Rogue Cultivator Gathering!

Lu Changsheng walked onto the narrow path.

The way ahead stretched endlessly, its end seemingly nowhere in sight.

But after walking a hundred meters or so, he seemed to pass through the surface of a lake, and the scene before him abruptly changed.

It became a lush valley surrounded by mountains, filled with flowers and plants of every color.

Only behind him, where he had just entered, was there a narrow path sealed off by mist.

The valley was not large, covering roughly thirty to forty mu.

Rows of quaint houses and pavilions stood around its edges, giving it something of the air of a hidden paradise beyond the world.

In the center of the valley, many people had set up neatly arranged stalls and ground displays like ordinary street vendors, with crowds milling around them.

The scene left Lu Changsheng momentarily dazed, reminding him of rural market days and open-air farmers' markets in his previous life.

Had he not known this was a Rogue Cultivator Gathering Place, where almost everyone was an Immortal Cultivator, he would have believed it was an ordinary market.

There should be a spirit vein beneath this valley.

But it's probably an ungraded one. The spiritual energy here is much poorer than at Green Bamboo Manor.

With these thoughts, Lu Changsheng headed toward the stalls in the center.

The Immortal Cultivators here wore all sorts of outfits.

There were scholars, monks, Daoist priests, wandering swordsmen...

Others carried swords or sabers at their waists, enormous gourds on their backs, or spirit beasts at their sides.

Of course, quite a few were like Lu Changsheng, their entire bodies shrouded in cloaks.

"Fine healing medicinal pills and martial arts medicinal pills, all at bargain prices!"

"Hundred-year-old ginseng and hundred-year-old fleeceflower root, just one spirit stone each!"

"One flood dragon tendon! Highest bidder takes it!"

"The Nine-Turn Golden Body Art, a legacy cultivation method left by a Spirit Transformation True Venerable! Just ten spirit stones!"

"A wondrous stone found in an ancient secret realm, with rare treasures hidden inside! Don't miss it as you pass!"

People came and went among the stalls, while many vendors shouted their wares, creating quite a clamor.

Seeing pots, bowls, ladles, basins, meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, and other miscellaneous goods on some stalls, Lu Changsheng could not help shaking his head.

It seemed this Rogue Cultivator Gathering was even worse than he had imagined.

Or perhaps this was what life truly looked like at the bottom of the cultivation world.

It was no different from ordinary people struggling at the bottom of the mundane world.

The only difference was that one group lived in the mundane world, and the other in the cultivation world.

Even at its worst, the Green Bamboo Lu Lineage had a Foundation Establishment Ancestor presiding over it, along with its own blessed land and spirit vein.

After wandering around for a while, Lu Changsheng had a fair idea of what this trading gathering was like.

The stalls offered a bewildering variety of goods, but most were cheap, low-end items or fakes.

Only a small portion sold things Immortal Cultivators could actually use.

There were also a few shops in the buildings and pavilions around the edges.

Their merchandise was considerably more reputable and higher-end.

Given the scale of this rogue cultivator outpost, selling all the nearly thousand talismans he carried here was simply impossible.

If he dared do so, he might find it very difficult to leave Ox-Head Mountain.

Selling a portion, however, should be no problem.

Following the others' example, Lu Changsheng found an empty spot, took a thick stack of talismans from the Storage Bag tucked inside his robes, and laid them out before him.

On a wooden board propped beside him, he wrote: First-Tier Lower-Grade Talismans, 1-2 spirit stones each. Buy five, get one free.

During his earlier observations, Lu Changsheng had seen very few people selling First-Tier Middle-Grade Talismans.

After some thought, he decided not to put any First-Tier Middle-Grade Talismans on display, lest he stand out too much.

As for pricing, magic artifacts, medicinal pills, and talismans were hard currency wherever one went, and their prices generally did not fluctuate much.

To sell them faster, Lu Changsheng still offered a buy-five-get-one-free deal.

"Fellow Daoist, with this buy-five-get-one-free offer, can I choose any talisman for the free one?"

Before long, someone approached to examine the talismans and asked him a question.

"If you buy five of the ones that cost two Spirit Stones each, you can choose any. Otherwise, you can only choose from the ones over here that cost one Spirit Stone each."

Lu Changsheng spoke, his voice emerging low and hoarse from beneath his black robes.

"All right."

The cultivator immediately selected six talismans worth two spirit stones each and handed Lu Changsheng ten spirit stones.

Once the first sale was made, people began coming over one after another to buy talismans.

Talismans sold relatively well among cultivators, and practically everyone carried a few for protection.

