Lin Wei survived the plunge, his Gliding Technique allowing him to safely reach the treacherous foothills. He spent three days in hiding, meditating on his newfound power. The jump had shaken his Qi, but the intense refinement from the devoured Spirit Herb quickly stabilized him at the peak of the Ninth Level. He was stuck, unable to break the barrier to Foundation Establishment without a catalyst—the final piece of the puzzle.
He traveled east, using his heightened senses to avoid patrol routes, until he reached the edge of the Jade Gates Prefecture, a sprawling territory ruled not by a single sect, but by a chaotic mix of mercantile clans and rogue cultivators. The central hub was the Whispering City, a lawless haven known for its black markets and its disregard for the Azure Sky Sect's authority.
To survive, Lin Wei had to shed his identity. He burned his servant's robes, donned a simple, dark traveling cloak purchased with a low-grade Spiritual Stone he had kept hidden, and adopted the demeanor of a minor, wandering Qi Condensation expert. He needed resources and information, and the black market was the fastest route.
He entered the Whispering City and was immediately overwhelmed. The air pulsed with a thousand different kinds of Qi—merchants, thugs, scholars, and cultivators of varying levels mingled freely. Lin Wei was a needle in a haystack.
He quickly found the infamous Shadow Alley Market, a crowded underbelly where illegal goods and forbidden knowledge exchanged hands. He focused his Void Eye Edict, not on the goods, but on the sellers and their discarded energies.
He spotted a vendor selling rusty, discarded alchemical tools. The air around the vendor reeked of highly volatile, impure Fire Element Qi.
Lin Wei approached, his voice muffled by the cloak. "These tools... they look like the waste from a failed batch of Blaze Pills."
The vendor, a shifty man with a nervous twitch, froze. "They're vintage, young master. Collector's items."
Lin Wei inwardly scoffed. Blaze Pills are incredibly potent but prone to explosion. The vendor is sitting near the remnants of a failed detonation.
"I will take the entire crate," Lin Wei said, dropping five low-grade Spiritual Stones onto the counter. "And I want the residue on the ground, too. It's... good for polishing."
The vendor, relieved to be rid of the highly-charged but worthless metal, happily accepted the money. Lin Wei had just purchased a small crate of useless junk, but also a massive cache of explosive, unrefined Fire Qi embedded in the surrounding soil—a feast for the Void Eye.