Chapter 87 - 82: Fu Zhizhou’s Departure
"It’s nothing."
"Fellow Daoist Hu, there’s no need for such formality."
Wei Tu smiled and shook his head, signaling for Hu Yao not to mind.
At the same time, he circulated his Cultivation Technique to suppress the "discomfort" that desire had stirred within him.
He was in the prime of his life, and an Innate Martial Artist who had promoted using External Cultivation Techniques at that. His hot-blooded vitality was far greater than that of Qi Cultivators and Inner Family Innate masters of the same rank.
By then, Hu Yao had already gotten dressed again. She had thrown on a light red outer coat, covering herself up much more than before.
Hu Yao tied her sash, her gaze habitually flicking down toward Wei Tu’s lower body. She teased, "Has Fellow Daoist Wei grown tired of me? There’s a new Female Cultivator next door. No one’s touched her yet, and she’s a real beauty."
"Not at all, not at all." Wei Tu gave a polite but noncommittal reply.
’Having spent a lot of time with Hu Yao, he knew that Secret Prostitutes like her were ashamed of their profession and desperate for validation from their regulars.’
The two of them left the room, one after the other.
Hu Yao locked the door, then placed her left hand on her hip and pointed to the shack next door, which had a small wooden plaque with the character for "Gong" on it. Her tone was a bit sour. "Fellow Daoist Wei, that’s the pure little thing’s room. If you’re interested, I can pull some strings, play matchmaker for you."
Hearing this, Wei Tu continued with his noncommittal responses.
He could practically smell the sourness in her words from seven or eight paces away; he wasn’t so dense as to argue with her.
Perhaps because Hu Yao’s words were a little too harsh, the door of the shack with the "Gong" plaque was pushed open from the inside.
A beautiful Female Cultivator looked out in their direction, frowning slightly.
’No wonder Fellow Daoist Hu is targeting her!’
After seeing the Female Cultivator Gong’s face, Wei Tu thought to himself, ’No wonder, no wonder.’
Under the moonlight, the Female Cultivator Gong wore a veiled conical hat, her long dress reaching her shoes.
Based on her aura alone, she outshone Hu Yao, who had been knocking around the Shantytown for a long time.
Looking at her face, her features were picturesque, with a beauty mark like a teardrop at the corner of her eye that added to her allure.
Seeing the Female Cultivator Gong looking over, Hu Yao and Wei Tu felt it was awkward to linger. They quickly brought up a random topic and walked away.
On the way, Hu Yao glanced at Wei Tu, a half-smile on her face. "What? Is Fellow Daoist Wei smitten?"
"My offer still stands. If you really want to have her, I can go be your advocate,"
she probed.
"Fellow Daoist Hu, you’re overthinking it."
This time, however, Wei Tu broke character and didn’t give her another noncommittal answer. He said seriously, "A woman like that is not someone a low-level Cultivator like me can even think about... There must be a reason she’s ended up here... I’m trying to avoid her, not get involved."
Lust is a dagger hanging over one’s head.
Without enough strength, getting rashly involved with such stunning women... even ten lives wouldn’t be enough to spare.
Incomparably beautiful women like the Female Cultivator Gong could only be possessed by the strong. Wei Tu had understood this principle even back when he was a mortal.
For Independent Cultivators on Danqiu Mountain to reach Foundation Establishment, aside from the three legitimate paths, there was one illegitimate one: becoming a Tribulation Cultivator!
Therefore, while Danqiu Mountain seemed peaceful, it was actually turbulent beneath the surface, rife with hidden slaughter.
For the sake of longevity on the Immortal Dao—
he had to do everything in his power to avoid "uncontrollable" risks like the Female Cultivator Gong, lest he meet with disaster and bring about his own death.
"You are cautious, Fellow Daoist Wei." Hearing this, Hu Yao dropped her teasing tone. She nodded seriously and replied.
After that, Hu Yao fell silent and quietly led the way, bringing Wei Tu to a secluded shack some distance from the small market.
"Don’t be impatient, Fellow Daoist Wei. Just wait here for a while."
Inside the shack, Hu Yao sat with her eyes closed in meditation. Her aura was completely different from usual. She didn’t look like a prostitute selling smiles, but rather an Ascetic focused wholeheartedly on Cultivation.
Wei Tu was slightly taken aback by the sight—he hadn’t expected Hu Yao to have such a hidden side to her.
「After meditating for several hours.」
Cultivators began to trickle into the shack.
Among them, Wei Tu saw a "familiar face"—the skinny old man, the stall owner he had met at the Talisman House.
