Li Tongya had finished attending the funeral and had changed out of his white robe when he realized that it was about time for the market at Moongaze Lake to open. He packed up the leather of demonic creatures and materials he had gathered in recent days and headed north.
Patrolling the reeds a few times, he had hoped to seize the moment and gather a wisp of River Pure Qi in the river. To his dismay, he was greeted by a dry, withered landscape, forcing him to leave… empty-handed and disheartened.
“After months of drought, the rivers have dried up, and the once vibrant reeds have turned yellow. There’s no chance of finding any River Pure Qi in the river,” he muttered to himself in disappointment.
Leaving the reeds behind, Li Tongya rode the wind toward Moongaze Lake. The waterline had receded about thirty miles, revealing fish carcasses covered in maggots and many small islands that had revealed themselves now that the water had gone.
With a wave of his sleeve, Li Tongya activated the hidden formation in the air which emitted a bright burst of silver light.
This time it was different. With just a sweep of his spiritual sense, he had managed to locate the large boat on the lake. He quickly descended and headed in its direction.
A young man with cultivation at the third stage of Embryonic Breathing Realm rushed out from the cabin of the boat almost instantly.
“My lord, are you heading to Moongaze Lake’s market?” he asked inquisitively.
“Yes,” Li Tongya replied as he found a seat for himself. Seeing only the young man who promptly served him a bowl of tea and no signs of the white-haired old man who used to pilot the boat years ago, Li Tongya asked, “I remember the old man who used to drive this boat more than ten years ago. Has there been a change of ownership?”
“That old man failed to break through to the Qi Cultivation Realm and died of old age ten years ago… none of his children possessed any spiritual orifice, so his eldest son exchanged all his spirit items for fields. They’re now a wealthy family in their hometown.”
Li Tongya sighed inwardly. He picked up the tea bowl but refrained from drinking, setting it down cautiously.
“What a shame,” he murmured.
“Indeed.” The young man lowered his gaze before quickly adding, “But the old man did live to be a hundred and eight years old—his longevity was the envy of all of us here on the boat!”
The young man observed Li Tongya quietly, who appeared to be only in his thirties but had already reached the Qi Cultivation Realm. He noticed the storage pouch and qi bottles tied to his waist, and the youth came to the conclusion that he was likely a descendant of a large family.
With a bitter smile, he said, “Senior… you may not be aware of this, but rogue cultivators like us mostly rely on a Grade One breathing technique of the Embryonic Breathing Realm. We can barely even condense a chakra in over ten years, hence it’s not uncommon for us to be stuck in the Embryonic Breathing Realm for a lifetime.”
The youth had worked on the lake for over a decade, encountering many Qi Cultivators who rarely bothered to engage in conversation. Li Tongya, however, with his focused demeanor and frequent nods, encouraged the youth to speak.
Taking this as his cue, the youth continued.
“Your talent is exceptional, Senior. Attaining the Qi Cultivation Realm at such a young age is remarkable! Rogue cultivators like us often live our entire lifetime with just a single technique of the Embryonic Breathing Realm in possession, unable to access techniques needed to draw talismans or refine pills… it’s a bitter reality.”
Upon hearing these words, Li Tongya’s mind immediately drifted to the Supreme Yin Breathing Meridian Nourishment Sutra at home.
I guess that cultivation method is worth more than the wealth of all the families in the entire Moongaze Lake combined! The cultivation speed seems to be at least ten times faster than ordinary techniques, not to mention the purity of the refined mana that far surpassed others.
Feigning ignorance, Li Tongya merely smiled.
“I wonder what grade of Embryonic Breathing Realm techniques the disciples from the sect are practicing…” he responded, leading the youth on.
The youth nodded enthusiastically in response as soon as the words left Li Tongya’s mouth. “I’ve been working on this lake for over a decade now and I’ve seen disciples of major sects who were as young as twenty and even the elderly at the first stage of the Embryonic Breathing Realm in their nineties! Yet, all I’ve heard is that the Azure Pond Sect’s Embryonic Breathing Realm technique is the best among all the sects… it’s a Grade Five technique, four times more effective than ordinary ones!”
“That’s truly remarkable!” Li Tongya exclaimed in amazement, then steered the conversation toward Mount Yue.
“I’ve heard that Mount Yue in the west is quite formidable!”
The youth nodded vigorously. “Indeed! I heard that the Great King from Mount Yue has reached the peak of the Qi Cultivation Realm! They’ve been targeting families under the governance of the Golden Tang Gate Sect on the west coast; three family heads of the Qi Cultivation Realm have already been killed. One can only imagine the significant losses those families have suffered…” he replied with a sad shake of his head as he spoke.
As Li Tongya listened, he noticed a few more people arriving on the boat, prompting the youth to reluctantly excuse himself to entertain the new patrons.
Li Tongya could not help but think to himself, That Jianixi is really powerful… I hope he dies soon so we can all sleep well at night.
Li Tongya listened to the conversation between the newcomers for a moment before feeling the boat jolting, realizing that they had arrived at the market.
Disembarking, he rented a stall using a Spirit Stone as the deposit and displayed an array of materials — which included the talismans Li Xiangping had acquired after killing the Old Daoist for sale.
Once the stall had been set up, he took out a wooden slip to fill up his time while waiting for customers to arrive.
Li Tongya had dedicated more than ten years to studying talismans by now, having honed his skills to the point where his success rate in drawing a talisman was one in ten.
While this could barely offset the cost of the talisman papers, it was still considered a loss if he were to factor in the expense of talisman ink. Determined to improve, he continued to practice in the hope that one day he could make a profit from his talismans.
Li Tongya glanced down and noticed the storage pouch and two qi bottles at his waist. After a few moments of consideration, he speculated that the boatman had probably identified him as a member of a prestigious family because of them.
To appear more inconspicuous, he wrapped the qi bottles in a piece of spirit cloth and tucked them into his chest pocket. Now without them, he looked like a convincing rogue cultivator.
Li Tongya came early this time, so there were still a lot of people shopping. Within two hours, he had nearly sold out of his goods and felt no inclination to wait around to sell off his last few items.
He closed his stall, retrieved the Spirit Stone he had deposited earlier, and paid ten jin of Spirit Rice as a rental fee.
“A profit of eleven Spirit Stones… That’s not bad.”
Li Tongya spent five of them on a Jade Sprout Pill. With the additional one that he had retrieved from the cave dwelling before, he decided to wait a few more months before attempting to break through to the fourth heavenly layer of the Qi Cultivation Realm.
Although the Jade Sprout Pills are effective, their toxic after-effects shouldn’t be underestimated. I must wait for a few more months until every trace of its after-effect has been detoxified before considering taking it again.
As he took a few steps, Li Tongya noticed a middle-aged female cultivator approaching. She seemed to have condensed the Jade Capital Chakra and attained the fifth stage of the Embryonic Breathing Realm.
Her appearance suggested that she was around the same age as Li Tongya, but she cupped her fist respectfully almost instantly as she spotted him.
“Senior! Do you still remember me?”
Li Tongya thought she looked quite familiar, but her name eluded him. He could only reciprocate the gesture as he racked his mind. “If I may I ask…” he began, awkwardly.
“Market at the Cloud Crowned Peak… the Ebony Bow?” the middle-aged female cultivator reminded him with a smile.
It was then that Li Tongya recalled the Ebony Bow he had purchased for Li Xiangping at the market located at the foot of Cloud Crowned Peak, where he had submitted the tributes to the sect. The middle-aged lady was only a young girl when he had purchased that bow.