Li An did not wear the disciple robe of the Profound Yang Sect today, but a light blue casual outfit, making him inconspicuous on the street.
He wandered around the market square twice at random, ensuring no one was following him. Then, in a deserted alley, he quickly changed into a set of drab gray clothes, put on a bamboo hat, masked his face, padded his shoe soles higher, and made his shoulders broader before he left.
Even if he brushed past someone familiar like Tan Qingxue, it would be hard for the other party to recognize him without a careful look.
Then, he quickly left the main street of the market square and headed to the northern part, where the low houses were located.
Compared to the bustling main street, this area was quite deserted, with few people around.
Li An entered a house where four people were already seated, three men and one woman, with Li An being the fifth.
Like Li An, the other four either wore bamboo hats or veils to avoid being recognized, but the burly man at the front had no disguise, though Li An guessed he was wearing a human skin mask.
"Everyone's here."
The burly man spoke, "According to the rules, we five will display what we want to trade or buy according to the order of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. After everything is displayed, we will commence with the transactions."
This kind of transaction typically involves cultivators who do not wish to reveal their identities, so no names are asked; they are referred to by their seating order of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, with Li An sitting in the water position.
The person in the gold position was a middle-aged cultivator with some gray hair hanging by his ears. In a low voice, he said:
"I am selling three pieces of upper-grade Tier One meteorite iron and have three First Grade Recovery Pills as well. The meteorite iron needs to be exchanged for an upper-grade Tier One protective magical artifact but can also be purchased with spirit stones."
As he spoke, he displayed three pieces of black meteorite iron along with a small jade bottle.
In the wood position was a slender young man whose voice was hoarse:
"I'm offering a set of upper-grade Tier One magical artifact — Thorn Armor. This armor boasts extremely strong defense and can emit spiritual power thorns to counterattack enemies when attacked, needing restriction materials in exchange."
His storage bag flashed with a spiritual light, and a piece of black metal soft armor appeared in his hand!
Li An said, "I have four First Grade spirit medicines, Fire Spirit Fruits."
As he spoke, he laid out the Fire Spirit Fruits.
Immediately, the others looked over with some surprise.
The person beside him in the fire position, a woman with a white veil, impatiently said, "Fellow Daoist, do you have any Second Grade Fire Spirit Fruits? If so, I am willing to pay a high price to buy them!"
As everyone knows, Fire Spirit Fruit is a Second Grade spirit fruit.
Moreover, it's one of the ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill formula!
Li An shook his head, "Sorry, only these."
Upon hearing this, the woman couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
"Don't disrupt the process, continue!"
And the burly man with the human skin mask, sitting in the earth position, spoke in a deep voice.
The woman with the white veil in the fire position said, "I'm selling three Spirit Awakening Pills, useful for breaking through the mid-stage Qi Refining, accepting spirit stones."
Finally, the burly man in the earth position also said, "I have an upper-grade Tier One treasured knife, spirit stones are fine!"
Next was the exchange and pricing session among them.
"Fellow Daoist, your Fire Spirit Fruits are of high quality, almost approaching Second Grade spirit fruits, are you sure you don't have any of the Second Grade level?"
The woman with the white veil asked again.
Li An said, "Sorry, I really don't."
The woman sighed and said, "Alright, how much for all your Fire Spirit Fruits? I'll take them all."
Li An said, "One price, two hundred spirit stones."
The woman said, "I only have a hundred spirit stones, how about using one Spirit Awakening Pill priced at a hundred spirit stones?"
Li An gladly accepted.
The transaction was successful.
Li An then looked at the slender young man before him and said, "Fellow Daoist, do you accept spirit stones for your Thorn Armor?"
In terms of magical artifacts, Li An was still lacking, but ordinary protective artifacts were not very useful to him, not even as effective as his Iron Tree Skill.
Upper-grade Tier One, it would be great if he could get it.
Thus, he kept looking at the Thorn Armor in the man's hand, quite tempted.
The man shook his head, "Sorry, I only want restriction materials, no specific type."
Li An was helpless; restriction materials were special materials used for setting restrictions, arrays, etc., and unless one was an Array Master or Prohibition Master, ordinary people rarely had them.
