Qin Sang rented a stone house, laid down several layers of restrictions inside, and retrieved the 'sheepskin' from his mustard seed bag.
From the outside, the 'sheepskin' still showed no changes.
When Qin Sang channeled spiritual power onto it, a speck of white light flared immediately. Before the Ziwei Secret Talisman could fully manifest, Qin Sang withdrew his spiritual power, and the 'sheepskin' returned to normal.
Holding the Ziwei Secret Talisman in his hand, Qin Sang fell into deep thought.
He still could not decide how to handle this item.
At this point, the spirit tide was merely showing its first omens. As these omens slowly brewed, frequent celestial phenomena and rampaging cloud beasts would emerge one after another.
Not until the Ancient Immortal Battlefield entered a state of total chaos, with celestial phenomena raging day and night and cloud beasts driven to frenzy—making it nearly impossible for anyone to survive there except the extremely powerful—would the Seven Heroes Passes shut their gates and lock down. Only then would the spirit tide arrive long overdue.
According to past precedent, the spirit tide brewed at a different rate each time. This process could take several decades, and even nearly a century would not be surprising.
If the spirit tide came late this time and he managed to reach the Core Formation stage before Ziwei Palace opened, going in to explore would be fine, but Qin Sang knew in his heart that this possibility was extremely slim.
He currently had no clue whatsoever on how to form a core.
Even someone as talented as Senior Brother Qi Yuanshou, the foremost figure beneath the Golden Core in Shaohua Mountain, had already stepped into the False Core stage when Qin Sang first entered Xuanlu Pass. Nearly thirty years had passed, yet he still had not formed a core. One could easily see how difficult Core Formation was.
It would be better to return to Xuanlu Pass, use his sect's resources to learn about Ziwei Palace in detail, and decide after that.
With these thoughts in mind, Qin Sang sighed inwardly. He put away the Ziwei Secret Talisman, took out his gains from this auction one by one, and laid them out before him.
The several kinds of spirit wood had all been bought for the ebony sword, kept for it to slowly devour.
The top-grade spirit tool, the Yellow Sand Banner, was not difficult to control. With a bit of refining, Qin Sang would be able to use it freely, adding another method to deal with enemies in the future.
Then there were the three stalks of soul-attracting grass.
Qin Sang opened one of the jade boxes and carefully picked up a stalk of soul-attracting grass.
Three leaves entwined together to form a 'bud' at the top. Its length was comparable to an adult's arm, yet it was as light as nothing.
Qin Sang's nostrils twitched slightly as he sniffed the aura emitted by the spirit herb. It lacked any distinct fragrance or strange odor, but once this aura entered his body, he felt his divine soul faintly stirred.
He did not disturb the restrictions on the soul-attracting grass, deciding to wait until things settled before setting out to refine Heavenly Corpse Talismans.
Three stalks of soul-attracting grass, nine leaves in total, would allow him to practice several times, but he could not waste them recklessly. This kind of spirit herb was something one could only encounter by luck and was hard to come by.
By the time the auction ended, it was already the hour of the Tiger. Qin Sang waited in the stone house for two hours.
Once the sky was fully bright, Qin Sang walked out of the stone house.
Many experts had been attracted by the auction, and today's goods were noticeably a grade higher than before. Qin Sang was also in the mood to stroll around, reaping a bountiful harvest.
Among them were actually two of the Five Elements yin materials, an unexpected pleasant surprise.
Without him realizing it, a day passed. Qin Sang had explored the entirety of Stone Island. At almost every moment, he could hear people discussing last night's auction, and the vast majority of topics were related to Ziwei Palace and the Ziwei Secret Talisman.
This news would be like a tempest, rapidly sweeping across the entire Lesser Cold Domain, soon whipping up a frenzy of searching for Ziwei Secret Talismans.
A single piece of 'sheepskin' offered the chance to trade for a magic treasure—who wouldn't be tempted?
