With the gem in his hand, the old Daoist slowly said, “Perhaps there are a few Fellow Daoists that possess this item, but hadn’t known of its name. I happen to have one in my possession so that you may recognize it.”
A Devil Dao cultivator wrapped in black Qi yelped in astonishment, “How odd! It seems similar to ghost energy, but it is far more pure.”
Daoist Heavencrystal straightforwardly replied, “I don’t know what it is that the stone contains, but it definitely isn’t ordinary ghost Qi. Else, I wouldn’t be willing to exchange a single stone for one of these puppets.”
“Oh! That’s true.” The Devil Dao cultivator tactfully dropped the subject.
When Han Li clearly saw this gem, his expression underneath the mask vastly changed and his eyes flickered.
If he saw correctly, this soul stone was clearly the umbra beast crystals that he obtained from the Umbra Realm. Of course, beast crystals was merely the name used by the natives. Its true name as the cultivators of antiquity called it seemed to be soul stones.
Han Li pondered, ‘This Daoist Heavencrystal not only took out those puppets but he also gathered many soul stones. Both appeared at Heavenvoid Hall. It seems this person...”
The soul stones were clearly rarely seen items. After a long while, only a single cultivator hesitantly took one out and traded it for a single beast puppet.
Daoist Heavencrystal called out several more times, but no one stepped forward. He couldn’t help feel somewhat disappointed despite having predicted this.
Just as he was about to put away the beast puppets, someone suddenly stood up. The old man’s spirits were roused and he glanced at this person with delight, “Fellow Daoist, do you also have soul stones?”
Han Li silently flipped his hand and a green gem appeared in his hand.
This gem was the size of an chicken egg, far larger than the thumb-sized gem that the old Daoist took out. Its icy Qi could be seen by the naked eye.
Daoist Heavencrystal was shocked by the sight and grew vastly delighted, “Fellow Daoist, it is truly rare for a soul stone to be so powerful. How about Fellow Daoist pick two of the puppets? I definitely won’t have you suffer loss.”
Han Li shook his head with a faint smile.
Daoist Heavencrystal wasn’t angered in the slightest and amiably asked, “What? Does Fellow Daoist think this is too little? How many would you like?”
Han Li calmly asked, “How about for all of the puppets?”
The old Daoist frowned and gloomily said, “For all six? Doesn’t Fellow Daoist feel this is too greedy?”
“Hehe, not at all! You should know understand this from the soul stone’s size alone. Moreover, to you, such a large soul stone would...” Han Li stared at Daoist Heavencrystal and abruptly stopped his words.
When Daoist Heavencrystal heard this, his expression changed and gave Han Li and deep, appraising stare. After a moment of silence, he said, “Alright. Such a large soul stone is truly rarely seen. I am in urgent need of this item so I will exchange all of them.”
The other cultivators in the room were shocked by what they heard and couldn’t help but take a look at the egg-sized gem in Han Li’s grasp. A person capable of exchanging for so many rare items as once was certainly someone to take note of.
With an entirely calm expression, he handed over the gem with a lowered head and swept his sleeve over the table, instantly taking the puppets into his storage pouch.
However, the other cultivators didn’t notice that Han Li’s lips had moved in the instant he lowered his head. A bewildered expression flickered from Daoist Heavencrystal’s face when he heard of this and his eyes brightly shined. At that moment, Han Li had already returned to his original position with the puppets in his grasp.
Next, Daoist Heavencrystal announced an end to the trade meet and the many cultivators began to leave.
When Han Li’s party left the pavilion, no one spoke until they arrived two streets away. The Child Fire Dragon bluntly spoke with an elderly tone, “Fellow Daoists, I will not be able to accompany you. I have another appointment.”
Lu Luo smiled and said, “If Brother Lan has matters to attend to, please go. Our residences are near each other. There will plenty of chances to meet again.”
“Yes, I’ll be taking my leave!” The Child Fire Dragon bid his farewell without any reservations and walked towards another street.”
As Han Li gazed at him from a distance, he smiled and said, “Fellow Daoist Fire Dragon is truly a wonderful person!”
“Because Fellow Daoist Lan mistakenly ate a strange plant when he was young, his appearance is generally that of a child. However, he is forthright and outspoken, and is one of our friends from outside the sect. He is also the sole Ancient Sword Sect elder that is friendly with our Drifting Cloud Sect.
When Han Li heard this, he frowned and said, “You mean to say the elders of the Ancient Sword Sect don’t have a high opinion of the Drifting Cloud Sect?”
After taking a glance around, Lu Luo said, “That’s right. Junior Martial Brother Han, do you have any plans? Are you going to return to take a rest or will you be purchasing some other items?”
Han Li honestly replied, “There are a few particular materials that I need to buy. I plan on taking a look at the nearby markets alone and seeing whether or not I can obtain unexpected gains.”
When Lu Luo heard that Han Li wished to go by himself, he raised no objections and said, “Just as it so happened, I also plan on purchasing some items as well. Let’s part ways for now.”
As a result, Han Li and Lu Luo immediately split up.
