Lu Qinghe resolved that he would purchase a Flying Boat someday. A Flying Boat required no Magic Power to drive-one only needed to feed it Spirit Stones, and it could carry its owner tens of thousands of li through the sky.
But Flying Boats were ruinously expensive. Even the cheapest one cost upward of ten thousand Spirit Stones.
Back then, the one Bai Tianyu and Qian Hai had used was merely borrowed from the Sect for a special assignment. Once the work was done, it had to be returned.
Half a day later, Lu Qinghe caught sight of the Qingyun Immortal Market in the distance, perched among white clouds.
He did not continue Sword Riding. Instead, he descended and walked toward the market on foot.
The Qingyun Immortal Market was as bustling as ever, cultivators coming and going in steady streams.
This time, however, Lu Qinghe could not simply walk in. A guard at the gate stopped him.
“Do you have a market residence token?”
How could Lu Qinghe possibly have one of those? “No,” he replied. “First time at the market.”
The guard said, “Then you’ll need to pay one Spirit Stone, Fellow Daoist. That buys you three days. If you want to stay longer, you’ll need to rent lodgings inside the city.”
Lu Qinghe hadn’t known that entering the Qingyun Immortal Market cost a Spirit Stone. Last time, Qian Hai had brought them straight through without stopping.
One Spirit Stone was nothing to him now. He fished one out and handed it over.
The guard accepted the stone and gave Lu Qinghe a warning. “I don’t care who you are. Don’t cause trouble inside the market. If the Enforcement Squad catches you, they’ll throw you out on the spot-and you’ll never set foot in here again.”
Lu Qinghe’s disguise made it obvious he was concealing his identity. That sort of thing was too common to warrant questions. The cultivation world ran on deception; hiding one’s face was simply prudent.
But causing trouble was another matter entirely. The market’s grand formation would activate the moment a disturbance broke out, and no one could escape the Enforcement Squad’s pursuit.
Lu Qinghe nodded. “I know.”
Spirit Stone paid, the guard waved him through.
Three days was more than enough for what he had in mind.
He found an inn within the immortal city, spent one Spirit Stone on a decent room, then splurged two more on a proper meal.
Food that cost Spirit Stones was no ordinary fare. Every dish was prepared from spiritual ingredients-Spirit Rice among them, along with spirit beast meat.
By the end of the meal, his cultivation had inched forward by a sliver.
But to reach Qi Condensation fourth layer Perfection, he would need thousands of such meals.
He had long since stopped planting Spirit Rice-he still ate it three meals a day-yet over forty thousand jin remained piled inside the Black Soil Space.
The stockpile took up far too much room, and no ordinary Storage Bag could hold that volume. Better to sell it all at once.
This time he raised the quantity per buyer, selling two to three thousand jin at each shop.
After a day and a half of work, Lu Qinghe had sold all forty thousand jin of Spirit Rice, netting three thousand eight hundred Spirit Stones.
Such a sum in the hands of a Qi Condensation cultivator was beyond imagining.
In the Taixuan Sect, even the wealthiest Outer Sect Disciple would never hold more than a thousand stones. Even among Inner Sect Disciples, few could produce such a figure.
A portion of the earnings came in Middle Grade Spirit Stones-each one containing far denser, more refined Spiritual Qi than its lesser counterpart.
The exchange rate was steep: one hundred Low Grade stones for a single Middle Grade stone.
Above those sat High Grade Spirit Stones, rarer still. One High Grade stone equaled a hundred Middle Grade, or ten thousand Low Grade.
On the afternoon of the second day, Lu Qinghe stepped into the largest establishment in the immortal market: the Treasure Pavilion.
Here, everything under heaven could be found. Rumor held that so long as a cultivator could meet the price, nothing was beyond purchase.
The Treasure Pavilion’s reach spanned the entire cultivation world. The branch in Qingyun Immortal Market was merely one of its smallest outposts.
And yet even this small outpost had a Foundation Establishment Zhenren presiding over it. A glimpse of the whole-one could only imagine the Treasure Pavilion’s true depth.
What Lu Qinghe needed could only be found here.
The moment he crossed the threshold, a striking attendant glided forward with a welcoming smile. “Fellow Daoist, how may I be of service?”
Lu Qinghe didn’t waste words. “I need to purchase several Middle Grade techniques.”
Right now, what he lacked most-aside from pills-was techniques. He still only commanded the basic Fireball Technique and the basic Earth Wall Technique.
Against cultivators weaker than himself, those sufficed. Against anyone at a higher layer, they were nearly useless.
Middle Grade techniques existed within the Sect’s merit exchange, but Lu Qinghe had no patience for that path. Earning Merit Points devoured time he couldn’t spare.
To accumulate enough for five Middle Grade Five Elements techniques through merit alone? Ten years of toil at minimum. Buying them outright with Spirit Stones was far more sensible.
Yes, spending so openly carried risk. But he had prepared means to protect himself.
If his strength was sufficient, there was no need to skulk and hide forever. If he couldn’t even stomach this much risk, he’d be crawling forward at a tortoise’s pace. This chapter was copied from novelping . com without permission.
And if he missed the window for Foundation Establishment, all the treasures in the world wouldn’t save him. He’d have nowhere to weep.
The rule was simple: fail to reach Qi Condensation ninth layer Perfection before the age of fifty, and the odds of Foundation Establishment plummeted.
The attendant’s eyes went wide. Middle Grade techniques were not cheap—and he’d said “several”. That meant a transaction worth well over a thousand Spirit Stones.
Most Rogue Cultivators who passed through the Qingyun Immortal Market could scarcely scrape together that kind of wealth.
“You’re certain you wish to purchase several Middle Grade techniques?”
Lu Qinghe raised an eyebrow. “Does the Treasure Pavilion not carry Middle Grade techniques?”
“Of course we do,” she said quickly.
Lu Qinghe understood at once. He was being underestimated. “You’re worried I can’t pay?”
The attendant shook her head, flustered. “Not at all. I’ll bring them out immediately. What attributes does Fellow Daoist require?”
“A water-attribute Middle Grade Cloud Rain Technique. And one technique each for metal, wood, fire, and earth.”
The Cloud Rain Technique was the one he absolutely had to obtain. He planned to use it as his way into Spirit Medicine Peak, gaining access to all manner of spirit herb seeds.
The attendant blinked again. All five elements? Could this person be a Five Spiritual Roots cultivator?
The thought surfaced and was immediately dismissed. What Five Spiritual Roots cultivator would spend this kind of money on Middle Grade techniques?
He must be from some cultivation clan, purchasing on behalf of his family.
She retrieved a jade slip from the shelves and offered it to him. “This contains techniques across four elemental systems. Fellow Daoist may browse and choose at your leisure.”
“Good.”
Lu Qinghe accepted the jade slip and swept his awareness through it. Over a hundred techniques were inscribed inside.
He was stunned. Over a hundred Middle Grade techniques-their combined value was staggering. The Treasure Pavilion truly lived up to its name.
He settled in and began selecting with care. Nearly two hours passed before he finished narrowing down the ones suited to him.
“I’ll take these five: Fire Snake Technique, Entanglement Technique, Geng Metal Sword Qi, Stone Spirit Mountain Suppression, and Cloud Rain Technique.”