Chapter 78: Young Master, Please Restrain Yourself

In the blink of an eye, Gu Changqing found himself in a secluded alley. He pulled a wig from his pocket and put it on, changed his clothes, and only then did he step out. On the street, after glancing around, he headed first to the Treasure Pavilion.

“Two advanced Azurewood Radiance Talismans, one Golden Light Protective Talisman, and two advanced Windwalk Talismans,” Gu Changqing stated directly.

The Azurewood Radiance Talisman and the Golden Light Protective Talisman had similar effects, differing only in that one was of wood element and the other of metal.

“Young master, the Azurewood Radiance and Golden Light Protective Talismans are each eighty spirit stones apiece, and the Windwalk Talisman is twenty,” the attendant at the Treasure Pavilion replied with a smile.

These prices were much higher than what Daoist White Elephant had told him. The Daoist never purchased talismans from such establishments, preferring the market where they were much cheaper—an advanced protective talisman for seventy spirit stones, though those were often out of stock even at that price.

Gu Changqing turned his spirit stone pouch upside down, and his expression soured at once. He had originally had three hundred sixty-nine stones, but after paying the inn for several days and giving Li Youling thirty, he was left with only two hundred eighty-nine. After this purchase, he’d be down to just nine.

He still needed to visit the market—would nine stones be enough?

“One Azurewood Radiance Talisman and one Golden Light Protective Talisman, then,” Gu Changqing said, rubbing his chin, before asking, “How can I appear more friendly and approachable?”

The young woman burst out laughing, then looked him over carefully before replying, “You have a commanding presence, young master—imposing even when at ease. Perhaps try a smile?”

Gu Changqing bared his teeth in a grin so wide it nearly reached his ears. The woman immediately felt a chill run down her spine, as if a fierce beast had bared its fangs at her.

“Young master, perhaps dial it back a little!”

“Am I not already dialed back enough?” Gu Changqing’s brows knit, making him look even more forbidding.

“Maybe a smaller smile…” the woman gestured at her own face.

“So troublesome!” he muttered.

She summoned a water mirror with a wave of her hand, reflecting his image. “Soften your gaze a bit… relax your brows… make the smile smaller… and don’t show your teeth…”

After the time it takes a stick of incense to burn, Gu Changqing was growing impatient.

“To be honest, you look much friendlier now… just relax your brow a little more…” the woman encouraged him patiently.

“Forget it!” Gu Changqing waved her off in frustration, tossing a handful of spirit stones onto the counter.

He’d thought that looking more approachable would help him fish for information, but quickly gave up on the idea. After all, cultivators weren’t ordinary folk—there was every kind of person among them, and such things likely went unnoticed.

After he left, the woman chuckled to herself. Fierce as this young man looked, he was rather amusing.

...

Following the directions he’d gathered earlier, Gu Changqing found the market, which was much like an open-air bazaar, brightly lit and teeming with people.

After all, who would come out during the day when they’re cultivating immortality?

At least several hundred cultivators were present, all at the Qi Refining stage, most of them in the early stages, and many well advanced in years—some with long, grizzled beards.

Gu Changqing couldn’t understand why their cultivation was so difficult—white-bearded and still at Qi Refining? What a waste of years; they’d be better off as wealthy landowners.

He made his way past each stall: spirit herbs, ores, magical implements, talismans, and various unknown odds and ends. There wasn’t much on display at each stall, and prices were all over the place—some items even cost more than at the Treasure Pavilion.

Of course, there were bargains too. He spotted a stall specializing in gourds, one of which could control water and cost only two-thirds of what the Treasure Pavilion charged—but it had two cracks at the base.

Gu Changqing glanced over the stalls without lingering; he wasn’t here to hunt for treasures—those were rare enough that it was better to focus on making money than chasing bargains.

A hundred meters in, he spotted a stall selling battered, tattered books. He crouched down to look—there were plenty of basic spell manuals and some travelogues and miscellaneous writings.

Gu Changqing picked up a few travelogues and leafed through them, mainly checking the first and last pages. If it were he hiding something, that’s where he’d put it.

“Are you buying or not?” growled the burly, dark-skinned man behind the stall, annoyed at seeing Gu Changqing flip through every book.

Though Gu Changqing looked fierce, the stall owner didn’t seem like a pushover either.

