Time does not stay, like a white colt flashing past a crack; in the blink of an eye, ten days had passed.

The spiritual Qi from the spirit vein in Cloud City was tightly locked within Tianyun Garden. The place where Gu An lived had thin spiritual Qi, making cultivation ineffective, so he did not force it.

During these ten days, Gu An spent his nights refining the Mind-Bewildering Bell and his days listening to music and strolling around Cloud City, passing the days in rare ease.

Watching flowers bloom and fall before the courtyard, idly watching clouds gather and scatter beyond the sky-this kind of life was exactly what Gu An had fantasized about in his previous life.

Although Gu An had been relaxed these past few days, his cultivation had not fallen behind at all.

After all, the main source of spiritual power growth still depended on the Purple Cloud Goose. Every day at noon, it would eat four Black Spirit Fish on time, giving Gu An four spiritual qi clusters in return, causing his cultivation to soar steadily.

It gave Gu An the joyful feeling of a farmer who had toiled for a year and finally reaped a bountiful wheat harvest!

[One of your Black Spirit Fish has died of old age, returning a spiritual qi cluster to you!]

[One of your Black Spirit Fish has died of old age, returning a spiritual qi cluster to you!]

[One of your Black Spirit Fish has died of old age, returning a spiritual qi cluster to you!]

As the last three sounds rang out, the fifty-odd spirit fish had been consumed in half a month. Gu An wondered just how wealthy Yun Xiuyan was to be willing to feed them like this. He sighed inwardly.

Strolling to the West Market, he found it had long lost its former lively atmosphere.

Three days ago, ordinary commoners were no longer allowed to enter or leave. Special personnel sprinkled water and swept the ground every day, cleaning away filth. Today, looking at it, it was completely renewed.

Dozens of long wooden planks were connected together, serving as stalls for various families. There were no strict rules-whoever came first could pick a spot and claim it.

By now, a few stalls had people, all in good positions, either at the street ends or in the middle.

Gu An also picked a spot at the street end and set up his stall, placing only the Black-Pattern Iron ore, which looked somewhat shabby.

However, the people around him were all poor rogue cultivators, not much better off than he was.

To his left was a middle-aged female cultivator, roughly at the third layer of Qi Condensation, with a long blade in front of her-a First-Grade Lower-Tier magical artifact.

To his right was an old man at the sixth layer of Qi Condensation, with only two bags of spirit rice in front of him.

Is this the Yun Kingdom Small Gathering? Gu An muttered to himself, wondering why they couldn't even afford to open a fixed market.

It was still early, and no one had come yet, so the three of them gathered together and chatted.

After chatting for a while, Gu An learned that both were cultivators from the Yun Kingdom. The old man was a rogue cultivator who called himself Old Man Mo, and the middle-aged female cultivator was from a small family in Qingbai Commandery, surnamed Zhou.

"Ah, we rural minor cultivators struggle to cultivate, and now with robber cultivators causing chaos, we're constantly on edge," Old Man Mo said worriedly, looking at Gu An with some envy.

When he was young, he had also participated in the Qingyuan Sect's Ascension Assembly, but because he had Four Spirit Roots, they didn't accept him. He drifted like duckweed along the way, struggling and climbing, barely reaching the sixth layer of Qi Condensation after enduring countless hardships. Thus, he was very envious of the Qingyuan Sect's immortal seedlings.

The female cultivator surnamed Zhou quickly chimed in, "Yes, yes, those robber cultivators are so powerful. With my meager cultivation, I don't even dare to go out. Fellow Daoist Gu, do you have any news?"

Cultivators from small families weren't much better off than rogue cultivators-they lacked spirit pills, techniques, and magical artifacts...

Seeing how pitifully they spoke, Gu An comforted them, "That robber cultivator has already fled to the You Kingdom's territory, so you can relax! Our Qingyuan Sect will certainly not abandon you all."

"Am I not also out here selling spirit iron? Cultivation-how could it be without difficulties?"

Gu An chatted idly with them for a while, then changed the subject and asked, "Brother Mo, what kind of spirit rice are you selling?"