Even without this auction, news of the Ziwei Secret Talisman would have broken out sooner or later, just not this quickly. After all, the struggle for the Ziwei Secret Talismans was essentially confined to Core Formation cultivators.
Furthermore, the major powers that controlled the Lesser Cold Domain, such as the Eight Righteous Sects presided over by Nascent Soul Patriarchs, would not participate. They did not need a Ziwei Secret Talisman to enter Ziwei Palace under the protection of a Nascent Soul expert.
Those who truly needed the Ziwei Secret Talisman were the smaller sects, or Golden Cores among rogue cultivators.
As dusk fell, Qin Sang found an empty spot and channeled spiritual power to activate the restriction on the jade pendant.
A faint gleam lit up in the center of the jade pendant, turning into a dagger-shaped arrow of light pointing toward the southeast, indicating that the location of the secret market convened by the old man was right there.
"Don't tell me it's off Stone Island?"
Qin Sang frowned slightly to himself. Following the guidance of the jade pendant, he walked all the way to the edge of Stone Island, discovering that the light dagger pointed from afar toward an inconspicuous stone house.
After observing in secret for a while and seeing people enter the stone house one after another, Qin Sang waited until the appointed time before walking over.
Outside the stone house hung a shop banner, and there were no customers inside. Qin Sang tightened his cloak, stepped in, and did not see the old man; the shopkeeper was a pretty young woman with Foundation Establishment cultivation.
"May I ask what you are looking for, honored guest..."
The young woman was lounging lazily inside, but as soon as she spoke, she saw the jade pendant revealed in Qin Sang's palm. Instantly putting on a beaming smile, she whispered, "Fellow Daoist, please follow me."
Walking into the back hall, there was actually a hidden door. Behind the hidden door lay a deep, dark passageway, where restrictions flickered with obscure light.
Qin Sang came to a halt at the entrance of the passageway, gazing intently at these restrictions.
The young woman chuckled behind her hand. "Fellow Daoist, there is no need to worry. These are concealing restrictions set up to prevent outsiders from discovering the secret market. We lack the deterrent power of Yinshan Pass, so we have no choice but to resort to such measures. The fellow Daoists participating in our secret market also don't wish to be exposed in the open."
Seeing that they were indeed concealing restrictions, Qin Sang nodded and said indifferently, "Please lead the way, Fellow Daoist."
Not long after walking into the passageway, a modest stone chamber appeared at the far end. Inside the chamber sat a long table and several chairs, and the room was already nearly filled with cultivators in diverse attire.
With so many people, the stone chamber was completely silent, extraordinarily quiet.
The old man sat at the head of the long table. Seeing Qin Sang enter, he immediately rose to greet him, gesturing with his hand and smiling. "Another Fellow Daoist has arrived. Please take a seat and wait a moment; the secret market will begin shortly."
Qin Sang nodded and found an empty chair to sit down.
Keenly sensing several probing gazes falling upon him, Qin Sang pretended not to notice while quietly observing the others.
Without exception, all were at the Foundation Establishment stage, and among them were quite a few mid- and late Foundation Establishment experts. The old man's rallying power secretly surprised Qin Sang.
Among these people, quite a few were probably familiar faces from yesterday's auction.
However, everyone was wrapped up tightly, even more cautious than at the auction.
'There should probably be plenty of good things today. My spirit stones are running low, but I still have the spoils looted from Yu Daiyue and the others. Hopefully, I can find something useful,' Qin Sang mused.
Afterward, a few more cultivators arrived one after another.
As the hour of the Dog approached, the time for the secret market to begin was drawing near.
The old man sat up straight and cleared his throat. Just as he was about to speak, a heavy and unusually hurried set of footsteps suddenly echoed from the dark passageway.
Who was so impatient?
Qin Sang turned his head to look and saw a burly figure hurriedly squeezing in through the door. It was actually the burly cultivator he had seen yesterday!
Chapter 328