Over the past few days, Fang Hong had more or less worked out how to make the [Sloth] potion.
Tomorrow, I'll visit a nearby market and see whether I can buy the materials for preparing the seven great medicines.
He made his plans inwardly.
Chai Hongzhou had sent word yesterday that he had contacted the other three pairs of inner disciples in their cohort. They planned to hold a gathering at noon tomorrow in a market affiliated with the Yin-Yang Sect and formally establish their society.
The venue had been set at Fengle Tower in the Five Dragon Island market.
According to Chai Hongzhou, the tower belonged to the Xiao Household of Biluò Island, and his Dao companion had strongly recommended it.
Fang Hong had no objections and settled the matter on the spot.
Now, he took out the Three Fates Compendium again and began studying it carefully.
This book differed from other cultivation methods and mental formulas; even the aid of the Dao Enlightenment Flower was of no use.
Relying on his Fate Mirror talent, Fang Hong could barely comprehend a little of it, but each day, after reading for less than an incense stick's worth of time, his head would swim and his soul would grow weary. It seemed that somewhere in the unseen workings of this world, an immense force was hindering him from cultivating this method.
Fortunately, Rogue Person Xuanyin was the Hall Master of the Teaching Hall, so Fang Hong was in no hurry to return the book. He could simply cultivate it slowly.
Before long, the familiar weariness swept over him.
He closed the silk book and took out the second volume, the Romantic Painting Album, to refresh himself.
The essence of this album lay in the page in the middle depicting Yan Suyue, a Golden Core elder of the Heaven-Reaching Sword Sect!
According to the Donglai Gazetteer, the Heaven-Reaching Sword Sect had originally been a great Nascent Soul sect ten thousand years ago, with deep foundations and sword arts that stood proudly above all others.
Later, the sect had encountered the Netherworld Ghost Mist, a natural calamity of the South Sea, and its sword cultivators had nearly been wiped out. Fortunately, its legacy had not been completely severed. The surviving disciples had found another spiritual island, established their lineage anew, and continued it to this day.
However, the Heaven-Reaching Sword Sect had suffered devastating losses in that calamity, and the Shangqing Sect had wrested away its title as the foremost sword sect in the Donglai Sea Region.
In Rogue Person Xuanyin's Romantic Painting Album, the exalted Golden Core elder of the Heaven-Reaching Sword Sect had become a charming, languid young matron, displaying every last ounce of her beauty as she showed the viewer the lovely curves of her body.
But this painting held another secret.
Fang Hong lightly touched the young matron in the painting with his Divine Sense. His vision immediately blurred, and his soul had already been drawn into a vast, illusory space.
Beneath his feet stretched a boundless expanse of water, smooth as a mirror.
Above him, the azure sky was washed clean, with white clouds drifting leisurely across it. Reflected in the water, they made the space seem all the more empty and tranquil.
The charming young matron, her figure bewitchingly sinuous, looked coldly at Fang Hong with a trace of anger on her face and snapped, "Little demonic scoundrel, taste my sword!"
Before her words had faded, she hooked and flicked two fair, tender fingers. A stream of water flew up from beneath her feet, condensed into a flying sword, and slashed straight at Fang Hong's neck.
Fang Hong hurriedly darted aside, simultaneously shaping water into a sword to intercept that sword light.
The two streaks of sword light left dazzling trails through the air.
One twisted like a dragon, its momentum powerful and heavy.
The other moved nimbly and gracefully, coming and going like drifting mist.
The young matron's cultivation was similar to Fang Hong's, but her swordsmanship was exquisite beyond compare and unimaginably swift. After exchanging three moves with her, Fang Hong had his flying sword flicked aside, and her blade sliced across his neck.
Inside the quiet chamber.
Fang Hong reached up and felt his neck, still shaken.
This painting contained Rogue Person Xuanyin's illusion Divine Ability, which could manifest an illusory space of Divine Sense. It even seemed to have captured a wisp of Yan Suyue's own spiritual essence, granting sentience to the young matron in the painting.
The first time Fang Hong entered, she had beheaded him with a single stroke without saying a word.
Naturally unwilling to accept defeat, he entered again and was "killed" again.
