Dao Companions Help Me Live Forever

Chapter 136: Black Market Exchange

Temptation is everywhere in life.

However, Yu Xian, who had just indulged in his own backyard for a long time, ignored the invitation from the girl without any distractions.

Inside the private room, he dismissed the two girls with an attitude of avoiding women, and then sat quietly in the room, closing his eyes and waiting for the start of the exchange.

An hour quickly passed.

With the sound of a bell.

Yu Xian opened his eyes, opened the door of the private room, and walked out.

In the hall, there was a stone table with thirteen seats arranged around it, and three people were already sitting on them.

Yu Xian scanned them one by one and found that two of the three were wearing masks on their faces and were covered in black robes, obviously unwilling to reveal their identities.

Even the person without a mask may not be his true appearance.

Just like him.

Alright, it has a bit of a black market feel.

Yu Xian's spirits lifted, and he casually sat on the fourth chair, while the others glanced at him without leaving any trace.

No one used their divine sense.

Because among peers, using divine sense to scan others is tantamount to provocation.

In the case of unknown identities, no one would make enemies for no reason.

Slowly, nine out of the thirteen seats were occupied.

The person sitting in the middle stood up. He wore a ghost mask and had an old and hoarse voice.

"I am Guimian, the host of this exchange. I have seen all the fellow daoists here and I thank you for recognizing this humble shop."

I want to make it clear in advance that fighting is prohibited in this shop, and no one is allowed to use spells to investigate each other's identities.

But once you leave the shop, I can't control it anymore."

"Now, let the exchange begin."

"First, let me start things off."

The self-proclaimed Guimian host waved his hand forward, and a suit of armor resembling a lock appeared floating on the stone table.

"A low-grade defensive spiritual weapon, the Qianjin Lock Armor, can withstand the full force attack of an early Foundation Building stage cultivator without any damage, and can weaken the attack power of a late Foundation Building stage cultivator by thirty percent."

"The armor is equipped with the Qianjin Lock Art, which can enslave a beast soul of no higher than the late second stage as a soul servant."

"During a fight, you can extract the power of the beast soul to supplement the armor's defense, without expending your own mana. It is almost equivalent to a cultivator's second dantian."

"The price is twelve thousand eight hundred spiritual stones, or equivalent value of spiritual items."

Yu Xian's eyes immediately lit up.

The so-called spiritual weapon is not only an advanced version of a magical tool, but also because it comes with a natural spiritual art.

The so-called spiritual art is innate.

Even the refiner cannot be completely sure what kind of spiritual art will appear in the spiritual weapon after it is refined.

Even for the same type of spiritual weapon, the spiritual arts generated inside are slightly different.

He has a mid-grade spiritual weapon, the Golden Scale Sword, which has a cool move called the Golden Sword Dragon Transformation, but it can't be shown to others.

The characteristics of the Golden Scale Sword are too obvious.

If he were to take it out, he would gain another enemy from the Lin family for no reason.

So this sword is usually used for dirty work.

Then there is the low-grade spiritual weapon, the Formation Control Compass, contributed by Old Zhao. It is not good for fighting, but it is extremely useful for setting up formations.

Apart from these, he only has a top-grade magical tool, the Crimson Rainbow Sword, which has accompanied him for twenty years, but he doesn't know when it will evolve again.

The transition from magical tools to spiritual tools is a hurdle, just like how a Qi Refining cultivator breaks through Foundation Building.

A craftsman capable of refining spiritual tools can be called a master craftsman, and there is only one master craftsman in the entire Shangyang City.

Therefore, the number of spiritual tools in the cultivation world of Shangyang City is very scarce, almost all accumulated over time.

Some poorer Foundation Building cultivators don't even have a single spiritual tool.

The old man with a ghostly face directly took out a spiritual armor as a grand opening, which can only be said to be a high-end exchange meeting, making an extraordinary move.

"Your spiritual armor doesn't have a beast soul, so it should be cheaper."

The one speaking is a man with a serious expression.

The old man with a ghostly face laughed, "If it had a beast soul inside, the price I ask for would double."

The man remained silent.

"The Thousand Gold Lock Spiritual Armor is the ancestral spiritual tool of the Yu family in Qingqiu Mountain's Foundation Building clan. Taking down this armor is equivalent to making an eternal enemy of the Yu family. Eight thousand spirit stones, I want it."

This was said by a cylindrical woman. She wore a peony mask and her body was completely white, almost filling up a chair, making people worry if the chair could bear her weight.

