Chapter 500: Overseas Luxury, Heavenly Heavenly Linggen News, You Can't Afford to Play

The location of the Flying Boat Sea Market was a sea area surrounded by the largest of the islands in the archipelago.

Brother Qian Chen heard from Feng Feng Xianzi that every time the sixty-year Grand Market occurred, the flying boat fleets of various sea nations and overseas immortal sects would gather here.

The flying boats were connected by iron chains, and the sea ships spread out for tens of kilometers on the sea surface below, forming maritime pavilions. Then, immortal boats in the sky built cloud towers and corridors, connecting to each other to form a city floating in the sky.

The city had nine layers, and the higher one went, the more precious the goods sold were.

On the day of the Grand Auction of the Ninth Layer Palace, cultivators from other continents would rush over from hundreds of millions of miles away.

At that time, Nascent Soul and Yin Spirit great cultivators would be everywhere, and there would even be no lack of Soul Transformation and Yang Spirit cultivators, and even those few loose immortals overseas would occasionally come to make purchases.

The current Flying Boat Sea Market only had hundreds of giant boats lingering, but the major chambers of commerce with strength had long occupied those few large islands.

The Hundred Boats Chamber of Commerce that Brother Qian Chen came to this time occupied a not-so-small island. The entire large island not only had a small spiritual vein but was also arranged with strict seal arrays.

Brother Qian Chen observed slightly and found that several important places had faint spiritual light and extraordinary methods; they were seal arrays arranged by people hired with heavy gold.

The White Boat Sea Assembly was a chamber of commerce created jointly by over a dozen sea nations and immortal sects, so there were several major proprietors in the chamber.

The pavilions Brother Qian Chen usually frequented were places for selling spirit elixirs, magic tools, talismans, and spirit medicine to rogue cultivators, while the trade of truly large-scale commodities was conducted in palaces and pavilions throughout the island. They sold large batches of spirit elixirs, magic treasures, demon beasts, Dao soldiers, sea ships, and specialties of various affiliated sea nations and immortal sects.

These pavilions on the island had strict seals, were arranged luxuriously, were served and received by female attendants and spirit beasts everywhere, and had extremely strict secret guards; they were called the Inner Pavilion!

Along the way, Brother Qian Chen saw many mermaid women holding lanterns and holding bright pearls in various places, illuminating the dark places.

There were also demon women with fox tails; women from the Footless Nation who could transform into birds; and even winged Feathered People standing in various parts of the pavilions as attendants.

There was even no lack of spirits like the Gold and Silver Children appearing.

In the houses, beauties walked out of paintings and played various musical instruments. The sounds of lutes, zithers, and bamboo flutes were noisy, and the mocking wind and copper sparrows on the eaves looked around, guarding against candles and outsiders...

Guided by the shop assistant, Brother Qian Chen crossed a jade bridge. The color of the flowing water under the bridge was crimson; it was actually the finest wine from the Western Regions. The wine liquid passed through the small river under the bridge and gathered into a lake not far away.

Behind the lake appeared a building carved from white jade. The roof was covered with azure glazed tiles, and hundreds of golden bells hung under the eaves, all engraved with the Hundred Blessings and Evil-Warding Talismans. When the wind blew, a series of bells that cleared the heart and purified the soul rang out.

By the wine pool in front of the building, a young man in wide sleeves, with his chest open, was scooping up the grape wine in the pool with a feather cup in his hand, surrounded by several women.

He lowered his head and drank the wine in the cup, then stretched his feet into the arms of a woman to be warmed.

The women around him held jade bottles with cloud mushrooms, letting the pure spirit energy rising from the cloud mushrooms soak into their hearts and spleens, while others held teacups, the water vapor curling like white birds.

Precious sandalwood was burning around, and the fragrance was emitted from a cloud-patterned copper furnace in the arms of a woman...