The markets of Soaring Heavens City were countless times larger than the market city of the Dreamcloud Mountains.
Han Li was walking down a road of the city’s western market as he examined the streets on either side. The words Han Li said to Lu Luo weren’t false. He did plan on purchasing a few rarer talisman refinement materials in preparations to refine a few high grade talismans.
Although he still possessed some spirit beast hides and blood from his time in the Scattered Star Seas, he lacked supplementary materials such as high grade talisman paper and cinnabar. He needed to raise his skills by an entire realm in preparation to refine the Spirit Subjugation Talisman.
Although he hadn’t carefully researched the Spirit Subjugation Talisman, the boneshard that recorded it mentioned that its might was truly powerful. As something that would be able to use it to save his life during a crucial moment, Han Li wasn’t about to easily relinquish it.
However, this talisman was far more complicated and difficult than refinine ordinary elemental talismans. He had to improve his odds of success by not only improving he talisman refinement abilities but also acquiring a new talisman brush. His original brush was no longer useful.
Unfortunately, while the talisman refinement materials were readily purchasable, a satisfactory brush was hard to come by. He already had encountered two stores before that were selling top grade talisman brushes, but after he examined the, he could only shake his head and depart. While these talisman brushes could be used to refine ordinary high grade talismans, they lacked the ability to refine a secret talisman on the level of the Spirit Subjugation Talisman.
Talisman brushes were only spirit tools that were used by talisman masters, and weren’t commonly seen. Most of them were of low or mid grade quality. If a talisman master lacked the magic power, forcibly using a high grade talisman brush would only increase their odds of failure.
Additionally, talisman masters were often too dedicated to their talisman refinement techniques and didn’t spent much time increasing their cultivation, resulting in a cast majority of talisman cultivators being below Core Formation stage. In the entirety of the Heavenly South, there were only a sparse few Core Formation stage talisman refinement masters.
As for any Nascent Soul stage, there were no such abnormal characters as far as Han Li was aware of. A majority of cultivators that reached Nascent Soul stage were speci
alized talisman refinement masters.
Nascent Soul cultivators were also diverse in their talisman refinement techniques. Most of them would only be able to refine one or two types of high grade talismans for their own use, but because high grade spirit beast hides and high grade beast blood was rare, they couldn’t be refined in great number. As for the success rate, it was beyond poor as one could imagine.
This led to single high grade talismans occasionally being worth quite a bit more than a top grade magic tool.
Chapter 682: Torn Talisman
A majority of elemental high grade talismans actually weren’t particularly powerful, and were inferior to magic treasures. This often resulted in the abandoned pursuit of five element magic techniques once a cultivator achieved Core Formation.
This, however, did not mean that all high grade magic techniques were useless. To Han Li’s knowledge, there were many five element magic techniques that were powerful to the extent that even Nascent Soul cultivators wouldn’t dare to directly block them. However, these magic techniques were incredibly difficult to cultivate while comprehending them was rather complicated, and they were even more inconvenient to use. In the time it took to employ them, it would be better to use magic treasures to attack.
However, Han Li had heard other cultivators mention that the Moulan spell warriors broke through these limits and researched many powerful ‘spirit techniques’ that could be deployed in an instant, enabling their low grade spell warriors to rival enemy cultivators of a similar level without the use of talismans or magic tools. As for their high grade cultivators, they were able to combine their spirit techniques with their magic treasures for double the lethality; this allowed them to overcome similar grade cultivators without problem.
It was these capabilities that forced the several superpowers in the Heavenly South to unite against the Moulan Tribes. Even then only self preservation was possible; they were unable of truly defeating the enemy.
Ever since Han Li had condensed a Nascent Soul, he began to study the shallowest high grade magic techniques in acknowledgement of his shortcomings. However, the speed with which he could employ these few high grade techniques could only be described as tragic. The only way he could see himself utilizing these techniques was if he were merely smashing through a tortoise’s shell. In half the time it took to cast the technique, a cultivator at the same stage could’ve already killed him eight times over.
Nevertheless, a simultaneous attack from a high grade talisman and magic treasure makes for an extremely deadly combination. If those talismans were able to be used like low grade ones in a barrage of thirty at a time, even late Nascent Soul cultivators would have no choice but to flee the battle. After all, this would be equivalent to the simultaneous strikes of thirty Nascent Soul cultivators. Even if the target cultivator had defenses that were heaven-defying, they were still bound by the limits of the Nascent Soul stage and be incapable of receiving such an attack.
However, this tactic could only remain imaginary as no one would be so wasteful as to consume several hundred thousands of spirit stones in a single attack. Moreover, high grade talismans weren’t something that could be purchased in the cultivation world, and a majority of them were auxiliary in nature, not offensive.
As Han Li mused about this, he walked the streets of the market city and continuously browsed through the larger magic tool and mixed good stores. Normally, only the larger shops would have top grade talisman brushes for sale.
There was no need for him to consider the smaller shops. They weren’t likely to have anything apart from ordinary magic tools, let alone top grade ones.
While there was a slim possibility of a small store carrying such a rare item, Han Li was unwilling to waste the time necessary to search through each one. With so many shops in Soaring Heavens City, he simply didn’t have time to go searching through all of them.
