220: Chapter 220 Ling Shu's Message

"This is the place."

Senior Sister Tao Tao brought Lin Qing to the entrance of a canyon. Looking out, the entire canyon was narrow and cramped, with a stream about a zhang wide flowing through the middle with a tinkling sound.

On both banks of the stream were wooden houses and pavilions, half embedded into the mountainside and half suspended over the stream. Bluestone steps wound along the stream, connecting shops scattered at different heights, and several small log bridges spanned the stream, connecting the two banks.

Within the Wanyan Spirit Pavilion, where everyone could fly and burrow through the earth, such a marketplace could be considered very small.

However, Lin Qing noticed that even though there was no anti-flight formation here, the Cultivators on both banks simply walked slowly along the bluestone steps, and even when they wanted to go to the opposite bank, they consciously crossed via the small log bridges.

"Let me tell you, don't judge this marketplace by its size; the owners here are all talented individuals, and almost all of them have their own unique skills."

"Furthermore, almost all the Cultivators who frequent this place are above the Eighth Rank, and there are even quite a few from the God Realm. Now it depends on whether you have the ability to establish yourself here."

The two stepped onto the bluestone stairs. As they walked, Senior Sister Tao Tao introduced the situation of the marketplace to Lin Qing. They soon arrived at the middle section of the marketplace and finally stopped in front of a shop about two zhang wide.

"This is it."

Senior Sister Tao Tao pushed open the wooden door carved with cloud patterns and led Lin Qing inside. The shop's frontage was the same as it looked from the outside, also two zhang wide, and the depth seemed to be only about three zhang.

But clearly, things were not that simple. After passing through the front hall, there were several stone rooms hidden inside the mountain. There were storage rooms, Cultivation rooms, and a workshop specifically for Artifact Refining, each with a considerable area.

"The surrounding shops don't really utilize the interior of the mountain much. These stone rooms are all yours. How about it? Are you satisfied?"

"Senior Sister has gone to great trouble. How many Spirit Stones are needed in total? I will get them for you."

Lin Qing was quite satisfied with all aspects of the shop and made a move to take out Spirit Stones, but Senior Sister Tao Tao waved her hand.

"It's a gift for you."

"How can that be? Please, Senior Sister, stop joking. This Junior Brother currently has enough Spirit Stones."

"I'm not joking with you. Besides, this isn't a gift just from me. Your other Senior Brothers were worrying about what to give you as a welcome gift. When we heard you wanted to open a shop, the four of us teamed up and acquired this place."

Don't let the small size of this shop fool you; because all the Cultivators who come to this marketplace are above the Eighth Rank, the value of this shop would certainly not be low.

"Then this Junior Brother will accept it without declining."

Seeing Senior Sister Tao Tao's stance, it was meaningless to refuse repeatedly. Moreover, if he refused, Lin Qing would still have to go find the other Senior Brothers, so Lin Qing simply accepted it.

The Disciples under Jin Wan had a relatively good relationship, so good that the Senior Brother named Yan Feng lost his life for Senior Sister Tao Tao. They were also exceptionally caring towards Lin Qing, this newly arrived Junior Brother.

In the following days, Lin Qing first visited each of his Senior Brothers to express his gratitude, then made a new plaque for the shop and hung it up. The two characters "Jian Duan" on it were gentle and elegant.

Lin Qing still had some finished weapons on hand, but they were forged while Lin Qing was grinding his skill progress, belonging to practice products, and their quality was actually average.

Senior Sister Tao Tao said that the owners here all possessed unique skills. If Lin Qing wanted to establish himself here, he naturally needed to bring out some real quality items.

He melted down all those average-quality weapons and then re-forged them. Lin Qing's Artifact Refining skills were now at the Eighth Rank Perfection level, so the weapons he crafted now were naturally incomparable to the previous ones.

After he forged dozens of various weapons that could be called perfect, Si Xing also finished the task of assessment registration and was now in place at Lin Qing's shop.

