The two people squeezed into the inner city gate one after another, and the sound suddenly exploded.
It's not the neat shouting in the military camp, nor the sloppy bargaining in the Mocheng market. It's countless sounds knitted together - the tinkling sound of forging comes from the shop on the left, like heavy rain hitting the iron sheet. ; Someone on the right shouted at the top of his voice, "High-grade Qi-Reviving Pill, Ten Spiritual Stones and Three Bottles"; There was a sound of cracking in the air above his head. Qin Tiexin looked up and saw a green rainbow flying past the eaves, and the wind pressure it brought overturned the corners of the street vendors' cloth.
He stopped.
In front of you is an astonishingly wide street. The ground is paved with bright white square bricks, and the brick surface has a shimmer, which can be seen clearly even in the daytime. The pavilions on both sides are densely packed, with cornices stacked on cornices, and the animal heads on the tiles seem to come alive in the light and shadow. Zhao The plaques stood upright and tilted: "Baicao Pavilion" was painted in gold, and the fragrance of medicine floated from the cracks in the door; three swords hung under the plaque of "Shenbing Tower", and the sword spikes moved automatically in the absence of wind; looking further away, there were several shadows of talismans floating at the door of "Wanfa Zhai", yellow paper and cinnabar, clearly extinguished.
Crowds of people were surging in the street. People were wearing brocade robes, Daoist robes, and animal skins, tall, short, fat, and thin, old and young, men and women. Some had jade jingles on their waists, some had simple sword cases on their backs, and some were barefoot and ragged, squatting in the shadow of the corner, but their eyes were so bright that it was scary.
Qin Tiexin gripped the knife tightly.
He had seen the market at the outer gate of Liuyun Sect - Qingshiban Road. The shops were neat and tidy. Brothers from the same sect came and went, and they were all polite when doing transactions.
And here...
"Don't be stunned." Li Yun's voice came from the side, lowered, "This place is no different from the sect, there are all kinds of people."
Qin Tiexin withdrew his gaze. He changed into clean black coarse cloth today - he bought it in the town before leaving. The material was thick and wear-resistant. But among the splendid streets, the black cloth was like a patch, which was so sudden and dazzling that he could feel it. I felt that there were eyes sweeping over me: curious, scrutinizing, indifferent, and some with disdain - those eyes first fell on his clothes, then on the long knife wrapped in coarse cloth behind his back, and finally on his face, stayed for a moment, and then moved away.
Li Yun walked half a step ahead of him. She changed into a light blue outfit with tight cuffs, a sword hanging from her waist, and her long hair tied into a ponytail. This outfit was common in Liuyun Sect, but it still looked fresh and clean here. Several young monks looked at her twice, their eyes paused on her face, and then glanced at Qin Tiexin, with a little playfulness in their eyes.
"Follow closely." Li Yun didn't look back, but her voice was clear, "Don't look around, and don't talk too much."
Qin Tiexin nodded without responding. He glanced at a stall on the street - it was a piece of green cloth spread on the ground, with seven or eight weapons on it. The most conspicuous ones were three standard long swords, with obvious flowing cloud patterns engraved on the sword grid.
Liuyun Sword, the most commonly used standard among Liuyun Sect disciples Law Artifact, Qin Tiexin, I forged one during the competition.
The stall owner was an old man with a goatee, and he was haggling with a customer wearing a bamboo hat. Qin Tiexin took two steps closer and saw clearly the words on the wooden sign next to the sword. "Half Liuyun Sword Law Artifact, complete sharp spiritual pattern, three hundred and fifty spiritual crystals."
His steps paused.
He recognized that sword. The blade was two feet eight inches long and one inch two wide. It was made of blue-grained steel distributed uniformly by the sect and mixed with three-point star iron sand. However, on the sword in front of him, the forging lines on the spine were a little skewed, and the star iron sand was not evenly distributed - the coating was not properly controlled.
Such a sword, exchanged at the Liuyun Sect Shanggong Hall, would cost about one hundred and fifty spiritual crystals. The price here is three hundred and fifty.
