Chapter 432 - 406: Trip to White Mirror Marketplace

Chapter 432: Chapter 406: Trip to White Mirror Marketplace

The nourishment of the Jade Bead showed no signs of further progress for the time being. Meanwhile, the situation at the Sub-Palace had reached a stalemate after the theft. For once, Li Yuan found himself with some downtime.

As it happened, the inventory of Tier Two talisman-making materials at his own marketplace was nearly depleted, and he also needed new blueprints for his Artifact Refining. Although buying from his own marketplace would be cheaper, he preferred not to use his own channels if he could avoid it.

So, Li Yuan set off for White Mirror Marketplace.

A day of flying at full speed brought Li Yuan to the city gates, where he slowly descended, suppressing his aura to the level of the Late-stage Foundation Establishment.

He had two objectives for this trip. First, his reserves of Tier Two talisman-making materials were nearly depleted, and the method for crafting the Spirit Detective Talisman had long been on his shopping list. Second, having successfully crafted one piece of Golden Body Armor, he had gained the necessary experience. To advance further in Artifact Refining, he needed higher-tier forging blueprints.

The crowd at the city gates was a bit thinner than on his last visit. Li Yuan blended in with a group of Loose Cultivators, passed through the inspection checkpoint, and headed east along the main street.

Ahead, under a tea stall, three cultivators sat on a long bench, their voices carrying.

"Did you hear? Something big happened over at Mist Forest Marketplace in Liangzhou. The folks from the Celestial Peak Sect lost something at one of their Sub-Palaces and are raising hell about it. They’re making such a scene that they even dragged the Primordial Yang Sect in for questioning."

"What did they lose?"

"Who knows? But if it’s something that gets a Late-stage Golden Core expert from the Celestial Peak Sect himself to throw a fit, can it be anything ordinary?"

The third cultivator lowered his voice, his tone conspiratorial.

"I heard from an information broker in White Mirror’s East Market that the lost item seems to be a treasure related to the Profound Nether Sect. No one knows what it is exactly, but the Celestial Peak Sect has locked down the area around the Sub-Palace so tight, not even a fly could get in."

"Liangzhou is a total mess right now..."

Li Yuan walked past the tea stall without breaking his stride.

Jingzhou was, on the whole, a peaceful place. Kept in check by the three major Sects, most Cultivators rarely engaged in conflict and spent their days focused on the normal business of earning Spirit Stones.

It wasn’t perpetually tense like Liangzhou. The Cultivators here were far less on edge, and idly chatting about news from around the continent was a common pastime. Of course, truly valuable intelligence would never be shared in a place like this, but the degree to which a story was distorted after passing through several hands was, in itself, a type of information.

News of the Jade Bead’s theft had already spread to Jingzhou, but the details were vague. No one knew who had taken it or how.

Li Yuan turned into the Talisman trading district.

The Talisman district in White Mirror Marketplace was considerably larger than the one in Yunyang Marketplace. Dozens of shops lined the street, offering everything from beginner Tier One Talismans to exquisite Tier Two Talismans. Some shops even offered instruction in talisman crafting, as well as talisman consignment services.

He entered a mid-sized shop with a sign bearing a cloud pattern.

The Shopkeeper was an old, gray-haired Cultivator at the Late-stage Foundation Establishment. He was behind the counter, calibrating the Spiritual Power channel of a talisman brush’s tip. He glanced up as Li Yuan came in.

"Buying or selling?"

Li Yuan stopped at the counter. His gaze fell upon the jade slips on the shelf behind the Shopkeeper. Among the methods for sale, besides the ones he already knew, was one for crafting the Spirit Detective Talisman.

"I’d like to buy the crafting method for the Spirit Detective Talisman."

The Shopkeeper set down his talisman brush and retrieved a jade slip from the wooden rack behind him.

"The complete crafting method for the Spirit Detective Talisman. It’s a Tier Two reconnaissance-type. You stick it in the target area, and it passively gathers data on Spiritual Power fluctuations, storing it within the talisman itself for you to read upon retrieval. The effective range is about thirty zhang, and its duration depends on how much Spiritual Power the crafter infuses into it."

"How much?"

"Sixty Mid-grade Spirit Stones."

’The price was reasonable. The skill threshold for crafting Spirit Detective Talismans wasn’t high, but demand for reconnaissance-type talismans in White Mirror Marketplace was consistently stable, so the price hadn’t been pushed too low.’

Li Yuan paid the Spirit Stones and stored the jade slip away.

After leaving the Talisman district, he followed the main street north into the Artifact Refining district.

