Chapter 489

"Speaking of which, will that Xu Long also go?" said the Soul Formation Cultivator beside him.

"He will go." said the person beside him: "Martial Cultivation differs from Magical Cultivation; simply sitting in meditation cannot quickly increase strength."

"Heh, I just don't know why you care so much about Xu Long; even if he's a Martial Dao genius seen once in ten thousand years, in this day and age, what kind of waves could he possibly make? A mere Martial Cultivator—could he possibly replace our position?"

The person beside him furrowed his brow: "Back then, the great demon Wuji of the Nan Ting Mountain Region—you know how formidable he was; such a person's strength far exceeds that of peers, and we cannot afford to be careless."

The Soul Formation Cultivator frowned, thought for a moment: "Even if what you say is correct, he has nothing to do with us; why bother caring about him?"

"What you said.... is actually correct too."

"So you're not considering the possibility that they might have no grudge with us, yet you still want to go to great lengths to target him?"

The person beside him thought for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "Intuition—I feel that Martial Cultivators may only increase in number; making preparations early might not be a bad thing. As you said, it's just a Martial Cultivator—what kind of waves could he possibly make?"

The Soul Formation Cultivator's face looked strange.

"At this point, shouldn't I use the saying 'do not underestimate the opponent' to refute you?"

"Whatever you say always makes sense, right?"

"So, what should we do now?"

"Playing a leisurely move is also good, look."

The person beside him pointed to the distant street downstairs, where a Nascent Soul Cultivator was haggling with a merchant.

The Soul Formation Cultivator looked over, furrowed his brow: "That person is.... Wu Qian of the Martial Dao Association?"

The person beside him gave a slight smile: "Just wait a moment."

Having said that, the person actually turned into green smoke and vanished.

In the blink of an eye, he was already on the street.

At that moment, Wu Qian was purchasing some defensive Accumulation Devices; for a Nascent Soul Cultivator, ordinary Accumulation Devices basically have no effect on them—at the very least they need to be of Fivefold Transformation level.

Of course, Accumulation Devices are also very expensive; Wu Qian has not specialized in artifact refinement, and it's impossible for him to craft an Accumulation Device in just half a month.

"I've already said, senior, the price of this Bull Ox Shield isn't non-negotiable; we can give a discount, but you can't just knock off a zero! The agreed price was twenty-three thousand low-grade Spiritual Stones, not two thousand three hundred!" the clerk said with a helpless expression.

"I haggle, you raise the price; if you think it's unsuitable, you can raise it again." Wu Qian laughed.

"There's no need for this.... Our boss has arrived; why don't you talk directly with him?"

Wu Qian turned his head and saw a cultivator with a jade-like visage, slender build, and refined elegance standing behind him.

Strangely, Wu Qian couldn't discern the other's true strength.

This made Wu Qian secretly startled; could it be that this young person is already a late-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator?

Most cultivators, unless they have specially trained in an appearance-preserving technique, find it unnecessary to maintain their looks with mere spells—aside from female cultivators, ordinary people wouldn't bother.

Moreover, training in such a useless appearance-preserving technique is not something a normal person's mind would do.

Or one might have consumed appearance-preserving pills or similar medicines, but such medicines usually have a limited duration and are quite expensive.

Therefore, ordinary cultivators don't care how their appearance changes—take Wu Qian and Longzhou, for example; they both look however they please.

"Greetings, Dao friend—are you the owner of this shop?" Wu Qian said with clasped hands.

"I am Xi Xi; pleased to meet you, Dao friend." Xi Xi said with a smile.

Xi Xi?

Wu Qian furrowed his brow, feeling he had heard that name somewhere before.

Xi Xi seemed not to be hiding anything, yet he didn't elaborate further, merely looking at the Accumulation Device in the shop and saying: "Dao friend, are you looking to purchase an Accumulation Device?"

"That's the case, though my purse is thin—I really feel embarrassed." Wu Qian chuckled.

"In that case, shall we go inside to discuss in detail?"

"This.... all right."

Wu Qian watched Xi Xi, walked into the store, gazed at the dazzling array of goods, and couldn't help but feel moved.

The shop, located near the city center, commands a yearly rent that's a fortune; the prices of the goods displayed here are correspondingly high, though the quality is assured.

"Although this Bull Ox Shield is a Fivefold Transformation Accumulation Device, it possesses 3,721 variations; if used well, even discarding this Accumulation Device could block a Nascent Soul Cultivator's divine ability!" Xi Xi said, picking it up to demonstrate.

As the Bull Ox Shield was infused with magical power, the large shield, originally like a door panel, split into several small shields under the power's connection; these small shields continually combined and arranged, firmly protecting Xi Xi, even blocking Wu Qian's attempt to probe with divine sense—clearly a fine defensive Accumulation Device!

"This is...." Wu Qian, upon seeing those small shields combine, suddenly noticed a configuration that formed the shields into a cannon muzzle shape, and felt curious.

"This is the Bull Ox Shield's unique feature: combine twelve small shields into a barrel, then add nine small shields to form a mount; if paired with specially made ammunition, it can launch long-range attacks! Likewise, if the Dao friend does not spare magical power to condense ammunition, firing is also possible."

Wu Qian exclaimed in surprise: "There's still this kind of operation?"

"Haha, this is merely the ingenious idea of an artifact refiner." Xi Xi laughed: "No defense in the world can be perfected; I believe the best defense is still offense—since we can sense danger ahead, why not fire a shot first to test the opponent's mettle?"

"Do you still think twenty-three thousand Spiritual Stones are expensive, Dao friend?"

Wu Qian shook his head, cheerfully producing Spiritual Stones: "Not expensive—having defense, variations, and even long-range attack, it's not costly, not costly."

Xi Xi smiled: "Then thank you, Dao friend; your timing today is perfect—I just happen to have refined a batch of ammunition here; if you want, I can sell it to you at a thirty percent discount."

"Really?!"

Finally, Wu Qian left satisfied.

Xi Xi stood at the doorway, while the clerk beside him wore a strange expression: "Boss, you said the ammunition was more expensive than that shield, didn't you? How come you sold it all at a thirty percent discount?"

"Hehehe, someone always needs to test it out. The spirit cannon craftsmanship transmitted from the West Sand River Basin mainly hinges on the ammunition and barrel; gathering user experience is also good."

"Besides, I feel we have a karmic connection."

After Wu Qian returned to the Martial Dao Association, he was naturally pleased to have acquired a fine Accumulation Device.

He turned his head, looked around, and asked: "Is Brother Xu inside the room?"

Longzhou from beside him walked over: "He went out today, Brother Wu; you seem quite pleased—what good stuff did you get?"

"That's definitely good stuff." Wu Qian laughed.

Longzhou neither affirmed nor denied, nor did he ask further.

"But these past few days I've noticed those Martial Cultivators constantly going out; I suspect they've been leaking our information again."

Wu Qian restrained his smile and asked solemnly, "Have you found out who is behind them?"

It should be the Cloud Pavilion side. But it's strange; given the size of the Cloud Pavilion, even if the Martial Dao Association is currently developing like wildfire, it's still hard for them to match them in a short time. Moreover, they even have a Spirit Transformation cultivator holding the fort, but if it's just targeting Fellow Daoist Xu, it still feels a bit off.

Cloud Pavilion.....

West Creek?!

Wu Qian's pupils constricted as he suddenly thought of something.