Chương 133: Peak 9th Stage Qi Condensation...

The Azure Peak Trading Hall was looming in front of us with its blue-tiled roof gleaming in the morning sun. It was easily one of the largest buildings in the sect and it was probably only second to the main hall itself. There were carved dragons wrapped around the big white stone pillars, and their eyes seemed like they were actively following us while we walked up to the massive wooden doors.

"First time here?" Wei Lin asked me when he noticed I was giving the place an appraising look. I gave him a nod.

"I never had anything worth trading before." That ended up earning me a laugh from both Wei Lin and Lin Mei.

"Well," Wei Lin said while he started rubbing his hands together like he was excited, "allow me to go ahead and introduce you to one of my favorite places in the sect." When we pushed the huge doors open, the loud sounds of people haggling and trading washed over us. The main hall was a massive open space that was filled up with dozens of stone counters, and every one of them was staffed by different sect members wearing these formal black robes.

There were disciples from various ranks milling all about the place, with some of them carrying their spirit herbs around and others clutching onto their jade boxes or weapon cases.

"The counters are organized by type," Wei Lin started explaining while gesturing his hand over to the different sections.

"The herbs and all the medical supplies are on the left side, and the weapons and equipment are in the back, and then general exchanges and beast materials are over on the right." He pointed his finger over to this particularly ornate looking counter near the center.

"That's the place you go for special items or if you need to get an expert evaluation on something." I noticed that despite having a huge crowd in there, there was a clear hierarchy to how people were being served. All the inner disciples wearing their blue robes were being attended to immediately, while outer disciples like us typically had to stand there and wait for our turn.

Though honestly, looking at the way some of the staff members were eyeing the storage rings and bulging pouches on the waiting disciples, maybe wealth spoke a lot louder than rank did inside here.

"The best part about it," Wei Lin kept going while we made our way toward the beast materials counter, "is that everything is standardized. There is no haggling required at all, but that doesn't stop disciples when they think they have especially rare or high-quality items." That explained why a lot of disciples were in the process of haggling. Everyone loved to think that their item was extremely precious, and this notion was more present in a cultivation world.

"I thought you'd love haggling."

"Haggling is for the markets. But here, everything has this fixed value that's based on quality and rarity. It's..." he let out this contented little sigh, "beautifully efficient." Lin Mei rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's enthusiasm, but I could see she was hiding a tiny smile on her face.

We went ahead and joined the line at the beast materials counter, and we ended up standing behind this muscular youth who was trying his hardest to convince the clerk that his supposedly slightly damaged stage three beast core was worth full price. But judging from his increasingly desperate sounding tone, it wasn't going well for him at all.

"Speaking about efficiency," I said quietly over to Wei Lin, "should I go ahead and trade my materials in for contribution points or spirit stones?"

"Ah!" Wei Lin's eyes lit up.

"Contribution points can't be counterfeited since they're tied directly into your identity tablet. It's the sect's preferred currency for all their disciples, so if you exchange things for points, you'll end up getting more value than you would for spirit stones."

"But," Lin Mei jumped in to add, "they can only be used inside the sect and the little bonus they give you isn't that significant anyway. As for spirit stones, they're accepted everywhere you go." I gave a thoughtful nod. That matched up with what I'd already pieced together so far. Contribution points were definitely more versatile whenever you were inside the sect, but having spirit stones offered you a lot more freedom.

Because after I ended up buying that soul bond technique before, my contribution points were non-existent now, but as for spirit stones, I had a pretty healthy amount saved up. The muscular youth finally gave up on his arguing and stormed off, which let us move up to the counter. The clerk was this middle-aged woman who had her hair pulled all the back into this severe looking bun, and she gave us an appraising look.

"Next," she said. I stepped forward and reached into my storage ring, carefully extracting out all the preserved corpses of those wasps we'd managed to kill. The three stage five wasps came out first, and their black carapaces were still looking glossy despite them being dead. And then, with what was probably a touch of dramatic timing on my part, I went ahead and brought out the massive queen. The clerk's eyebrows rose up a little bit.

"Voidneedle Wasps," she murmured while leaning forward so she could examine them a lot more closely.

"And the queen... she's at peak stage six?" She glanced back up at me, and I could tell she was reassessing us.

"Would you prefer to get spirit stones or contribution points for these?" I pretended to consider it for a second, though I'd honestly already made my decision about it, because I heavily preferred having my freedom over getting small little discounts.

"Spirit stones, please." She gave me a nod and began her evaluation, passing her hands over every corpse in turn. There was spiritual energy flowing out of her palms, which was testing the quality on all the materials.

"The stage fives are going to be worth one hundred spirit stones each," she stated.

"As for the queen... given her peak cultivation level and the rarity of void-attributed beasts... she is three hundred spirit stones." I did some quick math in my head, and it came out to six hundred total. Which wasn't bad at all for a morning's work, even if I had nearly managed to die in the process of getting them. I happened to catch Wei Lin giving me this approving little nod.

