Chapter 229 - 221: Huode Marketplace
After staying with the Ji family for two days, Li Yuan had gotten a general sense of the surrounding area.
Thirty li east of the Ji family’s compound was a marketplace.
A disciple of the Ji family had mentioned it was the largest trading hub in the vicinity, called Huode Marketplace.
On the morning of the third day, Li Yuan finished his cultivation and left the compound, heading east.
He activated his Wind Escape Skill, and in less than an hour, the outline of Huode Marketplace came into view.
From a distance, the marketplace was much larger than he had expected.
The area enclosed by the stone walls was at least twice the size of Yunyang Marketplace. A constant stream of people flowed through the city gate, with Cultivators coming and going endlessly. Several banners hung from the city walls, embroidered with flame patterns that snapped in the wind.
There were no strict guards or inspections at the city gate, only two Cultivators standing by to maintain order. Li Yuan followed the crowd through the gate and onto the main street.
The main street was wide and lined with a dense array of shops, far more prosperous than the Li family’s marketplace or Qinghe Marketplace.
The variety of shops was staggering. Pill Shops, Magical Artifact Shops, Spirit Grass Shops, Talisman shops, ore shops, and beast material shops stood one after another. Many shops even had temporary stalls set up out front, where Loose Cultivators squatted and hawked their wares, their calls rising and falling in waves.
The number of Cultivators on the street also far surpassed that of Yunyang Marketplace. Most were in the Qi Refining Stage, but he could occasionally sense the auras of one or two at the Early-stage Foundation Establishment, blending into the crowd and keeping a low profile.
Li Yuan walked along the main street for a while before stopping at a teahouse.
The Shopkeeper of the teahouse was an old Cultivator at the Late-stage of Qi Refining, currently pouring tea for a few Loose Cultivators.
"Why is it so lively here?" Li Yuan asked, sitting down and ordering a cup of tea.
The Shopkeeper pushed a cup of tea over to him and smiled.
"You must be from out of town, Senior. Huode Marketplace is always like this. It’s the only decent marketplace within a radius of two or three hundred li, so all the business from the surrounding families and Loose Cultivator settlements is done here."
He gestured toward the street with his finger.
"And then you have the traveling merchants. This area on the edge of Liangzhou is remote, so the major Sects’ trading companies don’t bother setting up shop here. We rely on traveling merchants running back and forth. If they can’t sell all the goods they bring on a trip elsewhere, they can almost always clear their stock here. That’s why the variety of goods is actually more complete than in some of the more official marketplaces."
Li Yuan nodded and took a sip of his tea.
’Traveling merchants,’ he thought. ’Mobile traders who journey between various marketplaces, earning Spirit Stones by exploiting information gaps and charging for transport. Remote marketplaces often rely more heavily on them to restock their supplies.’
After finishing his tea, Li Yuan got up and continued further down the main street.
His Trait Perception was constantly active within a three-chi radius, automatically scanning every shop he passed.
As he reached the middle section of the main street, Li Yuan’s pace suddenly slowed.
It wasn’t a reaction from his Trait Perception.
It was the trait effect of his Demon Essence Incarnation.
The ability to sense the presence of nearby Demonic Qi.
Li Yuan’s Divine Sense caught a faint fluctuation of Demonic Qi.
The fluctuation came from the crowd on the street.
Li Yuan didn’t stop walking. He continued forward, focusing his senses in the direction of the Demonic Qi fluctuation.
A middle-aged Loose Cultivator in a brown short shirt, with a Cultivation at the Late-stage of Qi Refining, was mixed in with the crowd, heading toward an ore shop. The aura on the surface of his body was no different from that of an ordinary Loose Cultivator, but deep within him lingered an extremely faint trace of Demonic Qi.
Without the sensory effect of his Demon Essence Incarnation, it would have been completely undetectable.
Li Yuan kept walking.
Two streets later, he found a second one.
A young Cultivator, about thirty years old, at the Mid-stage of Qi Refining, was squatting in front of a stall, selecting Spirit Grass. He also had residual Demonic Qi deep within his body, slightly thicker than the first person’s.
The third appeared inside a Magical Artifact Shop.
A Female Cultivator in her forties, at the Late-stage of Qi Refining, was haggling with the Shopkeeper. The concentration of residual Demonic Qi was about the same as the second person’s.
Li Yuan walked a full circuit of the main street and sensed Demonic Qi on a total of five people.
The five individuals were scattered throughout the marketplace with no obvious connection to one another. Their Cultivation was all in the Mid- to Late-stage of Qi Refining, and their clothes and appearance were indistinguishable from ordinary Loose Cultivators.
’Chen Yi said that some of the Demon Sect’s Foundation Establishment remnants hadn’t been eliminated yet,’ Li Yuan recalled. ’And cultivating demonic skills requires a large amount of Demonic Qi.’
’The residual Demonic Qi on these people is very faint, so they don’t seem like Foundation Establishment Stage Demon Cultivators. It’s more likely they’ve come into contact with a source of Demonic Qi, or they’re practicing some kind of Low Tier demonic skill.’
’Huode Marketplace is remote and loosely managed. A place like this would indeed be an easy place to hide.’
Li Yuan didn’t linger. He committed the matter to memory and continued to browse the marketplace.
His Trait Perception swept through the shops on both sides of the main street, one by one.
Most shops yielded nothing. Although Huode Marketplace had a wide variety of goods, the quality was inconsistent, and there were few high-quality items.
As he reached a general store, a faint fluctuation appeared in his perception.
White.
The fluctuation came from a small wooden box in a corner of the counter.
Li Yuan walked over and opened the box.
Inside lay a thumb-sized, dark-colored bead. Its surface was smooth and round, like the crystallized core of some Demon Beast.
"How much for this?"
The Shopkeeper glanced at it. "Not sure what it is, but the texture is good. Fifteen Spirit Stones."
"I’ll take it."
Li Yuan put down the Spirit Stones and placed the dark bead into his storage pouch.
After leaving the general store, he stopped in a quiet alley.
He took the dark bead out of his storage pouch and placed his finger on it.
[Equippable Item Detected: Demon Spirit Bead (Intact)]
[Trait Preview: Demon Essence Amplification (White) — Increases the effectiveness of Demonic Qi for one’s cultivation by twenty percent.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Master one demonic skill to the Perfection Realm (0/1).]
[Current equipment slots are full (5/5). Replace a currently equipped item?]
’A White trait. Demon Essence Amplification.’
’Increases the effectiveness of Demonic Qi for one’s cultivation by twenty percent.’
’Combined with the trait effect of my Demon Essence Incarnation, the cultivation efficiency of the Demon Essence Skill can rise to another level. The strengthening effect from converting Spiritual Qi into Demonic Qi and having it seep deep into my body will increase by twenty percent. The same amount of Demonic Qi will produce a greater improvement.’
’The condition for permanence is mastering a demonic skill to Perfection.’
’I haven’t even reached the entry level with the Demon Essence Skill yet, so Perfection is a long way off. But I can equip this trait for now. It will provide a continuous effect while I practice the Demon Essence Skill, and I can make it permanent once I’ve mastered the skill.’
Li Yuan put away the Demon Spirit Bead, walked back to the main street through the alley, left Huode Marketplace, and flew back in the direction of the Ji family’s compound.