[Mysterious Grade Spirit Talisman]

Outside Li Family Manor, Shen Xiu was looting the corpses.

Looting corpses was tradition. After fighting a hard battle, naturally one had to honor that tradition.

Shen Xiu cut off Third Boss Wang Bao's head, tore off a Crimson Fire Bandit's clothing to wrap it up, since this was a head worth fifty taels in bounty money.

The Wind Thunder Martial Arts School's Town Guard watched from the side. Seizing an opening, he shamelessly voiced his intentions, but Shen Xiu was still riding high on victory, so naturally he returned empty-handed.

Coupled with the fact that he had retreated before the Crimson Fire Bandits earlier, he had no face left to remain at Li Family Manor and found an excuse to leave.

Shen Xiu paid no mind to that so-called Town Guard, focusing entirely on searching the Crimson Fire Bandits.

It had to be said that these bandits did have a few things on them. They carried little silver individually, but gathered bit by bit, it added up to more than a hundred taels. Shen Xiu had gained a tidy bit of extra income in one go.

There were also several warhorse sabers in decent condition. They should fetch some silver when sold.

Especially the one belonging to Third Boss Wang Bao. Shen Xiu examined the mark on it and determined that it was likely a product of Hundred Refinements Hall as well.

He did not know whether the Third Boss had stolen it or bought it, but it should still trade for quite a sum.

Other than these things, Shen Xiu used his blade to pick open the Crimson Fire Bandits' clothes and continued searching their bodies.

He paid particular attention to the Crimson Fire Stronghold's Third Boss, who had led them.

He wanted to see whether there were any cultivation manuals. After all, the man had been the third-in-command of Crimson Fire Stronghold; perhaps Shen Xiu might stumble upon a bargain.

Yet after turning him over and searching him from head to toe, he found nothing at all.

Thinking about it, that made sense. A cultivation manual concerned one's very foundation. What sort of person would carry one around for no reason?

Shen Xiu's hopes of picking up a bargain were dashed.

He had heard that The Boss of Crimson Fire Stronghold was impervious to blades and spears, terrifyingly formidable. He had wondered whether this brother of his might possess some powerful cultivation technique.

Though his hopes had fallen through, Shen Xiu did not mind much. Cultivation techniques were things one could encounter only by chance, never seek by choice.

Having wiped out this group of Crimson Fire Bandits and packed up the belongings he intended to exchange for money, he picked up Third Boss Wang Bao's head and several Horse-Slaying Sabers, preparing to leave.

But Li Yongnian, who had already settled matters, called him to a stop. The Manor Lord Li of Guiyan Town, carrying the calmness of one who had survived disaster, handed him a box.

He said it was to thank Shen Xiu for coming to their aid. Now that he intended to move into the city, there was no use keeping this thing.

Shen Xiu had saved their lives, after all, so he accepted it without the slightest hesitation.

Inside the box Li Yongnian gave him were one thousand taels' worth of silver notes, along with an old bluish-green object covered in strange patterns. Shen Xiu could not make sense of the markings and asked Li Yongnian about it.

Li Yongnian only told him that he had once taken in an old beggar, and that beggar had tossed this thing to him, saying that it would be useful someday.

He did not know how to use it, so he was giving it to Shen Xiu now.

Yet Shen Xiu was only a martial cultivator. He did not know much about such strange things either.

Looking at it, Shen Xiu drew on his limited knowledge and knew that this should be something crafted by mystic cultivators, who followed a path entirely different from martial cultivation.

That was because he could sense a power within the seemingly thin talisman paper, one he did not understand.

"Hey, want your fortune told? Hey, want your fortune told? My readings are damn accurate, really..."

As Shen Xiu pondered this while entering the city, a thin figure's voice drifted leisurely down the street. It came from afar and drew closer, arriving before him in no time.

The speaker was an Old Daoist past fifty, his gaunt face carved with ravines of wrinkles both deep and shallow. He wore a tattered Daoist robe and carried a long banner as he wandered through streets and alleys.

He called out to every passerby he encountered.

