I tamed beasts and achieved immortality in the world of cultivation.

Chen Qing nodded.

Those who come to the black market to buy and sell are all items that are inconvenient to sell in the regular market. It is common for them to reduce the price by 30%, and some are even more ruthless, reducing it by four or five times.

Chen Qing took out several items from his storage bag and placed them one by one on the stone table.

A short, gleaming magical weapon and a pair of magical boots both belonged to Yang Ming; a blood-red longsword and several pieces of dark ore were seized from that cultivator.

As for the Qingxi Stone and the Cold Smoke Grass, Chen Qing thought for a moment and decided not to take them out.

That thing could easily implicate Lin Yuan County. If someone were to follow the trail and come knocking on our door, it would be a huge loss.

The middle-aged man picked up the short knife, probed it with his spiritual sense, and carefully sensed it for a moment: "A top-quality item among mid-grade first-tier magic weapons, not bad quality, 180 spirit stones."

He picked up the boots again: "First-grade, mid-level, average condition, 120 spirit stones."

With the blood-red longsword in hand, the middle-aged man frowned slightly: "A mid-grade first-rank blade, but it's crudely made and tainted with bloodlust. The quality is poor. Eighty spirit stones."

Finally, there were the few pieces of ore. The middle-aged man examined them for a while: "Black iron ore, average quality, many impurities, barely usable, twenty spirit stones. The four items together cost four hundred spirit stones."

After quoting the price, the middle-aged man looked at Chen Qing with a smile.

Chen Qing quickly did some mental calculations.

Four hundred spirit stones.

If it's 30% cheaper than outside, it would probably sell for around 500-600 spirit stones outside, that's about the price.

"Aoba Boat, I want it."

Chen Qing took out two hundred spirit stones from his storage bag and pushed them over along with the four items on the table.

The middle-aged man checked the items, nodded in satisfaction, and handed over the Green Leaf Boat with both hands: "The customer is very generous, and the transaction is complete. This Green Leaf Boat is easy to carry and durable, and convenient for both people and goods. You have good taste, sir."

Chen Qing took the Green Leaf Boat, probed it with his spiritual sense, and only after confirming that there were no problems did he put it into his storage bag. Then he turned around and walked out of the inner room.

The middle-aged man behind him followed, cupping his hands and smiling, "Please take care, sir. If you ever need to sell any magical artifacts or buy anything in the future, feel free to come to my Qibaozhai. With a reputation built over hundreds of years, we will never disappoint you."

Chen Qing returned the greeting with a cupped hand: "You're too kind, shopkeeper. I'll definitely come again when I have the chance."

Pushing open the wooden door of Qibaozhai, the night breeze carrying the coolness of the valley rushed in. Chen Qing paused, stood at the entrance of Qibaozhai for a moment, and glanced around discreetly.

No one was paying attention to them.

The street vendors were busy with their own business. Occasionally, a passing cultivator would glance at him, but only for a fleeting look before looking away, seemingly unconcerned.

Chen Qing felt slightly relieved, but on his face he showed some disappointment, shook his head as if he hadn't found anything suitable in Qibaozhai, and walked towards the street stalls outside.

If you come to the black market, it would be suspicious if you didn't visit all the stalls.

He walked and looked around, his spiritual sense subtly sweeping over each stall.

There were many more items on the street stalls than before, but they were still very diverse and of varying quality. Some items were shiny and clearly of good quality, while others were dull and gray, mostly counterfeit or defective products.

Chen Qing walked around, stopping occasionally, squatting down to pick up an item to look at it, asking a couple of questions about the price, then shaking his head and putting it down, looking like a picky buyer.

Before we knew it, we had reached the mouth of the valley.

Chen Qing stopped in front of the last stall.

The stall owner was a woman, slender in figure, also dressed in a black robe and mask, making it impossible to tell her age or appearance. Only her eyes were visible, and her gaze was indifferent.

There weren't many items on the stall: a few bottles of pills, a few pieces of ore, two magical artifacts, and a palm-sized jade slip lying quietly in a corner of the stall, its spiritual light restrained, looking quite ordinary.

Chen Qing's gaze fell on the jade slip. Beside it lay a yellowed piece of paper with two words written on it—

"Soul-stealing".

Chen Qing raised an eyebrow slightly.

Soul-capturing technique?

Soul-searching technique?

Chen Qing crouched down, picked up the jade slip, probed it with his spiritual sense, roughly sensed its contents, and asked in a low voice, "What's the price of this?"

The female stall owner glanced at him, her voice hoarse, clearly feigning distress: "Two hundred spirit stones."

"Soul Searching Technique?" Chen Qing played with the jade slip in his hand. "That's a high-level spell; cultivators in the Qi Refining stage can't learn it."

