Blade - Unbound

The scale and variety of the treasures far exceeded Li Yan's expectations.

The rear hall was enormous, and brilliantly illuminated by candlelight. Layer upon layer of offering tables stretched into the distance, while the towering statue of the Great Emperor of the Western Peak loomed overhead, its solemn face flickering uncertainly in the firelight.

The hall had clearly been remodeled. The spiritual artifacts and spiritual materials for sale were neatly categorized into separate sections, each overseen by a Daoist.

Of course, they weren't standing guard to prevent theft. Everyone present represented one of the orthodox schools of the Daoist world. They were either elders of their respective sects or individuals occupying positions of great importance. Who among them would stoop to petty theft?

If anyone were caught, they would likely become the laughingstock of the entire Daoist world. The Daoists were simply there to record every transaction. A buyer simply reported their name and the quantity desired, paid the required amount, and the Daoists of the Pure Yang Courtyard would later deliver the purchased goods to their residence.

The numerous spiritual artifacts and spiritual materials were all clearly labeled with fixed prices, allowing buyers to purchase them directly. That was one of the privileges afforded to the orthodox Daoist sects.

Only after they had finished selecting their items would the various lineages and unorthodox factions be allowed in. The later one entered, the fewer items remained. By then, competition would inevitably drive prices even higher.

As for the truly precious one-of-a-kind treasures, however, even members of the orthodox sects had no choice but to bid against one another.

Li Yan allowed himself only a brief moment of astonishment before quickly calming his mind. He immediately began scanning the hall in search of the items he needed.

It didn't take long before he discerned the overall arrangement. Although the treasures filling the hall appeared dazzlingly abundant, they were actually organized with remarkable efficiency.

Using the statue of the Great Emperor of the Western Peak as the dividing point, spiritual artifacts were displayed on the left, while spiritual materials occupied the right. The spiritual materials themselves were further arranged according to the sequence of gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, lead, and mercury.

Shopkeeper Wan had previously explained the reason for the arrangement. It followed the Ministry of Works' basic classification of metals within the Great Xuan Dynasty, derived from the Guanzi: Earth's Numbers Chapter, known as the Six Arts of Guanzi.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Yan headed directly toward the copper section.

Rows upon rows of refined copper ingots were neatly arranged before him. Each piece of naturally formed copper had engraved inscriptions recording its forging date and the year it had been placed within the treasury. Cloud totems and Eight Trigrams patterns decorated their surfaces, lending them an unmistakably mystical appearance.

The colors and shapes of the copper varied wildly, each utterly unique. Copper, under ordinary circumstances, had to be smelted from ore. If it formed naturally, it was undoubtedly no ordinary substance.

Li Yan carefully examined the display and quickly found the Shoushan Copper Essence. The object resembled a meteorite, and was an irregular oval with a yellowish-black hue. Its surface was riddled with honeycomb-like pits, and its origins were clearly documented.

Li Yan picked up the information card beside it.

This copper originates from Shouyang Mountain in Yanshi, Luoyang. Legend holds that it was once the secluded retreat of the Dao Ancestor, giving rise to the saying: When the first light of dawn appears, it is always the first to receive it.

The mountain stands majestic and winding. At its summit, a great stone was shattered by heavenly lightning, revealing this Copper Essence. After enduring a hundred years of lightning strikes, it transformed into a heavenly spiritual treasure.

Once the treasure matured, miraculous phenomena naturally appeared. The nearby villagers reported seeing thunder tigers roaming the forests at night. During the Great Xing Dynasty, a treasure seeker spent several months retrieving it. After the founding of the Great Xuan Dynasty, it was stored within Mount Hua's spiritual aperture for continued nourishment.

Good heavens! Its origins are actually this extraordinary!

This treasure could be examined by hand. Unable to resist, Li Yan reached out to touch it. Before his fingers even made contact, crackling arcs of static electricity danced across its surface, causing his hair to stand on end.

