The next day, Li Qingshan began his work at Qingyang Market.
He still rose at dawn. First, he made a leisurely circuit of the market, gathering the contents of the discard bins outside the shops onto a battered handcart.
Spent medicinal dregs from pill shops, scraps of talisman paper and ruined talismans from talisman shops, metal shavings and cooled slag from the Artifact Refining Workshop... There was far more variety here than at the Hall of Discarded Treasures.
He pulled the creaking cart back to the little courtyard at the eastern end of the market and began "sorting."
His movements remained slow, but his eyes were sharp as an eagle's.
As he swept and emptied the cart, his spiritual sense silently passed over every piece of rubbish.
Sure enough, he found something!
Most of it was utterly useless waste, but now and then he found half a damaged talisman whose spiritual energy had not completely dissipated, a few mineral offcuts containing faint traces of spiritual energy, or even one or two inferior, nearly dissolved pills in the dregs from a pill shop!
To anyone else, these things were no different from rubbish. To Li Qingshan, they were potential treasure!
He carefully picked out these "valuable" scraps, hid them in a compartment of the cart or up his sleeves, and brought them back to the stone house.
He threw everything truly useless into a deep pit and burned it to ash with the Fireball Technique, leaving the place spotless and free of any smell.
Outside work, he also fulfilled his duties as steward. Each month, he collected Spirit Stones to buy spirit rice, ordinary meat, fruit, and vegetables. The five disciples had no particular demands. As long as they had enough to eat, they were satisfied, which made his job easier.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
Li Qingshan gradually grew familiar with the market and found time to visit its few shops. With the Spirit Stones Ye Lingshuang and Zhou Taoyao had given him, he bought some of the poorest-quality low-grade pills and a few ordinary cleansing and lightness talismans as cover.
Most of the time, however, he kept the stone door shut and immersed himself in cultivation.
The spiritual energy in Qingyang Market was slightly better than at the Hall of Discarded Treasures, but only slightly.
With the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd, however, Li Qingshan had no shortage of cultivation resources.
After a night of nurturing in the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd, the damaged talismans, ruined pills, and spiritual-material offcuts he brought back were all transformed!
Damaged talismans became whole again, brimming with spiritual energy and more powerful than before.
Ruined pills turned into supreme-grade spirit pills, their medicinal fragrance filling the air.
Even the mineral offcuts improved greatly in quality. Though they were of little direct use to him, he could sell them for Spirit Stones.
With an unending supply of supreme-grade pills to aid him, his cultivation of the Longevity Technique advanced steadily.
And so Li Qingshan worked while cultivating the Longevity Technique.
Spring gave way to autumn, and heat to cold.
Li Qingshan was like an invisible man in Qingyang Market. Day after day, he collected rubbish, burned rubbish, and delivered meals. He kept such a low profile that people almost forgot he was there.
The five outer disciples had long since grown used to this quiet, dutiful "old steward" and never asked him questions.
Inside the stone house, Li Qingshan's aura grew deeper by the day.
Supported by vast quantities of supreme-grade pills, his cultivation rose steadily, and his Longevity Mana grew purer and more abundant.
One day, the emerald-green vortex in his dantian suddenly spun faster and swelled once more. Mana surged like a tide, battering the barrier to the eighth level of Qi Refining!
Boom!
The bottleneck shattered!
A powerful spiritual pressure instantly filled the stone house, only to be held fast by the Turtle Breath Technique, which he had already pushed to its limit. Not a trace escaped.
Li Qingshan slowly opened his eyes. Green light moved within them like currents in a deep pool. As he felt the vast mana coursing through him, far beyond what he had possessed before, a satisfied smile touched his lips.
The eighth level of Qi Refining!
A year of bitter cultivation, and the breakthrough had come as naturally as water flowing into a channel!
The mana in his dantian was now nearly as abundant as that of a cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining! The heaven-defying power of the Longevity Technique was on full display.
