41: The Vanished Crystal, Shangqing Immortal Sect, Familiar Faces in the Marketplace

However, he didn't plan on opening them here. Who knew if these ordinary Storage Pouches would contain any treasures? He decided to wait until he returned to Spirit Beast Peak to open them.

Li Yi saw through Jiang Yan's thoughts and said bluntly, "Remember to activate the Formation before you open them."

“Understood.” Jiang Yan nodded. “Please rest assured, Revered Master. Your Disciple is no fool.”

Li Yi chuckled and ignored Jiang Yan, turning instead to Lan Ruoyu. “Junior Martial Aunt, since he has passed, could you perhaps...”

“I knew you wanted to ask for that item for him.” Lan Ruoyu smiled and shook her head. With a flick of her sleeve, a pure white crystal suddenly appeared in her hand.

Before Jiang Yan could react to what it was, Lan Ruoyu lightly pinched the crystal and tossed it. The crystal instantly vanished into Jiang Yan's chest.

Shocked, Jiang Yan felt his chest and then searched other parts of his body.

After sensing nothing out of the ordinary, he turned his gaze back to Li Yi and Lan Ruoyu.

“Alright, you may leave now.” Lan Ruoyu waved with a smile.

“Thank you, Junior Martial Aunt.” Li Yi bowed respectfully, then said to Jiang Yan, “Quickly take your leave of Grand Martial Uncle.”

Jiang Yan was speechless but quickly cupped his fists in a salute. “Until we meet again, Grand Martial Uncle.”

Lan Ruoyu smiled and shook her head, turning to return to the house.

As Jiang Yan and Li Yi walked out of the Mirror Realm Small Courtyard, Jiang Yan asked curiously, “Revered Master, where did that crystal go?”

“What crystal?” Li Yi looked completely puzzled.

“No, I mean, that thing...” Jiang Yan hurriedly gestured with his hands.

Li Yi gave Jiang Yan a sidelong glance and said in a flat tone, “If you want to act crazy, do it at the Market. Your Revered Master can't cure that kind of illness.”

Jiang Yan was speechless. Everyone clearly saw it; how could he pretend so well?

'What a load of rubbish, this Revered Master is clearly bullying me because of my low cultivation level.'

Li Yi didn't care what Jiang Yan was thinking, but he was in a good mood. At least the plans he had set for Jiang Yan were currently complete.

“Revered Master, when will you teach me high-level Talismans?” Jiang Yan asked.

“I'll start teaching you tomorrow morning.” Li Yi thought for a moment and asked, “You haven't been to the Market yet, have you?”

“I haven't,” Jiang Yan answered truthfully.

“Fine. Your next task is to frequent the Market until the day you leave the Sect,” Li Yi said casually.

Jiang Yan didn't understand what Li Yi was thinking, but he did want to check out the Market, and he needed to dispose of those Storage Pouches.

In the afternoon, Jiang Yan entered the Animal Rearing Chamber.

After closing the doors and windows, he activated the Formation.

Once the Formation was established, he placed over a dozen Storage Pouches on the table.

'Come to me, my little treasures!'

Rubbing his hands together, he picked up the first Storage Pouch and began pouring out its contents.

Aside from a few Spirit Stones and some spiritual materials, there was absolutely nothing else.

'Damn, they can't be this poor, can they? Not even a single Magical Artifact?'

'Bloody hell, I don't believe they're all this broke!'

After opening ten Storage Pouches in a row, his face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.

'Heh, no wonder that cheap Revered Master of mine only wanted that blue Storage Pouch.'

Jiang Yan complained inwardly as he casually opened another Storage Pouch.

Seeing five Spirit Stones and an identity token, he was completely speechless.

'Just destroy it all.'

Just as he emptied the last two Storage Pouches, a sword and a bracelet suddenly fell out.

'Whoa, I hit the jackpot!'

'Two Magic Treasures!'

Jiang Yan gleefully picked up the longsword. After checking it over, he picked up the bracelet to examine it.

'This bracelet is probably for a female cultivator.'

Jiang Yan tried it on his wrist, felt it looked weird, and casually tossed it into his own Storage Pouch.

Once he finished counting the Spirit Stones and spiritual materials, he took out the four identity tokens and the jade slip to examine them.

The identity tokens were very ordinary, with only the four large characters for "Shangqing Immortal Sect" written on them.

When he picked up the jade slip and touched it to his forehead, streams of information instantly flooded his mind.

“Disciples of the Shangqing Immortal Sect, hear the command: The Sect is facing a great tribulation of its heritage. Those carrying this token must evacuate immediately to preserve the lineage of our Immortal Sect.”

“Disciples of Xianyun Peak, hear the command: The Nine Calamities Formation has been broken, and the Sword Spirit has been suppressed. Flee this place immediately!”

“Disciples of Xianyun Peak, hear the command: The Fire Cloud Gate is searching for our Shangqing Immortal Sect Disciples. Do not return to the Sect.”

...Seeing that these were all messages regarding the destruction of the Shangqing Immortal Sect, Jiang Yan instantly lost interest.

