eggs would only hatch after absorbing enough spiritual energy.

Han Changming placed a Spirit Gathering Stone in the middle of the spirit stone pile. The spiritual energy contained within the Spirit Gathering Stone was equivalent to a high-grade spirit stone and should shorten the hatching time for the eggs.

He took out his talisman brush, cinnabar, and talisman paper, and began to craft talismans.

A day passed by quickly, and Han Changming had been crafting talismans in his room the entire time.

His success rate for crafting low-grade first-order talismans had reached forty percent, and his success rate for mid-grade first-order talismans was approaching thirty percent. The talisman brush he was using was only a low-grade first-order magical tool; if the grade of the brush was too low, it would affect the success rate of talisman crafting.

The next day, after finishing breakfast, Han Changming left the Spirit Talisman Pavilion. He intended to buy a better talisman brush.

He headed straight for the Divine Weapon Pavilion. The pavilion carried a wide variety of magical tools, and naturally, they had talisman brushes, though the prices were a bit steep.

A high-grade first-order talisman brush cost three hundred spirit stones, while a mid-grade one cost two hundred. Han Changming had just spent over a hundred spirit stones yesterday, so he had less than two hundred left.

After thinking it over, he decided to go to the square where rogue cultivators set up stalls to see if he could find a bargain.

If he couldn't find one, he would borrow a few dozen spirit stones from Han Changjiong.

Not long after, he arrived at the square and began to wander around.

The stalls offered a wide variety of goods, but most were common items. Han Changming looked as he walked, but he didn't see any talisman brushes for sale.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he stopped in front of a small stall.

The stall displayed some monster materials. Beside a wooden box filled with clam pearls lay a pale green talisman brush, its entire body shrouded in a faint green light. It was a high-grade first-order magical tool.

The stall owner was a man in his thirties with a cultivation level at the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

Han Changming squatted down, picked up a clam pearl, and asked casually, "How much for the clam pearls?"

Clam pearls came from clam-type monsters and could be used for artifact refining or alchemy. However, the ones in the wooden box were all first-order clam pearls, which were not considered rare. Moreover, their shapes were irregular, which greatly reduced their value for alchemy or refining.

"Five spirit stones each. Buy ten get one free, buy fifty get ten free."

Han Changming picked up a few pearls to look at them, then put them down. He picked up the talisman brush and continued, "How much for this brush?"

"Fellow Daoist has a good eye. This brush was used by a second-order talisman master. The original price was three hundred spirit stones. If you like it, you can take it for two hundred and eighty."

"Two hundred and eighty? You don't even know how many times this brush has changed hands. One price: one hundred spirit stones." Han Changming bargained.

This was what Han Changjiong had taught him: when buying things from rogue cultivators, try your best to haggle the price down, as rogue cultivators lacked the patience to man their stalls for long and were usually eager to sell their goods in exchange for spirit stones to head out to sea.

After a round of haggling, the middle-aged man stood firm at two hundred spirit stones and refused to budge.

"Two hundred it is, but I'll use a few Water Shield Talismans to offset the price, and you must throw in five Clam Pearls."

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

Han Changming inspected the Talisman Brush, and after confirming there were no issues, he readily paid the spirit stones and five Water Shield Talismans, then left with the Talisman Brush and the five Clam Pearls.

Returning to his residence, Han Changming hurriedly began refining the Talisman Brush.

This Talisman Brush was called the Deep Cyan Brush, crafted primarily from fifty-year-old Deep Cyan Bamboo, combined with the whiskers of a Three-Tailed Spirit Cat and various other materials.

After finishing the refinement of the Talisman Brush, Han Changming couldn't wait to take out his talisman-making tools and began crafting talismans.

Not long after, a pale yellow rune appeared on the talisman paper, followed immediately by a second, a third...