There were fewer shops in the Artifact Refining district than in the Talisman district, but each storefront was larger and more impressive. The barrier to entry for trading Tier Two refining materials and Magical Artifact blueprints was high. The clientele consisted mainly of Cultivators at Late-stage Foundation Establishment and above, along with a few clan Artifact Refiners, all of whom conducted major business.

Li Yuan entered the shop with the most extravagant storefront. Inside, over a dozen finished Tier Two Magical Artifacts were on display—defensive, offensive, and auxiliary types, each in its own section. On the wall behind the counter hung several blueprint rubbings, marked with their names and prices.

His gaze fell upon a blueprint on the right wall.

Frost Armor. A Tier Two Middle Grade defensive Magical Artifact with a Water Attribute. The blueprint depicted the armor’s overall structure and the layout of its Spirit Patterns, surrounded by densely packed annotations detailing the forging steps and material proportions.

’Tier Two Middle Grade. That was a full rank higher than the Golden Body Armor.’

’The complexity of the Spirit Patterns was palpable just from looking at the blueprint. The Golden Body Armor had over three hundred Spirit Pattern lines and about fifty nodes. The Frost Armor had nearly twice as many lines and almost ninety nodes. Furthermore, it featured an entirely new Water Attribute Spiritual Power circulation circuit, which required the perfect fusion of cold Water Spiritual Power with the base materials during forging.’

The listed price was one hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

Li Yuan called over a shop attendant, paid, and took the blueprint.

After leaving the shop, he took another lap around the Artifact Refining district. As he reached the open-air stalls at the edge of the East Market, a hoarse shout caught his attention.

"Heirloom fragment! A Tier Three forging method! Connoisseurs, take a look! A real bargain for those who know its worth!"

The stall was incredibly crude—just a tattered cloth spread on the ground, on which lay a single, yellowed animal hide.

The stall owner was a tall, skinny Cultivator at the Early-stage Foundation Establishment. His complexion was sallow, his hands were coarse, and his fingernails were stained with rust that wouldn’t wash out. A single glance told Li Yuan this was a low-level Artifact Refiner who had spent years doing rough labor.

Li Yuan crouched down and picked up the animal hide.

Drawn on the hide in incredibly fine Spiritual Ink was a partial diagram of a forging Array Pattern. The precision of the Array Pattern far surpassed anything of Tier Two. The flow of its lines was complex yet rigorous, and the connections between its nodes were similar to certain structures he had seen in the Celestial Peak Sect’s Tier Three surveillance array.

’It was definitely a fragment from a Tier Three forging method. But it was only a piece, covering roughly thirty percent of the complete technique.’

"Where did you get this?"

The skinny man rubbed his hands together.

"It’s an heirloom, really. My grandfather’s generation could still understand some of it, but by my generation, we can’t make heads or tails of it. I wanted to get it appraised back in Yunzhou, but when the war started, everyone fled. I couldn’t find an appraiser anywhere."

"You’re from Yunzhou?"

"Yeah." The skinny man sighed. "We couldn’t stay in Yunzhou any longer. The Evil Slaying Sect tore through all the marketplaces in our region, and more than half the Loose Cultivators fled. Some went to Liangzhou, others came here to Jingzhou. Not many chose Jingzhou, though."

He glanced around at the bustling street scene and let out a bitter laugh.

"Jingzhou’s a great place for everything, except there’s no room for people like us. The three major Sects and the Mingyuan Commerce Association have monopolized every path to earning Spirit Stones. You can’t survive here without a real, solid craft. At least I can still forge some crude goods. Those Loose Cultivators who only know how to farm or gather herbs can’t even put food on the table."

Li Yuan flipped the fragmented blueprint over in his hands.

"How much?"

The skinny man hesitated.

"How about twenty Mid-grade Spirit Stones? I know the blueprint is incomplete, but it’s genuinely a Tier Three item. If you could find the remaining parts..."

"Fifteen."

"Deal."

The transaction was completed. The skinny man counted the Spirit Stones before carefully tucking them into a cloth pouch worn close to his body.

Li Yuan put the fragmented blueprint away, stood up, and left the East Market.

’The Tier Three forging method fragment wasn’t useful in the short term, but it could serve as reference material for advancing my Artifact Refining proficiency in the future. Even if I never find the complete version, the partial Array Pattern structure could provide me with design concepts for Tier Three Artifact Refining.’

His shopping was complete.

Li Yuan went straight to Cloud Furnace Workshop in the depths of the Artifact Refining district and rented a Tier Two Artifact Refining Room for five days.

After closing the stone door, he first placed the crafting template for the Golden Body Armor on the workbench.

’I had succeeded in forging a Golden Body Armor once before, but the process had been rough—one success for every four failures. That one success had been more a result of me brute-forcing it with my Golden Core-level Cultivation and foundation in Arrays; my technique still felt noticeably unstable.’