"Of course, it's not a true soul-searching technique." The female stall owner said calmly, "A true soul-searching technique requires a cultivation level of at least Foundation Establishment to invade another person's sea of ​​consciousness with divine sense and forcibly extract their memories. Mine... is a weakened version, so it's called the Soul-Seizing Technique. It uses spiritual sense instead of divine sense, so the effect is much weaker, but it's barely usable for those in the Qi Refining stage."

She paused, then added, "The memories extracted will be fragmented and incomplete, and they consume a great deal of spiritual energy. One use requires almost half a month of recovery. However... it's enough for extracting information."

Chen Qing's heart stirred slightly.

The Soul Searching Technique is indeed a spell that only cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage or above can master.

Qi Refining stage cultivators only possess spiritual awareness, not divine awareness. At most, they can only make their five senses more acute. Trying to invade another person's sea of ​​consciousness to search for their memories is nothing short of a pipe dream.

However, the method recorded in this jade slip, although it does not achieve the effect of a true soul-searching technique, can be considered a weakened version. The name "soul-capturing technique" is not wrong.

Looking at the jade slip in front of him, Chen Qing recalled the scene from a month ago. The Qian Kingdom cultivator had severed his own heart meridian in front of him and Xiao Chunan, bleeding from all seven orifices, and died cleanly without even having a chance to ask a single question.

If I had known this spell back then, why would I have needed to ask him?

To take direct control, one must use soul searching.

As for being fragmented and incomplete... it's better than nothing at all.

Chen Qing glanced at the female stall owner in front of him again: black robe, mask, hoarse voice, and a faint trace of bloodlust clinging to the jade slip...

This person is most likely a cultivator from the Qian Kingdom in the north.

However, the rule of the black market is that no one asks about origin or identity; once the money and goods are exchanged, they go their separate ways.

Without thinking much, Chen Qing habitually followed the bargaining routine he used when buying groceries in his previous life and blurted out, "One hundred."

The female stall owner, her eyes hidden behind her mask, stared at him as if he were a fool. After a moment of silence, she said coldly, "Do you think this is just some cabbage from a street vendor?"

Chen Qing gave an awkward smile, realizing he had gone a bit too far with his cut: "Then... one hundred and fifty?"

The female stall owner didn't answer immediately. Instead, she bent down to tidy up the items on her stall before slowly uttering two words: "One hundred and seventy."

Chen Qing thought for a moment, then, too lazy to argue any longer, nodded: "Deal."

He took out 170 spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them over. The female stall owner took them, scanned them with her spiritual sense to confirm the number was correct, and then said nothing more.

Chen Qing put the jade slip into his storage bag, then casually glanced at the rest of the items on the stall. Several bottles of pills smelled faintly of blood, and the two magical artifacts also vaguely carried a murderous aura. Neither of them were things he could use openly.

"This one will do."

Chen Qing stood up, patted his robes, and turned to walk towards the valley entrance.

As Chen Qing walked out of Dark Moon Valley, the night wind carrying the chill of the wilderness rushed towards him. He kept walking, but his spiritual sense quietly unfolded, spreading outwards from himself.

A spiritual awareness at the seventh level of Qi Refining is sufficient to cover an area of ​​forty feet.

Because of his contract with Qingtian and Danyu, Chen Qing's spiritual consciousness reached forty-three zhang under various enhancements.

Within a radius of forty-three feet, every blade of grass and every tree is within my perception.

As Chen Qing walked, he carefully examined the surrounding environment: rocks, trees, grass, night birds... everything was normal.

After walking about five or six miles, Chen Qing stopped and scanned his surroundings with his spiritual sense to make sure no one was following him before taking out the Green Leaf Boat from his storage bag.

The small boat, no bigger than the palm of your hand, is entirely green with flowing wind patterns.

Chen Qing infused it with spiritual power, and the Green Leaf Boat grew longer in the wind, transforming into a small boat about ten feet long and three feet wide, suspended three feet off the ground in mid-air, its hull undulating slightly, like a real fallen leaf floating on the water.

Chen Qing flipped over and leaped onto the boat, sitting cross-legged. With a thought, the Green Leaf Boat sped forward silently, the wind whistling in his ears, and the trees on both sides turned into afterimages as they flew backward.

"So fast."

Chen Qing secretly praised him.

This speed is almost twice as fast as when he uses his Wind Control Technique at full power, and it's a speed that can be maintained for a long time without consuming much spiritual energy. You really get what you pay for.

Six hundred spirit stones, well spent.

The Green Leaf Boat flew close to the mountain ridge, with Chen Qing's spiritual sense always kept within its maximum range, alert to all movements around it.

Fortunately, the journey was safe.

Whether it was good luck or the fact that there were no troublemakers on this road, Chen Qing did not encounter any accidents until he could see the outline of Half Moon Lake in the distance.

Chen Qing was somewhat disappointed, sighing inwardly, "Why isn't it playing by the rules?"

[New book recommendation period, please vote, fellow readers!]