Going their separate ways

In the private room, Chen Jianghe, Yu Daniu, and Gao Peiyao chatted and laughed in a warm, cheerful atmosphere.

After eating his fill, Yun Xiaoniu obediently played with a puppet toy off to the side, without pestering the adults.

Unlike at their previous gatherings, Zhou Miaoyun sat quietly to one side and listened, only putting in a word when necessary.

She and Gao Peiyao were both leaving Mirror Moon Lake, yet no one paid any attention to why she was leaving.

Chen Jianghe naturally noticed Zhou Miaoyun's awkward situation, but said nothing more.

Back when Zhou Miaoyun had enjoyed an advantage, she had deliberately or otherwise isolated Yu Daniu. Now, Yu Daniu had clearly become the most promising member of the alliance.

Not only had he reached Qi Refining, Fifth Layer, but he also had four sons, and his wife was pregnant again. His fifth child would be born after the new year.

Yu Daniu was honest and good-natured. He would not hold Zhou Miaoyun's past actions against her, but neither would he take the initiative to help her.

Gao Peiyao accepted the two spirit stones Chen Jianghe repaid her, as well as the two spirit stones Yu Daniu repaid her and the five he gave her in support.

Zhou Miaoyun smiled faintly, nodded to Chen Jianghe, and accepted her two spirit stones as well.

As for that Water Escape Talisman, they tacitly left it unmentioned.

It represented the continued existence of their precarious Mutual Aid Alliance.

After they chatted a little longer, Gao Peiyao and Zhou Miaoyun took their leave.

But once they left, there was no telling when they would meet again.

Although the Mutual Aid Alliance had not disbanded, their annual year-end gathering was canceled.

Gao Peiyao was going to take the Tian Nan Sect's entrance examination. Whether or not she gained admission to the immortal sect, she probably would not return to Mirror Moon Lake anytime soon.

As for Zhou Miaoyun, she was heading to Qinghe Market.

If Chen Jianghe's guess was right, Zhou Miaoyun's lineage was probably relocating to Qinghe Market.

The Yun Household's sphere of influence had shrunk to a radius of two hundred li, and Shixia Town, where the Zhou Household lived, had already become Bai Household territory.

The Bai Household had started out as bandit cultivators and was very lax in its control of bandit cultivators within its domain.

If the Zhou Household wanted stability, it could only leave Shixia Town and seek another way forward elsewhere.

Before long, Zhou Miaoyun's skill in the Talisman Dao would reach first-tier middle grade. Perhaps this was what the Zhou Household was counting on to establish itself in Qinghe Market.

So Zhou Miaoyun would probably find it difficult to return to Mirror Moon Lake in the future as well.

Naturally, there was no need to continue their year-end gatherings.

From now on, the members of their Mutual Aid Alliance could only keep in touch by letter. Unless someone was attempting Foundation Establishment, it would be hard for them to gather again.

"Brother Jianghe, since there won't be any more year-end gatherings, you have to come over to my place on New Year's Eve so we can get closer."

As they parted, Yu Daniu extended a sincere invitation to Chen Jianghe.

Chen Jianghe smiled and nodded, and asked Yu Daniu to help him find a book introducing common knowledge about the cultivation world.

He would probably remain with the Yun Household for a long time yet, so naturally, he needed to deepen his friendship with Yu Daniu.

Of course, that was on the condition that he achieved something in the Talisman Dao. Otherwise, as the gap in their status grew ever wider, even the strongest friendship would eventually come to an end.

That was right.

Chen Jianghe was ready to try his hand at the Talisman Dao.

Yu Daniu's eight spirit stones had given him a chance to try the Talisman Dao ahead of schedule, and he could not let it slip by.

After repaying Gao Peiyao and Zhou Miaoyun two spirit stones each, Chen Jianghe had ten spirit stones and one hundred and twelve grains of spirit sand left.

After buying a Qi-Nurturing Pill and a Qi-Nourishing Pill, he would still have enough spirit stones left to give the Talisman Dao a try.

Before transmigrating, he had been a university student majoring in painting, and his grades had always been excellent. Presumably, he had at least some talent for the Talisman Dao.

Mastering a craft would give him another source of income.

