Chapter 36

At night, on the street outside the Garrison Cultivator's residence gate.

"Do you think anyone will buy our talismans?"

Wang Yuan, wearing a wooden mask, looked at his older brother.

They came to the Ghost Market, naturally unable to afford much—after all, the two of them together had only a dozen or so Spirit Stones.

"If no one buys, lower the price. Our Thousand-Li Talismans aren't well-drawn anyway; tonight's goal is to recover the material losses from making them."

Losses are normal; everyone studying the Auxiliary Arts must go through this step.

Sell the Thousand-Li Talismans quickly, then buy cheaper Spirit Materials and directly forge low-grade artifacts to sell!"

Wang Yulou came to the Ghost Market solely to sell the talismans he'd drawn—just break even, and if he made a profit, all the better.

Even if he lost Spirit Stones, making the Thousand-Li Talismans itself helped the Jade Ruyi in his mind accumulate Jin Guang, so the net loss was still smaller.

Hong Deng Zhao had already passed both of them on their cultivation trial; now, they could forge low-grade artifacts with ease—though honestly, it wasn't that hard to begin with.

Artifact forging is hard: first hard to enter, harder to master the sealing arrays, and hardest of all are the details and secret transmissions.

But forging low-grade artifacts isn't that hard to enter, doesn't require many sealing arrays, and involves no details or secret transmissions.

"I say, borrow two hundred Spirit Stones from my father first—then we can start buying materials and forging artifacts directly."

This kid Wang Yuan truly didn't treat Wang Yulou as an outsider—not even hesitating when it came to squeezing their father.

"Hahaha, no need. Master has already agreed to let us sell our own forged artifacts through Hua Feng Ju. That's enough. Have faith in me."

Wang Yulou didn't think the Wang Shi, having been drained of their marrow by Hong Deng Zhao, still had much left to spare, so he politely declined Wang Yuan's suggestion.

"I have more faith in myself." Wang Yuan lifted his chin.

The gatekeeper outside the Garrison Cultivator's residence was Gao Jian's subordinate; he noticed something odd from Wang Yulou's height and physique.

"You're... Wang Yulou?"

Wang Yulou was speechless. They were all familiar with each other—wearing a mask wouldn't help, nor would wearing a night stealth suit.

The Ghost Market of Qing Xi Fang had nothing to do with underground trading markets—it was purely a xianxia-style tax-free market set up by the Garrison Cultivator to replenish his personal treasury.

"Shh, here's the invitation. Take a look."

The gatekeeper pushed back the invitation Wang Yulou handed him and said.

"Wang Yulou, you're being too formal. Just go in, hurry in."

In the Cultivation World, Gao Jian, no matter how vicious, was still just a dog—he couldn't hoard everything for himself.

He and his men weren't completely beasts; at least when facing Wang Yulou, they pretended to be human.

"Tell Senior Gao I won't be attending his evening banquet for taking a concubine tomorrow—I'm leaving the market with my Master."

Wang Yulou gave the message and led his younger brother into Qing Xi Fang's monthly Ghost Market.

Qing Xi Fang's Ghost Market usually doesn't hold grand auctions; the last one happened only because several major families and Jiang Bao Bian wanted to quickly harvest some new cultivators, so they hastily organized it.

Normally, the Ghost Market is just a temporary night bazaar, but its location is unusual—it's held in the back courtyard of the Garrison Cultivator's residence.

This kind of thing seemed bizarre: Hong Deng Zhao's branch head himself innovated the model, turning Qing Xi Fang's underground trading market into a venue inside the Garrison Cultivator's residence.

But... everyone actually preferred coming here.

The Garrison Cultivator's residence is safe!

As long as what you're selling isn't utterly outrageous, Foundation Establishment elders won't interfere.

When you treat Foundation Establishment elders as threats, everyone is terrified.

But if they can't threaten you, isn't setting up a stall in the Garrison Cultivator's back courtyard just having a Foundation Establishment elder act as your security guard?

Foundation Establishment cultivators as security guards—the debt to Hong Deng Zhao can never be repaid.