Seeing Brother Qian Chen looking at him, the man nodded slightly toward Brother Qian Chen, then raised his cup above his eyebrows and poured it into his mouth.

The spilled wine wet his clothes, but he laughed loudly, climbed up from the ground, and made a gesture of invitation to Brother Qian Chen.

The shop assistant who led the way was both fearful and envious: "That is the Young Master Fan who invited the honored guest here! The Young Master invites the honored guest to enter the building first, and he will come later!"

The scene in this Inner Pavilion of the Hundred Boats Chamber of Commerce could be described as extremely luxurious. All kinds of treasures and wealth that were unimaginable in the mundane world were piled up like mud here.

In comparison, the cave dwelling Brother Qian Chen rented was simply a crude shack. The enjoyment and wealth here were something the emperors of the Southern Jin had never seen, and the children of the aristocratic families Brother Qian Chen saw in the Central Lands didn't even have one percent of the expenses here, and the major aristocratic families wouldn't be so extravagant.

From this, it could be seen that the customs overseas were indeed different from those in the Central Lands.

Brother Qian Chen, who came from that material society in his previous life, was not repulsed by this luxury, but only sighed: "What a pity! Can't fish!"

The man beside the wine pool changed into a new set of dandy clothes under the service of the attendants, put on a robe with hanging ornaments and ribbons, and looked no different from the aristocratic children of the Central Lands.

He looked at the direction Brother Qian Chen left in, lost in thought, and said to a woman in her thirties or forties beside him: "Aunt Gui, this guest of ours is a bit interesting!"

"What does the Young Master think is extraordinary about this person?" The beautiful woman called Aunt Gui tied his collar and asked softly.

"The arrangement on the island is the work of a master, a feng shui layout of a hundred generations of wealth, and it is quite compatible with the seals and arrays. Through various appearances and luxury, it blurs the measure of value in one's heart. On my island, it is easy to have the heart to spend a thousand gold on a whim."

"At the same time, it also has the effect of nourishing the spirit for the children, stewards, and shop assistants of our chamber of commerce. Under such various impacts, even the true disciples of overseas immortal sects, if they visit rashly, rarely fail to lose their composure if they are unprepared! Not to mention rogue cultivators!"

"Ten enter, and nine are trembling and dazzled! But this person is unmoved, which is enough to show his extraordinariness!"

"My foundation here, although not as good as the aristocratic families of the Central Lands, is more naked in its display of wealth and luxury. Many children of the great families of the Central Lands couldn't hold back when they came here. Only those who are truly deep in nourishing their spirit and have seen the world can be calm."

"So, this person... is absolutely not as he claims to be, just from a common rogue cultivator background in the Central Lands!"

The man smiled slightly, and the look in his eyes toward Brother Qian Chen's direction revealed a trace of other meanings.

The beautiful woman frowned and said: "This person beheaded the Li brothers the day before yesterday, and the sword technique he revealed was quite extraordinary. The Young Master invited him here today, is it to let him participate in that matter?"

"Hmm!" The man nodded: "My current strength is insufficient, and the other Core Formation guest elders of the family have all been sent by my father to compete for the other main medicine needed by the ancestor—the Nine-Feather Phoenix Eye Grass!"

"The Hundred Boats Sea Assembly relies on the ancestor to have a foothold in the East Sea and maintain independence under those few major immortal sects. Therefore, for our core five families, extending the ancestor's life is the top priority."

"This also relates to how much power I control in the chamber of commerce in the future!"

"But I finally found out the news of the other main medicine needed by the ancestor. If I can please the ancestor, how can those brothers in the clan compete with me?"

"But my father is not here. If this matter is known to other elders, they will definitely use 'helping me' seize the spirit medicine as an excuse to snatch this splashing credit! Even if I don't agree, they will put a hat on me saying 'the overall situation is important' and 'how can one have selfish motives when extending the ancestor's life', so why would they care about my opinion?"

