Chapter 82: Small Trade Fair
From that day on, he diligently practiced Artifact Refining every day.
In half a month, he earned a total of 720 Spirit Stones.
He used 500 of those Spirit Stones to purchase two Yang Fire Stones, successfully upgrading the Huayang Bead to a Middle Grade Spiritual Object. The most noticeable improvement was that he could now take one Purifying Spirit Pill every eight days, reducing the interval by two days.
However, Zhao Zuo learned a piece of common knowledge about Pill Medicine from Xue Liang: every type of pill has a fixed usage limit. For example, after consuming fifty Purifying Spirit Pills, their effect would begin to diminish, and after one hundred pills... they would become completely ineffective.
This news made Zhao Zuo pay even more attention to the Huayang Bead’s ability to refine Pill Poison. If it could raise the consumption threshold for Purifying Spirit Pills, his own Cultivation speed would increase dramatically.
With the Huayang Bead’s upgrade complete, Zhao Zuo set his sights on upgrading the Source Water Bead next, hoping to enhance its restorative abilities. He also needed to purchase a Concealing Breath Magical Artifact.
After some thought, Zhao Zuo decided against buying a Concealing Breath Magical Artifact from the Spirit Treasure Pavilion. ’If I buy it there, the Spirit Treasure Pavilion might learn of my Cultivation progress. Besides, the artifact must be upgraded as quickly as possible, to a level where it can deceive a Foundation Establishment Divine Thought, or perhaps even stronger...’
That was just how the world was; achieving a Realm Breakthrough too quickly could attract malicious attention. But he couldn’t possibly slow himself down, so his only option was to find a Supporting Magical Artifact for Concealing Breath as soon as he could.
「On the fifteenth of the second month」 Zhao Zuo changed into a brand-new Taoist Robe and left his courtyard.
At the moment, Zhao Zuo had one hundred fifty-three Spirit Stones left. He planned to go to the trading meet to hunt for a bargain.
Zhao Zuo casually changed his face to that of an ordinary person and walked down the street toward the end of an alley. He had scouted the place out earlier in the day. It was an open area of about two hundred square meters, and roughly fifty meters beyond that was the edge of the Moyun Market, so there shouldn’t be any safety issues.
Before he even drew near, Zhao Zuo saw three dense rows of stalls on the ground. Most of the vendors were shrouded in black robes. Unlike the usual market district, no one was loudly hawking their wares; instead, they silently watched the customers who passed by.
Of course, there were a few exceptions who weren’t wearing black and had set up their stalls out in the open. Among them was Zhao Zuo’s neighbor, Xue Liang. Two rows of porcelain bottles were currently arranged on the ground before him. People were constantly squatting down to examine them, and transactions were completed with refreshing speed.
The Moyun Market’s buyback price for Purifying Spirit Pills was fifteen Spirit Stones for four pills, making the unit price less than four Spirit Stones each. That was why Xue Liang was selling them at a stall here—he just wanted to earn a little extra.
And... it was for his juniors.
Xue Liang had been visiting often recently. Thanks to his rich experiences, he always had new stories to share with Zhao Zuo. These tales opened Zhao Zuo’s eyes, filling him with a longing for the world beyond the Yunlan Mountain Range, yet he always maintained a certain wariness toward Xue Liang in his heart.
He had never bought any of his Pill Medicine, nor had he eaten anything Xue Liang brought him.
Zhao Zuo watched from the sidelines for ten or fifteen minutes and saw that Xue Liang seemed quite popular. Customers came and went from his stall, and the number of porcelain bottles was visibly decreasing. Moreover, Xue Liang was a shrewd businessman; if someone bought a large quantity of Purifying Spirit Pills, he would gift them a bottle or two of Grain Avoidance Pills.
As time passed, the small square grew increasingly crowded. Zhao Zuo also began to move, weaving through the numerous stalls, and he came across many rare items not commonly seen.
One stall was displaying pills called Illusion Dream Pills. They were vividly colored, looking as if they were highly poisonous.
Taking one was said to let a person see their life’s greatest desire in a dream, allowing them to briefly forget the vexations of reality and reach a supreme state.
These Poison Pills were surprisingly popular. However, the people buying them didn’t seem mentally stable. They gave off a sense of agitated madness, their eyes were densely bloodshot, and they looked as if they might fly into a murderous rage at any moment.
Zhao Zuo took an imperceptible step back, distancing himself from the stall that sold Illusion Dream Pills.
Besides... they were also quite expensive, at fifteen Spirit Stones apiece.
Zhao Zuo guessed that if he were to take one, he would surely dream of returning to his former world. He would re-experience the cycle of birth, aging, sickness, and death, and enjoy the stability and various delicacies of that world. ’Unfortunately, I must never, ever touch this kind of pill,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, I’d never be able to break free from it in this life.’
This place was like the hidden, dark side of the Moyun Market. Items that couldn’t be sold openly during the day were brazenly displayed here. There were even several rather gory-looking heretical materials, their surfaces covered with bloody veins and a chilling, evil aura. They looked a bit like human bones and organs.
After that... Zhao Zuo resumed his aimless wandering. His plan for the night was primarily to broaden his horizons. As for the Magical Artifact for Concealing Breath, he was more relaxed; it wouldn’t be a big deal if he didn’t find one.
At one stall, he saw several dirt-stained jade slips that were clearly from an ancient tomb. The stall owner made no effort to hide their origin.
Zhao Zuo braced himself and inquired with the black-robed stall owner. The jade slips recorded three Ancient Pill Formulas, which were useless to him. Besides, the asking price was outrageous... three thousand Spirit Stones!
He subconsciously clutched the Storage Bag inside his robes, deeply feeling how broke he truly was. But soon, a black thumb ring in the bottom-left corner of the stall’s display caught his attention.
It was pure black; if you didn’t look closely, you might not even notice its existence, as if it had merged into the night itself. Zhao Zuo first asked the stall owner for permission. After receiving a nod, he picked it up to examine it more closely.
The thumb ring’s surface had intricate patterns and faintly exuded a yin aura. It was clearly also unearthed, likely from the same ancient tomb as the jade slips. The patterns on its surface... resembled some kind of unknown Spirit Pattern Path.
Zhao Zuo slowly infused Mana into the ring. As the Mana entered, the ring seemed to gradually awaken. He immediately felt a sinister, cold Energy enveloping his body. He shuddered involuntarily, almost tossing the ring back onto the stall’s display.
This Energy felt rather ominous. He then realized that he seemed to be separated from the surrounding Space by some kind of barrier. In other words... he no longer existed in the present Space.
But just as quickly, the sensation vanished without a trace, as if he had returned to the world.
The sensation had lasted for less than three seconds, yet it had consumed nearly half of Zhao Zuo’s Mana. As for the feeling itself... Zhao Zuo couldn’t describe it, as he had never experienced anything like it.
"Infuse it with Mana, and it grants three seconds of Invisibility," the stall owner explained, looking up at Zhao Zuo.
’Invisibility... that’s a pretty good ability,’ Zhao Zuo thought. ’If this ring can be upgraded, it could definitely become one of my trump cards.’
"Price?" Zhao Zuo asked nonchalantly, suppressing the eagerness in his eyes.
"One thousand five hundred Spirit Stones."
.......