Reflecting on today, he still found it a bit unbelievable. Back then, he had possessed no cultivation to speak of; the moment he stepped out of that mystic realm, he had been hunted down by other cultivators.
Midway, he was hunted again by a Tier 2 spider.
Had he not hidden himself exceptionally well, he would have long since become a piece of art hanging on that spiderweb.
After that came cultivation, slaughtering low-tier demonic beasts, and slowly accumulating demonic cores to cultivate.
He kept walking southeast all the way, until he reached the border region between the human and demonic territories.
At the border of the Southern Domain and the Demon Realm lay the Southern Heaven Alliance, also known as the military, directly managed by the Southern Wing Dynasty.
To the Southern Domain, the so-called demonic border was merely a place where the demonic race was extremely weak.
Most of the demons there were in the Void Transformation Realm and Spirit Transformation Realm. There were some in the Spirit Void Realm, but not many.
It was there that Xie Guannan met his friend.
Lin Mo.
Lin Mo was an orphan whose family had been slaughtered by demons, and he harbored a deep hatred for the demonic race. Through a twist of fate, he attained Foundation Establishment cultivation and chose to be stationed permanently in that place.
During the Great War between humans and demons, that friend had sacrificed himself to save Xie Guannan.
It was something Xie Guannan would remember and feel guilty about for the rest of his life.
Boom—
As Xie Guannan consolidated his Level 11 Late-stage Qi Condensation,
boiling spiritual qi surged outward in all directions, and the spiritual qi around him grew denser by a fraction.
"Sigh, this kid!" Xie Wentian exclaimed in admiration.
Xie Wentian also praised with a sigh: "My son has grown up; I can hardly see through him anymore!"
"Let's go!" Xie Guannan glanced at Xie Wentian beside him.
Before long, the two of them left the spiritual stone mine.
With this spiritual stone mine, once they found people to mine it, the Xie family would never lack money again. Furthermore, although these spiritual stones could not be absorbed directly, as long as they were purified, they could be used as currency.
The spiritual stones in the mine were so densely packed that the concentration of spiritual qi in the surrounding area had also increased, allowing cultivators to practice nearby.
Afterward, he asked his father for some silver—several million taels in total—and incidentally requested a black cloak and a mask.
"Where are you off to, needing a cloak and a mask?" Xie Wentian asked with a puzzled look.
For him, the color black served as protective coloration.
He concealed his cultivation, and from the outside, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary man in black.
"I'm heading out for a bit, Father, please take care!"
Xie Wentian merely waved his hand; he knew full well that in the entire Jianghai City, there were hardly a few people capable of harming his son.
With that explosive power and speed, not to mention his dantian ocean, he wouldn't even need to worry about exhausting himself while fleeing.
Jianghai City's Artifact Refining Pavilion.
This Artifact Refining Pavilion was not particularly grand or imposing.
It simply could not compare to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion belonging to Ci Qianluo's family.
Of course, its inner heritage naturally surpassed what the present Xie family could match.
That was, of course, discounting the time when they had no spiritual stone mine.
Clad in a black robe, Xie Guannan stepped inside without attracting much attention; after all, people concealing their identities to buy things were a dime a dozen.
As soon as he stepped through the doors, he could hear a junior steward introducing weapons.
"Esteemed guest, this Silver Dragon Saber from our house is forged from refined steel; it cuts through iron as if it were mud."
A first-floor junior steward was introducing his establishment's wares to the arriving guests.
A long dragon was carved onto the weapon, silver from end to end, exclaiming a sharp, icy glint that radiated an imposing aura.
"Stop rambling and tell us how much it costs!" some people nearby couldn't bear to listen any longer and urged him on.
"Apologies, this is a rule set by the head steward—we must give an introduction, otherwise it would seem the little one is being irresponsible," the junior steward said, bowing with a deep look of apology.
The former waved his hand, his face a picture of disgust and helplessness.
"This saber underwent forty-nine days of hammering, followed by forty-ning days of firing, and then using..."