Qin Tiexin pursed his lips. He could make a better one - using less materials, spending less time, making the spiritual patterns more symmetrical, and the sword body straighter. If...
He shook his head, suppressed that thought, and continued to move forward.
After walking about twenty steps, there was a sudden movement in the sea of consciousness.
Like countless eyes opening in the darkness.
Three feet away in front of the left, in a shop with the plaque "Qicai Ju", there were three haloes shining on the shelves - one greenish, one red, and one earthy yellow. The haloes were stable and bright, like three lanterns in the dark night. Qin Tiexin slowed down. He had never seen such a reaction. In the Waste Equipment Pavilion, the light of the scraps of spiritual materials was as weak as fireflies, and these three... were so bright that they were dazzling.
Middle-grade spiritual material? He guessed.
His eyes turned to the right. There were piles of miscellaneous Shitou, bones, and dead wood on a stall. The stall owner sat cross-legged and took a nap at the back. Among the pile of debris, a fist-sized, dusty piece of Shitou was emitting a very faint layer of khaki light. The halo was as thin as the morning mist, but it continued continuously.
Qin Tiexin walked over.
The stall owner was a thin monk who looked to be in his thirties and at the fourth level of Qi Refining. He opened his eyelids a slit, glanced at Qin Tiexin, and then closed them again.
Qin Tiexin squatted down and picked up the piece of Shitou. It was heavy in hand, and the surface was rough and covered with honeycomb-like holes. He rubbed it a few times with his fingers, and it felt warm to the touch, like pebbles that had been washed away by running water for many years.
"Five hundred spirit crystals." The stall owner suddenly said in a lazy voice, "The price is the same."
Qin Tiexin's hands stopped.
Five hundred spirit crystals.
He only had a total of fifteen pieces of low-grade Spirit Stone, which was equivalent to one thousand six hundred spiritual crystals. This piece of Shitou would cost one-third. He weighed the Shitou, and spiritual power seeped into it from his fingertips - Shitou had a dense internal structure and indeed contained the earth attribute Spiritual Qi, but the content was not high and there were many impurities.
Not worth the price.
He gently put Shitou back in its place and stood up. The stall owner said nothing and continued to take a nap.
Qin Tiexin continued to walk forward. This time, he consciously spread his attention - not with his eyes, but with that "feeling". Deep in the floor tiles under his feet, there were scattered pinpoint-sized light spots, so faint that he could barely see them. Missing. In a private room on the second floor of the restaurant on the left, there is a stable light blue halo, like a water-attribute spiritual material. In the alley ahead on the right, an old beggar is leaning against the wall, with something in his arms glowing with a dark red light. The halo is beating erratically, like embers of a charcoal fire.
He can "see".
But he can't afford it.
It was a very subtle feeling - like guarding the entrance to a treasure mountain, only to find that you didn't even have the key to the first door.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
Suddenly there was a shout from the front. The crowd retreated to both sides like a split tide. Qin Tiexin followed Li Yun and leaned to the side, with his back pressed against the doorpost of the shop.
A group of people came from the middle of the street.
They were uniformly dressed in black attire, with silver thread embroidered on their chests, a pattern of a fist holding an iron hand - an iron hand pattern. There were six people in total, four men and two women, with knives and swords hanging from their waists, and their steps were uniform. The leader was a middle-aged man with a square face, his eyes swept across the street like a razor blade, and his breath was condensed, at least in the late stage of Qi refining.
The crowd fell silent. The sound of forging stopped, the shouting stopped, and even the few streaks of light flying through the air bypassed this section of the street.
Qin Tiexin's eyes fell on the waist of one of them.
It was a knife. The scabbard was jet black, and the handle was wrapped with dark red leather. What attracted him was the blade - there was a circle of fine thunder patterns engraved there. The pattern was not engraved later, but formed naturally by folding steel materials of different materials during forging. Qin Tiexin had seen similar records in Old Wu's notes. This is called "thunder pattern", which requires extremely high fire control skills and forging rhythm.