Of course, once a heavenly spiritual treasure had been harvested, the fortune contained within it had already settled, much like fruit after ripening. Only at the moment of maturity could a Great Luo Dharma Body devour the fortune contained within.

After admiring it for a while, Li Yan reluctantly set it back down. A treasure like that was certain to command an astronomical price. Sure enough, inside the wooden box before it already lay several bamboo bidding slips.

The Daoist attendant beside him smiled. "There's no need to rush, Fellow Daoist. Bidding for this item will begin later. Simply place your bamboo slip inside to indicate your interest."

Since it contained the essence of heavenly lightning, the treasure would undoubtedly attract many bidders. Li Yan couldn't help feeling uneasy, wondering just how high the final price would climb. Even so, he didn't hesitate to drop his bamboo slip into the box.

He then continued downward until he found the white copper Quan Wanzhong required. It had already been refined into ingots whose texture closely resembled silver.

White copper was a type of alloy. It had been recorded as early as the Chronicles of Huayang during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, with the finest examples originating from Dian Province, where it was known as Dian White Copper.

The material had always been exceptionally precious. The Old Book of Tang even recorded that only oxen pulling the carriages of first-rank ministers were permitted to wear ornaments made from white copper.

Ever since the Qin Dynasty, foreign merchants had traveled thousands of miles to purchase it. Thus, it became known overseas as the "Silver of the Divine Continent."

Having received a hundred years of incense offerings, it had since transformed into a spiritual material. The price per jin was 500 taels of silver.

Good grief...

Although he had expected it to be expensive, Li Yan still couldn't help clicking his tongue. White copper had always been valuable, but this price had multiplied many times over. Fifty jin would cost twenty five thousand taels!

Quan Wanzhong had scraped together thirty thousand taels by exhausting nearly his entire fortune. If he had been forced to wait until the third purchasing round, the price would likely have risen even higher. No wonder the master and disciple had gone around begging everyone for help!

Just what exactly are they planning to make with this...

After a moment's thought, Li Yan reached for a bamboo slip, but seeing him, the Daoist beside him quickly stopped him with a smile. "There's no need to bid on this item, Fellow Daoist. Simply state the quantity you require."

Li Yan nodded and ordered fifty jin. He then counted out the banknotes and handed them over.

With that taken care of, he hurried toward the section displaying coin charms. This treasury opening placed special emphasis on coin charms, so the area had attracted a considerable crowd. The variety on display was staggering.

There were Openwork Coin Charms, their centers intricately carved into designs such as blooming peonies, twin dragons playing with a pearl, phoenixes in harmonious union, fish transforming into dragons, and many others.

Then, there were Zodiac Coins, engraved not only with the Twelve Zodiac Animals but also the corresponding Natal Star Officials and Eight Trigrams Zodiac symbols. There were also Foundation Coins, some meant to be buried beneath treasure chests, others interred during the construction of temples and Daoist shrines...

In addition, there were Longevity and Blessing Coins, Talisman Coins, Evil-Repelling and Blessing-Invoking Coins, Horse Coins, Great Fortune and Prosperity Coins, Eight Immortals Coins, Treasury-Suppressing Coins, Furnace-Opening Coins, Ridgepole-Raising Coins, Daoist Coins, Buddhist Coins and more.

Li Yan had never even heard of some of these varieties before.

Everyone around him silently browsed through the selections, each focused entirely on their own purchases. Li Yan found it inappropriate to interrupt anyone with questions, so he lowered his head and searched for the items he needed.

The Twelve Earthly Branches coin set he sought belonged to the Zodiac Coin category. The moment he found it, his heart skipped a beat.

Sure enough, the Twelve Earthly Branches were a one-of-a-kind treasure. There wasn't even a sample displayed, only its name written upon the placard. The bamboo bidding tube before it already had several bidding slips inside it.

Combined with the Shoushan Copper Essence from earlier, if both went to auction, Li Yan had no idea whether the silver he carried would still be enough. Though he was worried, there was nothing else he could do. He dropped in another bamboo slip before turning his attention to Wang Daoxuan's purchases.

