Li Ling pretended not to see her fear and picked up the manual that was crimson in color with an air of sanguine malice about it. It almost literally radiated a bloody aura that formed a miasma, causing the blood in Li Ling's hands to boil as he held it.
Amazed, Li Ling turned to her. "Is this really just a Qi Refinement level technique?"
Seeing that Li Ling actually dared to grasp it and could hold it, her pupils shrank slightly. "N-No… and yes. What we have is the Mortal Flesh chapter, made free by the Six Paths Demon Sect in Tianmo Empire. The full technique goes up to the Soul Merging Realm at the least."
Oh?
Li Ling raised his eyebrows at that revelation, feeling that this young girl was more cunning than she let on. It might have seemed par for the course, but revealing the origin of the technique as well as higher paths for it was a common business tactic in the cultivation world to raise the price of a technique.
After all, if a technique was a one-off that could not advance past a certain realm, its value would not be comparable to a technique that had a higher cutoff point. In this case, the Blood Asura Descent that could reach the Soul Merging level would be extremely expensive beyond anything he had ever bought before.
But of course, since it was just the first stage, it would not be too ridiculous.
"Hmm, how much?" Li Ling eventually inquired, satisfied with this technique, especially knowing that it could be used for a long time.
"Exactly 30 spirit stones, Sir," the girl replied quickly, her eyes darting from the manual that was still radiating malice to Li Ling, who was unfazed while holding it.
Li Ling was stunned for the first time today. "Huh? 30 spirit stones? How?"
The lass understood Li Ling's confusion and explained gingerly. "This is the flat price for this technique, sold anywhere in the marketplace. In fact, this is the flat price throughout Firmament Heaven, set by the Six Paths Demon Sect themselves."
Li Ling immediately understood as he glanced at the manuscript in hand. The Six Paths Demon Sect purposefully spread the first level of the technique out and made it affordable compared to its true value in order to find talents for their sect.
Someone who bought this technique and cultivated it, assuming it was good and had few drawbacks compared to typical demonic sect techniques, would naturally travel over to their domain to try and get the later versions, ending up joining their fold.
It was quite a clever plan.
This also explained why the number 9 marketplace of a righteous sect would sell something like this. Li Ling had heard of the Six Paths Demon Sect and knew that they were a behemoth sect that occupied at least one tenth of the entire Firmament Heaven's landmass as part of their territory.
The Qing Shan Sect, seen as a pillar figure in this region, only accounted for more than one hundredth of the total Firmament Heaven landmass or less. Its highest powers were also public, with a Sect Master at Soul Formation and an old Ancestor at the Dao Integration Realm.
Meanwhile, the Six Paths Demon Sect had people who had ascended to the Upper World and even had a sect up there linked to the one here. Such a massive sect, if they said to distribute their entry-level technique, who dared to say no?
The Qing Shan Sect definitely would not allow its own disciples to learn it, but these external fodder living in the market were free to waste their money on that poisonous technique if they so wished.
Understanding this, Li Ling relaxed and bought the technique, handing over 30 spirit stones and 5 spirit shards. When the lass received it, she was excited until she saw the extra, raising her head to glance with puzzlement at Li Ling.
"For you, a small tip." Li Ling said, placing the manuals into his spirit ring openly, without showing the ring itself.
All the people around, few as they were, saw that the plentiful books disappeared. More than a dozen eyes flashed with brilliant light, understanding that this was either a storage treasure or likely a bag. Even if they were to overestimate, none dared to believe that a mere Qi Refinement level 4 like Li Ling would have a storage bag or even a void ring.
The young lass also saw this and her face changed greatly. She seemed particularly distressed, looking up and down the road to see that countless eyes were already looking over and saw the whole thing. She could not help but pout and grab Li Ling's hand, pulling him into the main store quickly.
Li Ling's eyes flashed with the impulse to impale her for daring to grab him, but this was not the place or the time for fighting. He still needed number 9 marketplace for a few things before he caused a bloodbath, so he simply wore a confused smile that seemed innocent enough.
"Sir, you can't show off your storage treasure like that on the street, it will give others bad ideas!" the young lass complained, taking Li Ling straight to the second floor, which was far quieter than the main floor and the outside.
Li Ling chuckled. "This is the marketplace, right? With the Market Guards here, what do they dare to do?"
"This…" The young lass turned to glance at Li Ling with a pitying look, clearly taking him for someone not fluent in the ways of the world.
"The Market Guards only investigate cases, and their preventive measures are only the market array that monitors everything. Many times, some killings and robberies that are tacitly allowed by them happen, and no one can seek redress for you if that happens." The girl explained, finally bringing Li Ling to an older woman who seemed to be in her late twenties, with black hair curled up into a grandma bun while wearing a western corset over a white long-sleeved blouse and a long black skirt that reached her ankles.
