The Shadow Market never slept. At the bottom of the Weeping Wind Gorge, an eternal twilight reigned, dispelled only by the sickly-yellow light of oil lanterns and the dim flicker of cheap protective formations. The air here was heavy, saturated with the stench of rotting demonic beast flesh, the sweetish haze of rare herbs, and dried blood.
Xuan Li pulled the hood of his bloodstained robe tighter and stepped into the narrow, dirty alleyway teeming with people.
There were no proud disciples in clean silks here. Deserters, mercenaries with scars covering half their faces, exiled alchemists, and outright bandits scurried past him. Everyone he met instinctively hid their hands beneath their cloaks, ready to draw a weapon at any moment.
System, continuous background scanning. Track anyone who approaches closer than two steps, Li commanded mentally.
[Background monitoring protocol initiated. Activating malicious traffic filters.]
Malicious traffic? Your strange words again. What does that mean?
[Answer: Identification of entities with active killing intent. Translation: The System will filter the general aura of the crowd and highlight those whose spiritual energy is focused on you with hostile intent.]
This was perfectly timed. Xuan Li had barely walked a few dozen meters when the magic of the ancient ring slightly burned his finger. In the crowd, the hunched figure of a beggar was highlighted with a dim red outline, his hand stealthily reaching for the spatial bag on the youth's belt. Li didn't even slow his pace—he simply shifted his body slightly, and in that same instant, his heavy boot came crashing down directly onto the thief's ankle. A quiet crunch echoed; the beggar let out a muffled whimper as he collapsed into the mud, while Xuan Li calmly kept walking.
He needed to fence the Shadow Panther core and acquire alchemy to break through to the 7th stage of Body Tempering. The token bearing a grinning skull burned against his chest, but venturing into the central branches of the Underground Guilds was too risky—they asked too many questions. He needed a smaller merchant. One who would evaluate the goods, not the seller's origin.
His gaze caught on a small stall in the darkest corner of the market. The counter was cobbled together from rough boards, and upon it lay a chaotic mess of low-grade beast bones, bundles of withered Cleansing Grass, and murky vials of questionable potions. Ordinary trash that not even a novice disciple of the Outer Peak would buy.
A girl sat behind the counter. She wore a frayed, dusty cloak that hid her figure, and a simple gray cloth covered half her face. She lazily sorted through some roots, her entire demeanor displaying absolute indifference to her surroundings.
Li narrowed his eyes. Something about this picture felt wrong. Trash peddlers at the Shadow Market usually barked at customers like rabid dogs, trying to pawn off their goods for even half a copper coin. But this girl sat there as if trading were merely a boring backdrop for her.
System. Evaluate the target behind the counter, Li ordered, stepping closer.
The interface blinked blue, preparing to issue a standard summary of a weak cultivator, but suddenly a blindingly red warning screen flashed before Li's eyes.
[Warning: Critical scanning error! Massive energy anomaly of unknown origin detected.] [Target Status: True Qi density is blocked by a high-order multi-level cipher. Exact level determination is impossible until a system update.] [Alert: In the event of target's core detonation, the blast radius will exceed the area of the current location by 14 times. Direct conflict is highly discouraged.]
Xuan Li stopped abruptly. On the level of spiritual perception, the ring's magic literally screamed in terror. Through the dim, pitiful aura of the 4th stage of Body Tempering that the girl projected, Li sensed something else for a fraction of a second. It was as if someone had tried to stuff a raging ocean of primordial flame into an old wooden chest, binding it with thousands of heavy, venomous chains.
This was no street peddler sitting before him. This was a slumbering monster whose true power lay somewhere beyond the comprehension of the entire Blazing Plum Order. A genius of the Central Plains cast down to the bottom? Or an ancient monster in human guise?
The girl raised her head, and their eyes met. Her eyes were dark, deep, and absolutely calm. They held not a drop of the fear typical of the inhabitants of this gorge.
"If you're just going to stand there and stare at my trash, you're blocking the light," her voice sounded even, carrying slight notes of cold irony. "But if you want to buy this magnificent Rotten Tooth Root, that'll be two spirit stones."
Xuan Li slowly approached the counter, keeping his face locked in a mask of complete indifference, even though every instinct screamed at him to run as far away from this girl as possible.
"Rotten Tooth Root is only good for poisoning stray dogs," he replied calmly, pulling the Shadow Panther core, which pulsed faintly with dark energy, from his robes. "But I think you buy more than just trash. I need to break through the sixth stage, and I need pure alchemy. No unnecessary questions, and no guild markups."
The girl's gaze swept over the core, then shifted to Xuan Li's hands, which were coated in the fresh blood of guards. A sharp, calculating gleam flashed in her eyes for a moment.