Wang Daoxuan required quite a number of coins. He needed the Ghost-Slaying and Demon-Subduing Coins, Evil-Repelling and Blessing-Invoking Coins, and Fifth-Day Noon Coins.

The Ghost-Slaying and Demon-Subduing Coins belonged to the Talisman Coin category, and Li Yan quickly located them. One side of each coin bore a Mountain Ghost Talisman opposite a Thunder Talisman, while the center was engraved with the incantation: Thunder, thunder, slay ghosts and subdue demons; behead monsters and dispel evil; forever preserve spiritual clarity. By order of the Supreme Profound, swiftly execute as the law commands. Edict!

The reverse displayed Fuxi's Eight Trigrams, with the Qian trigram positioned due north. Each coin cost one hundred taels of silver.

The Evil-Repelling and Blessing-Invoking Coins belonged to a category of their own. Their obverse depicted an immortal holding a ritual implement. The reverse was engraved with the Five Poisons, though not the conventional five. Instead, they featured a tiger, toad, snake, gecko, and spider. The words: Repel Evil, Bestow Blessings, were also inscribed upon them.

The Fifth-Day Noon Coins likewise belonged to the Evil-Repelling and Blessing-Invoking category. The obverse simply bore the four characters Fifth Day at Noon.

The fifth day at noon referred to the Dragon Boat Festival, the traditional time for expelling evil and pestilence. These particular coins had all been forged during that auspicious period. Their reverse also displayed the Five Poisons, except that the spider had been replaced with a scorpion. These coins possessed extraordinarily potent yang qi, and were especially effective at destroying yin entities.

Fortunately, those coins existed in much larger quantities. Li Yan purchased everything required on Wang Daoxuan's list. Altogether, the total exceeded ten thousand taels of silver. At this point, he had begun to feel as though money no longer resembled money at all.

After also purchasing the coins Shopkeeper Wan had requested, Li Yan began leisurely browsing the rest of the hall. He had already secured everything truly important. Anything remaining was optional. If he saw something worthwhile, he could always buy it.

After making several rounds, Li Yan found himself thoroughly amazed. There was little to say about the spiritual materials. The vast majority consisted of every imaginable type of metal. The spiritual artifacts, however, were another matter entirely.

The first category consisted of consumable ritual items such as incense, ritual candles, blessing paper, mugwort, red cords, and similar supplies.

Even though his divine abilities were currently suppressed, Li Yan knew these items, having received a century's worth of offerings within a blessed land, were worlds apart from the shabby odds and ends sold at ordinary City God Temples.

It wasn't that he had become overly picky. One glance was enough to tell that these were on an entirely different level.

Incense alone came in countless varieties, from Descending Truth Incense, Spirit-Faith Incense, and Lily Incense to Heavenly Incense, Soul-Guiding Incense, and Spirit-Calming Incense. Every stick was exquisitely crafted. Some were even as thick as a finger, their surfaces painted with cinnabar runes.

Li Yan glanced at the price tags. Some of the incense cost as much as one hundred taels of fine silver per stick. Using such things in a ritual truly meant he would be burning money. He couldn't imagine circumstances that actually required their use.

Beyond those came the ritual altar implements. These were the Ten Treasures of the Altar: the Dipper Vessel, ritual lamp, ritual sword, mirror, command token, wooden fish, ceremonial tablet, ritual ruler, seal, and ruyi scepter.

There were also larger altar implements, such as ritual banners, ritual platforms, Turtle-and-Crane Incense Burners, Boshan Incense Burners, and even numerous musical instruments used during ceremonial rites.

Unfortunately, one glance at their prices was enough for Li Yan to abandon the idea. If he started buying them indiscriminately, he probably wouldn't have enough silver left for the two auction items.

Still, having come to such a treasure trove, he couldn't very well leave empty-handed. After giving it some thought, Li Yan bought several bundles of talisman paper. In the section selling brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, he also purchased a box of high-quality talisman brushes and cinnabar for the entire group to use.

Even those purchases alone cost him another five thousand taels of silver!

