Chapter 243: Chapter 235: Token
The traveling merchant tainted with Demonic Qi stayed in the marketplace for three days.
Li Yuan didn’t alert him, merely watching from a distance with the passive perception of his heightened Spiritual Sense.
The traveling merchant’s behavior was no different from that of an ordinary merchant. During the day, he set up a stall in the square to sell Spirit Grass and ore fragments. His prices were fair, and he haggled with the passing Loose Cultivators, occasionally chatting with acquaintances. At night, he stayed in a guest room on the east side of the marketplace, closing his door to cultivate and never going out.
On the morning of the fourth day, the traveling merchant packed up his stall, placed his goods into a storage pouch, and headed toward the south gate of the marketplace.
Li Yuan followed.
The effects of Breath Concealment suppressed his aura to an extreme low, while his heightened Spiritual Sense locked onto the traveling merchant’s position. He maintained a distance of over a hundred zhang between them, with the dense fog and withered trees completely obscuring their lines of sight.
After leaving the marketplace’s bounds, the traveling merchant didn’t head toward the Yunyang Marketplace. Instead, he turned southwest and walked deep into the Ghost Mist Forest.
He wasn’t moving fast, as if he were confirming his direction.
Li Yuan followed behind, his Divine Sense constantly locked onto the aura ahead.
’I’ll retreat if I run into danger.’
The traveling merchant walked through the Ghost Mist Forest for about half an hour before stopping in front of a chaotic stone beach.
Li Yuan stopped one hundred and fifty zhang away, hiding his figure behind a withered tree.
His Divine Sense focused on the traveling merchant’s position.
The traveling merchant looked around, and after confirming no one was nearby, he took an item out from his robes.
A token.
It was palm-sized, dark, and its surface was engraved with dense, intricate patterns.
At that moment, Li Yuan’s perception captured a strange fluctuation.
It wasn’t a Spiritual Power fluctuation, nor was it an Evil Qi fluctuation.
It was a spatial fluctuation.
It was extremely faint but definitely present. The fluctuation originated from beneath a large boulder in the center of the Chaotic Stone Beach, as if some kind of concealed spatial structure was located there.
With his spatial perception now permanent, combined with his Divine Sense, Li Yuan could feel the fluctuation even from a hundred zhang away.
The traveling merchant held the token in front of him and channeled Demonic Qi from his right hand into it.
A dim, gloomy luster lit up the surface of the dark token, and a deep purple light flowed through its patterns.
In the next instant, the traveling merchant’s figure vanished.
’Teleportation.’
’Some kind of hidden Teleportation Array, or a spatial entrance. It requires a specific token and Demonic Qi to activate.’
Li Yuan stood his ground, sweeping his Divine Sense over the Chaotic Stone Beach.
The spatial fluctuation had already dissipated, and the Chaotic Stone Beach had returned to calm. He couldn’t sense anything beneath the large boulder; it was as if the spatial entrance had closed automatically after the traveling merchant entered.
Without hesitation, Li Yuan turned and left, heading back to the marketplace the way he came.
After returning to his stone house, Li Yuan reviewed the events of his pursuit in his mind.
’The traveling merchant’s destination is a hidden space that requires a Demonic Qi token to enter. This isn’t something an ordinary Loose Cultivator could create; there must be an organization behind it.’
’Whether they belong to the same organization as the Demon Cultivator who was killed before is currently impossible to confirm. But the fact that both appeared near the new marketplace is unlikely to be a coincidence.’
’I won’t rush things. I’ll wait for the traveling merchant to appear again before deciding what to do.’
In the following days, Li Yuan divided his energy between his cultivation and the marketplace’s affairs.
Perfecting the array system was his current priority. The framework for the linked system of composite arrays was already in place, but the details still had room for optimization. The signal transmission speed of the linkage nodes, the energy distribution ratio between arrays, and the replacement cycle for the Gathering Evil Array all needed constant adjustment during actual operation.
Li Yuan spent two or three hours each day on array maintenance and optimization, using the rest of his time to practice his Cultivation Techniques and Magic.
One afternoon, Li Yuan was patrolling the marketplace’s main street.
His "Entry Perception" was continuously active within a three-foot radius, scanning the shops and stalls on both sides.
As he walked to the entrance of a general store, a fluctuation appeared in his perception.
’Green.’
Li Yuan entered the shop and walked slowly along the shelves.
The fluctuation was coming from a wooden box in the corner of the bottom shelf.
Li Yuan squatted down and opened the wooden box.
Inside lay a milky-white stone the size of an egg. Its surface was smooth and warm to the touch, and one could faintly see fine Spirit Patterns flowing within.
"What’s the price for this?"
The Shopkeeper craned his neck to look.
"A traveling merchant put that up for consignment a few days ago. Said he found it in some ruin, but he couldn’t say what it is exactly. The material looks decent, so the asking price is eighty Spirit Stones."
"I’ll take it."
Li Yuan put down the Spirit Stones and placed the milky-white stone into his storage pouch.
Back in his stone house, he placed his finger on the stone’s surface.
[Equippable Item Detected: Spiritual Essence Condensation Pearl (Intact)]
[Equipment Entry Preview: Spiritual Essence Expansion (Green) — Increases maximum Spiritual Power by up to 30%; the more Immortal Cultivation Techniques practiced, the greater the boost, up to a maximum of 30%]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Cultivation reaches Foundation Establishment, or break through three minor realms in cultivation within five years (Met)]
[Current Equipment Slots: 5/5. Replace an item?]