"A second-tier panther core. Fresh. Extracted hastily, but the channels are undamaged," she said, and her voice suddenly lost its street rasp, becoming clear and commanding. "Three Blood Condensation Pills. That is my price."
[Offer analysis. The market value of the core exceeds the offered equivalent by 40%. You are being deceived.]
Li sneered mentally. "Five pills," he shot back. "And throw in that vial of 'murky water' sitting by your left elbow."
The girl's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. In that very dirty vial, disguised as a spoiled potion, she kept an ultra-rare Ashen Lotus extract, which she needed to dissolve some of her seals. And this vagabond at the 6th stage of Body Tempering had somehow just spotted her greatest treasure.
The air around the counter suddenly grew heavy as lead. Xuan Li felt as though an invisible stone slab had crashed onto his shoulders. The girl hadn't made a single movement, but a wave of pure killing intent, sharp as a needle, pressed directly against his throat.
[Warning: Directed spiritual pressure detected. Activating compensatory algorithms. Redirecting Qi flows to the musculoskeletal system.]
The youth's bones creaked softly, but he didn't even flinch. Xuan Li's face remained impassive. He stared straight into the dark eyes of the merchant, knowing that a single wrong word, a single sign of weakness, and she would kill him right here, despite the unspoken rules of the market.
Genuine surprise flickered in her gaze. An ordinary cultivator at the sixth stage of Body Tempering would have long since collapsed to his knees, choking on blood from ruptured capillaries. But this boy in the bloodstained robe stood tall, like a rock against a gale.
The pressure vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Five pills for the core," her voice returned to its calm state, but now it held a hidden respect. She casually swept the panther core under the counter and set out five smooth, dark-burgundy pills that emanated a strong scent of iron and medicinal herbs. "But the vial stays here. It's not for sale. Even if you bring me a Beast Emperor's core, this 'murky water' remains mine."
Xuan Li didn't argue. He had gotten what he came for, and he perfectly understood the difference between arrogance and suicide.
"Fair enough," he gave a curt nod, storing the pills in his spatial bag.
He was about to turn and walk away into the labyrinth of dirty tents when a small wooden token struck his back. Li caught it mid-air. A simple symbol—a bamboo leaf—was carved into the smooth dark wood.
"Your eyes see more than they should for your level," the girl said, burying her face back into sorting her cheap roots. "If you survive your breakthrough and don't drop dead in the next few days, come back. I need specific ingredients from the Deep Wastelands. I pay better than the guild, and I ask fewer questions. Call me Lin."
"Xuan Li," he tossed back, concealing the token in his sleeve.
Leaving the dark corner of the market, the youth melted into the crowd. Merchant Lin was far too dangerous a variable in his survival equation. But it was exactly such variables that yielded the greatest profit.
Now he had everything he needed. All that remained was to find a safe hideout where no one would interrupt his consumption of the Blood Condensation Pills.
After an hour of winding through narrow alleys, Li rented a tiny, damp room on the outskirts of the market, paying with his last silver coins. It was a veritable windowless hole, reeking of mildew and the stale sweat of past tenants, but it featured a rudimentary soundproofing formation. He didn't need anything more.
Xuan Li locked the heavy, iron-bound door, slid the rusty bolt into place, and sat in the lotus position on the stiff mat. Satisfied that his aura was concealed, he took out the first Blood Condensation Pill. The dark-burgundy sphere exuded a pungent odor of iron and caustic medicinal herbs.
System. Prepare for breakthrough. Divert all available resources to meridian analysis and body temperature control, he ordered mentally, tossing the pill into his mouth and swallowing it whole.
[Request accepted. Activating forced optimization protocol. Initiating organism reconstruction process...]
In that very second, it felt as though boiling lava had flooded his stomach. The pill's energy detonated inside him, rushing through his blood vessels in a searing torrent. Xuan Li gritted his teeth with such force that blood welled up on his lips. The seventh stage of Body Tempering was drastically different from the previous ones. While the first six stages fortified the skin, muscles, and tendons, the seventh stage began the reforging of bone marrow and internal organs.
It was agonizing. His weak spiritual channels, damaged in the past, were bursting at the seams, unable to withstand the density of the new energy.
[Warning: Critical load on the cardiovascular system. Core temperature rising to dangerous levels. Multiple micro-tears detected in the meridians of the left arm.]
Don't stop the process! Li growled mentally, feeling his body wracked by violent shivers. Isolate the damaged areas and channel the Qi into the bone marrow. Use the ring's energy as a coolant!
[Executing flow redistribution. Initiating defragmentation of spiritual channels.]
