Chapter 222: I Was Scammed?

Chapter 222: Chapter 222: I Was Scammed?

As Jiang Xu walked away from the stall, he didn’t notice the shrewd vendor quickly adding two new magical scriptures to fill the empty space.

At that moment, Jiang Xu was completely focused on the Magical Scripture in his hands, "Thousand-Faced Illusion Body," utterly engrossed in its contents.

Having finally found a suitable Magic technique after some effort in the Black Market, Jiang Xu decided not to linger.

He had already browsed nearly every stall selling Magic, but unfortunately, nothing other than the "Thousand-Faced Illusion Body" had caught his eye.

Besides that, he had another goal for this trip: to purchase Spiritual Materials.

Although he did find many Spiritual Materials that met his needs in the Black Market, their prices were all ten to twenty percent higher than the normal market rate, making them poor value for the money.

After weighing his options, Jiang Xu decided it wasn’t worth buying at such high prices, so even when he saw suitable Spiritual Materials, he didn’t make any purchases.

It wasn’t as if these Spiritual Materials could only be bought in the Black Market anyway. Jiang Xu was short on Spirit Stones at the moment, and until he could acquire another large sum, he had to be careful with what little he had.

Therefore, Jiang Xu decided not to stay in the Black Market any longer and started walking toward the exit.

But before he had gotten very far, Jiang Xu sensed that something was amiss.

He had a feeling that many of the surrounding Cultivators weren’t focused on shopping, but were instead inspecting the goods at various stalls.

A chill went down Jiang Xu’s spine. He quietly moved to the side, observing them from the corner of his eye.

Their gazes didn’t linger anywhere for long; they swept quickly over the items, seeming absent-minded yet strangely focused.

They communicated mostly through glances and barely perceptible gestures, maintaining a careful distance from one another—not so close as to draw attention, but near enough to coordinate at a moment’s notice.

Although they appeared to be acting independently, an invisible understanding seemed to connect them all.

At first, Jiang Xu thought these Cultivators belonged to the Demon Communication Workshop and were here to raid the Black Market.

But after watching for a while, he felt that wasn’t right.

If they were really raiding the Black Market, they would have surrounded the place directly instead of acting so furtively.

Besides, Jiang Xu knew that the Demon Communication Workshop tacitly allowed the Black Market to exist; they would never take the initiative to cause trouble here.

Unable to figure it out, Jiang Xu decided to just activate his Spiritual Eye Technique.

The moment he did, he understood everything.

These furtive Cultivators, secretly inspecting the wares, were almost all practicing Water Element Techniques. As far as Jiang Xu could see, there were only shimmering blue fluctuations of Water Magic Power.

Like Jiang Xu, these Cultivators all wore masks that could block Divine Sense Investigation, but his Spiritual Eye Technique saw right through them.

’So they’re from the Seven Stars Association. That means... they’re here to see if the Agarwood that was stolen from them is being sold in the Black Market.’

Jiang Xu nodded to himself, but then felt a headache coming on.

’What in the world is the origin of this Agarwood? Why does the Seven Stars Association value it so highly? I’ve searched the records myself and couldn’t find anything about its background either.’

Jiang Xu couldn’t help but feel a surge of relief that he had perfected his Concealing Breath Spell; otherwise, he probably would have been caught by their various detection methods by now.

’No, I can’t let my guard down! If they keep coming up empty, there’s no telling if they’ll resort to some special means to find their target. What if the Agarwood is so valuable that they bring in a Golden Core Cultivator?!’

Deep down, Jiang Xu didn’t really think a Golden Core Cultivator would intervene so easily.

To have to call in a Golden Core Cultivator to retrieve something that was so easily stolen by a petty Qi Cultivation-level thief... even Jiang Xu felt embarrassed for the Seven Stars Association.

Wouldn’t that just make the Cultivators of the Seven Stars Association look completely incompetent?

Still, while he might look down on them strategically, he had to take them seriously tactically.

Even a one-in-ten-thousand chance had to be guarded against.

Jiang Xu looked at the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body manual in his hand, a sense of urgency washing over him.

He would have to make practicing this Magic his top priority for the time being.

It was a good thing he had acquired a new Magic technique just in time. Otherwise, he would have to start searching all over again, which would be a huge pain.

After confirming that the Seven Stars Association Cultivators were only checking the vendors’ stalls, Jiang Xu acted like a regular passerby and strolled casually out of the Black Market.

After returning his mask, Jiang Xu discreetly scanned his surroundings.

A number of Seven Stars Association Cultivators were still monitoring the area near the exit, apparently to prevent any suspects from escaping.

As Jiang Xu left, one of the watchers even tailed him for a short distance, but they quickly broke off after seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

Once on the street, Jiang Xu put away the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body manual.

He had five days until his meeting with Zong Ziqi. All he could do now was wait and, in the meantime, learn the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body.

This thought put Jiang Xu in a difficult position.

There were no inns in the Demon Communication Workshop. To find a safe place to cultivate, he would have to rent a Cave Mansion. Even a Yellow Level Cave Mansion cost ten Spirit Stones a day, which would be fifty for five days.

Cultivating outside the Marketplace would be a bit of a hassle; he’d have to find a concealed spot and make his own cave, and most importantly, it would be a waste to abandon it after just five days.

It seemed renting a Cave Mansion in the Demon Communication Workshop was the most practical option after all.

...

This Yellow Level Cave Mansion was nowhere near as good as a Profound Level one.

Not only was the Spiritual Qi density lower, but there was no Earth Fire Chamber, and even the Seclusion Chamber itself was less sturdy.

But it was just a temporary place for Cultivation anyway, so none of that really mattered.

Jiang Xu took out the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body manual and began to read it carefully from beginning to end.

With the aid of his Divine Sense, he had finished digesting the thick volume in just a quarter of an hour, committing it entirely to memory.

After silently digesting the information for a moment, Jiang Xu opened his panel. He wanted to check the Magic section to see if the new technique was automatically listed as being at the Skilled Level.

But when he opened it, he found no trace of it. The Thousand-Faced Illusion Body hadn’t been registered at all.

’What’s going on?!’

Shocked, Jiang Xu scanned the few dozen words on the panel several times before finally confirming that the four words "Thousand-Faced Illusion Body" were nowhere to be found.

’Could... could this be because of the panel’s mutation?’

But he had just registered two new Magic techniques yesterday. If the mutation was preventing new techniques from being registered, he should have discovered it then.

’Holy crap... Don’t tell me the Thousand-Faced Illusion Body is a fake? Was I scammed?!’