"So, I can only trust Aunt Gui and Elder Yan. You are both elders whom my mother trusts deeply, and the place where the spirit medicine is located is very dangerous, so I have to find a few reliable people to share the pressure for us. This person has only been in the Central Lands for a few months and has no involvement with other overseas immortal sects or chambers of commerce, so he is an excellent target!"

The beautiful woman then realized and whispered: "Young Master, but this person is seeking a spirit root of great value. Do we really want to use that one in the family's secret collection... to exchange for this person's action?"

The man laughed loudly and said to the beautiful woman: "Aunt Gui is wrong!"

He sneered coldly and said: "Not to mention the spirit root! To move this person, I don't need to spend a cent! It's even possible that he will give me money instead! Isn't he looking for high-grade spirit plants? How can there not be such a spirit plant where we are going this time?"

"My father once said that everyone has weaknesses, and if they have weaknesses, they can be utilized! If used well, one can move mountains without spending a hair! If used poorly, one will be backlashed!"

"This person exposed his weaknesses so easily, can he blame me for utilizing him?"

"I heard that this person was extorted of many spirit pills by two small robbers and only took action to behead the two villains when he couldn't bear it anymore. In this way, he is either a hypocrite who pretends to be benevolent and righteous, or a pedantic person. If I don't speak too definitively later, what can those moral gentlemen of the Central Lands do to me?"

The man straightened his clothes and smiled: "Let's go, let's meet this moral gentleman!"

"The arrangement on this island is a huge feng shui layout, which can nourish the spirit and mind!"

Brother Qian Chen was led into a private room, glanced at the various luxuries, the three-foot-high red coral, the jade mushrooms and pearl grasses placed like jade, and just treated them as ordinary flowers and plants, while in his mind he was recalling the various arrangements he had passed along the way, thus concluding.

He calculated with his fingers: "So that's it, using wealth to make people proud to temper their character?"

"Entering and exiting this kind of atmospheric and luxurious wealth layout can naturally cultivate an atmosphere that treats wealth like dung, and the various temptations of wine, color, wealth, and energy here, I think there are other cooperations to warn the cultivators who use this feng shui layout to nourish their spirit. Only after enjoying these tempers, combined with meditation, illusions, and other methods, can one naturally have a great resistance to these temptations..."

"Hmm! This should be related to the techniques they cultivate!"

"However..." Brother Qian Chen smiled slightly: "This is not the orthodox path! It has resistance to the ordinary temptations of wine, color, wealth, and energy, but in the face of true inner demons, it is simply childishly ridiculous."

"Small winds and waves are okay, but when the true tribulation comes, I fear there is no such resilience and perseverance!"

"Hmm! If I want to take action, I can use this feng shui layout to set up three hundred demonic tribulations, use the maids and shop assistants here, and even the distracting thoughts generated by other guests seeing these luxuries to breed demonic nature, and refine all those who are tempering their Dao heart in the layout into divine demons..."

"These arrangements, in the eyes of true Mo Sect experts, are simply self-imprisonment. Overseas has also been peaceful for too long, which is why they are so lazy! I don't know who arranged this feng shui layout? Is it a pig raised by the Mo Sect?"

Brother Qian Chen, the moral gentleman, sighed leisurely: "Fortunately, I am not from the Mo Sect, otherwise you wouldn't even know how you died!"

Brother Qian Chen took a sip of the spirit tea here and secretly complained: "The taste is really bad! This spirit tea seems to be produced by a manor under Junior Sister Si's command, Cloud Heaven Crane Cry, hmm! It shouldn't be called Crane Cry, it can only be counted as the White Bird grade!"

"Although the wine pool and jade pavilion are luxurious, they are all mundane things, without much spiritual energy!" Brother Qian Chen glanced at the jade mushrooms decorating the pavilion and shook his head speechlessly: "The jade color is indeed good-looking, but it only has the form, and the essence of the jade mushroom is gone!"

