Micro-Yi Qi Control

After the talisman's power had faded from his fingertips, Li Yu used Wandering Yi Void Step to approach Wang Xiang, picked up the Storage Bag at his waist, and even kindly closed his wide, staring eyes.

"Hm?"

Li Yu felt a strange texture on Wang Xiang's face beneath his right hand. After feeling around for a while, he peeled off a transparent mask.

So that was it.

As Li Yu looked at Wang Xiang's true face, the aura of mediocrity that made people overlook him disappeared as well. Understanding dawned on Li Yu's face.

Haо City.

Inside his room at the inn, Li Yu sat examining the mask, which was as thin as a cicada's wing.

He had just tried it on, but it had not made people overlook him the way they had Wang Xiang. He realized this must be a special magic artifact that required an activation incantation, or prolonged refinement with his own true essence, before he could use it.

In the Eastern Lands, artifacts were divided into four grades: magic artifacts, spirit artifacts, treasure artifacts, and divine artifacts.

Treasure artifacts were further divided into Magic Treasures and Spirit Treasures.

Ordinary Qi Refinement cultivators used magic artifacts, though some wealthier ones might own spirit artifacts.

Li Yu had once owned a spirit artifact himself, acquired while exploring a ruin. But to exchange for the sect's Foundation Establishment spirit objects, he had sold it to the Senior Brother among the outer disciples on the neighboring mountain to scrape together enough spirit stones.

To keep most artifacts freely tradable, artificers did not set special refinement incantations on them.

The one in Li Yu's hands was among the few exceptions. It might have been a private commission.

Anyone else would probably have left this mask gathering dust at the bottom of a chest. After all, it was not a particularly powerful magic artifact, and was not worth seeking out an artificer to clear its refinement imprint.

But Micro-Yi Qi Control from the Taiyi Scripture was just the thing to solve this problem.

With a stir of Li Yu's spiritual sense, a blue-white stream of qi suddenly appeared in his palm. Like an invisible hand, it lifted the mask into the air, turning it over and over as streaks of spiritual light occasionally flashed across it.

Micro-Yi Qi Control involved using minute threads of true essence to penetrate a magic artifact, locate the traces left by its previous refinement, and overwrite them, making the artifact one's own.

Besides magic artifacts, Micro-Yi Qi Control could also enhance talismans and even divine abilities and spells. It was an exceptionally versatile support technique.

For instance, if another Five Lotus Sect disciple had activated the Yi Xiao Thunder Talisman that had killed Wang Xiang, it would have unleashed only fifty percent of its power. Li Yu's Taiyi True Essence, which shared its origin, added another twenty percent, and Micro-Yi Qi Control added twenty percent more.

That was almost equivalent to a cultivator at the Qi Refinement Ninth Layer personally casting Yi Xiao Mystic Thunder. Naturally, Wang Xiang, who was only at the sixth layer, could not withstand even a single exchange.

However, Micro-Yi Qi Control could not ignore differences in rank. With Li Yu's current Qi Refinement cultivation, he could at most make a low-grade spirit artifact his own.

The spiritual light flashed three final times, and the mask settled into Li Yu's palm, signifying that he had successfully refined it.

Next, he used Micro-Yi Qi Control to open Wang Xiang's Storage Bag. Inside were over a hundred spirit stones, some pills and talismans, clothes and miscellaneous belongings, and several books.

Li Yu leafed through the books. Two contained Qi Refinement cultivation methods, and three contained spells. To someone with a tablet, none of these were particularly useful.

One of them, however, was called the Lanshan Record of Spirit Objects. It recorded the locations of various spirit objects useful to cultivators within Lanshan Commandery.

Zeng Yang belonged to the Zeng Clan, a Golden Core cultivation clan in Lanshan Commandery.

Li Yu was now even more certain that Wang Xiang had been sent by Zeng Yang, and added another entry to the little ledger in his heart.

