A different cultivator took the stage. A middle-aged man with slightly graying temples stepped forward. Rather than producing any rare treasure, he drew a dull grayish-brown Jade Slip from his robes, its edges badly worn.
He cleared his dry throat.
"Everyone, I am a man of little talent. I have squandered half my life and stalled just short of the seventh level of Qi Refining.
"Yet I have diligently practiced the Heavenly Water Art for decades without cease, gaining a few insights and realizations, all of which I have recorded in this slip."
His fingers stroked the Jade Slip as his eyes swept across the audience, carrying a barely perceptible trace of hope and dejection.
"This is a legacy of the Heavenly Water Rogue Person. It is not a cultivation method, but rather some humble insights I compiled from my predecessors' notes and my own arduous cultivation: circulating the Heavenly Water Art through a full cycle, overcoming minor bottlenecks, nourishing the meridians, and resolving the backlash of water-aspect cold energy. At the end, there is also a superior water spell, the Thousandfold Overlapping Waves Art.
"It may be of some help to fellow Daoists who primarily cultivate water-attribute methods."
The middle-aged cultivator paused and drew a deep breath. "I am already fifty-six and urgently need medicinal pills to break through to the late stage.
"Today, I am willing to trade with someone brought here by fate. I seek no rare treasures, only something of equivalent value. Medicinal pills, Magical Artifacts, spirit materials, or even talismans and Formation Plates worth around thirty Spirit Stones will all do.
"If none of you currently have anything suitable, a direct payment of thirty Spirit Stones is also acceptable."
His gaze abruptly sharpened for an instant. Looking around, he stressed his next words. "There is just one condition! Whoever obtains this Jade Slip must swear a solemn Heart Demon Oath on the spot! Not a single word of its contents may be shared, nor may they be transcribed or copied. The Jade Slip must be destroyed after reading!
"Otherwise, may their Dao Path be severed, their body perish, and their soul be extinguished!" The vicious terms of the oath, coupled with his hoarse voice, lent a chilling severity to the surrounding clamor.
A brief silence fell over the audience after he finished. The item's value was limited to begin with, and its restriction to the water attribute narrowed its audience further.
Thirty Spirit Stones was no small sum even for Lineage cultivators. Most had little interest in exchanging that much for insights that might not produce immediate results and a Qi Refining Stage spell, especially when a harsh Heart Demon Oath was required.
Several water-attribute cultivators looked hesitant and weighed their Storage Bags in their hands, but ultimately shook their heads and withdrew.
Time trickled past. The light in the man's eyes gradually dimmed, and the hand holding the Jade Slip trembled slightly.
Just as he was about to put the Jade Slip away in despair, Lu Zhao moved.
He did not immediately step onto the stage. Instead, he deliberately waited a little longer, allowing the awkward silence to ferment for another moment before parting the crowd at an unhurried pace and walking up to the stage.
"Fellow Daoist." Lu Zhao cupped his hands, his voice calm and even. "I have some interest in these insights."
The man's eyes suddenly lit up, as though he had grasped a lifesaving straw. "Good! Good! Please, fellow Daoist, what would you like to offer in exchange?"
Lu Zhao wasted no words. He simply tipped a small heap of things out of his Storage Bag onto the stone table at the front of the stage:
Several pieces of Azure-Grain Wood with uneven edges; a small packet of dusty Spirit-Devouring Rat King tooth fragments mixed with rat hair.
Several ordinary-looking pieces of Cold Jade Stone containing impurities; a few sections of snake bone carrying the rank odor of an Ink-Scaled Snake.
There were even a few low-grade ore fragments he had picked up in passing inside the mine... All told, they were the least valuable and hardest-to-sell "odds and ends" he had accumulated over time or received as his share of battle spoils.
"Fellow Daoist, do you think these would cover thirty Spirit Stones?" Lu Zhao pointed at the heap, his tone as casual as if he were asking about the weather.
The delight on the man's face froze instantly, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
His gaze swept over the heap of "odds and ends," then Lu Zhao's composed face, before flicking toward the audience-the crowd remained indifferent, with no one showing any further intention of bidding.
