CHAPTER 33: CHAPTER 32: THE BANNER OF THOUSAND BEASTS?

Passing through the Mist Array, the Solitary Valley, which appeared shrouded in mist from the outside, seemed quite lively.

The streets were filled with cultivators coming and going, with numerous stalls set up on either side. Most of them displayed low-grade Spirit Talismans, damaged texts, and freshly picked low-level herbs, while some were simply piles of junk waiting for a fated buyer.

The Qi Cultivators haggling over the price of a single Spirit Stone before the stalls argued until their faces were flushed, with some rejoicing while others were disappointed, showing a plethora of human emotions.

The shops on either side of the street were noticeably more upscale, their shelves arrayed with Spirit Talismans, Magical Artifacts, and rare materials.

In front of a pavilion adorned with red lanterns, Lu Yan even saw some beautiful female cultivators in thin dresses enticing guests.

These female cultivators were all at the first level of Qi Cultivation, just having shed their mortal bodies, only slightly better off than Lu Yan, who used to toil like a beast in the Spirit Talisman Workshop.

But they had a significant advantage: beauty!

The Cultivation Realm is not lacking in beautiful female cultivators, especially after reaching a certain level of cultivation, where washing marrow and reshaping one’s appearance is a simple task, with all sorts of beauties available.

However, these beautiful female cultivators are either very powerful or have profound backgrounds, and they have little to no interaction with the majority of low-level loose cultivators.

Meanwhile, the beautiful women in the mortal world are easily attainable by the loose cultivators and hardly pique their interest.

Thus, an industry chain naturally emerged: some cultivators would travel to mortal cities to select beautiful women. Those with good cultivation aptitude had long been chosen by the major sects, so those left behind generally had low cultivation potential and found it difficult to advance on the immortal path.

However, loose cultivators did not require these beautiful women to have high aptitude; they merely needed to teach them certain cultivation techniques and rely on pills to unreasonably speed up the infusion of Spiritual Qi, forcibly pushing them to the first level of Qi Cultivation.

Women who became cultivators through these means could no longer progress in their lifetime. Some even had their Dantian shattered due to the side effects of inferior pills, making it difficult to even circulate Magical Power.

Yet, they ultimately shed their mortal bodies and became genuine cultivators, granting them a status that allowed them to be easily adored by some loose cultivators.

Lu Yan, however, had no sympathy for them, as he genuinely toiled like a beast in the Spirit Talisman Workshop and almost had his soul extracted and refined.

In comparison, these women who became cultivators could live up to the age of 120, and after saving some money, could enjoy a prosperous life in a mortal city, which wasn’t a bad outcome at all.

However, given the universality of version updates, Lu Yan strongly suspected that these female cultivators in the city version might just be the edge-case streamers from small platforms.

Sighing at the decline of society, Lu Yan walked around the entire Cyan Valley Marketplace.

Situated atop a Spirit Vein, the Spiritual Qi concentration in Cyan Valley Marketplace was quite high, about six times that of the city version, though far inferior to the apocalypse version.

Considering the apocalypse version’s Moonlight Spiritual Qi and Great Sun Spiritual Qi, the gap would widen even more.

Nonetheless, the street was only in the outer region of the Cyan Valley Marketplace’s Spirit Vein, while the deepest part of the valley held the densest concentration of Spiritual Qi in Cyan Valley Marketplace.

Managers of the marketplace had carved out many caves on the cliffs in the valley to be used as Cave Mansions for rent, with a significantly higher Spiritual Qi concentration than the outskirts.

And this was just a Tier One Spirit Vein; major sects typically sat atop third or even fourth-tier Spirit Veins, with the Spiritual Qi concentration on an entirely different level.

Feeling a wave of emotions, Lu Yan considered the possibility of temporarily residing in Cyan Valley Marketplace.

But before that, he needed to purchase some essentials and gather information in the marketplace.

Lu Yan didn’t enter any of the ornate shops but instead directly approached the roadside stalls, casually picking up a volume of "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" from a stall filled with texts.

The spells in the "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" were some of the most basic spells, completely ordinary and commonplace.

