Chapter 320: Preparing for Rainy Days |
The north wind was sharp as knives, howling through the Supply Camp behind Iron Wall Pass.
This was the darkest, most shadowy corner of the entire fortress. The massive cloud-ship landing platform blocked out the starlight, while mountains of discarded slag and broken magical implements emitted a stale, rusty metallic odor.
Every new moon, a trading spot known as the "Ghost Market" would spontaneously form here.
No stall fees, no patrol squads, not even any lights.
Only cultivators wrapped in black cloaks and wearing masks, moving like phantoms through the shadows. Here, as long as you had spirit stones, you could buy blood-stained magical implements, elixirs of dubious origin, and even certain materials for forbidden arts explicitly prohibited for evil cultivators.
Su Ming tightened the dusty grey greatcoat around him, the bronze mask he'd scavenged from the Vessel Hall's scrap pile covering his face, completely concealing his form within the darkness.
He walked slowly, his deerskin boots treading on the frozen slag without making a single sound.
Although he was now the highly sought-after "Instructor Su" of Iron Wall Pass, the "Half-City Su" who could mobilize formation masters across a dozen defensive sectors with a single word, here, he was just an ordinary buyer named "Water Ghost."
"Having a fortune of ten million is not as good as having one talisman to preserve your life."
"Understood, Master."
Su Ming kept his gaze fixed ahead, his hands tucked into his sleeves, gripping two "Ice Needle Talismans" ready for activation at any moment. He walked straight through the crowd toward the deepest corner of the Ghost Market.
There, a massive, broken sail-shaped rock stood. Sheltered from the wind behind it, a gaunt, emaciated old man was hunched over.
The old man's eyes were rolled back, white showing, his eye sockets sunken deep. Before him, only a tattered piece of animal hide was spread out, upon which a few crudely drawn talismans were scattered.
Su Ming squatted down before the stall. Without preamble, he lightly tapped three times on the animal hide with his finger—two light taps, one heavy.
"Passage."
Su Ming's voice, squeezed through his throat cartilage, became hoarse and grating.
The old blind man's ash-white eyeballs didn't even twitch. He merely used two twig-like fingers to scratch once on the animal hide.
"Heavenly path, or earthly path?"
"The heavens are sealed by the grand formation, can't fly out," Su Ming replied flatly. "I want the earthly path."
The old blind man's heavily wrinkled face finally twitched, revealing a smile uglier than a grimace.
Slowly, he fished out an oil-paper package from his robes, unwrapping it layer by layer to reveal three talismans of a dull yellow hue, looking as if they had been imprinted from ancient tombstones.
The talisman surfaces weren't inscribed with the usual cinnabar-red characters. Instead, they were traced with lines as heavy as mountains, drawn with a mixture of some demon beast's blood and gold powder.
Just a single glance was enough to feel a thick, earthy, bloody scent assaulting the senses.
"High-grade 'Earth-Escape Concealment Talismans'."
The old blind man's voice was raspy, like two pieces of rusted iron grating together. "Upon activation, the body transforms into quicksand, allowing travel underground for five hundred *zhang*, ignoring ordinary rock layers and low-grade restrictive formations. If attacked, it can also erect an 'Earth Shield' lasting three breaths."
A glint of sharp light flashed in Su Ming's eyes.
Five hundred *zhang* didn't sound far. But underground in Iron Wall Pass, a place riddled with restrictive formations and hard rock layers, five hundred *zhang* was the line between life and death.
"Price." Su Ming was concise.
"If this were anywhere else, such life-preserving divine talismans would cost at least twenty mid-grade spirit stones," the old blind man chuckled, revealing a mouthful of broken, blackened teeth. "But here at Iron Wall Pass, the underground is full of Mystic Iron veins and Geng Metal energy. Earth-escape talismans' effectiveness is greatly reduced. No one buys this stuff."
He extended a withered hand, fingers spread wide.
"Five mid-grade spirit stones. Non-negotiable."
Su Ming's brow lifted slightly.
Five mid-grade spirit stones were equivalent to five hundred low-grade spirit stones. For an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator, this was a huge sum, possibly requiring half a year of bloody battle on the front lines to save up.
But for high-grade life-saving talismans like these, this price was practically a steal—a "clearance price for an unpopular market item."
Clearly, the old blind man also knew this thing was worthless paper in his hands; better to exchange it for some solid spirit stones for his retirement.
Su Ming didn't hesitate in the slightest. With a flip of his hand, five crystal-clear, spiritually vibrant spirit stones appeared in his palm.
These five mid-grade spirit stones were not obtained by exchanging his Military Merit.
With the deployment of the "Spirit Response Spider Web," Su Ming's originally empty storage pouch had gained quite a few of these "grey income" items that he had no choice but to accept and couldn't refuse.
After all, in the eyes of those captains desperate to stay alive, "Instructor Su," who held the technical barrier, was a living deity of wealth that had to be appeased.
"Deal."
Su Ming placed the spirit stones on the animal hide.
The old blind man's withered hand shot out like lightning, sweeping the spirit stones into his sleeve with a speed so fast Su Ming's "observation micro state" vision only caught a blur.
"Transaction complete."
The old blind man pushed the three talismans over, simultaneously lowering his voice to a level only the two of them could hear. "Kid, listen to an old man's advice. If you ever really need to use this talisman, don't run north. Go south."
Su Ming's hand, receiving the talismans, paused slightly.
He gave the old blind man a deep look, asked no further questions, tucked the talismans into his robes, stood up, and melted back into the darkness.
"Go south..."
On the way back, Su Ming pondered these two words in his heart.
South was the rear of Iron Wall Pass, the retreat route leading to the inland hinterlands. North was the direction from which the demon beast tide surged, and also where that underground dark-gold "river" flowed most fiercely.
"It seems this old blind man is no simple character either. Even though his eyes are blind, his heart is brighter than anyone's," Lin Yu sighed in the Consciousness Sea. "Iron Wall Pass truly is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers—old, crafty veterans."
Su Ming didn't respond.
He quickened his pace, moving like a wisp of smoke scattered by the wind, silently avoiding two patrols of night guards, and slipped back into Stone Hut Number Seven.