plumnovel Chapter 24 Trip to the Market
Chapter 24 Trip to the Market
A few days ago, when he received a message from a flying sword, informing him that the Hidden Moon Sect had actually recruited a legendary cultivator with the Light Spirit Root, even though Ancestor Ningyue had already overcome the Nascent Soul Heart Demon, his mind was still greatly shocked.
What followed was an uncontrollable greed and ecstasy.
As a cultivator at the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage, she deeply understood how difficult it was to break through the bottlenecks of each minor realm after reaching the Nascent Soul stage. In the vast Tiannan region, there were hundreds of Nascent Soul cultivators, but only a few dozen could reach the mid-Nascent Soul stage, not to mention the extremely rare late-Nascent Soul stage cultivators.
Therefore, when she learned that the Light Spirit Root cultivator had truly come from legend to reality and had even joined the Hidden Moon Sect, she made up her mind to firmly control him and cultivate him into a dual cultivation partner for future breakthroughs.
However, the dual cultivation technique requires the two people's magical power to resonate and they must be in the same realm to perform it. Naturally, she needs to cultivate Yao Guang to the Nascent Soul stage first, but how easy is that?
For a cultivator to condense a nascent soul, in addition to investing massive amounts of resources, a strong Dao heart, comprehension, and favorable opportunities are all indispensable; it is not something that can be achieved simply by having excellent spiritual roots and aptitude.
Moreover, she is nearly five hundred years old, and the lifespan of a Nascent Soul cultivator is only a thousand years. She must ensure that Yao Guang's aptitude can advance to the Nascent Soul stage within three hundred years. Only in this way can she possibly have the lifespan to challenge the Divine Transformation stage.
Therefore, she was willing to set aside her status as a Nascent Soul Ancestor and show some goodwill to Yao Guang, while also verifying whether he was worth nurturing. If he was, that would be good; if not…
One year later, it will be the time when Yao Guang's soul perishes and his body is possessed.
……
The Moon-Covering Sect Market is located on the outer edge of the sect's territory. Although it is open to cultivators from outside the sect, it is more of a place for disciples within the sect to exchange goods and services.
According to the usual rules of the cultivation world, cultivators are prohibited from flying within five miles of the market. Yao Guang originally intended to cover his face with a bamboo hat, but from a distance, the market was full of white-robed figures from the Hidden Moon Sect. If he deliberately concealed himself, he would appear sneaky and arouse suspicion.
Fortunately, although his reputation spread throughout the sect, few people had actually seen him in person. As he walked the streets of the market, apart from attracting the attention of a few female cultivators who frequently cast flirtatious glances at him, no one bothered him.
Yao Guang walked into a shop selling spirit pets and monsters, but came out disappointed a moment later. Inside were either insect eggs or baby beasts, with only a few low-level level one monsters, and the prices were ridiculously high.
Even if he devoured these monsters, the gains would be pitifully small, and he didn't have the time or energy to spend countless years nurturing them into adulthood.
I visited a few more spirit beast shops, and they were basically the same as the first one.
The Hidden Moon Sect is not the Spirit Beast Mountain after all. In Tiannan, where monster resources are already scarce, these major sects don't have many monsters suitable for Yao Guang to devour.
Yao Guang went to several more shops that sold spiritual herbs, hoping to find any thousand-year-old spiritual herbs containing abundant life essence, or even hundreds of years old ones.
As expected, although Tiannan has a considerable number of rare spiritual herbs, they are mostly in the hands of high-level cultivators and rarely end up in the market.
Left with no other choice, he could only spend several hundred spirit stones to buy a large number of ordinary spiritual herbs that were only a few decades old. Refining them would at least give him some life essence, though not much, but it was better than going home empty-handed.
As dusk fell, Yao Guang walked out of the market with a dejected look on his face, having only a hundred or so spirit stones left.
He originally thought that after joining the Hidden Moon Sect, he would be able to enter the Gathering Sun Cave to cultivate the Holy Light Technique immediately. However, the Ancestor Condensing Moon appeared and asked him to wait for a year. But whether he could enter after a year was still unknown.
Thinking that he would be unable to improve his cultivation level due to a lack of resources throughout the year, he couldn't help but sigh heavily in disappointment.