In the cultivation world, there are handsome men and beautiful women, but there are always exceptions.

Some people are unwilling to spend their energy on appearance, like Li Ge, who focuses solely on cultivation.

There are also those whose cultivation techniques cause drastic changes in their appearance and physique, like this heavyweight woman.

"Madam Huarui?"

Before the old man with a ghostly face could speak, someone next to him exclaimed.

"I knew I couldn't hide it from you."

Upon hearing this, the woman directly took off her mask, revealing a terrifyingly white face. Upon closer inspection, it was covered in a thick layer of powder, making it almost impossible to see her true appearance.

As she spoke, the powder fell off her face.

"That's right, it's me."

Yu Xian, who was standing beside her, was also dumbfounded.

She was the first female Foundation Building cultivator he had ever seen, and the impact on him was too great.

Of course, it was mainly because he hadn't really seen many Foundation Building cultivators before.

"Madam Huarui, twelve thousand eight hundred is already the lowest price for this spiritual armor. If no one else bids, it will be considered unsold."

The old man with a ghostly face said calmly.

Madam Huarui struggled with her gaze and said, "The defense of this spiritual armor is not as good as my flesh, so it would be useless even if I took it."

"In that case, please invite the next guest."

The old man with a ghostly face was not disappointed and directly put away the spiritual armor.

Spiritual tools are rare, as long as they hold a few more exchange meetings, there will always be cultivators who are tempted.

And Yu Xian, who was originally somewhat interested in the spiritual armor, lost interest when he heard that it was actually stolen goods.

He hated trouble the most.

At the same time, he had a deeper understanding of the black market.

The black market is a place where no light can reach, a place for concealing transactions, different from the shops he had visited before.

"Three drops of Zhongling Stone Milk, each drop can instantly replenish the dantian mana of an early-stage Foundation Building cultivator, and it can also assist in cultivation, purify mana, expand the dantian, and serve as an auxiliary material for alchemy."

"One thousand spirit stones per drop, or equivalent spiritual items."

The second cultivator introduced. He also wore a mask, but it was a twisted vine mask with intricate patterns.

On the stone table, there was a low-key yet luxurious emerald jade bottle.

The Zhongling Stone Milk is clearly more popular than the stolen spiritual artifacts of the Ghost-faced Old Man.

Being able to instantly restore mana, if used well, it's like having an extra life, and one thousand spirit stones are not expensive at all.

But cultivators are unwilling to sell them separately.

"Since that's the case, everyone can write down their prices and let the fellow cultivator choose for themselves."

The Ghost-faced Old Man had long been accustomed to this situation, and the solution was simple, which was to secretly mark the prices.

So everyone took out jade slips and wrote down their own desired prices.

Yu Xian followed the crowd and wrote down two thousand spirit stones per drop, and also handed in a jade slip.

He didn't know the market price of Zhongling Stone Milk.

But it didn't matter, he had plenty of spirit stones anyway.

If he brought this back for Yulan to use, she might even enter the Qi Refining stage early.

Sure enough, good things were still in the hands of these high-level cultivators.

Although he had given Yulan a lot of ordinary spirit pills before, they were all common elixirs on the market, which couldn't compare to the private collections of Foundation Building cultivators.

Soon, the vine mask cultivator arched his hand towards Yu Xian.

"Fellow cultivator, the Zhongling Stone Milk is yours."

Damn, the bid was too high.

Yu Xian immediately realized it, but he remained calm on the surface.

"Here are the spirit stones, I need to verify the goods first."

He threw a storage bag to the Ghost-faced Old Man. As the host, he had the obligation to guarantee the transaction.

The Ghost-faced Old Man swept his divine sense into the storage bag and nodded towards the vine mask cultivator.

"It's good."

Yu Xian beckoned with his hand and captured the emerald jade bottle on the stone table.

He pulled out the stopper and saw three round and milky white liquid pearls inside. Just by smelling it lightly, he felt that his dantian mana was increasing.

He didn't know if it was real or fake.

But it was definitely a good thing.

He nodded in a pretentious manner.

"Not bad, money and goods have been exchanged."

The Ghost-faced Old Man also handed the storage bag containing the spirit stones to the vine mask cultivator.

Then it was the turn of the third cultivator, a handsome young man with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes. He took out a 500-year-old Thousand Star Vine.

It was about three feet long, three fingers thick, rough on the surface, and had many star-like spots. The main medicine made from it could refine comprehension pills that were useful for the later stage of Foundation Building.