Afterward, Li Yu put on the mask and went out to test it. Sure enough, everyone eating and drinking in the inn's main hall ignored him. He sat at an empty table for a long time without a single waiter coming over.

This Ordinary Mask was pretty good.

Li Yu nodded in satisfaction, called a waiter over, and asked for the address of the Five Lotus Sect's office in Haо City.

After all, he had ostensibly come to carry out a sect mission. Since he had no intention of deserting, he still needed to report to the organization. Moreover, experts from the Five Lotus Sect had laid formations over the pearl-harvesting waters, so he had to obtain a pass here before he could enter.

There was another reason: when sect disciples came out on missions, the local branch would help arrange accommodation.

As the heart of the Zhao Kingdom, Haо City was quite expensive to settle in. Even the simplest room at Li Yu's current inn cost one spirit stone a day.

Though he had just come into a windfall, he still ought to save wherever he could.

The Five Lotus Sect's Haо City office occupied a five-story building, its grandeur displaying all the prestige of a great orthodox sect.

After entering, Li Yu saw three branch disciples handling reception at the counter in the main hall. He chose the junior sister with a ponytail and explained why he had come.

After checking his mission bamboo slip, the ponytailed junior sister unwittingly took out a colorful seashell. "This is the token for entering and leaving the pearl-harvesting grounds."

After accepting it, Li Yu remembered the news he had heard on the main peak and asked, "Has a supreme-grade spirit pearl surfaced recently?"

"That's right. Half a year ago, a senior brother exploring the southeastern canyon of the pearl-harvesting grounds caught a thousand-year-old clam and found a supreme-grade spirit pearl inside. Although the steward suppressed the news, it still reached the sect. Quite a few people like you have come lately, hoping to try their luck." The ponytailed junior sister glanced at Li Yu. Finding the young man thoroughly unremarkable, she saw no harm in telling him.

That really was tremendous luck. Even at the lowest price, a supreme-grade spirit pearl could sell for ten thousand spirit stones.

Li Yu felt a pang of envy. If he found one, he could pay off all his debts on the spot.

He then asked how he could travel to the Southern Lands. Since he had two missions, the ponytailed junior sister did not suspect that he wanted to flee, and answered directly, "Ships bound for the Southern Lands return to the Zhao Kingdom once every six months. Passage is cheapest at three hundred spirit stones, but they stop at dozens of ports along the way, so they're fairly slow. Still, they're the safest option."

"If you want something faster, you can approach the major trading companies. Their ships generally travel directly, and the people operating them have enough strength that you don't have to worry about robber cultivators at sea."

"The final option is to charter a ship yourself. Prices vary wildly, and those waters run deep."

After hearing her out, Li Yu decided to find a way to earn spirit stones first. Otherwise, he could not even afford the cheapest passage.

Next, he asked about accommodation.

"Senior brother, property in Haо City is too expensive for our branch to purchase. After all, quite a few sect members come here on missions. But the steward has leased several dozen mountains in neighboring Lanshan Commandery. With this token, you can enter and choose any place you like to stay. Since you've come to harvest pearls, it works out nicely that Lanshan Commandery is also on the coast, closer to our sect's pearl-harvesting

waters."

Hearing this, Li Yu knew the Zhao Kingdom Steward must have embezzled the funds provided by the sect. But considering that the steward was at least a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could only curse inwardly.

Remembering that Zeng Yang belonged to the Lanshan Zeng Clan, Li Yu certainly would not go to Lanshan Commandery, even if it was free.

His immediate priority, then, was to rent a place to live.

Not long after Li Yu left, Ying Ruomu arrived as well and headed straight for the counter.

"Senior brother Ying, what brings you here?" The three branch disciples at the reception counter spoke with a measure of reverence upon seeing Ying Ruomu.

"Has he been here?" Ying Ruomu asked, taking out a portrait of Li Yu.

The three, including the ponytailed junior sister, examined it closely again and again, then shook their heads in unison, indicating that they had never seen him.