「An hour later.」
The shack was packed to the brim with over a dozen people.
"This is Fellow Daoist Wei." Hu Yao spoke up at the right moment, introducing Wei Tu’s background and identity to the Cultivators in the shack.
She said, "Fellow Daoist Wei has a clean background. I have personally vouched for his character, personality, and potential. He can join our ’Inner Collection.’"
Inner Collection?
Hearing this term, and considering the people gathered in the shack, understanding dawned on Wei Tu.
The "Inner Collection" must be a private, internal trading meet for the more capable "stall owners" of the small market.
It was probably similar to the Cultivation Alliance he had formed with Kou Liang and the others.
People will always seek advantages, avoid harm, and band together for warmth.
Cultivators were no exception.
"What skill does Fellow Daoist Wei possess to be joining the Inner Collection?" The skinny old man from the Talisman House stall recognized Wei Tu and snorted, his tone slightly hostile.
He’d met Cultivators who toyed with him at the market like Wei Tu before, but Wei Tu was the first to do so and then join the "Inner Collection" afterward.
"Fellow Daoist Wei can already draw a Basic Talisman—the Earth Spike Talisman."
"And with a success rate of around forty percent!"
Hu Yao smiled, revealing Wei Tu’s current progress in the Talisman Dao.
Originally, she had no intention of bringing Wei Tu into the "Inner Collection." She had only wanted to act as a middleman, connecting both sides to buy and sell, earning some Spirit Stones while calling in favors.
But she never expected Wei Tu’s attainments in the Talisman Dao to far exceed her expectations—he could already successfully draw the Earth Spike Talisman.
Although the "Earth Spike Talisman" was only a Basic Talisman, within the Shantytown, Wei Tu was worthy of the title "Talisman Master," putting him on the same level as that "Alchemist Wang."
’So this is why Hu Yao invited me to join the Inner Collection.’
Hearing this, Wei Tu felt a sense of relief.
Before the "small market" began, he had asked Hu Yao if he could use "Earth Spike Talismans" as collateral to buy Talisman Paper and Spirit Ink.
He had asked her this to see if she could find a sales channel for him.
He hadn’t expected it to become the opportunity for Hu Yao to bring him into the Shantytown’s "Inner Collection."
"A Talisman Master?" After hearing Hu Yao’s explanation, the skinny old man glanced at Wei Tu, his tone surprised.
"This old man is Che Chulong. Talisman Master Wei, if you need to buy anything in the future, I’ll give you a thirty percent discount on everything."
Che Chulong proactively lowered his price, acting much more warmly than when Wei Tu had met him in the Talisman House.
"Thirty percent off?"
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist Che."
"If I need anything, I’ll be sure to find you and give you my business."
With Hu Yao’s forty-percent-off price as his baseline, Wei Tu didn’t fall for Che Chulong’s trick so easily. He just smiled and gave a casual reply.
’The relationships between Cultivators in the Inner Collection also varied in closeness. He couldn’t necessarily get the same goods at a forty percent discount that Hu Yao could.’
Therefore, when it came to buying Talisman Paper and Spirit Ink, he didn’t plan on immediately abandoning Hu Yao to find another channel himself.
’This kid is pretty sharp.’
Che Chulong clicked his tongue and thought, ’What a shame.’
A Talisman Master wasn’t a one-time customer, but a stable source of clients who could provide a steady stream of business.
But his offer to the other two Talisman Masters in the Inner Collection was also a thirty percent discount, and he couldn’t just abandon them for Wei Tu’s sake.
Thinking of this, his gaze shifted to two Cultivators sitting in the corner of the shack.
One was a gray-robed Male Cultivator, and the other was a Red-Robed Female Cultivator.
Upon hearing that Wei Tu was also a Talisman Master, the Red-Robed Female Cultivator immediately stood up and asked in a clear voice, "Fellow Daoist Wei, what kind of Spirit Root do you have? When we sell Spirit Talismans in the future, we should differentiate our products so we don’t become rivals."
A Talisman Master’s ability to draw an Immortal Talisman was related to their own Spirit Root attribute and the Cultivation Technique they practiced.
Low-Level Talisman Masters generally found it difficult to venture into Spirit Talismans outside their own Spirit Root’s attribute.
For example, for a Talisman Master with a Water Spirit Root who practiced a Water Attribute Technique, trying to draw a Fire Attribute Spirit Talisman would be ten or even a hundred times more difficult than drawing a Water Attribute Spirit Talisman of the same Level.
