The Taixu Sect occupied a vast and sprawling territory, where chains of immortal mountains rose and fell.
In the dead of night, Xie Bing sat glumly on a tree branch halfway up a mountain, hugging her head, staring resentfully at the pavilions nestled among the distant overlapping ridges.
…She couldn’t get in.
She couldn’t enter, and had been knocked about by the defensive formation until her head was covered in bumps.
Rubbing her red, swollen forehead, Xie Bing brooded. How could she ever have thought she could just walk into Eldest Senior Brother’s Little Rest Pavilion?
Who was Eldest Senior Brother? The light of the sect, the apex of Sword Cultivators, and that was without even mentioning his terrifying secret identity. Just thinking about it, it was obvious the place held secrets. Even when he wasn’t there, it wasn’t somewhere an ordinary person could enter.
She had waited until the deep silence of the night, avoided the patrolling Law Enforcement Team, and stealthily crept to the side entrance of the residence, intending to scale the wall. Instead, the barrier had bounced her on the head.
Unwilling to give up, Xie Bing tried every method she could think of, only to discover with regret that she simply could not get into Little Rest Pavilion.
How could she get in? Xie Bing considered that she needed to search Little Rest Pavilion to find the book and understood that Yin Juanzhi would absolutely never agree. But she had to get in.
Clear, bright moonlight spilled down, mixing with the dancing shadows of the trees into a wash of pale ink. A truly classic scene of the immortal mountains.
Sleep was the last thing on her mind. Resting her chin on her hand, she gazed at the moon. Give up? Impossible.
The residence had a restriction. To break it, she needed a Blasting Tool!
In the cultivation world, a Blasting Tool was equivalent to a small-scale formation-breaker. She’d seen them in her previous life, but unfortunately, she didn’t have one.
And even if she wanted to buy one, she had no money.
Her previous life here had been utterly, completely insignificant. The most common items in her Storage Brocade Pouch were the pills her Shifu had given her.
The moon gave way to the morning sun. Only when dawn light finally touched the sky did Xie Bing wipe the cold dew from her cheeks and jump down from the tree branch.
Rubbing the dark circles under her eyes, she walked slowly through the mountains, deep in thought. Her black hair hung loosely behind her, the Frost Hair Ribbon fluttering gently, lending her an air of relaxed ease.
On her way back to the Scripture Library, a Spirit Paper Crane flickered in the sky. She reached out and caught it.
“Emerald Valley Market?”
Xie Bing looked down at the Taixu Sect Weekly delivered by the crane in her hand. It dawned on her that every autumn, there was a grand joint market held by the Three Major Sects. It was massive and bustling, drawing cultivators from the surrounding regions to participate for days, even attracting members of smaller sects.
The Emerald Valley actually held a market every month, but this month’s was exceptionally grand.
It was the cultivation world’s equivalent of a Double Eleven shopping festival.
It had already started yesterday and would run for seven days straight. Xie Bing frowned. She didn’t have time for this, but time was of the essence—she needed to sneak into Little Rest Pavilion and search for the textbook! Who knew what that “Demeanor” actually was? What if it was Yin Juanzhi’s treasured collection of pornographic books?
No sooner thought than done. Xie Bing immediately rushed to the Back Mountain, to her main base in the bamboo forest.
There, in the Back Mountain bamboo forest, was the herb garden she had cultivated, planted with many spirit herbs—perfect for taking to the market to exchange for Spirit Stones.
Just as she was carefully picking the herbs, the leaves in the forest rustled, and a jet-black wild pig appeared. Brother Pig nudged Xie Bing’s hand with its tusks. She patted its head. “Food’s on the rock. Go eat.”
The Black Pig grunted, then bit at Xie Bing’s sleeve. She paused. “You want me to follow you?”
The Black Pig shook its head.
Xie Bing understood. “You want to help me?”
With a satisfied grunt, the wild pig sat down in front of Xie Bing.
A little touched, Xie Bing vigorously rubbed the Black Pig’s head. She showed Brother Pig a few types of the spirit herbs she needed. With a cheerful squeal, Brother Pig bolted into the mountain forest.
Before long, the Black Pig came bounding back on all four hooves, a load of spirit herbs on its back.
“Oink,” it announced proudly.
Xie Bing was stunned. “That many?!”
The Black Pig escorted Xie Bing to the base of the mountain. She rubbed its head; it grunted a few times then quickly turned and charged back into the forest.