Li Ling's eyes narrowed when he inspected her not only because she had a cultivation base at the eighth level of Qi Refinement, but also because she was a relatively rare specimen in the Firmament Heaven cultivation world.
Now, as a developed cultivation world, it was impossible for the entire planet or plane to have only one biome and one singular landmass with no seas. Naturally, this meant that unlike in cultivation fiction from earth, Firmament Heaven was not homogeneous in terms of diversity.
On their current continent, Tianming, the prevalent race were humans, specifically humans with the Asiatic archetype, who spoke a language less complex than Mandarin with a culture that was eerily similar to Ancient China on earth.
Tianming was surrounded by seas on all sides that contained various aquatic demon beasts, spirit beasts and even sapient sea races like fishmen, behemoths and the mer race. In every direction were other continents, though reaching them required difficult air or sea travel, and were populated by either humans or demon beasts depending on how life developed there.
But even just on Tianming Continent, there were different kinds of humans. There were the majority of racial varieties on earth like those with dark skin, those with cream-colored skin and even those with purple, blue or green skin, though Li Ling had yet to see those.
This woman was clearly a member of one of these separate sub-races of humanity, which resembled the western Caucasian of earth. Here, they were called the Sage Race, or Sage Humans, because they not only practiced a different culture, with a strong focus on the pursuit of knowledge, but their power system was also different.
The ambient spirit qi in the air they called mana and used it to perform magic.
Li Ling was familiar with it as the Sage Race were the most closely connected to the Yanhuang humans, which was what the majority of Asian-like humans on Tianming called themselves.
In his travels he had passed a few regions or areas controlled by Sage Humans, privy to feats of magic and their basic power system. However, as much as it sounded interesting, Sage Humans were fundamentally too few and their power system could not climb as high as Qi cultivation.
Even on other continents, the most practiced power system was that of Qi cultivation or Body Refinement, so alternative power systems were rare. Even if they existed, they were not as detailed or as extensive as cultivation, often falling short and leading those who used them to become like tourists in another's country.
"Senior Sister, I need to use the backdoor exit for a customer!" the young girl said to the western-like woman.
The woman finally raised her head from the tome she was perusing, revealing bright blue pupils full of calm intelligence and a face that was definitely beautiful, unblemished and perfectly symmetrical. When her eyes fell on her junior sister, there was a hint of impatience, but this was tempered by her glance onto Li Ling… which also became impatient.
"Hmmm. Here is the key." She said coldly, throwing over an array plate that was caught by the young lass clumsily.
"Thanks~ Come on!" She thanked her senior sister, who ignored her, and then pulled at Li Ling.
Li Ling contemplated calmly, glancing at the western woman once more and feeling that the inner area of the marketplace was quite interesting. He had only been here for a few minutes and had already seen a rarity in the cultivation world, leading him to wonder if he would see the other sub-races of humanity deeper within.
The young lady led Li Ling through a small door at the back of the counter, passing through a long corridor that went down to a secluded back alley which was quiet, only having empty boxes and unprocessed packages aplenty.
The young lass turned to Li Ling with a smile. "Alright Sir! You should be able to find your way home from here and throw off those greedy eyes from earlier!"
Li Ling looked left and right, seeing that there was indeed no one around, and nodded with gratitude. "Thank you for bringing me here. What's your name?"
"Me? I am Qiu Yaoli! And you don't need to thank me, it's simply protocol to let our big customers pass through the backdoor when they make big purchases that might attract covetous attention." She answered easily, leading Li Ling towards the route that would bring him back to the main boulevard.
"And what's the name of that Sage Race woman from before?" Li Ling asked with interest.
"Oh her? That's Senior Sister Cai Dong. She changed her name after being adopted by the shopkeeper and she is the Young Miss of our Yu Lian Shop!" Qiu Yaoli answered while checking left and right at the alley junction.
She seemed to realize something and turned to Li Ling with a raised eyebrow. "Huh? Don't tell me you are interested in our young miss?"
"Maybe, maybe not. She looks quite interesting and I've heard that the Sage Race have some special methods to cultivate the mind and soul." Li Ling admitted frankly, not at all feeling awkward.
Qiu Yaoli openly sized Li Ling up then gave him a look of pity. "Sir, I don't mean to be rude but… it won't work out. My Senior Sister is dedicated to her studies, she hardly even has time for the shopkeeper, much less romance."
Li Ling smiled gently. "It's not a problem. Even if she is the kind who doesn't care for others, it's quite easy to make her chase after me."
Qiu Yaoli seemed puzzled, tilting her head rather cutely. "How?"
"By giving her a reason to." Li Ling came to stand before the young lady and gently placed his hands on her neck, crushing it with ease the next moment as the light within her eyes dimmed rapidly.
He placed the corpse into his other void ring and glanced around with the Qi Seeking Technique before making his way back to the marketplace, as his shopping spree was not done.