Vessel of Worlds

Andy flew to within a dozen zhang of the big man and transmitted: "Thank you for waiting!"

"Fellow Cultivator Zhao, you said you wanted to make a deal that benefits us both. What exactly did you mean? Surely you're not offering to sell those flying needles? Even if you were willing, I couldn't afford that many!" the big man transmitted back, puzzled.

"Ha, you flatter me. Those needles are my only means of protecting my life—I certainly won't part with them. But you have something that would be quite useful to me, and I'm willing to pay for it," Andy replied with a smile.

"What thing? I'm not selling the Wave-Rolling Halberd!" The big man angled his body slightly as he spoke, settling into a guarded stance—clearly worried Andy might simply take what he wanted by force.

Never mind that the man was a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator—even against a Qi Condensation cultivator, Andy wouldn't have dared openly violate West Star Island's rules by killing for treasure on the island itself. The man's wariness left Andy momentarily at a loss for words.

He transmitted again: "No need for alarm. I'm talking about Luojia Island. You had your eye on it—there must be some secret on that island. But Luojia Island is my territory now. Whatever's there, I'll find it sooner or later. If you simply tell me outright, I'll pay you a sum of spirit stones, and we both walk away happy. What do you say?"

The big man's expression turned thoughtful. "Let me consider it."

"No hurry. Take your time," Andy said, smiling.

After a moment, the big man's brow relaxed. "All right. It's not something I could take away with me anyway, so you might as well have it. But you pay me two hundred spirit stones first. I, Xun San, give you my word: the thing is worth far more than that, and without my telling you, you'd have a hard time finding it on your own."

"Done. I trust you. Here are two hundred spirit stones—please count them." Andy agreed without hesitation and tossed the big man two mid-grade spirit stones.

Seeing mid-grade stones come flying his way, the big man brightened further. He laughed heartily and transmitted: "I stumbled on it purely by chance. Within Luojia Island's rather modest Luojia Mountain spirit vein, there's a tiny Spirit Eye Spring. Small as it is, meditating beside that spring is about as good as sitting on an ordinary high-grade spirit vein. And spirit eye objects have certain other uses beyond their rich spiritual energy. Well? Not a bad bargain, is it?" He then told Andy the spring's precise location.

So-called spirit eye objects were treasures or sites that gathered vast amounts of spiritual energy, making the density around them far higher than the surrounding area. The common varieties were Spirit Eye Springs, Spirit Eye Trees, and Spirit Eye Rocks; rarer and finer still were Spirit Eye Jade and Spirit Eye Pearls.

Luojia Mountain held only a low-grade spirit vein with unremarkable energy density, but around this Spirit Eye Spring, the concentration of spiritual energy rivaled a high-grade vein.

"Well hidden indeed. Thank you for telling me." After hearing the big man's transmission, Andy felt the two hundred spirit stones had been well spent. Searching on his own, he might not have discovered the spring even after a year or more.

Having parted ways with the big man—each satisfied with his gains—Andy didn't fly straight to Luojia Island. Instead, he returned to the West Star Island market.

He needed to buy formation discs and other formation equipment. The set issued by the Great Void Sect offered protection far too weak to be of any real use. The way he saw it, if he was going to spend years on that island meditating, refining pills, and crafting artifacts, he needed at least a few formation restrictions capable of withstanding attacks at the mid-stage Foundation Establishment level. Otherwise, how could he ever cultivate in peace?

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The Mystic Change Pavilion was a West Star Island shop specializing in formation flags and formation discs of every kind. It had stood on the island for over a thousand years, and its reputation had spread to several neighboring major islands. According to Xiao Ye, the shop's owner was a rare Core Formation grandmaster of formations who had not only inherited his family's formation arts, passed down through generations, but had achieved his own breakthroughs after centuries of painstaking study—adapting certain terrifyingly powerful and immensely complex ancient grand formations into simplified versions that could be easily deployed with a few flags and discs, while retaining a substantial portion of the originals' might. As a result, some of the formations sold in this shop were no weaker than the sect-guarding formations of small and mid-sized sects.

Andy stepped into the Mystic Change Pavilion and was immediately drawn to the dazzling array of formation flags, discs, jade pearls, and crystals covering the counters. But when it came to formations, he was completely ignorant—he could see the various elemental lights flickering across the treasures, yet had no way of judging what any of them did.

"Xu Ying greets you, Senior! Are you looking to purchase a simplified formation? Our shop carries formations for every purpose—offense, defense, illusion, and more. What type does Senior have in mind? My cultivation is still shallow, but I know a little about formations and can help you select a few." A young woman in a green dress offered Andy a graceful curtsy and a sweet smile. Her features were delicate and finely drawn, with a trace of girlish innocence between her brows—the very picture of a well-bred young lady from a modest home. There was something immediately approachable about her that invited goodwill.

Andy studied the girl for a moment, then said with a smile: "I'd like to buy several defensive formations for guarding my cave dwelling. The stronger the better—ideally something that could keep even late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators out."

"A formation even late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators can't break? That would be the most powerful class of Foundation Establishment formation. Our shop does carry a few, but the crafting materials are precious and the refining methods extraordinarily complex and difficult, so the prices are far from cheap." The girl smiled winningly, neither servile nor presumptuous.

"As long as the formation serves, the price is negotiable." Andy understood well enough that a defensive formation of such power—even one with no offensive capability—would never come cheap. But for the security of his dwelling, the expense was a risk he had to take. Better that than spending every day in his own home on edge, not daring to meditate with high-grade spirit stones.

The girl brightened and dipped into another small curtsy. "In that case, please have a seat and wait a moment, Senior. A formation of that class—the price isn't something Xiao Ying can decide. I'll ask our Young Mistress to come and set it."

With that, she stepped lightly into the inner room behind the counter. The inner room was clearly protected by some subtle restriction: when Andy instinctively extended his spiritual sense, he found it could only roam within this front hall. The moment it tried to probe the inner room or the upper floors, a faint barrier blocked it completely.

The barrier was neither fierce nor domineering—it merely obstructed his spiritual sense without harming it in the least. And the elusive, fine-drawn quality of it, there and yet almost not, struck Andy as profoundly subtle and unfathomable. His confidence in the Mystic Change Pavilion rose another notch.

He had been seated only a short while when the green-dressed girl called Xiao Ying returned, leading a tall, slender woman dressed all in white, her face veiled in white gauze.

The spiritual energy fluctuations around this woman were far stronger than Xiao Ying's—she was, remarkably, an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The white-clad woman offered Andy a light bow. "Greetings, fellow cultivator."

It was the most ordinary of greetings, only a few words long—but her voice was so lovely that Andy warmed to her the instant he heard it.

He had already risen to his feet, and he bowed in return. "Greetings, Fairy."

"Forgive my presumption, but may I ask your honored surname? Have you only recently arrived on our West Star Island, or have you been cultivating here in seclusion? I've never seen you before." Her voice was clear and melodious, so gentle it put one entirely at ease.

Andy smiled. "My surname is Zhao, and I did indeed arrive recently. It's no surprise the Fairy hasn't seen me before."

"Fellow Cultivator Zhao, then. Xiao Ying tells me you wish to purchase Foundation Establishment formations with the strongest possible defensive power." The white-clad woman showed no inclination toward further small talk, moving straight to business.

"That's right. I need a few good formations to guard my cave dwelling—so that petty thieves don't strip it bare while I'm away," Andy said with a nod.