Chapter 178: Chapter 177: Qi Cultivation Level 5
A moment later, after confirming everything was clear, Chu Mu slowly opened the door.
With an unobstructed view, the bloody scene not far away was even more jarring.
Looking around, besides the crowd of onlookers who had gathered at the sound of the commotion, he could see Cultivators from the Longevity Sect’s Law Enforcement Team flying over on their swords.
’So, some Cultivators were fighting to the death in the street?’
Gazing at the mangled corpse before him, Chu Mu frowned slightly. He then decisively turned back into his room and packed all of his supplies into a Storage Talisman he had prepared in advance.
Then, he dispelled the Illusionary God Mask’s concealment of his Cultivation and Divine Soul Aura, sat down in his room, and waited quietly.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door.
The door opened, and two members of the Longevity Sect’s Law Enforcement Team stepped into the room.
’Qi Cultivation Tenth Layer and Qi Cultivation Twelfth Layer!’
Chu Mu had already prepared his story and answered all their questions.
The procedure was simple, just a routine questioning because his pavilion had been caught in the attack.
Soon, the two men from the Law Enforcement Team took their leave.
Chu Mu once again concealed his Cultivation aura and walked out the door, his gaze fixed on the lantern hanging from the pavilion opposite his.
He had long since confirmed his suspicion that the Marketplace had surveillance measures in place.
And the source of this surveillance was the very lanterns that could be seen all over the streets.
In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, the most common method for this was the Memory Stone—a natural ore capable of preserving images and sounds. After various Refining processes, it could be turned into Memory Discs, Celestial Eye Stones, Memory Jade Scrolls, and so on.
The types were numerous and their uses widespread, from preserving knowledge for posterity to surveillance. Even the information storage for the screens seen all over the Marketplace involved such items.
As for the current situation, if all went as expected, the Celestial Eye Stone hidden inside the lantern must have recorded a crystal-clear image of what had just happened.
’But what exactly happened?’
Chu Mu was a little curious.
An assassination in broad daylight clearly meant there was a massive conflict of interest at play, and the benefits must have outweighed the fear of the Longevity Sect.
Otherwise, even someone with a deep-seated hatred for the Longevity Sect wouldn’t risk their life to fight inside the Marketplace.
Wang Mazi squeezed out from the crowd of onlookers and hurried over to Chu Mu. Looking him up and down, he asked anxiously,
"Are you okay?"
"It had nothing to do with me. The person across the way was killed."
Chu Mu pointed to the bloody mess on the ground.
"That’s good, that’s good!"
Wang Mazi sighed in relief, then glanced at the bloody mess on the ground. "I just asked around. The one who was killed was the person who bought the Foundation Establishment Pill at the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion a while back. I can’t believe he was hiding here and still got slaughtered."
Chu Mu raised an eyebrow. "He bought a Foundation Establishment Pill? Doesn’t that mean his Cultivation was already at Qi Cultivation Perfection?"
"I suppose so. A lot of Cultivators have been looking for him these past few days!"
Wang Mazi shook his head. "And the attacker was supposedly a Foundation Establishment Powerhouse! I don’t know anything else."
"I came running over as soon as I heard the news, you know!"
"It’s good that you’re here. This is for you."
Chu Mu took out two Jade Bottles and stuffed them into Wang Mazi’s hands.
"You succeeded?"
Wang Mazi stared blankly at the Jade Bottles Chu Mu had given him, finding it hard to believe.
"I succeeded with two batches."
Chu Mu said calmly, "Twenty-one pills. It’s barely enough to break even."
"Great, great."
Wang Mazi couldn’t hide his delight. "I’ll advance you some Spirit Stones in a bit and get another batch of Spirit Medicine."
"By the way, what’s your approximate success rate now? Can you refine a Dan Pattern Nourishing Vein Pill?"
"I’m not sure about the success rate yet, and I’m not confident about the Dan Pattern Nourishing Vein Pill."
Chu Mu pondered for a moment, spouted some nonsense, and then changed the subject.
"Speaking of which, what’s the market price for a Dan Pattern Nourishing Vein Pill?"
"At least this much!"
Wang Mazi made a ’six’ gesture with his hand.
Chu Mu was surprised. "Sixty?"
"Right!"
Wang Mazi nodded in confirmation.
"And that’s on the low end. If it were an elixir specifically for Breaking the Realm and it had Pill Patterns, the price would be several times higher!"
Chu Mu asked, "Does a Dan Pattern Nourishing Vein Pill have the effect of Breaking the Realm?"
"Its medicinal power is much stronger than a regular Vein Nourishing Pill. It’s powerful enough to break through some of the minor bottlenecks in the Qi Cultivation Realm."
Chu Mu nodded. "Brother Wang, get the Spirit Medicine as soon as you can. I’ll give it a try."
"Okay."
Wang Mazi agreed, having come and gone in a hurry.
Chu Mu stared at the blood on the ground, lost in thought.
