Obtaining a Technique
At the turtle demon's stall, the pangolin demon shook his head again and again and said:
"You stinking bastard, who doesn't know that book of yours has been sitting on this stall for years without selling?
I had a nightmare yesterday and wanted to find a way to interpret it. That's the only reason I was willing to offer fifty jin of wild boar meat for it.
If a mortal wild boar hadn't been blind enough to wander into my cave yesterday, leaving me with some fatty meat to spare, I wouldn't have bought it at all."
"You!"
The turtle demon's beady eyes widened, his neck stretched out long, and his voice rose considerably:
"I don't even eat meat, so what are you bringing mortal pork to trade for?
Besides, this is a fifth-grade divination technique, an orthodox divination technique of the Shamanic Qi lineage.
Shamanic Qi is one of the few lineages under heaven capable of divining the secrets of heaven!
Offering a mere fifty jin of mortal pork for it is squandering a treasure. Outrageous!"
Spittle flew as the turtle demon spoke. The more he said, the angrier he became, his limbs waving about until even the wooden board in front of him began to shake.
"If it were really a fifth-grade technique and easy to cultivate, would it still be sitting here today? Who do you think doesn't know?
Your technique has extremely strict requirements for scales. Only scales that possess Dao resonance can be used to perform it. Little scaled demons at the bottom of the heap like us simply don't have the aptitude.
Unless someone from the East Sea Dragon Race came along, no one could use your treasure. But why would the Dragon Race come to this lousy market to buy your junk?"
With that, he turned and hurried away before the turtle demon could argue.
The tortoise was left lying on the counter, fuming.
The turtle demon watched the departing figure, feeling both annoyed and helpless.
He couldn't sell the book, and he couldn't master it himself. A perfectly good Cultivation Method had been stuck in his hands for years, losing him more the longer it sat.
Wentesi, who was nearby, had heard the entire conversation.
He raised his chicken feet and swayed from side to side as he approached the stall, then asked:
"Is this divination technique of yours really a fifth-grade technique?"
The turtle demon had been suppressing his anger, but the moment he heard a demon ask about the book, he swallowed it and forced an ugly smile:
"Of course, Brother Great Eagle. This is a fifth-grade divination technique of the Shamanic Qi lineage, genuine through and through!"
"Young Master Feather, don't believe him."
Shu San stepped forward and lowered his voice to warn him. Having accepted the guide fee, he naturally had to do his duty:
"Almost everything this old turtle has is old stock dredged up from the mud at the bottom of the river.
Nine out of ten pieces are useless junk. He passes off inferior goods as quality wares and cheats demons from out of town. It's terribly unscrupulous.
Please don't fall for it."
Hearing Shu San undermine him, the turtle demon grew so angry that his neck thickened another ring. But since the other party was a customer's companion, he couldn't very well lash out, so he could only crane his neck and argue:
"It's a good book! It's just... just that no demon knows its worth.
I can see this Brother Great Eagle is no ordinary demon. He knows quality when he sees it, unlike those other vulgar demons."
Wentesi ignored the dispute between Shu San and the tortoise. He raised a great wing, wrapped the Yarrow-Stalk and Shell Divination and Six-Line Verification in Law Power, and opened it.
This divination technique was not made from ordinary paper or bamboo slips, but from pieces of dark, ancient-looking tortoise shell strung together.
The writing carved into the shells gleamed faintly gold, brimming with an ancient air.
Dragon inheritance appraisal: six stars!
The grade of this technique was certainly not low. It was by no means an inferior product passed off as something better.
A true dragon's appraisal of value was basically never wrong.
Wentesi then turned to the cultivation requirements at the beginning and gained a rough understanding.
The scales had to meet three requirements: nobility, Dao resonance, and spirituality.
Nobility? A true dragon was naturally noble.
In the Western fantasy world, what scales could meet that requirement better than a true dragon's?
As for Dao resonance and spirituality, the red dragon was an even better fit.
Wentesi's dragon scales were a superb magical medium.
They possessed both physical and magical resistance, and both would grow stronger with age.
He wanted this technique.
Wentesi looked at the turtle demon and said with certainty:
"Half a Spirit Stone."
"Half? How could that do?" The turtle demon shook his head repeatedly and began displaying a merchant's special skill: haggling.
"This is a fifth-grade technique. It should cost at least two Spirit Stones..."
"If you won't sell it, forget it."
Before he could finish, Wentesi made as if to leave.
