Magical Implements

The marketplace bustled noisily. Two people and a bird stood furtively at the corner of a storefront, staring blankly at the unusually designed "stockings" in the woman's hands.

Xie Jinhuan had still been praising the Nightly Great Succubus, but the sight of the erotic stockings froze his expression. He thought:

Great Qian had this kind of fucking thing too?

How come I'd never seen it in all my years here?

Wasn't this ridiculous?

Lin Wanyi held up the stockings without a word, but her peerless face, as gorgeous as a peony of national beauty, had already turned green!

She often visited the inner quarters of powerful households and had seen such items before, but never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that Danyang Academy produced them.

How could a distinguished Confucian academy use a material as fine as ice-soul silk to make things for seducing men?

Perhaps refusing to believe it, Lin Wanyi unfolded the other piece of black fabric from the pouch.

Sure enough, a gauzy dudou of the same material appeared before them. It was even triangular, perfectly cupping those lovely mounds while leaving the slender waist exposed, mature and sexy...

The dudou was also embroidered with lifelike lotuses and carp, shimmering in five colors as the light shifted. It was actually rather pretty...

Having lived in Capital City for sixteen years, Xie Jinhuan truly had never expected erotic lingerie to exist in this world.

Seeing Lin Wanyi's eyelashes tremble and an intense murderous aura gradually emerge, he braced himself and offered reassurance:

"The students and instructors at the Wubei Institute make all sorts of ingenious magical implements. Could there be some hidden mechanism to this?"

Lin Wanyi thought he had a point-ice-soul silk was expensive, and using it for a dudou would be far too wasteful. This item must conceal some other secret. Perhaps it really was a "magical implement."

Magical implements were generally objects fashioned from rare materials that reacted to true qi. The swords of Purple Emblem Mountain and the Dan King Pavilion's Eight Directions Illumination Formation all counted as magical implements.

Magical implements varied in quality, their grade determined by the highest cultivation grade at which they remained useful. Master artificers of profound attainment could even forge magical implements worthy of being called immortal artifacts. For example, the Zhenglun Sword, lost to Purple Emblem Mountain for a hundred years, could double the power of lightning arts and also possessed a "Ghost-Suppressing, Succubus-Binding" effect. It was hailed as the greatest killing weapon of the Daoist schools.

Operating magical implements was simple too. Pouring one's own qi into them would produce the corresponding reaction.

With that in mind, Lin Wanyi held the garment and lightly stirred her qi.

The two immediately discovered that, once infused with true qi, the two pink lotuses embroidered on the fabric twisted and changed shape, opening like flower buds. Normally, they should have revealed their stamens, but since no one was wearing it, there were only two holes...

At the sight, Xie Jinhuan could not help drawing a deep breath, thinking:

Good grief, how was I supposed to explain this one away?

After all, even counting both his lives, this was his first time seeing such a bizarre item.

As for its purpose, that was easy enough to understand. Presumably, it made things more convenient for a man to feast while doing naughty things...

But even someone at the Daoist Ancestor's level could use this magical implement, so did that make it an Immortal Weapon?

Lin Wanyi stared blankly at the holes in the fabric. Perhaps still refusing to believe it, she picked up the stockings and tried them too. The elaborate embroidery at the crotch, which appeared to cover the vital spot, actually changed shape as well, revealing...

?!

Even though Lin Wanyi was an unmarried woman, she now understood what these were for. Her slender brows instantly shot up, and her gaze looked murderous!

Xie Jinhuan truly did not know what to say about the local master craftsmen. He offered consolation:

"The workmanship and materials could be called craftsmanship that rivals heaven itself. This would sell for at least a hundred taels of silver. Getting it for thirty was a steal. Why not make do and wear it?"

"Pah!"

How could Lin Wanyi possibly bring herself to wear something designed for a man's convenience?

If Zisu discovered it, wouldn't she scold her shameless little aunt to death?