'I thought there would be some treasure, but it's all about running away and avoiding searches.'

After complaining, he tossed the identity tokens and the jade slip onto a shelf. Since these things were useless to him, he might as well set them aside.

Seeing that it was still early, Jiang Yan thought about heading to the Market to look around and get familiar with it in advance.

Ma Yu and the others had mentioned the general location of the Market before.

After handing his token to the mountain gate Disciples for inspection, he swaggered out of the Qingyun Sect.

After about an hour, Jiang Yan finally saw the silhouette of the Market.

To be honest, not being able to fly on a sword was truly miserable.

But Li Yi wouldn't let him learn, saying that after he returned from the Blood Cloud Sect, he could learn whatever he wanted.

Though he didn't quite understand Li Yi's reasoning, for the sake of his spy mission, he could only rely on his two legs to run like mad.

The Market at the foot of Qingyun Sect was very lively, with all sorts of things for sale, even some mortal goods.

While Jiang Yan was eyeing the various vendors, a familiar voice suddenly rang out from his left.

“Brother Jiang, is that you?”

Jiang Yan turned toward the person greeting him; the newcomers were none other than Ma Yu and Zhao Qing.

“It really is Brother Jiang,” Ma Yu said happily.

“I didn't expect Brother Jiang to have already become an Outer Sect Disciple. Congratulations!” Zhao Qing hurriedly cupped his fists in congratulation.

“Congratulations, Brother Jiang,” Ma Yu echoed.

Jiang Yan smiled and returned the gesture. “How have you two been lately?”

“Not bad, just getting by,” Ma Yu said with a smile. “But Zhao Qing has already gotten married.”

Hearing that Zhao Qing was married was somewhat surprising to Jiang Yan, but on second thought, it made sense. This place was similar to the mortal world, so getting married was quite reasonable.

“Congratulations, Brother Zhao. This is a small token of my well-wishes.” As Jiang Yan spoke, he took out a Spirit Stone and pressed it into Zhao Qing's hand.

Seeing Jiang Yan being so generous, Zhao Qing and Ma Yu were extremely shocked.

One had to know that with all their busy work, they could only earn one Spirit Stone a month. They hadn't expected Jiang Yan, whom they had only met by chance, to give them one directly.

“Brother Jiang, thank you,” Zhao Qing said gratefully.

“No need for thanks. After all, we worked together, and I truly have you to thank,” Jiang Yan said with a smile.

Jiang Yan was telling the truth; after all, his two Scripture Pavilion Tokens were given to him by Zhao Qing and Ma Yu.

Hearing Jiang Yan's words, Ma Yu and Zhao Qing looked a bit uncomfortable.

In their eyes, they had been swindling Jiang Yan, but they could never bring themselves to say those words out loud.

“Is this Brother Jiang's first time at the Market?” Ma Yu changed the subject.

“Yes, I wanted to come down the mountain to sell some things,” Jiang Yan answered truthfully.

“Then you must be careful. In this place, once goods are sold, there are no refunds. Even if you get cheated, you'll have no leg to stand on,” Zhao Qing hurriedly explained.

Hearing that such a rule existed, Jiang Yan silently took note of it.

“If you want to sell things, go to Mingbao Tower. They're fairly fair with their intake, though their prices are a bit on the lower side.” Ma Yu pointed toward an octagonal building ahead.

“Then how many Spirit Stones can an average Magical Artifact or Storage Pouch sell for?” Jiang Yan asked.

Hearing it was Magical Artifacts and Storage Pouches, Ma Yu hurriedly led Jiang Yan forward, while Zhao Qing scanned the surroundings, fearing someone might approach.

“Brother, you can't talk about these things out loud, or scammers will target you,” Ma Yu explained.

“What kind of scams?” Jiang Yan asked curiously.

He was indeed quite curious. Everyone here was a cultivator; could Spirit Stones even be faked?

“Let's put it this way: I'm a buyer, but I didn't bring enough Spirit Stones. I give you ten first, and my brother stays here with you while I go back to get the rest. In the end, I never return. When you ask my brother for the stones, he'll say, 'What are you talking about? When did he ever buy anything from you?' That's the first kind of rogue tactic.”

“The second kind is even more shameless. Again, they don't have enough Spirit Stones, but they've ordered a whole carriage of goods outside. You think the goods are theirs, but they actually belong to a merchant guild. They just paid a deposit to the guild specifically to trick you out of your Storage Pouch.”

...Listening to Ma Yu describe over a dozen different scams, Jiang Yan was somewhat astonished.

He had thought the people in the Immortal Realm were simple and wouldn't have so many schemes, but it turned out to be even more wicked than the world he had transmigrated from.

He hadn't even heard of some of these scams before.

Ma Yu patted Jiang Yan's shoulder. “Alright, go inside and sell your stuff. A high-demand item like a Storage Pouch is worth at least five hundred Spirit Stones. As for Magic Treasures, it depends on their function, but even the cheapest is over three hundred.”

Jiang Yan pressed three Spirit Stones into Ma Yu's hand, thanked him, and then entered Mingbao Tower.