Chapter 215 - 131: Fortuitous Encounter
Then,
Gu Yun spoke.
"Fellow Daoist, your aura is stable and your foundation is solid.
I’m certain you have a promising future ahead of you."
A smile touched the stall owner’s lips.
To be praised by someone he held in such high regard sent ripples through his weathered heart, which was usually as calm as a still lake.
He was visibly pleased.
"Thank you for the praise, Senior Brother!"
The stall owner said joyfully, giving a cupped-fist salute.
Gu Yun offered a faint smile before getting back to business. "That said, what’s the price for this Jade Tripod?"
The stall owner chuckled. "The Jade Tripod is merely an Upper Grade Magical Artifact. Since you need it, Senior Brother, please, take it as a gift!"
’In his eyes, this Ancient Jade Tripod was just an Upper Grade Magical Artifact, not worth many Spirit Stones. Giving it to a prodigy he’d long admired served two purposes. First, it would simply make him feel good—a sense of accomplishment. Second, it was like putting Gu Yun in his debt. That favor might prove useful one day.’
"No, absolutely not."
"How about this?
I have three True Spirit Pills here. They’re quite beneficial for cultivating at the True Martial Realm Early Stage. Consider them payment for the Elixir Tripod."
With a wave of his hand, a jade bottle emerged from Gu Yun’s Storage Ring. Inside, three elixirs shimmered with a misty glow. The bottle hovered in mid-air for a moment before drifting to a stop before the stall owner.
Three True Spirit Pills.
For a Cultivator in the True Martial Realm Early Stage, they could be enough to advance by one or even two Small Realms.
To the stall owner, a Cultivator at the True Martial Realm Third Layer Early Stage, this was an incredibly tempting offer!
The Spirit Stones he could get from selling them would far exceed the value of what he had called a mere Upper Grade Magical Artifact.
However,
the True Spirit Pills had a negligible effect on Gu Yun’s current Cultivation—they were practically useless to him.
They were simply leftovers from his earlier training.
Selling them would only net a few thousand Low Grade Spirit Stones, and Gu Yun wasn’t desperate enough to bother.
So, the Elixirs had just been sitting in his Space Storage Ring.
He was genuinely pleased to run into a fellow Sect disciple who respected him so much, and giving them away was an easy decision.
"Ah, Senior Brother, this!
This... How can I possibly accept this?"
Those were his words,
but his eyes couldn’t help darting toward the True Spirit Pills again and again.
He wanted to accept them, but he felt he couldn’t.
The True Spirit Pills were deeply tempting, and though he wanted to refuse, he couldn’t bear to.
This damnable conflict was written all over his face.
However,
a moment later, an immense, invisible force pressed the exquisite jade bottle with its three True Spirit Pills into the stall owner’s hands, leaving him no room to refuse.
The gesture left the stall owner feeling a little embarrassed.
Then, an idea suddenly struck him.
He began frantically rummaging through his Storage Ring, as if searching for a priceless treasure.
Soon, the stall owner pulled a palm-sized, broken shard of iron from his Storage Ring. It was a deep, dark black, and it seemed to have weathered the long passage of time.
On the surface, the fragment appeared unremarkable, possessing none of the usual signs of a treasure. Its only distinguishing feature was an ancient, weathered aura that set it apart from common scrap metal.
"Thank you, Senior Brother Gu, for gifting me such incredibly expensive True Spirit Pills.
I truly couldn’t bring myself to part with them, so I must shamelessly accept."
"However, the Upper Grade Magical Artifact, this Jade Tripod, is nowhere near as valuable as three True Spirit Pills.
So, please, take this as well. It was found together with the tripod."
The stall owner handed the dark iron fragment to Gu Yun,
a hint of shame in his eyes.
’It wasn’t as if he hadn’t studied the iron fragment that came with the Jade Tripod. He’d examined it time and time again but could never figure out its purpose. Since it was useless to him, he might as well give it away.’
Afterward,
the two chatted for a while.
Gu Yun finally learned the name of the cultivator with the handlebar mustache:
Ji Ba.
’That name...’
Gu Yun had to fight to keep a straight face.
Outwardly, however, he remained perfectly composed,
continuing to chat and laugh with the man.
Ji Ba,
had originally been a farmer.
He had even been a monk in the mortal world for a time,
before breaking his vows and being expelled from his temple.
After that, a stroke of good fortune led him to some opportunities,
and by a twist of fate, he joined the Outer Sect of the Profound Celestial Sect.
He struggled and clawed his way up, working desperately hard,
until, at the age of seventy or eighty, he finally broke through to the True Martial Realm and entered the Inner Sect.
Ji Ba was just one of thousands of unremarkable, ordinary Inner Sect Disciples.
Perhaps he too once possessed the fire and ambition of youth,
dreaming that one day he would reach the very pinnacle and become a supreme expert capable of suppressing the heavens and the earth.
But after many years, he had come to understand a simple truth: the ones who reach the summit are few and far between.
He was merely one of the countless ordinary people on the long road of Cultivation.
In a mortal city, he might be revered as an Immortal,
but that was not the life he truly wanted...
Ji Ba’s sharp gaze followed the direction Gu Yun had just departed.
He sighed wistfully.
"A monstrous talent like Senior Brother Gu... If only he had a beautiful woman by his side, things would be perfect..."
By now, Gu Yun had already left the Marketplace.
He transformed into a streak of thunder, racing above the white clouds and crossing dozens of miles in a single breath.
From a distance, he looked like a bolt of lightning tearing across the sky, gone in a flash!
...
「At the same time.」
On Celestial Thunder Dao Peak, within a courtyard pavilion suffused with rich Spiritual Qi, flowers bloomed in abundance, creating a scene like a paradise.
In the center of the courtyard stood a woman in a long white dress that clung to her exquisite figure. Her aura was otherworldly, like a lotus flower rising from the mud, utterly pure and unstained.