Legacy of the Spirit Stone

Chapter 14 – Strange Stone

"The Li Clan is indeed powerful. Even just a secondary residence is protected by a formation at the Late Qi Condensation level," Elder Yu thought to himself.

After all, they had established themselves early on, unlike their small Yang Clan.

Moreover, the Li Clan had close ties with a sect within the Tiger-Chasing Dynasty, a background that made them untouchable in the territory of Moonwatch City.

With this in mind, Elder Yu pondered the future path of the Yang Clan.

For a family to establish itself independently in the wild and gain a foothold, besides its own strength, it also needed a strong backing.

As far as he knew, there was no large-scale cultivation family within the Tiger-Chasing Dynasty that existed completely independent of the dynasty and sects.

They either stationed themselves in towns or relied on a sect.

The Yang Clan had just moved out of the town, was weak, and had no value to offer, so no sect would take the initiative to approach them.

As they grew stronger, they would inevitably have to interact with sects.

Noting this down in his mind, Elder Yu and Li Cheng boarded the small island.

The fee to enter the marketplace was one Spirit Crystal per person, and just from this entry fee alone, the lord of Moonwatch City could earn a significant fortune annually.

"Young Master Li, I need to set up a stall to sell some items. Why don't you head to the Formation Pavilion to find a formation master first?"

"Set up a stall?"

Li Cheng immediately understood that Elder Yu was short on money and needed to gather some funds.

Considering their acquaintance, he asked, "Elder Yu, what are you selling? Why not show me first? If my family needs it, I'll buy it directly."

Hearing this, Elder Yu thought it was a good idea, saving him the time of setting up a stall and calling out for sales.

The two of them went to an open space, and Elder Yu opened the pouch at his waist.

This time, he brought four pills, ten talismans, several high-quality medicinal herbs, and mostly refined ore for artifact refining.

After Li Cheng examined everything, he counted them.

"Everything looks good. My family needs all of these. How about sixteen Spirit Crystals?"

"Deal!" Elder Yu agreed without hesitation.

He had initially estimated the value at only fifteen Spirit Crystals, but Li Cheng offered one more.

They exchanged money and goods on the spot.

Elder Yu carefully stored the Spirit Crystals, while Li Cheng simply tapped his waist pouch, storing the large bundle inside.

Elder Yu's eyes showed a hint of envy.

The Yang Clan did not yet possess an Inchspace Object to store items.

Even the lowest quality storage bag started at twenty Spirit Crystals. A few years ago, he and Yang Guanfeng had wanted to save up to buy one.

But the dynasty's taxes were too heavy, and daily expenses made it impossible to save.

Now the situation had improved significantly. With the Forbidden Zone formation set up, the new Yang Clan was stable, and with three more cultivators, they could eventually save up to buy one.

With the Spirit Crystals in hand, the two headed to the Formation Pavilion.

Here, they could buy ready-made formation diagrams, which cultivators could take home and set up themselves.

However, the effectiveness of a self-made formation was uncertain.

The other option was to hire a professional formation master to set it up personally, which was more expensive but guaranteed the formation's effectiveness.

After an introduction from the Formation Pavilion, Elder Yu finally chose a young formation master named Liu Zihao.

Although his cultivation level was not high, only at the Qi Condensation Fourth Layer, he had considerable expertise in setting up alert and defensive formations.

After some negotiation, the price was set at twenty-one Spirit Crystals.

"These are the materials needed for the formation setup. We'll set off tomorrow, so if there's anything else you need, buy it today."

Hiring a formation master didn't require purchasing diagrams, but the materials had to be provided by oneself.

After paying, Elder Yu left the Formation Pavilion, and Li Cheng bid him farewell.

Before leaving, the old man glanced back at the pavilion.

"If only the Yang Clan had the Hundred Arts of Cultivation heritage," he thought.

The Hundred Arts of Cultivation referred to a series of skills, including alchemy, artifact refining, and formation setting.

The common ones were the above three, and others included beast taming, incense crafting, astrology, physiognomy, forging, and so on.

Mastering any skill provided a stable way to earn Spirit Crystals.

However, each skill's heritage was expensive.

Not to mention the rare ones, even just alchemy, artifact refining, and formation setting could easily fetch a thousand Spirit Crystals at auction for a complete heritage.

This was entirely beyond the Yang Clan's current means.

Of course, there was another way: buying incomplete manuscripts.

These were more about luck.

Incomplete manuscripts were cheaper, but due to incomplete content, one had to keep experimenting to possibly succeed.

And success wasn't guaranteed; sometimes, after great expense, one might end up with nothing.

With these thoughts in mind, Elder Yu continued walking.

After spending five Spirit Crystals on materials for the formation, he headed to the Heaven's Secrets Pavilion in the marketplace.

As mentioned earlier, the Yang Clan would eventually interact with sects.

He wanted to buy some information about nearby sects here.

"Ten Spirit Crystals," the attendant quoted the price.

"How much?"

"Ten Spirit Crystals."

Elder Yu could hardly believe his ears.

It was just basic information about sects, yet it was so expensive.

He recalled selling information about other sects to intelligence brokers when he was in a sect, and he had only charged two or three Spirit Crystals at the time.

He didn't expect these guys to resell it at such a markup to other cultivators.

"Too expensive. I only want information on the sects close to Little Pine Mountain, nothing else."

"Alright, let me check for you."

The attendant took out a piece of white paper and wrote on it for a while.

"Two sects, four Spirit Crystals, or three for one."

Elder Yu's mouth twitched at the price, but he eventually endured it and spent four Spirit Crystals to buy it.

Heaven's Secrets Pavilion had a reason for its pricing.

You could buy cheaper intelligence from others, but if it turned out to be false, you were out of luck.

Heaven's Secrets Pavilion's confidence lay in the fact that all the intelligence you bought from them was guaranteed to be genuine.

If false information caused you losses, Heaven's Secrets Pavilion would compensate you tenfold.

Having obtained the sect information, Elder Yu had one last task for this trip.

To investigate the origins of Chen Yang.

This could also be resolved at Heaven's Secrets Pavilion.

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Spending one Spirit Crystal for a consultation fee, Elder Yu got a name.

Strange Stone!

These special stones were usually found in various Blessed Cave Abodes, with varying effects and great randomness.

Some were inferior to even Early Qi Condensation spiritual treasures, while others could rival upper-three-realm magical treasures!

With this information, Elder Yu went to the Library Pavilion in the marketplace, where he read a large amount of material about Strange Stones.

It wasn't until the next morning that he left the Library Pavilion, carrying a bundle of books introducing the history, geography, customs, and culture of the Tiger-Chasing Dynasty, as well as the Hundred Arts of Cultivation, among others.

As more children from the Yang Clan embarked on the path of cultivation, these books would help broaden their horizons and provide basic knowledge about the land they stood on.

In this way, the thirty-three Spirit Crystals he brought to the marketplace were all spent.

Elder Yu was meticulous, ensuring he maximized the value of each Spirit Crystal.