Chapter 101: The Secret Market Auction Begins!-From Servant to Saint: The Path to Enlightenment(The mountains rise high beneath a small, distant moon.)

After leaving the shop of the Tower of a Thousand Devices, Shen Yan wandered idly through the hidden market for quite some time before retracing his steps and heading back to his own shop.

All along the way, his thoughts remained fixed on the matter of the Azure Lotus Fiend Qi within the Azure Lotus Sword Sect.

Fiend qi was a peculiar substance formed from the yin attribute spiritual energies of heaven and earth, much like the yin fiend energy he had once encountered in the secret realm of the Water Moon Sect. Yet that yin fiend energy was only fiend qi diluted countless times over.

Even so, if a living being absorbed too much yin fiend energy, its mind and spirit would still be radically altered, becoming hungry for slaughter and destruction.

As a Core Formation sect in the Central Plains, the Azure Lotus Sword Sect must surely have nurtured fiend qi of its own within its walls, using it to support the sect’s cultivators as they advanced into the mid Foundation Establishment stage.

Perhaps the Azure Lotus Fiend Qi had been transformed from the fiend qi nourished within the Azure Lotus Sword Sect, but exactly how that transformation had occurred, Shen Yan had no reliable guess.

After returning to the shop, Shen Yan activated the formation to seal off all outside senses, then took out the jade slip the dwarf had given him and examined it carefully.

Starlit Sand...

Flamebird Core...

Black Wind Fiend Qi...

Low-grade spirit artifacts...

White Cloud Astral Force...

One auction item after another surfaced in Shen Yan’s mind. He skipped over most of them and committed the few he truly needed to memory.

Low-grade spirit artifact, Soul-Suppressing Bell. Mid-grade spirit artifact, Prison Rock Soft Armor. Artifact Refinement Arts. Detailed Exposition of Talismans.

Among the several auction items Shen Yan had his eye on, the Soul-Suppressing Bell was meant to protect the soul from certain underhanded demonic methods, exactly the kind of spirit artifact he lacked most.

As for the Prison Rock Soft Armor, it was a purely defensive spirit artifact. Once worn and combined with the Profound Origin Heavy Water Shield and the Vajra Talisman, it would be more than enough to withstand attacks from a late Foundation Establishment cultivator.

As for the Artifact Refinement Arts and the Detailed Exposition of Talismans, these were jade slips recording methods for refining spirit artifacts and talismans. Shen Yan was currently learning the arts of cultivation, so naturally he would not miss them.

After confirming the time of the auction, Shen Yan sat cross-legged and resumed tempering his true essence.

Although his cultivation realm could no longer advance for the moment, the refinement of his true essence could not stop. First, the innate purple qi within the Heavenly Emperor Divine Seal had an exceptionally powerful assisting effect on cultivation. Second, the Mixed-Origin Earth Magnet Profound Art and the Circumpolar Astral Qi Technique also had their own effects on refining true essence.

With the three working in tandem, Shen Yan hoped to temper his true essence to the absolute limit. In both quantity and quality, it had to overwhelm any cultivator of the same rank.

Much later, only after his dantian and the meridians throughout his body had begun to ache faintly, did Shen Yan stop refining his true essence and begin studying the arts of cultivation.

Entering the artifact-refining chamber and taking out the furnace cauldron, he slowly sorted through the materials needed for refinement.

By now, he could already forge high-grade magical tools, though his success rate was not high. His goal, however, was at minimum to be able to refine low-grade spirit artifacts. Only then could he upgrade the top-grade magical tools on his person to the level of spirit artifacts, allowing him to go to the Azure Lotus Sword Sect ruins in search of fiend qi.

Time flew by. Within the shop, Shen Yan ceaselessly refined pills, magical tools, and talismans, and before long the day of the hidden market auction had arrived.

When the sky had grown dim, Shen Yan rose to his feet. After tallying the spirit stones on his person, he remained silent for a moment before heading toward the hidden market.

Familiarity bred ease. When he arrived once more at the wooden gate, the one guarding it was still the same cultivator at the Great Circle of Qi Refining.

Seeing Shen Yan again, now wearing the face of Zhou Shun, the gatekeeper forced a thin smile onto his gaunt features.

“Please come in, Senior.”

Shen Yan gave a slight nod, but still took out the distinguished guest token of the hidden market. Only after the other party verified it did he step inside.

The hidden market auction was held in the deepest central chamber belowground. When Shen Yan arrived before the great hall where the auction was to be held, a cultivator in a black robe stepped in front of him and blocked the way.

The other man was very polite. He first cupped his hands toward Shen Yan, then let a trace of his aura leak out. He was actually a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator.

“Greetings, Daoist friend. May I see your invitation to the hidden market?”

Shen Yan had not received an invitation, but his distinguished guest token served the same purpose. After he took it out once more and the other party had verified it, Shen Yan was just about to enter when the cultivator suddenly said again,

“My surname is Gong, Gong Tian. I am one of the stewards of the hidden market, and today I am in charge of hosting the auction. May I ask how Daoist friend should be addressed?”

At the question, Shen Yan frowned. The hidden market had its own rules.

Why did so many cultivators choose to trade in the hidden market in the first place, if not to conceal their identities?

Did this mid Foundation Establishment cultivator not even understand such a basic principle?

Seeing Shen Yan’s frown, the other hurriedly explained, “Please do not misunderstand, Daoist friend. I do not mean to investigate your true identity. It is only that the auction is about to begin, and it would be best if you arranged a fitting identity for yourself. That would make things more convenient.”

The reason he was being so courteous to Shen Yan was that Shen Yan’s composure was simply too extraordinary, as though he had never once considered whether entering the hidden market might carry risk.

Generally speaking, cultivators entering the hidden market either wore bamboo hats or covered their faces. A cultivator like Shen Yan, who appeared openly with his true countenance, was as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

Although it could not be confirmed whether the face Shen Yan showed was truly his own, the fact that he dared to act in such a manner meant he must have some reliance, and clearly did not fear being intercepted and killed.

As one of the stewards of the hidden market, Gong Tian had no wish to clash with Shen Yan lightly.

Although the intelligence from the Tower of a Thousand Devices indicated that this man was only at early Foundation Establishment, with a cultivation base lower than his own, and that he did not seem to be from the local cultivation world, appearing to be alone, it was precisely for those reasons that Gong Tian paid him even more attention.

Cultivators who conducted themselves in this manner were usually either backed by a powerful patron, or else were formidable in their own right. As the steward responsible for the hidden market in Seajoy City, his main duty was not to fight and kill, but to earn spirit stones for the market and collect precious spiritual materials. Unless absolutely necessary, he did not want anyone causing trouble here.

“I am Zhou Shun. Greetings, Daoist friend.”

Shen Yan gave a slight cupping of his hands and continued to present himself as Zhou Shun.

As for whether the Jade Immortal Sect and the Water Essence Gate of the East Sea cultivation world might use these clues to track him down, Shen Yan was not worried.

Unless those two sects sent Core Formation cultivators to hunt him, he had nothing to fear.

And if they truly dared to send Core Formation cultivators, then they would have to bear the possibility of such a high-ranking cultivator dying in the Central Plains.

After all, the East Sea cultivation world had always been fiercely exclusive. If you send a Core Formation cultivator here, could the cultivation world of the Central Plains not give you a lesson in return?

“So it is Daoist Zhou Shun. Please, this way.”

Knowing full well that the name Shen Yan gave was false, Gong Tian still smiled warmly.

“Thank you for your trouble.”

Shen Yan returned the courtesy and then entered the great hall where the auction was being held, choosing a secluded corner to sit down.