"That's fine with me," I told her, while trying my hardest to sound like this was a normal day's business for me. The clerk went ahead and efficiently processed our exchange, handing me over a jade token that seemed like it had a storage function built into it. I could feel all the spirit stones inside it, and they'd be transferred into my storage ring the second I applied some of my qi to the token.

Wei Lin stepped forward after me, producing all the corpses of the lesser wasps that he and Lin Mei had managed to kill. The clerk evaluated their stuff pretty quickly, giving them thirty spirit stones each for the stage threes, and forty for the stage fours. They split their earnings down the middle, so they each ended up walking away with a hundred and fifty spirit stones.

"Is that going to be everything?" the clerk asked us, clearly ready to move on to her next customer. Wei Lin smiled his biggest smile, it was that particular smile I'd come to recognize as being his official 'business face', and he held out his hand. Spiritual energy started gathering up in his palm, and it was condensing down into this small crystalline formation. It was earth essence. The clerk's eyes instantly widened, and she quickly produced a jade box that was lined with protective formations.

"One moment," she told him, and her tone was noticeably warmer than it was before. She turned around and made this gesture over toward one of the side rooms.

"I'll need to call an expert to properly evaluate this for you." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. A scholarly-looking man wearing green robes ended up emerging from the side room, and he was carrying what looked like a measuring device of some kind. He carefully transferred Wei Lin's essence crystal over into the jade box and began his evaluation.

"It has forty-five percent purity," he finally announced out after a few moments went by.

"It has decent stability, and good crystalline structure too... I can offer you two hundred spirit stones for it." Wei Lin went ahead and accepted the offer with a gracious nod, though I noticed his 'business face' didn't waver a bit. He'd probably expected that price for it. As we were walking away from the counter, I couldn't help myself from asking him about it.

"So, your cultivation method lets you create essence crystals like that? That's impressive." He grinned at me.

"The Merchant's Path isn't about making money, though it's obviously very good at doing that. My inner world is a huge spiritual marketplace. All the different types of qi are essentially like different commodities to me. If I manage to gather enough of one specific type, I can 'stock' it up inside a specialized stall. And then once I have enough stock built up..." he gestured his hand back over to where he'd just produced the essence crystal from.

"The purity isn't great," he admitted, "but it's consistent. Most people who try to go and manually refine essence usually only get maybe one or two good crystals out of ten attempts. So, I might end up with lower purity, but I manage to succeed almost every time I do it." I gave a nod. The difference between qi and essence was pretty fascinating to think about from a theoretical perspective. Qi was raw spiritual energy, so it was versatile but relatively weak to use.

But essence was that same energy being refined and compressed down into its purest possible form. It was like the difference between using wood and charcoal, they were the same basic material, but one of them burned a lot hotter. Like Wei Lin mentioned, if other cultivators tried to produce essence without having an efficient method for it, it would end up being a lot more hassle than it was worth.

"So," I said, "you're going to end up being rich." Wei Lin's grin grew wider.

"That's the plan! And unlike my family's wealth, every spirit stone I get will be earned through my own effort." There was this fierce pride in his voice that I couldn't help but respect. Because it couldn't be easy for him to choose to stand on his own two feet and not have to rely on his family all the time like most clan disciples do. As we were heading for the exit, a sudden movement caught my eye.

There was one of the servants busy sweeping the floor near the door, but something about his movements seemed hesitant. He kept glancing over our way, and then looking back down at his broom, like he was trying to decide on something. I smiled a little bit when I ended up recognizing the rotund figure, it was Zhao Yu. The former bandit noticed my expression, and he visibly relaxed his shoulders, apparently taking my smile as permission to approach us.

"Young Master Ke," he said while giving me a bow, and then he added some hasty bows over to Wei Lin and Lin Mei too.

"I hope you're doing well?"

"How's the sect life treating you?" I asked, since I was genuinely curious about it. Because making the transition from being a bandit to becoming a servant wasn't easy. Zhao Yu's face lit up.

"Oh, it's wonderful! The work isn't too hard to do, and the food is better than anything we had living in the mountains. My brother obviously finds it boring, but..." he gave a little shrug.

"I like boring. Because boring means there is no one trying to kill me."

"Have you had any trouble settling in?" Wei Lin asked.

"Well..." Zhao Yu nervously glanced around the hall before he lowered his voice down.

"Some of the older servants tried pushing us around a bit at first. They called us mountain rats, and said we didn't belong here." He smiled a tiny bit.

"But then my brother... ah... he went and demonstrated why doing that was a very poor choice for them. They leave us alone now." I nodded, not surprised by that at all. Because while I wouldn't trust Zhao Xing as far as I could throw him, his protective instincts toward his younger brother seemed genuine. And having someone at the seventh stage of Qi Condensation would make all the other servants think twice before they tried causing any trouble.

