Xu Xuan walked slowly through the market, his gaze passing over one stall after another.
Most of the jade slips and books touted as "secret cultivation manuals" were commonplace wares such as the Qi Drawing Art and Essence Nurturing Technique.
Some were incomplete; even more made exaggerated claims.
His expression remained calm as he examined them one by one, weighing their worth in his mind.
Suddenly, he stopped.
An inconspicuous stall stood in a corner.
Its owner was a down-and-out middle-aged rogue cultivator whose cultivation was merely at Meridian Opening.
Only a few dull pieces of ore and two or three old jade slips lay on the stall.
Xu Xuan's gaze settled on one grayish-white jade slip.
It was labeled "Evergreen Technique, incomplete volume; allows cultivation up to the Spirit Treasury Realm."
The asking price was five low-grade spirit stones.
There was nothing remarkable about any of this on the surface.
The real reason Xu Xuan had stopped was that the Earth Spirit of the Eight Directions had trembled faintly again for an instant.
An opportunity!
Thoughts flashed through Xu Xuan's mind, and he guessed that this item must conceal some secret.
He crouched down, picked up the jade slip, and extended his spiritual sense into it.
The jade slip's contents were indeed incomplete, containing only methods from the middle Meridian Opening stage to the early Spirit Treasury stage, with many passages left vague.
However, the core cultivation pathways were still reasonably complete, and its nature was balanced and gentle, carrying an inexplicable vitality.
As he carefully contemplated it, he found that it actually resonated faintly with his own spiritual root and suited him extremely well.
It was far more sophisticated than those ordinary versions of the Qi Drawing Art.
Xu Xuan lightly touched the jade slip with his fingertips and looked at the stall owner.
"Fellow Daoist."
"This jade slip is badly incomplete. Isn't five spirit stones a little expensive?"
Xu Xuan tried negotiating the price.
At his words, the down-and-out rogue cultivator forced a bitter smile:
The rogue cultivator gave a bitter chuckle:
"Brother, to tell you the truth, I risked my neck picking this up on the outskirts of an ancient cultivator's cave abode."
"It may be somewhat incomplete, but it's a genuine ancient inheritance, far better than the commonplace stuff circulating today."
He rubbed his hands together and lowered his voice:
"Four spirit stones. That really is my lowest price."
"Any lower, and I might as well keep it to study myself."
An ancient cultivator's cave abode?
Xu Xuan's gaze sharpened slightly as thoughts raced through his mind.
His entire fortune amounted to only a dozen or so low-grade spirit stones.
Judging by value alone, spending four spirit stones on an incomplete Spiritual Treasury cultivation technique was indeed unwise.
Spending four spirit stones on a Spiritual Treasury cultivation technique was naturally not worthwhile.
Yet despite all his visits to Green Moss Market, this was the first time the Earth Spirit of the Eight Directions had reacted.
Opportunities were mysterious things, difficult to put into words. If he missed this one, there was no telling when he might encounter another.
His mind made up, Xu Xuan hesitated no longer.
"All right, I'll take this jade slip."
He briskly counted out four faintly glowing spirit stones and handed them over, casually picking up a stack of blank talisman paper from the stall as he did.
"Throw this in as an extra."
Seeing the deal go through, the stall owner beamed and hurriedly put away the spirit stones.
He gave Xu Xuan the worthless stack of talisman paper as a free gift.
With the transaction complete, Xu Xuan carefully budgeted his remaining spirit stones and bought some basic materials for making talismans.
Fine cinnabar, a specially made talisman brush...
He also bought a copy of Introduction to Talismans, its pages yellowed but its contents quite detailed.
He knew full well.
With his current abilities, even if he successfully refined pills, their value would be very low.
Moreover, pill refining consumed time and effort, with additional losses from the firing process. It was by no means the best choice.
Talisman making, by contrast, had a slightly lower barrier to entry and offered greater flexibility.
If he could gain a foothold in the craft and become a first-tier talisman master.
This skill would be enough to secure his footing within the Azure Wood Sect.
What was more, friction between the Azure Wood Sect and the Profound Sword Gate was increasing, and both sides' demand for all kinds of combat and support talismans was bound to rise sharply.
Xu Xuan had long since spotted this potential business opportunity.
The art of talisman making was precisely the relatively dependable path of cultivation he had planned for himself.
Carefully putting away the jade slip and materials, Xu Xuan turned and merged into the crowd, his plans for what came next growing ever clearer.
Upon returning to the herb garden, Xu Xuan shut himself away and devoted himself to studying the incomplete Evergreen Technique.
Although the jade slip's contents were fragmentary, he drew upon his experience of cultivation across two lifetimes to scrutinize them carefully.
He actually managed to fill in most of the missing portions, barely extrapolating the technique to the Qi Refining level.
The technique's energy was balanced and mellow. It emphasized gradual progress, placed few demands on spiritual root aptitude, and relied more heavily on patient, painstaking effort.