With the buy-five-get-one-free offer, and talismans whose well-drawn lines made their quality clear even to an amateur, Lu Changsheng had no shortage of customers.

In a little over two hours, the nearly hundred talismans Lu Changsheng had put out were sold out.

He earned a total of one hundred and thirty-three spirit stones.

Having a craft really does bring in money.

Lu Changsheng was delighted and thoroughly satisfied with his first pot of gold.

The cost of a hundred talismans was roughly twenty-two spirit stones.

Yet he had now sold them for six times that amount.

If he had been selling First-Tier Middle-Grade Talismans, which fetched three to five spirit stones apiece, his profit could have doubled.

After all, even with ordinary talisman-making materials, Lu Changsheng had a hundred-percent success rate when drawing First-Tier Middle-Grade Talismans!

This was also what gave Lu Changsheng the confidence that he could establish himself in this world even if he left the Lu Lineage.

After selling these talismans, Lu Changsheng did not take out any more.

Other sellers had only a dozen or so talismans, or a few dozen at most. Selling nearly a hundred himself was already rather excessive.

If he sold any more, he would very likely draw unwanted attention, so caution was best.

Lu Changsheng then began spending the spirit stones that had barely had time to warm in his hands.

In one shop, Lu Changsheng saw advanced talisman paper and advanced spirit ink for sale.

Their quality, however, was mediocre, if not outright poor.

Talisman-making materials were divided into ordinary, advanced, and top-grade categories.

But within those categories, quality also varied depending on the raw materials and manufacturing methods.

The materials in this shop were not particularly good.

Still, he did not have many options, so Lu Changsheng asked about the prices.

Talisman paper cost five spirit stones per stack of ten sheets, while spirit ink cost five spirit stones per box.

That was five times the price of ordinary talisman paper and spirit ink.

It was a normal enough price.

Buying advanced materials like these to draw First-Tier Middle-Grade Talismans would leave little room for profit.

But for Lu Changsheng, who could draw First-Tier Upper-Grade Talismans, he would make money either way.

After some bargaining, Lu Changsheng spent sixty-six spirit stones to buy all twelve stacks of advanced talisman paper and all three boxes of spirit ink the shop had.

He continued looking around, but found no top-grade talisman paper or top-grade spirit ink for sale.

That was only natural.

Materials for drawing Top-Grade Talismans were rather too high-end for a Rogue Cultivator Gathering like this.

While browsing, Lu Changsheng spotted a stall selling books about cultivation.

The various accounts of strange cultivation phenomena, travelogues, and personal notes intrigued him, so he spent one spirit stone on ten books.

Then he spotted five-element spiritual materials for sale.

After visiting several stalls and shops, Lu Changsheng bought all the five-element spiritual materials he needed to practice the Immortal Bearing Art once he returned.

These were all first-tier middle-grade spiritual materials. Neither cheap nor expensive, they cost him fifty-nine spirit stones in total.

Although he had spent nearly all the spirit stones he had just earned, Lu Changsheng did not leave yet.

He continued browsing, hoping to find a better talisman brush for sale.

The talisman brush he currently used was the Golden-Hair Talisman Brush the Lu Lineage had given him.

It was among the finest ordinary talisman brushes, but still fell short of being a magic artifact.

Although it could be used to draw First-Tier Upper-Grade Talismans, it was ultimately somewhat lacking.

After making a circuit without finding a talisman brush he liked, Lu Changsheng could only give up.

He remembered that he still needed to visit the Red Whale Gang to find Li Feiyu and ask the gang to look after his family. He ought to bring something along when he called on them.

Lu Changsheng bought a few bottles of mundane medicinal pills from another stall.

These mundane medicinal pills were very cheap, ungraded pills made by alchemy apprentices.

Their price was about the same as basic talismans: two bottles for one spirit stone.

Lu Changsheng spent two spirit stones on five bottles. Feeling that was about enough, he stopped browsing.

He returned to the narrow path through which he had entered and left the valley.

After leaving the valley, Lu Changsheng checked that no one was around before putting the things he carried into his Storage Bag.

Then, taking care in all things, he took a Lightbody Talisman from his Storage Bag and used it on himself.

With a light push from his toes, his body became as light as a swallow, and he sped down the mountain.

However.

Only moments after Lu Changsheng left, three figures emerged from the valley.

"That brat's talismans were all superb. They clearly came from the hand of an advanced Talisman Master."

"But he's only at the chain qi third layer, and he was so cautious about trading in a place like this. He must be a rogue cultivator who stumbled into a windfall. He's bound to have more good stuff on him!"

With greedy, sinister expressions, the three looked in the direction Lu Changsheng had gone, cast the Wind-Riding Technique, and raced after him.