Hearing this, Old Man Mo took out a few grains and handed them to Gu An, introducing, "This is top-quality Spirit Sprout Rice. Fellow Daoist Gu, would you like to buy a few catties? I'll give you a discount."

Gu An had no interest in this Spirit Sprout Rice; he was interested in something else.

To grow spirit rice, one must have Spirit Bran. What he was interested in was precisely this bran. He wanted to buy some to feed the fish. Last year, he had been feeding those Black Spirit Fish ordinary mortal rice.

While this saved spirit stones, being greedy for small gains led to big losses. The Black Spirit Fish grew purely by absorbing the spiritual Qi from the spirit vein, which was too wasteful. If he occasionally fed them some spirit rice or Spirit Bran, the First-Grade Middle-Tier White Mirror Lake spirit vein could support at least two hundred Black Spirit Fish. How satisfying would that be!

Old Man Mo was stunned. Was this Qingyuan Sect disciple also this hard up?

Not eating spirit rice, but eating Spirit Bran!

Saving the remaining spirit stones to buy cultivation pills-accumulating like this day by day, no wonder his cultivation was soaring!

Gu An naturally didn't know what Old Man Mo was thinking. Seeing him hesitate and not speak, he assumed he didn't have any, so he said, "If you don't have any, it's fine. I'll look elsewhere later."

"Go elsewhere?! The entire Yun Kingdom grows the best spirit rice right here! It's not that I, Old Man Mo, am badmouthing others-what do they know about spirit rice? Can they even grow it properly? Buy from me!"

Seeing that Gu An was about to leave, Old Man Mo panicked, quickly grabbed Gu An's sleeve, his eyes wide open, and turned his head to shout.

As he spoke, he took out two cloth bags and handed them to Gu An.

"Take a look, take a look! My bran has such rich spiritual qi. Brother Gu, take a look. If you buy a lot, I'll give you a discount."

Gu An pinched a few grains of Spirit Bran and found them quite good, with well-preserved spiritual qi. He nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad, Brother Mo. How much of this quality Spirit Bran do you have? If the price is right, I'll take some."

Old Man Mo rubbed his hands together, pulled out two more cloth bags from his Storage Bag, and patted his thin chest to guarantee, "Brother Gu, rest assured, I'm an honest man. All four hundred catties of Spirit Bran are of this quality."

"As for the price..." Old Man Mo hesitated, gritted his teeth, and said, "One spirit stone per bag."

Gu An nodded, agreeing. Four spirit stones flew out of his Storage Bag, and he casually put away the four cloth bags, saying with a smile, "This price works. Thank you, Brother Mo."

Old Man Mo put away the spirit stones, exchanged a few polite words with a smile, and then hurried back to his stall-someone had come to buy spirit rice.

"How much for the Black-Pattern Iron?" A warm, deep voice sounded, startling Gu An out of his daze. He looked up and saw a middle-aged cultivator standing in front of his stall, fiddling with a few pieces of Black-Pattern Iron.

Gu An noticed the iron furnace emblem on his chest and recognized it as the symbol of the Zhu family from Zhuyang Commandery in the Yun Kingdom. The Zhu family had a skill in artifact refining and was quite well-off among the Qi Condensation families. Gu An smiled and said, "Top-quality Black-Pattern Iron ore, thirty-two catties for just ten spirit stones."

The middle-aged cultivator was noncommittal: "Do you have any more? This amount is a bit small."

Gu An's heart stirred. This batch of Black-Pattern Iron ore was quite substantial-it could probably yield about three catties of Black-Pattern Iron, more than enough to make a magical artifact. What kind of magical artifact was the Zhu family trying to refine that required so much Black-Pattern Iron?

Unable to figure it out, Gu An stopped overthinking and shook his head. "That's all there is."

The middle-aged cultivator took out ten spirit stones and handed them to Gu An, put away the Black-Pattern Iron, and continued strolling down the market.

Selling the Black-Pattern Iron so quickly surprised Gu An a bit, but finishing early was fine.

He stood up, said goodbye to the female cultivator surnamed Zhou and Old Man Mo, and leisurely strolled along the walkway.