The stronger one's spiritual root, the faster one would naturally cultivate.
Even someone of mediocre aptitude could make steady progress, provided they practiced diligently without cease.
This suited Xu Xuan's present circumstances perfectly.
He promptly set aside the rudimentary Green Grain Art and switched to the Evergreen Technique.
At first, circulating his energy through a full cycle was indeed somewhat sluggish and obstructed.
But as he continued cultivating day after day, the spiritual power within him grew increasingly abundant and condensed, becoming considerably stronger than before.
This technique... really does have something to it.
Xu Xuan was inwardly astonished.
At the same time, a strange feeling lingered in his mind.
The quality of this technique as it circulated actually bore some resemblance to the feeling of cultivating on Kunlun in his previous life.
Could this ancient method also have some connection to Kunlun?
Meanwhile, he made time every evening to study Introduction to Talismans.
With materials on hand, he immediately began trying to make the simplest Cleansing Talismans and Bright Light Talismans.
At first, his failure rate was extremely high, and he ruined sheet after sheet of talisman paper.
But Xu Xuan was steadfast and paid this no mind, simply continuing to draw lessons from his failures.
Once his hands grew practiced, together with the blessing of luck from the Earth Spirit of the Eight Directions.
His progress in the art of talismans became extremely rapid.
In just a few months, he could already barely manage to draw first-tier spirit talismans.
Though their quality was poor and their lines crude, they did work once infused with spiritual power.
Once this crude talisman paper is inscribed and becomes a first-tier elementary talisman, its value can rise a hundredfold.
Xu Xuan weighed a finished talisman in his hand, perfectly clear on this point.
In Green Moss Market, basic support talismans of this kind were not considered precious.
A dozen sheets would often fetch only two or three low-grade spirit stones.
But the prices of offensive or defensive spirit talismans were an entirely different matter.
A single first-tier low-grade offensive talisman could be worth seven or eight spirit stones.
For a first-tier high-grade talisman, a price of several dozen spirit stones was not uncommon.
Having mastered the basics of talisman making, Xu Xuan now had another dependable source of spirit stones.
He was in no hurry for success, continuing to cultivate the Evergreen Technique and practice talisman making every day, making his foundation ever more solid.
The road ahead was long; cultivation would bring accomplishment.
Just as Xu Xuan devoted himself to cultivation and learning the art of talismans.
The Xu Household was also quietly changing.
After receiving those jade slips, Xu Ziyu had treasured them dearly, while fully understanding the principle that possessing jade could itself be a crime.
Every arrangement was made in secret.
The several core disciples he selected spent years studying diligently.
Following the methods recorded in the Spiritual Vein Notes, they secretly surveyed the territory around Xu Household Market in detail.
They actually detected a faint water-aspect spiritual vein somewhere along the river outside the market.
Although this water vein was as fine as a drifting thread, far too weak to support the founding of a sect.
Its concentration of spiritual energy still far exceeded that of ordinary places.
The Xu Household immediately took secret control of that area and developed it into a new herb garden for the Lineage.
They also gradually moved their most important direct-line members there to cultivate in seclusion.
Meanwhile, the pill formulas in Commentary on the Hundred Herbs Classic were recorded in detail.
Xu Ziyu ordered the Lineage's disciples with even a little aptitude to pool their resources and begin attempting to refine the simplest Grain Abstinence Pills.
The Lineage gave priority to supplying all the spiritual herbs and materials they needed.
After three years of constant failure and review, several of them truly succeeded in mastering the refining techniques.
Though the finished pills were poor in quality, with barely one successful batch in ten, this was already tremendous progress.
This meant that from then on, apart from the art of cultivating spiritual plants, the Xu Household.
Had gained another fundamental skill with which to establish itself in the cultivation world.
Having witnessed the changes in the Lineage over those years.
Xu Ziyu grew increasingly curious about the "Wang Tong" who had given them the jade slips.
But the man was in the Azure Wood Sect, beyond the Xu Household's reach. Xu Ziyu neither dared nor knew how to contact him of his own accord.
After much deliberation.
Xu Ziyu still decided to express his gratitude and cautiously sound him out.
He once again traveled personally to Hundred Fragrance Valley.
This time, he specially prepared a batch of fine spiritual herbs grown in the Lineage's herb garden and entrusted Zhang Jie with delivering them to the Azure Wood Sect.
Nominally, they were thanks for his usual care of the Lineage's disciples.
Inside one bundle of the finest Water Cloud Grass, however, Xu Ziyu carefully tucked a brief message written in code.
The letter briefly described the Lineage's recent circumstances.
In particular, its account of the changes brought about by those jade slips was filled with sincere gratitude between every line.
At the end, he inquired in extremely veiled terms.
Whether the giver had any further instructions, or needed the Xu Household's assistance in any way.
Having accepted an additional lavish gift from Xu Ziyu, Zhang Jie was naturally happy to oblige with such an easy favor.