Lin Qing handed the Storage Ring containing these weapons and a large pile of Spirit Stones to Si Xing.

"Price these weapons according to the market conditions, and use these Spirit Stones to secretly acquire contribution points, buying them back at a price ten percent higher than the Sect's rate."

"In addition, I also accept custom orders for Eighth Rank Spiritual Artifacts, but I am going to go into seclusion for a period of time. If anyone needs custom services, ask them if they are willing to wait. If they are willing, then accept the order."

"Yes, thank you, Senior Brother."

After Si Xing took the Storage Ring, he carefully placed the weapons on the shelves and quickly entered working mode.

Lin Qing went to the Cultivation room at the back of the shop. It had been over a month since his Breakthrough to the Ninth Rank, and only now had he cultivated a Ninth Rank Cultivation Technique to Perfection.

He had been too busy during this period. For the coming time, he planned to finish cultivating the Ninth Rank Cultivation Technique no matter what.

While Lin Qing was in seclusion, his shop began to circulate among some high-ranking Disciples of the Wanyan Spirit Pavilion.

"Have you heard? A new forging shop has opened in the Xiaxi Marketplace, and every weapon inside is of perfect quality."

"Not only have I heard, but I've also been there, though I didn't manage to grab any."

"It's a pity the owner is in seclusion. It is said that we have to wait for over a month. I've already submitted a custom order, hoping he can forge mine sooner."

In the Cultivation room at the back of the shop, Lin Qing was circulating the Ninth Rank Cultivation Technique over and over again. Originally, he had thought about cultivating a Ninth Rank Cultivation Technique of the Chuyun Immortal Sect and taking the opportunity to catch some sleep, but it seemed there was no chance for that now.

Twenty days later, Lin Qing finished circulating the Ninth Rank Cultivation Technique for the last time, and the Breakthrough time on the System panel was updated. To Lin Qing's surprise, he only needed—two years—to Breakthrough to the Tenth Rank!

The higher the Realm, the longer the time required for a Breakthrough; this was almost an accepted rule in the cultivation world.

Take Ren Wudi for example; he broke through to the Ninth Rank at the age of 120, and it took him another 50 years to reach the Late Stage of the Ninth Rank, without even reaching the Peak. Since even Ren Wudi's speed had slowed down so much, one could imagine the duration of Ninth Rank cultivation.

Originally, Lin Qing thought that even for him, it would take over a dozen years. He didn't expect it to only take two years. After carefully examining the System panel, he finally locked his gaze onto the talent "Sitting in Oblivion".

He had currently completed the Cultivation of the two major Realms, the Mortal Realm and the Spirit Realm. The other four talents each corresponded to the Cultivation Techniques and skills of these two major Realms, but only "Sitting in Oblivion" did not correspond to a Realm.

It was obtained when Lin Qing cultivated the Visualization Method to Perfection. Both the Ninth Rank Cultivation Technique and the Visualization Method belonged to the category of cultivating the "Spirit", so "Sitting in Oblivion" provided a significant boost to his cultivation speed.

Lin Qing speculated that subsequent cultivation in the God Realm might also see his cultivation speed significantly slowed down due to the existence of "Sitting in Oblivion", though perhaps not as noticeably as at the Ninth Rank.

After ending his seclusion, Lin Qing intended to deal with the orders that had accumulated during this period. Now that the Cultivation Technique was finished, subsequent cultivation of skills or will could be carried out during his free time while tending to the shop.

Just as he lifted his foot to walk out of the Cultivation room, the communication token belonging to Ling Shu inside his Storage Ring began to vibrate, and Lin Qing quickly took it out.

"Senior Brother Lin Qing?"

"Mm, is something the matter?"

Ling Shu's voice carried a hint of unease.

"Senior Brother Lin Qing, something has happened to Sister Li Yaqing's Family."