The junior steward went on and on with great relish.
Xie Guannan merely glanced simply at the weapon layout indicator map.
This Artifact Refining Pavilion was divided into a first, second, and third floor.
The first floor generally housed ordinary yet exquisitely crafted mortal-grade weapons, just like the one in the junior steward's hand.
The second floor contained ordinary-quality treasured implements.
The third floor held higher-quality treasured implements, along with a scattering of mysterious-grade implements.
Xie Guannan walked straight toward the second floor; ordinary weapons no longer held much use for him.
Since he already possessed the Xuan Sword, why would he buy another weapon?
This time, he had come to buy hidden weapons!
Everyone who came to the second floor without exception possessed wealth and strength.
Obtaining the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow.
Before long, a specialized attendant hurried over to welcome him.
The newcomer wore work attire and wore a smile.
"Esteemed guest, what do you need? I'll show you around."
"Here in our Artifact Refining Pavilion, we have everything—mortal implements, treasured implements, mysterious-grade implements," the man introduced enthusiastically.
"Do you have any more powerful bows here? Arrows, hidden weapons, and the like?"
The welcoming attendant hastily replied, "We do, we do."
With that, he led Xie Guannan toward the bow and arrow section.
Not long after, a whole wall of bows and arrows entered Xie Guannan's field of vision.
Immediately, Xie Guannan began picking up and examining the bows and arrows.
Xie Guannan merely gave them a brief, indifferent glance before shaking his head lightly.
Then he said, "Let's go take a look at the hidden weapon counters."
The man chimed in, "If you aren't satisfied with these bows and arrows, the third floor has even better ones."
"Can a place like Jianghai City even have mysterious-grade implements?" Xie Guannan lowered his voice and couldn't help asking.
"The esteemed guest might not know this, but even in the most remote corners, our Artifact Refining Pavilion keeps a few presentable mysterious-grade implements on hand. If this were placed in a dynasty's Artifact Refining Pavilion, they'd even have spirit implements, or perhaps even half-immortal implements."
Xie Guannan nodded and said, "Let's look at the hidden weapons first, we'll go up later!"
Following that, the junior steward led Xie Guannan toward the hidden weapon counter.
The hidden weapon counter.
That section was filled exclusively with hidden weapons: needles, flying daggers, sleeve arrows, and short blades.
To him, these were all rather decent items.
"Aside from that sleeve sword, give me ten of everything else."
"These aren't cheap, you know. Are you sure you want this many?"
Xie Guannan gave an indifferent nod.
The treasured-implement-grade hidden weapons before his eyes cost a full ten thousand taels each.
A few hundred taels was enough to cover an ordinary family's expenses for an entire year.
Buying all of these out wouldn't even cost three hundred thousand taels.
To Xie Guannan, this could only be considered alright.
Afterward, the man brought over a storage ring and handed its contents to Xie Guannan.
After inspecting them thoroughly, the latter transferred the artifacts into his main storage ring—the one he used to hold demonic beast inner cores and medicinal herbs.
The grade of Xie Guannan's storage ring for beast cores and herbs was quite ordinary, holding less than thirty cubic meters.
It belonged to the lower-middle tier within Jianghai City.
"Does the esteemed guest not need a new storage ring? This one holds fifty cubic meters."
Xie Guannan shook his head and spoke in a calm voice: "Let's go upstairs and take a look!"
The junior steward didn't say anything more; after all, it was a transaction worth hundreds of thousands of taels, and perhaps the customer simply didn't care.
Then the two of them headed up to the third floor.
The decoration on the third floor was obviously much more luxurious than the second floor.
There were fewer weapons, and not many cultivators either.
In a place like this, the focus was on quality, not quantity.
Coming up here without money was pointless, and without cultivation, buying a fine weapon would only invite covetous gazes from others.
Yet Xie Guannan wasn't afraid; the Xuan Sword in his hand was simply too unpretentious!
It looked just like a mortal implement—he had no idea what kind of aesthetic sense Ci Qianluo had!
