Chapter 56: Divine Artifact Pavilion

The stall owner's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he began to complain incessantly, "Brother Qin, just for these meticulously selected incantations alone, fifteen spirit stones is definitely not expensive... Fine! How much is Brother Qin willing to pay?"

Qin Sang frowned, appearing to be in the midst of a difficult decision, before finally gritting his teeth. "Four spirit stones at most!"

The stall owner's face fell. "Brother, you might as well go rob me! Absolutely not!"

It seemed he had truly lowballed him.

Hesitating, Qin Sang flipped through the book for a long while before taking out the Water Condensation Barrier Talisman and saying, "These incantations of yours are nothing out of the ordinary. To me, the only thing of value is this cultivation technique, but... how about this? This talisman is also worth ten spirit stones. I won't make you look for change; if you want to trade, we trade, if not, then forget it."

"Look for change? This Water Condensation Barrier is only worth six spirit stones..."

The stall owner rolled his eyes and muttered with a look of reluctance, but his movements were swift. He snatched the Water Condensation Barrier Talisman and slapped the *Nether Scripture* into Qin Sang's hand.

Having finally succeeded, Qin Sang desperately wanted to find a place to study it immediately, but he ultimately suppressed his eagerness and wandered around the plaza for two more laps, waiting for the right opportunity to gather some information.

The first thing he inquired about was spiritual roots.

No matter whom Qin Sang asked, everyone was in unanimous agreement: without spiritual roots, it was absolutely impossible to cultivate. Even several cultivators suspected of being from demonic sects said the same.

This made Qin Sang even more confused as to why he was so unique.

The second thing was Yin-煞 (Yin-煞) Qi—Yin-煞 energy.

As it turned out, for cultivators, Yin-煞 energy was common knowledge. Qin Sang had nearly been laughed at for asking about it.

Yin-煞 energy was a type of extremely frigid, malevolent energy born from heaven and earth. As for its origin, it was difficult to say clearly, but it was said that the highest concentrations of Yin-煞 energy were found on the battlefields of ancient immortal wars—places where mountains of corpses had accumulated. Due to certain special reasons, Yin-煞 energy would gradually gestate there.

Without protective means, staying in Yin-煞 energy for a long time would not only affect one's cultivation, but even those with bodies as strong as a cultivator would find it difficult to escape the misfortune of the malevolent energy entering their bodies and causing death.

Except for extremely rare secret techniques or magical artifacts that could utilize Yin-煞 energy, ordinary cultivators were best off avoiding it from a distance.

Of course, general cultivators did not need to worry much about this; Yin-煞 energy was very rare and mostly manifested in dark, hidden places, making it even harder to encounter.

Upon learning about Yin-煞 energy, Qin Sang felt more worry than joy, and his heart gradually sank to the bottom.

Since Yin-煞 energy was so hard to find, would he have to repeat his old trick—finding a nation in the midst of a great war, hiding in the secular world, and collecting souls?

Now that he knew about the Youshan Market and had a channel to contact the cultivation world, retreating to the secular world was not impossible.

However, on one hand, dealing with secular entanglements would waste time; on the other hand, as Qin Sang's realm grew higher, he could clearly feel that using purely mortal souls to generate Soul Cores was too inefficient to support his cultivation needs.

Unless he slaughtered hundreds or thousands of people at once.

It would be better to stay in the Youshan Market for a while longer to see if he could find information on where Yin-煞 energy existed; it was unlikely anyone would compete with him for such a thing.

After wandering for so long, the sky had gradually grown dim, and the crowds in the plaza were thinning. Qin Sang decided to find an inn in the market and stay for a while.

Before doing so, however, Qin Sang found a deserted spot and quietly took out the jade plate.

Even the youth surnamed Han had misunderstood the jade plate, thinking it was a token of the Youshan Market.

The misty light on the jade plate did not dissipate for a long time, still pointing toward the depths of the bluestone streets. Following the guidance of the jade plate, Qin Sang walked and stopped, finally coming to a halt in front of a three-story wooden building.