’A green entry. Spiritual Essence Expansion.’
’It increases my maximum Spiritual Power by up to thirty percent, and it’s linked to the number of Immortal Cultivation Techniques I practice.’
’I’m currently practicing the Spirit-Introducing Skill, Hundred Veins Returning to Origin Skill, Cyan Wood Longevity Skill, Red Fire Skill, and Iron Wall Body Refining Skill, plus the Microelement Meridian Introduction Skill and Nourishing Essence Skill. That’s quite a few, so the increase to my Spiritual Power limit should be close to the maximum.’
’The permanence condition is to reach Foundation Establishment. I’m already at Early-stage Foundation Establishment, so the condition is met instantly.’
’The equipment slot that freed up after making the Evil Spirit transformation permanent is perfect for this.’
’Equip.’
[Spiritual Essence Expansion (Green) Permanence Condition Met]
[Make permanent?]
’Yes.’
[Permanence Successful]
[Spiritual Essence Expansion (Green) has become a permanent entry]
[Equipment has been consumed]
The milky-white stone in his palm transformed into green light and entered his body.
The moment the permanence process was complete, the liquid Spiritual Power in his Dantian changed. The capacity of his Dantian felt as if it had been invisibly expanded, and his Spiritual Power limit was significantly raised.
His Spiritual Power limit had increased by about twenty percent, which meant that at the same Cultivation level, he could store more Spiritual Power, significantly boosting his sustained magic output and combat endurance.
Li Yuan organized his equipment slots and continued to cultivate.
「A dozen or so days later.」
As Li Yuan was patrolling the marketplace square, the perception of his Demon Essence Incarnation reacted again.
’The same person.’
The traveling merchant in the dark gray robe had appeared in the marketplace again. He was squatting in front of a stall, picking through ore fragments—acting exactly as he had last time.
The residual Demonic Qi deep within his body was identical to before.
On the morning of the third day, the traveling merchant once again packed up his stall, left, and headed toward the south gate of the marketplace.
Li Yuan followed.
It was the same route as last time: after leaving the marketplace, he turned southwest and headed deep into the Ghost Mist Forest.
Li Yuan maintained a distance of over a hundred zhang, using Breath Concealment to suppress his aura and his heightened Spiritual Sense to lock onto the target.
The traveling merchant had been walking for about a quarter of an hour and hadn’t yet reached the Chaotic Stone Beach from last time.
Li Yuan accelerated.
Activating the Wind Escape Skill, his figure shot out from behind a grove of withered trees, closing the distance to thirty zhang within a few breaths.
The traveling merchant’s steps came to a sudden halt, and he whipped his head around to look.
The spiritual pressure of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator bore down on him from thirty zhang away.
The traveling merchant’s face instantly turned deathly pale.
He chose neither to flee nor to fight. Instead, black Spirit Patterns suddenly appeared on his body.
Li Yuan’s pupils contracted.
’Golden Blade Skill.’
A silvery-white blade of light shot from his fingertips, heading straight for the traveling merchant’s right hand.
But he was half a breath too slow.
A deep purple Spirit Pattern lit up on his chest, lasting for only an instant before extinguishing.
The traveling merchant’s body froze in place, the light in his eyes dimming rapidly.
A trickle of black blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth as his body pitched forward, falling heavily to the ground.
His aura completely dissipated within two breaths.
’He’s dead.’
’That deep purple Spirit Pattern on his chest must have been some kind of preset self-destruct magic. Once triggered, it instantly destroyed his heart meridians and Dantian, making for a clean death.’
Li Yuan walked over to the corpse and squatted down.
The traveling merchant’s face was ashen, with black blood flowing from the corners of his mouth and his nostrils. A fist-sized hole was burned through the clothing on his chest, revealing the charred skin beneath, where the faint traces of the deep purple Spirit Pattern were still visible.
Li Yuan turned the body over, removed the storage pouch, and went through its contents one by one.
Spirit Grass, ore fragments, a few dozen Spirit Stones, and some daily necessities. All the typical goods of an ordinary traveling merchant.
In a hidden compartment of the storage pouch, there was a token.
It was just like the one he had seen from afar last time: palm-sized, dark, with dense, intricate patterns carved on its surface.
Li Yuan picked up the token and poured Spiritual Power into it.
There was no reaction.
The patterns on the token’s surface remained unchanged, as if it were a dead object.
Li Yuan withdrew his Spiritual Power and tried a different method.
He drew a wisp of Demonic Qi from deep within his body and injected it into the token.
The patterns on the token’s surface lit up instantly.
A deep purple light flowed through the patterns, and the token vibrated slightly. A stream of information poured out from the token, flowing directly into Li Yuan’s Divine Sense.
There wasn’t much information, just a few short lines of content.
A location coordinate, corresponding to the very same Chaotic Stone Beach where the traveling merchant had disappeared last time.
A codename, three characters long, with no other explanation.
Li Yuan committed the information to memory and withdrew the Demonic Qi.
As the Demonic Qi retreated, the light on the token’s surface quickly dimmed, and it returned to its state as a dead object.
’Spiritual Power can’t activate it, only Demonic Qi can.’
’This token, like that hidden space, is only accessible to Demon Cultivators.’
Li Yuan put the token into his storage pouch, disposed of the traveling merchant’s body, and returned to the marketplace.
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