A Turbulent Situation

It all began when members of the Lin Household and the Lu Household jointly discovered a medicinal herb in the secret realm.

The herb was not worth much, and it should not have been a big deal, but the two sides still fell into a dispute.

The Lin Household members mocked the Lu Household as outsiders.

If the Lin Household had not taken them in, they might still be on the run today.

The Lu Household retorted that without them, Shangyu Market would have become another Qinghe Market, with homes destroyed and families dead long ago.

Each side stuck to its own story, and the scene grew more chaotic until it finally erupted into a group battle.

For some reason, neither household head stepped in to stop it. Instead, they sent more forces to reinforce their people.

The conflict between the Lin and Lu Households erupted in full.

Meanwhile, Qin Fei sparred with Tiezhu every day and made rapid progress.

At first, he lost more often than he won, but his record gradually evened out.

Once he made up for his lack of combat experience, the advantage of his Law Artifacts became fully apparent.

The Still Water Sword, Crimson Flame Shield, and Soul-Startling Bell were all First-Tier Superior-Grade Law Artifacts.

Tiezhu, on the other hand, had only a Mountain-Splitting Axe, and it was only First-Tier Middle-Grade.

If he had not relied on the advantages of his Law Techniques and combat experience, he would have been no match for Qin Fei long ago.

Still, this period of sparring also made Qin Fei aware of his own shortcomings.

His Technique Methods were simply too poor. He had hardly ever practiced them systematically.

Both his proficiency and the power of his Law Techniques needed improvement.

Qin Fei resolved to set aside time for diligent practice in his future cultivation.

His sparring with Tiezhu continued for several more days, until Qin Fei felt he was no longer improving and brought it to an end.

He knew Tiezhu had worked extremely hard during this time, so he did not skimp. He went straight to the Divine Weapon Pavilion and bought a Superior-Grade Law Artifact.

The moment Tiezhu received the Law Artifact, he leaped three feet into the air with excitement.

A Superior-Grade Law Artifact cost at least two or three hundred Spirit Stones.

Although Tiezhu had volunteered to spar with him, he now felt that his hard work had not been in vain.

He accepted the Law Artifact without making a fuss and gave Qin Fei a heavy pat on the shoulder. Nothing more needed to be said.

After Tiezhu left, Old Zhang and the others also departed one by one, and peace returned to the puppet scrapyard.

Qin Fei was happy with that and returned to his former days of diligent cultivation.

Two months passed in the blink of an eye.

The war between the Lin and Lu Households raged fiercely. They fought several major battles in the secret realm, but neither side gained the upper hand.

Fortunately, both sides showed some restraint and did not fight within the market.

Even so, the Rogue Cultivators of Shangyu Market all feared for their safety and prayed that the day war reached them would come a little later.

The exploration of the secret realm was not delayed by this. The arrival of large numbers of Rogue Cultivators from outside greatly sped up their advance.

The puppets on the outskirts of the secret realm were almost entirely cleared out and sent to the scrapyard in batches.

If anyone was happy about it, Qin Fei was certainly one of them.

He discovered that the puppets in the secret realm had been made by entirely different methods from those used by the Rogue Cultivators.

Even he had never seen the formation inscriptions carved on many of the puppets.

Fortunately, with the Heavenly Craft Creation Pavilion's help analyzing them, he could keep learning.

On this day, another large batch of puppets arrived at the scrapyard, brought by several Wooden Oxen and Flowing Horses.

"Old Shen, why have there been more puppets these past few days? Has there been more progress in the secret realm?"

Like Qin Fei, Old Shen was an Outer Sect Attendant of the Lin Household, responsible for clearing away the "trash" from the secret realm and the battlefields.

He had been transporting these scrapped puppets all this time.

"What progress? The Lin Household head and the Lu Household's Foundation Establishment cultivator had a fight in the secret realm. These puppets were wiped out by the aftershocks."