However, he vaguely sensed that this young man's aura was not strong, seemingly at mid-stage Qi Refining, and shouldn't have touched arrays or restrictions...
After all, learning and crafting arrays and restrictions require a huge expenditure of spiritual power, something early-stage and mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators can't withstand!
At least it takes reaching late-stage Qi Refining to start learning.
Li An had dabbled in arrays in his past life. Due to his aptitude, he couldn't pursue alchemy or artifacts, so he chose arrays and talismans, achieving notable success with accumulated resources in those fields.
But he wasn't too surprised; the other party might have hidden their cultivation level as well.
He casually looked the young man over a few times.
...
After the transactions were completed.
The few individuals didn't immediately leave but exchanged information.
"I have confidential information regarding Demon Dao cultivators; three days ago, at the market square by the Liuyang River, a very dangerous incident occurred targeting the Profound Yang Sect…"
The elder in the gold position spoke in a deep voice: "Five spirit stones."
Information can be sold for money as well!
As long as you want it.
The rest were quite interested in this information, immediately giving the elder spirit stones and receiving the secret note he provided.
Li An also, without showing any emotion, spent money to buy a copy—after all, in this world, information is always the most critical.
The other news were relatively trivial, and the gathering quickly dispersed.
...
Leaving the transaction site, Li An found a secluded place, changed back into his blue clothes, and mingled into the crowd.
In the evening, he returned to his abode and opened the secret note he had bought from the elder.
The information written on it made Li An's eyebrows jump!
—Three days ago, at the market square by the Liuyang River, there was a vicious incident where Demon Cultivators attacked the Profound Yang Sect's pill store!
According to the description, the Demon Cultivator infiltrated the market without detection, and during a conflict while buying pills at the Profound Yang Sect's Pill Hall's store, they killed on the spot and snatched a lot of spirit medicine.
The crucial point is that the Demon Cultivator got away unscathed!
Li An pondered, if this information is true, doesn't it mean that the market square itself is quite dangerous?
The ability of a Demon Cultivator to infiltrate the market indicates either that the Demon Cultivator's cultivation is absurdly high, reaching Core Formation Level, or that they cultivated some unique cultivation technique.
Li An believed it was the latter.
After all, if a Core Formation Level Demon Cultivator appeared, they could easily sweep through the entire market!
Moreover, what worried him even more was that the other party actually robbed the Spirit Pharmacy of the Profound Yang Sect...
This was somewhat outrageous, not even giving face to the Profound Yang Sect?
He sensed a hint of danger.
Was this news true or false? It was difficult to discern.
But it's always necessary to be well-prepared.
"The trump cards in hand are still too few..."
Li An was somewhat anxious.
This kind of situation, it's not about fearing a thousand possibilities, but rather the one possibility that matters.
Having been comfortable in the market, his tolerance for danger was extremely low.
Moreover, his strength was too weak, at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, facing a demon cultivator capable of plundering the Spirit Pharmacy of Liuyang River, even if he used all his techniques, it would probably be difficult to resist.
Although he had obtained a Spirit Awakening Pill, it was temporarily of no help to him as it needed to be used after reaching perfection in the Qi Refining Fourth Layer to increase the chance of breaking the realm.
"I must prepare more lethal moves, at least to have some survival capital when facing Late-Stage Qi Refining."
"Currently, the most suitable for me is... formation spells!"
He pondered.
Formation spells are a powerful weapon for low-level cultivators!
But the drawbacks are also prominent; one, they are very expensive, and secondly, once set up, they only work in fixed places, and maintaining them requires a vast expenditure of spirit stones.
Generally, only cultivation clans or powerful loose cultivators with a fixed cave dwelling would purchase such things.
...
The next day, Li An went out again and sold the remaining Tree Reishi and Parasitic Spirit Vine Fruit he had on him.
Only the Second Grade Glowing Lotus was not sold; such an item is rare and strategic, and Li An would not part with it unless absolutely necessary.
Currently, he had four hundred and twenty spirit stones in his possession.
It could be considered a small fortune.
He immediately went to the formation shop of the Profound Yang Sect.
