I want to tread the heavens

Jixian Square, located in the heart of Falling Star City, is the city's largest open space. Legend has it that it was a giant crater created by a meteorite impact in ancient times, later leveled and repaired by a powerful being. Paved with lapis lazuli, the square is hard and smooth, large enough to hold tens of thousands of people. Normally, it serves as a venue for celebrations, announcements, and large trade fairs, a space that is both spacious and solemn. But today, it has transformed into a bustling, enormous sea of ​​people.

Half a day before the preliminary registration for the "Ascension Ceremony" was to begin, the square was already packed with people. Not just those registering, but also a diverse crowd of onlookers, business people, intelligence gatherers, and even those with ulterior motives. The air was thick with a complex mix of excitement, anxiety, anticipation, and sweat; the sounds were almost tangible, assaulting the eardrums.

On the east side of the square, a long row of tall temporary canopies had been erected, beneath which was the registration area, where a long, winding queue had already formed, stretching as far as the eye could see. Most of the people in the queue were young, ranging from fifteen or sixteen to around twenty years old, dressed in various styles. Some were dressed in fine clothes, surrounded by attendants, clearly scions of wealthy families from the city or nearby; others were simply dressed, looking travel-worn, like Ling Xiao, independent cultivators who had come alone or in small groups. Each person's face was etched with tension, anticipation, or feigned composure.

The rest of the square was occupied by countless temporary stalls, forming an unprecedentedly large giant market specifically set up for the "Ascension Ceremony." Everything was sold: from "Exploding Qi Pills" (the authenticity of which was hard to discern) that claimed to temporarily boost cultivation, to "Pure Heart Jade Pendants" supposedly made of special materials and increasing the chances of passing the "Path of Inquiry"; from various styles of swords and magical artifacts of dubious origin, to tattered jade slips inscribed with unknown cultivation techniques; there were even vendors selling "insider information," "analysis of the preferences of the elders of the three major sects," and "memoirs of past exam questions"... The shouts, bargaining, arguments, and exclamations mingled with the noise of the registration area, creating a chaotic yet vibrant scene.

To the east, the group of people in blue clothes all smelled of rust and blood; they were together, very strong. Their leader was a dark-faced man with fierce eyes, and his Qi cultivation was at its peak.

"The old man selling pills at the stall on the west side has a faint medicinal smell from 'Hundred Herbs Pavilion' on him, but the pills themselves have a mixed smell, as if something else has been added."

"The fat man in the silk robe in front of me in line is bragging to the person next to him that his uncle is the steward of the city lord's mansion. His eyes are darting around and his heart is beating fast. He's lying."

"From a distant high-rise building, people are watching below, not just from one place, their gazes are cold."

The information about making money acted like precise puzzle pieces, helping Ling Xiao quickly grasp the chaotic situation before him. He saw that most of the well-dressed, composed young people, surrounded by servants, headed directly to the much less crowded "special passage" opened at the registration area, clearly indicating they had some connections. Meanwhile, independent cultivators like himself could only wait in the seemingly endless queue in the regular passage. Registration would last for ten days; there was no need to rush. Right now, the more important thing was to take advantage of this bustling market to see if he could find anything useful, or… snag a bargain.

He needed something that could immediately boost his combat power. Magical artifacts, talismans, pills, even consumables. But all he had was that incomprehensible black stone, the last two Rejuvenation Pills, and the jade slip Su Mo had given him (which he couldn't sell). He didn't have a single spirit crystal. "Let's go, let's go in and take a look." He muttered, stepping down the stone steps and merging into the bustling crowd at the edge of the plaza. He didn't go to the fixed stalls with their gleaming facades and loud signs; those places were beyond his current means. His target was the outer, more peripheral areas of the plaza, the most inconspicuous stalls where people simply laid out a cloth on the ground or simply displayed their goods on the ground in front of them.

Most of these stall owners were low-level independent cultivators like him, or ordinary people looking to sell off their unidentified items for spirit crystals. The goods were of questionable authenticity and poor quality, which also meant low prices; occasionally, a dusty treasure could be found. It required a discerning eye, and even more so, luck. He slowed his pace, his gaze sweeping over each stall. The jade pendant, kept close to his body and continuously nurtured with a faint trace of meteorite power, now seemed to radiate warmth, resonating extremely faintly with certain objects in the square that contained spiritual energy or special fluctuations. This connection was vague, sometimes present, sometimes absent, but in this vast sea of ​​rubbish before him, it served as a guide. He saw incomplete talismans, their spiritual power almost completely depleted; he saw rusted swords, worse than ordinary iron; he saw dried-up roots with unknown medicinal properties; and he saw all sorts of strangely shaped, unidentifiable bones, stones, and metal fragments… most were utterly worthless.

Fa Cai uses its nose and ears to help distinguish between different items. It can smell the extremely faint traces of blood or resentment left on certain items (which may be murder weapons or burial objects), and it can also "hear" the rapid heartbeat and changes in breathing of some stall owners (who may be lying or nervous). This information is fed back to Ling Xiao in real time, helping him to eliminate stalls that are obviously problematic or whose owners are dishonest.

