Purchasing Treasures

Leaving the Spirit Talisman Pavilion, Xiao Yu strolled around the Market a few times before stepping into the Leisurely Cloud Inn.

There were quite a few cultivators coming and going inside this inn, and to Xiao Yu's surprise, the reception attendant was actually a mortal.

Seeing Xiao Yu enter the inn, the attendant hurried over with a smile and said to him, "Senior, are you looking for a room?"

Xiao Yu looked at him and said calmly, "Mn, open a superior room for me."

Upon hearing these words from Xiao Yu, the attendant's eyes lit up as he said, "Senior, a superior room costs one spirit stone per month!"

Hearing this, Xiao Yu felt a stir in his heart; one spirit stone a month wasn't too expensive, and since he needed to stay in the Market for a few days, he might as well settle in first! He immediately took out a spirit stone.

After respectfully receiving the spirit stone, the attendant went to handle the formalities for Xiao Yu! Shortly after, he invited Xiao Yu to follow him upstairs.

Upon entering the room, he sensed the surroundings and found that the spiritual Qi inside was somewhat richer than outside, which should be due to a Spirit Gathering Array being set up there.

Seeing that Xiao Yu was satisfied, the attendant handed him a wooden token and said, "Senior, this is the token for the array inside the room. Once the array is activated, only the room's token can open it, so Senior need not worry about being disturbed. Moreover, the room's restriction is enough to block divine sense detection."

Xiao Yu tried it out, and sure enough, an array enveloped the entire room. When he probed it with his divine sense, it was very difficult to pierce through, and his heart was extremely satisfied!

"Alright, I need to rest. You may go down."

"Understood, Senior. If you have any needs, feel free to give orders at any time!" With that, the attendant withdrew from the room.

After meditating in the room for a while, Xiao Yu suddenly took out some jars and pots from his storage bag, poured out some medicinal powders or gelatinous substances from them, and began smearing them onto his face.

Before long, Xiao Yu's originally ordinary, youthful face transformed into the countenance of a sallow-complexioned, gloomy-looking middle-aged man.

Then he took off all items on his body that could reveal the Giant Sword Sect's origins, changed into a set of coarse hemp clothing, and put on a bamboo hat that could obscure his visage.

After confirming there were no flaws, Xiao Yu unhurriedly left the room, walked out of the inn, and began wandering around the Market.

Before staying at the inn just now, Xiao Yu had discovered that there were many people in the Market whose faces were covered by cloaks and bamboo hats; these people all shared a common purpose, which was not wanting others to see their appearance. Therefore, with his current disguise, mixing into the crowd, Xiao Yu wasn't particularly conspicuous either.

After browsing the stall area for a while and finding nothing good, he walked into the Hundred Crafts Tower, which primarily sold various sundries used by immortal cultivators.

Things used by immortal cultivators were not entirely filled with spiritual Qi; daily necessities such as food, clothing, and housing were also needed. Especially for Qi Refining Stage cultivators, these items were even more indispensable.

And this Hundred Crafts Tower was a place specifically providing such items; as long as it was something an immortal cultivator could use, everything was available here.

Here, Xiao Yu purchased a large number of jade boxes, wooden boxes, as well as writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and many other usable items. The price was low, costing only a few dozen spirit stones.

Once these jade boxes and wooden boxes were sealed with magic, they could preserve the spiritual properties of spiritual objects very well, and he would need them to hold various spiritual medicines in the future, while the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones were intended to be used for practicing talisman making.

Furthermore, he was not afraid that these items would occupy too much space and cause his storage bag to be insufficiently sized. Currently, his storage bag only held items that needed to be used at any time, while items that were temporarily unneeded or rarely used were all placed by him into the mysterious space.

Previously, he had already experimented: items placed inside the space would not lose their spiritual properties. As for spirit stones, only when placed beside the Heavenly Book would the spiritual Qi inside them be slowly absorbed.

Regrettably, placing items into and taking them out of the space both required a process and could not be completed instantaneously, falling far short of the convenience of taking them directly from a storage bag. Hence, that space could only be used as a mobile warehouse.

After purchasing these sundries,

Xiao Yu arrived at the most imposing storied building in this Market—the Myriad Treasures Pavilion. Upon stepping inside, he saw that it was a huge and spacious hall, measuring over ten zhang in both length and width. Inside were placed sections of ultra-long counters crafted from precious pear wood, with over a dozen white-robed attendants in uniform shuttling between them, everything displaying the extraordinary nature of this building.

