Chapter 57: True Yang Precious Jade

Chen Lin felt somewhat helpless.

It seemed the Bai family had truly reached a dead end, to the point where they were treating a complete stranger with unknown origins as a life-saving straw.

To offer their daughter in marriage upon a single meeting was simply absurd.

Naturally, he could not agree. He declined, saying, "Miss Bai Lingshan is undoubtedly blessed with excellent temperament and appearance, but I have no fixed residence and my future is uncertain. I fear I have no destiny with Miss Bai."

A flash of disappointment crossed Father Bai's face, but he remained unwilling to give up. "Fellow Daoist Lin may not know, but although my daughter lacks cultivation, she does possess a spiritual root. It is merely too weak, and because our family has fallen into decline and lacks resources, she has been unable to succeed in Qi Refinement."

Chen Lin was speechless.

To not have succeeded in Qi Refinement even in her twenties, one could only imagine how weak that spiritual root must be.

It was even worse than his own.

What would be the point of using resources to pile up enough to reach the first level of Qi Refinement with such mediocre talent?

Perhaps the only benefit would be a much higher chance of having children with spiritual roots, but he had no intention of establishing a cultivation clan, so it was utterly useless.

This time, he didn't even bother to speak, remaining in silence.

Father Bai sighed. "Since Fellow Daoist Lin is single-mindedly devoted to the Dao, then this old man shall change his request."

"There is a Baoguang Pavilion in the southern market district, which is an enterprise of the Kaoshan Sect. They possess a piece of True Yang Jade. As long as you can obtain this jade, I will give you the recipe for the Spirit Nourishing Pill—and it is the complete, improved version. Furthermore, I also possess a special sword technique, which I shall grant to you as well!"

...

Chen Lin left the Bai residence with a frown, declining Bai Yunyue's offer to see him out.

All the way back to the inn, he pondered the terms of the trade.

According to Father Bai, the True Yang Jade could dispel the evil aura within his body, and only the Baoguang Pavilion in Gu Yuan City held one.

This jade was extremely rare and highly valuable. The Bai family could not afford the spirit stones, and since the entire city's cultivators were aware of the situation involving the Bai and Li families, no one was willing to risk offending the Li family to help them.

The Li family itself wasn't exceptionally powerful, but they were backed by alchemists from the Kaoshan Sect. One could afford to offend the Li family, but no one dared to offend an alchemist.

Moreover, even if they could scrape together enough spirit stones, the Bai family wouldn't be able to buy it from Baoguang Pavilion; the establishment was a property of the Kaoshan Sect.

Father Bai had spoken sincerely and with great indignation, but Chen Lin felt the man was certainly hiding something.

The Li family had just been sabotaged by Li Zhongshan, and suddenly the Baoguang Pavilion was selling True Yang Jade specifically used to treat evil auras entering the body—how could such a coincidence exist?

And of course, this Baoguang Pavilion happened to be a property of the Kaoshan Sect.

Wasn't it obvious they were waiting for the Bai family to yield, come knocking on their door, and proactively offer up the pill recipe!

Chen Lin had been hesitating all the way back to the inn.

He truly craved the Spirit Nourishing Pill recipe, but if he went to purchase the jade, he would inevitably be seen by the Li family as being in league with the Bai family. Trouble would follow in waves, and his current abilities might not be enough to withstand it.

The crux of the matter was that the jade was likely placed there as bait; even if he went to buy it, they might not necessarily sell it to him!

"Forget it, I'll wait and see for now."

Chen Lin shook his head, temporarily abandoning the idea of trading with the Bai family.

"Once the trade fair begins, I'll see if I can buy other items to resolve the side effects of the Enlightenment Pill. If not, then I'll reconsider this recipe."

Having made his decision, Chen Lin's heart felt lighter.

After returning to his room, he swallowed a Primordial Pill and began to meditate.

Once the medicinal effects were refined and he felt his cultivation had progressed slightly, he couldn't help but let out a satisfied smile.

He had originally wanted to refine some Thunderbolt Beads, but the process was too noisy, and since he was in an inn, he had to abandon the idea.

Instead, he set up a warning device at his door and lay down on the bed to rest.

The next morning.

Chen Lin left the inn early. He had once again transformed into the burly man from the previous day and headed to an agency within the city.

He wanted to rent a house.

It wasn't that he wanted to live there permanently, but rather to make the refining of items more convenient.

Whether making Thunderbolt Beads or refining pills, the commotion was significant; it was too inconvenient in an inn.

Even during the day, it would be too conspicuous.

To a cultivator, the gold and silver of the mortal world were no different from scrap metal; obtaining them was far too easy.

He took a gemstone he had kept for fun from Kaiyuan City, and after selling it, he obtained a large sum of silver.

When one doesn't care about money, things proceed smoothly, and he quickly secured a small courtyard.

It was very small and quite remote, with no neighbors on either side, but it was exactly to Chen Lin's liking.

The agency worker took the silver Chen Lin gave as a tip and left happily.

Chen Lin carefully inspected the courtyard from all sides before beginning to refine Thunderbolt Beads inside.

At night, he switched to refining Primordial Pills.

He never returned to that inn again.

Several days passed in a flash.

This day was the start of the trade fair. Chen Lin packed his things, left the courtyard, and headed straight for the southern market district.

This time was entirely different from his last visit.

To describe it as a sea of people might be an exaggeration, but the flow of people was continuous.

However, regardless of their cultivation level, all the cultivators were walking on the ground rather than flying, which could be considered a form of respect to the organizers of the trade fair.

Blending into the crowd, Chen Lin felt the relaxed atmosphere and was quite content.

Although he was still a low-level cultivator, his mood was now completely different from when he was in Kaiyuan City; it was a sense of freedom, as if he had broken through his shackles and been reborn.

Even though dust was flying on the road, he felt as though the air carried a captivating fragrance.

This feeling was truly wonderful!

While observing the behavior of the surrounding cultivators, Chen Lin also checked to see if there were any acquaintances from Kaiyuan City, like Han Lingyue.

He walked all the way into the textile market without seeing a single one.

His mood lightened even further.

But thinking about it, this was normal.

The Dream-Severing Mountain Range covered a vast area. Those capable of cutting the "red lines" were members of the five great families or those who had obtained slots from them; their cultivation was basically at the late stage of Qi Refinement, or at least the middle stage.

If they were using flying spells or controlling magical tools to fly, they could emerge from any direction.

Furthermore, he had wandered around the mountains for about a month and had no idea how far he had drifted from Kaiyuan City; meeting Han Lingyue there would have been a great coincidence.

Inside the market district.

It could truly be described as a sea of people. Not only were there many cultivators touring and shopping, but the stallholders had occupied the entire area, and the various shops were overflowing with customers.

Chen Lin was instantly excited, feeling as though his eyes couldn't take it all in as he looked at this and that.

Soon, he purchased a significant amount of materials for Thunderbolt Beads and about twenty sets of materials for Primordial Pills.

This made him even more excited.

However, despite the excitement, the spirit stones in his pocket were mostly spent.

He could only watch.

But he had been prepared; he consulted the Zhao Merchant House and confirmed that he only needed to pay ten low-grade spirit stones to set up a stall for a day, so he immediately rented a spot.

Unfortunately, the prime locations were long gone, leaving him with only a remote spot in the innermost area.

(End of Chapter)