Chapter 17: Night Market
Xiao He had been discovered… Song Yan knew the little snake demon’s existence would eventually be found out. He just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
Song Yan said nothing, simply handing over another spirit stone.
Qin Xijun didn’t ask any questions either. She threw an arm around Song Yan and pulled him toward the market district. “Senior Brother, you’re so kind…”
The two of them walked into the night market under Chen Qi’s guidance.
Chen Qi watched their retreating figures disappear into the night market. A cold gleam of spiritual light flickered through his eyes, and he let out a soft chuckle.
“A Foundation Establishment cultivator calling a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator ‘senior brother’… heh. I’ve never heard of that.”
…
“Granny Qin… what are you doing?”
Chen Qi was long gone by now.
“Oh my, being young is wonderful.”
Granny Qin sighed wistfully and reluctantly released her grip.
“I couldn’t tell, Lord, you’ve got quite a slender waist…”
As she spoke, she gave another appreciative squeeze.
Knowing Granny Qin was just being her usual nonsense self, Song Yan couldn’t be bothered to pay her any mind.
Qin Xijun leaned in to his ear with a teasing smile. “Since it’s already been exposed, why don’t you bring out that little snake of yours and let Granny have a look?”
Since things had come to this, Song Yan didn’t bother being coy.
Hiss…
A small head poked out from Song Yan’s collar. Two bead-like black eyes stared at Qin Xijun.
“A little green snake demon. Rather cute, too.”
Qin Xijun tapped Xiao He’s snake head. “That man must have cultivated some kind of eye technique, which is how he saw through it. But keeping a spirit beast isn’t some great taboo. Why bother hiding it?”
“…”
Song Yan said nothing, seemingly tacitly admitting it.
In truth, the reason he didn’t want to draw attention was that Xiao He hadn’t been cultivating for very long at all. She had been able to take human form the moment she first opened her spiritual awareness.
He had looked it up in the sect’s records before. This kind of demon was considered a “genius” among demon cultivators.
Now it seemed that the cultivation world was full of countless secret arts and techniques. There were far too many methods capable of sensing demonic qi. Without a good way to conceal it, it might be better to let Xiao He manifest openly.
“Let’s go. Don’t delay the real business.”
The night market. Core district.
The moon had just risen. A thousand runic lanterns glowed in the darkness, lighting up the entire Lingyuan Marsh night market until it was bright as day.
Song Yan and Qin Xijun strolled along at a leisurely pace.
He had actually never really come here before. On normal days, when he left his cave dwelling, he either headed straight for Granny Qin’s little shop or made a beeline for the Fire Works camp.
He came and went in a hurry, never having properly visited the core district of the market.
The Treasure Pavilion, the Fire Refining Pavilion, the Elixir and Herb Pavilion, the Formation Pavilion, and the “Rare Goods Emporium”… the old shops were packed shoulder to shoulder.
Talismans, magical artifacts, elixirs, formations, all sorts of materials, scriptures, and cultivation manuals. If you had spirit stones, you could find anything here.
The “Treasure Pavilion” hung a golden plaque high above. A spirited-looking cultivator sat behind the counter. On the purple sandalwood shelves, a dazzling array of magical artifacts and elixirs were displayed, with restriction barriers shimmering like a river of stars.
Beyond these, there were countless small shops, stalls, and peddlers run by ordinary cultivators.
The hawking calls of Qi Refining Stage cultivators rose and fell in waves.
“Fire Crow Talismans! Three spirit stones a bundle!”
Some stall owners simply placed a spiritual imprint on their wares.
“Southern Border demon bones! Trading for Earth-element cultivation techniques!”
A bearded burly man was arguing with a stall owner. “Your ‘Lesser Cloud and Rain Technique’ only has the first six layers, and you still dare ask for that many spirit stones?!”
A masked cultivator crouched at the end of an alley. Beneath a black robe, a sliver of a blood-red jade slip was faintly visible as he whispered to a buyer in front of him. “Clues to a demonic cultivator’s cave dwelling. Trading for three…”
Before he could finish, a bronze patrol ship swept overhead, startling a flock of crows into flight.
“Granny, there are a lot of cultivators here who don’t look like sect disciples…”
Qin Xijun nodded. “Naturally. If they were all sect disciples, the patrol wouldn’t need so many people.”
