Chapter 140: Jade Stone Hall

After his cultivation is complete, Yan Buji sets out on the road again.

Right now the most crucial thing is still to obtain that Six‑Orifice Exquisite Heart, but since it resides on the Third Princess of the Gendan Imperial Dynasty, it's rather troublesome.

In any case, spend the next two years both gathering information and cultivating.

"It's a good chance to use this period to exchange the materials in these Storage Accumulation Devices for some Spiritual Stone."

Yan Buji thought for a moment; although he previously obtained the method of forging Accumulation Devices from the Hermit, the main problem now is the lack of a large amount of Spiritual Stone.

Whether it's cultivating the Nine Turns Technique or suppressing Mutant Force, advancing his realm is urgent, leaving no time to consider anything else.

After crossing the high mountains, Yan Buji arrived at the Radiant Grassland.

Within the Gendan Imperial Dynasty's borders, although mortals gather there, the convening of the Ascension Assembly still draws many cultivators hurrying toward the capital.

Yan Buji simply followed along, and everyone remained peaceful.

More than ten days passed.

Yan Buji rushed to the capital and, after looking at the layout of the Gendan Imperial Capital, felt it was no different from Kun Dao.

Entering the capital, crossing the endless flow of people, Yan Buji quickly found a gathering place of cultivators.

They were currently outside the palace, waiting in front of a city gate called "Xuanwu Gate"; Yan Buji walked over and the surrounding cultivators showed no sign of alarm.

"The Ascension Assembly has begun; when can we go there today?"

"It should be in half an hour."

"I heard the Ascension Assembly is being held specifically in the Gendan Imperial Capital because there's a peculiar Natural Lingyu here?"

"Yes."

Natural Lingyu?

Yan Buji, looking bewildered, bowed to the nearby lone cultivator and asked, "Excuse me, I'm Ji Bu, this is my first visit; what is a Natural Lingyu? Isn't a Lingyu born after a Nascent Soul master attains transcendence?"

"Is this your first time in the Gendan Imperial Capital? The Natural Lingyu is literally just a Lingyu that the heavens and earth naturally gave rise to; no need to overthink."

"Oh, I see."

Yan Buji smiled and didn't ask further. After all, asking a lot on a first meeting, a friendly reply is enough; if he were to be beaten for not knowing, it would be pointless.

Half an hour later, a spiritual energy vortex suddenly appeared before Xuanwu Gate, followed by an ancient, simple gate materializing before their eyes, causing the cultivators' eyes to brighten.

"It's open! It's open!!"

"Let's go!"

As the cultivators stepped inside, Yan Buji followed.

Inside, the scenery before Yan Buji remained unchanged; the streets still bore the capital's layout, but everyone coming and going was a cultivator.

"Premium Five‑Smoke Flowers, only twelve Spiritual Stone!"

"Selling massive Accumulation Device fragments, interested parties hurry!"

"Fine Luo Zhen, price negotiable!"

Yan Buji, full of surprise, walked to a nearby stall and stared for a while before asking, "Owner, how do you sell this herb?"

"One Spiritual Stone per stalk; bulk purchases get discounts," the vendor laughed.

"That many? Owner, how many do you have?"

The vendor looked at Yan Buji oddly, "How many do you want?"

"Whatever you have, I'll take."

"Alright!"

The transaction was completed, and both parties were satisfied.

This herb is not Spiritual Material, but a relatively precious auxiliary medicinal herb in the mortal world; Yan Buji wants it because the refining formula for Clear Bright Eye‑to‑Spirit Water includes this ingredient, so he prepares some in advance.

As he walked, Yan Buji saw many rare treasures, many of which he had never heard of or seen, but hearing familiar cultivators haggle gave him a rough idea of these items.

"This place is huge; it can't really be as vast as the Gendan Imperial Capital with all cultivators selling everything here, so I'll have to browse thoroughly."

Yan Buji smiled; some items he carries could be exchanged for Spiritual Stone or cultivation pills, but a large portion came from the Wang family cultivators, so he dared not sell them casually.

These days, Yan Buji has been buying and selling here, never selling more than a hundred Spiritual Stone each time, and after much turning, he finally sold everything he could part with.

As for the Jade Script Technique on the Wang family cultivators, it's absolutely unsellable; firstly, Yan Buji wants to see it himself; secondly, the Wang family's convoy to the Gendan Imperial Capital was completely annihilated, so selling now would be self‑destruction.

"I have three thousand Spiritual Stone now, but that's still far from enough. My basic Five Elements Technique is the foundation, Nine Turns Technique is the strengthening; to break through to the third layer of Qi Refinement I need at least twenty to thirty thousand Spiritual Stone. Where can I get that many Spiritual Stone?"

Yan Buji frowned; this is the most common difficulty in cultivation.

Good techniques aren't necessarily hard to obtain; the key is the difficulty of practice.

Practice, it costs time and resources; not practicing makes one weaker than others and unable to suppress their Mutant Force.

"Take a look, look, look! Freshly mined from the Mutant Zone, the 'Mutant Source Stone'—cut it open!!!!"

A shout suddenly rang out, and Yan Buji looked up.

The surrounding cultivators' eyes lit up instantly, and they hurried to the shop called "Jade Stone Hall" and began commenting.

"Mutant Source Stone?! I didn't expect anyone to deal in this here!"

"What's the background of this Jade Stone Hall? To get Mutant Source Stones from the Mutant Zone, could it be a shop under the Xuan Gendan Dao?"

"Speaking of it, the business of betting on Source Stones is booming over the Ten Thousand Dao Mountains; no one knows how many families have gotten rich because of it."

Yan Buji moved closer, watching out of curiosity.

He discovered that the shelves inside the shop were filled with oddly shaped stones; some were transparent and hollow, while others were pitch‑black and riddled with pits, looking very unsightly.

Scanning with his spiritual perception, Yan Buji could not discern any abnormalities in the stones, feeling something was blocking his spiritual sight.

Many cultivators nearby did the same, but the shopkeeper standing at the entrance of Jade Stone Hall smiled broadly, seemingly unafraid of their probing, and said:

"Friends, I am Hua Fei of Jade Stone Hall, temporarily the manager here. Rest assured, these Mutant Source Stones are all sourced from the Mutant Zone; if any are counterfeit, our shop will repay tenfold your losses!"

"Whoa? So confident, huh?"

"I wonder who the boss behind Manager Hua is?"

A rogue cultivator asked thus, Hua Fei merely smiled slightly and said: "Everyone, my boss is just in the mood to do a little business; if you really want to know, why not come in and see if there is any source stone that satisfies your heart?"

"Hmph, you say that, then we naturally need to check what this shop is made of!"

"Betting on source stones? One cut makes you poor, one cut makes you rich—I really don't want to waste Spiritual Stones here."