"Giggle..." A sweet laugh came from nearby.
"I never imagined that even our sect's most prominent disciple would have moments of sighing and lamenting. What's troubling you? Tell me, Senior Sister."
Following the sound, one could see a beautiful woman with snow-white hair sitting by the bluestone road outside the market entrance. She had deep dimples on her face and bright eyes as clear as the sea. When the mountain wind blew, her crystal-clear white hair fluttered and swayed in the wind, making her look enchanting and beautiful.
Yao Guang focused his attention and discovered that her cultivation level was at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining. He then disregarded her seniority and age, cupped his hands in greeting, and said, "So Senior Sister has recognized me. I am honored to meet you, Senior Sister. May I ask your name?"
"Qin Xue." The white-haired beauty spoke succinctly, patting the smooth bluestone beside her. "Sit down. If you have any worries, feel free to tell your senior sister."
For some reason, Yao Guang felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity with this beautiful stranger, as if they had known each other for a long time. Without any formalities, he sat down beside her and poured out all his pent-up frustrations:
"Senior sister, you may not know this, but before I joined the sect, Grandmaster Nangong promised me that I could cultivate in the 'Cuiyang Cave'. But now, I have been told that I have to wait a year. Whether I can get my wish after a year is still unknown. I am feeling frustrated and can't help but sigh in disappointment."
At close range, Yao Guang could clearly see that although the white-haired beauty was stunningly beautiful with fair and smooth skin, there were already some crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, and the white robe of the Hidden Moon Sect she wore was also slightly worn. It was clear that although she had the art of preserving her youth, she was ultimately no match for the passage of time.
Nevertheless, this unique charm accumulated over the years made her incredibly attractive in Yao Guang's eyes. When you got close, you could smell her strong body fragrance, like osmanthus blossoms blooming all over the mountains in September.
"The Cuiyang Cave? That place is incredibly scorching. Even a Core Formation stage cultivator couldn't last half an hour inside. You're only at the Qi Refining stage. Even if the cave is helpful for your cultivation of the ultimate Yang technique, how long could you stay there?"
As she spoke, she couldn't help but chuckle a few times. Before the laughter subsided, she suddenly clutched her lower abdomen, frowned, and coughed, a sickly flush rising to her fair face.
"Senior sister, your body..." Yao Guang asked in confusion, since cultivators don't get sick.
Qin Xue waved her hand. "It's an old problem. When I was young, I encountered a high-level evil cultivator and was poisoned by a yin evil power. Although I was lucky enough to survive, I have never been able to eradicate this evil poison. When I was young, I could suppress it, but now that I'm old, every time it flares up, it's extremely painful."
"Didn't Senior Sister ask the elders of the sect to remove it?"
"I've tried, but it can't eradicate the root cause unless a Core Formation Ancestor is willing to expend a large amount of true essence..." Qin Xue looked up at the sky, her eyes filled with a calm indifference that seemed to have seen through the world. "But I'm just a low-level disciple who has tried my whole life but still failed to reach the Foundation Establishment stage."
"So be it. Anyway, I don't have much lifespan left. At most, I can endure another ten or twenty years before turning into a handful of dust. A hundred years of life is but a mayfly's day. What use is immortality to me?"
Qin Xue spoke calmly, but her words were desolate and gloomy.
Looking at her stunning profile, Yao Guang felt a deep sense of sympathy and regret. Even in the Moon-Covering Sect, where beauties abound, this woman was enough to be described as peerless and outshining all others.
Unfortunately, for most cultivators in this world, even reaching the Foundation Establishment stage is an extremely difficult task.
He patted Qin Xuexiang's shoulder and comforted her with a smile, "Senior Sister, don't be discouraged. The cultivation technique I practice is the nemesis of these evil forces. Once I have completed my cultivation in Cuiyang Cave, I will definitely be able to remove this stubborn ailment from your body."
Qin Xue turned to look at Yao Guang, a glint of light flashing in her eyes: "Really?"
Seeing Yao Guang's confident smile, Qin Xue's face lit up with joy, and she suddenly transmitted her voice to him, "Senior sister knows a secret passage that can bypass the guards and restrictions and lead directly to Cuiyang Cave."