World version update

Chapter 32: Banner of Ten Thousand Beasts?
Passing through the fog formation, the seemingly quiet valley shrouded in clouds and mist from the outside world seemed quite lively.

The streets were full of cultivators coming and going, and there were many stalls of independent cultivators on both sides of the street, most of which were filled with low-grade talismans, broken classics, and freshly collected low-level herbs. Some even had a pile of junk waiting for the right person to take the bait.

The Qi-cultivating monks who were trading in front of the stall were arguing over the price of a spirit stone. Some were happy while others were disappointed, showing the various emotions of all living beings.

The shops on both sides of the street are obviously much more high-end, with shelves filled with talismans, magical tools, and rare materials.

Even in front of an attic with red lanterns hanging on it, Lu Yan saw some beautiful female cultivators in thin long skirts soliciting guests.

These female cultivators are all at the first level of Qi training, and have just shed their mortal bodies. They are only slightly better off than Lu Yan, who used to work like a slave in the Lingfu Shop.

But they have one biggest advantage, that is, they are beautiful!

There is no shortage of beautiful female cultivators in the world of immortal cultivation. Especially after reaching a certain level of cultivation, it is easy for them to cleanse their bones and marrow and reshape their appearance. There are all kinds of beauties.

But these beautiful female cultivators are either very powerful or have strong backgrounds, and will have no intersection with most of the lower-level cultivators.

However, beautiful women among the mortal world are just readily available to the casual cultivators and it is difficult to arouse their interest.

Thus, an industrial chain came into being. Some cultivators went to secular cities to select beautiful women. Those with good cultivation talents had already been picked up by major sects. Those who were left behind basically had low cultivation qualifications and it was difficult for them to make progress in the path of immortality.

But the independent cultivators don't need the high talents of these beautiful women at all. They just need to be taught specific skills, and then rely on elixirs to increase the speed of spiritual energy cleansing the body regardless of the consequences, and force them into the first level of Qi training.

A woman who becomes an immortal cultivator by this means will never make any further progress in her life. Some even have their Dantian shattered due to the aftereffects of inferior elixirs, making it difficult for them to even use their magic power.

But they eventually shed their mortal bodies and became genuine immortal cultivators. With this identity, they can easily gain the attention of some casual cultivators.

Lu Yan didn't have any sympathy for this. After all, he had really been worked like a slave in the Ling Fu Shop and almost had his soul extracted and his spirit refined.

In comparison, these women who become immortal cultivators can live up to twenty years, and after saving some money in the future they can go to mortal cities to enjoy life, which is already a good way out.

However, due to the commonality of version updates, Lu Yan seriously suspected that these female cultivators in the urban version might be the marginal anchors of those small platforms.

Feeling sad about the decline of morals, Lu Yan walked around the entire Qinggu Market.

Being located on a spiritual vein, the concentration of spiritual energy in Qinggufang City is quite high, about six times that of the urban version, which is far inferior to the doomsday version.

If we include the moon aura and sun aura of the apocalypse version, the gap between the two will be even greater.

However, the location of this street is only on the outskirts of the spiritual vein of Qinggufang City. The deepest part of the valley is where the spiritual energy of Qinggufang City is the most abundant.

The managers of the market town dug out caves on the cliffs of the valley and rented them out as cave dwellings. The concentration of spiritual energy there is much higher than that in the surrounding areas.

And this is only a first-order spiritual vein. Those large sects are often located on third-order or even fourth-order spiritual veins, and their spiritual energy concentration is on another level entirely.

Feeling a sense of emotion, Lu Yan had some thoughts of settling down temporarily in Qinggu Market.

But before that, he had to go to the market to buy some necessities and get some information.

Lu Yan did not enter those ornately decorated shops, but went directly to the roadside stalls beside the street and picked up a book called "First-Level Magic Encyclopedia" from a stall full of classics.

The spells in "First-Level Spell Collection" are all the most basic spells, which are completely common stuff.

But for Lu Yan, who lacks common sense in cultivation, "The Complete Book of First-Level Magic Spells" is the thing he lacks most.

