Setting Up a Stall

Green Cloud Market was a small market. Countless markets like it existed throughout the Spirit Stream Battlefield. Cultivators always needed places to trade and rest, and these spontaneously formed markets had arisen accordingly.

Because no one managed the market, everything within it appeared rather disorderly—especially the buildings. Structures of different styles from all across the Nine Provinces stood scattered about, making the market look like a hodgepodge.

These buildings had all been constructed by cultivators who lived here year-round. Green Cloud Mountain nearby actually contained quite a few cultivation resources, and it was also quite safe, naturally drawing swarms of low-level cultivators—especially Rogue Cultivators with no sect or school to call their own.

Every building was a shop selling all kinds of cultivation supplies. There were even teahouses and restaurants.

Low-level cultivators needed to eat and drink as well. Moreover, since cultivators had somewhat greater daily needs than ordinary people, such businesses were inevitable.

Lu Ye walked through shop after shop, looking but not buying. Mainly because he had no money to buy anything. Gradually, he came to understand how cultivators traded with one another.

Lu Ye did not know what currency system the mortal world of the Nine Provinces used, but cultivators generally traded with Spirit Stones. They were the hard currency of the Cultivation World. In cultivators' everyday cultivation and battles, and even in talisman-drawing and formation-setting, Spirit Stones were immensely useful. It was precisely for this reason that they had become the measure of exchange among cultivators.

Lu Ye had never seen a Spirit Stone before. When his aptitude had been tested earlier, Third Senior Brother of the Azure Jade Sect had placed Spirit Stones in the formation, but Lu Ye had not paid much attention at the time.

Only now did he learn that Spirit Stones were translucent crystals, each about the size of a thumbnail. They also came in different grades. However, perhaps because the cultivators here were all so low-level, they only used Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

By that logic, there should be better ones, such as High-Grade Spirit Stones.

The most common shops in the market were apothecaries, selling Spiritual Pills and wondrous medicines for cultivators. Lu Ye had no money in hand, so he could only browse for the spectacle.

Still, after visiting shop after shop, he gained a rough understanding of the usual prices.

Besides the shops that bought and sold goods, one street in the market was crowded with Rogue Cultivators. They set up crude stalls by the roadside, laid out whatever they wished to sell, and haggled with anyone who took an interest.

This street was extraordinarily lively, far livelier than any other street Lu Ye had passed through. It sold everything under the sun, making it feel like a bustling vegetable market on market day.

After wandering the market for most of the day and seeing everything there was to see, Lu Ye simply found an unoccupied spot on this street and sat down cross-legged. He took several chunks of ore from his Storage Bag and laid them out. After some thought, he also took out a fist-sized piece of Primordial Magnetic Ore.

He did not intend to sell these ores. He mainly wanted to find out how much his things were worth.

Having wandered around for most of the day, he was hungry as well. He took out some beast meat to eat. Earlier, he had hunted quite a few wild beasts, roasted them all, and stored them in his Storage Bag. It was no problem to sustain him for several days.

As he ate, he watched the cultivators coming and going, observing them closely.

The level of a cultivator's cultivation was a mystery to him. At present, he only knew that anyone qualified to travel the Spirit Stream Battlefield was at least at the Spirit Stream First Layer. As for exactly how high someone's cultivation was, he could not tell.

That was not a good thing. He would inevitably come into conflict with others in the future. Being unable to determine another person's cultivation level was rather dangerous for him.

If he encountered a cultivator he could not fight, he might lose his life before he could even sound out the depths of his opponent.

So, through such observation, he wanted to see whether he could find any clues. That way, he would have a little more capital to preserve his life in the future.

Cultivator after cultivator passed by. Lu Ye carefully observed every one of them, yet he could not make out anything at all.

"What are you looking at, Junior Brother?"

Lu Ye's unusual behavior caught the attention of the stall owner beside him. She was a plump female cultivator in a green dress. Her clothes had been washed and starched many times, though they were still fairly neat. Her cloudlike hair was loosely pinned up, exposing her long, fair neck.

Lu Ye had not noticed her before. When he turned to look now, he immediately beheld a landscape of rolling peaks.

He withdrew his gaze and shook his head. "Nothing." He took a bite of dry, tough jerky and a gulp of water.

The female cultivator pursed her lips. "Don't tell me you're trying to gauge other people's cultivation levels?"

Lu Ye was surprised. "Was it that obvious?"

The female cultivator smiled. "Because when I first entered the Spirit Stream Battlefield, I looked just like you—dull and clueless."

So everyone had the same idea... Lu Ye laughed at himself.

"Rogue Cultivators have it hard. There's no one to guide them, no elders to protect them, not even a place to shelter from wind and rain." The female cultivator had clearly recalled her own past and sighed. No longer dwelling on it, she instructed him, "You can't see anything just by looking with your eyes."

Lu Ye asked, "Then what should I do?"

"Since you've reached the Spirit Stream realm, you should have enough Spiritual Power. Why not try circulating it?"

Lu Ye froze at her words, cursing himself for being foolish. He immediately tried as the female cultivator had instructed, circulating his Spiritual Power and gathering it around his eyes. The next moment, it felt as though he had opened the door to a whole new world.

The cultivators passing before him were all shrouded in a layer of Spiritual Light invisible to the naked eye, flowing slowly. That was a sign of the Spiritual Power circulating within their bodies.

At first glance, the Spiritual Light did not seem much different, but on closer inspection, differences could still be seen.

The Spiritual Light flowing around some people's bodies moved faster and was thicker, while others were the opposite.

Understanding dawned on Lu Ye. Those whose Spiritual Light was denser and flowed faster clearly had higher cultivation, while those with thinner, slower-flowing Spiritual Light had lower cultivation.

"Can you see it now?" the female cultivator asked again.

Lu Ye nodded repeatedly.

The female cultivator said, "If you can enter a sect, you'll naturally learn these things. But Rogue Cultivators have no one to guide them, so they must feel their way forward themselves."

At that moment, Lu Ye noticed several strange people. There was not the slightest trace of Spiritual Light around them, which left him puzzled. After those people had passed, he asked the female cultivator beside him about it.

The female cultivator said, "That's normal. They either have Spiritual Artifacts that conceal their aura, or they cultivate secret techniques that hide it. But the cultivators who appear here are not highly cultivated, so they would not have the energy to cultivate any secret techniques. Therefore, it's most likely the former."

"So that's how it is!" Lu Ye nodded in understanding.

"Let me give you a piece of advice." The female cultivator's expression turned serious. "If you encounter people like that in the future, run as far away as you can. They must come from powerful factions with deep foundations, and they are not people small Rogue Cultivators like us can compare to. Also, while this method can roughly judge a person's cultivation level, it is not entirely reliable. Only when they truly make a move can you determine their exact cultivation from the fluctuations of their Spiritual Power."

Lu Ye said gratefully, "Thank you for your guidance, Senior Sister." After thinking for a moment, he took a piece of jerky from his Storage Bag and handed it to her.

The female cultivator laughed. She did not refuse his kindness, accepting it and slowly eating it. However, her manner of eating was clearly far more graceful than Lu Ye's.