Lesser Heaven-Veiling Secret Art!

Li Qingshan's heart was already roiling with towering waves, yet he nodded repeatedly with a calm expression. "So there was such a history behind it. Thank you for telling me, Junior Brother."

After completing the registration and leaving the Scripture Pavilion, Li Qingshan held the black jade slip in his hand, his palm faintly heating up.

He knew he had struck treasure this time!

Cultivation was difficult? He had all the time and patience in the world! It was incomplete? With the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd, perhaps it could be restored!

Not long after leaving the Scripture Pavilion, he encountered two inner sect disciples walking toward him, speaking in low voices.

"Did you hear? Elder Zhang Yuzhen's precious granddaughter, Senior Sister Zhang Hongxiu, failed her Foundation Establishment attempt a few days ago!"

"What? She failed? How could that be? She had prepared so thoroughly..."

"Shh... Keep your voice down! They say that at the final moment, her inner demons backlashed, and she nearly damaged her Dao foundation! She's recuperating in her cave abode now. Elder Yuzhen was furious and handed out a great many spiritual medicines. It looks like he intends to have her attempt Foundation Establishment again once she recovers!"

"A second Foundation Establishment attempt? The price of that won't be small... But with Uncle Zhang's family fortune, it certainly won't be a problem..."

The voices of the two gradually faded away.

Li Qingshan stood where he was, his face calm, though he let out a long breath inwardly.

Zhang Hongxiu had failed her Foundation Establishment!

This undoubtedly bought him precious time!

Yet at the same time, it made him even more vigilant. Elder Zhang Yuzhen would surely spare no expense in helping her attempt Foundation Establishment a second time. Once she succeeded, Zhang Hongxiu would likely become even more troublesome after emerging from seclusion.

I must reach Foundation Establishment as soon as possible!

Li Qingshan's gaze hardened, and he turned toward the sect's marketplace.

The marketplace remained as bustling as ever.

With a clear goal in mind, Li Qingshan first spent Spirit Stones on a large quantity of high-quality fasting pills and water talismans, enough to sustain several years of secluded cultivation.

Then he wandered among the various stalls, paying special attention to those selling magic artifacts, particularly defensive and concealment-type artifacts.

He set his sights on a dark gray cloak that looked dull and dusty, with even some damage along its edges.

The stall owner boasted until flowers seemed to rain from the sky, claiming it was an ancient treasure, only slightly damaged and fully functional.

Li Qingshan carefully inspected it himself and found that the cloak did indeed possess some unusual properties. Its material was special and could weakly interfere with divine sense probes, but its effect was only slightly better than ordinary clothing. Its spiritual radiance was dim as well; at best, it was a shoddy low-grade magic artifact. The stall owner was clearly trying to fool people.

"Boss, how much for this cloak?" Li Qingshan asked with feigned interest.

"Fellow Daoist, you have a sharp eye! This is an ancient exotic treasure..." The stall owner immediately perked up.

Li Qingshan cut him off directly, pointing at the damaged edge and dim spiritual radiance of the cloak. "Boss, let's not beat around the bush. This is merely an old magic artifact with some age on it. Its defense is poor, its concealment effect is limited, and spiritual power doesn't even circulate smoothly through the damaged areas. Five low-grade Spirit Stones. I'll take it back to study the ancient runes on it."

The smile on the stall owner's face stiffened. He had not expected this old man to know his trade so well. Embarrassed, he said, "Five is too little... Ten! Ten Spirit Stones and it's yours!"

In the end, they settled on seven low-grade Spirit Stones.

Holding the cloak, Li Qingshan secretly rejoiced.

Poor effect? Damaged? It didn't matter!

Once he went back and let the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd "repair" it, perhaps it would emerge completely transformed!

Just as he was preparing to leave, he suddenly heard two cultivators haggling at a nearby stall. They were arguing over a pitch-black, utterly unremarkable iron shard.

"Fifty Spirit Stones? Why don't you just rob someone? This piece of junk is only a little hard. It doesn't even have a trace of spiritual energy fluctuation!"

"Fellow Daoist, this came out of an ancient battlefield. Perhaps it hides some great secret! Fifty Spirit Stones, final price!"

