"Does a flying car not count as sword flight?" A flying car could hold at most five people—which was far more than his Sword-Washing Pool could carry.
The officer cast a sideways glance at Lu Yang and explained, "Flying cars are specialized flight-type dharma treasures. Every single one has undergone quality inspections and is specifically accounted for under the law. If there is a special provision for your Sword-Washing Pool in the code, that would be fine too."
Lu Yang conceded defeat.
Before their expedition had made any headway, they had already fallen—paying out money before earning a single coin.
Fortunately, nothing else went awry after that.
During their several days in flight, wishing to avoid sleeping out in the wind and dew, they stopped at an inn. Along the way, they casually helped the proprietress deal with her deceased husband's younger brother, who had brought along relatives to demand his elder brother's inheritance; tactfully declined the family heirloom the proprietress offered out of gratitude; and deduced from subtle clues that the proprietress herself was the murderer who had killed her husband.
At the second inn, they came across two Qi Refinement cultivators arguing over a first-class room. From them, the pair obtained the location of a nearby treasure hoard, dug up a valuable treasure meant for Foundation Establishment cultivators along the way, handed it over to the local yamen, and had a lost-and-found notice posted. This drew two Foundation Establishment clans, unveiling a century-long feud filled with love, hatred, and vendettas, culminating in both clan patriarchs taking their own lives in a torrential downpour, finally drawing the curtain on their hundred-year enmity.
At the third inn, they encountered a wealthy young lady pursued across thousands of miles. They escorted her home along the way, discovered and resolved a vengeful spirit that had haunted her household for a decade, forced the mastermind behind the spirit to show himself, fought him for a single round before capturing him, politely turned down the young lady's proposal to offer herself in marriage, and, following the clues left by the ghost-raiser, wiped out a stronghold of demonic rogue cultivators.
The Sword-Washing Pool carried the two of them safely to Youzhou.
"We're finally here." The two let out a long breath. It had clearly only been a few days' journey, yet it felt as if they had been flying for over a month, leaving them aching all over.
"Lying in this pool of yours really isn't comfortable."
"That's because there's no water. Taking a bath in it is actually quite nice."
*Isn't it just because you two got caught up in way too much stuff along the way?* the Immortal Fairy thought to herself.
The black market Meng Jingzhou spoke of was located at the foot of a large mountain in the Youzhou region. On ordinary days, it was hidden within a secret realm. During the transition between yin and yang, a spatial displacement would occur, causing it to emerge from the secret realm and provide a marketplace for transactions.
At that time, cultivators from neighboring cities would arrive to conduct covert deals, alongside people like Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou who had traveled from even farther away.
"The timing is just right. On the fifteenth of every month, there's a gathering of Nascent Soul eccentrics."
Dressed in black robes with collars turned up to reveal only their eyes, the two followed the convention of the black market—a custom meant to facilitate an easy getaway if the authorities ever came raiding.
By the time they arrived, the black market had already been open for over an hour. The cultivators who had waited outside had all gone in, leaving the entrance looking rather quiet and deserted.
Cultivators guarded the entrance to prevent mortals from wandering in by mistake and causing unnecessary trouble.
The guards at the entrance did not stop the two.
One had watched with his own eyes as they flew in on the Sword-Washing Pool, stowed it away, and slipped into their black robes—a seamless, practiced sequence of actions that marked them as seasoned veterans.
To pilot such a massive pool through the sky, they had to be at least Golden Core cultivators.
Stepping inside, they found that unlike an ordinary market, the black market was exceedingly quiet, with only the occasional whisper between cultivators.
Transacting cultivators relied on techniques like focusing sound into beams or divine sense transmission to ensure complete secrecy.
Without the yamen's supervision, one could find many things here that were nowhere to be seen under normal circumstances.
Such as the cultivation manual Lu Yang was currently holding.
"Boss, are you sure this book is the Qi Refinement manual used by Dao Seeking Sect's prodigy, Lu Yang?"
The stall owner gave his solemn guarantee. "How could it be fake? I have a distant relative in the Dao Seeking Sect! He brought this technique straight out of the sect!"
"Little brother, I can see you're in the Qi Refinement stage. Why not buy a copy and give it a try? I guarantee you'll soar to the heavens once you practice it, becoming a genius on par with Prodigy Lu!"
Without the yamen's supervision, one could also find a massive amount of counterfeit goods in the black market.
Lu Yang silently put it back. The forgery was simply too outrageous.
Then again, some fakes were a bit less brazen. For instance, right next to it was what claimed to be the latest edition of *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect*.
A closer look revealed that the title was actually *Legend of the Jiandao Sect*.
Thinking about it, the reason such a book appeared here was obvious: out in the wider world, copies of *Legend of the Dao Seeking Sect* flooded every street corner, so there was no point selling it in a black market. This was purely meant to fleece suckers with poor eyesight, or thin-skinned cultivators too embarrassed to put a book back once they picked it up.
Lu Yang even spotted a Purple-Gold Gourd that allegedly sucked anyone inside if you called their name and they answered.
A genuine Purple-Gold Gourd was worth more than this entire black market combined, and even a replica would be a dharma treasure prized by Soul Formation cultivators. Neither the real thing nor an authentic replica could possibly turn up here.
There were storage rings of various shapes and sizes, crafted by unknown artifact refinement masters with no guarantee of quality. Correspondingly, their prices were much lower than outside.
Some of these storage rings matched their descriptions, genuine articles crafted by uncertified masters; others looked authentic on the surface but were actually defective due to crafting mistakes—limited to a set number of uses before shattering into pieces. Only someone with deep knowledge of storage rings could spot the difference.
Talismans for warding off ghosts and expelling evil were also plentiful. Such items were hard to fake, and selling counterfeits carried a high risk of catastrophic accidents, so everything sold was the real deal. However, neither Lu Yang nor Meng Jingzhou needed them—a single drop of Meng Jingzhou's blood was more effective than a whole stack of talismans.
Against ghosts of his own cultivation level, Meng Jingzhou's pure yang energy was so overwhelming that merely emitting his aura was enough to melt them.
There were also enchanting female cultivators soliciting customers along the street, though both of them completely ignored them.
"How come there aren't things like bottled souls, eyeballs preserved in potion jars, or Soul-Summoning Banners?"
Halfway through their stroll, Lu Yang noted that while the atmosphere of the black market was just as he had imagined—gloomy and eerie as a haunted den—the merchandise being sold was vastly different from what he had pictured.
Meng Jingzhou cast a disdainful look at his good brother. "This black market exists to evade taxes."
"What you're talking about is a demonic black market. If I knew where one of those was, I'd have wiped out the whole nest and collected the bounty from the yamen! Why bother attending some Nascent Soul gathering? That'd make money far faster than this!"
Lu Yang had to admit Meng Jingzhou made a fair point.
"Here we are. This is the gathering place for us Nascent Soul eccentrics."
Meng Jingzhou pointed toward a luxurious palace. Built entirely of pitch-black stone, its eaves bore statues of rare, exotic beasts at all four corners, and a formation array blocked divine sense probes entirely. Two Golden Core cultivators stood guard at the entrance.
This was the location he had obtained from Dai Bufan; it was absolutely reliable.
Lu Yang turned to Meng Jingzhou. "Come to think of it, I never asked—what exactly is this self-reliant moneymaking method you mentioned?"
"Selling blood."
Chapter 650