"I really have inhaled too much low-grade hallucinogen."
Bai Yi's expression turned cold, and faint Spiritual Power flowed out of him, clinging to his skin.
He took one step forward. The man at the head of the group felt only a gust of wind sweep past, then five fingers coursing with Spiritual Power filled his vision.
A moment later, a powerful force yanked him up and slammed him heavily onto the ground as the world spun around him.
Bang!
The leading man's head struck the ground hard. Bai Yi got up and brushed the dust from his clothes.
He suddenly kicked the man blocking his way, sending him several meters away, then walked outside amid the fearful gazes of the others.
Old District, Nameless Street
Amid the rotting, dilapidated surroundings, countless neon lights illuminated the district, creating a lively scene of glittering lights and debauchery.
"Link Group's latest modified prosthetic limbs! Buy now while supplies last..."
"Blood-Chaos Pills! One bottle, six pills, only ten thousand Spirit Value Coins!"
"Handsome, why don't you come in and sit for a while? The girls just love strong men like you."
The street was full of people dressed in all sorts of clothes. Groups of three or five wore modified prosthetic limbs; some figures were cloaked in black robes that concealed every inch of skin; and shop attendants sat in front of their stores, constantly hawking their wares...
Bai Yi stepped over the bodies sprawled on the ground. Without pausing at the front of Nameless Street, he headed straight for the street behind it on the right.
Although it was called Nameless Street, it actually occupied nearly sixty percent of the Old District.
On Nameless Street, those who came had no name, and those who left had no name; buyers had no name, and sellers had no name. No one asked about the past or the reason for anything, hence the name Nameless.
Cultivation techniques, spirit weapons, pills, modified prosthetic limbs, biotechnology, contraband, hallucinogens, and even Spirit Treasure Implantations... As long as you had money, you could buy nearly ninety percent of the goods in Lanshan City here.
A little over ten minutes later, as Bai Yi entered the East Side District, the chaos he had seen earlier eased somewhat.
Along both sides of the street, projection screens played a rolling display of the goods sold by various shops. Crowds of people like him, wearing masks or face coverings and radiating Spiritual Power, surged toward an abandoned mechanical factory in the middle of the district.
"Show your personal asset verification."
Outside the metal-plated armored gate, several burly men wearing lightweight nan exoskeletons blocked everyone entering. They radiated the Spiritual Power of the first or second levels of Qi Refining.
They held devices resembling search systems. After scanning each person's Personal Terminal, they let them through when the green light came on.
Following the crowd, Bai Yi reached the gate. After canceling the basic search permission on his personal account, he turned to look at the burly man conducting the scan beside him.
Silvery gray armored bones connected to the man's skin. Individual conduits pierced his flesh like a spiderweb, linking to his blood vessels, nerves, and even meridians. The inferior crystal chip at the tip of his spine, energized by its power source, occasionally flickered with a point of light.
The lowest-grade Human Biological Implant Modification.
Bai Yi sensed the mixed Spiritual Power radiating from the burly man and thought to himself.
The Immortal Alliance had risen on the foundation of highly advanced technology. Over nearly ten thousand years, as the cultivation civilization had developed at rocket speed, its technological civilization had not regressed; instead, it had made epoch-making progress.
This had given rise to a method of cultivation unique to the Immortal Alliance: Cyber Cultivation, which fused technology and cultivation.
The official name for it in Dao Studies was the Technology Dao System.
Using Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, Spirit Crystal Ore, and other spiritual materials as a foundation, it combined traditional Artifact Refining with technology to create a new kind of refining treasure for cultivators-one that caused no harm to their Dao Path or the Great Dao: Spirit Treasure Implantation.
Every bite and every drink followed a pattern.
The lack of side effects and great power of Spirit Treasure Implantation came at the cost of an extraordinarily high price.
Whether it was the Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures required or the manufacturing process, both gave it greater value and utility than traditional Artifact Refining spirit treasures.
Therefore, many cultivators with no hope of reaching the Great Dao, or who pursued only immediate cultivation gains, would use ordinary technological materials to undergo Spirit Treasure Implantation modifications in pursuit of greater combat power at their current level.
As for the Cybernetic Implant modifications on the two men in front of him, they had neither decent materials nor proper technique. They were the worst of the worst.
After installation, they could raise one's strength by only about twenty to thirty percent, and the mixed Spiritual Power meant they would never make any further progress in their lives.
"Perhaps this is what the world looks like at its most basic..."
Bai Yi sighed inwardly. The Immortal Alliance's population exceeded one hundred billion. Even if ninety percent had Five Spiritual Roots, how could resources support such a vast population when everyone cultivated?
Forget getting into an Academy. Even among those admitted to Advanced Dao Studies, of the more than one hundred thousand youths in his cohort in Lanshan City, fewer than six thousand had entered Blue Mountain's Five Great Advanced Dao Studies.
It could be said that, for an ordinary family, a child getting into Advanced Dao Studies was enough to be considered a great success.
Compared to the two burly men before him, who were already thirty and had only reached the first or second level of Qi Refining, weren't students of Advanced Dao Studies practically dragons among men?
"You're cleared. Go on in."
The burly man scanned Bai Yi's Terminal with the detector in his hand. After speaking in a deep voice, he looked toward the next person.
Bai Yi followed the crowd through a dark corridor. A wave of noisy clamor flooded into his ears.
Under all kinds of dim, flickering neon lights, a black-market trading venue covering more than twenty thousand square meters, packed with all sorts of people, came into view.
Blue Mountain Black Market
As a black-market location that was almost half open to cultivators in Lanshan City, it circulated countless illicit cultivation goods and unusual items.
At the same time, Blue Mountain Black Market was known for rules of management no less strict than those of legitimate trading venues.
Even illicit goods and contraband had to abide by the commercial rules here.
"The Dao-Deriving Mirror needs Spirit Ore and Spirit Crystal to be nurtured, or spirit weapons and spirit treasures forged using traditional Artifact Refining methods..."
"Are there still spirit weapons made using traditional Artifact Refining methods nowadays...?"
Bai Yi glanced over the stalls on both sides and stopped at one piled with various mineral materials and damaged items.
"I've got nothing but the finest ore here."
The shopkeeper, wearing a ram's-head mask, spoke in a lowered voice, then picked up several nearby pieces of ore that faintly radiated Spiritual Energy.
Looking at the Spirit Ore the shopkeeper had brought before him, Bai Yi recognized at a glance, using the appraisal knowledge he had learned in Dao Studies, that these pieces of Spirit Ore were products of processing with technology and a whole lot of shady tricks.
"Cut grooves into them with a molecular processing machine, trace them with a little spiritual powder solution, then let them soak for a few days in a machine..."
"The workmanship is too crude."
Bai Yi weighed the Spirit Ore in his hand and said, "It's good stuff, but my standards are higher."
"Sold out of the premium goods."
Realizing that Bai Yi knew his stuff, the shopkeeper shook his head, took the goods back, and leaned against the stall without saying a word.
Seeing this, Bai Yi got up and headed for the next stall selling Spirit Ore and Spirit Crystal.
For the next hour or so, Bai Yi moved among the various stalls in the black market. During that time, he also bought a few small pieces of Spirit Ore he had studied in Dao Studies.
"One First-Tier Inferior-Grade Flowing Light Stone, one Inferior-Grade Cold Mountain Stone, and a small piece of Middle-Grade Brass Rock..."
"I'm still short on funds. Otherwise, that First-Tier Superior-Grade Crimson Flame Ore from earlier, weighing four or five kilograms, would have met most of my requirements."
Bai Yi kept scanning the stalls around him, his expression rather helpless.
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