Chapter 36

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

“Do you think anyone will buy our talismans?”

Yu’an, wearing a wooden mask, looked at his elder brother.

They came to the Ghost Market precisely because they couldn’t afford anything—between them, they had barely more than ten spirit stones.

“If no one buys them, 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—anyone studying the Dao of Talismans must go through this step.

Sell the Thousand-Li Talismans quickly, buy cheap spiritual material, and directly forge low-grade magic treasures to sell!”

Yu Lou came to the Ghost Market solely to sell his talismans—break even is fine, and making a little profit is even better.

Even if they lost spirit stones, making the Thousand-Li Talismans itself helped the Jade Ruyi in Yu Lou’s mind accumulate Golden Light, so the net loss was still minimal.

Hongdengzhao had already passed both of them on their Dao Trials; now, they could forge low-grade magic treasures with ease—even though it wasn’t particularly difficult to begin with.

The Dao of Forging is hard: first hard to enter, then hard to master seals, and hardest of all are the details and secret transmissions.

Forging low-grade magic treasures isn’t hard to enter, requires few seals, and involves no details or secret transmissions.

“I say, borrow two hundred spirit stones from Father first—we could start buying materials and forging right away.”

This kid Yu’an truly didn’t treat Yu Lou like an outsider—not even hesitating when it came to squeezing their father.

“Haha, no need. Master has already agreed to let us sell our own forged magic treasures through Hua Feng Residence—that’s enough. Have faith in me.”

Yu Lou didn’t believe the Wang clan, having been stripped of their marrow once by Hongdengzhao, still had much left to spare, so he politely declined Yu’an’s suggestion.

“I have more faith in myself.” Yu’an lifted his chin.

The gatekeeper outside the Garrison Cultivator’s residence was Gao Jian’s subordinate; he noticed something odd from Yu Lou’s height and build.

“You’re... Wang Yu Lou?”

Yu Lou was speechless—they were all familiar faces. Even if he wore a mask, wearing a night-robe wouldn’t help.

The Ghost Market of Qingxi Fang had nothing to do with underground trading—it was purely an immortal-style tax-free market set up by the Garrison Cultivator to replenish his personal stash.

“Shh, here’s the invitation. Take a look.”

The gatekeeper pushed back the invitation Yu Lou handed him and said.

“Yu Lou, you’re being too formal—just go in, hurry up and go in.”

In the cultivation world, Gao Jian, no matter how brutal, was still just a dog—he couldn’t hoard everything for himself.

He and his men weren’t entirely beasts—at least when facing Wang Yu Lou, 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.”

Yu Lou gave the notice and led his younger brother into Qingxi Fang’s monthly Ghost Market.

Qingxi Fang’s Ghost Market rarely held grand auctions; the last one happened only because several major families and Jiang Bao wanted to cut the grass early and hastily organized it.

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

This seemed bizarre: Hongdengzhao’s local head had innovated a model, turning Qingxi Fang’s underground market into the Garrison Cultivator’s own back courtyard.

But... everyone preferred coming here.

The Garrison Cultivator’s residence was safe!

As long as what you sold wasn’t utterly outrageous, Foundation Establishment elders wouldn’t care.

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 like having a Foundation Establishment elder act as your security guard?

Foundation Establishment cultivators as security guards—Hongdengzhao’s debt can never be repaid.

One word—worth it!

As soon as Yu’an stepped into the back courtyard, he was stunned by the bustling market.

Some stalls were piled high with books and jade slips—these sold scriptures, but such street-corner scriptures were rarely authentic and came with no after-sales guarantee.

Only the poorest hermits bought spells, cultivation methods, or secret transmissions from these stalls; anyone with even modest wealth went to stores 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 were divided into edible types and trainable types: the former were for eating, the latter for combat companions or family guardian beasts.

Hermits couldn’t afford the edible kind, but often gritted their teeth to buy one trainable beast to raise at home.

Mount types varied widely—even mounts capable of growing to Qi Refining 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.

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

Soon, Yu Lou 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 Yu Lou, then at Yu’an behind him, and said.

“Show me. If the quality’s good, I’ll buy.”

Yu Lou pulled out a stack of talismans from his robe; the stall owner probed them with his spiritual sense and quickly sensed something off.

“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 demonic beast, the Qingcong horse.”

“But the blood in your talismans doesn’t seem to be Qingcong horse blood—no way they’ll grant a thousand li; at best, they’ll let the user run a hundred li!”

Yu Lou explained.

“Brother, you don’t know—I used spirit donkey blood, specifically blood from a spiritual creature, not demonic beast blood. It’s not the same as demonic blood talismans—far fewer side effects.”

Here, he owed thanks to Shopkeeper Tang.

Forging requires learning seals; learning seals requires accumulating talisman-making experience. If the Spirit-Attracting Talisman is the basic activation switch, then the Thousand-Li Talisman is one of the foundational entry-level talismans.

With the spirit donkey blood from Zhiwei Fang, Yu Lou saved a lot on material costs.

If Old Tang had charged even a little for the spirit blood, the brothers wouldn’t have had a single spirit stone left.

Also, while Wang clan’s spirit donkey Thousand-Li Talismans lasted slightly shorter, they had other unique advantages.

Demonic beast blood talismans disrupt the user’s spiritual energy flow; spirit donkey blood doesn’t cause this issue.

Hearing Yu Lou’s explanation, the stall owner studied him and asked cautiously.

“Spirit donkey? You’re Yu Lou, right?”

“Huh?”

Not only was Yu Lou stunned—Yu’an was startled too.

We understand if Gao Jian’s men recognize us.

But a random hermit in the Ghost Market knows us? Is this a bit too much?

“Haha, it’s me—Wu Jinyan.”

Wu Jinyan, Hong Mei’s close friend and the witness to their apprenticeship under Hong Mei—Yu Lou naturally knew him.

“Senior Wu, why are you selling talismans?”

The Wu family mines—they should be selling spirit ore and spirit gold.

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

“This... of course we did.” Yu Lou replied.

Wu Jinyan smiled knowingly and said.

“Alright, I’ll take these dozens of Thousand-Li Talismans for twenty spirit stones total—fair deal, right?”

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

Yu Lou nodded. Since Wu Jinyan was a familiar face, he decided not to trouble him twice and asked,

“Senior Wu, we also want to buy a spiritual material for forging, but even counting these twenty spirit stones, our budget is only thirty-five. Do you have anything suitable?”