After returning to Peach Blossom Pavilion, Liu Changxu immediately opened the Storage Bag whose contents he had yet to finish sorting and counting.
Besides 3,800 low-grade spirit stones, it contained 55 upper-grade first-tier spirit herbs, 500 jin of upper-grade first-tier spirit grain-purple jade corn-120 upper-grade first-tier spirit fruits, three bottles of upper-grade first-tier Qi-Gathering Pills, one upper-grade first-tier Barrier-Breaking Pill, a set of middle-grade first-tier Spirit-Gathering Formation Discs, and seven jade slips.
After examining them, Liu Changxu discovered that the jade slips contained Introduction to Formations, Introduction to Artifact Refining, the Breath Concealment Technique, the Disguise Technique, Introduction to the Dao of Alchemy, the lower-grade Mystic-rank cultivation method Long River Setting Sun Art, and the upper-grade Yellow-rank cultivation method Mountain and Thick Earth Art.
Liu Changxu had never expected such a haul from killing a single late-stage Qi Refinement evil cultivator!
No wonder there were so many evil cultivators. A haul like this far surpassed the returns from painstakingly running a business. Even Liu Changxu wanted to become an evil cultivator!
But evil cultivation was a road of no return. Once someone set foot on that wicked path, it was difficult to turn back, and they would walk it until someone killed them.
After sorting through his gains, Liu Changxu threw himself into the great undertaking of making talismans. Determined to produce as many as possible before departure, he went all out, spending every moment outside his rest periods making talismans.
Liu Changxu was already a middle-grade first-tier talisman maker. Once he used up this batch of middle-grade first-tier talisman paper, he planned to learn how to make upper-grade first-tier talismans.
While Liu Changxu was busy making talismans, Grand Elder Liu Qiusheng and the other senior members of the lineage were busy contacting the Wu Household to arrange a group journey to Purple Forest Market.
Members of the Wu Household informed the Liu Household cultivators that they were to assemble and depart in five days.
While making talismans, Liu Changxu could not help thinking of Wu Yunyue, whose smiling face kept appearing in his mind. Unable to concentrate, he ruined quite a few sheets of talisman paper, and his success rate fell far below what it had been.
Eventually, he simply set up a stall beside Wu Yunyue's, selling the talismans he had made and the spirit peaches he had on hand.
Wu Yunyue was delighted to see Liu Changxu setting up a stall too.
Wu Yunyue had received little attention from the Wu Household since childhood. Within the household, which had an eight-hundred-year legacy, the struggle for power and profit between its two Foundation Establishment Ancestors had left everyone divided and dispirited. Moreover, because she was not of the direct bloodline, she had never received the nurturing she deserved, nor did she have any close childhood companions.
Wu Yunyue was very fond of this handsome young man, and as they ran their stalls together, the feelings between the two youths grew ever stronger.
The brief five days passed quickly. Before they parted, Liu Changxu secretly gave Wu Yunyue fifty jin of purple jade corn and thirty purple rosy jujubes. In return, Wu Yunyue gave him plenty of talisman paper and talisman ink, and even made him some delicious spirit jujube cakes.
Early on the morning of the fourth day, Liu Changxu followed the other members of the Liu Household to the Wu Household's residence in Yunping City.
By then, more than fifty people had already gathered in the square outside the residence. They were all Qi Refinement cultivators from various lineages and rogue cultivators preparing to travel with the Wu Household to Purple Forest Market.
More and more people arrived, until there were over a hundred in all.
Once nearly everyone had gathered, the Wu Household cultivators finally filed out of the residence, more than thirty strong. Leading them was a tall, elderly cultivator with crane-white hair and a youthful face, his eyes blazing like golden lamps. His imposing presence commanded awe even without anger, making others afraid to meet his gaze. He was Wu Changkun, one of the Wu Household's two Foundation Establishment Ancestors.
Wu Changkun took a small boat-shaped spirit artifact from his Storage Bag. It was the Wu Household's treasured heirloom, the upper-grade second-tier flying spirit artifact, the Cloud-Piercing Boat.
The Cloud-Piercing Boat contained a spatial formation and could carry up to 150 people. Powered by spirit stones, it could travel 5,000 li a day.
Wu Changkun poured his magical power into the Cloud-Piercing Boat to activate it, and it quickly expanded into a behemoth.
Then Wu Changkun boarded the Cloud-Piercing Boat first, followed by the Wu Household members. They then directed the Qi Refinement lineage cultivators and rogue cultivators aboard.
Once everyone had boarded the flying boat and taken their seats, the Wu Household members began collecting spirit stones from each passenger. The fare was a steep twenty low-grade spirit stones per person, hardly cheap. Still, given the Cloud-Piercing Boat's safety and speed, most Qi Refinement cultivators would choose to travel aboard it.
Soon, the Cloud-Piercing Boat rose into the sky with everyone aboard and flew toward Purple Forest Market!
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