After three years, he was quite familiar with the people of the Profound Yang Sect here. Upon entering the shop, shopkeeper Zhang Shouye saw him and immediately greeted him with a smile:
"Talisman Master Li, what wind blows you here today?"
"Fellow Daoist Zhang, I'd like to take a look at the formation spells."
Li An got straight to the point.
Seeing this, Zhang Shouye spoke in a low voice: "Here to look at formation spells again... have you also heard the news?"
Li An leaned in and asked: "What news?"
Zhang Shouye replied: "Playing dumb with me now? The demon cultivator burglarized the market at Liuyang River. Today, several shops owned by cultivation clans in the market have come over to inquire about formation spells..."
Li An felt a chill in his heart; indeed, there was no smoke without fire!
"Actually, there's no need. The demon cultivator has just caused havoc and will surely hide for a while. Moreover, the sect has sent experts patrolling everywhere. It won't be long before the demon cultivator is captured..."
The formation shop was the most serene, so with nothing better to do, Zhang Shouye was quite talkative and provided Li An with more information.
The demon cultivator killed three people at the Spirit Pharmacy of Liuyang River, one of whom was actually a master at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer!
The Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator stationed at Liuyang River opened the grand array blockade and searched for several days but still couldn't find the demon cultivator.
...
Li An quickly judged that this demon cultivator must have a cultivation level above the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, definitely a master of the Late-Stage Qi Refining.
Maybe even at the pinnacle of Qi Refining!
After all, being able to swiftly escape after killing, the movements were too fast.
Moreover, he must be cultivating some secret technique to conceal his aura and such.
The more Li An thought about it, the more he felt he must be prepared, and immediately asked: "Do you have any protective arrays I can look at?"
Zhang Shouye pointed to the display cabinet and said: "Low-level array, can block Early-Stage Qi Refining cultivators, one hundred spirit stones; Mid-level array, three hundred spirit stones; High-level array, nine hundred spirit stones..."
The high-level array can resist cultivators of the Late-Stage Qi Refining.
But Li An didn't think much of it and shook his head: "I want top-quality!"
Zhang Shouye replied: "Oh, Talisman Master Li is quite affluent..."
He then took out a catalog, "The lowest tier, Early-Stage Foundation Establishment array, three thousand spirit stones."
This level wasn't in stock at the formation shop; if desired, one would have to pay a deposit first and then have it custom-made by the sect.
Li An's mouth twitched.
Seeing Li An's expression, Zhang Shouye couldn't help but laugh. Stroking his beard, he said:
"How about this, on account of our acquaintance, I actually have a good item, high-grade and cheap. Want to see it?"
Li An was intrigued and nodded.
Zhang Shouye turned around, took out a dusty white jade array plate from a display case, blew on it heavily, causing dust to fly up everywhere, and handed it to Li An:
"This was made by Elder Luo of the Array Hall right after he was promoted to a Tier Two Array Master. The power is stronger than a Tier One high-level array, and it's almost a certain kill for those below the Foundation Establishment Stage!"
"Of course, there's a slight drawback. It can only be used once... but at least the price is cheap!"
Li An frowned and carefully examined it, secretly laughing.
This Zhang Shouye wasn't easy to deal with... he only spoke half-truths.
The biggest problem with this array plate was that it couldn't automatically defend or attack the enemy, it needed to be manually operated!
Needing manual operation means expending a lot of divine sense or spiritual power, which means it's overlooked by Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators and unusable by Qi Refining Stage cultivators.
Utterly impractical.
Zhang Shouye was trying to scam Li An.
"This quality isn't great... how much is it?" Li An asked nonchalantly.
"Considering our long acquaintance, I'll give you a discount price, eight hundred spirit stones!"
Li An turned to leave.
"Don't go, Talisman Master Li, prices can be negotiated, seven hundred eighty will do..."
But Li An had already walked away.
He wasn't in a hurry to buy, since the price was still too high, he didn't have that much money, and besides, buying it outright might raise suspicion.
That night, Li An returned to the talisman store and was making talismans.
"Junior Brother Li, are you there?"
Tan Qingxue knocked on his door.
...