Business boomed

No sooner had Yunqi planted his flag than a sturdy Miao man came over. He, too, had a head of red hair, so he was surely a disciple of Redwood Ridge.

He handed over a long-handled golden melon hammer stained with filthy black water and said,

"Young Daoist, one of those fiends from Hundred Barbarian Mountain fouled my hammer with black sludge. Now my magical power doesn't flow properly when I use it. Could you see if you can burn it clean?"

Yunqi took it. It was exceedingly heavy, and many golden inscriptions were engraved on its melon-shaped head, but the foul-smelling water had sullied it, dimming its spiritual glow.

This was a dirty trick in which the Southern Wastes Demon Cult particularly excelled. They took the blood of yin creatures such as black snakes, gray foxes, long-whiskered rats, three-legged jackals, and purple-water toads, mixed it with yin stones and rotting herbs, then processed it through secret methods into a poisonous liquid that could corrupt spiritual properties. They called it Corrupting Spirit Water. Whether talismans or artifacts, anything it touched suffered a drastic loss of power. If it splashed directly onto someone, they would lose a layer of skin even if they survived.

Corrupting Spirit Water was what the people of the Southern Wastes called it. In the Miao Borderlands, people saw how rotten and stinking it was, like mud, and contemptuously called it black sludge.

Whether in the current war or in everyday clashes, this substance was the greatest headache and the most detested thing among the people of the Miao Borderlands. They hated not only its ability to corrupt spiritual properties, but also the fact that the Southern Wastes Demon Cult, seeing profit in this method, did not exterminate those yin creatures and instead bred them in great numbers to harvest their blood.

Precisely because of this, a livelihood had naturally emerged in the Miao Borderlands: cultivators of lightning or fire arts used lightning and flame, both substances of utmost yang, to burn away the filth on magical artifacts. This placed demands on both the quality of the lightning or fire and the caster's skill. They had to remove the filth without harming the object itself.

Because of Redwood Ridge's inheritance, however, practitioners of fire arts were common in the Miao Borderlands, while practitioners of lightning arts were few.

The Miao man now asked, "Young Daoist, do you use fire arts or lightning arts?"

Naturally, Yunqi answered that he used fire arts.

With that, he asked the Miao man to wait a moment, then glanced around. Seeing a straw mat on the floor of the thatched hut intended for resting, he picked it up and hung it as a door curtain, leaving the Miao man outside.

As soon as Yunqi hung the curtain, the white dog stationed himself outside it, looking left and right.

"Young Daoist, what are you doing?"

Holding the Redwood Ridge Miao man's weapon, Yunqi said with a smile, "Uncle, Azure Dragon Abbey sent me here, and this stall belongs to Azure Dragon Abbey. Surely you don't think I'd pocket your belongings? Rest assured, I have a few secret methods. I guarantee I'll remove every bit of filth on this."

The Miao man was dubious, but on reflection, that made sense. Since Yunqi had come from Azure Dragon Abbey, even if he damaged the weapon, there would be someone to compensate him.

Still uneasy, he added another warning. "My golden hammer was cast from jade mountain gold. It's sturdy, but it can't stand being fired. When you burn away the black sludge, don't damage it. If you can't get the filth off, don't force it. I'll find someone who uses lightning arts instead, all right?"

Yunqi nodded with a smile and simply told him to wait outside without worrying.

Sitting inside the hut, Yunqi circulated the Fire Element magical power in his body and summoned a flame. His fire control could now be considered exquisite. A tiny flame rose from his fingertip, its tongue carefully approaching the filthy water on the hammer's surface, ensuring that it scorched only the water and not the golden hammer.

Hiss, hiss, hiss-

The filthy water hissed, a string of tiny bubbles forming on its surface as a foul, rank odor spread.

Yunqi kept track of the time. After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had burned away only a patch of filth the size of his little fingernail.

He therefore withdrew the flame and circulated his magical power anew. The flame on his fingertip turned golden.

It was Solar Bing Fire.

Repeating the same technique, he slowly brought the Solar Bing Fire toward the stains on the golden hammer. This time, the black stains melted swiftly like ice and snow meeting sunlight, then rose in wisps of black smoke. The smoke leaving the hammer's surface was immediately burned into nothingness by the Solar Bing Fire, vanishing without a trace. Even the foul smell was burned away completely.

Yunqi saw that using Solar Bing Fire against this filth was more than ten times faster than using flames produced by ordinary Fire Element magical power.

This was Solar Bing Fire's natural power to suppress unclean things.

Yunqi switched to burning it with Solar Bing Fire. In less than half a quarter-hour, the golden melon hammer had returned to its original state, its surface entirely free of filth. He also discovered that, besides the jade mountain gold the Miao man had mentioned, many other materials had been mixed in during its manufacture. When first used, these materials had complemented the jade mountain gold, but their quality was inferior after all. By now, they had deteriorated into flaws in the golden hammer; it would be better off without them.