Li Qingshan's divine sense instinctively swept over the iron shard, and his heart suddenly stirred!

The material and patterns of that shard gave him an extremely faint, yet exceptionally ancient and obscure feeling. It seemed to possess some distant connection with the Lesser Heaven-Veiling Technique jade slip he had just obtained?

Without revealing anything, he walked over and pretended to inspect the other goods on the stall. Only after the cultivator who thought it too expensive had left did he casually pick up the iron shard and weigh it in his hand. "This thing is rather heavy. How much?"

Seeing that someone else was asking, the stall owner hurriedly said, "Forty! Forty Spirit Stones and you can take it!"

Li Qingshan put down the shard and shook his head. "Ten Spirit Stones. I'll buy it to weigh down my pickle jar." The same familiar excuse again.

Black lines immediately formed across the stall owner's forehead. With a dark expression, he said, "...Twenty! Twenty Spirit Stones, the absolute lowest!"

In the end, Li Qingshan spent twenty low-grade Spirit Stones to pocket the mysterious iron shard.

Though he did not know what use it had, that vague sense of connection made him feel it was worth taking a gamble.

After finishing his purchases, Li Qingshan immediately returned to his small house.

He first placed the damaged cloak into the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd.

When he took it out the next day, the cloak had changed completely! Its color had become a deeper dark gray, its damaged areas were restored as good as new, and a faint watery gleam flowed across its surface. When divine sense swept over it, it was as though it had swept over empty space, making it difficult to detect! It had clearly become a top-grade concealment magic artifact!

"Good! From now on, you shall be called the Shadow-Hiding Cloak!"

Li Qingshan was overjoyed.

Afterward, he eagerly placed the three newly acquired spell jade slips—the Entanglement Technique, the Earth Escape Technique, and the most important incomplete Lesser Heaven-Veiling Technique—as well as the mysterious iron shard, carefully into the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd.

His heart brimmed with anticipation, especially for the Lesser Heaven-Veiling Technique.

The words of the Scripture Pavilion steward still echoed in his ears: "an extremely small incomplete fragment of the true Heaven-Veiling Secret Technique," "a supreme method capable of deceiving the Heavenly Dao's perception"... If it could truly be restored, even only partially, it would be an immense boon to him!

The night passed without incident, with only anticipation flowing through his heart.

Early the next morning, Li Qingshan took a deep breath and slowly pulled out the gourd's stopper.

Bzzzz—

The three jade slips actually flew out on their own, floating in midair and radiating spiritual light several times more brilliant than the day before!

Especially the black jade slip recording the Lesser Heaven-Veiling Technique. The thick layer of dust on its surface had long vanished, leaving it smooth and warm like jade, with black radiance contained within. Mysterious silver runes flowed endlessly across its body, emanating an indescribably obscure, ancient Dao aura that seemed capable of cutting off all forms of detection!

Suppressing his excitement, Li Qingshan was the first to immerse his divine sense into the black jade slip.

Boom!

A vast, majestic, and profound flood of information instantly surged into his sea of consciousness!

The Lesser Heaven-Veiling Secret Art!

It was no longer an incomplete fragment of the Lesser Heaven-Veiling Technique, but the Lesser Heaven-Veiling Secret Art!

This secret art had been completely restored.

Its contents had become incomparably complete, systematic, and profound!

Its opening declared: This art was the upper portion of a supreme secret method for peering into heavenly secrets and reversing yin and yang. When cultivated to its ultimate realm, it could conceal all of one's heavenly secrets and karmic ties, deceive the Heavenly Dao's perception, evade calamities and tribulations, hide one's cultivation, alter one's fate, and to a certain extent "disappear" beyond the laws of the Heavenly Dao! Those whose divine sense was not as vast as the sea, or who lacked extremely deep insight into the laws of heaven and earth, could not cultivate it!

Below that, it recorded in detail the supreme method of circulating divine sense and spiritual power to construct a Heaven-Veiling Spirit Domain around oneself, perfectly concealing one's cultivation, aura, and even one's very existence.

If cultivated to perfection, it could even interfere with heavenly calculations to a certain extent and evade the lock-on of lightning tribulations!