"When I refine the Red Essence Mushroom Elixir, I don't even need to use this kind of mushroom for fire, the filth is too heavy!"

"The nature of the jade mushroom is noble, and it is most afraid of being stained by gold, but here it is decorated with gold and silver everywhere. How can it raise good mushrooms! And this sound of wind chimes, do they think that by engraving the Heart-Clearing Mantra and the Hundred Blessings and Evil-Warding Talismans, they can suppress the spirit and clear the heart? Unless the feng shui is chaotic and the evil sounds are disturbing, one can just suppress it with stillness to cultivate and settle the heart. Here, it is simply painting a snake and adding feet!"

"And the pure spirit energy of the cloud mushroom is already wonderful. Combined with the fragrance of sandalwood, one cleanses filth and the other settles the heart. Mixed together, dry energy is born in the dark, and after a while, the whole body will be hot, which is absolutely no good for cultivation!"

Brother Qian Chen remembered the appearance of that Young Master Fan with his chest open, looking like a dissolute and unrestrained Southern Jin style, and secretly wondered if he should give him a hint.

The way of fragrance is also a kind of alchemy, not played like this!

But at this time, that Young Master Fan had already changed his clothes and walked straight into this private room. Seeing Brother Qian Chen had been sitting for a long time, he bowed and smiled: "Sorry to keep you waiting, Daoist! I am Fan Fan Cunlu, the Young Master of this Hundred Boats Chamber of Commerce! These are the spirit medicine seeds and spirit plant news that you entrusted to our chamber... Please take a look, Daoist!"

Fan Fan Cunlu first took out a magic treasure bag and handed it to Brother Qian Chen. Brother Qian Chen took the magic treasure bag and didn't avoid him, so he checked the spirit medicines one by one in front of him.

The spirit medicine seeds he acquired were not precious; on the contrary, they were all common varieties for refining spirit elixirs. And the Hundred Boats Chamber of Commerce had its own medicine garden, so this batch of spirit medicines was likely not acquired from outside but transferred from the chamber's reserves, so the quality was quite good.

But the news of the spirit plants that Brother Qian Chen acquired was not as optimistic as he had imagined!

The news obtained was either too far away, and even the truth could not be verified. Relying only on the Heart Demon Oaths made by the rogue cultivators who bought the news, it was impossible for Brother Qian Chen to run tens of thousands of miles to a dangerous place to search; or the news itself was too vague, only indicating signs of spirit plants taking root!

After Brother Qian Chen checked the news, he had no major gains, but he had been prepared in his heart, so he couldn't talk about any disappointment, and just put away the jade slip with a normal expression.

"All the things together are worth seventy Sun and Moon Harmony Elixirs. Young Master can take a look first!"

Brother Qian Chen placed the prepared jade bottle on the table. Fan Fan Cunlu laughed loudly: "Daoist, you spent countless money on a few pieces of common knowledge the day before yesterday. I naturally trust you for this small amount of money!"

He casually handed the jade bottle to the maid beside him and said: "You all withdraw!"

Hearing him say this, Brother Qian Chen felt a bit wrong in his heart. A fair trade is a fair trade, and where is there any talk of trust between him and him?

Does he deserve it?

An ordinary merchant saying this is deliberately trying to get closer, and this person dismissing everyone, leaving only a servant woman at the Core Formation Middle Rank, looking like he wants to talk about a big business, makes it even more impossible for Brother Qian Chen to trust him.

He had to consider whether to take out the one-turn spirit elixir prepared for exchanging spirit roots!

Fan Fan Cunlu said enthusiastically: "Our chamber heard that you are seeking high-grade spirit plants. Coincidentally, I happen to know the news related to a spirit plant..."

He paused here, seeing Brother Qian Chen perk up his spirits and indeed having some interest, before continuing: "That spirit root grows in an extremely dangerous place. It's just that in the outer layer, there is a Purple Qiu guarding it. When my Dao soldiers first ventured into danger, they didn't dare to go deep, so they didn't see the true face of that spirit plant."

