Life as a Rogue Cultivator

Chapter 313: Luofu Mountain Marketplace

Feilongzi rolled the spirit stones and bits of gold and silver between his fingers for a while. Then he suddenly stopped, looking satisfied, and swept everything into his storage artifact. Liu Xiaolou did not even catch a glimpse of what kind of storage item it was.Still, Liu Xiaolou couldn’t shake a strange sense of loss. He found himself wondering:

Likewise, Liu Xiaolou's own storage artifact was always worn beneath the inner layer of his underpants. Aside from Sister Qing, almost no one could see it.

What he'd tucked away in his Qiankun Pouch was a Lingxi Inkstone, a high-grade artifact used by Foundation Establishment disciples of the Qingyuan Sect. Like Feilongzi had said, it was worth at least 200 spirit stones. Liu Xiaolou had no intention of selling it. With a high-grade artifact anchoring things, the Sanxuan sECT would have a much stronger foundation.

As for the pair of Judge’s Pens used by that fellow Feng Yuanfa, they could not be taken as spoils of battle. They were his life-bound artifact, nurtured within his Qi Sea. Unless you killed him, there was no way to take them.

Besides the Lingxi Inkstone, there were also 12 spirit stones and three bottles of ordinary pills. This time there were no pill formulas tucked inside the bottles.

The real surprise, though, was in Feng Yuanfa’s satchel. There was a stick of jet-black ink, radiating dense spiritual energy. It was clearly meant to be used with the Lingxi Inkstone. Just that single ink stick was probably worth no less than 30 spirit stones.

All in all, whatever Feilongzi had really been after, and whether or not he had gotten it in the end, he had still traded items worth three times as much with Liu Xiaolou. It amounted to a kind of indirect compensation. On top of that, everything carried by the four Qingyuan Sect outer disciples and stewards who had been with Feng Yuanfa was tacitly acknowledged as belonging to Liu Xiaolou as well.

With the deal done, the tension between t

he two eased even further. Feilongzi asked, “I never would have guessed that Brother Li Mu was a formation master. When we joined forces just now to face the enemy, I could already feel how formidable it was. I only wonder, how might I properly send an invitation to Brother Li Mu?”

“A Hero Post?” Liu Xiaolou went blank for a second. It had been a long time since he had heard that term.

Fei Longzi burst out laughing at once. “So we’re walking the same path after all. Hahaha…”

And he was right. Among inner disciples of the orthodox sects, who else would be doing this sort of thing?

Liu Xiaolou could not help letting his imagination run a little. An “invitation” at the Foundation Establishment level... just what kind of business would that be?

It was genuinely something to look forward to.

In the end, Liu Xiaolou left an address where he could receive invitations. The public bulletin archway at the Tianmu Mountain market. He told Feilongzi that if there was anything to pass along, he could leave a message on the bulletin board there. Liu Xiaolou stopped by the Tianmu Mountain market from time to time anyway, so he would simply check it when he was in the area.

Feilongzi then handed him a piece of transparent green jade. The jade carried no spiritual energy of its own, but if you looked at written notices through it, you could see messages that had been hidden.

“As long as you see a post signed with an arrow, you’ll know it’s from me,” Feilongzi said. “Use this jade to look at it, and you’ll be able to read the real message.” He pulled out a sample notice and showed it to Liu Xiaolou.

Liu Xiaolou tried it for himself and found it worked exactly as described. He nodded in approval. “That’s clever.”

He also added a reminder. He was a wanderer with no fixed abode; he couldn't just hang around Tianmu market waiting for news. It'd be best to get any message to him at least a month in advance, or he'd likely miss it altogether.

Having to send the message a month in advance ruled out more than half of the potential deals they could work together on. Feilongzi couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

After all, he truly had high hopes for working with “Brother Li Mu.” A Foundation Establishment cultivator among rogue cultivator was already rare enough, cutting the pool of potential partners by ninety percent. Of the remaining ten percent, you had to strike out at least half again, those who could not carry out raids without moral qualms. In the end, there were very few people who could actually accept such an invitation.

The two parted ways there. Feilongzi headed back north, while Liu Xiaolou continued south.