Shen Xiu knew this Old Daoist well. He had seen him many times. The man was a familiar face in the city, and over the past few months Shen Xiu had spent in Taixi City, he had often seen him waving his banner around Changqing Street.

Sometimes he pretended to be an Old Blind Man, and sometimes he pretended to be an Old Daoist.

Some time ago, Shen Xiu had even heard that the man had been thrown into the Lishui River for spouting nonsense in the city.

The details had spread like wildfire at the time. Supposedly, he had told the master of a household in the eastern part of the city that the man's wife would let a red apricot climb over the wall.

He had been beaten on the spot for cursing the man's relationship and wishing him a miserable death. Yet more than ten days later, it really happened just as he had said.

Then that household's master had someone beat him again, calling him a crow's beak who sowed discord.

In short, there was only one word for it: miserable.

Just as Shen Xiu looked toward the Old Daoist, the man seemed to notice his gaze. His cloudy eyes swept Shen Xiu up and down before he immediately spoke.

"I see that your glabella has darkened, benefactor. You seem to bear the signs of great misfortune. Would you be willing to let this Old Daoist cast a divination, to help you escape this sea of suffering...?"

The familiar lines hit him head-on, and Shen Xiu's mouth twitched.

It was not that he did not believe in Daoist Priests. After all, this world even had demons and ghosts. He simply did not believe that the Old Daoist before him had any real ability. If he did, could he have been stripped bare and tossed into a river?

Someone powerful still ending up in a river—did that make any sense?

As for that household's affair with the red apricot climbing over the wall, one only had to ask around to know the truth. Shen Xiu himself had passed by and seen the woman climbing over the wall twice.

Shen Xiu said nothing and did not want to bother with him.

Yet the Old Daoist moved closer and, tirelessly and with an unfathomable air, asked the same question again.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Xiu recalled the Azure Talisman he had just acquired in his robes and casually showed it to the Old Daoist Priest. "Take a look. What kind of talisman is this?"

The Old Daoist's cloudy eyes narrowed.

"Let me see, let me see. This should be a Mysterious Grade Spirit Talisman. Judging by its quality and the technique, it should be Grand Talisman Master Lu Mingshan of the Hundred Peaks Merchant Guild's work."

Shen Xiu knew of the Hundred Peaks Merchant Guild. It was one of Great Jing's foremost financial powers, and Hundred Refinements Hall was one of its businesses.

"What exactly does it do? What effect does it have?"

He had only asked casually, but he had not expected the other man to actually give him an answer, so he immediately followed up.

The Old Daoist said nothing. He merely smiled and stretched out his hand, palm open.

Shen Xiu's mouth twitched as he tossed a mace of silver beneath the man's fingers.

The Old Daoist did not withdraw his hand. Instead, he gave it another shake.

Shen Xiu curled his lip and added another mace.

Only then did the Old Daoist finally withdraw his hand with a beaming smile. Squinting, he even held the silver beneath his nose and sniffed it, looking exactly like someone whose eyes had popped open at the sight of money.

"Judging from the paths traced by these Runes, this should be a Confinement Talisman among Mysterious Grade Spirit Talismans. As for its effect, it is enough to trap a martial cultivator below Fifth Realm Marrow Washing for one breath. You are not a mystic cultivator and have no spiritual power to activate it, but you can drive it with your own vital energy and blood."

Shen Xiu was somewhat startled. To trap a martial cultivator below Fifth Realm Marrow Washing for one breath—such a method was already extraordinarily formidable.

One had to know that when experts crossed hands, victory and defeat were decided in a flash of lightning and sparks. One breath was roughly two seconds. In those brief two seconds, countless things could happen.

Shen Xiu also learned from the Old Daoist that Grand Talisman Masters like Lu Mingshan were exceedingly scarce, and spirit talismans were rarely produced. Even within the Hundred Peaks Merchant Guild, a Mysterious Grade Spirit Talisman drawn by him would command a staggering price.

Everything the man said conveyed one meaning: Shen Xiu had struck it rich.