txolops Chapter 9 was quite fruitful.
Chapter 9 was quite fruitful.
Zhao Family Market.
The lights are always on, day and night, to guide the wandering monks.
Ji Yun quietly returned from the night sea, and only after confirming that no one was following him did he slowly land on his own sky island.
He strolled leisurely toward the main house.
Along the way, he casually made a hand seal, summoning a mist of water to irrigate the spiritual field.
Once inside, he closed the doors and windows tightly and sat cross-legged on a futon, deep in thought.
Tonight's events are not so simple; they involve the Hu family.
"The Zhao family makes a fortune every day by relying on the market. In addition to rental income, they also own many shops. The immortal materials produced by independent cultivators all pass through the Zhao family's hands."
"As long as the market is stable, the Zhao family will remain in a high position and their wealth will continue to grow."
"That female cultivator was a retainer of the Hu family, but she hid in the Zhao family's market and conspired with others to ambush and kill the rogue cultivators in the market."
"Moreover, judging from her words, it seems that she has another mission in the market and cannot leave the market for too long."
Ji Yun gently pressed her brow.
The smaller the temple, the stronger the evil wind.
Resources in the seabed at night are like water in a desert; the struggle for even the smallest drops is all the more intense.
Other things are none of his concern.
Now the only concern is that if the female cultivator was deliberately sent by the Hu family, then she may have accomplices behind her.
If the Hu family finds out that the female cultivator was killed by him, there may be further trouble.
But there's no need to worry too much.
Now he has the ability to protect himself, and the other party dares not make a move in the market.
When he leaves the market again, his strength will only be greater than it is today.
"I must learn a soul-searching technique. If I can search souls, I won't need to guess here out of thin air."
Let's take stock of the gains and losses first.
"This time we should have made a profit."
Ji Yun took out his storage bag and placed his most valuable possessions on the ground.
He had previously used his divine sense to investigate, but found no tracking spells or magical artifacts.
I looked at them one by one.
Three bottles of healing pills.
A corpse at the second level of Qi Refining.
Two corpses at the first level of Qi Refining.
A set of Tier 1 mid-grade throwing dart magic weapons.
A first-tier, mid-grade jade disc magic artifact.
This was the very same one the female cultivator was standing on, which Ji Yun had retrieved from the depths of the night sea.
In addition to those not on display, there were several ordinary magical artifacts and space-saving talismans.
It's better than nothing, but it's just an extra bonus.
The storage bag was too small, so he had to give up two bags of spirit rice to make room before he could bring everything back.
"After all, he is a Qi Refining Level 2 cultivator, and the items he carries are indeed valuable."
"These two magical artifacts alone, which correspond to the second level of Qi Refining, are worth over a thousand catties of spirit sand."
"I've been drawing talismans for months."
Ji Yun picked up the ritual implement and examined it closely.
The dart is about the length of a palm, streamlined like a willow leaf, entirely black, made of superior material, lightweight, and has an extremely sharp blade.
The jade disc is about one and a half palm lengths and is square in shape. It is pure white and translucent, warm and smooth like jade. It is engraved with arrays and can be used for flying or attacking.
Darts are a suitable hidden weapon for the Night Sea, and even more so for cultivators with divine sense.
As for the jade disc, it is a rather feminine ritual implement and is not suitable for him to use.
"That's a good dart."
Ji Yun held the dart in his palm, felt the texture, and nodded in satisfaction.
The Night Sea is strictly hierarchical.
It is actually very difficult for a cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining to possess a magic weapon at the second level of Qi Refining.
Including the flying sword in his storage bag, he had a total of three magical artifacts, all of which were at the second level of Qi Refining.
Ji Yun has no intention of selling these magical artifacts.
He can use the darts himself.
As for the jade disc, it should be returned to its rightful owner so that the female cultivator can continue to use it.
In his previous life, he was at least a Golden Core demon cultivator, so refining a corpse puppet was naturally no problem for him.
The female cultivator was to be "resurrected from the dead".
This set of magical artifacts will be returned to her so that she can maintain her fighting strength from when she was alive.
"Upon closer reflection, the Night Sea is barren in all things, but it is not lacking in cultivators, nor in battles and fights."
"For demonic cultivators, the Night Sea is not only not lacking in resources, but is also a treasure land rich in resources."
"I never intended to commit too much killing through soul and corpse refining in this life, and the cultivation method I chose is unrelated to this path."