Inside the pavilion!
"Achoo!"
"Who on earth is missing me? Could it be him?" Ci Qianluo sneezed out of nowhere, rubbed her delicate little nose, and a reminiscent look crossed her eyes.
"Xiao Luo, you've already reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, how can you still catch a cold?" A slightly aged and deep voice sounded, its tone laced with playful teasing and paternal affection.
It was none other than Ci Sheng.
"Grandpa, it's not that at all, he must be the one thinking of me. Whatever, you wouldn't understand even if I told you! Hmph." Ci Qianluo puffed out her little cheeks and let out a cold huff.
Beneath her bright and aloof exterior, she turned out to be a pure-hearted maiden.
......
Inside the Artifact Refining Pavilion, the receptionist was leading Xie Guannan toward the display counter for bows and arrows.
That counter held two bows and arrows, and a trigger crossbow.
In his past life, he had never possessed a handy, high-quality long-range weapon.
Most of the time he had relied on short blades, long sabers, and longswords—most of which were his spoils of war.
It was only when he attained a certain level of strength that he went and commissioned a custom bow and arrow that belonged exclusively to him. For ambushing higher-tier cultivators, ranged attacks were often far more suitable.
He could advance or retreat freely.
The two bows and arrows displayed in the center were both high-quality treasured implements.
Weapons were simply divided into low quality and high quality, with defective items sitting below that.
Conversely, the mysterious-grade trigger crossbow nearby was not displayed nearly as prominently.
Xie Guannan looked at that crossbow, a complicated expression surfacing on his face, before he spoke in a deep voice: "This crossbow is clearly a mysterious-grade implement, so why is it placed in such an inconspicuous spot below?"
Why would this crossbow be in a position like that? Shouldn't a mysterious-grade item be placed in the center position?
Could it be a substandard mysterious-grade crossbow, lingering as a substandard reject between the two major tiers?
You couldn't quite call it a mysterious implement, nor could you call it a treasured implement.
Seeing Xie Guannan looking at that crossbow, the man hurriedly dissuaded him: "Esteemed guest, you wouldn't understand, but that crossbow isn't suitable for you. You'd better look at something else."
However, it was a completely different story for Xie Guannan.
He possessed a dantian ocean, making him a cultivator comparable to the Void Transformation Realm. As for the spiritual power required by an ordinary mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, he could fire tens of thousands of rounds in a single go.
To him, this was undoubtedly a massive divine weapon.
When he asked about the price,
he couldn't help bursting into laughter.
A weapon that could be called a massive divine weapon in Xie Guannan's hands
was sold in this Artifact Refining Pavilion for a mere two million taels of silver.
The two treasured-implement bows above it instead sold for 2.5 million taels of silver, equivalent to 25,000 gold coins.
"Oh?" Hearing this, Xie Guannan's interest was piqued: "Then tell me why this crossbow isn't recommended."
After a round of explanation from the junior steward,
Xie Guannan understood a thing or two about it.
This crossbow was called the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow.
Its advantage lay in the fact that it did not require physical arrows; the internal crystal core could convert spiritual power into energy arrows and fire them out.
And it could fire continuously.
This was far superior to a bow, which required one to infuse energy into each arrow.
Arrows were also consumable items.
Not worth it, and one could even say it was quite troublesome.
Furthermore, this crystal core was capable of growth; its growth required the nourishment of spiritual power, and its durability would not decrease with use by its wielder.
On the contrary, it would improve.
Hearing this, Xie Guannan felt that this crossbow was simply an existence defying the heavens!
Yet when he heard the receptionist say that every single shot fired by this crossbow consumed a massive amount of spiritual power,
he was told that back when it was a treasured implement, firing even the most ordinary single arrow required the entire spiritual power of an ordinary mid-stage Qi Condensation practitioner.
And now that it was a mysterious-grade implement, even its weakest strike required the entire spiritual power of an ordinary mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Hearing this, Xie Guannan was slightly shocked.
It actually required such a massive consumption of spiritual power even as a baseline.