He took a second look.
The black-clothed monk suddenly turned his head and stared straight at him. His eyes were like an eagle, sharp, cold, and scrutinizing. His eyes fell first on Qin Tiexin's face, and then on Edgeless behind him, and stayed there for a breath.
Qin Tiexin lowered his head.
The team walked past. The sound of footsteps gradually faded away, and the voices of people on the street began to surge again, as if some kind of restriction had been lifted.
"That's the Iron Shoumen law enforcement team." Li Yun's voice rang in his ears, very softly, "Don't cause trouble here."
Qin Tiexin nodded. His hand holding the knife was loose and his palms were sweaty.
The two continued to walk forward. When passing by a "Rejuvenation Pavilion", Qin Tiexin saw a wooden sign hanging at the door. "Purchase second-hand Law Artifact at a fair price." Several repaired swords were displayed in the window, and the spiritual patterns had been re-engraved, but traces could still be seen at the joints.
Further forward, under the signboard of "Langhuan Bookstore", several monks were haggling around a Jade Slip. The shopkeeper was a fat old man, spitting. "This is a rubbing from the ancient cave abode! Three hundred spiritual crystals, even if they are less, they will not be sold!"
In the shadow of the street corner, squatting were a few monks in ragged clothes. Some had a few pieces of ore in front of them, and some had wooden signs standing up - "Fifth level of Qi refining, good at tracking, two pieces of Spirit Stone a day." Their eyes scanned the passers-by, like wolves looking for prey.
When Qin Tiexin walked by, one of them raised his head. There was a scar on the man's face, from the corner of his left eye to the corner of his mouth. When he smiled, the scar twisted. "Brother, do you want to hire someone? It's cheap."
Qin Tiexin shook his head and quickened his pace.
Li Yun stopped in front of an inn. The three words "Guiyun Ju" were written on the plaque. The facade was clean, and the monks who came in and out were also well-dressed.
"Stay here first," she said, "We'll go shopping tomorrow."
Qin Tiexin followed her in. There were seven or eight tables in the lobby, and four or five tables of guests were seated. At the table by the window were three young monks, two men and one woman, chatting and laughing in low voices. When Qin Tiexin passed by, one of them glanced at him and smiled at his companion, "Look at that big man, what is he carrying on his back? The door panel?"
The companion chuckled, "Mind your own business."
Qin Tiexin didn't look back. He followed Li Yun to the second floor. There were two guest rooms next to each other at the end of the corridor.
"You live in this room." Li Yun opened the door on the left, "I'm next door. Don't run around at night."
Qin Tiexin nodded and walked into the room.
The room was not big, with a bed, a table, and a chair. The window faced the street, and he could hear the noise coming from downstairs. He closed the door and blurred the sound.
Edgeless leaned against the bedside. He took off the knife and carefully wiped the blade with a cloth. The black iron glowed matte in the afternoon light, like water in a deep pool.
After cleaning the knife, he walked to the window and opened it a crack.
The streets are still lively. The sounds of hawking, conversation, forging, and the sound of flying flying through the air... are mixed together, like a pot of boiling soup. The sun shines slantly on the warm jade bricks, reflecting soft white light. The monks in brocade clothes are walking in the light, and their shadows are long.
Qin Tiexin looked at it for a while and then closed the window.
The room darkened. He sat cross-legged on the bed and started to run "Hunyuan Jue". Spiritual Qi seeped into the body from all sides, traveled along the meridians, and merged into three slowly rotating cyclones of Dantian.
Two hours later, he opened his eyes.
The commotion outside continued, but it had become a blur in the background. He stood up, took out the dry food from Storage Bag - hard Linggu cakes, and ate it one bite at a time with the cold water in the water bag.
After eating three cakes, he felt full in his stomach. He sat back on the bed again. This time he did not practice, but just listened quietly to the sounds outside.
There is life, desire, calculation, and danger in those voices.