Chapter 1412: Mother and Son

Although there were no overseers in the hall, all the vendors doing business there silently adhered to the established rules. As a result, despite the multitude of stalls, they were relatively neat and orderly, crisscrossing to form around a thousand booths.

In front of each stall, cultivators moved to and fro, a continuous stream of people.

Those who could secure a stall in this grand hall typically had the backing of a large realm. While individual vendors weren't strictly forbidden, their limited transactions meant they would eventually be forced out.

In the cave, Lu Ye cultivated diligently. He consumed spiritual essence pills one by one; as one spirit aperture filled, the barrier to the next would break. He slept when tired and ate when hungry.

His days passed uneventfully, almost boringly, but Lu Ye felt his spiritual power steadily accumulating within him, understanding that this was the path to becoming stronger.

Before reaching the Spirit Creek Realm, he generally maintained a pace of opening one aperture every three days, consuming about six spiritual essence pills. Now, in the Spirit Creek Realm, he could still maintain this speed, though the consumption was higher, requiring eight or nine pills per aperture.

The reason he could maintain his aperture-opening speed was due to his increased cultivation, which improved his efficiency in refining spiritual pills. Previously, it took half a day to fully refine one spiritual essence pill, allowing him to refine only two a day. Now, with sufficient focus, he could refine about three. Thus, despite the increased consumption, his aperture-opening speed remained consistent.

Half a month quickly passed, and the last spiritual essence pill was consumed. Lu Ye checked his cultivation; he was still at the first layer of the Spirit Creek Realm, but he had opened fifteen spirit apertures. The fifteenth aperture's spiritual power was not yet full.

He was just three apertures away from reaching the second layer of the Spirit Creek Realm! If he could advance to the second layer, his strength would undoubtedly increase significantly. For now, despite a large increase in his spiritual power reserves, the newly opened apertures hadn't formed a coherent system, so they wouldn't provide much aid in combat.

He still had ores that could be exchanged for spirit stones. With his previous experience, he prepared to descend the mountain once more to visit the Heavenly Secret Merchant Alliance.

Stepping gracefully out of the cave, he found the sun shining brightly outside. However, the dense tree canopy of the forest allowed only sporadic rays of light to penetrate the thick leaves, forming scattered patches of light on the ground.

Lu Ye squinted slightly, waited a moment to adjust to the light, and then began to walk.

Not long after he started walking, he suddenly heard unusual noises nearby. Frowning slightly, he cautiously moved in the direction of the sound.

A moment later, he hid behind a large tree and looked forward.

In that direction, three cultivators stood as if facing a formidable enemy, looking utterly dejected and nervous. One female cultivator was on the verge of tears.

Not far from the three cultivators, a large, robust, snow-white tiger paced back and forth. Its amber eyes occasionally glanced at the cultivators, exuding immense pressure.

As it paced, its mouth opened and closed, uttering, "Open your storage bags, throw them on the ground, and then get out of here, or this great king won't mind eating you!"

Lu Ye's eye twitched upon hearing this dignified, aged voice. He had heard it once before, and it was eventually confirmed to be the trick of the *Chang* spirit named Yiyi.

The three cultivators were clearly terrified. One of them, trembling, unfastened his storage bag from his waist, unlocked its seal, and threw it on the ground. He looked at the tiger in horror and pleaded, "Great King, please calm your anger. We meant no offense. Everything is here; please spare us."

The great tiger glanced at the storage bag on the ground and roared, "Scram!"

That person immediately turned and ran off without looking back.

Following his lead, the other two cultivators also hastily dropped their storage bags and ran for their lives.

Only after confirming that the three cultivators had run far away did the great tiger slowly advance. However, before it could reach them, someone suddenly darted out, grabbing all three storage bags.

Startled, the great tiger leaped backward. From atop its head, a tiny figure floated out, staring dumbfounded at Lu Ye. "Those are our things!" it exclaimed.

Lu Ye held the storage bags, gave them a quick check, and frowned.

He found that the contents of these storage bags were pitifully scarce. Each person only had a few spiritual essence pills, some herbs, and miscellaneous daily necessities. As for spirit stones, there wasn't a single one to be seen.

Muttering "paupers" to himself, Lu Ye took out the spiritual essence pills, divided them into two portions, kept one for himself, and tossed the other to Yiyi. "Finders keepers!" he declared.

Yiyi was stunned by his action, then lunged at him, flailing her arms and legs. "Give them back to me!" she demanded.

"Clang!" His longsword was drawn. Lu Ye looked at Yiyi, who had pounced before him, and smiled without speaking.

Yiyi froze before the sword, gnashing her teeth in anger. She then spewed a torrent of curses, her small mouth seemingly dripping with venom.

"Shall I call those three back?" Lu Ye offered.

Yiyi immediately recoiled, reluctantly retreating. She knew there was no getting the spiritual pills back from Lu Ye. She could sense that Lu Ye was much stronger than he had been a month ago, and if it came to a real fight, the great tiger would be no match for him.

Nevertheless, the experience of having her things snatched left her feeling incredibly wronged, and she muttered words like "shameless" and "despicable."

"I have a question for you," Lu Ye said.

"I won't tell you anything you ask!" Yiyi gritted out.

"Answer well, and I'll give these back to you." Lu Ye gestured with the snatched items in his hand. A few spiritual essence pills weren't something he particularly valued.

"Hmph!" Yiyi scoffed, adopting an air of disdain for wealth. She settled onto the great tiger's head, sat up straight, and tilted her head back. "Ask away!"

"I've seen many demon cultivators in the market down the mountain, and they didn't seem all that remarkable. Why are those people so afraid of you?"

This puzzled Lu Ye. Those demon cultivators were definitely stronger than the great tiger. Logically, cultivators who were used to seeing demon cultivators shouldn't be so terrified of an un-transformed demonic beast, losing their composure after just a few intimidating words.

"That's where you're mistaken," Yiyi said, growing smug. "Transformed demon cultivators and untransformed demonic beasts are not the same."

Through her explanation, Lu Ye finally understood that not all demonic beasts chose to transform, whether due to intelligence, personal choice, or perhaps bloodline inheritance. In any case, a significant portion of demonic beasts retained their original appearance.

When these types of demonic beasts were weak, they couldn't speak. But once their strength reached a certain level, they could speak human languages. In other words, a demonic beast that could speak human languages was equivalent to a powerhouse! As for exactly how strong they were, they were certainly not something the low-level cultivators in the outer regions could provoke.

Thus, the combination of the great tiger and Yiyi created a terrifying deterrent, and many cultivators who trespassed into this area suffered because of it.

"So that's how it is!" Lu Ye realized, feeling he had gained more common knowledge about the cultivation world.

He raised his hand, tossed the snatched items away, and turned to walk out of the mountain.

Yiyi inspected the items, confirmed they were fine, and then called out to Lu Ye's retreating back, "Are you leaving?"

"None of your business!" Lu Ye's voice came from afar.

"How annoying!" Yiyi muttered, then turned and hugged the great tiger's head, lamenting, "Amber, we're so pitiful!"

"Roar..."