Blood Baleful City

Two days later.

"You want to go down the mountain, to Blood Baleful City?"

The goatee-bearded steward sat lazily sunken deep in his armchair, eyelids drooping as he glanced down at Lu Lin below.

Blood Baleful City was a great city built at the foot of the mountain by the Blood Baleful Demon Sect, the most important hub connecting the sect with the outside world.

The marketplaces within the city were vast in scale. All kinds of resources from the Yan Kingdom and even the surrounding regions gathered here, then were continuously transported up the mountain to the demon sect. At the same time, the demon sect's unique products also flowed outward through this city.

Not only did this place have the rare treasures and exotic goods cultivators needed, it also had resources martial artists could use. Restaurants, weapon shops, pill workshops, pleasure houses—everything was available, its prosperity pushed to the extreme.

According to the rules for the martial-artist laborers of the vein, one could apply for one day of rest each month, provided that month's task had been completed. But many people never dared slack off, seizing every moment to mine and train in martial arts, terrified that falling even one step behind would mean a ten-thousand-zhang abyss.

In the three months since Lu Lin had arrived, he had never applied either.

"Reporting to Steward, this subordinate wishes to withdraw the rewards from these past three months and go down the mountain to relax for a while," Lu Lin said, cupping his hands.

"Mm, a bowstring drawn too tight isn't a good thing either. Loosening up now and then is no harm." The goatee slowly took out a yellowed account book, his fingertip sliding over rows of numbers. After a long while, he said, "Mm, I've settled the accounts. In total, you can receive... one hundred taels of silver."

"One hundred taels?" Lu Lin's brows furrowed almost imperceptibly, and he hurriedly said, "Steward, this amount... seems to be somewhat off?"

Before stepping into the Body Tempering Realm, the daily task of three jin of Black Iron ore carried no reward, but the excess portion should have accumulated. More importantly, for every Inferior Spirit Stone dug up, the reward was ten taels of silver.

Over these three months, he had handed in twelve Inferior Spirit Stones in total. Added to the extra Black Iron ore he had completed beyond quota, a rough estimate should have been around one hundred and fifty taels.

How could only one hundred taels remain?

"Mm?" The goatee-bearded steward lifted his eyelids, his gaze suddenly turning icy and sharp, stabbing toward Lu Lin like two keen swords. "You mean to say I calculated it wrong?"

Lu Lin's fists clenched violently inside his sleeves, his knuckles whitening.

Damn it, what a black heart! One hundred and fifty taels, and he swallowed fifty taels outright!

He cursed inwardly, but a trace of "panic" and "realization" quickly squeezed onto his face in a smile. "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare! This subordinate was muddle-headed and remembered wrong. It is indeed one hundred taels, one hundred taels!"

Only then did the goatee-bearded steward give a satisfied snort, his expression turning from cloudy to clear. He pulled two banknotes worth fifty taels each from a drawer, along with a heavy pitch-black waist token carved with the character "Martial," and tossed them all to Lu Lin. "Take them. This waist token is proof of your identity as a martial artist of the demon sect. Those wild Rogue Cultivator martial artists outside will have to give you some face when they see it."

Lu Lin received them and carefully tucked them into his robes.

"Remember this well." The goatee's voice abruptly turned cold, carrying an undisguised warning. "Don't get any crooked ideas! You have a mark planted on you by an immortal master. Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, we can still drag you back and grind your bones to ash! Understand?"

A chill ran through Lu Lin's heart. He lowered his head and cupped his fists. "This subordinate understands!"

Blood Baleful City was over sixty li from the Black Iron mining area, divided into an eastern and western city. The eastern city was a place for immortal masters to exchange, cultivate in peace, and trade treasures. Ordinary martial artists were not allowed to enter unless led by an immortal master.

The western city was the place where ordinary martial artists were active.

Lu Lin spent over two hours reaching the western city gate. Passing through the gate tunnel, the view before his eyes suddenly opened wide.

A massive street more than a hundred zhang wide stretched forward. Shops lined both sides one after another like fish scales and comb teeth, crowds streamed like woven threads, and the clamor boiled over. Its level of prosperity was actually not at all inferior to the first-tier metropolises in Lu Lin's memories of his previous life.

Thinking it over carefully, that was reasonable.

