Chapter 88 - 85: Storage Bag
Chapter 88: Chapter 85: Storage Bag
On the leeward side of the rocky platform, Li Yuan changed into a dark gray tunic.
The fabric was coarser than the Inspector General uniform he usually wore. He could feel the subtle pattern on the collar, an embroidered design in dark silk thread that resembled a curled-up beast—unnoticeable without a closer look.
He attached the token to his waist. Its copper surface was cold, and the character for "Li" on the front glinted in the morning light.
After applying the disguise mask to his face, he infused it with Spiritual Power, and a very thin layer of gray light immediately spread across its surface. The contours of his cheeks changed, his cheekbones lowered, and his jawline softened, closely resembling the face of the corpse from before.
It felt coarse to the touch, like a dry film of fabric.
Li Yuan moved his mouth and eyebrows a few times. The mask moved with them and didn’t fall off, but his expressions were slightly stiff.
Li Yuan rolled up his original Inspector General uniform and waist token, placing the bundle into his storage pouch.
"I’m leaving. You follow the main group."
Song Tiezhu took the bundle, nodded, and didn’t ask any questions.
Li Yuan turned and descended the narrow slope on the south side of the rocky platform, heading alone toward the Loose Cultivator Marketplace.
He encountered a Demon Beast on the way, which he dispatched with ease.
He arrived at the Loose Cultivator Marketplace, and its surrounding walls immediately struck him as flimsy.
From a distance, it was just a cluster of houses and wooden sheds of varying heights, squeezed between two low hills. A few sections of a dilapidated earthen wall snaked crookedly around half of it, broken in several places. Some parts had collapsed into mounds of dirt, and no one had bothered to repair them.
Two wooden posts stood at the entrance. The spots where lanterns or flags should have been were empty, with only a few blackened ends of rope swaying in the wind.
There were no guards at the gate.
Li Yuan walked inside. Underfoot was a pitted mud road, and the stalls on either side were mostly empty.
Here and there, a cloth-covered stall remained standing, displaying a few scattered items, but they were all unattended. The doors of several shops were boarded shut, their cracks stuffed with dust and dried leaves.
There weren’t many people on the street.
A few scattered Loose Cultivators hurried along the street, their eyes fixed forward. A middle-aged woman carrying a cloth-wrapped bundle emerged from an alley and nearly bumped into Li Yuan. She quickly sidestepped, hurrying away without even looking up.
The air held a mixture of smells: the bitterness of medicinal herbs, the scorched scent of stove ash, and the faint stench of decay drifting from some unknown direction.
Li Yuan continued down the main street, his eyes constantly scanning both sides.
The Artifact Refining Master lived deep on the eastern side of the marketplace. There was an anvil at his door.
When he reached the entrance of a dead-end alley, Li Yuan saw his target.
At the end of the alley stood a low house with gray brick walls. By the door sat an anvil about half as tall as a man, its surface covered in pitted marks from hammering.
’This Artifact Refining Master doesn’t live very well,’ Li Yuan thought.
The door was ajar, and the faint sound of metal striking metal came from within.
Li Yuan stopped in front of the door, straightened his tunic, and raised a hand to knock twice on the doorframe.
The sound of metal striking metal stopped.
A few moments later, the door was pulled open from the inside.
Behind the door stood a man who looked to be in his fifties.
He wasn’t tall, but his shoulders were broad, as if they were being forced apart by two iron plates. His hands were large, and his knuckles were thick with rings of calluses.
His complexion was dark, the wrinkles on his forehead as deep as if carved by a knife. His eyes were not large, but they were exceptionally bright.
The aura of someone at the fifth or sixth level of Qi Refining.
Those eyes lingered on Li Yuan for a moment, first examining the subtle pattern on his collar, then the token at his waist, before finally returning to Li Yuan’s face.
Two breaths of silence passed.
"When does the east wind arrive?"
"After the frost falls."
The old man’s gaze lingered on Li Yuan’s face for another moment.
Li Yuan’s expression remained unchanged. The mask was on his face, sustained by Spiritual Power; the surface illusion was flawless.
"Come in and talk," the old man said, stepping aside.
Li Yuan didn’t go in.
"No need. Let’s go. The Demon Beasts on the road have already been cleared out once. It’s safest to leave now."
The old man frowned.
"In such a hurry?"
"The sooner we leave, the better," Li Yuan said curtly.
The old man stared at him for a couple of moments. Without another question, he turned and went back inside.
The sound of rummaging came from inside. Before long, the old man reemerged, now wearing a storage pouch.
"Let’s go."
The two of them walked back the way they came, heading out of the marketplace.
Li Yuan walked in front, with the old man following half a step behind. His pace wasn’t slow, but he always maintained a slight distance, never walking side-by-side.
On the way, they passed a few other Loose Cultivators who were also heading out.
Some were carrying large and small bundles, some were in groups of two or three, and there was also a lone Female Cultivator clutching a medicine box, her pace so fast it was almost a trot.
Upon seeing the Li family attire and the token at Li Yuan’s waist, these people would glance over before quickly looking away and continuing on their business, whether they were walking or running.
Two Loose Cultivators even moved aside to make way for them.
After leaving the marketplace, the road ahead widened considerably.
On the dirt road between the low hills, they could see in the distance the Loose Cultivators who had been escorted out by other teams, all heading north in small groups.
The old man’s pace slowed by half a beat, his gaze sweeping over the Loose Cultivators.
"Why are we going this way?"
His voice was a touch heavier than before.
"The Li family’s marketplace is to the south."
Li Yuan didn’t turn back.