One word—worth it!

As soon as Wang Yuan stepped into the back courtyard, he was stunned by the bustling market.

Some stalls were piled high with books and jade slips—these sold cultivation classics, but such street-level classics were often fake and came with no after-sales guarantee.

Only the poorest hermits would buy so-called techniques, Cultivation Methods, or secret transmissions from these stalls; anyone with even modest wealth went only to shops run by major clans or sects.

Some stalls were giant carts loaded with cages holding live creatures—these sold young demonic beasts and spirit pets for mounts.

Demonic beasts are divided into edible types and trainable types; the former are for eating, the latter for training as battle companions or family guardian beasts.

Hermits can't afford the edible kind, but often grit their teeth to buy one trainable beast to raise at home.

Mount types varied widely—even mounts capable of growing to Qi Condensation stage were available as pups.

The most special were spirit pets: they were the most expensive, being fully tamed demonic beasts ready for immediate use.

Such spirit pets were usually bred by cultivation families or affiliated sects, and their value was considerable.

Soon, Wang Yulou found a cultivator whose stall was filled with all kinds of talismans.

"Brother, do you buy Thousand-Li Talismans?"

The cultivator looked up, glanced at Wang Yulou, then at Wang Yuan behind him, and said.

"Show me. If the quality's good, I'll buy."

Wang Yulou pulled out a stack of talismans from his robe and handed them over; the stall owner probed them with his spiritual sense and quickly sensed something wrong.

"Thousand-Li Talismans grant the user the endurance of a thousand-li horse, enabling long-distance pursuit—so they're usually drawn with the blood of a low-grade Qingcong demonic horse."

"But the blood in your talismans doesn't seem to be Qingcong horse blood. Even if it works, it won't get you more than a hundred li!"

Wang Yulou explained.

"Brother, you don't know—I used Spirit Donkey blood, specifically from a Spirit Item's own output. It's not the same as demonic blood; the side effects are far smaller."

Here, he had to thank Shopkeeper Tang.

Forging artifacts requires learning sealing arrays; learning sealing arrays requires accumulating talisman-making experience. If the Spirit-Attracting Talisman is the basic trigger switch, then the Thousand-Li Talisman is one of the foundational introductory talismans.

With the Spirit Donkey blood from Zhi Wei Fang, Wang Yulou saved a lot of Spirit Stones on material costs.

If Old Tang had cut off the Spirit Blood supply, the brothers wouldn't have had a single Spirit Stone left.

Moreover, the Wang Shi's Spirit Donkey Thousand-Li Talisman, though its duration is short, has other unique advantages.

The Demon Blood Talisman affects the user's Qi circulation, but the Spirit Donkey's blood poses no such issue.

After hearing Yulou's explanation, the street vendor sized him up and asked cautiously.

"Spirit Donkey? You're Yulou, right?"

"Huh?"

Not only was Yulou stunned, even Yuan was taken aback.

The henchmen at the gate recognize us—we understand that.

But for every random cultivator in the Ghost Market to know us—isn't that a bit absurd?

"Haha, it's me, Wu Jinyan."

Wu Jinyan, Master Master Hongmei's close friend and the witness to their initiation under Master Master Hongmei—Yulou naturally recognized him.

"Senior Wu, why are you selling talismans?"

The Wu family mines; if they sell, it should be Spirit Ore or Spirit Metal.

"Oh, just supplementing the household income. But you two—did you tell your master you were coming to the Ghost Market?"

"This… of course we did," Yulou replied.

Wu Jinyan smiled knowingly.

"How about this—I'll take all these dozens of Thousand-Li Talismans for twenty Spirit Stones outright, no rip-off, how's that?"

Twenty Spirit Stones for a stack of Thousand-Li Talismans of uneven quality—this price was indeed fair.

Yulou nodded. Since Wu Jinyan was an acquaintance, he decided not to trouble two people for one matter and asked,

"Senior Wu, we also want to buy a Spirit Material for forging, but even counting these twenty Spirit Stones, our budget is only thirty-five Spirit Stones—do you have anything suitable?"