Chapter 222 – Visiting the Arsenal of Arms Again (1/2)

The old man was actually quite surprised. Normal people would treasure a precious cultivation method that they had obtained to great extremes, such that they would not even show it to their wives, children, or good friends.

Li Qingshan had only obtained an incomplete manual worth a little over a hundred spiritual stones, yet the value of the complete version was at least ten times that much. His generosity was truly surprising and admirable!

However, Li Qingshan’s ambitions lay beyond the Nine Heavens. No matter how precious a cultivation method was, it was just a process to him. After taking this step, who knows how long the future journey awaiting him would still be.

The field of view determined the open-mindedness of a person.

Li Qingshan talked a little more in the bookstore with the old man. He learned the old man’s name was Sun Fubai.

Sun Fubai was knowledgeable, and he had travelled the world before. Li Qingshan felt that he had benefited greatly from their conversation.

In the heat of the conversation, Sun Fubai gave Li Qingshan a few more books. They were all binded paperbacks. The pages had already yellowed slightly, while the edges had even roughened.

Li Qingshan hesitated. Sun Fubai smiled. “Don’t worry, they’re not like that. They’re my favourite books and annals.”

Li Qingshan stopped worrying. He casually flipped to a page and discovered many additional notes in red in the margins. Clearly, they were books that Sun Fubai had regularly read. A book lover was giving away the books he usually read. That was quite a gift.

He said politely, “Thank you for your gift, uncle!”

Sun Fubai said, “The only thing young people nowadays think about are divine arts and secret manuals that can make them powerful overnight. They don’t know the true essence of books. I can see that you have a valiant and powerful character, with a bold and generous disposition, and you have quite the talent as a Qi Practitioner as well. You’ll definitely make a name for yourself in the cultivation world in the future. However, if you don’t know how to handle the affairs of human life, you’ll still be a brainless person under the control of others no matter how powerful you are. You are welcome to read these books carefully. You’ll definitely benefit tremendously.”

Li Qingshan said, “I heard that histories make people intelligent, while cultivation methods and secret manuals can only make people stronger. However, real books can turn cowards into the courageous, fools into the wise. Not a single cultivation method can rival this effect. This is true strength.”

Sun Fubai was delighted. “As long as you understand this.”

At the very centre of the town was a small, lonely building that stood three storeys tall. It did not neighbour any other stores.

A set of bead curtains covered the entrance. Every single bead was a pearl worth thousands among regular people, so it was rather wasteful to turn it into a set of bead curtains. And, because no one cleaned them, they had already yellowed.

Only the two gilded words—Miscellaneous Goods— on the blackboard continued to sparkle.

There were thousands of miscellaneous goods stores in the world. There was nothing surprising if a few dozen of them could be found in a large city. However, there was only a single store in this market for cultivators, and it was impossible for a second one to appear in this town.

The moment Li Qingshan lifted the curtain and stepped through the entrance, he felt like he had entered a different world. Before him was an unbelievably spacious foyer. The floor seemed to be sculpted from a single piece of marble, and it was shiny enough to reflect his appearance. The raucous sounds of the streets were completely blocked by the curtains.

A few elegant women dressed in palace wear sat at the tea table in the lobby, conversing quietly.

However, whenever they raised their voices slightly, it would end up echoing through the lobby. This place had also used a formation to expand the space here, but it was much more sophisticated than the inn.

The women in palace wear saw Li Qingshan. They looked at one another and came up with excuses, as if they were all rather reluctant.

In the end, a pretty woman stood up helplessly and dragged her palace wear over to receive him. “Are you looking to buy anything, fellow cultivator?” She had a thin layer of makeup on. Although her smile was resplendent, Li Qingshan could tell with a single glance that it all came from training, and it was unable to disguise the reluctance on her face.

The woman in palace wear was actually a third layer Qi Practitioner. Even though the puppet waiters that the Hundred Flavours restaurant used were flexible and clever, using Qi Practitioners to receive customers clearly seemed more extravagant.

This really was the very centre of the town, the main base of the school of Miscellany, after all.

Li Qingshan had learned a lot about the town from Sun Fubai. This place was called the Town of Flowing Clouds. It was not fixed to one location. Instead, it would constantly migrate to places where Qi Practitioners gathered in larger numbers.

It was like a market among regular people, but it would last for much longer. It had chosen the Green Vine mountain this time because the Herb Gathering ceremony of the three mountains was drawing near, which had attracted many Qi Practitioners prepared to venture underground.

Before the ceremony, there would be a great demand for talismans and spiritual artifacts that could increase strength, while after the ceremony, Qi Practitioners would bring back various mineral deposits and spiritual herbs, beginning a whole new wave.