At the same time, the breakthrough brought sudden clarity to the Fire Arrow Technique and Flying Rainbow Technique, which he had practiced for so long. He had finally mastered them both!
At a thought, a wisp of crimson flame danced above his fingertip, then instantly condensed into dozens of flame arrows, each about a foot long. They were solid, fiercely hot, and tipped with a piercing gleam that made the heart quail. Their power far surpassed his former Fireball Technique.
His figure flickered, leaving what seemed like several afterimages inside the room. He was far faster than an ordinary late-stage Qi Refining cultivator flying on an artifact!
"I finally did it!"
Li Qingshan murmured to himself. Feeling the strength within him, he was filled with a confidence he had never known before.
More important still was the vitality surging through his body.
Before he began cultivating, Li Qingshan had vaguely sensed that he had only a few years left to live.
Now, immense vitality flowed through him, and he felt like a young man in his twenties or thirties.
Though he deliberately kept up his disguise, retaining his head of white hair, his skin was remarkably firm, his muscles stood out, and his whole body brimmed with strength.
When Li Qingshan looked down that morning, he was delighted to discover that his little brother, dormant for so many years, stood tall once more.
Cultivating the Longevity Technique had changed Li Qingshan as though he had shed his old skin and been reborn.
The limit for a Qi Refining cultivator is a hundred and forty years. The Longevity Technique has added sixty years to my lifespan. Does that mean I can live for two hundred years?
I'm a hundred and three, so I still have more than ninety years left. If I reach the Foundation Establishment Realm, my lifespan will soar again!
Light blazed in Li Qingshan's eyes as he thought of it, full of anticipation.
There's so much to look forward to in cultivation.
My cultivation has improved considerably, but my means of attack and defense are still too limited. It's time to learn some more spells!
Li Qingshan considered the matter in silence.
His cultivation had risen and his spells had reached mastery. It was time to add more ways to protect himself.
The next day, Li Qingshan asked Zhao Kun for leave, saying he needed to buy some everyday supplies.
Zhao Kun did not even raise his eyes. He waved a hand and granted it.
Li Qingshan returned to the streets of Qingyang Market and headed straight for its handful of shops.
First, he visited a pill shop called the Hundred Herb Pavilion and bought several bottles of the most ordinary low-grade healing pills and Qi-Returning Pills, to serve as supplies he could openly use. While chatting with the shopkeeper, he indirectly asked whether defensive artifacts or unusual talismans were for sale.
As expected, he learned quite a bit.
Then he entered the market's only shop that sold both artifacts and talismans: the Gold Stone Pavilion.
The shop was small, and most of its wares were lower- or middle-grade first-tier goods. Its shopkeeper was a lean old man at the sixth level of Qi Refining.
Li Qingshan's gaze swept over the counter and settled on a palm-sized bronze shield covered in verdigris. Its spiritual glow was dim, and it appeared badly damaged.
Off to one side lay a stack of crudely drawn talismans with faint spiritual energy, mostly clear-water and dust-removal talismans.
There were also offensive and defensive talismans, such as fireball and golden-bell talismans, but none were high grade. Most were lower- or middle-grade first-tier talismans.
Qingyang Market drew Rogue Cultivators from a thousand li around, but it was small, with only a little over a thousand people in all.
Late-stage Qi Refining cultivators were few and far between. Most had gone to larger markets, leaving this one populated mainly by early- and middle-stage cultivators.
"Shopkeeper, how much for this shield and these talismans?" Li Qingshan asked hoarsely, pointing to the least conspicuous items.
The old shopkeeper glanced at him and drawled, "Heh, you have a good eye, sir. This Green Pattern Shield may be seventy or eighty percent ruined, but it was once a high-grade artifact. It still has the power of a low-grade artifact and can withstand a full-strength strike from a middle-stage Qi Refining cultivator!
"If you want it, it's twenty Spirit Stones. As for the talismans, the lower-grade first-tier ones are one Spirit Stone each, and the middle-grade first-tier ones are three each!"
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