The disciples guarding the mountain gate saw this from afar and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Xie Bing is such a freak. A disciple of Head Seat Perfected One Gu, yet she’s an Object Cultivator, and a Trash Spirit Root at that. Even her mount is different from everyone else’s—a wild boar.”
“Really brings shame to our Taixu Sect. When has Taixu Sect ever used a black wild boar as a mount? The least you could do is ride an immortal crane.”
“I heard our Junior Sister tamed the unicorn in Lakeside Valley. Only the purest, most flawless heart can tame a noble, proud unicorn. It shows Junior Sister Xuan Yao’s pure and kind nature.”
“Unicorn? It’s called a White Dragon Horse. Enough, it’s an eyesore. Just look at Xie Bing riding that black pig. Tsk, tsk.”
When Xie Bing drew close, the group fell silent, their faces a picture of composure. “Identity token.”
Face cold, Xie Bing verified her token and walked straight out the mountain gate without a backward glance.
It seemed Gu Monian and Xuan Yao’s relationship had progressed by leaps and bounds during this time. Lakeside Valley wasn’t a place anyone could enter. In her previous life, Gu Monian had personally led Xuan Yao into Lakeside Valley where she tamed a White Dragon Horse as her mount.
But that had been a mid-stage plot point. She hadn’t expected an anomaly this time—Gu Monian taking Xuan Yao to Lakeside Valley early.
Most likely to cheer up the wounded Xuan Yao.
This was Emerald Valley, the immortal market town closest to the Taixu Sect.
The market, jointly organized by the Three Major Sects, was extraordinarily grand.
Sword lights filled the sky in all directions. Magical artifacts streaked across the heavens. Lofty pavilions loomed within the clouds. Flying boats and the sun and moon vied for brilliance.
Xie Bing walked down the ancient streets, surrounded by cultivators of all appearances. Eating candied hawthorn and window-shopping, she savored the sights.
Truthfully, she rarely visited markets. In her previous life, she’d never gone out much. After arriving in the Devil Realm, she’d focused entirely on her dark endeavors and certainly never went to bustling markets.
As she wandered aimlessly, she noticed some cultivators picking up jade slips to read messages and felt a pang of envy.
Wealthy cultivators used jade slips to send and receive messages. Xie Bing, however, was poor.
Being poor, she had to subscribe to cheap information using Spirit Paper Cranes.
Of course, impoverished cultivators had their own ways of getting news, too.
Self-service flyers floated in the air, free for the taking. Perfect for someone as destitute as Xie Bing.
She casually grabbed one. It detailed the various arrangements, schedule, and general trading zones for this Emerald Valley Market.
A quick scan surprised her slightly. She hadn’t expected the Three Major Sects to make such a grand gesture this time.
The finale of the market was the auction house’s items. Not only were there Innate Artifacts, but the headline item was a supreme treasure of the Devil Realm: the Soul-Capturing Flute.
The Soul-Capturing Flute was a magic artifact lost by the Devil Cultivation World in the Cultivation World during the righteous-devil war thirty years ago. It was a memento of the mother of Nangong Wumei, the newly ascended Devil Venerable of the Devil Cultivation World.
No doubt this Emerald Valley Market was also intended as a slap in the face to the Devil Realm.
Holding such an auction… Xie Bing had a nagging feeling something wasn’t right. She racked her brain, but in her previous life at this time, she’d still been locked away in the Taixu Sect, deaf to the outside world, so she hadn’t known certain things.
Whatever. Xie Bing went to the apothecary first to sell her spirit herbs.
She wore the “uniform” of the Taixu Sect. The white robe was extremely eye-catching, and the faint cloud embroidery on it made onlookers’ eyelids twitch even more.
This marked her as an Inner Sect disciple, or a direct-line disciple, of the Taixu Sect.
“One Spirit Stone in total,” the shopkeeper said with an ingratiating smile.
Xie Bing was disappointed. Raw materials really didn’t earn much. She’d sold all the spirit herbs for just one Spirit Stone.
Less than she’d expected, but it didn’t matter.
She then went to an artifact shop and sold off things she’d treasured for a long time—items Shifu Gu Monian distributed to his disciples during festivals and holidays.
As she handed them over, Xie Bing felt a subconscious pang in her heart, but her face remained expressionless.
It was all in the past. The things Gu Monian gave her were given to everyone. He had never given her anything unique.
And yet, she had treasured those generic items like priceless gems, always dwelling on them, remembering him. What a fool she’d been.
Ten years. Everything from those ten years, all sold, amounted to only five Spirit Stones.