But for Lu Yan, who lacked cultivation knowledge, the "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" was precisely what he most needed.

Spirit Fire Technique, Flying Technique, Light Feather Technique, Invisibility Technique... These spells lacked offensive power but were extremely useful in many situations, especially for someone like Lu Yan who traversed through different versions.

Although Lu Yan possessed many Spirit Talismans, they were ultimately less convenient than directly using spells.

Moreover, the most important point was that Spirit Talismans cost money, whereas spells did not.

The "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" on the stall was obviously second-hand, with pages nearly worn out and some of them containing recorded spellcasting techniques and little tips, making it quite practical.

"How much is this book?"

The stall owner eyed Lu Yan up and down before speaking:

"Twenty-five Spirit Stones."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yan snorted, tossed the book aside, and turned to leave.

A brand new "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" only cost thirty Spirit Stones, and it even had a cultivator’s inscribed Spiritual Rhyme to aid in spell comprehension.

An old book of uncertain circulation, fifteen Spirit Stones was already the limit.

"Just kidding! Just kidding!"

Seeing Lu Yan about to leave, the stall owner immediately changed his tune:

"How about this, take it for twenty Spirit Stones."

"Ten Spirit Stones."

"Your offer is too harsh. Although it’s a second-hand book, the spells are all intact, and there are even annotations from other cultivators. How about fifteen Spirit Stones?"

"Twelve Spirit Stones."

After some bargaining, Lu Yan finally acquired the "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" for thirteen Spirit Stones.

The stall owner, while grumbling about taking a loss, couldn’t hide his joy. After all, the "Tier One Magic Skill Collection" was one of the more expensive books at the stall, but demand for it was low.

Any serious cultivator with proper lineage wouldn’t lack these Tier One spells, making the magic collection hard to sell—a mere chicken rib that had stayed in his possession for two whole years.

Being able to sell it today was a good thing for him.

Noticing the stall owner’s change in expression, Lu Yan squatted down and, while flipping through the texts, casually remarked:

"I just arrived in this area and heard from other fellow cultivators that it hasn’t been very peaceful around here recently."

"There’s nothing particularly unsettling, just that Bamboo Forest..."

Halfway through his sentence, the stall owner suddenly seemed to realize something and quickly changed the subject:

"Ahem, Cyan Valley Marketplace is backed by the Cyan Simurgh Sect’s true disciples, one of the top sects in the Southern Border Territory, so there’s no need for fellow Daoist to worry."

Lu Yan’s heart sank slightly; the mention of Bamboo Forest Marketplace likely had something to do with Gongyang Xuanming’s death.

While pondering deeply, Lu Yan heard the stall owner shift the topic and say:

"However, speaking of unrest, the three thousand li Wushan Mountain Range has experienced some changes recently. If fellow Daoist plans to hunt beasts in the mountains soon, be cautious."

Lu Yan’s curiosity piqued, he clasped his hands in a gesture of respect: "Please, fellow Daoist, do tell."

The stall owner wore a slightly gloating expression:

"Hundreds of years ago, a Golden Core master from Wanling Mountain attempted to breed spirit beasts, raising large numbers of spirit beasts in Wushan, letting them crossbreed with ordinary beasts to filter out the spirit beast bloodlines.

Wanling Mountain spent centuries only to crossbreed a batch of beasts with faint spirit beast bloodlines, their quantity spreading throughout the three thousand li Wushan Mountain Range.

Yet, these beasts’ bloodlines were imbalanced, with incomplete three souls and seven spirits, let alone being able to breed spirit beasts, making Wanling Mountain the laughingstock of all sects in the Southern Borders.

However, three months ago, for some unknown reason, a lunatic suddenly appeared in Wushan, beginning a massacre of the beasts to extract their flawed spirits.

At first, Spirit Beast Mountain paid it no mind, but the lunatic’s slaughter intensity increased dramatically, killing over a hundred thousand beasts with faint spirit beast bloodlines in a short time, catching the attention of the elders at Spirit Beast Mountain."

"There’s word that the madman might be studying the Ten Thousand Souls Banner by extracting incomplete souls from the beasts there."