The cold, ancient energy stream of the black ring intervened in the chaos. The System operated with ruthless surgical precision. From the pure, aggressive energy of the pill, it forged strict, mathematically precise algorithms that, like millions of microscopic needles, broke through the blockages in the youth's body. Old, dead blood was expelled through his pores, replaced by new blood saturated with spiritual power.
Xuan Li lost track of time. He consumed the second pill, then the third. The sharp pain transitioned into a dull throb, and then vanished entirely, replaced by a sensation of incredible lightness and strength. The bones inside his body cracked softly, growing denser than iron.
Six hours later, the System issued the long-awaited notification:
[Update process complete. Status: 7th stage of Body Tempering achieved.] [Muscle fiber density increased by 240%. Reaction speed optimized. Basic regenerative functions activated.] [Alert: Organism requires purging of system junk (toxins).]
Li opened his eyes. In the dark room, his pupils flashed with a dim silver light for a moment. He looked at his hands—his skin was coated in a layer of black, foul-smelling sludge. These were the impurities and poisons that had accumulated in his crippled body for years.
The youth slowly clenched his fist. The air in the room popped softly from the sudden pressure shift. The power surging in his veins was intoxicating. He could now punch straight through the trunk of a century-old tree with a single blow. But Xuan Li wasn't in a hurry to celebrate. He knew that at the seventh stage, a cultivator's true path had only just begun.
Quickly washing himself with the remaining water from the wooden tub in the corner of the room, he changed into clean, albeit cheap, clothes bought on the way here. He burned the old, bloodstained robe of a Blazing Plum Order disciple right there on the stone floor. His bridges were well and truly burned.
Meanwhile, several dozen li away from the Shadow Market, an icy silence hung over the Outer Peak of the Blazing Plum Order.
Inside the ruined shack number 404, amidst shattered door fragments and pools of dried blood, stood Elder Zhao Wuji. His face, usually haughty and inscrutable, was now twisted into a grimace of fury. Punishment Hall investigators in black robes bustled around him.
One of the trackers, holding a faintly glowing search compass, dropped to one knee. "Elder Zhao. We have tracked the residual Qi. The killer made no attempt to hide within the sect's territory. The trail ends at the western border, right at the edge of the cliff leading to the Weeping Wind Gorge. That is where our search formations go blind due to the distorted energy."
Zhao Wuji shifted his cold gaze to the body of a guard whose artery beneath the collarbone had been cleanly pierced.
"A piece of trash whose meridians were destroyed by my nephew three years ago could not silently kill two armed guards," the elder hissed through clenched teeth. "Someone helped him. Someone strong and brazen enough."
He walked to the shattered window and looked out toward the deep canyon. His mind, accustomed to weaving intrigues, swiftly assembled the chain of facts.
"The Outer Peak was cordoned off immediately after the alarm was raised. An intruder could not have slipped into the Inner Court unnoticed past the defensive barriers," Zhao Wuji reasoned aloud, the air around him crackling from the spiritual pressure of the Core Formation realm. "That means this so-called savior led the boy to the one place where the laws of our Order hold no sway. To the bottom."
He spun sharply toward the investigators.
"The Shadow Market. It is the only blind spot within a hundred li where fugitives can get lost in a crowd of scum. Send three 'Hounds' from the Inner Court there. Give them concealment artifacts. Have them turn every filthy alleyway upside down, but they must find Xuan Li and whoever is backing him. Dead or alive. No one spills the blood of the Punishment Hall without facing consequences."
The Shadow Market continued living its filthy life.
Merchant Lin sat behind her counter in the dark corner. The market had mostly emptied out toward morning, and she finally allowed herself to relax. Her slender, graceful fingers, hidden by the rough fabric of her gloves, thoughtfully rolled the dim Shadow Panther core.
His steps... she pondered, staring into the void. Not a single unnecessary sound. Not the slightest fluctuation of Qi during movement. Perfect weight control. Street mercenaries or ordinary sixth-stage disciples don't walk like that. Those are the mannerisms of a body accustomed to killing from the shadows.
She recalled the absolutely hollow, cold gaze of the youth in the bloodstained robe. That moment when she dropped a fraction of her killing intent onto him. An ordinary practitioner of his level would have collapsed to their knees or tried to grab their weapon. But this boy just calmly bartered for his pills, as if facing a minor nuisance rather than a lethal threat. And most importantly—he knew exactly which vial contained the Ashen Lotus extract, despite the three layers of illusory formations cast over the glass.
"Xuan Li..." Lin uttered softly, and a slight, intriguing smirk appeared on her lips, hidden beneath the gray cloth. "Let's see if you can survive the day, boy with the dead eyes. The Southern Provinces are getting a little more interesting."