“To be precise, Lingyuan Marsh isn’t actually within Dongyuan Sect. It merely falls under the sect’s jurisdiction.”
“A certain elder of the sect believed that if the Lingyuan Marsh market only opened to its own disciples, it would be far too dull. That’s how the ‘night market’ came to be.”
“Dozens of smaller and larger cultivation families in the mountains below, all affiliated with Dongyuan Sect, wandering cultivators from the surrounding wilderness, even disciples from certain Daoist temples and minor sects within Feng’an Prefecture. They all come here to trade barter for barter.”
“Over time, this night market has only grown more and more bustling.”
A look of reminiscence flickered through Qin Xijun’s eyes.
“Oh, right. Although the night market’s regulations are slightly more relaxed compared to the day market, there are still bottom lines…”
“I see.”
Song Yan nodded.
“Alright, now that you’re inside, you can handle getting rid of those things yourself…”
Qin Xijun gave a sly smile. “Granny has an old friend to meet. I’ll be going first.”
“Huh?”
Before Song Yan could react, Granny Qin had already vanished into the crowd.
He now had reason to suspect that Granny Qin just wanted to freeload off his entrance fee.
“…Never mind. I’ll look around.”
Fire Crow Talismans… three spirit stones a bundle.
Fire Crow Talismans were a very common fire-attribute spell talisman that condensed a large flock of fire crows within a short period.
Unfortunately, their offensive power wasn’t that strong. Even if they hit, the burning flames could only wear down the opponent’s protective spiritual energy.
He had heard that once, a male outer disciple released ninety-nine Fire Crow Talismans in a single night to express his feelings to a female cultivator he fancied. It was said to have ended in failure.
“I heard that the market has set new rules this time. Certain special texts and cultivation techniques that are difficult to define are no longer allowed to be sold openly.”
At a stall in the market, the stall owner had a crowd of cultivators gathered before him, hanging on his every word.
“Some say this is a deliberate attempt to suppress the growth and expansion of the Lingyuan Marsh night market… but I personally disagree.”
“If this black market truly ran lawlessly and one day caused a great disaster, the higher-ups of Dongyuan Sect would simply shut it down. Now that would be what you call cutting off people’s livelihoods.”
The stall owner was a youth of sixteen or seventeen. Watching the reactions of those before him, he eagerly pressed his advantage.
“At this point, some of you fellow Daoists must be wondering…”
“Now that those miscellaneous texts and scriptures have been banned from sale, how can one obtain them?”
“Well, what a coincidence! I just happen to have a batch of ‘miscellaneous texts’ newly stocked…”
“Fellow Daoists, if any catch your eye, take the name tag from the table, leave your cave dwelling address, and someone will deliver it to you in person another day…”
“Hey! Fellow Daoist! Don’t leave!”
“I’ve got all sorts of unofficial histories and secret records here! Stay and have a look! Don’t go, fellow Daoist…”
The crowd of cultivators that had been gathered before the stall scattered in an instant.
“Tch. A bunch of country bumpkins who can’t recognize quality goods.”
The youth immediately cursed. “Without my abilities, who else would get you these forbidden texts?”
Only after he finished cursing did he realize there was still a cultivator wearing a white wolf mask standing before the stall.
He quickly put on a friendly smile and approached. “Oh! Fellow Daoist, you’ve got excellent taste. Which one has caught your eye?”
Song Yan looked at these small bamboo slips engraved with text, and the more he looked, the more illegal they seemed.
“This one, ‘Immortal Maiden Bai Jie,’ was a bestseller before the ban. If you’re not interested, you could also check out ‘Young Hero A Bin’…”
The youth kept up his nonstop sales pitch, but Song Yan wasn’t looking at the engraved bamboo slips at all. Instead, he took down a trial-read jade slip for a legitimate scripture from the shelf.
“Complete Records of Immortal Dao Curiosities.”
With a sweep of his divine sense, Song Yan returned the jade slip.
“Fellow Daoist, how much for this one…”
The youth saw that what Song Yan had selected wasn’t one of the forbidden texts engraved on bamboo slips, and his interest immediately waned.
“Oh… this one. Two spirit stones. Take it.”
Two spirit stones…
That was a bit pricey.
But after agonizing for a moment, Song Yan gritted his teeth and took it.
“Thank you.”