Even if his talent for the Talisman Dao was poor, he could rely on his long lifespan to grind his way to first-tier superior-grade.

Chen Jianghe left the marketplace and walked toward the nearby cultivator market.

The vacancies for junior fisher-farmers had all been filled, and Port No. 2 and Port No. 3 were still closed.

This had made the cultivator market at Port No. 1 exceptionally lively.

There had originally been only a dozen or so stalls, but now there were more than forty.

Chen Jianghe found his way with practiced ease to the pill stall he always patronized. The woman who had once retained a mature charm now had a weather-beaten face covered in wrinkles. Although Qi Refining Stage cultivators had a lifespan of a hundred and twenty years, unless they reached Foundation Establishment, their appearance would age rapidly once they passed sixty.

Within just five or six years, they would look like ordinary mortals in their sixties or seventies.

After all these years, the old woman had added several kinds of spirit pills to her stall, including the Middle Grade spirit pill Chen Jianghe needed: the Qi-Nurturing Pill.

"One Qi-Nurturing Pill."

"Five spirit stones."

"All right."

With payment and goods exchanged, Chen Jianghe left with the sandalwood box containing the Qi-Nurturing Pill, without another unnecessary word.

The Qi-Nourishing Pill he had promised Xiao Hei was not due until the following year, so there was no need to buy it now.

Next, he went to a stall selling talisman-making materials.

A thick stack of yellow paper and several exquisite jade boxes sat on a piece of coarse cloth.

The yellow paper was talisman paper specifically used for Spirit Talisman Drawing. Made from spirit wood shavings or spirit bamboo shavings, it could hold spells at the Early Qi Refining Stage.

The jade boxes presumably contained the spirit ink needed for Spirit Talisman Drawing.

"How much are the talisman paper and spirit ink?"

Chen Jianghe looked at the stallholder and asked.

"Two grains of spirit sand per sheet of fine yellow paper, one spirit stone per box of spirit ink," the middle-aged man said flatly, raising his eyes to glance at Chen Jianghe.

"Give me twenty sheets of fine yellow paper and one box of spirit ink."

Chen Jianghe took out one spirit stone and forty grains of spirit sand and handed them to the middle-aged man.

After accepting the spirit stone, the middle-aged man counted out twenty sheets of fine yellow paper and wrapped them up, then handed them to Chen Jianghe along with an unopened box of spirit ink.

"Are you looking to test your talent for the Talisman Dao, fellow Daoist?"

The middle-aged man took out a talisman brush and said, "If you haven't bought a talisman brush yet, I have a secondhand peachwood talisman brush here that I can let go cheaply."

Chen Jianghe examined the talisman brush in the middle-aged man's hand. It had a peachwood shaft and white bristles, and was probably a low-grade peachwood talisman brush.

Its overall appearance was fairly elegant, but the brush tip was far too worn, and it was shedding badly.

It would probably be unusable after only a few more uses.

"How much?"

Chen Jianghe asked. He had intended to buy a secondhand talisman brush anyway, since he was only testing his talent for the Talisman Dao.

Besides, he had already looked into the prices of talisman brushes.

A brand-new low-grade talisman brush could draw spirit talismans about a thousand times and cost ten spirit stones.

The peachwood talisman brush before him had a clean, tidy shaft, and its few remaining bristles were smooth and glossy.

But it would be completely worn out after another seventy or eighty uses at most. It was called secondhand, but in reality, it had certainly passed through more hands than that.

"Actually, this talisman brush was used by a fairy. You can tell from its appearance that she took excellent care of it. It's in superb condition. Since you're just starting out in the Talisman Dao, I'll let you have it for three spirit stones."

Looking as though it pained him to part with a treasured possession, the middle-aged stallholder held the talisman brush up in front of Chen Jianghe's face.

"..."

Chen Jianghe was speechless.

A battered talisman brush that had passed through who knew how many hands could somehow be described as a fine brush straight from a fairy's hands.

What?

Could things used by fairies fetch a higher price even in the cultivation world?

"One spirit stone."

"Deal."

"..."

Chen Jianghe paid another spirit stone and left the cultivator market with the Fairy First-Hand brush that now belonged to him.

(End of chapter)