Gentlemen, it's time to enter the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.

Chapter 79 Spirit Beast Mounts
Chen Ye never cared about these material possessions.

Whether the dried-bone cicada sells for eight hundred or five hundred, it's an unexpected surprise for him.

Having managed to get the stall owner to offer a price and even managed to extract some secrets about feeding the Gu worms from him, Chen Ye felt he had already made a profit.

He was just in the mood to haggle with the stall owner and experience what it felt like to stroll through a night market in his past life.

After wandering around the bustling underground black market for a while, Chen Ye had sold everything he could, and with two or three thousand Azure Pearls in his pocket, he felt it was already a huge sum of money.

I was ready to spend lavishly, but after wandering around for ages, I still couldn't buy anything.

Most of the items sold in this underground black market are related to the Demonic Sect, but most are counterfeit.

Chen Ye is a real little devil; he mostly fools laymen and is actually of little use.

Chen Ye was looking for a variety of magical means of transportation, including flying swords, bronze chariots, paper cranes, and so on. All kinds of magical treasures were available, but they were either very slow or extremely expensive.

It wasn't that Chen Ye couldn't afford it, but a flying sword that looked like scrap metal cost three thousand Azure Pearls, supposedly refined from a toothpick that the Crimson Serpent Demon Lord used to pick his teeth.

"These unscrupulous businessmen really dare to boast about anything."

Chen Ye hated these unscrupulous merchants, but they seemed to have a "three years without business, then three years of profit" mentality, stubbornly refusing to lower their prices. Although he wasn't particularly concerned about prices, he couldn't just openly be ripped off.

Chen Ye's method of provocation wasn't always effective; it was useless against such a tough nut to crack.

After wandering around the magic item section for half a day without finding anything, Chen Ye was about to move on to another place when he suddenly heard Hei Xiaosan's voice: "Friend, you've been looking around for most of the day and haven't bought anything?"

Chen Ye was surprised to find the pale-faced scholar still there and asked in confusion, "Fellow Daoist, are you not only leading the way, but also doing sales on the side?"

Blackie San, fanning himself, said, "Of course. My friend, this is your first time in our black market, I can't let you leave empty-handed. If word gets out that a customer came here and didn't buy anything, our business will be in trouble in the future."

"I've seen you circling around here several times, looking for something to get around in, right?"

"Oh, do you have any good recommendations?"

Hei Xiaosan nodded and said, "Many cultivators prefer to use magic treasures for transportation, but magic treasures are not only precious, but also subject to many restrictions in use. In practice, they may not be as convenient and fast as they seem. In my opinion, if it is just for transportation, you might as well consider a spirit beast mount."

"A spirit beast? That's not easy to raise."

Chen Ye had never really considered that while magical artifacts could be used simply by injecting magic power, spirit beasts needed to be fed regularly. He was too lazy to even raise Gu worms, let alone pets.

Hei Xiaosan said, "Spirit beasts are all about fate. Why don't you go and take a look, fellow Daoist? Maybe you'll find one you like?"

That makes some sense. Since we can't find a suitable magic weapon anyway, there's no harm in taking a stroll around.

Hei Xiaosan led Chen Ye through two formations and arrived at another area.

As soon as he entered, Chen Ye understood why the spirit beast area had to be arranged separately. A pungent smell hit him, a mixture of various fishy and muttony odors that almost made him unable to breathe.

Hei Xiaosan laughed and walked over to Chen Ye, fanning himself with his small fan.

Chen Ye immediately felt a refreshing breeze on his face, and the stench dissipated considerably.

It turns out that the mistress's fan-waving wasn't just for show; it was actually a practical little trick. Chen Ye had truly broadened his horizons today.

Hei Xiaosan explained, "The spirit beast area isn't large, and it's roughly divided into three types: birds, beasts, and snakes. They're all mixed in the Li trigram position. Which one would you like to see first, fellow Daoist?"

Chen Ye asked in confusion, "Snakes? Why is this category specifically separated?" "Fellow Daoist, you may not know, but the predecessor of Hundred Seas Valley was White Bone Valley, which was once the dumping ground for corpses of the Crimson Serpent Demon Sect. At that time, the entire valley was filled with densely packed corpses, a gruesome sight, like a living hell. What crawled out of that valley, besides piles of white bones, were countless snakes."

"The Crimson Serpent Demon Lord loved raising snakes most of all, and following his example, almost every disciple of the Demonic Sect kept snakes. Although the Crimson Serpent Demon Lord later died and the Crimson Serpent Demonic Sect was destroyed, those snakes could not be easily eradicated. Even though Hundred Seas Valley has been completely transformed, all kinds of snakes still stubbornly reproduce in the valley. Some of them, with careful breeding, can become intelligent and human-like spirit beast pets."

Hearing what Hei Xiaosan said, Chen Ye looked up and around, and sure enough, he saw many spirit beasts locked in cages.

All sorts of snakes, of different colors and sizes, were intertwined together, hissing and flicking their tongues, a sight that sent chills down one's spine.

Chen Ye didn't like snakes to begin with, so he immediately said to Hei Xiaosan, "Let's go see the flying ones instead."

Whether choosing magical artifacts or mounts, Chen Ye prefers flying ones, as they make travel more convenient.

Hei Xiaosan understood immediately and led Chen Ye straight to the bird area, where he then enthusiastically gave him a detailed introduction.

Most of these birds are exotic species with the bloodline of demonic beasts, and their size is beyond imagination.

Some of these large birds have wingspans of several meters. Despite their enormous size, they are not difficult to raise. Most birds can be fed only the meat of common wild animals, making them economical and easy to care for. Some birds can even be released to forage for themselves, requiring no intervention from their owners.

Chen Ye was originally worried that raising spirit beasts would be troublesome, but he didn't expect that they could be raised freely.

The only thing to worry about is if the free-range spirit beast eats the wrong thing or gets shot down by someone mistaking it for a wild animal; in that case, it has nothing to do with the seller.

After much deliberation, Chen Ye finally settled on a dark black crow.

This little guy looks unremarkable, but when it makes eye contact with Chen Ye, the crow tilts its head as if it's somewhat curious about him.

Chen Ye found this crow particularly pleasing to the eye because of this small gesture.

Perhaps it was fate; Chen Ye took a liking to this crow at first sight.

The seller boasted that this was a spirit beast with the bloodline of the Three-Legged Golden Crow, not only extremely intelligent, but also capable of spewing out the true fire of the sun if properly nurtured.

But Chen Ye saw that the "third leg" the seller was referring to was clearly just a wooden stick that had been tied on; this was too obviously fake.

However, this crow seemed to be quite intelligent, able to understand many commands and fly however it was told.

As for carrying people, that's no problem either. Although this crow isn't a three-legged golden crow, it does have the bloodline of a spirit beast. Normally it looks about the size of a palm, but when needed, a single command can make it grow dozens of times larger, so carrying a person is no problem.

As for speed, it's average, nothing special, but usable.

The key point is that these crows not only eat meat, but can also be fed fruit, making them the most worry-free of all birds.

Chen Ye negotiated the price and finally bought it for 1,800 Azure Pearls.

The seller also included two bags of food, saying it would be enough for a month.

The issue of the mount was resolved, but Chen Ye still lacked the spiritual energy he needed for cultivation.

You can't buy everything on the black market; you can only try your luck when the rally starts.

Now that we've found our mount, it's time to head to the Incense Burning Sect's headquarters to find Mo Suixin.

Besides the Vajra Powder, Chen Ye also wanted to ask Mo Suixin for help in figuring out where his Ten Thousand Souls Banner was, or rather, where his master Mo Ci was.

(End of this chapter)