Chapter 463 - 435: Spatial Rift

Chapter 463: Chapter 435: Spatial Rift

Early in the morning, a knock came from outside the stone house.

Li Yuan swept the area with his Divine Sense—it was the Shopkeeper from the Weapon Pavilion.

After opening the door, the Shopkeeper cupped his fists in a salute, his attitude more formal than on previous visits. In his left hand, he held a jade tablet engraved with the Celestial Peak Sect’s insignia, and in his right, he carried a wooden box sealed with a Spirit Talisman.

"Pavilion Master Li, my apologies for the intrusion." The Shopkeeper got straight to the point, pulling a roll of thin silk from his sleeve and presenting it with both hands.

"This is an official dispatch from the Celestial Peak Sect’s Foreign Affairs Hall concerning stationed personnel. I must trouble you to look it over, Pavilion Master."

Li Yuan took the thin silk and unrolled it.

The contents of the dispatch were simple. The Celestial Peak Sect would be sending seven additional permanent staff to the Mist Forest Marketplace within the next month, including two Late-stage Foundation Establishment Artifact Refiners and one Talisman Maker. The new personnel would be stationed at the Weapon Pavilion. While their daily business scope would remain unchanged, the scale of their procurement and sales would expand accordingly.

A list was attached at the end of the dispatch. The seven individuals’ names, Cultivation levels, and responsibilities were detailed one by one.

’The Mist Forest Marketplace and the Celestial Peak Sect are, in theory, just business partners, yet they’ve sent an official dispatch over.’

"The Sect is paying more and more attention to the Ghost Mist Forest area," the Shopkeeper said with a smile.

"The Sect believes now is a good time to expand operations and hopes for Pavilion Master Li’s cooperation. As for Talismans and Spiritual Materials, the Weapon Pavilion is prepared to increase its purchasing volume, and we will offer preferential prices."

"What are you buying?"

"Tier Two combat Talismans, defensive Talismans, and all kinds of Artifact Refining ores and Spiritual Materials." The Shopkeeper counted on his fingers. "As long as the quality is up to standard, we’ll buy as much as you have. At the same time, the Weapon Pavilion will also significantly increase the supply of its own goods, including exploration-type Magical Artifacts, Array consumables, and talisman-making materials."

Li Yuan put away the dispatch.

"I will have Ji Wenchuan coordinate housing for the stationed personnel." Li Yuan didn’t reveal any further thoughts. "As for the purchase prices, coordinate with Xu Zhang of Yuanming Studio."

The Shopkeeper nodded in satisfaction and handed over the wooden box.

"This is a small token of appreciation from the Sect for the Pavilion Master. A few high-quality talisman-making materials, as a show of our sincerity for this cooperation."

Li Yuan accepted the wooden box but didn’t open it on the spot. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he saw the Shopkeeper out.

After closing the door, Li Yuan’s thoughts began to turn.

’The Celestial Peak Sect has a presence in the Mist Forest Marketplace and a sea-land trade route through the Nanyuan District, but for some reason, they haven’t opened a Weapon Pavilion in the Primordial Yang Sect’s Yunyang Marketplace.’

Li Yuan filed this information away, put aside his thoughts, and began to prepare for the day’s main business.

He took out the beast-skin map rubbing provided by Sun Shiyi from his storage pouch and once again compared the location of the collapsed stone gate marked on it with the Sub-Palace structural diagram he possessed.

When the two maps were overlaid, the position of the stone gate fell on a spot marked with a small dot in the northwestern area of the Sub-Palace.

An hour later, Li Yuan arrived at the valley Sun Shiyi had described.

The valley was wedged between two steep stone cliffs, its floor littered with rubble and dead branches. The mist was thicker here than on the outskirts, visibility limited to no more than thirty or forty yards. A few crooked old trees grew from cracks in the rock, their withered black branches like outstretched claws.

Li Yuan didn’t enter from ground level. Instead, he stopped his movement within the rock stratum fifty feet underground and used his Dark Evil Insight to scan the valley floor.

There was nothing on the surface.

The stone gate at the base of the cliff had long since collapsed beyond recognition. Rubble and earth completely buried the passage, and even the remnants of the doorframe had been weathered and eroded until they were indistinguishable from the surrounding rock. If not for Sun Shiyi’s map, no one would have ever noticed a door had once been here.

Ordinary methods of investigation would have ended here.

But Li Yuan was no ordinary Cultivator.

He simultaneously activated the Permanent Spatial Perception entry from his storage pouch and the Personal Void entry from the Void Stone.

The instant the two perceptions overlapped, Li Yuan caught a hint of an extremely subtle anomaly.

A spatial fluctuation.

It was extremely weak—several times weaker than the spatial reverberations he had sensed at the Spirit Vein Core in Mozhou, like a single strand of hair trembling in the wind. Without the aid of the two entries, a fluctuation of this magnitude would have been completely undetectable.