"We’re heading north for a stretch first, to bypass a region dense with Demon Beasts before we turn."
The old man didn’t reply immediately, but his pace slowed again, this time noticeably.
After they had gone another two hundred-odd yards, a figure appeared on a low slope ahead.
Uncle Qu.
He stood at the top of the slope with a Wang family Cultivator beside him. Both of their gazes landed on Li Yuan and the old man.
The old man’s steps faltered.
His gaze first fell on Uncle Qu’s clothes and aura, then snapped fiercely toward Li Yuan.
"You’re not with the Li family."
It wasn’t a question.
Li Yuan stopped and turned around, saying nothing.
Uncle Qu was already walking down the slope at a leisurely pace.
"Don’t be nervous. No one is going to do anything to you."
The old man’s expression darkened, and he took a step back.
"You’re from the Wang family."
"Correct." Uncle Qu stopped about five paces away and looked at him. "Qinghe Marketplace, the Wang family."
The old man’s eyes darted about as he scanned the surrounding terrain. Ahead were Uncle Qu and the Wang family Cultivator, behind was the stream of Loose Cultivators heading north, and to the sides were the slopes of the low hills.
There was no escape.
His gaze returned to Uncle Qu, his lips drawn into a tight line.
"What do you want?"
Uncle Qu didn’t press him. His tone was like that of a man discussing a business deal.
"Whatever terms the Li family offered you, I’ll double them."
The old man was stunned for a moment.
He clearly hadn’t expected the man to open with that.
"Spirit Stones, materials, cultivation resources, ores needed for Artifact Refining, and Magical Artifact blanks—whatever the Li family offered you, I’ll give you double."
Uncle Qu glanced at him.
"You’ve probably heard of the Wang family’s Artifact Refining Hall. It’s larger than the Li family’s, and we have more ore veins. Whatever grade of materials you require, as long as we have it, we can provide it."
The old man’s expression shifted several times. The wariness in his eyes hadn’t completely faded, but his tense shoulders relaxed slightly.
After a long silence, he finally spoke.
"When the Li family first approached me, they didn’t exactly give me much of a choice."
His voice carried a long-suppressed resentment.
"The Loose Cultivator Marketplace has been surrounded by Demon Beasts for so long. I don’t know how to fight; all I know is how to refine Magical Artifacts. The Li family’s people came and said they’d help me get out, on the condition that I make a few Magical Artifacts for them. Could I say no?"
"After I finished, they didn’t take me away immediately. They said it was useful to keep me here, so I was still stuck in this damn place."
Uncle Qu didn’t respond, merely watching him.
The old man let out a breath, his gaze shifting between Uncle Qu and Li Yuan.
"This ’double’ you mentioned... how would that work, exactly?"
Uncle Qu named a figure.
After hearing it, the old man was silent for a few moments, then finally nodded.
"Deal."
His tone wasn’t exactly cheerful, but there wasn’t much hesitation either.
Uncle Qu grunted in acknowledgement, turned, and started walking back toward the top of the slope. The group behind him began to move.
Uncle Qu didn’t join the main group. He took only the Artifact Refining Master and Li Yuan, heading in the direction of Qinghe Marketplace.
Their pace was swift. Li Yuan could feel a gentle breeze carrying him along, making him much faster than usual.
By the time the outline of Qinghe Marketplace’s walls appeared on the horizon, the sun was already starting to set in the west.
There were more people at the marketplace gate than when they had left. Several Inspector Generals stood by the gate, registering the Loose Cultivators brought back from the other marketplace, who were lining up to enter.
Uncle Qu didn’t enter the marketplace right away. He stopped in the shadow of a low wall outside the gate and beckoned to Li Yuan.
Li Yuan walked over and handed the mask and clothes he was wearing to Uncle Qu.
Uncle Qu took the items, stuffed them into a storage pouch, and leaned against the wall, a rare look of relaxation on his face.
"Well done."
He counted on his fingers.
"You went in disguised to retrieve our target, no hitches. That half-pill found in a Demon Beast’s stomach earlier on the road—that was you too. You cleared out a lot of Demon Beasts along the way, and no one in your small team was seriously injured."
Uncle Qu glanced at Li Yuan.
"The reward of Spirit Stones and contribution points will be distributed together later. You won’t be short-changed."
Uncle Qu pointed to the storage pouch at Li Yuan’s waist.
"You can have this for now."
Uncle Qu’s tone was casual.
"Also, you don’t need to return to the Guard Team for the time being. Go back to the Inspector Team."
Li Yuan reached for the storage pouch. The moment his fingertips touched its surface, the panel appeared.
[Equippable Item Detected: Storage Pouch (Intact)]
[Trait Preview: Spatial Perception (Green) — Enhances perception of space, allowing detection of spatial fluctuations and anomalies.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Make contact with a spatial fluctuation (0/1)]
[Current Equipment Slots (3/3). Replace equipped item?]
A green Trait.
Spatial Perception—enhances one’s perception of space. The condition to make it permanent only required coming into contact with a spatial fluctuation once.
The condition seemed simple, requiring only a single instance.
But spatial fluctuations weren’t something one could just stumble upon.
It was nearly impossible for a Qi Refining Stage cultivator to come into contact with spatial-type powers; that was a domain of a much higher level. Unless he happened upon a natural spatial rift, or a spatial disturbance caused by a special Magical Artifact or Array, there was no way to fulfill this condition anytime soon.
Li Yuan tucked the storage pouch into his robes.
’Don’t equip it yet. I’ll save it.’
’Finding a spatial fluctuation can’t be rushed. I’ll worry about it when I find one.’