The plaque on the wooden building read: Divine Artifact Pavilion.

The entire street was lined with various kinds of shops, yet the doors and windows of this Divine Artifact Pavilion were tightly shut. Qin Sang watched for a while but did not see a single customer emerge.

*With such an arrogant name, could it have gone bankrupt?* Qin Sang thought, not entirely without malice.

A shopkeeper from a nearby store noticed him and asked, "Is little brother also here to buy magical artifacts after hearing about the Divine Artifact Pavilion?"

Qin Sang's heart stirred. He stepped forward, his gaze sweeping the area, and noticed that the shopkeeper's store was filled with things like beast skins and bones. However, what cultivators sold were not ordinary beast skins and bones; they likely came from demon beasts.

"Qin Sang greets Senior," Qin Sang said, cupping his hands. "I have indeed come because of its reputation, but I do not know why the Divine Artifact Pavilion's doors are tightly shut?"

Seeing that Qin Sang's conduct was respectful, the shopkeeper found him pleasing to the eye and was happy to say a few more words. "Little brother Qin may not know, but the Divine Artifact Pavilion only opens its doors for one day every middle of the month. You have come too early; you'll have to wait another two days."

Qin Sang was astonished. "It only opens for one day in the middle of the month?"

*Who conducts business like that?*

"Little brother Qin may not know," the shopkeeper's face showed a deep sense of envy, "the master of the Divine Artifact Pavilion likely comes from a great sect of artifact refining. The artifacts they sell are all masterpieces with transcendent refining techniques; they never worry about sales. The reason there are so many people in the market now is all because of the Divine Artifact Pavilion. Every time they put out artifacts, they are snatched up in less than a day, and some people even drive up the prices against each other to compete for them. This kind of skill is something we rogue cultivators can only envy. The rent for a shop like this isn't even worth the profit from a single artifact; of course, they don't care."

*So they truly are capable.*

Qin Sang understood. It seemed that in the cultivation world, one also needed a specialized skill to be popular. However, since even cultivation was currently a problem for him, and he had neither the energy nor the channels to learn artifact refining or alchemy, he cupped his hands to the shopkeeper and asked, "May I ask Senior, is a token or something similar required to enter and buy things?"

"I haven't heard of that," the shopkeeper said hesitantly. "This old man has meager assets, and since I practice fire-element techniques, most of the artifacts sold by the Divine Artifact Pavilion carry a hint of Yin-coldness, which is not suitable for me. Thus, I have only been to the first floor. I have heard that the second and third floors sell high-grade or even top-grade artifacts, so there might be requirements."

After thanking the shopkeeper, Qin Sang walked toward the exit of the bluestone street while thinking to himself that the jade plate was likely a token for the Divine Artifact Pavilion.

In small and medium-sized auctions in his past life, such things were not uncommon—creating a gimmick similar to a membership, claiming that only those with status and position were qualified to participate, which instantly boosted the prestige.

The shopkeeper didn't even dare to go up there; as a poor man himself, he certainly had no use for it.

After finding an inn, he spent a large sum to rent a small courtyard. After eating, Qin Sang closed the courtyard gate, suppressed the excitement in his heart, and took out the two copies of the *Nether Scripture*.

He cross-referenced the first six layers one by one, and finding no errors, Qin Sang finally felt at ease. Holding the two copies of the *Nether Scripture*, he fell into deep thought.

He had originally thought the Yama Banner was a matching artifact for the *Nether Scripture*, so he had always regarded the *Nether Scripture* as an evil demonic cultivation technique.

As it turned out, whether it was the demonic or righteous path, the fundamental cultivation techniques were the same: drawing the five elements of spiritual energy from heaven and earth into the body to temper oneself; there was no distinction between righteous and evil. Only then did Qin Sang realize how ridiculous his previous thoughts had been.

But just because a technique had no distinction between righteous and evil did not mean the practitioner had none. Absorbing human souls to increase one's cultivation was, in Qin Sang's view, nothing short of the demonic path.