"If you are interested, Daoist, a month later, I am planning to invite a few fellow Daoists to explore that dangerous place together. It's just..."

Brother Qian Chen saw him performing that clumsy manipulation again and couldn't help but shake his head secretly. This person, although his aptitude was not bad, was trained by his family to be a merchant, not a vessel for the Dao. He originally thought the aristocratic families of the Central Lands were already delicate and pretentious enough, not a Daoist nature, but he didn't expect these overseas noble families to be even worse than the Central Lands aristocratic families!

"Daoist, you can speak directly!" Brother Qian Chen said calmly.

Fan Fan Cunlu saw that Brother Qian Chen didn't eat this set, and smiled as if nothing had happened. He reached out to the woman beside him, and the woman took out a small box made of cold jade and sent it to Young Master Fan's hand.

Fan Fan Cunlu smiled slightly, opened the box in his hand, and saw a broken green leaf lying quietly in the jade box.

Brother Qian Chen revealed a trace of being moved, closed his eyes and sensed for a while, before opening his eyes and saying: "This object is indeed from a high-grade spirit root!"

"This broken leaf was picked up by the Dao soldiers I sent out on the periphery of that dangerous place. I wonder if this object can prove that what I said is true?" Fan Fan Cunlu stared fixedly at Brother Qian Chen.

"He is lying to me!"

Brother Qian Chen was not sensing that broken leaf earlier, but was sensing the various thoughts in his divine soul.

Although this person also had magic tools to protect his mind, his thoughts were too active, and he was still caught by Brother Qian Chen.

"This broken leaf was indeed picked up by someone, but it is absolutely not the place he said. And the origin of this broken leaf relates to a huge secret in his heart, and even a Yang Spirit cultivator has set a seal on it! Making him unable to even think of it himself!"

Brother Qian Chen could forcefully break the seal, but that would inevitably alert the Yang Spirit True Person behind it.

"This spirit root is indeed extraordinary, so I will play with you... I hope you can afford to play!"

After thinking this, Brother Qian Chen agreed: "In that case, when Young Master Fan sets off, you can notify me. Except for that spirit root, I will take nothing!"

If there is no such spirit root, everything, including your lives, will be mine!

Fan Fan Cunlu was overjoyed when he heard this and agreed immediately!

But seeing Brother Qian Chen's cold face at this moment, a trace of chill rose in his heart for no reason. After a while, he felt relieved: "It's just a Core Formation cultivator. If I didn't want Elder Yan and Aunt Gui to consume their true power, I wouldn't need you guys!"

Brother Qian Chen didn't take out the Sun and Moon Harmony Elixir again, sent a flying talisman directly to Fan Fan Cunlu, and drifted away with the broken leaf of the spirit root.

Fan Fan Cunlu watched Brother Qian Chen's departing figure, sneered coldly, called the maid to take out the batch of Sun and Moon Condensing Qi Pills, looked at them in his palm for a long time, and said: "This spirit elixir is indeed of good quality!" ===== CHAPTER 501 =====

But seeing Brother Qian Chen's icy face at this moment, a chill rose in his heart for no reason. A moment later, he relaxed and said: "It's just a cultivator at the Penetrating the Law Realm. If it weren't for the fact that I didn't want Elder Yan and Aunt Gui to expend their true power, I wouldn't have needed you all!"

Brother Qian Chen thought for a moment, did not take out the Sun-Moon Union Pill again, and directly sent a flying talisman to Fan Fan Cunlu. He then drifted away, carrying the remnant leaf of the spiritual root.

Fan Fan Cunlu watched Brother Qian Chen's departing figure, gave a cold laugh, summoned a maid to bring out the batch of Sun-Moon Qi-Condensing Pills, and after examining them carefully in his palm for a long time, said: "These spiritual pills are indeed of good quality!"