77: Chapter 77 Ash Ghost Market! Clues to the Puppeteer

In the Great Yu Cultivation World, within the ruins of Qingmu Cliff, lay a charred, deep pit.

Pale, spectral flames rolled silently across the bottom of the pit. As the gray mist dissipated, Gu Shen's tall, upright figure appeared out of thin air.

The deep pit was still filled with the pungent smell of burning and a thick scent of blood. The traces of the two Blood Fiend Sect demonic cultivators he had killed here previously had been washed away by days of wind and rain, becoming blurry and indistinct.

"My Lord..." The black mechanical spider crouching on Gu Shen's shoulder suddenly had its blue-glowing sensor head rotate violently.

Crab's electronic voice, deliberately lowered but filled with extreme shock, transmitted directly through Gu Shen's eardrums: "My Lord! The air composition here is too bizarre! There is a type of highly active, unknown energy particle drifting in the air! My miniature fusion analyzer cannot parse this substance at all; it doesn't conform to any laws of physics!"

Gu Shen's expression remained calm. He naturally knew what Crab was talking about. It was the Spiritual Qi of the Great Yu Cultivation World.

"Shut up. Put away those messy deductions of yours." Gu Shen's voice was cold as he issued a direct order, "Adjust your sensor head and scan for life signs within a one-mile radius. Filter out birds and beasts; only look for humans."

"Understood, My Lord. Thermal imaging and microwave life detection have been activated. Switching to silent scanning mode."

The mechanical spider immediately stopped its agitation, the light on its sensor head dimming completely, turning into an unremarkable lump of black iron.

A moment later. "My Lord, at two o'clock, one hundred and fifty zhang away, I have detected three extremely weak heat sources. Their body temperatures are slightly lower than normal humans, but their heart rates are extremely steady," Crab reported.

"Loose Cultivators at the Middle Stage of Qi Refining." A flash of understanding crossed Gu Shen's eyes. Although these ruins of Qingmu Cliff had been scoured by Foundation Establishment experts, there were always some daring low-level Loose Cultivators who, like scavenging vultures, would come to the ruins to dig for treasure after the Sect members withdrew.

The shadow shoes on Gu Shen's feet shimmered with dark light, and he moved like a ghost, clinging to the charred rock wall as he crept silently in that direction.

After reaching Major Achievement in the Bone Refining Art, his control over his Physical Body had reached a state of subtlety. Stepping on the gravel-covered ground, he didn't even stir up a single speck of dust.

A moment later, Gu Shen hid behind a collapsed giant stone pillar and looked down. In the ruin pit ahead, three ragged, mud-stained Loose Cultivators were frantically digging in the scorched earth with Low Grade Magical Artifact shovels. All three were at Level 4 or 5 of Qi Refining.

"Big Brother, stop digging. This area has already been plowed three times by those Blood Fiend Sect cleaners using soul-drawing banners. You can't even find a single intact bone, let alone any leaked Magical Artifacts," a monkey-like Loose Cultivator complained, leaning on his shovel.

"Shut up, stop slacking off!" The scar-faced leader cursed viciously, "The Blood Fiend Sect all went to the Soul-Severing Valley a few days ago to hunt down that True Disciple of the Cliff Master. I heard the battle was earth-shattering, and even a Foundation Establishment Elder was severely injured. In the end, that True Disciple still managed to escape into the Misty Swamp with the Blood Lotus remnant."

"The big shots of the Sect don't have time to worry about these ruins; this is our chance to get rich!"

The scar-faced man wiped his sweat and lowered his voice, "Do you think good things are that easy to find? Look at Zhou Xuan. Yesterday, he dug up half a Jade Slip that wasn't destroyed in the ruins of the Cliff Master's former back mountain medicinal garden!"

"My goodness, I heard that it was a remnant Puppet Legacy left by the Qianji Pavilion! Although it only contains the methods for refining low-level mechanical Puppets, it will definitely sell for a sky-high price at the Ash Ghost Market tonight!"

Another fat Loose Cultivator swallowed his saliva, "The Ash Ghost Market? Is that the black market that the Black Wind Twins temporarily set up in that Scorched Tree Forest ten miles away? Big Brother, with our few pieces of scrap metal, we can't even afford the admission fee for the Ghost Market."

"Even if we can't afford it, we have to go and join in the fun! What if some blind, fat sheep ends up alone..." The scar-faced man made an extremely vicious neck-slitting gesture.

Behind the giant rock, Gu Shen took in every word of this conversation, deep in thought. "Qianji Pavilion. Puppet Legacy." He was just worrying about where to find this Puppet art, and he hadn't expected these "scavenging" Loose Cultivators in the ruins to have already paved the way for him.

"The Ash Ghost Market, the Scorched Tree Forest ten miles away." Gu Shen didn't pay any attention to the three poor Loose Cultivators below. He leaned backward and retreated silently into the darkness.

After distancing himself from the three, Gu Shen stopped under a wind-sheltered rock wall. He probed his Divine Sense into his Storage Ring and took stock of his current assets. One hundred and thirty-three Low-Grade Spirit Stones, plus some crystal fragments.

"With this amount of Spirit Stones, it is absolutely not enough to secure the Puppet Legacy in the Ghost Market, even if it is incomplete." Gu Shen was very clear-headed. Ghost Market auctions in the Cultivation World often involved hundreds or thousands of Spirit Stones. The money he had was too thin.

"I need to make some quick money." Gu Shen's eyes flashed. He had quite a few good things in his Storage Ring: mutated strong acid poison sacs, mutated heavy water beads, and mutated poison crystals refined from the Wasteland. These mutated spiritual materials, which carried extremely pure and unknown toxicity, were definitely a fatal temptation for those poison cultivators and demonic cultivators in the Cultivation World.

"Taking one or two pieces to the Ghost Market to exchange for money might allow me to buy that incomplete Puppet Legacy. As for whether I will be targeted..." A cold smile curled the corners of Gu Shen's lips.

He couldn't wait for someone to come and intercept him. Killing and arson bring gold belts; the fastest way to accumulate wealth in the Cultivation World is always black-on-black. His dark golden iron bones and the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade in his hand were craving to drink their fill of blood.

Gu Shen reached into his robe and took out that thin, soft mask—Thousand Faces. With a slight push of his mana, the mask covered his face.

Gu Shen's originally stern face instantly squirmed and changed, transforming into the appearance of a young Loose Cultivator with a youthful face and eyes that even revealed a hint of cowardice. At the same time, he very skillfully suppressed the mana in his body, which was at the Late Stage of Qi Refining Level 7, down to around Level 5 Qi Refining.

Not too high, not too low. He would neither be treated as a soft persimmon that could be easily pinched, nor would he attract excessive vigilance from Foundation Establishment Stage old monsters.

"Crab. Enter combat alert mode. If any living creature approaches within ten miles, even a mouse, you must report it to me." Gu Shen ordered coldly in his heart.

"Understood, My Lord! Thermal imaging and sonar arrays have locked onto your surrounding environment. I guarantee not even a fly will be able to fly past!" In its single-machine state, Crab's execution was extremely efficient.

In this crisis-ridden Great Yu Cultivation World, Gu Shen's stealth combined with Crab's physical scanning made him the most terrifying hunter in the dark night.

Gu Shen identified the direction, and dark light flashed beneath his feet. His entire figure turned into a stream of light, silently dashing towards the Scorched Tree Forest ten miles away.