Within the counters, meanwhile, were placed a multitude of miscellaneous items, which from their styles were all things that only immortal cultivators could use. From the lowest-grade raw materials to the most commonly used talismans and magical tools, everything was available.

Inside the hall there were also quite a few immortal cultivators selecting items; some were picking things out on their own, while others were haggling with the attendants, making the entire hall appear exceedingly lively!

Xiao Yu smiled slightly, intending to look around by himself first. Just at that moment, a person looking like a white-robed attendant greeted him, asking Xiao Yu with a face full of smiles:

"What would this patron like to see? Does the little one need to help introduce anything? The items in our shop will definitely make all guests leave satisfied!"

"I need to buy genuine fine-quality magical tools; the ones in the hall are not needed." Xiao Yu lowered his voice and spoke. Under normal circumstances, genuine fine items were stored in a different place, which was why Xiao Yu said so.

"Patron, you have truly come to the right place. Our building has fine goods at fair prices, and there are quite a few fine items as well. Patron can accompany me to the second floor, where the shopkeeper will host Patron. Presumably, Patron will be able to purchase favored items there." Perhaps seeing that Xiao Yu's tone was not small, the attendant dared not be negligent and deferentially led Xiao Yu toward the second floor.

Not long after sitting down in a private room on the second floor following the attendant, a beautiful woman dressed in blue robes walked in. Sensing slightly, Xiao Yu found the other party's aura unfathomable, shockingly possessing Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation. Taken aback, Xiao Yu dared not be negligent and hurriedly stood up to pay respects:

"Junior Lu Renyi greets Senior!"

"Hehe, Daoist needn't be nervous. Since we open our doors to do business, we do not suppress people with cultivation here."

"This concubine is Lan Yue, the shopkeeper of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion here. You may call me Shopkeeper Lan; there's no need for 'Senior, Senior'. I heard people downstairs say that Your Excellency wants to buy fine-quality magical tools?" The blue-robed woman spoke to Xiao Yu unhurriedly after entering.

When looking at Xiao Yu, who wore a bamboo hat obscuring his face, as well as the untouched tea on the table, the woman was not surprised; she had seen similar scenes many times.

"This... Junior has overstepped. Junior indeed wishes to buy a few top-tier magical tools of fine quality. If your esteemed shop has a Talisman Treasure for sale, that would be even better." Xiao Yu felt bitter inside; he was merely buying a magical tool, yet a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator had emerged.

Although somewhat uneasy inside, by this point he could only cautiously voice his demands.

The blue-robed woman said to Xiao Yu with a smiling expression: "Mn! What kind of magical tools does Daoist wish to buy? Offensive ones or defensive ones? Or for special purposes? Our building has some of all these things."

"Could you let Junior take a look at offensive and defensive magical tools?" Hearing this, Xiao Yu respectfully replied.

"Oh? Then let Daoist see if these few pieces suit Daoist's wishes." So saying, the blue-robed woman patted the storage bag at her waist, and five foot-long wooden boxes appeared on the tabletop.

Then she raised her slender hand, and the five wooden boxes opened one after another, revealing four spiritual light-shining magical tools, as well as a talisman depicting a small red sword.

Seeing these items, Xiao Yu grew somewhat excited, but with the Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator Lan Yue present, Xiao Yu could only suppress the agitation in his heart, stepped forward, and picked up a saber-shaped magical tool to examine it!

At this moment, the blue-robed woman's voice reached his ears: "This is the top-tier magical tool 'Jade Moon Saber', forged from century-old refined iron, extremely sharp!"

After looking at it for a while, Xiao Yu felt he didn't like it very much and subsequently put down the Jade Moon Saber. Among the other three wooden boxes, one held a fork-shaped magical tool, one held several sword-shaped magical tools, and another wooden box contained a shield-shaped magical tool.

A surge of joy welled up in Xiao Yu's heart! He picked up those small sword magical tools and began admiring them!

Seeing that Xiao Yu liked sword-type magical tools, the blue-robed woman smiled slightly and said, "This is a set of top-tier magical tools, the Radiant Mother-and-Son Swords. When attacking, one can use the mother sword to attack, or split out six small swords to vanquish enemies. The flying swords are extremely sharp, and their escaping speed is extremely fast, counting as fine goods even among top-tier magical tools. Of course, because they are a paired set of magical tools, the requirements for divine sense are also somewhat greater."

Hearing the blue-robed woman put it this way, Xiao Yu felt even more joy in his heart. He laid the Radiant Mother-and-Son Swords aside and picked up the shield magical tool instead.

