Selling Goods

The group cleaned up the battlefield and divided the storage bags of the three who had died such miserable deaths among themselves.

There were a full eight hundred spirit stones inside. The four each received two hundred. As for the spirit artifacts, the two men in black had one each, while Cloud Demon had two, which the four of them divided again.

The armor materials were the best, but they had already been damaged. Su Hao took them, intending to melt them down and remake the Godslayer Sword.

After finishing everything, they prepared to leave. Just then, the ground suddenly shook. The water in the pool churned, and an incomparably savage aura spread out. Within the spring water, the outline of half a blood-red head emerged.

Their expressions changed drastically. From its aura alone, they could tell that the demon beast was terrifying beyond measure. They did not linger for even a moment, fleeing at top speed and rushing out of the cave.

At the very instant they left, the cave collapsed with a rumble. Cracks even appeared across the trembling cliff face.

"Let's go."

Su Hao did not look back again. That savage sensation from before had filled his heart with dread. Luckily, the demon beast had not fully emerged. Otherwise, there was no way they would have made it out alive.

"This place is connected to Spirit Creek. Perhaps it is a crack leading into Spirit Creek, guarded by a powerful demon beast. The commotion from our battle was too great, and the blood may have stimulated it into waking," Xia Xiaojiu guessed. The others all agreed with his reasoning.

"What a pity. The cultivation resources here are so good, yet we can't come back anymore." After they had gone several thousand meters away, Meng Xianxian looked back, still unwilling to let it go.

"Aren't you afraid of neither heaven nor earth? You can go back and cultivate there," Xia Xiaojiu teased.

Meng Xianxian ground her teeth, nearly exploding.

Amid laughter and banter, they returned along the original route. The demon beasts they encountered along the way were swept aside. Their cultivation had all improved greatly within the spiritual energy pool, and their battle prowess had soared.

After returning to the sect, Su Hao cooked another pot of Eight-Treasure Soup, using up all the spirit herbs in his possession. Only after satisfying Meng Xianxian's appetite did he finally send her off.

"Big Brother, I'll come find you at East Gate." Meng Xianxian no longer dared to call him whatever she pleased. On the way back, Su Hao had smacked her smooth forehead until it turned bright red. Moreover, she had discovered that before Su Hao, she truly had no room to fight back. More importantly, for some reason, being close to him made her cultivation speed noticeably faster, giving rise to an inexplicable sense of intimacy.

This was due to Su Hao's Innate Dao Body.

After bidding Xia Xiaojiu farewell, Su Hao brought Lin Yaoyao back to the thatched cottage at East Gate. Xiao Wuji had yet to return, and no one knew what he had gone off to do.

With nothing else to do, Su Hao and Lin Yaoyao began a major project. They completely renovated the thatched cottage, turning it into a stone house built from bluestone. They coated the inside with white lime powder, making the walls snow-white.

Beyond that, they made some furniture and prepared daily necessities. In the end, Su Hao even set up several simple spirit-gathering formations inside the house. Cultivating there would yield twice the result with half the effort.

Both of their cultivation levels were quite high. Using magic power to quarry stone and transport timber, they completed the entire project in just one day and one night.

Inside the house, Su Hao lay on his back atop the bed, an oil lamp lit beside him. Its glow fell across the youth's handsome face. His brows would sometimes furrow, sometimes relax, as though he were pondering some problem.

He remained like this for a full quarter of an hour. Then Su Hao suddenly broke into a smile, sat up sharply, and slapped his thigh with a smack. "That's what I'll do. If I don't get myself some spirit stones, how am I supposed to improve my cultivation speed?"

Su Hao had reached the sixth layer of Qi Condensation. One more step would bring him to the seventh layer, where his lifespan could increase to one hundred and fifty years. This was the second threshold of the Qi Condensation Realm, and the resources he needed would amount to a full fifteen thousand spirit stones.

It was an enormous price to pay.

Furthermore, upon reaching the seventh layer of Qi Condensation, his Supreme Heavenly Demon Art would officially enter the beginner stage, and he would need to condense the Heavenly Demon Dharma Body.

Once this body was successfully formed, his flesh would become incomparably tough, far surpassing ordinary people. Even first-layer low-grade spirit artifacts would generally be unable to compare.

The next morning, Su Hao left East Gate and arrived at a huge open space atop one of Spirit Creek Sect's mountains.

The mountain where Spirit Creek Sect was located was majestic and vast, as though several mountain peaks had been fused together. For cultivators, constructing palaces, wide plazas, and places for magical duels on the mountain was easy enough.

The place Su Hao arrived at was around three thousand square meters in size, filled with countless stalls. It was a trading market.

This place had arisen spontaneously among the disciples, where they traded treasures and materials they did not need for useful items. At first, only a small number of people came here to exchange goods privately. Over time, the sect tacitly approved of it and even established rules to protect the place, to the point that some elders came here to set up stalls as well.

Some of the disciples passing through wore masks. These masks were strange, impossible to see through with divine sense, making it difficult to determine the identities of those coming and going.

This was to prevent people from being tracked down after a trade, murdered, and robbed of their treasures.

Moreover, some disciples' treasures had not come into their hands by honorable means. Like Su Hao and the others, who had killed Cloud Demon's group and seized their treasures, their goods could not be brought into the light.

Su Hao arrived and looked around, spotting a few items that caught his eye. However, this was a critical time, and he had to increase income while cutting expenses, so he could only give up on buying them.

In the end, Su Hao bought some cheap spirit herbs, demon cores, materials, talisman paper, cinnabar, and so on, then left directly.

"What a broke nobody. He wandered around for so long and only spent thirty spirit stones, haggling nonstop besides. What a country bumpkin." Some people watched Su Hao and mocked him aloud.

Su Hao ignored them completely and returned to East Gate with his materials.

Lin Yaoyao was in the courtyard practicing his saber techniques, the air whistling with every strike.

Bald Chicken was also in the courtyard, sitting cross-legged in meditation with a convincing air, putting on the appearance of someone unfathomably profound.

Su Hao greeted them, then headed straight into the house.

"Though I don't have many spirit stones, I possess a vast amount of knowledge from Devil Master's inheritance. If I take out just a little, I can exchange it for an ocean of resources. But I must be careful—anything truly valuable absolutely cannot be revealed for now. I don't yet have that capability."

Su Hao smiled faintly and took out a pill furnace. He summoned Dao fire and tossed the spirit herbs and demon cores he had purchased into it, adding a drop of his own blood as well. In only a quarter of an hour, a milky-white paste appeared inside the furnace.

This was the simplest healing salve.

Though simple and only first-grade, its healing effects were absolutely exceptional. With Su Hao's blood in it, its value was even more astonishing than that of ordinary second-grade healing medicine.

Moreover, it was effective for both internal and external injuries.

After refining the medicine, Su Hao took out the talisman paper again. Taking up the cinnabar, he began drawing in a convincing manner, soon producing spiritual talismans with marvelous effects.

After finishing all that, Su Hao carried a cloth bundle and hurried back to the trading market. Finding an empty spot, he set up a stall like a proper vendor and shouted loudly, "The cheapest healing medicine! The most miraculous healing medicine! Spend the least spirit stones and buy the best healing medicine!"

His shout exploded across the open space like a thunderclap, immediately drawing the attention of many people. Some were even startled badly and turned around to curse.

"Which bastard scared the hell out of me? Damn it!" A tall man strode over with a cold expression.