"Let’s discuss this after the Inner Collection is over. Please wait a moment, Fellow Daoist."
Wei Tu considered for a moment before speaking.
A Spirit Root’s attribute was considered a Cultivator’s secret, and he was naturally unwilling to announce it to everyone in the Inner Collection.
Hearing this, the Red-Robed Female Cultivator realized her slip of the tongue. She apologized and sat back down.
After this short interlude, the Cultivators began to trade, seeking out familiar faces to exchange for the Spiritual Objects and Spiritual Materials they needed.
Soon, the Inner Collection dispersed.
Wei Tu met with the two other Talisman Masters from the Inner Collection. The three of them spoke for a moment and decided on their respective areas of focus for the future.
"These are the Earth Spike Talismans I have on hand. I hope Fellow Daoist Hu can help me exchange them for the corresponding Talisman Paper and Spirit Ink."
Outside the shack, Wei Tu handed over all the Earth Spike Talismans he had accumulated to Hu Yao.
If he felt that Hu Yao’s channel wasn’t working out in the future, he could just switch. But for the first transaction, he absolutely could not bypass Hu Yao and go it alone.
This was a matter of principle in business.
"I knew I wasn’t wrong about you, Fellow Daoist Wei." Hu Yao chuckled as she accepted the Earth Spike Talismans, praising him.
...
「A few days later.」
The small market ended.
In Wei Tu’s shack, over ten Earth Spike Talismans were gone, but he now had two packs of Talisman Paper and four taels of Spirit Ink.
’The market price for an Earth Spike Talisman is about five for one Spirit Stone...’
’One pack of Talisman Paper has twenty sheets. With a forty percent success rate, I can draw eight Earth Spike Talismans.’
’Not counting the consumption of the Talisman Pen and Spirit Ink.’
’For every pack of Talisman Paper I use up, I can profit by three Earth Spike Talismans.’
’If I ignore the effect Talisman Painting has on my Cultivation, I can use up two packs of Talisman Paper in a month... which means my monthly profit is roughly one Spirit Stone.’
’This is way more profitable than farming a Spirit Field.’
Wei Tu felt a surge of excitement after doing some simple calculations.
Besides cultivating diligently, there were other ways to speed up the formation of his "Thick Earth Body."
The simplest of these methods... was to buy Elixirs.
In the shops of the Marketplace, there was an Elixir called the "Earth Essence Pill" that could help him accelerate the formation of his "Thick Earth Body."
But the Earth Essence Pill was not cheap.
A single pill cost thirty-two Spirit Stones.
’In a few more years, once my reputation as a Talisman Master spreads and becomes widely known, it won’t be too late to buy this Elixir.’
Wei Tu made his decision.
Thinking of this, Wei Tu wasted no more time and continued his Talisman Painting, striving to achieve mastery over the "Earth Spike Talisman" as soon as possible.
Unlike other Spirit Talismans, the Earth Spike Talisman didn’t risk saturating the market. It had a miraculous effect on farming Spirit Fields, making it a necessity in the Danqiu Mountain Marketplace.
Therefore, Wei Tu didn’t need to choose other Immortal Talismans to practice just for the sake of making money.
For the sake of their success rate, most Talisman Masters basically limited themselves to drawing only a few types of Spirit Talismans, within a range of several to a dozen or so.
「In the following six months.」
Wei Tu’s Talisman Skill improved steadily. His progress with the "Earth Spike Talisman" increased from the previous 42% to 51%.
While painting talismans, Wei Tu had a few flashes of inspiration, and the Earth Spike Talismans he produced reached the "High-Quality" grade.
However, to avoid drawing attention to himself, Wei Tu didn’t tell anyone that he had created "High-Quality" Earth Spike Talismans.
He planned to wait until he reached the Middle-Stage Qi Cultivation before revealing a corresponding increase in his Talisman Dao talent to the outside world.
"Third Brother."
On this day, Fu Zhizhou knocked on his door again.
But unlike before, this time Fu Zhizhou didn’t come to Wei Tu’s shack alone; he was accompanied by another Male Cultivator.
This Male Cultivator’s name was "Helian Xiong." Wei Tu recognized him as the Beast House stall owner who had been chatting so amiably with Fu Zhizhou at the last small market.
"Fourth Brother, have you decided?"
"Are you really going to become an Assassin?"
Hearing Fu Zhizhou come to say his goodbyes was no surprise to Wei Tu. He sighed softly, looked at Fu Zhizhou intently, and asked.