Chapter 462 - 434: The Old Warehouse of the West District

Chapter 462: Chapter 434: The Old Warehouse of the West District

Inside Shiyi Studio, the old cultivator Sun Shiyi cowered in his chair, his cloudy eyes warily sizing up Li Yuan.

Ever since the goods in his cellar were confiscated, he had spent over half a month in the market square. He didn’t dare to run, nor did he dare to ask questions, spending every day holed up in his shop, fraught with anxiety.

Li Yuan walked in and sat down opposite him.

"The investigation is over."

The old cultivator’s body trembled violently, and the color drained from his face.

"You have no direct connection to the Evil Slaying Sect," Li Yuan said, his tone flat.

"The people who came to you for the goods were an external channel for the Evil Slaying Sect, but you didn’t know their identities, and you didn’t initiate the transactions. It could barely be considered a normal antique trade."

The old cultivator was stunned for a moment, then let out a long sigh. It was as if his bones had been removed; he slumped against the back of the chair.

"Th-Thank you, Pavilion Master, for your discernment..."

"This is your compensation." Li Yuan pointed to a storage pouch on the table. "Among the confiscated items were some miscellaneous things of use to you. I’ve converted their value into Spirit Stones for you. The array fragments and residual powder have been kept."

The old cultivator took the storage pouch with trembling hands. He sent his Divine Sense inside to take a look, and his eyes immediately reddened.

The number of Spirit Stones was much higher than he had expected. The array fragments and residual powder wouldn’t have fetched a high price to begin with; the value he received in Spirit Stones was actually more than what he had earned from those buyers of unknown origin.

"Fellow Daoist Sun." Li Yuan’s voice made the old cultivator immediately compose himself and sit up straight.

"Those fragments and the powder—you said you dug them up on the outskirts of Ghost Mist Forest thirty years ago. Where, exactly?"

The old cultivator fell silent for a moment, seemingly weighing whether to speak. But the lingering terror of his near-death experience was still fresh in his mind, and his hesitation lasted only for a couple of seconds.

"In a valley to the northwest of Ghost Mist Forest, about fifteen li from Skeleton Ridge."

The old cultivator wrung his hands, his voice dropping lower. "Thirty years ago, that area was deserted, and the mist wasn’t as thick as it is now."

"I was mining on the outskirts back then to make ends meet. One time, I followed a mineral vein a few li deeper and reached that valley. Suddenly, I felt dizzy, as if the ground beneath my feet had given way."

"When I came to my senses, I was no longer where I had been."

"It was like I’d entered a stone chamber buried in the mountain. The place wasn’t large, surrounded by rubble and cracked stone walls, as if it had collapsed. I was terrified at the time and was just focused on finding a way out when I stumbled upon a lot of metal fragments and powdery stuff in the rubble."

"I had a storage pouch on me back then. I didn’t have much to my name, so it was empty."

"After I finished collecting everything, the world started spinning again. When I opened my eyes, I was back in the valley outside."

"Later, I showed those things to a few old acquaintances. They said they might be array components from the ruins of an ancient sect. Someone was willing to buy them, and that’s how I got into this business."

"Did you go back after that?"

"Two or three times." The old cultivator shook his head. "But no matter how I searched, I could never find that strange place again. The valley was still the same valley, but that sort of thing never happened again. The last time I went was twenty years ago."

"Do you remember the specific location?"

The old cultivator took a yellowed, old beast-skin map from his robes and spread it on the table. The markings on the map were crude and messy, but the valley’s location, the orientation of a stone gate, and the depth of a passage were all marked in extreme detail.

Li Yuan glanced at the beast-skin map. The location of the collapsed stone gate fell precisely in a blank area on the northwest section of the Sub-Palace’s structural diagram.

"Fellow Daoist Sun." Li Yuan put away a copy he had made of the beast-skin map and returned the original to the old cultivator.

"From now on, you won’t have to do your business in secret. Have Ji Wenchuan handle the paperwork to register you as a partner of Yuanming Studio. In the future, any old or ancient items you acquire for your shop should be offered to Yuanming Studio first. We’ll pay market price."