After another half day on the road, the route ahead felt familiar. He had rejoined the same road he had once taken toward Mount Luofu years ago. Thinking back on those days, he couldn’t help but feel a wave of nostalgia.

He skirted halfway around Mount Luofu, swinging over to the southern side at Fushan. There, he gazed at the cluster of peaks for a moment, lost in thought, before pressing on southward. Asking around along the way, he finally reached Fengshan Hollow.

Luofu market was located right there in Fengshan Hollow.

As a market run by one of the world’s ten great sects, it was naturally enormous. At first glance, it did not seem much smaller than Chicheng Mountain Market, which was known as the largest market in the world. With stalls stretching as far as the eye could see, it was clearly far bigger than either Tianmu Market or Yueyang Market.

Liu Xiaolou wandered leisurely through the market, growing fonder of it by the minute. He soon realized what made Luofu Mountain's market stand out. It was packed with countless little street stalls and vendors with no proper storefronts at all. Just rows upon rows of them lining the streets, too many to even count.

It looked chaotic and crowded, but for togue cultivators it was incredibly convenient. Anyone could come here, pick an empty spot, set up a stall, and once they were done selling, simply melt back into the crowd as an ordinary shopper.

After browsing for three days, he still had not seen anyone selling cultivation manuals or secret techniques. It seemed that, just like everywhere else, if you wanted that sort of thing, you had to look for it in the black market.

Following the method he'd learned from Green Bamboo, Liu Xiaolou made his way to a tea stall at the eastern end of the market. He spent fifty taels of silver on a packet of top-grade Luofu Spring tea, and just like that, he earned the right to enter the black market.

Leaving the market behind, he took a detour around the massive mountain to the northwest, entered a quiet, secluded valley, and arrived at the edge of a pool. A stone stele stood by the water, carved with two characters: “Xuanbi.”

The area around Xuanbi Pool was almost deserted. There were only a few people who looked like local villagers, sitting by the water and fishing.

Liu Xiaolou walked over, opened the packet of tea, and asked to borrow some water so he could brew it. Without waiting for the water to boil, he threw on the straw raincoat the villagers handed him, slipped on the wooden mask. Following their directions, he leaped into the pool.

With that leap, water splashed up in a huge spray. Liu Xiaolou felt himself sinking fast into the pool, but thanks to the waterproof raincoat he was wearing, not a drop of water soaked him.

In no more than a breath or two, he suddenly found himself out of the pool, standing on a stone platform.

The platform had no roof. Three sides were guarded by white jade railings. And the fourth opened onto a set of pale jade steps leading downward. The stairs wound around three turns before descending into a deep valley below.

The deep valley was shrouded by thick, dense forest, making it hard to see clearly. But someone was already strolling out from the valley below, climbing the steps.

Looking up, he saw that about ten feet overhead was a pool of deep, emerald-green water, covering half the sky. Ripples occasionally spread across its surface.

As he glanced around, the person who had been climbing the steps reached the platform and was now standing right beside him. Like Liu Xiaolou, he was draped in a rain cape and wearing a wooden mask, his real face completely hidden. Their eyes met briefly, just a passing exchange of glances. Then the stranger leaped upward. When he reached a height of more than ten feet, he were caught by the rippling water above and plunged straight into it.

So that was the way out...

Liu Xiaolou had been to plenty of black markets, but this one was by far the most surprising. The methods of the Luofu Sect were truly something else!

He followed the steps down, slowly making his way into the deep valley. Thick branches and leaves overhead blocked out most of the light, making everything feel dim and shadowy. Behind thick old trees, jumbled rocks, and earthen slopes, cultivators dressed just like him were tucked away everywhere. Some whispered in pairs, some scanned their surroundings, some sat with eyes closed in quiet meditation, and others argued heatedly.

Aside from differences in scale, black markets everywhere tended to look the same. There were no fewer cultivators here than at the Chicheng Mountain black market. What this place lacked, perhaps, was the clear organization found at Chicheng Mountain. Magical artifacts, cultivation manuals, spirit pills, rare materials, formation techniques, and everything else were all mixed together. If you wanted something, you had to go around asking one person at a time.