Chapter 98: Liusu Lane

The Wind Rises in Kyushu

Healing and cultivation, his days passed without incident.

As spirit pills were consumed, and aided by the Spirit Gathering Inscription, Lu Ye’s speed of opening his acupoints was much faster than anticipated. Currently, if he went all out, it wouldn't take him more than two days to open a single acupoint.

This efficiency was astonishing. The auxiliary cultivation technique, Gluttonous Feast, had been incredibly helpful to Lu Ye.

Hua Ci arrived as promised every night. Under her care, Lu Ye's injuries rapidly improved.

They would sometimes chat, and from her, Lu Ye unexpectedly learned an interesting piece of information: the Nine Star Sect's stronghold, two hundred miles away, had been breached by the Mystic Gate.

Message transmission among cultivators was quite convenient. With the battlefield imprint, they could add each other as friends and easily send messages as long as they were in the same space.

This news caused some stir, mainly because the Nine Star Sect was clearly of a higher rank than the Mystic Gate.

Conquering a sect stronghold was no simple feat. Each stronghold was protected by a grand formation; without breaking it, occupation was impossible. Even if the formation was broken, it didn't guarantee success, as the cultivators defending the stronghold were not mere decorations.

In the outer reaches of the battlefield, it was rare for a sect stronghold to be conquered. This was because the sects in the outer circle were of lower rank, and their cultivators were relatively weaker, making it clearly difficult to expect a group of low-level cultivators to break through a stronghold's grand formation.

It was said that the Mystic Gate succeeded this time mainly because they used a powerful spirit talisman specifically designed to break formations.

As a result, the Nine Star Sect suffered immense losses. Many disciples were killed, valuable accumulated goods in the stronghold were swept clean, and after the Mystic Gate withdrew, they even set fire to the Nine Star Sect stronghold, burning it to ashes.

Lu Ye was not surprised to hear this news. Since the Mystic Gate dared to act, they must have been quite confident.

Lu Ye felt a bit gleeful about it. All his injuries had been inflicted by Dong Shuye, so with the Nine Star Sect's stronghold being conquered, he felt a sense of vindication, even though he hadn't been involved.

However, from Hua Ci's words, it seemed that the occupation of the stronghold wasn't quite what he had imagined.

He had originally thought that once the Mystic Gate conquered the Nine Star Sect's stronghold, the territory would become theirs. But in reality, it wasn't so. The Mystic Gate had only killed many Nine Star Sect disciples, plundered some resources, and then set fire to the place before withdrawing.

This was similar to how the Vast Sky Alliance had handled things after conquering Evil Moon Valley in the past.

When the Vast Sky Alliance conquered Evil Moon Valley back then, they didn't linger there long and quickly withdrew. That was because it was considered territory of the Myriad Devil Ridge, and staying too long would surely lead to encirclement and suppression by the Myriad Devil Ridge forces.

The same applied to the battlefield. The Nine Star Sect would undoubtedly have allies providing mutual support. If the Mystic Gate remained in the Nine Star Sect's stronghold, they would only be attacked. Rather than that, it was better to take what they could and retreat.

Hua Ci said that the Mystic Gate's successful conquest of the Nine Star Sect stronghold yielded immense benefits, not just in terms of plundered resources. There seemed to be other, more significant advantages, because she said that with this, the Mystic Gate's promotion to an eighth-rank sect in the next sect ranking assessment was a certainty, while the Nine Star Sect would definitely drop to ninth-rank.

Merely plundering some cultivation resources couldn't raise the Mystic Gate's rank by a whole grade. Lu Ye found it awkward to ask about this, so he just listened.

Hua Ci seemed to always assume he was a disciple from a major sect... He wasn't sure how this misunderstanding arose, perhaps from seeing his generous spending? And as a disciple of a 'major sect,' it was impossible not to know such basic common sense.

Tassel Market, a market town nearby, was no different from the other market towns Lu Ye had visited before. Its chaotic array of buildings featured styles from all over Kyushu.

The largest building was a branch of the Heavenly Secret Trading Alliance.

Lu Ye was already considered a regular customer of the Heavenly Secret Trading Alliance. Today, following Hua Ci and others to this market town, he headed straight for it.

For no other reason than that he had few spirit pills left.

Over the past half-month of healing, he had paid Hua Ci over a hundred spirit pills alone, allowing that "black-hearted" woman to make a fortune. Adding his own daily cultivation needs, more than half of his original three hundred-plus spirit pills were gone. He had now opened thirty-five acupoints, and the remaining pills would certainly not be enough for him to cultivate to the fourth level of the Spirit Stream Realm.

Of course, he could also slowly improve himself by utilizing the effects of the Spirit Gathering Inscription, but for him, the benefits from it were merely supplementary; his cultivation primarily relied on consuming spirit pills.

Once accustomed to delicacies, who would still want to chew on corn?

The internal layout of the Heavenly Secret Trading Alliance branches was almost identical. Led by a maidservant, Lu Ye entered a private booth to wait, and as usual, drank a few pots of spirit tea...

The one who came to conduct the transaction with him this time was a refined-looking male cultivator, seemingly around thirty years old.

Lu Ye sold four pieces of Prime Magnetic Ore this time, leaving him with only six pieces.

He also dealt with the four storage bags belonging to the Nine Star Sect's young sect master and his companions. He had carried these four storage bags for some time. Three of them were not worth much attention, likely containing nothing good, so Lu Ye sold them to the trading alliance as a bundle for fifteen spirit stones...

He had sold storage bags before; these items weren't valuable because opening them carried risks. Low-level cultivators generally didn't possess many good things, so the trading alliance typically bought them for five spirit stones each. Of course, one could also choose to have the alliance remove the restrictive lock, but what could be found inside depended entirely on one's luck and fortune.

With good luck, one could make a profit; with bad luck, one might lose everything.

As for the Nine Star Sect's young sect master's storage bag, Lu Ye would never sell it cheaply. That fellow certainly had some good items.

When he presented his request, the trading alliance readily agreed. They didn't care where his storage bags came from, only about getting paid for their service.

Throughout the Spirit Stream Battlefield, the Heavenly Secret Trading Alliance was a very special entity; it belonged to no single faction.

The manager of the trading alliance invited Lu Ye to a private room, where he met an elderly cultivator, and then the manager left.

This elderly cultivator specialized in opening restrictive locks; his lock-picking skills were legendary. Such individuals had a specific title in the cultivation world.

Locksmiths!

Lu Ye took out the Nine Star Sect's young sect master's storage bag. The elderly cultivator picked it up, sensed it for a moment, and then quoted a price.

Lu Ye promptly paid, and then waited quietly.

In just half an hour, a flash of light emanated from the elderly cultivator's hand, and he handed the storage bag to Lu Ye: "It's done."

Lu Ye took it without examining it. He then pulled out the small, bell-shaped spirit artifact and said, "Please also help me open the restriction on this item, elder!"