He decided to carry his good deed through to the end, burning away some truly useless metal impurities with Bing Fire and refining the golden hammer.

Then Yunqi lifted the door curtain and saw the Miao man pacing back and forth in front of the stall.

With a smile, Yunqi handed the golden melon hammer over and said, "Uncle, try channeling your magical power into it again and see how it works."

Seeing the golden melon hammer gleaming brilliantly, bright and dazzling, the Miao man already had complete faith in Yunqi's skill. After taking it, he tried channeling his magical power into it. The hammer's restrictions shone, and to his astonishment, he found that his magical power flowed even more smoothly than before the weapon had been fouled. Greatly surprised, he kept asking Yunqi how he had done it.

Yunqi waved a hand, smiling without speaking.

Realizing he had spoken out of turn, the Miao man stopped asking and thanked him repeatedly.

Yunqi then took a booklet from a wooden shelf in the thatched hut and handed it to the Miao man.

Naturally, the Miao man knew the procedure. He accepted the booklet, picked up a brush, and filled in the four columns for date, sect, name, and result respectively: fourth day of the twelfth month, Gonggong Stockade of Redwood Ridge, Guai Xiyin, A.

Yunqi cupped his hands toward the Miao man.

The Miao man picked up his golden melon hammer and was about to leave, but then paused. Standing before the stall, he suddenly called out loudly,

"Everyone, everyone! This young Daoist from Azure Dragon Cave has truly marvelous skills! Not only did he burn the filth off my hammer, he gave it an extra refining as well. Now my magical power flows even better than before. Come and try it for yourselves!"

Yunqi was a little surprised, but he also stood, walked over beside the Miao man, and cupped his hands in greeting to everyone around them.

His words stirred the crowd. The previous attendant of Azure Dragon Cave's stall had been unheard from for two days, and everyone had equipment that had been fouled by black sludge to some extent. Hearing the Miao man's call, they came over one after another. Yunqi turned no one away and asked them to form a queue.

He now absorbed qi through visualization. Although his Heart Mansion had yet to open and he could not store much magical power or cast powerful spells, his advantage lay in the uninterrupted conversion of spiritual energy into magical power. This made casting minor arts with low consumption extremely convenient for him.

After Yunqi had purified three or five magical artifacts, word of his skill gradually spread, and more people arrived. Someone noticed that the flag planted before the stall advertised not only purification but also talisman drawing, and immediately asked Yunqi to draw a fire talisman.

Yunqi agreed with a smile. He knew that most cultivators of Redwood Ridge practiced yang fire arts, while most of Hundred Barbarian Mountain practiced yin water arts. Fire talismans were therefore the most sought-after here. This was also why he had accepted this command token.

Seeing someone ask Yunqi to draw a talisman, several people queuing for purification grew less impatient. Eager to watch, they asked Yunqi to draw the talisman first; they could wait.

Yunqi cheerfully agreed again. Naturally, Azure Dragon Abbey did not expect stall attendants to pay for talisman materials themselves. The hut already contained talisman paper, ink, and brushes.

Yunqi did not need to hide his talisman drawing from anyone. For those who did not understand the underlying intent of the art, merely looking at the talisman patterns was of no use. He sat at the table in front of the door curtain and began to draw.

He drew a Yangfire Demon-Breaking Talisman, which was particularly effective against those fiends from Hundred Barbarian Mountain.

Yunqi completed it in one flowing stroke and handed it to the person who had requested it, saying,

"Fellow Daoist, give it a try. There's no charge for this talisman. Consider it my treat."

Yunqi explained how to use it: pinch the talisman's head between the fingers, channel Fire Element magical power into it through the head, recite the command, and throw the paper.

The man nodded. Naturally, a talisman had to be tested before use. If its power proved too great or too small, either could cost a life on the battlefield.

He took the talisman paper, looked around, and selected a rock in the middle of the river.

He leaped onto the rock and faced downstream, holding the talisman paper as he recited the command,

"Blazing sun patrols the heavens, fiery wheel tracks clear the way. Go!"

He hurled the talisman paper, and at once, they saw:

The paper ignited in midair and instantly spewed two fire dragons, which shot through the air for a full seventy or eighty feet!

They were like the wheel tracks left behind when the legendary sun chariot rolled through the sky, lingering without dispersing.

Waves of heat radiated toward both banks of the stream. The ice on the water near the banks melted instantly, and the accumulated snow along either side turned to water, revealing shrubs and grass.

The flames shot straight over a clear stretch of water with nothing on it, so their destructive power remained unknown.

Both banks fell utterly silent.

Their market had been set up for cultivators in the lower reaches of the first realm, and they were all people who had spent a long time tempering themselves at that level.

By rights, the person Azure Dragon Cave sent should have been at the same level. Yet however they looked at this fire talisman, its power hardly seemed to belong to the lower reaches!

"Daoist, I want five!"

Someone broke the silence.

"Seven!"

"Two! Just two will do!"

Both banks instantly came alive.

Here is the first chapter.

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