While Liu Xian was still jumping at shadows, Chu Mo was in an entirely different mood.
With a little spare cash in his pocket, even his back straightened of its own accord. He strode confidently toward the North Cliff Gathering-it was time to arm himself with a spell.
The gathering bustled with people coming and going. Plenty of cultivators had set up bamboo and wooden stalls, selling pills, talismans, spirit plants, ores, blood, bones, hides, and flesh...
Quite a few cultivators with "level 9 grunt" above their heads even sat directly on the ground, selling treasures scavenged from other worlds.
At several stalls, Chu Mo spotted Storage Bags identical to his own. They cost two Spell Coins each, with a ten-percent discount if he bought ten at once.
Cool and composed, he stopped at a stall selling magical arts, bent down to pick up a yellow-covered book, and flipped through it. Brimming with confidence, he asked, "Boss, how much for this Flame Manipulation?"
He had a little money to his name now, after all. Surely acquiring one measly spell would be as easy as reaching out and grabbing it.
"Thirty-three Spell Coins. No bargaining."
"That expensive?!" Chu Mo's composure shattered in a second. He blurted out, "Isn't this just a minor spell?"
Looking at the level 6 stallholder opposite him, he forced a fawning smile. "Could you lower the price a little?"
"!" Chu Mo's smile froze, his face darkening with exasperation. Why did those words have to cut so deep?
"What you're holding is a sample. It only has the first two lines of the incantation. You could flip through it until it falls apart and it still wouldn't help." Watching Chu Mo leaf back and forth, the stallholder offered this "kind" reminder.
Chu Mo put down the yellow-covered book in disappointment-sure enough, no [Learn?] prompt had appeared.
The stallholder rolled his eyes as he watched Chu Mo leave. Who in the sect didn't have a trick or two up their sleeve? If he put the complete text out on his stall, wouldn't that make him a sucker handing out spells for free?
An incense stick's worth of time later, Chu Mo stopped walking. The gathering was still lively, but now it only sounded noisy to him.
Even the ten Spell Coins in his pocket had lost their appeal. After asking prices all along the way, he discovered that throwing in everything he owned would barely buy him a bang for his buck.
And every stallholder guarded against thieves, displaying only samples while keeping the complete texts tightly hidden. They gave him no chance whatsoever to learn their spells on the sly.
Just as Chu Mo was stewing in frustration, a stallholder with an open, imposing face waved him over. "Junior brother! Over here."
Smiling, the stallholder caught the corner of Chu Mo's robe. "I've seen you browsing for quite a while, junior brother. Still haven't found anything you like?"
Chu Mo sighed. "I wanted to get a spell to study, but I haven't seen one that suits me."
"You should've said so sooner!" The stallholder clapped his hands sharply. "Why bother with them? Everyone knows that here at the North Cliff Gathering, I, Luo Shan, have the widest selection and the fairest prices!"
"Really?" Hope rekindled in Chu Mo.
"Absolutely." Luo Shan patted his chest and pulled a bamboo scroll from his Storage Bag. "Take a look at this [Soul-Severing Sand]. What do you think?"
He stole a glance around, then, seeing that no one was paying attention, leaned closer to Chu Mo and said mysteriously:
"Junior brother, you're already at the second level of Qi Refining. You'll be taking the outer disciple assessment soon, right? For the past two years, the assessment has been held in the Savage Realm. The native barbarians there only cultivate their bloodlines. Their souls are terribly weak!
"When cast, this Soul-Severing Sand blows out a black wind that specifically damages the soul. Learn it, and passing the assessment will be as easy as turning your hand. You'll become an Outer Disciple without breaking a sweat. Well? Tempted? Only thirty-six Spell Coins."
Chu Mo took the bamboo scroll and looked at it, then exclaimed in surprise, "It's actually the complete text?"
Only the later portion of the spell was blurred and impossible to make out.
"Of course it's the complete text. Sincere enough for you, junior brother?" Luo Shan said generously. He had placed his own unique restriction on the later contents, so he wasn't worried about anyone secretly learning it.
