Black Tortoise Breath-Concealing Array
Before long, Tiezhu returned, pushing a cart.
Qin Fei leaned closer and saw that the cart was filled to the brim with soil and nothing else.
"What's this? Where's the array?"
Tiezhu chuckled, rolled up his sleeves, and began digging through the soil.
Before long, he pulled out a shell that was dark green all over.
"This is the array you wanted."
Qin Fei took the shell, but aside from its icy touch, he found nothing unusual about it.
Puzzled, he was about to ask a question when he suddenly let out a soft "Huh?"
He keenly sensed that the shell was somehow losing its vitality in his hands.
Had he not been practicing the Divine Soul Sensing Chapter lately, greatly increasing his Divine Sense, he would never have noticed such a subtle change.
The vitality was fading away extremely slowly, like iron rusting or moss growing on a wall.
But the shell clearly wasn't alive.
How strange.
Seeing this, Tiezhu spoke up:
"Brother Qin, try putting it on the ground."
A thought occurred to Qin Fei. He crouched down and pressed the shell against the ground.
Something miraculous happened. The vitality the shell had lost began to replenish, as though it were drawing nourishment from the earth.
Crack.
A crisp sound suddenly rang out, and several scutes fell from the shell.
Qin Fei picked them up and understood at once.
With a flick of one hand, he tossed the scutes onto the four corners of the cart, then buried the shell in its soil.
An invisible ripple enveloped the cart, then subsided.
Qin Fei was slightly startled. To his Divine Sense, the cart was still the same cart, but the soil it held seemed not to exist.
A timely voice rang out:
"This array is called the Black Tortoise Breath-Concealing Array. It can conceal auras and prevent others from peering in. It can even fool the Divine Sense of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, as long as they don't examine it too closely.
"Moreover, this array can absorb the power of the earth veins to activate a defensive array. It can withstand direct attacks from a cultivator at the Qi Refining Ninth Layer for the time it takes an incense stick to burn without breaking.
"However, the array does have one flaw. When it isn't in use, it must be kept in a special kind of spirit soil.
"Otherwise, after enough time passes, its vitality will fade and it will fall apart on its own."
After listening to Tiezhu's explanation, Qin Fei looked delighted.
He put the array away, then took it out and played with it in his hands for a while longer before placing it in his Storage Bag along with the cartload of spirit soil.
"This array must be close to second tier, right?"
"That's right. Its original owner intended to refine it as a second-tier array, but unfortunately, something went wrong and its quality fell a little short. Otherwise, it wouldn't have to be kept in spirit soil."
Qin Fei understood. He didn't mind the flaw; it merely took up a little more storage space.
As long as the array worked well, there was no problem.
"How many Spirit Stones?"
"Three hundred, at cost. But Tang Zhan said that's no small sum, Brother Qin, so if you can't pay it all at once, you can pay it off slowly."
After all, they worked for the merchant association. They had already done their best to get him this much.
He had to admit, they had put their hearts into it.
Qin Fei understood, of course. After a moment's thought, he took out a black bag and handed it over.
"There are fifty Spirit Stones here. I'll pay you the rest in installments."
Three hundred Spirit Stones really was a lot, and he couldn't come up with that much right now.
He had saved up some Spirit Stones before, but he had used them all to refine the Flame Martial Envoy.
He had earned some during this period, but only seventy or eighty.
After taking out fifty Spirit Stones in one go, he had only twenty or thirty left in his pocket, and he still owed a huge debt.
Qin Fei couldn't help lamenting how he seemed to be growing poorer by the day.
Before long, Wang Hu finished his negotiations, and he looked very pleased.
The merchant association had also secured a regular escort for its goods, and everyone's face was wreathed in smiles.
Wang Hu didn't stay long. He said goodbye to everyone and went back to notify his brothers.
Qin Fei stayed at the merchant association until evening, when an exhausted Tang Zhan finally returned.