"But since such a cultivator has come to my door of his own accord, I have no other choice but to make the most of him and refine him as I go."
"What we lack now is a refining site."
"It would be best if it could be kept somewhat hidden."
Ji Yun turned his gaze to his feet.
Most of the pebbles floating in the night sea are roughly round.
The monks divided it in two and built houses on the flat surface, which became the Sky Island.
Therefore, the sky island resembles an inverted mountain peak, resembling an upside-down cone.
Within the mountainside, there is actually quite a bit of space where several secret rooms could be carved out to store hidden items.
"It's just quite troublesome."
"This will waste some more time."
Ji Yun frowned and sighed softly, but there was nothing he could do; he had to do the work whether he wanted to or not.
The storage bags are already full.
We urgently need a secure room to store miscellaneous items.
Moreover, this is something he can only do himself. If he asks a craftsman to do it, then what kind of secret room is it?
……
Seven days later.
Ji Yun hovered in the air on his sword and poured a storage bag full of pebbles into the vast night sea.
They then quietly returned to Sky Island.
These past few days he has continued his talisman-drawing practice as usual, and has taken some time to excavate a secret chamber, which is now taking shape.
The secret room was built beneath the main house, with the entrance hidden next to the wooden bed in his bedroom. One had to move a porcelain bottle to enter.
It is three zhang deep.
Three rooms were carved out in total.
The underground space was very spacious, and the secret room was made to be exceptionally large, more than twice the size of the main house above.
One of the halls in the middle.
There are two side rooms on either side.
If needed in the future, a few more rooms can be added at any time.
"It still feels a bit empty."
"We can add some furnishings later."
Ji Yun was very satisfied. Perhaps influenced by his previous life, he felt particularly comfortable in the secret room.
The secret room is still in its unfinished state.
There were only four lampstands at the four corners, their dim yellow flames flickering slightly, illuminating the open space in the center.
The rock face is extremely hard.
The sound insulation is excellent.
From now on, you can do any shady things here.
"We're still missing an isolation array to conceal the fluctuations in spiritual energy."
"Furthermore, as the Sky Island becomes more complete and valuable items increase, a protective formation should be set up around the time."
Ji Yun walked out of the secret room.
The matter of arranging the formation needs to be put on the agenda.
He will be going out again in the future, so he must guard against thieves taking advantage of any vulnerabilities.
With the help of neighbors and the market, the entire sky island wouldn't be wiped out, but petty theft would be difficult to prevent.
What if someone sneaks into the secret room?
His secrets might be exposed.
……
The next day, after closing up shop.
Ji Yun did not go home, but instead strolled around the market to check the prices of items needed for setting up the formation.
As usual, we went to Zhao's shop first.
Ji Yun had barely glanced around upon entering when, without waiting for a waiter to greet him, he shook his head and left.
I browsed through a few more shops.
He had a bad feeling.
"It's so expensive?"
"How dare they ask for ninety catties of spirit sand with such poor-quality materials?"
Ji Yun's face was gloomy as he looked at the inferior array discs in the cabinet, feeling a headache coming on.
He underestimated the price of the formation.
In an environment like the Night Sea, formations are a true necessity, even more expensive than magical artifacts, talismans, and elixirs.
Furthermore, due to the scarcity of resources, the price of materials for setting up formations in this area is extremely high, but the quality of the materials is appalling.
He left the shop.
Go check at the vendors' stalls.
The result was the same: even old and 'junk' items were very expensive.
"Based on a rough estimate, setting up a barely usable array would require at least several hundred kilograms of spirit sand."
"If you want the formation to have some miraculous effect, you'll need a thousand catties of spirit sand."
He had studied formations in his previous life.
With his expertise, he could design array diagrams that match different immortal materials, without having to buy local array diagrams.
But even so.
The price is still shockingly high.
In the past, he only focused on cultivation and never accumulated spiritual sand. Now, when he urgently needed to spend money, he was a little short of funds.
"If we rely on selling talismans to slowly accumulate money, it would probably take more than a month to gather enough materials for a set of formations."
"It's delaying my cultivation."
Without hesitation, Ji Yun turned around and left, returning to his own sky island.
He has always prioritized cultivation, and feels unwell if he doesn't make progress even for a day.
These past few days have been spent excavating the secret chamber.
It had already caused him great distress.
Now, another month of drawing talismans is needed, and all the spiritual sand earned will be saved up to buy arrays.
Impossible.
Let's think of another way.
The formation is not urgently needed; it can buy time.