Qin Fei frowned slightly. Foundation Establishment cultivators had already taken action personally. It seemed war really was unavoidable.

Shangyu Market had finally enjoyed a period of peace, with Barbarian Tribe raids on the border a thing of the past, only for a single secret realm to expose the true faces of the Lin and Lu Households.

What would happen if the Barbarian army seized this opportunity to attack?

Qin Fei sighed. He was at a crucial point, and as long as he had time, he was confident he could break through to Late Qi Refining.

The current turmoil was truly not what he wanted to see.

Unfortunately, the lure of the secret realm was too great, and neither side was willing to back down.

Throughout history, how many cultivators had found fortuitous opportunities in secret realms and become mighty figures in their own right?

There was no shortage of such legends, so it was no wonder everyone was so eager. Who did not want to soar to the heavens in a single leap?

"In my view, the fighting between the two households will go on for a long time. Fellow Daoist Qin, make your preparations early. The market is going to fall into chaos."

Qin Fei nodded. After seeing Old Shen off, he got busy as well.

The puppets from the secret realm were well worth studying, and they contained an abundance of various rare materials.

After refining them for so long, Qin Fei had collected twenty or thirty kinds of rare spiritual materials, all in considerable quantities.

The spirit patterns and formations they contained also had their peculiarities.

His research over this period had brought his understanding of formations to an astonishing level.

He could draw some first-tier formations himself.

That meant he was now a first-tier formation master.

It was no exaggeration to say that he had mastered both puppetry and formations.

What puzzled Qin Fei, however, was that the puppets from the secret realm all bore a strange pattern.

They looked like some sort of mark, yet also resembled a kind of writing. Qin Fei did not recognize them, and even the Heavenly Craft Creation Pavilion showed no reaction to them.

Could they be the puppets' serial numbers?

Qin Fei knew that the puppet cultivators of Shangyu Market had no such custom, but these puppets had come from the Heavenly Secrets Sect's ruins, so it was possible.

Driven by curiosity, he recorded the strange patterns, intending to study them later.

It was a major undertaking. Each puppet bore only one pattern.

Some were identical, while others were different. Some puppets were so badly damaged that their patterns were missing.

Qin Fei did not mind. They were only for research, after all, so he could work on them in his spare time.

The days passed, and the fighting between the Lin and Lu Households gradually spread to Shangyu Market.

The two sides attacked each other's businesses, and the sounds of violent explosions came from the distance almost every day.

The Lin Household had deep roots in Shangyu Market and had held the advantage in the fighting before, but once the battles moved into the streets, they instead found themselves at a disadvantage.

The Lin Household simply had too many businesses, making them nearly impossible to defend.

The Lu Household, as outsiders, had no such concern.

The few businesses they had were all heavily guarded.

Qin Fei had known nothing about this until one day, when he went to replenish his supply of pills and found thick smoke billowing from the Wondrous Pill Pavilion and Rogue Cultivators scattering through the streets.

Only after asking around did he learn that the Wondrous Pill Pavilion had been attacked by the Lu Household.

The Lu Household fought cleverly. After landing a blow, they did not cut the grass and tear out the roots, but withdrew from the battlefield at once, focusing mainly on harassment.

The Lin Household was tied down on all sides and unable to set up defenses everywhere, leaving them on the back foot for the time being.

As soon as Qin Fei learned of this, he returned home and shut his doors.

While everyone else fought in a free-for-all, he would cultivate. This was the perfect time to quietly grow stronger.

On this day, another new batch of scrapped puppets arrived.

Qin Fei directed the man who brought them to unload the puppets in an open area and casually asked:

"Where's Old Shen? Why didn't he bring them today?"

"Old Shen is dead. This is the last batch of puppets. After today, I'm quitting too."

The man shook his head, offered that explanation, and prepared to leave.

Qin Fei grabbed him by the arm and said:

"He was perfectly fine. How could Old Shen have died?"

He took out a Spirit Stone and slipped it into the man's hand without drawing attention.