Looking around again, he saw that everyone else remained perfectly composed. They bought entire sets of items as casually as if they were restocking supplies, seemingly paying no attention whatsoever to the prices.

At that moment, Li Yan truly understood the difference between them.

The orthodox Daoist sects all possessed histories stretching back through countless generations, with unimaginably deep foundations. Just looking at the astronomical observatory built atop Mount Taibai's Queen Mother Courtyard, and that astonishing spiritual telescope, it was obvious that even if the sect had emptied its entire treasury to build them, their wealth must have been beyond imagination.

Then there was the unsealing ceremony. The Pure Yang Courtyard's income would surge dramatically from this single event.

Every other orthodox sect or Daoist lineage occupying its own blessed land possessed similar treasure vaults. One treasury opening was enough to recover everything they had invested.

To put it bluntly, it was simply the same money circulating endlessly among these great factions. Meanwhile, rootless people like him would be drained completely dry.

Damn it... Isn't this just another kind of game?

The more Li Yan thought about it, the more painful it felt. As a result, he forcefully suppressed his greed and stopped making impulsive purchases. Instead, he quietly listened to the conversations around him.

His original intention had been to gather clues about which materials were needed to manufacture the new spiritual firearms. Unexpectedly, however, he overheard all sorts of astonishing news.

"The Yellow River's spring floods have awakened a fish demon. It's as large as a sailing ship, black-headed with horns. It nearly breached the levees and caused a catastrophe. The capital has already summoned numerous demon hunters to deal with it."

"A Ghost King has appeared in Bashu. It may be connected to the Five Streams Barbarians and the Qianzhong Barbarians. Quite a few members of the hidden seeker lineage have rushed over there. I heard they even uncovered zombies that slaughtered entire villages."

"A rainbow appeared in broad daylight near Dongting Lake in Ezhou. Large numbers of commoners have been suffering from high fevers for days, wandering around as though they've lost their souls. After a Daoist performed a soul-summoning ritual, those who awoke all claimed they had seen a dragon."

There was also an important piece of news concerning the overseas lands. The Divine Continent was rich in treasures, but the Daoist world had existed for far too long. After countless generations of cultivators excavated heavenly spiritual treasures, such treasures had become increasingly scarce and now required time to accumulate once more.

Some cultivators had even organized fleets of their own to search for sacred mountains beyond the seas. They had apparently fought several battles against the Daoist traditions of foreign lands as well.

The sheer variety of information left Li Yan utterly dumbfounded. It seemed the world of the Daoist arts was far broader than he had ever imagined. Of course, he also overheard something genuinely useful, like that the prices of several metallic spiritual materials had suddenly risen. Some people grumbled about it while others appeared deep in thought.

Li Yan, however, instantly understood the reason. Without attracting attention, he quietly mixed a few of those materials into his own purchases. He even bought a section of thunderstruck wood suitable for crafting a firearm stock.

None of it was cheap and another ten thousand taels of silver disappeared. Still, if he could eventually manufacture one of the new firearms and obtain the gunpowder formula, the expense would be well worth it.

Soon, it was time for the auctions.

The first item was naturally the Shoushan Copper Essence. Containing the power of lightning, it was among the finest materials for forging spiritual artifacts.

Many people competed for it, all of them members of the Taixuan Orthodox Sect, though from different branch academies. Naturally, they were all respectable members of the orthodox sects.

Unlike merchants in the jianghu, no one argued until their faces turned red or glared daggers at one another, much less made lifelong enemies over a single item. Everyone simply submitted bids in silence, quietly weighing the value.

"Ten thousand taels."

"Fifteen thousand."

"Twenty thousand."

When Li Yan raised the bid to twenty two thousand taels, he successfully secured the Shoushan Copper Essence.

An elderly Daoist beside him couldn't help but laugh. "Young friend, are living yin emissaries really this wealthy? The price of this item has gone far beyond its actual value. You've overpaid."

Li Yan smiled helplessly. "I have an important use for it. Even if it's expensive, I can't afford to let it slip away."