An overwhelming sense of frustration and helplessness welled up within him. His Adam's apple bobbed, and his lips moved several times, as though he wanted to say something like, "These aren't worth that much."
In the end, all his unspoken objections dissolved into a heavy sigh.
With trembling fingers, the middle-aged cultivator picked up the heap of "odds and ends" from the stone table and stuffed them haphazardly into his Storage Bag without looking, as though even one more glance would make his heart ache.
He slapped the Jade Slip that held decades of his painstaking work heavily into Lu Zhao's hand, his voice as dry and rough as scraping sandpaper. "...Fine! Fine! Take the Jade Slip! Swear the oath at once!"
Lu Zhao accepted the Jade Slip, which felt cool and faintly warm to the touch. As instructed, he unhesitatingly raised two fingers before his forehead and clearly swore the inviolable Heart Demon Oath.
The oath's radiance flashed and vanished, branding itself upon his soul. The man let out a long breath as though relieved of a burden, then walked unsteadily off the stage without sparing Lu Zhao another glance.
After the trading gathering ended, Lu Zhao and the shopkeeper followed the crowd out of the Little Cloud Terrace Gathering's venue and returned to the Nine Abyss Pavilion together.
Once they returned, the shopkeeper saw that his grandson still wanted to drag Lu Zhao out and began scolding him with a stern expression.
Lu Zhao smiled faintly and watched quietly without interrupting.
Only when Zhou Mo excused himself by saying he needed to cultivate did the old shopkeeper rub his brow and let him leave.
By then, Lu Zhao had already waited for an hour.
Seeing this, the shopkeeper's face returned to its usual calm, though a barely perceptible trace of worry remained.
A moment later, he seemed to reach some decision and said with the hint of a smile, "Hmm, trading odds and ends for a spell. Quite a worthwhile bargain.
"But..." His tone shifted. He leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice further, speaking with the gravity of someone taking another into his confidence.
"Fellow Daoist, heed this old man's advice. If you still have any money to spare, you ought to stock up on a few things while prices in the Market District are still fairly stable."
His thin, withered fingers tapped lightly on the counter. "Talismans, medicinal pills, unfinished Magical Artifact materials... Even first-tier Body-Protection Talismans, Ice Jade Pills to advance your cultivation, Grain-Repelling Pills, or Spirit Rice consumed in daily cultivation. Any of those will do."
Seeing the question in Lu Zhao's eyes, the old shopkeeper sighed. His gaze flicked toward the Zhou Household's central grounds deep within the Market District as he said meaningfully, "Before mountain rain arrives, wind fills the tower.
"The Cloud-Pattern Cavalry have been coming and going through the Heavencloud Mountain Range for almost two years. How much has that cost?
"However wealthy the Zhou Household may be, it cannot withstand this sort of outflow with nothing coming in.
"Some things... It's only a matter of time before they become scarce. If you don't buy now, in a few months..." He shook his head and said no more, but the words "price increases" were unmistakable in what he left unsaid.
Lu Zhao's pupils abruptly contracted!
The old shopkeeper's seemingly offhand warning exploded like thunder in his heart! In an instant, an invisible thread abruptly strung together many scattered clues!
The Cloud-Pattern Cavalry in the Heavencloud Mountain Range: yes, elite Cloud-Pattern Cavalry stationed deep in those mountains, where danger lurked on every side, for two whole years. How could the manpower and resources consumed be a small amount?
What was the Zhou Household searching for so persistently? Or rather, what were they guarding against? Would merely investigating Zhou Pingyuan's injury require so much time and such a massive investment?
The Nine Abyss Pavilion's "support" and its purchase of Flowing Cloud Sparrows at high prices: had the shopkeeper's initial support, which had bordered on taking a loss, and his later, unusually urgent purchases of flying puppets at high prices really been solely for the Zhou Household's internal use?
Or... did these "eyes," capable of reconnaissance from high in the sky, possess irreplaceable strategic value in some larger-scale conflict?
Before you continue