Spells such as Spirit Fire, Flying, Light Feather, and Invisibility do not have much offensive power, but they are extremely practical in many situations, especially for Lu Yan who has traveled through different versions.

Although Lu Yan had many talismans, it was not as convenient as using magic directly.

And the most important point is that talismans require money, but spells do not.

The "First-Level Spell Encyclopedia" on the stall was obviously bought from someone else, and it was almost covered with patina. Some of the pages also had spellcasting techniques and tips on spell usage recorded by practitioners, which was quite practical.

"How much is this book?" The stall owner looked Lu Yan up and down and asked:
"Twenty-five spirit stones."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yan sneered, threw down the book, turned around and left.

A brand new "First-Level Spell Collection" only costs thirty spirit stones, and it also has spiritual rhymes engraved by practitioners to assist in understanding spells.

An old book that has been circulated for who knows how many times would cost at most fifteen spirit stones.

"Just a joke! Just a joke!"

Seeing Lu Yan turning around to leave, the stall owner immediately changed his words:

"How about this, you take the twenty spirit stones."

"Ten Spiritual Stones."

"You're bargaining too hard. Although this is a second-hand book, the spells on it are well preserved, and there are even annotations by other practitioners. How about fifteen spirit stones for it?"

"Twelve Spiritual Stones."

After some bargaining, Lu Yan finally bought the "First-Level Magical Encyclopedia" for thirteen spirit stones.

Although the stall owner kept muttering about losing money, he couldn't hide the joy in his eyes. After all, the price of "First-Level Magic Encyclopedia" was already relatively expensive among the books on the stall, but there were not many people who needed it.

Any cultivator with some decent inheritance would have these first-level spells, which made the spell collection a piece of useless stuff that was difficult to sell. It had been in his hands for two years.

Being able to sell it today is a good thing for him.

Noticing the change in the stall owner's expression, Lu Yan half-knelt down and rummaged through the books while pretending to speak nonchalantly:

"I just came to this area, and I heard from other Taoist friends that this area seems to be not very peaceful in recent months."

"There is nothing unsettled, it's just a bamboo forest"

Halfway through his words, the stall owner seemed to suddenly realize something and quickly changed the subject:

"Ahem, behind our Qinggu Market are disciples of the Qingwu Sect, which is the most important sect in the southern border area. Fellow Daoist, don't worry."

Lu Yan's heart sank slightly. The stall owner mentioned Zhulinfang Market, which should be related to the death of Gongyang Xuanming.

While Lu Yan was thinking, he heard the stall owner change the subject and say:

"But speaking of unrest, there have been some incidents in the Three Thousand Mile Wushan Mountain recently. If you want to go into the mountain to hunt monsters in the near future, you have to be careful."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yan showed curiosity and bowed: "Please tell me more."

The stall owner had a gloating smile on his face:
"Hundreds of years ago, there was a Jindan Zhenren in Wanling Mountain who tried to breed spirit beasts. He raised a large number of spirit beasts in Wushan Mountain and let these spirit beasts mate with ordinary beasts, hoping to select the spirit beast bloodline through hybridization.

Wanling Mountain spent hundreds of years hybridizing only a group of wild beasts with weak spiritual beast bloodlines, and their number was so large that it was spread across the 3,000-mile Wushan Mountains.

However, the bloodlines of these wild beasts were unbalanced and even their three souls and seven spirits were incomplete, let alone breeding spiritual beasts. This result made Wanling Mountain a laughing stock among the sects in southern Xinjiang.

But for some reason, three months ago, a madman suddenly appeared in Wushan and began to kill wild beasts and extract their remaining souls.

At first, Spirit Beast Mountain didn’t take it seriously, but that madman became more and more aggressive in killing. In just three months, he slaughtered more than 100,000 beasts with weak spirit beast bloodlines, which attracted the attention of the elders of Spirit Beast Mountain. "

"Some people claim that the madman developed the Ten Thousand Beasts Banner based on the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, which uses ten thousand beasts as its guide. He kills wild beasts in order to refine the Ten Thousand Beasts Banner!"

(End of this chapter)