In addition to Han Li, there were many other cultivators walking down both sides of the street and purchasing their own desired items. While a majority of them were at the Foundation Establishment stage, there was also an occasional Core Formation cultivator. As for Qi Condensation cultivators, there were hardly any of them apart from the city’s natives.
Han Li concealed his cultivation as a mid Core Formation cultivator while he browsed through the markets, merely attracting a few respectful glances from Foundation Establishment cultivators. As for Core Formation cultivators, they simply ignored him after a glance when they didn’t recognize him. He was able to avoid much attention in this manner and was could take his time browsing through each of the large stores.
Just as Han Li left another pavilion feeling disappointed, he discovered that most of the day had unknowingly passed.
With darkness falling, the various stores began to successively place down moonlight stones. After a moment of hesitation, Han Li decided to look through two more stores before returning to his residence.
Right after coming to this decision, he heard the sounds of a quarrel not far away from him. There were a group of cultivators that had curiously gathered around the source of the noise.
Han Li frowned as he immediately placed his hands behind his back, before he expressionlessly turned around and began to walk back to his residence.
As he took his first step, he heard a fierce and resentful voice, “What, are all of you Drifting Cloud Sect cultivators merely thieves? You want to just walk away after ruining my talisman?”
A young man’s voice loudly refuted him with an angry tone, “It isn’t that I don’t want to pay, but that I am short on spirit stones since I’ve just bought other items. Also, this is only an elementary mid-grade firecloud talisman. How could it possibly cost three hundred spirit stones? It should only cost a hundred spirit stones at most. Moreover, didn’t I offer to leave my sect medallion here as collateral? I’ll return once I’ve borrowed some spirit stones from my sect members at the inn.”
Han Li ceased his steps as the man’s voice seemed familiar. It seemed to be someone he recognized from the Drifting Cloud Sect.
Han Li rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment before heading in the direction of the dispute. Regardless of who it was, he was a grand elder of the Drifting Cloud Sect after all. It was unbecoming of him to feign ignorance and walk away.
A short moment later, Han Li found himself looking at a small miscellaneous goods store from a distance. There seemed to be several cultivators standing in front of it in confrontation. Amongst them was a heroic black-clothed figure, Firecloud Mountain’s Sun Huo who Han Li had last seen at the Sword Trial Assembly.
In a short twenty years, this youth had experienced a vast increase in cultivation despite the little change to his appearance. He was currently being confronted by three cultivators with unfriendly appearances who seemed to be the shopkeeper and his assistants.
At that moment, the short-bearded shopkeeper glared at Sun Huo and said, “A single worthless medallion is useless to me. You can simply return to the Drifting Cloud Sect and leave it behind, but I can’t track you down all the way over to the State of Xi. So quit talking nonsense. Since you don’t have any spirit stones, lay out the items in your storage pouch and I will hold them as collateral. As for that Firecloud Talisman, you believe it to only be a mid grade talisman but it is actually a quality good refined by a talisman grandmaster of our Soaring Heavens City. As such it’s already generous to only charge three hundred spirit stones. Could it be that all Drifting Cloud Sect cultivators are such scoundrels?”
Once that was said, the shopkeeper glanced at the wooden box in his assistant’s hands and revealed a regretful expression as if he had suffered a great loss.
Sun Huo unexpectedly responded to these words with a smile, “Fine! The things are yours. If you say it, then so be it. This ordinary Firecloud Talisman was refined by a talisman grandmaster.”
“What? Are you able to tell whether or not it was refined by a talisman grandmaster? Do you simply wish not to pay us back? In that ca
se, don’t blame me for notifying the city’s enforcers.” The shopkeeper coldly laughed and bluntly threatened him.
Sun Huo’s face turned white then red as there was little question as to which party the Nine Nations Union enforcers would favor. Moreover, this matter was vague and unclear so he was all but certain to lose the dispute!
His expression wavered for a long while before he stepped forward. He slapped the storage pouch at his waist and took out a bundle of talismans.
Sun Huo gritted his teeth and said, “Although these talismans aren’t of a high grade, they are worth at least three hundred spirit stones.”
The shopkeeper’s expression relaxed and he reached out to take the talismans, “This will do!”
“Yi! Not this one!” Before the shopkeeper took the talismans, Sun Huo swept his gaze over them and his expression vastly changed as he pulled back the talismans. He immediately took the half-torn yellow talisman back before handing over the rest of the talismans.
The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment before sneering, “Humph! You’re so nervous over a torn piece of blank talisman paper? Are you Drifting Cloud Sect cultivators really so poor?” He then reached once more to take the talismans.
But at that moment, a figure suddenly appeared between the two in a blur.
Sun Huo felt his heart drop while the shopkeeper hastily took several steps back and furiously shouted, “Who are you? What do you think you’re doing?”
The cultivator that interrupted them expressionlessly responded, “It’s nothing. I merely overheard our Drifting Cloud Sect being mentioned in a certain way three times in a row. How about your esteemed self say it to my face?”
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality c1-2248 Page 366