Immortal Freeloader 63 (Patreon)

Once I had settled in the valley, I had carefully cut some branches from four dark thistles to not to damage plants … then mutilated the separated branches until they looked like they were harvested by complete amateur that survived only by sheer luck. 

That reduced the value significantly, but it was better than revealing that I was an expert when it came to harvesting. It should be still enough to exchange for some talisman papers. Which was important, because I couldn’t just exchange Profound High-Grade talismans again in the same identity without arousing suspicion. 

The only reason I dared to leave those plants was the protective charms at the entrance. After all, slowly raising a garden of spirit plants to give Qi was too obvious of a strategy. And, the situation of Aisnam’s aunt — or great aunt — showed that it was actually a workable strategy. Yet, no itinerant cultivator tried that.

The reason wasn’t hard to guess. A spirit plant garden was too easy to rob. The old woman had the Verdant family to take revenge for her, not to mention her cultivation was high enough to make that intimidating. 

The same didn’t apply to my little garden. If it wasn’t for the two protective talismans keeping the Qi locked in, I wouldn’t have dared to set up a garden, even a temporary one. The risk of discovery would have been too high. 

With that little task done, I returned to the cultivation market, and once again visited the same stall. As much as changing my looks to use another identity was tempting, it was clear that the market didn’t have a lot of new visitors, and multiple new visitors, each selling suspiciously expensive talismans would be too suspicious. 

“Did you manage to get more talisman ink and paper?” I asked. 

“Yes. As long as you can pay,” he said. 

“Here,” I said as I showed him the dark thistle needles. 

“One spiritual stone,” he offered, which was a more fair price than the extreme gouging of the talismans. Understandable, as unlike talismans, the common products had more or less standardized products. I made the exchange. “Do you need more talisman paper?” he asked. 

“As much as you have,” I said. “First, give me a bundle for the spirit stone,” I said. He passed me twenty of them, and I checked the paper. The quality was once again horrendous. An ordinary talisman maker could never draw anything 

Worse, he had a sheet of ordinary paper mixed in, modified slightly to look like talisman paper. That one, I pulled off and slid back. Not because I cared about the loss, but if I let him slide that one, I had a feeling the next bundle would be all paper. “This one is too low quality,” I said. 

He replaced it immediately. “Any progress,” he asked. 

“Soon,” I said with an enthusiastic smile like I actually believed that to be possible. “So, give me all the paper you have.” 

“That’s all I have,” he said, and gave me sixty more papers, and I gave him three spirit stones, reducing my reserves into seven of them. 

I walked around the market a while more, trying to find something interesting. I kept my eyes open, particularly to see if there were any seeds or other items, but none of the stall owners were bothering to sell something like that, only buying. Understandable, as they were hardy something an itinerant cultivator would be interested in buying. 

Instead, the real valuable stuff was the weapons and the pills, but considering how I had been fleeced while exchanging for talisman materials, I didn’t dare to touch them. Who knew if they might explode in my hands or poison me. 

At this point, other than talisman paper, purchasing anything wasn’t valuable. I spent some time hanging at the market, watching to see if anyone used the Treasure Pavilion to make an exchange. I had to watch for a long time to see a cultivator go there. 

He was a middle-aged cultivator, and he was alone. Also, from the reaction of the people, he was clearly far stronger than the rest of the market. Just by walking, I could feel the pressure he radiated. People stayed away, but their gazes felt familiar. I had seen the same kind of gaze while looking at celebrities. 

Once he left, the fascinated whispers about the great cultivator Aom revealed the reason. He turned out to be a Foundation Establishment cultivator and to make him even more impressive for the rest, he was also an itinerant one, turning him into a true idol for the rest. 

He revealed an identical token to one I had in my possession, pressed it against the door, and it opened. I barely got a glimpse, and saw a beautiful woman greeting him, a glimpse enough to confirm that she was a Connate realm artist. 

Interestingly, that made the mysterious building even more dangerous. 

After seeing that, I decided that I could make the exchange. However, I still had a week to kill before visiting the store, so I visited the misty mountains again, and managed to find some endless blossoms. 

I uprooted them and brought them back to my cave, which increased the Qi density somewhat, enough for me to use up all sixty talisman papers. However, this time, I had used most of it to create purification talismans. 

Since I couldn’t sell those made of inferior paper, I wanted to turn them into future investments for Aisnam. 

Once that was done, I uprooted the spirit plants from the cave, carried them back to the misty mountains, and replanted them once again in a secluded corner in case I visited this place again. Then, I cut four more branches from the dark thistles, collected some seeds from them, and visited the market again. 

Once I arrived at the market, I met with a sight that proved that my caution was not for nothing. Two young cultivators, wandering at the market without doing anything, each using the Thousand Petals Gate Transformation Technique for their cultivation, which I only recognized at a glance because my proficiency was at Perfection.

Disciples of Verdant family.

It looked like my caution was not for nothing. If I made the purchase earlier, I could have got away without getting caught, but it would have also revealed I was moving far faster than a martial artist was supposed to be moving, let alone one that was yet to reach Bone Forging. 

I visited the stall again. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any more talisman paper yet,” he said. I suspected that the rest of the paper I received had come from the stock of the other stalls he collected. 

“Too bad. Maybe you’ll have some for the next time,” I said as I passed the mangled thistle branch and some endless blossom petals, enough for two-spirit stones that had almost no Qi. Still, that was good enough. 

With that, I left the market, thinking of finding myself an escape path. No one would attack me at the market, especially since the disciples they send to apprehend me wasn’t too strong. One advantage of being an expert in their technique, I was able to assess their cultivation level easily. Both of them were at the Third Stage, and I was confident of dealing with them. 

The trick was to do so without escalating. I had no doubt that, if I killed them, it would create a lot of trouble, and even without that, I wasn’t willing to do so. Unfortunately, while I would be more willing to just break their cultivation, I had a feeling that Verdant Family would take that insult in stride. 

One good thing, I expected them to wait until they could ambush me. Clearly, the pill I planned to purchase was valuable enough to make it worth their time, so I expected them to wait until I couldn’t easily destroy it or something. 

After spending more than two weeks here, I had a general idea about the layout of the place. I picked a nice valley for me, close to the misty mountains, and used my apothecary skills to create a ridiculous number of smoke bombs, enough to envelop a couple miles radius once triggered. 

Once that was done, I created a few rock traps and other distractions as well. They wouldn’t have worked against cultivators, even the Third Stage ones, but the bigger the commotion, the better. 

“It should be enough … but will it be,” I muttered, and after some thought, I decided to make another preparation. I took a meditative pose, reached into my Inventory, and pulled a Qi Strand to feed into my second gate. Then another … and another. 

Breaking through and properly reinforcing my cultivation took thirty Qi strands, almost three times the previous breakthrough, which once again proved the annoyingly exponential nature of my cultivation … though, I doubted if another cultivator would have shared my opinion, considering I broke through smoothly, with no hidden injury. 

A lot of cultivators, particularly ones without a family and master to guide them, broke through forcefully, which left them with hidden wounds. The mild cases might just limit their power a bit, and in serious cases, backlash could be deadly. 

I learned a lot from the random discussions at the market. 

With that done, I followed up with another, even easier breakthrough, which brought me to the peak of Skin Refinement. 

Now, I was ready to make the exchange.