Chapter 221: Thousand-Faced Illusion Body

Chapter 221: Chapter 221: Thousand-Faced Illusion Body

Jiang Xu had yearned for a Magic like this for a long time.

Although Jiang Xu lived by the principle of avoiding trouble whenever possible.

But in the Cultivation Realm, who could truly avoid conflict?

Even if you managed to avoid it yourself, your friends, master, or fellow disciples were bound to run into accidents.

Besides, sometimes you couldn’t just hide away and expect to be safe. Some problems were safer to deal with sooner rather than later.

But Jiang Xu had never found any Magic similar to a Disguise Technique. Ordinary changes to one’s appearance were easily noticed by other Cultivators, so he could only rely on the Concealing Breath Spell to avoid detection.

Yet the Concealing Breath Spell wasn’t omnipotent. Sometimes, he had to reveal his true self to get things done conveniently.

If he stayed hidden all the time, many things would become very troublesome.

"How many Spirit Stones for this Thousand-Faced Illusion Body technique?"

Jiang Xu was direct, asking the price right away.

But the stall owner hesitated, not speaking for a long time.

"Hey, is this thing really that expensive? It doesn’t even have a Jade Scroll, and you can’t even bring yourself to name the price?"

"No, that’s not the reason." The stall owner sighed before saying, "I’ve set up shop in the Black Market a few times with this Thousand-Faced Illusion Body. Although several people expressed interest, none of them actually intended to buy it."

"Oh? And why is that?" Jiang Xu’s interest was piqued.

"The reason is simple. This technique doesn’t have a Jade Scroll, and its Cultivation difficulty is just too great. They didn’t think they could successfully cultivate it," the stall owner said with a bitter smile, telling the truth.

"Too difficult?"

Jiang Xu flipped through the first few pages of the technique again. As he read on, he too started to feel it was a bit outrageous.

The difficulty of cultivating the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body was indeed extraordinary. Its principle was to deeply manipulate one’s own Life Essence, Magical Power, and Spiritual Power, blending and transforming them with the Spiritual Qi between Heaven and Earth.

The Magic required the Cultivator to have an extremely keen and precise perception and control over themselves and their external environment. Not only must they be able to alter the flow of their qi and blood and the structure of their muscles and bones at will, but they also needed to use a powerful Divine Sense to interfere with others’—and even the Heaven and Earth Laws’—recognition of them.

The book detailed that the initial stage of Cultivation required using a special method to open all the meridians in the body. This would allow Magical Power to flow like water across the surface of the skin, forming an invisible Energy Membrane to simulate the skin textures and complexions of different people.

In the advanced stages, one needed to further infuse their Magical Power to change the characteristics of even minute details like hair and fingernails. More critically, one had to be able to precisely grasp and mimic the aura fluctuations and Magical Power signatures of others, which demanded an extremely high level of spiritual Cultivation and Investigation methods.

The book of the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body also emphasized the concept of "embodying both form and spirit." Not only did the external appearance need to be perfectly lifelike, but the inner temperament also had to be convincing enough to pass for real, or the Magic would easily break on its own.

This meant a Cultivator also needed profound acting talent and psychological fortitude to be able to merge into different identities and roles in a short period.

Due to these stringent requirements, many Cultivators, even those with profound Cultivation, couldn’t help but shrink back from such a complex Transformation Disguise Technique, believing they would find it impossible to master.

The Thousand-Faced Illusion Body certainly looked good, but they could distinguish between what they could learn and what they couldn’t. If there had been a Jade Scroll, they would have naturally bought it without a second thought.

But it just so happened that there wasn’t one. Everything had to be self-taught, and the time required wouldn’t be just a year or two—it could possibly take decades.

However, although the Cultivation difficulty was somewhat outrageous, for Jiang Xu, it was just right.

"I’ll buy it. Name your price," Jiang Xu said nonchalantly.

"Right, this kind of useless technique, if it were me I wouldn’t... huh? You’ll buy it?"

The stall owner was dumbfounded.

’With such harsh conditions, this guy was still buying it. I can’t tell if he’s being reckless or if he’s truly that capable.’

"Well, then... one thousand Spirit Stones," the stall owner said cautiously.

"What!"

Sure enough, just as the stall owner expected, Jiang Xu’s voice immediately jumped an octave after hearing the price.

If this spot weren’t so secluded, quite a few people would probably be looking their way.

"This piece of junk book doesn’t even have a Jade Scroll, and you dare sell it to me for a thousand Spirit Stones! Are you insane?!"

The stall owner felt he was a bit in the wrong, but he still didn’t budge.

"This technique was passed down from my ancestors. If I weren’t in desperate need of Spirit Stones right now, I wouldn’t be selling it. A thousand is a thousand. I won’t sell for a single Spirit Stone less."

The stall owner was dead set on a thousand Spirit Stones. No matter what tricks Jiang Xu pulled, his haggling was useless.

For Jiang Xu, he would have bought this Magic even if it were double the Spirit Stones, but he felt a little indignant.

’Even techniques on Jade Scrolls aren’t this outrageously priced. On what grounds is an ordinary book so expensive?’

If it weren’t for the fact that Jiang Xu had a panel that could verify if the Magic was authentic, he wouldn’t have dared to trust these Cultivators running stalls in the Black Market.

Jiang Xu understood now. It wasn’t just that others found the technique difficult; there were surely Cultivators who wanted to give it a try. But faced with this price, they must have all shied away. Even if they were interested, they weren’t willing to spend so many Spirit Stones on something they might not learn for many years.

"I’m telling you, you’ll never sell this technique here for such a high price. But, it has caught my eye, and I’d like to give it a shot. You should think it over. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you give me a little discount, I’ll take it."

"One thousand Spirit Stones. I need exactly one thousand right now. If it’s less than a thousand, then don’t even bother."

"Fine, a thousand it is." Jiang Xu relented. But then he picked up a Jade Scroll from the side. "But you have to throw this in for free!"

The stall owner saw it and immediately grew anxious:

"That thing is a Tier Two Technique Jade Scroll! You want me to give you *that* for free?!"

Jiang Xu, holding the "Seven Injuries Palm," began to reason with the stall owner:

"I bet no one’s buying this thing either, right? What self-respecting Magic Cultivator fights up close? They’d probably be beaten to a pulp before they even touched their opponent. This thing is clearly just as useless as the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body. You should be overjoyed that you can sell two useless items for Spirit Stones. Why are you still unwilling?"

"This..." The stall owner was a little angry at first, but on second thought, it was true. No one ever asked about this Seven Injuries Palm; it was completely unsellable. "Fine. Add another five hundred Spirit Stones, and I’ll sell it."

"Five hundred? No, no, no, that’s too much. I can only add another hundred."

"That’s too little. Four hundred more."

"Two hundred. Can’t go any higher."

"At least three hundred. Add that, and I’ll sell."

"Fine. Deal."

After placing thirteen Middle Grade Spirit Stones on the stall, Jiang Xu left without another word.

The stall owner craned his neck, and after watching Jiang Xu walk into the distance, he immediately took out a new copy of the "Thousand-Faced Illusion Body" and a technique labeled "Frenzy Rolling Hand" from his Storage Bag, muttering to himself:

"As expected, this is the best way to earn Spirit Stones. Now even Martial Arts that haven’t sold a single copy in six months have no trouble finding a buyer."