Silver Spear

Inside the quiet room of a small shop. A burly man sat sipping tea absently, his gaze darting toward the inner room every few moments. His agitation was plain to see. His fingers toyed with a jade teacup, rubbing it so hard that fine powder drifted down between his fingers, shaving off a visible layer from the cup. The shop assistant stared wide-eyed, daring to be angry but not daring to speak. After all, this customer was a senior cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage. The man downed the rest of his tea in one gulp, got to his feet, and began pacing the room, his stride kicking up gusts of wind. The assistant could not help chiming in, "Senior, please try to remain calm. My shopkeeper's artifact crafting skills are second to none in this entire market. He will certainly not disappoint you." "What the hell do you know?" The burly man glared with tiger-like eyes. "I spent two whole years at sea tracking down that silver-tailed beast before I finally obtained a fist-sized throat stone to upgrade my silver spear. If the refinement fails, not only is the throat stone gone, but the spirituality of my magic tool will be severely damaged! How was I bewitched into listening to those fellows' egging on, running all the way here to find an artisan I've never laid eyes on? If I'd known... sigh!" Thoroughly dressed down, the assistant ducked his head, not daring to argue, and scuttled off to the front of the shop. Left alone, the burly man paced back and forth across the room. There was still no news from the back, and he did not dare barge in to disturb the process, leaving him thoroughly anxious. His fretfulness was understandable. That silver spear was his only top-grade magic tool and held immense importance to him. If it was ruined, his combat strength would take a massive hit. Just as his anxiety reached its peak, the door swung open. A plain-looking, middle-aged man walked in with a smile. In his hands rested a silver spear radiating dazzling, wondrous light, its extraordinary quality evident at a glance. The spearhead was broad and sharp, looking as though it were coated in a layer of crystalline glaze that gleamed with cold brilliance. The burly man bolted over to Qin Sang, impatience written across his face. "Fellow Daoist Mingyue, how did it go?" His eyes were glued to the spear, unable to look away. The feeling it gave him was both familiar and novel, yet he was certain beyond doubt that this was indeed his magic tool. "Why not see for yourself, Fellow Daoist?" The shopkeeper tossed the silver spear to the burly man with a smile, walked over to the table, sat down, and took a sip of fragrant tea. This man was none other than Qin Sang in disguise. Posing under an alias, he offered artifact crafting services in the market to study and comprehend the craft. Naturally, none of the market's cultivators could provide him with magic treasures to refine, but since Qin Sang was only in the early stages of deciphering the restrictions, working on top-grade magic tools suited his purposes well enough. He did not take on many commissions, being extremely selective, yet every customer walked away thoroughly satisfied, quickly building him an excellent reputation. This burly man had chanced upon an enormous stroke of luck. Just yesterday, Qin Sang had experienced a fresh insight, resulting in a substantial leap in his artifact crafting abilities. The silver spear he had refined for the man boasted a might no weaker than the magic tools he used to craft with the aid of the Nine Nether Demonic Fire. The burly man gave the spear a light twirl. A wave of blue light abruptly shot from the spearhead, and the quiet room seemed to instantly transform into an underwater expanse, with ripples spreading swiftly in every direction. Crack, snap! The jade cups on the table shattered one after another. Qin Sang tapped his finger lightly, causing white light to flash across all four walls of the room, and let out a cold snort. "Are you not going to stop, Fellow Daoist? Do you intend to tear down my little shop?" Startled awake as if from a dream, the burly man hastily withdrew his power. He hurried over to Qin Sang, cupped his hands, and said, "I was carried away by delight upon seeing the weapon and lost my composure. Please do not take offense, Fellow Daoist..." A short while later. The two sat across from each other in the tidied quiet room. By this point, the burly man harbored no doubts whatsoever about Qin Sang, his words brimming with nothing but praise. Qin Sang shook his head. "My fortune happened