He had been searching for almost an hour without any luck. Just as he was about to give up and join the queue to register, he passed a stall in the far corner. The stall owner was an old woman with gray hair, a wrinkled face, and cloudy eyes. She was squatting in the shadows against the wall, with only a faded, patched blue cloth spread out in front of her. On it were a few scattered items: a chipped rough earthenware bowl, half a rusty pair of scissors, a few dull-colored glass beads, a palm-sized, unremarkable, gray pebble, and… a piece of black iron about two fingers wide, three inches long, with irregular edges and a thickness like a copper coin. The surface of the iron was covered with a thick layer of greasy grime and oxide, a dark, indistinct mess, making it impossible to tell what the original material was. But the instant his gaze swept over it, the jade pendant on his chest suddenly sent a clear, brief throbbing sensation! More intense than anything he had sensed before! At the same time, the power of the meteorite within his body also spontaneously accelerated slightly, as if attracted by something.

"Something!" He paused, seemingly casually crouching down. His gaze swept over the few broken items, finally settling on the black iron piece. He picked up the dusty pebble, weighing it in his hand. "Grandma, how much for this stone?" The old woman looked up, her cloudy eyes glancing at him, then at Fa Cai, who sat quietly at his feet with sharp silver eyes. She said hoarsely, "I picked it up by the river, used to weigh down the pickle jar. You want it? A fragment of a spirit crystal, or... some food will do." Her tone was flat, without much expectation, clearly not expecting these things to fetch a price. He put down the pebble, then picked up the half-rusted pair of scissors, fiddling with them. "What about this?" "Scissors? They're unusable. If you want them, I'll give you a low-grade spirit crystal along with the stone." The old woman yawned, seemingly uninterested in the business. Only then did she "casually" pick up the black iron piece. It felt slightly heavy in his hand, heavier than a regular piece of iron, and cool to the touch, with a greasy, grime-covered surface. He pretended to examine it closely, but in reality, he carefully extended a trace of extremely faint meteorite power from his fingertips and let it seep into the iron piece.

*Buzz!* Inside the iron plate, there seemed to be an extremely faint, almost annihilated spark of "starlight," which flickered very slightly the moment his meteorite power touched it! At the same time, beneath the thick layer of grime on the surface of the iron plate, there seemed to be extremely blurry, incomplete, and strangely ancient patterns that flashed by! The patterns gave Ling Xiao a feeling... somewhat like the star chart runes on the jade pendant and the meteorite compass, but even more ancient, incomplete, and more profound and obscure!

It's an ancient star pattern! Moreover, it seems to have some vague connection to the Starfall Clan's heritage that he knows! This piece of iron is definitely not ordinary iron; it's very likely a fragment of a carrier that records an ancient star map, or some kind of star-related cultivation technique or information! It's just that because of its age, its energy is almost exhausted, and it's completely covered by dirt, so it's not visible. His heartbeat quickened slightly, but his face showed no abnormality. He put down the iron piece, picked up the glass beads and looked at them, then pointed to the black iron piece, the pebbles, and the scissors, and said casually, "These three things look somewhat useful to me. I'll take them back and work on them. Grandma, I'm out of spirit crystals. Can I trade these for you?"

He took out the two Rejuvenation Pills that Guo Yun had given him from his pocket, wrapped them in a clean piece of cloth, and handed them over. Although the Rejuvenation Pills were only the lowest-grade healing medicine, in the old woman's eyes, they were probably more useful than a low-grade spirit crystal.

The old woman took the cloth bag, opened it, and saw two pale green pills with a mild medicinal fragrance. Her cloudy eyes brightened. She clearly recognized them as good things. Her throat bobbed, and she glanced at them warily, as if to confirm whether he was cheating her. "Just...just these three?" she asked, somewhat uncertain. "Yes, just these three. I need a good hammer, and this iron plate is of decent thickness." His tone was flat, even carrying a hint of impatience, as if he had been taken advantage of.

Without further hesitation, the old woman carefully put the two Rejuvenation Pills into her bosom and hid them close to her body. As if afraid that Ling Xiao would change his mind, she nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay! Exchange! It's all yours!" As she spoke, she wrapped the black iron piece, the pebble and the half of the scissors in a rag and stuffed them into Ling Xiao's hands.

Ling Xiao took the cloth bag, nodded, and without saying anything more, got up and left the corner with Fa Cai.

He walked far enough away from the stall, mingling with another noisy crowd, before using the pretense of organizing his belongings to quickly retrieve the black iron piece and vigorously wipe its surface with his sleeve. The grime and grease were difficult to remove, but the cool, solid sensation resonating subtly with the power of the meteorite was undeniably real. He suppressed the urge to immediately probe it with his spiritual power or divine sense, carefully storing the iron piece close to his body, placing it alongside the jade slip from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion.

His heart was still beating steadily and powerfully. This "treasure hunt" had paid off. Although he didn't yet know exactly what was recorded on the iron piece, the ancient star patterns on it and its resonance with the power of meteorite power were worth far more than two Rejuvenation Pills. This was perhaps the biggest unexpected gain he had made since arriving in Falling Star City, aside from the "invitation" from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion.

"Cai, let's go, let's get in line." Patting Cai's head, he felt a little more relaxed. This unexpected discovery, even if it was just psychological comfort, gave him more confidence for the upcoming registration and preliminary selection.

He no longer lingered in the bustling market, and with Fa Cai in his arms, walked towards the end of the seemingly endless registration line. His gaze swept over the young faces ahead, some apprehensive, some confident, and some arrogant, his eyes calm.

The road must be walked step by step. Things must be earned one by one. And opportunities are often hidden in the most inconspicuous dust.