As one of the Yan Kingdom's five great top-tier sects, the Blood Baleful Demon Sect possessed heaven-reaching influence and endless resources. A city that served as its window to the outside world would naturally attract visitors from all directions. It was said that the permanent population of the western city alone was no less than two million. Not only were there martial artists and mortals from all over the Yan Kingdom who came searching for opportunities, there were even many people from other countries.

"Where are the shops that sell classics and martial arts?" Lu Lin searched around as he walked.

The main purpose of his trip was to buy books that could improve his mining skills, and to take a look along the way for any other usable items.

Finally, after half an hour, he found a shop called Ten Thousand Scroll Pavilion.

Inside were all kinds of classics, everything one could wish for. On the second floor, there were even quite a few martial-arts manuals for sale. Of course, most were only at the Body Tempering level, and their prices were steep—at least several hundred taels of silver. He simply could not afford them now.

Fortunately, he found what he wanted.

Mining Essentials mainly recorded methods for identifying, prospecting, and excavating the Black Iron Vein. It even included techniques for finding associated Inferior Spirit Stones, perfectly matching Lu Lin's current needs.

It was not expensive, only twelve taels.

In addition, he unexpectedly picked up an auxiliary martial art, Breath Concealment Art. After mastering it, one could restrain one's own qi and blood and conceal the fluctuations of one's cultivation. If practiced to major accomplishment, cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm would find it difficult to see through.

This was exactly the technique he urgently needed. With the Martial Dao Melting Furnace, his cultivation speed was bound to far surpass ordinary people's. Only with this technique to cover it could he avoid drawing suspicion and inviting disaster.

This book cost sixty taels. Together, the two totaled seventy-two taels.

After tucking the books into his robes and walking out of the book pavilion, he found an empty corner. With a slight movement of his thoughts, the two books silently disappeared from within his robes and appeared in the Martial Dao Melting Furnace's inner space, which was about one chi square.

"One hundred taels of silver, and in the blink of an eye only twenty-eight taels are left... I'll see if I can pick up anything else." Lu Lin continued strolling along the noisy street.

After hurriedly eating lunch, he wandered into a marketplace in the afternoon.

This was naturally not a marketplace for immortal cultivators, but one set up by mortal martial artists in imitation of them. The items there were a mix of fish and dragons, and martial arts were even sold as well, but most were incomplete and inferior, only containing techniques for the first three layers of Body Tempering. They were of no value to him at all.

"Treasures unearthed from immortal mansion ruins! Don't miss them as you pass by—come take a look!"

A slightly exaggerated hawking cry drew Lu Lin's attention.

He followed the sound over. A stall owner, skinny and shriveled like a monkey, immediately greeted him warmly. "Little brother, come take a look! These are all good things dug out from immortal mansion ruins. Immortal master relics, absolutely rare, worth far more than the price..."

Lu Lin's gaze swept over the stall. It was full of broken clay jars, rusty iron sheets, rotten wood... not a single intact thing among them.

"What a pile of junk... Mm?!" Suddenly, Lu Lin's body paused almost imperceptibly.

Just now, he had clearly felt the Martial Dao Melting Furnace in his sea of consciousness send out a faint tremor.

That feeling was exactly the same as when he had held an Inferior Spirit Stone in his hand!

It had spiritual energy!

And this time, he did not even need to touch it. The Martial Dao Melting Furnace had sensed it on its own. The spiritual energy contained in this object was definitely far beyond an Inferior Spirit Stone!

A violent shock ran through Lu Lin's heart, but his face remained calm. Pretending to examine the other "junk" on the stall, his fingertips seemed to brush over them one by one by accident...

"Not this one... not this one either..."

He tested them one by one.

"Little brother, take a look. These are all genuine treasures! Brought out from the ruins of an immortal manor, things used by immortal masters. Take one home, and I guarantee it'll ward off evil and avoid calamity." The skinny, monkey-like stall owner hawked with all his might, spittle flying.

Lu Lin neither agreed nor disagreed, continuing his "examination." Suddenly, his fingertips stopped on a rust-speckled iron shard.

The iron shard was only the size of a palm, covered in a thick reddish-brown layer of rust. It looked no different from a piece of scrap iron casually discarded by the roadside.

However, the Martial Dao Melting Furnace in his sea of consciousness sent an incomparably clear and powerful prompt:

[Inferior spiritual energy discovered. Can be exchanged for three years of bitter cultivation. Exchange?]