"More than enough!" Chu Mo was delighted.
[Skill [Soul-Severing Sand]. Learn?]
Learn!
Forcing down his wild delight, Chu Mo ventured, "It's good... but Senior Brother Luo, do you have any other spells?"
"Of course I do!" Suspecting nothing, Luo Shan pulled out another bamboo scroll. "[Golden Baleful Bone-Piercing Art]. When cast, it condenses a golden baleful spike that breaks through defenses and pierces bone. Quite powerful.
"Master it to a high level, and defeating someone in middle-stage Qi Refining while you're still in the early stage won't be a problem. Only forty Spell Coins." He wore an expression that said Chu Mo was getting a steal.
[Skill [Golden Baleful Bone-Piercing Art]. Learn?]
Excited, Chu Mo immediately chose to learn it, but feigned indecision on his face, his gaze darting between the two spells. Only after a long while did he ask with apparent difficulty, "Do you have any movement spells?"
"Movement spells? Those are in high demand! But you've asked the right person!" Smiling, Luo Shan took out another bamboo scroll. "[Dust-Treading Art]. Tread as lightly as dust, your movements drifting and elusive. Useful for both travel and dodging. But this one costs a little more: fifty-three Spell Coins."
[Skill [Dust-Treading Art]. Learn?]
Amid the enthusiastic sales pitch, Chu Mo learned the skill almost reflexively, then asked sheepishly, "Senior brother, I wonder if you have any others..."
Luo Shan abruptly cut himself off and looked Chu Mo up and down again. "You're not here to toy with me, are you, junior brother? Are you buying or not?"
"Heh heh." Chu Mo rubbed his hands awkwardly. "I'm really rather short of funds... Do you have anything cheaper? Preferably in the single digits."
"..." Luo Shan was speechless. So he was a pauper! All that talk wasted!
He snatched back the three bamboo scrolls, stuffed them into his Storage Bag, and waved listlessly. "No, no. Go look somewhere else."
Chu Mo felt a pang of regret-people as sincere and generous as Senior Brother Luo were rare. He had wanted to fleece a few more spells out of him.
He was just turning to leave when someone caught the corner of his robe again.
"Forgive me, junior brother. My attitude just now was poor!" Luo Shan put his salesman's smile back on. "I actually do have a spell you need-the Mind-Cleansing Mantra. Only three Spell Coins."
"You're too kind, senior brother. I was the one at fault just now. This Mind-Cleansing Mantra?"
Seeing his interest, Luo Shan immediately launched into an eager explanation. "Don't underestimate this spell. It's only this cheap because it's so widespread in the sect that almost everyone knows it.
"This mantra can erase other people's memories, making them forget up to half a year. It's especially effective against yin spirit creatures, though against cultivators, you need superior cultivation to suppress them.
"Well? Isn't that something we particularly need in our sect?"
Even for a profit no bigger than a fly's head, he didn't slack off in the slightest.
Such was a stallholder's professional discipline!
Chu Mo considered it for a moment. Yin spirit creatures-he might as well have named them outright.
With the Darkworld Grotto-Scenery Banner in the sect, the Mind-Cleansing Mantra truly was a necessity. Otherwise, once an enemy saw his secrets, there would still be a substantial risk of them leaking even after that enemy died.
So he asked, "Could you let me take a look?"
"Of course-" Luo Shan was about to take out the complete text, but abruptly stopped and eyed Chu Mo suspiciously. "How about you pay first, junior brother? I guarantee you won't be disappointed!"
Seeing how guarded he looked, Chu Mo's eye twitched slightly. He took out three Spell Coins and handed them over.
Luo Shan immediately gave him a thumbs-up. "How generous, junior brother!"
He took out the Mind-Cleansing Mantra, removed the restriction, and placed it in Chu Mo's hands. "If you want to buy more spells in the future, remember to come to me! Nobody else is as sincere as I am!"
"Of course, of course."