to be exceptionally good today, and your magic tool had a solid foundation to begin with. Only because of that could such an improvement be made; such a result cannot be replicated." He had no desire for his reputation to spread too far and attract unwanted trouble. Even so, the benefits of crafting the spear for the burly man were obvious. Viewing Qin Sang as a master craftsman and eager to forge ties with him, the burly man held nothing back in their conversation. Qin Sang learned that the man hailed from a sect named Dianjun Mountain. After a moment's thought, Qin Sang recalled that Dianjun Mountain was a small sect on Landou Island. It had one peculiar feature: its mountain gate was located on the same mountain range as the Landou Sect. The range was called Mount Landou, an expansive expanse of territory. The most fertile areas with the finest spirit veins had all been claimed by the Landou Sect, leaving smaller sects like Dianjun Mountain no choice but to establish their gates in remote outlying pockets. "I've heard that the sects near the Landou Sect share countless ties with it, and those who achieve great merits might even be granted a look at the Landou Sect's true inheritances. When you wielded your spear just now, your water-attributed spiritual power was remarkably refined. The Landou Sect possesses a Water Breath Formula of considerable renown—have you ever had the chance to study it?" Qin Sang feigned curiosity as he probed. The burly man gave a self-deprecating smile and shook his head. "Fellow Daoist overestimates me. How could a petty sect like mine ever catch the Landou Sect's eye? Only sects that have submitted themselves as vassals could possibly receive such a chance. If I had truly studied the Water Breath Formula, my cultivation wouldn't be stuck at this meager level." "Are the Landou Sect's true inheritances really that formidable?" Qin Sang continued to draw him out. "Naturally! The heritage of a major sect is far beyond what people like us can imagine." The burly man possessed a rough and outspoken nature, yet speaking of the Landou Sect, he showed heartfelt admiration. "The Landou Sect's three most famous inheritances—the Water Breath Formula, the Wood Puppet Scripture, and the Yin-Yang Heavenly Dipper Secret Art—are all supreme cultivation methods. Even their slightly lesser inheritances are top-tier arts that we could never hope to attain in a lifetime..." Qin Sang listened in silence as the burly man listed off the Landou Sect's inheritances. Over this period, he had interacted with numerous Foundation Establishment cultivators and secretly inquired about the Landou Sect, learning quite a bit. Yet to his profound astonishment, not a single one of their methods had anything to do with the power of astral essence! This burly man knew more about the Landou Sect than anyone Qin Sang had previously spoken to, yet even after listing all the inheritances, there was still no method of that nature. Qin Sang found it strange. The Landou Sect had once produced a Core Formation cultivator named Qiyunzi who practiced such a technique, yet no one seemed to know of the method, and no one even recognized the name Qiyunzi. Recalling what Old Man Zhushan had said back then... When Zhushan had met Qiyunzi, he had only just entered the immortal path, whereas now Zhushan was well over four hundred years old. For someone from four hundred years ago, if some mishap had occurred along the way, it was understandable that no one remembered him today; the Landou Sect was hardly lacking in Core Formation cultivators. Even so, for an illustrious sect like the Landou Sect, its true inheritances were public knowledge; only the actual contents of the methods were kept secret. *Could it be that Qiyunzi obtained that method outside the sect?* The thought crossed Qin Sang's mind. If that was the case, things would be troublesome. He might have targeted the wrong place entirely. If Qiyunzi had perished outside the mountain gate—perhaps even out in the Demon Sea—all his secrets would have been swept away like dust in the wind. Attempting to use Qiyunzi as an angle to find clues about the astral essence body infusion would be exceedingly difficult. His best hope remained the Scorpion Poison Grass. While Qin Sang was lost in thought, the burly man continued to ramble, concluding with a sigh of lament. "If one wishes to learn their arts, the only way is to join the Landou Sect. Otherwise, even if one obtains a chance to view an inheritance, the Landou Sect would never show an outsider the core essentials of the technique."