"Actually..." Zhao Yu started shifting around awkwardly on his feet, "I heard that you're all going to be participating in the Outer Sect Tournament coming up?" We gave him a nod, though I noticed Wei Lin and Lin Mei exchanging this slightly resigned look with each other. Because though the tournament was technically open for all outer disciples to join, everyone knew that only the top cultivators had any actual chance of advancing.

"Well..." Zhao Yu pressed his fingers together nervously, "I know that all the Inner Disciples are allowed to have their own personal servants, and if any of you were to advance..." he trailed off looking hopeful. I sat there and considered it carefully. If Zhao Xing had been the one asking me, I would have refused him immediately. The older brother was too volatile, and he was too likely to cause massive problems. But Zhao Yu... his cautious nature could end up being pretty useful for me.

And he honestly seemed genuinely grateful for the chance we'd originally given him.

"We don't have much of a chance of advancing at all," Lin Mei said while letting out this self-deprecating laugh.

"But Ke Yin here..."

"Don't sell yourselves so short," I quickly protested, though they were both probably right. The competition was going to be fierce, and while they were both talented, neither of them had any of the advantages I did. I turned back to Zhao Yu, who was standing there watching me with this barely concealed hope shining in his eyes.

"I'm not making any promises about it," I told him carefully, "but if you keep working hard on your cultivation and prove yourself to be trustworthy..." His face up like I'd gone and offered him immortality on a silver platter.

"Thank you so much, Young Master Ke! I promise I won't let you down! I'll work harder than…"

"Zhao Yu!" a sharp voice suddenly cut through all his enthusiasm.

"Those floors are not going to sweep themselves!"

"Coming, Senior Han!" Zhao Yu loudly called back, and then he gave us this hurried bow.

"Thank you again!" He scurried back over to his broom, but I could see him practically bouncing on his heels while he worked.

"That was kind of you," Lin Mei said when we finally made our outside. I shrugged.

"He's not a bad person. He just got caught up in his brother's incredibly bad choices." I glanced up at where the sun was positioned in the sky.

"I should probably get going now, because I have a formation lesson scheduled with Elder Chen." I was looking forward to showing the elder my Symphony Shield formation, while it might not seem like much to a genuine formation master, it was the first formation that I created myself, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit proud about it.

"Master, you also need to ask about Wu Lihua and see if you can finally find out who her master is," Azure reminded me. I gave a nod, it would definitely be a good idea to find out Wu Lihua's cultivation method was. Knowing that would make protecting myself against it so much easier to do. We were almost at the door when this sudden massive pressure descended on the hall, which caused several of the nearby disciples to stumble on their feet.

My breath caught in my throat when this familiar figure boldly strode through the entrance, it was Song Xiang, the sect's newest legacy disciple. The hall fell dead silent as he walked past us, he wasn't glancing in our direction, he simply made his over to the special evaluation counter. The sheer pressure coming off his aura was staggering, he was at Peak 9th Stage Qi Condensation.

The amount of raw spiritual power rolling off him easily made our earlier pride in trading those stage five and six beast parts seem childish in comparison. But it wasn't his presence alone that managed to cause all the huge commotion.

"Blood-Scaled Wyrm…" Lin Mei gasped. Slung directly over his shoulder was this massive head that was almost as large as a horse, and its partially open maw was revealing rows of teeth that were the size of daggers. But what managed to catch my attention though were these crystalline formations that were growing out of its scales, which was a huge sign that it had already begun the transformation from being a mere beast into becoming a true elemental entity.

Even though it was dead, the remnant aura that was still radiating from it made my skin crawl, because this beast was definitely at the Pseudo Elemental Realm.

"Master," Azure's voice echoed inside my mind, "and here we thought we were making some good progress." I could only manage to nod. The last time I'd seen Song Xiang, we'd both been at the third stage of Qi Condensation, which was before he was taken in as a direct disciple by the Sect Master. But now, my fast advancement up to the sixth stage honestly seemed almost pedestrian in comparison to him. Even Wu Kangming up at the seventh stage was trailing far behind this monster of talent.

"That's the difference between us and true geniuses," Wei Lin said quietly while we watched three different experts rush over to evaluate Song Xiang's massive prize.

"We can work as hard as we want, and cultivate day and night, and use every advantage we can possibly find... and they'll still end up leaving us in the dust." I didn't try to respond to that. In this crazy world, being 'good enough' was rarely ever good enough for long. But the truth was, I didn't have the luxury of accepting mediocrity. If there was one constant about being reincarnated into a cultivation world, it was that trouble would always manage to find you whether you wanted it to or not.

I could leave the sect tomorrow, go buy some random farm, and spend my days quietly growing spirit herbs, and somehow, some arrogant young master or some hidden expert or some ancient treasure would still end up appearing on my doorstep to cause me problems. The laws of narrative causality were as real as any cultivation technique in this world. The only choice you had was to become strong enough so you could manage to survive whenever those laws inevitably dragged you straight into the main plot.

And it was only a matter of time before my path ended up fully crossing with Song Xiang...