The old cultivator was stunned for a moment, then his face broke into a wide smile.

"Thank you, Pavilion Master! Thank you, Pavilion Master!"

After seeing the old cultivator off, Li Yuan summoned Ji Wenchuan.

"Prepare to hold an auction in thirty days. The location will be the main hall on the second floor of Yuanming Studio. I’ll give you the list of auction items later; you get the framework set up for now. The consignment rules will be the same as the standard practice in White Mirror Market: a twenty percent commission, with the reserve price set by the consignor. Remember to publicize it."

"Understood." Ji Wenchuan turned to leave but was stopped by Li Yuan.

"Let Xu Zhang know."

"Already did." Ji Wenchuan chuckled. "Shopkeeper Xu heard the rumors and came to ask me about it. He said the Mingyuan Commerce Association has a few treasures they’ve been saving that they’d like to sell this time."

After Ji Wenchuan left, Li Yuan headed to the Weapon Pavilion in the eastern district.

He left the auction preparations to Ji Wenchuan and Xu Zhang. His own energy needed to be focused on something else.

The shopkeeper saw him arrive and was very polite.

"Pavilion Master Li, here to make a purchase?"

"Cold Binding Talismans," Li Yuan said, getting straight to the point.

"We have them in stock. This batch just arrived from the Sect, and the quality is even better than the last one." The shopkeeper took a wooden box from the shelf. "Fifty talismans, same old price."

Li Yuan paid with Spirit Stones and put the wooden box away.

The Mirror Binding Talismans he bought last time were a variation of the Cold Binding Talisman.

After returning to his stone house, Li Yuan spread out a sheet of talisman paper and placed a new Cold Binding Talisman flat on the table.

He didn’t rush to start. Instead, he first closed his eyes and circulated the Ice Seal Skill.

Having perfected the Ice Seal Skill, his transformation and condensation of ice-elemental Spiritual Power had reached a level of instinctual proficiency. The core function of the Cold Binding Talisman was ice-based control, and the underlying principles of both overlapped significantly.

Li Yuan sent his Divine Sense deep into the talisman’s body, deconstructing the array pattern structure layer by layer.

This time, his approach was different. He no longer tried to directly copy the original array pattern layout of the Celestial Peak Sect. Instead, using the Spiritual Power circulation logic from his perfected Ice Seal Skill as a foundation, he reverse-engineered the functional distribution of each array pattern node within the Cold Binding Talisman.

Li Yuan spread out a blank sheet of talisman paper, dipped his Cyan Spirit Talisman Brush into the prepared Spiritual Ink, and began to write.

The brush moved like a dragon and a snake, the Spiritual Ink seeping into every fiber of the talisman paper.

The final stroke was completed.

A very faint, ice-blue glow appeared on the surface of the talisman paper. The flow of Spiritual Power within the talisman’s body was stable and smooth.

Success.

[Tier Two Talisman Making Skill: Minor Achievement → Great Success]

Tier Two Talisman Making, Great Success.

Within a three-foot radius, the entry perception was triggered.

[Equippable Item Detected: Cold Binding Talisman (Complete)]

[Equip Entry Preview: Talisman Pattern Ice Induction (White) — Increases success rate of making ice-elemental talismans by 10%, increases power of ice-elemental magic by 10%]

[Permanence Condition: Cultivate three Water Element magic skills or cultivation techniques]

A white entry. Both effects were extremely practical.

The condition for making it permanent was to cultivate three Water Element magic or cultivation techniques. Li Yuan quickly reviewed them in his head—Ice Seal Skill at Perfection, Ice Cone Skill at Proficiency, and Cold Stream Skill at Great Success. All three were water-element arts, and each had been mastered beyond the entry level.

The condition was met.

[Talisman Pattern Ice Induction (White) has become a permanent entry]

A phantom image of the Cold Binding Talisman flashed in his equipment slot and vanished. The success rate for making ice-elemental talismans increased by ten percent, and the power of his ice-elemental magic also increased by ten percent.

From now on, every ice-elemental talisman he created would have a ten percent higher chance of success, and the power of his Ice Seal Skill and Ice Cone Skill would be permanently raised to a new level.