’To break through to Tier Two proficiency, I need to make the forging of the Golden Body Armor consistent and repeatable.’

The furnace ignited.

Spirit Silver Ore, in. Cold Iron Essence. Star Sand.

The first Golden Body Armor. The deviation in the Spirit Pattern grooves was kept within twenty percent of the tolerance range—an improvement from thirty percent last time. His control over the flow of Spiritual Power during infusion was steadier, and the activation sequence for the twelve Defense Array groups proceeded without any lag.

A finished product. Tier Two Low Grade. Its quality was slightly higher than his last one.

No pause. The second piece.

For this one, Li Yuan deliberately quickened his hammering rhythm, testing whether he could maintain the same precision at a higher speed. The result was a deviation in the Spirit Pattern grooves at the location of the seventh array set, and the finished product’s defensive efficacy dropped by about ten percent.

’Usable, but not perfect.’

The third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth.

He fine-tuned the parameters with each piece. The force of the hammer blows, the rhythm of the Spiritual Power infusion, the angle of the Spirit Pattern etching, the timing of the setting fluid’s application—every variable was pushed closer to its optimal point through repeated, hands-on practice.

As the seventh Golden Body Armor was completed, a notification popped up from his panel.

[Artifact Refining Proficiency: Tier One Perfected → Tier Two Initiate]

Tier Two Initiate.

The leap from Tier One Perfected to Tier Two Initiate meant his forging of Tier Two Magical Artifacts had transitioned from being a matter of brute force to a stable, repeatable process. Material selection, smelting, hammering, Spirit Pattern etching, Spiritual Power infusion, and setting—he had now established clear standards and a reliable feel for every step in the production chain.

Forging Tier Two Low Grade Magical Artifacts no longer presented any technical risk.

Li Yuan gathered all the finished products and defective pieces from the workbench. Of the seven Golden Body Armors, five were of acceptable quality, while two were substandard. He set the acceptable ones aside to sell later or to use as disposable gear.

He took the forging blueprint for the Frost Armor from his storage bag, unfolded it, and spread it on the workbench.

Tier Two Middle Grade.

A full sub-rank higher than the Tier Two Low Grade Golden Body Armor. Nearly six hundred Spirit Pattern lines, ninety nodes, and an entire additional Water Attribute Spiritual Power circulation circuit.

Material-wise, the Frost Armor required adding Cold Water Refined Iron and Ice Soul Stone Powder to the Spirit Silver Ore base. The Cold Water Refined Iron provided the Water Attribute foundation, while the Ice Soul Stone Powder was used for the cold-water circulation circuit within the Spirit Patterns, ensuring the armor could continuously release a protective cold aura upon activation.

He had picked up both of these materials while purchasing other Tier Two Artifact Refining supplies.

The furnace ignited once more.

The melting point of Cold Water Refined Iron was nearly twenty percent higher than that of Spirit Silver Ore, requiring more intense heat and a longer smelting time. Li Yuan supplemented the furnace fire with his Flame of Flame Fiend, stabilizing the temperature within the optimal smelting range for the Cold Water Refined Iron.

The three materials slowly fused in the intense heat. A natural conflict arose between the Water-Attribute Cold Water Refined Iron and the Fire-Attribute Flame of Flame Fiend, causing a constant stream of fine bubbles to rise to the surface of the molten metal. Li Yuan used his Divine Sense to precisely control the heat output, suppressing this conflict to a manageable level and allowing the two opposing energies to achieve a dynamic equilibrium as they fused.

Hammering and shaping. Spirit Pattern etching. Infusion and setting. With that final series of steps, the Frost Armor was complete.

The armor’s body shimmered with a deep blue metallic luster. Its surface was covered in Spirit Patterns distributed with the precision of glacial fissures. The armor was cool to the touch, but that coolness held a resilient thrum of Spiritual Power, conveying a powerful sense of protection.

A Tier Two Middle Grade defensive Magical Artifact. Quality: acceptable.

He touched a finger to the armor’s body.

A panel appeared.

[Equippable Item Detected: Frost Armor (Complete)]

[Equipment Affix Preview: Cold Armor Condensation Protection (Green)]

[Effect: When struck, automatically releases a counter-shock of cold energy, reducing enemy attack speed by 10%. Strength of Water Spiritual Power shields increased by 20%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Cultivate one Tier Two Water Magic to the Perfection Realm.]

A green affix.

’Both effects were defensive. The passive, slowing counter-shock, stacked with the boost to my Water Spiritual Power shield, would drastically improve my survivability in close-quarters combat.’

Li Yuan placed the Frost Armor into his storage bag.

He still had two days left on the Artifact Refining Room rental, but everything he had set out to do was now complete.