Besides, buying it secretly would have been one thing. It was rather pretty, and she could have made do with wearing it, but Xie Jinhuan had been standing right beside her watching!

Was she supposed to wear it for Xie Jinhuan to see?

Her face and ears burning red, Lin Wanyi felt utterly humiliated and turned to go back to the shop to settle accounts.

But outside the shop, black lettering on white paper clearly stated, "All sales final. Gains and losses are your own." She would plainly be in the wrong if she went to make trouble.

Unable to swallow her anger, Lin Wanyi looked at Xie Jinhuan again:

"Did you know what these were and deliberately egg me on to buy them?"

Xie Jinhuan spread his hands. "If I had that kind of ability, would I still need to ask you to refine pills? We finally hit the jackpot. Don't act like we lost out. You can have everything. I can't use it anyway, so I won't ask for a share. Come on, let's get to our actual business."

"..."

Lin Wanyi actually wanted very much to make Xie Jinhuan repay her the enormous sum of thirty taels, but these were luxury goods that could not possibly have cost less than a hundred taels or so to make. After holding it in for a long while, she finally tucked them into her bosom, took out a banknote, and slapped it against Xie Jinhuan's chest.

"Fine, I'll take the loss. I won't take advantage of you either. In any case, I'm not wearing these damned things..."

Xie Jinhuan felt certain that Lin Wanyi would secretly wear them once she got home, though he obviously would not get to see. He merely shook his head with a smile and followed behind...

A short while later, inside a large shop on Golden Gate Street filled with medicinal ingredients.

The guard Jia Zheng waited quietly outside the threshold, while Xie Jinhuan stood by the entrance, surveying the bustling marketplace.

Coal Ball gazed curiously at a winnowing basket of unidentified dried meat, looking ready to grab and eat whatever caught the bird's eye again.

Lin Wanyi sat in the tea room, speaking with a potbellied medicine merchant:

"The market price is only sixty taels per mace. This price seems far too high..."

"That was the spring price. Now that autumn has come and the flowering season is over, every mace sold is a mace gone. It's only out of respect for your reputation, Physician Lin, that I'm cutting my own flesh to offer two taels' weight. If I sold sparingly and held on to it until winter, I could make quite a bit more silver, at the very least..."

"Ah, eighty taels. We do business so often..."

Xie Jinhuan knew rare herbs commanded astonishing prices, but only when buying them himself did he realize how terrifying those prices were. One mace cost several months of his father's salary, yet there was still no shortage of buyers.

If medicinal ingredients used by third- and fourth-grade cultivators were already this expensive, those for Transcendent Grade cultivators probably cost a king's ransom.

After a long round of bargaining, two taels' weight of white yang flower sold for the astronomical price of sixteen hundred taels of silver. In the hand, it was only a palm-sized box, smaller even than the box that had held the dudou.

Lin Wanyi carefully cradled the little box worth a fortune. Once outside, she instructed:

"Jia Zheng, go back and ask around again. Find out where else dragon yang flower is being sold and stock up. Everything is going up in price now that autumn is here. Even one day's delay will cost us quite a bit more silver."

"Yes, I'll ask around as soon as possible."

Walking beside her, Xie Jinhuan had wanted to take the box and examine the medicinal ingredients worth a fortune, but the Dao of Alchemy had rules forbidding outsiders from handling ingredients, lest their medicinal properties be damaged. He could only give up.

The three walked together and soon passed through the gilded archway, arriving at the courtyard beside Golden Gate Street where horses and carriages were parked.

Jia Zheng went ahead to untie the horses' reins, while Lin Wanyi climbed aboard first.

As a guest, Xie Jinhuan could hardly rush into the carriage ahead of Lin Wanyi, so he had been surveying the street with Coal Ball on his shoulder.

But just as Lin Wanyi was about to push open the carriage door, Xie Jinhuan's ears twitched. Sensing something amiss, he turned toward the nearby stable.

Her mind occupied by the erotic undergarments, Lin Wanyi noticed nothing else and simply pushed open the door.