"This is the top-tier magical tool 'Spirit Turtle Shield', refined from the shell of a tier-2 Demon Beast, the spirit turtle. Its defense is extremely high; ordinary top-tier magical tools simply cannot break its defense, and even ordinary Talisman Treasures cannot destroy it within a short time. It is likewise a rare fine-quality top-tier magical tool," the blue-robed woman said calmly.

Xiao Yu put down the shield in his hand and picked up the talisman depicting the small sword. At this moment, the blue-robed woman's voice raised slightly as she said, "This is the 'Talisman Treasure' Scarlet Cloud Sword. Its might is completely intact and it has not been used even once; it is also the most valuable item here."

Xiao Yu held the Talisman Treasure and looked at it for a while before putting it down, then said to the blue-robed woman, "Senior, Junior likes these Radiant Mother-and-Son Swords, the Spirit Turtle Shield, and the Scarlet Cloud Sword Talisman Treasure very much. I wonder how many spirit stones are required to purchase them?"

The blue-robed woman smiled broadly and said to Xiao Yu, "It seems Daoist's net worth is truly not small. These Radiant Mother-and-Son Swords are six hundred, the Spirit Turtle Shield eight hundred, and the Scarlet Cloud Sword Talisman Treasure twelve hundred.

Seeing that this is Daoist's first time making a purchase at our shop, and that you are also a major patron, I will take it upon myself to offer you a discount of fifty spirit stones; Daoist need only produce two thousand five hundred and fifty spirit stones."

In the cultivation world, top-tier magical tools also had distinctions of quality. According to the magnitude of their might, they could roughly be divided into two grades: ordinary and fine-quality, and of course there were differences in might within each grade as well. The might of the most ordinary top-tier magical tool and the absolute peak fine-quality top-tier magical tool might differ by more than twofold.

Therefore, the prices of top-tier magical tools also differed by heaven and earth; the most ordinary ones could be bought for just over three hundred or four hundred spirit stones, but the prices of the absolute peak top-tier magical tools might be more than twice as expensive, and it was not impossible for them to require eight or nine hundred or even a thousand spirit stones.

Upon hearing the price quoted by the woman, Xiao Yu revealed a look of heartache across his face, then took out two wooden boxes, placed them on the table, and said to the woman:

"Senior, these are two stalks of spiritual medicine that Junior managed to obtain after going through mortal danger nine times out of ten. Please examine them first, Senior."

Glancing at him sideways, the blue-robed woman opened the two wooden boxes and took out one of the spiritual medicines to inspect it carefully.

As time passed, the woman's expression grew increasingly astonished, until she finally could not help parting her small mouth in a gasp: "This, this is thousand-year-aged Firecloud Ginseng! Daoist truly has good fortune to be able to obtain thousand-year spiritual medicine." So saying, she picked up the other stalk of Firecloud Ginseng to inspect it as well.

"Hehe, Junior merely had good luck, and almost lost my life because of it," Xiao Yu said with a bitter smile.

"Mn, this stalk of Firecloud Ginseng also has eight hundred years of age," the woman said after inspecting the spiritual medicine a moment later.

Pausing for a moment, she added, "Both of Daoist's stalks of spiritual medicine are rare items; I can offer Daoist a price of three thousand spirit stones. Are you satisfied?"

"Yes, Junior is very satisfied with the price given by Senior. Additionally, I would like an alchemy furnace. I wonder if Senior can provide one?" Xiao Yu said with satisfaction.

"Hehe, we call this the Myriad Treasures Pavilion; our items are complete and our quality is top-tier. An alchemy furnace naturally exists," the woman said, taking out a small silver tripod with three legs and two ears from her storage bag, and introducing: "This is the Silver Thread Cauldron, refined over five days and five nights by a weapon-refining master using Silverlight Iron. It is also an excellent alchemy furnace, priced at four hundred spirit stones."

Xiao Yu picked up the small tripod and observed it closely. The small tripod was circular in shape, with a dainty tripod lid on top, and felt exceptionally warm to the touch. After observing it for a moment, Xiao Yu revealed a satisfied smile.

"How about this: if Daoist trades with these two stalks of spiritual medicine, I will give you another discount of fifty spirit stones. You may take these four items, and I will also return one hundred spirit stones to you. I only hope that if you have similar spiritual medicines in the future, you will continue to come to our building to trade!" The blue-robed woman spoke after seeing that Xiao Yu rather fancied this small tripod.

"Then many thanks, Senior. If there are similar spiritual objects in the future, I will definitely come again." While saying this with his lips, Xiao Yu thought in his heart that even if he came again in the future, he would not sell spiritual medicines; this time had simply been a measure of last resort.