Since Tang Zhan had the highest cultivation, he had been elected acting president. As for the actual president, that was naturally Senior Caiyi herself.
The merchant association had opened that day, and visitors had come in an endless stream, so Tang Zhan had been busy until now.
They had reserved a table of food and wine on the fourth floor of the Gathering Immortals Pavilion to celebrate the merchant association getting on the right track.
After three rounds of drinks, Old Zhang was the first to stand. He took a wooden box from his Storage Bag.
"The merchant association has opened, and I, Old Zhang, don't have much else, but I do have some talismans. Please accept them as a small token of my regard."
They opened the wooden box, and their eyes went wide.
Inside was a thick stack of talismans, dozens of them.
"First-tier Vajra Talismans. Judging by their quality, they must be high-grade, right?"
"No, these are too valuable. We can't accept them."
Tang Zhan immediately pushed the box back, his attitude exceptionally firm.
"Take them. My path of cultivation has been cut off, and my granddaughter, the only one I still worried about, has been taken to the Azure Wood Palace. There's no use keeping these things."
"Old Zhang, there are so many heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the cultivation world. It's not as if there's no way to treat your injury. We'll keep an eye out for you too.
"Take these talismans back. If you find a suitable treasure someday, you can use them to buy it."
Tiezhu and Meiniang also tried to persuade him, but Old Zhang stubbornly refused.
"This is a token of my goodwill. If you really think it's too much, then collect some insights into talisman drawing for me, so that I might glimpse the splendor of a second-tier talisman master in my lifetime."
They went back and forth, but in the end they couldn't persuade Old Zhang and finally accepted the talismans.
Qin Fei sipped his wine and watched them exchange courtesies with a smile, without intervening.
Once Old Zhang was finished, he took a sphere from his Storage Bag and placed it on the table.
"The merchant association has opened, so naturally I couldn't come empty-handed either. This is my gift."
They gathered around and stared at the sphere on the table.
"What the hell can we tell by looking at it like this? Activate it first."
Impatient, Tiezhu grabbed the sphere and threw it at the ground.
Bang-
A humanoid puppet appeared, yellow from head to toe and with a distinctly metallic texture.
"Is this... a Puppet Soldier?"
"No, wait, why is it at the Second Layer of Qi Refinement?!"
Everyone exchanged glances, utterly shocked.
Puppet Soldiers were familiar in the cultivation world. They were famous as cannon fodder and were used in all sorts of high-risk situations.
But this was the first time any of them had seen a Puppet Soldier at the Second Layer of Qi Refinement.
"You could call it a Puppet Soldier. This is a version I improved, and it does have strength comparable to the Second Layer of Qi Refinement."
Understanding dawned on them. They gathered around the puppet, clicking their tongues in wonder.
"You're giving him to us?"
Tiezhu asked ingenuously, patting the puppet's shoulder now and then and feeling its arm, his face full of delight.
Boys will be boys—who among them didn't like mechs?
But Qin Fei shook his head and said calmly:
"A single puppet isn't worth much. It would be rather shabby as a gift."
"Then you mean..."
They were all a little bewildered, unable to understand what Qin Fei was planning.
Qin Fei didn't keep them guessing and said directly:
"I want to give the merchant association the right to sell this puppet. Would you be willing?"
His words stunned them. Everyone naturally understood the difference between a one-time deal and a long-term source of income.
"Do you mean that? Brother Qin, please don't joke about this."
Qin Fei chuckled and nodded, then stood up.
"We've known each other for years. When have I ever deceived you?"
"But this is just the appetizer. The main event is still to come. Please follow me, everyone; there isn't enough room here."
He led them out of the Gathering Immortals Pavilion and found a secluded spot before continuing:
"Please, take a look."
With a grand sweep of his hand, a puppet unlike any they had ever seen landed on the ground.
An orange-red exterior, streamlined curves brimming with brutal aesthetics, heavy, solid tires, and its signature "ZY" emblem.
The Zhang Yu Motor Vehicle made its stunning entrance.