Li Yuan focused his mind on that sliver of fluctuation, slowly narrowing his perceptual range and closing in on the source, inch by inch.

The source of the fluctuation was located about thirty feet to the west of the cliff’s base, at a depth of roughly seventy feet underground.

The rock stratum there was very dense, with no natural cracks or cavities. But right in the center of the dense rock, there was an extremely tiny... fissure.

Not a physical fissure in the rock.

It was a spatial fissure.

Li Yuan extended his Divine Sense toward the edge of the fissure with extreme caution.

The moment the tip of his Divine Sense touched the spatial distortion, an exceptionally strange force emanated from the fissure. It was neither repulsive nor attractive, but an unstable oscillation somewhere in between.

Li Yuan did not press forward recklessly.

He halted his Divine Sense three inches from the fissure’s edge, carefully observing the information coming from within.

There was space on the other side of the fissure.

It wasn’t large, but it definitely existed. His Divine Sense could faintly perceive a sealed stone chamber on the other side, within which lingered an extremely ancient residue of Spiritual Power. The attributes of the residue shared the same origin as the Profound Nether Sect’s system.

’This was likely the reason why Sun Shiyi had so bewilderingly vanished and just as bewilderingly reappeared all those years ago.’

’Thirty years ago, this spatial fissure was probably larger and more unstable. The old cultivator must have accidentally touched its edge while mining nearby, been sucked in by the unstable spatial forces, and then spat back out after some time.’

’But after thirty years, the fissure had shrunk to the thickness of a thumb.’

’With my current mastery of spatial power, forcing my way into a fissure of this size would be extremely risky. My Void Rending Slash is only at Minor Achievement, and while I’m proficient with the Teleportation Skill, both spatial Magic techniques are far from perfected.’

’It’s not time yet.’

Li Yuan recorded the spatial fissure’s precise coordinates, fluctuation frequency, and surrounding rock structure in his Sea of Consciousness, then carefully withdrew his Divine Sense.

He returned to the marketplace along the same route he came and turned his attention to another matter.

It was time to initiate the second round of the Three States trade route.

’The first run had nearly doubled the net profit, proving the viability of the trade route. The scale of the second run could be appropriately increased, and the types of goods could also be adjusted.’

Li Yuan first procured the initial batch of goods from the warehouses in the Mist Forest Marketplace and from Yuanming Studio.

After packing everything up, Li Yuan didn’t take the Teleportation Array directly. Instead, he first took a detour to the Yunyang Marketplace.

The trading district of the Yunyang Marketplace was far livelier than that of the Mist Forest Marketplace. Dozens of large shops lined the wide, stone-paved streets, offering everything from medicinal pills and Magical Artifacts to Spiritual Materials and Cultivation Technique jade slips. The Primordial Yang Sect’s own official stores occupied the most central locations, their bright red sect flags snapping in the wind.

Li Yuan purchased a batch of Fire Element ores and Metal Bars, which were in high demand in the Jingzhou region, from several Spiritual Materials shops. The procurement price in the Yunyang Marketplace was about ten percent cheaper than transferring goods from his own warehouses in the Mist Forest Marketplace, and the available quantity was also larger.

As he reached the end of the trading district, Li Yuan’s pace slowed.

At the entrance of a shop with a turquoise flag stood two young Cultivators dressed in pale blue and white robes.

Embroidered on the chests of their robes was a crest of turquoise-colored pool water.

The Bitan Sect.

’The Bitan Sect is one of the three major sects of Jingzhou, its influence concentrated in the state’s central and western regions. From various clues, Li Yuan had previously deduced that the righteous Golden Core Cultivator who regularly infiltrated Skeleton Ridge to set up surveillance Arrays very likely came from the central-western part of Jingzhou—the territory of either the Bitan Sect or the Cyan Rock Sect.’

’And now, disciples of the Bitan Sect had appeared in a marketplace directly under the Primordial Yang Sect’s control.’

Both disciples were at the Early-stage of Foundation Establishment and looked to be in their early twenties. They had a somewhat reserved demeanor, clearly not their first time in the Yunyang Marketplace, but not entirely familiar with it either. They were speaking in low voices with the shop’s Shopkeeper, seemingly inquiring about the stock of a certain type of goods.

Li Yuan didn’t approach, merely sweeping over them from a distance with the passive perception of his Dark Evil Insight.

Their auras were pure, with no trace of Demonic Qi or any abnormal fluctuations.

’On the surface, they just looked like two ordinary disciples sent out by their Sect on a procurement trip.’

’But the Bitan Sect’s appearance in Liangzhou at this particular time was, in itself, noteworthy.’

Li Yuan memorized their faces and Spiritual Power signatures but took no further action. He put away the supplies he had purchased in the Yunyang Marketplace and turned to leave.

As he walked out of the Yunyang Marketplace’s gates, twilight had already begun to fall.

The distant skyline was veiled by a thin layer of grayish-blue clouds.

With a flicker of movement, Li Yuan vanished into the twilight.