A cloud of black dust drifted down from the gap above the carriage door:

Rustle...

Whoosh-

Before Lin Wanyi could react, she felt a whirlwind rise behind her. A figure flashed up like racing thunder, seized her sash, and hauled her aside. At the same time, the Zhenglun Sword left its sheath, spinning into a wheel before them and blocking the dust so completely that not even water could have passed!

Swish, swish, swish-

With one arm around Lin Wanyi, Xie Jinhuan sprang backward and landed in an open space. Seeing that her right hand, which had opened the door, was still contaminated with black poison powder, he immediately raised his sword:

"What poison?"

Lin Wanyi was a little dazed. Discovering that Xie Jinhuan, her heroic rescuer, actually intended to cut through the tangled knot with a swift blade by chopping off her hand, she hurriedly tucked it behind her back in fright:

"It's fine, it's fine! It seems to be Blood-Clotting Powder. I can neutralize it."

Xie Jinhuan knew Blood-Clotting Powder was a potent, deadly poison, but a witch of the venomous insect and poison school presumably had no need to fear it. He put away the Zhenglun Sword and looked toward the stable:

"Come out!"

Jia Zheng had not even figured out what had happened. Only upon hearing the shout did he draw the saber at his waist and take up a position beside Lin Wanyi.

Tap, tap...

Soon, a figure emerged from beside the nearby stable.

It was a man in his thirties, dressed in coarse hemp clothes, his black hair casually coiled atop his head. A five-foot horse-cleaving saber rested on his shoulder, and his gait was quite leisurely:

"You spotted me even like that. Pretty alert, aren't you, brat?"

Sensing the man's formidable presence, Jia Zheng held his saber as though facing a mighty foe:

"Who might you be? Why resort to poisoning someone in secret?"

The man carrying the horse-cleaving saber stopped directly before them. Looking at Xie Jinhuan, he raised his chin slightly:

"Fu Dongping, the Unparalleled Blade. Ever heard that name, brat?"

"Fu Dongping..."

Xie Jinhuan clearly had not.

Jia Zheng warned him quietly, "A vicious bandit from Dan Prefecture. Last month, he robbed an escorted shipment at Yellowstone Ridge and killed three men, each with a single stroke. He still hasn't been brought to justice. His wanted notice has been posted at the city gate for ages. They say he's reached the sixth grade of martial cultivation, is skilled with a saber, and is greedy for money and women..."

Learning that the attacker was a sixth-grade expert, Lin Wanyi could not help knitting her brows. She knew things looked bad.

Although she did not fear poisoning and could deal with a martial artist like this, she would never dare use the Witch Cult's methods in the city in broad daylight.

Jia Zheng was no match for him, and Xie Jinhuan was only twenty. Even with his practiced techniques, he could at most fight on equal footing. Against such a vicious bandit...

Lin Wanyi searched all around, hoping to call for officers, but unfortunately, only a few coachmen were nearby, and even they fled at the sight. She could not help growing anxious...

Naturally, Xie Jinhuan felt no pressure. He was simply very angry.

After all, Lin Wanyi was his lifesaving straw. Without pills to rapidly improve his strength, he would die the moment his secret was exposed, and he would have no way to bury his grandaunt again either.

Wasn't assassinating Lin Wanyi indirectly trying to kill him?

Xie Jinhuan wanted nothing more than to casually obliterate this small fry, but following the proper procedure, he still asked:

"Who sent you?"

Fu Dongping clearly had no idea how he was courting death. His gaze was arrogant:

"Rules of the martial world. I can't tell you."

"Where's the antidote?"

"I can't tell you."

Xie Jinhuan frowned. "If that saber of yours were half as tough as your mouth, I'd count you as somebody."

Fu Dongping's eyes narrowed slightly. "You really are arrogant, brat. A newborn calf doesn't fear the tiger, but that's hardly a compliment..."

Clang-

Before he finished speaking, a piercing sword cry rang out beneath the clear sky!