?

"The Li family's foundation is truly deep. Even a mere detached estate uses a protective Formation at the late Qi Gathering level," Elder Yu thought to himself.

After all, they had risen to prominence early on. It was not something his small Yang family could compare to.

Moreover, the Li family had close ties with a Sect within the territory of the Zhuhu Wangchao. With such a background, basically no one in the Wangyue City region dared to provoke them.

Thinking of this, Elder Yu pondered the future path of the Yang family.

For a clan to establish itself in the wilderness and gain a firm foothold, beyond its own strength, another crucial factor was having a backer.

As far as he knew, no established Cultivation clan within the Zhuhu Wangchao existed completely independent of the dynasty and the Sects.

They either stationed themselves in towns and cities, or they attached themselves to a Sect.

The Yang family had just moved out of the town. They were weak and held little value, so no Sect would take the initiative to contact them.

As they gradually grew stronger in the future, dealing with Sects would be inevitable.

Silently making a note of this matter, Elder Yu and Li Cheng stepped onto the small island together.

The fee to enter the market was one Spirit Crystal per person. Just from this entry fee alone, the City Lord of Wangyue City could earn a massive fortune every year.

"Young Master Li, I need to set up a stall to sell some items first. Why don't you head to the Formation Pavilion to seek out a Formation Master first?"

"Set up a stall?"

Li Cheng immediately understood. Elder Yu did not have enough funds on hand and needed to scrape some together.

Considering their acquaintance, he asked, "Elder Yu, what items are you selling? Why not let me take a look first? If my family needs them, I will buy them directly."

Elder Yu thought it over. The idea was indeed quite good, and it would save him the time of setting up a stall and hawking his wares.

The two walked over to an empty space, and Elder Yu opened the bundle at his waist.

This time, he had brought four Pills, ten Talismans, several high-quality precious medicinal herbs, and a large amount of refined ore used for artifact crafting.

Li Cheng looked over everything and counted them.

"There is no issue with these items. My family will take them all. How about sixteen Spirit Crystals?"

"Deal!"

Elder Yu agreed without hesitation.

He had originally estimated their value at only fifteen Spirit Crystals, yet Li Cheng had offered one more.

Money and goods exchanged hands.

Elder Yu carefully put away the Spirit Crystals, while Li Cheng simply patted the pouch at his waist, storing the entire large bundle of items inside.

A look of envy flashed in Elder Yu's eyes.

A Spatial Item capable of storing objects was something the Yang family did not yet possess.

Even the lowest quality Storage Bag cost at least twenty Spirit Crystals. In previous years, he and Yang Guanfeng had wanted to save enough to buy one.

However, the dynasty's taxes were far too heavy. With their daily expenses added on, they simply couldn't save anything.

The situation was much better now. Once the Restricted Grounds Formation was set up this time, the new Yang family could be considered stable. Coupled with the addition of three new cultivators, they would be able to save up and buy one in the future.

Having obtained the Spirit Crystals, the two headed to the Formation Pavilion together.

Here, one could purchase ready-made Formation blueprints. Cultivators could buy them and set up the Formations themselves according to the designs.

However, how effective a Formation built this way would be was hard to say.

Another method was to directly hire a professional Formation Master to personally arrange the Formation. This was more expensive, but it guaranteed the Formation's effectiveness.

Following the Formation Pavilion's introduction, Elder Yu ultimately selected a young Formation Master named Liu Zihao.

Although this person's realm was not high-only at the fourth level of Qi Gathering-he had considerable expertise in arranging warning and defensive Formations.

After some haggling, the price was settled at twenty-one Spirit Crystals.

"These are the materials needed to set up the Formation. We will depart tomorrow, so see if there is anything missing and purchase it today."

Hiring a Formation Master meant there was no need to buy a blueprint, but the materials still had to be provided by the client.

After paying, Elder Yu walked out of the Formation Pavilion, and Li Cheng bid him farewell.

Before leaving, the old man looked back at the pavilion once more.

"If only my Yang family possessed the inheritance of the Hundred Cultivation Arts," he thought to himself.

The Hundred Cultivation Arts was a collective term for a series of skills, including alchemy, artifact crafting, and array formation.

The most common were those three, but others included beast taming, incense making, astrology, physiognomy, and forging.

Mastering any of these skills provided a stable channel for earning Spirit Crystals.

However, every skill inheritance was incredibly expensive.

Setting aside the rare ones, just looking at alchemy, artifact crafting, and Formation setting was daunting enough.

At auction, a complete inheritance could easily fetch a price of a thousand Spirit Crystals.

It was completely beyond what the Yang family could afford at their current stage.

Of course, there was another method: purchasing incomplete fragments.

This approach relied heavily on luck.

Fragments were cheap, but because the content was incomplete, one had to constantly engage in trial and error to have any hope of mastering the skill.

Even then, success was not guaranteed. One might pay a massive price only to end up with nothing.

While pondering these matters, Elder Yu's footsteps did not stop.

After spending five Spirit Crystals to purchase the materials for the Formation, he walked over to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion in the market.

As he had thought earlier, the Yang family would have to deal with Sects in the future.

He wanted to buy information regarding the surrounding Sects.

"Ten Spirit Crystals."

The attendant receiving him quoted the price.

"How much?"

"Ten Spirit Crystals."

Elder Yu could hardly believe his ears.

It was merely some basic information about the Sects. How could something like this be sold so expensively?

He recalled that when he was still in a Sect, he had also sold information about other Sects to intelligence brokers, but back then, he had only received two or three Spirit Crystals.

He hadn't expected these merchants to exploit the information gap so ruthlessly, marking up the price several times over when selling to other cultivators.

"That is too expensive. I only want information on the few Sects closest to Little Pine Mountain, nothing else."

"Alright, let me check for you."

The attendant took out a piece of white paper and scribbled on it for a moment.

"Two Sects, four Spirit Crystals. Bought individually, they are three each."

Elder Yu's mouth twitched upon hearing this, but he ultimately endured it and spent four Spirit Crystals to make the purchase.

The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion dared to ask for such prices for a reason.

One could buy various cheap intelligence from others, but if the information turned out to be fake, they could only curse their bad luck.

The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's foundation of confidence was that any intelligence purchased from them was absolutely true.

If false information caused a loss, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion would compensate the buyer tenfold.

Having secured the Sect intelligence, Elder Yu had one final task remaining on this trip.

He needed to investigate Chen Yang's origins.

This matter could also be resolved at the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion.

After spending one Spirit Crystal as a consultation fee, Elder Yu received a name.

Strange Stone!

This special type of stone was usually produced in various blessed lands and grotto-heavens. Its effects varied greatly and were highly random.

Some were inferior to even early Qi Gathering spiritual treasures, while others could rival the Dharma Treasures of the Upper Three Realms!

Armed with this information, Elder Yu went to the library in the market. There, he spent a great deal of time reading through materials to better understand Strange Stones.

It wasn't until the next morning that he walked out of the library, carrying a bundle of books that introduced the history, geography, customs, and culture of the Zhuhu Wangchao, as well as the Hundred Cultivation Knowledge Records, among others.

In the future, more and more children of the Yang family would embark on the path of Cultivation. These books would help broaden their horizons and give them a basic understanding of the land beneath their feet.

With this, the thirty-three Spirit Crystals he had brought to the market had all been spent.

Elder Yu had planned meticulously, maximizing the value of every single Spirit Crystal.