After suffering at this charming young matron's hands no fewer than a hundred times, Fang Hong discovered that his swordsmanship and ability to react had actually improved considerably.
By today, he could barely last three moves against Yan Suyue.
He carefully recalled every detail of Yan Suyue's moves, imitating and learning from them as he racked his brains for a way to counter them.
Before long, his eyes lit up, and he entered the painting again to duel with the young matron, countering her moves as they came.
The next day.
Outside the white jade tower, Fang Hong summoned a Flying Chariot, activated two Talisman Snow Lions, and rode straight into the sky toward the Five Dragon Island market.
Su Yao was wholly focused on cultivation and had no time to take part in this matter.
Five Dragon Island lay seven hundred li northeast of the Yin-Yang Sect and was a spiritual island under its control.
Like the Shangqing Sect's Shangqing Immortal Market, the Yin-Yang Sect had established a market near its grounds, inviting cultivation clans large and small throughout the Donglai Sea Region, as well as Rogue Cultivators, to open shops and do business there.
Even the Donglai Sea Region's thirteen Golden Core sects all had shops here.
Every three years, the Yin-Yang Sect held a small auction here, offering second-tier and even third-tier treasures. It would often draw hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators from across the region.
Every ten years, it held a large auction, primarily catering to Golden Core cultivators of the South Sea.
Fang Hong sat leisurely in his carriage, looking down at the scenery between sea and sky. In less than two hours, he arrived at Five Dragon Island.
Viewed from above, numerous smaller islands lay scattered around it like stars across the sky or pieces on a board. Each had elegant lodges and towers, and the flickering light of formations and restrictions could be seen on many of them. Clearly, cultivators were cultivating in seclusion there.
These small islands were also properties of the Yin-Yang Sect, rented out to seafaring Rogue Cultivators in exchange for rent.
Outside the market, streaks of flight light, flying boats, and spirit beasts rose and descended ceaselessly, presenting a thriving scene.
Fang Hong put away his carriage and Talisman Snow Lions in advance. After traveling some distance as a streak of flight light instead, he landed at the archway of the market's southern entrance.
Four outer disciples wearing Yin-Yang Sect robes stood guard at the archway. Every cultivator entering the market had to pay three spirit stones as an "entrance fee."
Those who regularly did business or lived in the market had special identification talismans. Since they had already paid rent and taxes, they could ordinarily come and go as they pleased.
In addition, the Yin-Yang Sect's disciples and elders could all enter and leave freely.
At the market entrance, Fang Hong took out his inner disciple identification talisman and showed it to the four Yin-Yang Sect disciples.
After checking it, all four beamed. "Please enter, senior brother."
Fang Hong nodded without saying more, put away his identification talisman, and entered the market.
The Five Dragon Island market was sizable, resembling a small town. Its streets ran in every direction, with shops packed side by side along six main streets, three running east-west and three north-south.
There were also many grand, towering buildings within the market, looking quite imposing from afar.
He strolled along the main street. On either side, numerous Rogue Cultivators had set up countless canopied stalls in scattered clusters, linking into a bustling marketplace.
Everywhere he looked, the stalls sold low-grade spirit pills, magical artifacts, talismans, puppets, spirit rice, dark iron, damaged objects and unusual treasures, spiritual dishes and spirit wine... voices seethed like a boiling cauldron, their clamor filling the sky.
Cultivators streamed among them like ants.
Many Rogue Cultivators also called out in singsong voices that rose and fell:
"Medicine King Sect's Unflagging Golden Spear Pills-who wants some, hey? Personally tasted by the esteemed supreme elder of the Liu Clan on Daliang Island. May they bless you with children and grandchildren aplenty!"
"Purple-Gold Ice Demon Tapir-first-tier demon tapirs raised by the Qian Household of Illusory Nether Island! A thousand-year-old name! If they don't taste good, you don't pay a single spirit stone!"
"Monkey wine-monkey wine! Brewed by entirely wild demon monkeys, aged a hundred years! Free samples!"
"Authentic Qi Refining human cauldrons from the Wonderful Sound Pavilion! Fair skin, beautiful faces, slender waists, long legs-the finest in the Southern Frontier!"
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