’I may have overestimated the safety of this Marketplace,’ he suddenly thought.
Just like what happened moments ago—the assassination was over in an instant. Before anyone could react, the attacker had vanished without a trace.
Although the Marketplace’s surveillance was comprehensive, it wasn’t without its blind spots.
As long as the killer hid well and left no further traces, the matter would likely be dropped.
After all, the Longevity Sect wouldn’t risk the stability of the entire Jade Emperor Valley by making a huge fuss over a single, minor assassination.
As he pondered, Chu Mu couldn’t help but recall the mission that the Blood Killing Pavilion’s Puppet had tried to give him back at the Fengming Mountain Black Market.
’Assassinate the Longevity Sect’s Law Enforcement Team in Jade Emperor Valley and frame the Sun Family...’
’It’s as the saying goes... The tree wishes for calm, but the wind will not subside.’
’There will always be people stirring up trouble for one reason or another.’
Glancing at the progress of his Flame Decision on the Light Curtain Panel, Chu Mu pursed his lips, a renewed sense of urgency filling his heart.
He turned back to his room and shut the door. A Wooden Box containing over twenty Vein Nourishing Pills appeared in his hand.
He sat cross-legged, and as his Divine Sense surged, the dense Spiritual Qi in the room slowly gathered around him.
After Cultivating for several hours to ensure no residual Medicinal Power from the previous Vein Nourishing Pill remained, he swallowed another one.
As the potent Medicinal Power surged through him, his Magical Power grew rapidly.
Over twenty Vein Nourishing Pills. Nearly a month of arduous, closed-door Cultivation.
His closed-door Cultivation finally came to a stop only when the single Dan Pattern Nourishing Vein Pill was all that remained.
He had also secretly acquired the Cultivation Technique for the first five layers of the Blazing Fire Technique. Piled on top of the effects of the Vein Nourishing Pills, his Cultivation smoothly advanced to the Qi Cultivation Fifth Layer.
Moreover, he had taken a solid first step within the Qi Cultivation Fifth Layer.
The door, shut for a month, opened to reveal a scene brimming with the vitality of spring.
The rolling mountains, once a desolate landscape, were now dotted with tender sprouting buds, bursting with life.
The spring breeze caressed his face, and the fresh scent of grass and trees seemed to ease the fatigue from his month of closed-door Cultivation.
Chu Mu took a deep breath of fresh air and exhaled slowly. He then took the Sound Transmission Talisman from his robe and held it in his hand.
The Restriction on his room blocked incoming transmissions. As soon as he stepped outside, two Sound Transmission Talismans began to vibrate nonstop from the accumulated messages.
One was the Sound Transmission Talisman for contacting Xu Yuan. There was nothing important in it, just some routine updates and Xu Yuan recounting what he had seen and heard.
Chu Mu listened silently to the messages Xu Yuan had sent one after another. Thanks to Xu Yuan’s chattiness, he got a general idea of what had been happening in Jade Emperor Valley.
According to Xu Yuan, his workplace had moved from inside the Marketplace to a location outside the small town beyond it.
The main reason was that the Spirit Talisman Hall, where Xu Yuan worked, had switched from sourcing its Spirit Talisman Materials externally to growing them in-house.
They had reclaimed a large expanse of Spirit Fields outside the town to the Northwest of the Marketplace, where they were planting various Spirit Talisman Materials. Naturally, the workshops for processing the raw materials had also been relocated near the Spirit Fields.
Furthermore, it seemed it wasn’t just the Spirit Talisman Hall. Several of the Longevity Sect’s industries were putting down roots in Jade Emperor Valley, moving their raw material cultivation and processing operations over as well.
This naturally created a large number of low-skill jobs, such as Support tasks like reclaiming Spirit Fields, weeding, and pest control.
As an accommodation for the Cultivators who lived in the Marketplace but worked outside of it, the Longevity Sect even waived the valley entrance fee.
Chu Mu spent over an hour listening to the hundred or so messages. ’He couldn’t help but complain again about the idiotic design of these Sound Transmission Talismans.’
The Sound Transmission Talisman for contacting Wang Mazi had far fewer messages—only three.
The first said that the Jade Emperor Black Market had been destroyed by the Longevity Sect. He had almost been caught but was lucky to get away quickly. However, it meant he needed to go to a more distant Black Market to buy the Spirit Medicine.
About twenty days later, the second message said that the Jade Emperor Valley Black Market had been rebuilt. This was followed by a stream of curses about how the Longevity Sect was insatiably greedy, wanting to control even the Black Market.
The third message, sent in the early hours of this morning, said that he had gathered all the Spirit Medicine and was on his way back.
’The Black Market was taken down, then rebuilt...’
After listening to the messages and recalling Wang Mazi’s cursing, Chu Mu couldn’t help but chuckle.
’The Longevity Sect isn’t even trying to be subtle.’
’Poor Wang Mazi. This whole ordeal must have run him ragged...’
...