A 500-year-old spiritual medicine didn't mean that the medicine had grown for 500 years, but rather that the medicinal power contained in the herb had reached the standard of 500 years.

But undoubtedly, it was also a rare treasure. Even if it was temporarily useless, it could be bought as a reserve collection.

Yu Xian wasn't very interested in it.

If it was a ready-made comprehension pill, he might fight for it, but for just a medicinal herb, he would still need to find auxiliary herbs, gather enough medicinal materials, and then find someone to refine the pill.

It sounded very troublesome.

But others didn't think so, and soon the Thousand Star Vine was taken by someone.

Everyone took turns to take out items they didn't need and exchanged them.

Yu Xian saw something that caught his interest, especially spiritual pills that would help improve his cultivation. He accepted them without hesitation.

When it was his turn, he also acted straightforwardly, throwing ten thousand spirit stones and exchanging them for a Foundation Building pill.

Unfortunately, no one had a Foundation Building pill.

So it could only end in failure.

But the behavior of such a nouveau riche still attracted the attention of everyone.

By the end of the exchange meeting,

Fragments of third-grade elixirs, corners of third-grade formation discs, fragments of magic treasures, unidentified high-grade ores, remnants of high-grade cultivation techniques...

They threw out a bunch of seemingly precious but actually useless junk, waiting for a sucker to take the bait.

Then everyone looked at Yu Xian, as if expecting him to make a bid.

This made Yu Xian's face turn blacker and blacker.

Does he look like a sucker?

But now he is a rough man with a dark face, and if you don't look closely, you won't notice his change in expression.

About an hour.

The exchange meeting ended smoothly.

This time, Yu Xian spent more than eight thousand spirit stones to exchange for a pile of elixirs that enhance cultivation.

Among them was a Comprehension Pill, which could help Qi Refining cultivators comprehend the mysteries of divine consciousness in a short time, making him feel that this trip was not in vain.

"Friend, please wait."

A black-robed cultivator transmitted his voice to stop Yu Xian from leaving.

"What's the matter?"

"Friend, if you want a Foundation Building Pill, I happen to know someone who has it. How about we find a place to discuss it in detail?"

"Alright, fifty miles west of the city, there is a crooked-necked tree, wait there at midnight."

Yu Xian left a sentence and quietly left.

Naturally, he wouldn't go, only a fool would.

But it didn't stop him from agreeing.

As for when the black-robed cultivator would arrive, only heaven knows.

The corners of the black-robed cultivator's mouth curled up.

The fish took the bait.

The spirit stones in the storage bag of this rough man with a dark face really made him tempted.

...

That night.

Fifty miles west of the city.

Two black-clad cultivators were flying back and forth in the sky, searching.

"Where is the crooked-necked tree?"

Uh, Chen Yi's appearance is just a foreshadowing, because it has been twenty years, and if she doesn't show any signs, her feelings for the protagonist will lose credibility.

After all, in her heart, the protagonist is still just an ordinary person. She can't really wait for forty or fifty years to find him again. Can she really marry an old man? So I think twenty years is a good time point. Even if the protagonist is an ordinary person, with her help, it's not too late for him to embark on cultivation.

She doesn't have any obsession or evil thoughts. She's not a tsundere or a crazy person. The evil thoughts are just an excuse for her to come back to find the protagonist. Otherwise, even if she breaks through to the Gold Core stage, she won't be able to resist an entire Nascent Soul sect.

Only when she is sick will others follow her lead.

But she won't have any interaction with the protagonist for the time being. Because she hasn't revealed any information about Yu Xian, not even his name. She is protecting Yu Xian, which means she can't rely on any power of the Xuan Yang Sect to find Yu Xian. The protagonist will only have preliminary contact with the sect's power after reaching the Gold Core stage, and it's obvious that Chen Yi is the point of contact.

And Chen Yi is clearly the second female lead, otherwise why would I set up so much for her? It's impossible to write a lot in the beginning and then say she died tragically.

Regarding the number of Dao companions, let me explain again. The protagonist is not a cultivation maniac, nor does he have any deep hatred waiting for him. The speed of his cultivation doesn't matter to him, and he is still very young, so he doesn't feel any pressure. The most important thing is that an empty Dao companion position is the protagonist's trump card, which means that even if he has nothing, he still has a trump card to make a comeback.

PS: I still couldn't finish the extra update, but I stayed up late tonight to get it done, and I will post it at 6 a.m.