"Wait, Brother Great Eagle!"
The turtle demon called out to stop him. Looking at the technique that had been sitting unsold for years, he felt a pang:
"All right, half it is. Let's call it making a friend."
Only then did Wentesi halt his chicken feet and tilt his head, signaling Crow Lord to pay.
Although Crow Lord was reluctant and puzzled, Shilongzi was his boss, after all.
He obediently stretched out his neck and pulled another two stones from beneath his wings.
Once again, they were Earth Virtue spiritual objects with a faint presence.
The turtle demon confirmed that their Spiritual Qi was acceptable, then put them inside his shell.
With the deal complete, Wentesi transmitted the entire contents of the Yarrow-Stalk and Shell Divination and Six-Line Verification back to his red dragon main body in the Western fantasy world through his Divine Sense.
Having made the deal, Wentesi was in no hurry to leave and continued browsing through the trading area.
Shu San really did know his way around.
As they went, he pointed out which equipment-refining shop had a master with superb skills, which pill pavilion liked to mix in mortal spiritual herbs, and how to haggle without losing out at Rogue Cultivators' stalls. He talked about all sorts of odds and ends.
Just for the information and emotional value he provided, Wentesi felt the guide fee was worth it.
Wentesi listened silently and gained a general understanding of market prices and the going rates for cultivation resources in the cultivation world.
On the whole, spiritual objects were relatively scarce in the cultivation world, and their market values differed between lineages.
Spiritual objects associated with Greater Yin were the most precious.
Just earlier, Wentesi had seen a three-legged toad demon holding a jade-ball-like Greater Yin spiritual object and calling out to sell it.
As soon as he called out, a crowd of Demon Cultivators surrounded him and began bidding.
In the end, a green-scaled half-demon bought it for an exorbitant price.
Cold Qi spiritual objects, for example, were the least valuable.
It often took two or three of them to trade for a single spiritual object of another lineage.
Even then, the Demon Cultivators receiving them were very unhappy, their faces full of disdain.
That showed just how low the status of Cold Qi was.
Wentesi was swaying along like a free-ranging chicken when a cave in the mountain wall ahead suddenly caught his attention.
It was because the sound of a lecture was drifting out from the entrance.
A wooden sign hung at the entrance, but the writing was so scrawled that he couldn't make it out.
Only when he drew closer did he see that the cave was actually a classroom.
Unlike the academies outside, the classroom's students were all demons.
Seated at the front was an elderly human in a shabby Confucian robe. His hair and beard were white, and his cultivation was only at the third level of Embryonic Breathing.
He was lecturing the demons below in an unhurried manner;
The classroom was full of Demon Cultivators of every description: a fierce-looking, wide-eyed white tiger, a burly black bear demon, a palm-sized mantis insect demon, and a red-eyed rabbit demon huddled in a corner.
They had fur or scales, wings or feet, and came in all manner of strange shapes, yet every one of them sat upright, listening intently to the old man's lecture.
"Now that's novel."
Then Wentesi had another thought: Where there's demand, there's a market!
These low-level demons often couldn't speak human language, couldn't read, and knew even less about the lineages or the path of cultivation.
Human cultivators, on the other hand, were different. Even Rogue Cultivators had at least practiced one or two Cultivation Methods and knew some basic cultivation common sense.
The old man had found himself a good path.
Wentesi decided to sit in on the lecture, but as soon as he reached the cave entrance, a little monkey darted over from the side and held out a hand to stop him.
Clearly, he wanted a lecture fee.
Wentesi grandly had Crow Lord pay for all three of them, covering Shu San's fee as well. The three demons found a corner and sat down.
The old man in the Confucian robe was saying:
"Having finished discussing the principles of the Daoist school, I shall now speak of the lineages under heaven."
"The lineages under heaven can be divided into yin and yang, the five virtues, the nine Qis, and the three emptinesses. None who cultivate within heaven and earth can do without these lineages."
"Of these, yin and yang are the oldest, the origin of heaven and earth, and also the most precious.
After them came the five virtues, born in correspondence with the five elements; then the nine Qis, scattered among all things in heaven and earth; and finally the three emptinesses, which were attained through the enlightenment of later cultivators."
A fox demon in the classroom timidly raised a paw and asked:
"Teacher, I've seen quite a few demons of the Greater Yin lineage, but why have I never seen a demon of the Greater Yang lineage?"
The old man fell silent.