“A pile of trash and you treat it like treasure?” Gu Changqing sneered.

“What did you say?” The burly man stood up, glaring.

“And what’s the point of glaring at me? It’s still trash! Not happy? Want to settle it outside?” Gu Changqing said contemptuously.

At the mention of a fight, the man immediately fell silent, glared twice more, and sat back down. Though he was at the fifth level of Qi Refining and not weak for this market, cultivators at the eighth or ninth level rarely came here, and wouldn’t bother with such goods.

The market was mostly for low-level cultivators.

But seeing Gu Changqing’s overbearing attitude, the man lost his nerve.

“With a spine that soft, why bother cultivating? Useless!” Gu Changqing scoffed and swaggered off, musing that goading people didn’t seem to work too well.

A few dozen meters further, he found another bookstall. This time, after flipping through just a few books, he discovered one whose back cover was noticeably thicker than the others.

He checked the cover—it was an old travelogue from the Ancient Barbarian Mountains, battered and dog-eared.

“This one?” Gu Changqing felt he’d found what he was looking for and asked.

“Ten spirit stones,” the old man behind the stall replied, barely lifting his eyelids.

Normally, such books sold for three for a stone at most, or one for three if pricey.

If someone didn’t spot a hidden page, they’d just walk away. If they did, and knew the trick, they’d also leave. Only those unaware would think they’d stumbled upon a treasure, maybe trying to haggle or distract by buying other books.

But Gu Changqing simply tossed over ten stones, surprising the old man.

As Gu Changqing swaggered off, the old man exchanged glances with two cultivators across the street. It seemed they’d found a fat sheep.

Not long after Gu Changqing left, the three packed up and slipped away.

The burly man who had argued with Gu Changqing earlier watched this and sneered to himself. He figured this fellow must be a rogue cultivator from elsewhere, used to throwing his weight around and ignorant of local dangers. Once he left the city, he probably wouldn’t return.

After leaving, Gu Changqing tore open the last page of the book and, as expected, found a sheet of parchment thin as a cicada’s wing. At first glance it was blank, but held up to the light, intricate lines like capillaries formed a map.

“Tch, they really went to some effort,” Gu Changqing snorted.

“So, which way does this map lead?” He pondered for a moment, then shrugged—heading toward the Ancient Barbarian Mountains couldn’t be wrong, and he hadn’t planned to go to the map’s destination anyway.

Without wasting time, he headed straight for the city outskirts. Once there, he found that no one was tailing him—had he been too quick for them to follow? No matter; he’d wait outside the city for them instead.

He exited the city and found a hidden spot to sit. After all, there was only one city gate leading toward the Ancient Barbarian Mountains, so he couldn’t be far off.

...

Meanwhile, inside the city, three people had gathered together. One was the white-bearded old man Gu Changqing had met earlier; another, a striking woman in her thirties; and the last, a gaunt, sickly-looking man.

“Where did he go?” the woman raised a delicate brow. “He vanished the moment he left.”

“Why would he stick around after getting what he wanted? He’s likely somewhere in the city, reading through that travelogue and comparing it to the map. That should take at least a day, maybe longer if he seeks help from friends,” the old man sneered.

“He didn’t seem easy to provoke… I saw him argue with Yang Guangtian, and even Yang didn’t dare press him,” the sickly man hesitated.

“Yang Guangtian is just one man! Faced with someone fierce whose background he couldn’t gauge, of course he wouldn’t risk it,” the old man scoffed. “This kid isn’t from the Nine Mountains and Twelve Ridges—dealing with him won’t bring us trouble.”

Aside from local cultivators, many wandering immortals from Yongzhou traded here, but those from the Nine Mountains and Twelve Ridges were easily identified. Even sects like Lotus Ridge and Greenpeak Gorge, havens for independent cultivators, marked their members. The youth just now bore no such sign.

“Should we notify the Qi brothers?” the sickly man asked.

“The more hands involved, the more shares to split. Let’s wait outside the city and act accordingly. If he’s not alone, we can call in the Qi brothers then,” the woman decided.

“Agreed. Lady Tian’s magical implements are perfect for ambushes. If he’s alone, with our element of surprise, even a cultivator at the seventh or eighth level of Qi Refining would fall,” the old man said.

With their plan set, the three slipped out of the city under cover of night.