Xie Bing pushed the Spirit Stones the shopkeeper had just given her back toward him. “Shopkeeper, I want a Formation-Breaking Treasure.”
The shopkeeper beamed. “You’ve come to the right person. Ordinary shops break formations with brute force, but I have a top-tier treasure here that can silently, imperceptibly break them. I’m sure you’ll like it, miss.”
Xie Bing looked at the auction advertisement on the flyer. The Three Major Sects were gathering for the grand event, auctioning Innate Artifacts.
Since she was here, she might as well take a look.
Normally, Xie Bing wouldn’t have been able to get in, but as an Inner Sect disciple of the Taixu Sect, she had privileges—privileges she had simply never used before.
The guards were disciples of the Three Major Sects. Seeing Xie Bing, they let her in with smiles.
She inconspicuously scanned her surroundings. Something was off. She could sense many Taixu Sect cultivators hidden nearby. Why were there so many people for just an auction?
Stepping through the entrance, she walked down a resplendent corridor, then narrowed her eyes.
Before her was a massive open-air platform.
The platform was circular, with an ornately decorated auction stage at its center. The seating was divided into tiers, all offering an unobstructed view of the boundless, magnificent sky.
Xie Bing didn’t intend to go deeper inside. She stood casually in the back row, looking forward. An auction had just concluded, and people were carrying the next item onto the stage.
She narrowed her eyes, looking toward the VIP seats at the very front.
Familiar silhouettes.
One was a tall, cold, and imposing Shifu in a white robe. The other was a soft, charming girl in a pink dress. The two sat in the front row. From time to time, the girl covered her mouth and giggled, leaning close to say something to Gu Monian.
An unconscious smile graced his usually icy, handsome face.
Gu Monian and Xuan Yao.
Xie Bing’s expression was cold. Gu Monian had never shown her a smiling face. And now, all that tenderness and affection was directed at Xuan Yao.
She faintly heard someone say that Taixu Sect’s Perfected One Gu had spent a fortune on his female disciple, already buying up several rare and precious items.
“That Jade Glazed Chalice just now was won by Perfected One Gu. You can see his care and affection for his Final Disciple.”
“That female disciple does look adorably charming. If I were him, I wouldn’t be able to resist giving all the finest things in the world to her.”
“The next artifact up for auction is the Soul-Capturing Flute. I wonder who dares to buy a Devil Realm artifact.”
“…”
Buzzing discussions surrounded her. A clear gong sounded, and someone announced in a resonant voice:
“Next, one of the finale items of our auction, an Innate Artifact, perfect for Sword Cultivators!”
“The Seven Star Wish-Fulfilling Sword!”
Xie Bing saw Xuan Yao excitedly grab Gu Monian’s sleeve, murmuring something about wanting it.
Gu Monian soothingly patted her hand. His thin lips parted, uttering just two words: “Don’t worry.”
He poured all his doting and tender affection into her.
…
Besides Gu Monian and Xuan Yao, Xie Bing also spotted disciples from the Unforeseen Sect and the Limitless Palace sitting in the front rows.
The Three Major Sects were all represented.
On the stage, the auctioneer was passionately introducing the Seven Star Wish-Fulfilling Sword.
The Seven Star Wish-Fulfilling Sword was one of the few masterless Innate Artifacts in the world, ranked within the top ten of the Armament List. Its previous host had failed Ascension three years ago and left behind only this sword. It was only now being brought to light.
Xuan Yao’s limpid eyes were filled with anticipation. She stared unblinkingly at the sword, murmuring, “Shifu, I feel like this is my destined lifebound sword.”
A top-ten Innate Artifact was extremely precious, something you couldn’t seek but only chance upon. Gu Monian naturally knew its value. He said softly, “Your teacher said I would find you a Lifeforce Spirit Sword. Be at ease.”
He narrowed his eyes at the stage. This was the second to last auction item. With him presiding, no one would dare compete.
And indeed, it was just as he expected. When Gu Monian raised his hand to bid, a few people initially competed, but they all dropped out once the price climbed high.
“One thousand Spirit Stones, going once…” the auctioneer called out.
“One thousand Spirit Stones, going twice…”
Silence reigned.
Just as the auctioneer was about to utter the final “sold,” someone spoke languidly from a corner in the very back row.
His voice was chillingly cold, as if rising from the depths of the earth:
“Ten thousand Spirit Stones.”
Xie Bing was jolted in alarm. This voice, she knew it all too well!