The Twelve Earthly Branches proved much the same. Being a one-of-a-kind treasure, its price likewise climbed beyond ten thousand taels before Li Yan finally secured it.

Making a quick calculation, Li Yan realized that in this short span of time, excluding the items he had purchased on behalf of others, he himself had already spent well over sixty thousand taels. The combined wealth of their group had been reduced by more than half.

Moreover, that was with him exercising extreme restraint. There had been many things he simply hadn't dared to buy. Although they still had a considerable amount of silver remaining, he didn't dare spend it recklessly. He would need it when constructing the next floor of his inner temple.

Then, Wang Daoxuan and Lu San would each have to construct their own inner temple as well. They also needed to keep enough funds in reserve for emergencies.

By the time everyone had finished shopping, a full two hours had passed. Only after everyone in the hall had completed their purchases did Jing Xuzi enter once more.

Cupping his hands, he said, "Everyone, please follow me."

With that, he led the group out through a side entrance. That too was a form of protection. After all, murders committed for the sake of seizing treasures had occurred more than once at previous unsealing ceremonies.

The orthodox sects possessed immense wealth, and the items they purchased were worth astonishing sums. Naturally, once they had obtained their treasures, they were allowed to leave first.

Li Yan wasn't in any hurry. After returning to Chaoyang Peak and meeting up with Wang Daoxuan and the others, the group returned together to Wangxian Temple.

Shopkeeper Wan and Quan Wanzhong only came hurrying over in the evening. Once they received their purchases, both men departed with beaming smiles.

After they had left, Li Yan finally took out the Twelve Earthly Branches coin set and carefully examined it beneath the candlelight. It consisted of twelve small copper coins with square holes in their centers. The obverse of each coin was engraved with one of the Twelve Zodiacs. The reverse was covered in intricate designs, with incredibly fine talismanic inscriptions surrounded by the sun, moon, and stars.

The center was filled by four large characters: Natal Primordial Spirit.

Activating his divine ability and taking a careful sniff, Li Yan immediately sensed something extraordinary. Each individual coin contained circulating astral qi, forming its own self-contained geomantic formation.

A formation and momentum were two entirely different concepts. No matter how great, momentum eventually dissipated. However, a formation continued to circulate. Even if innate astral qi was gathered into powerful momentum, it would eventually be exhausted. But once it formed a complete formation, it became something entirely different.

It could circulate on its own. As long as it was properly preserved, it would endure for an extremely long time, much like a miniature fengshui formation.

The reason his Three Talents Demon-Suppressing Coins were so precious was precisely because they formed their own self-contained formation. The difference was that theirs circulated killing qi.

The true value of the Twelve Earthly Branches lay elsewhere. When arranged in the proper zodiac sequence, the twelve coins combined to form an even greater formation.

The moment Wang Daoxuan saw them, shock filled his eyes as he exclaimed, "These are Natal Primordial Spirit Coins!"

Li Yan looked over curiously. "What exactly are Natal Primordial Spirit Coins?"

Wang Daoxuan explained, "They are exceedingly rare treasures. Their greatest ability is that when you perform Spirit Visualization each night, you can hold the coins in your hands and infuse the accumulated spiritual qi into them."

Li Yan immediately understood. "Oh... So that's how it is."

These things are essentially equivalent to mana potions.

For a cultivator, running out of spiritual qi at a critical moment could be fatal. No wonder they were so valuable.

Truthfully, however, he felt somewhat disappointed. With the Great Luo Dharma Body, if he ever encountered such a crisis, he could recover instantly and preserve his life.

It wasn't that those coins were bad. They simply hadn't lived up to his expectations.

Just then, Wang Daoxuan shook his head. "I've heard there are many ways to use Natal Primordial Spirit Coins. The one I just mentioned is merely the method I've heard about. Since they're meant to become your blade tassel, perhaps they possess other uses as well."

Li Yan thought that made perfect sense. It only made him look forward even more to how that mysterious old man intended to forge his saber.

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