For any other cultivator, goodness knows how many years it would take to upgrade the grade of this Heavenly Mystery Crossbow.
Regardless of how the junior steward viewed him,
Xie Guannan resolutely bought the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow.
Seeing his repeated dissuasions fail, the receptionist gave up trying to stop him; it simply couldn't be stopped.
Xie Guannan produced two million taels of silver and settled the bill.
From then on, he was left with only tens of thousands of taels of silver.
Naturally, the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow also fell into his hands.
The weight of the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow could be said to be very light.
Immediately afterward, Xie Guannan stowed the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow away.
With this Heavenly Mystery Crossbow in his possession, he no longer needed any other hidden weapons.
The Heavenly Mystery Crossbow in his hands possessed growth potential, after all.
Overestimating One's Capabilities.
"A growth-type weapon!"
This was something other mysterious-grade implements simply could not compare to. He had truly struck gold this time.
Xie Guannan walked slowly down the stairs.
"I wonder what that man in black bought on the third floor? He went straight up as soon as he arrived."
"Don't even think about it, is the third floor a place you can go? Every single item costs millions of taels of silver!"
"That's true, I certainly can't afford to spend like that."
Two ordinary people dressed in common attire discussed quietly.
In a dark corner, one man in black nodded, while another made a throat-slitting gesture.
Both of them instantly vanished into the crowd.
Xie Guannan walked out of the Jianghai City Artifact Refining Pavilion.
At this moment, he still had nearly 70,000 taels of silver on him.
To a cultivator, money was merely an external possession, after all.
There was no need for him to hoard it.
Spending it all was its rightful destination, so he found a carriage and headed toward the Myriad Treasures Pavilion in the Flowing Cloud Dynasty to find Ci Qianluo.
The place wasn't far from that Myriad Treasures Pavilion.
It would take about a day's journey by carriage.
When there were too many people around, Xie Guannan didn't dare to fly on his sword; it was simply too ostentatious.
During the day, he looked at the scenery outside through the carriage window, a reminiscent look on his face.
At night, he cultivated.
Not long after!
"Whoa!"
The carriage horse instantly reared its front legs, screeching to a dead stop in its tracks.
Xie Guannan, who was cultivating inside the carriage, jerked violently and was nearly thrown out from the sway.
The carriage driver hurriedly called out to Xie Guannan: "We're done for, we've run into bandits! I'm not doing this run anymore! I'm getting out of here first!"
"Esteemed guest, look out for yourself!" The driver quickly unfastened the horse's reins and rode off directly on the horse.
He left Xie Guannan abandoned inside the carriage.
"Aren't you going to come out?" A cold voice rang out from outside the carriage.
"A punk at late-stage Qi Condensation dares to go up to the third floor to buy weapons, wearing a black robe and traveling without an escort—must be a rogue cultivator. And I actually ran into him today! Hahaha."
"Oh? How did you know I'm at late-stage Qi Condensation?" Xie Guannan asked in a lowered voice.
"We have an artifact that can see through cultivation concealment! Your little bit of cultivation isn't enough!"
Listening to the unbridled, arrogant laughter outside, Xie Guannan gave a faint smile and then spoke: "Two late-stage Qi Condensation punks dare to rob me?"
"Kid, do you know what you're saying?" one of them said, his emotions flaring.
"I feel like I've just heard the biggest joke in the world," another chimed in with utter disdain.
Xie Guannan was indeed at late-stage Qi Condensation.
"You're robbing me, but you really shouldn't have chosen nighttime!" Xie Guannan teased in a low voice.
"If not at night, during the day then? Aren't we sick in the head if we did that?"
"Big brother, stop wasting breath on him, just do it!"
"Very well!"
The two of them struck simultaneously.
Xie Guannan slowly stepped out of the carriage cabin, as unconcerned and tranquil as could be.
The two late-stage Qi Condensation cultivators rapidly closed in on Xie Guannan.
Only to see Xie Guannan leisurely pull out the Heavenly Mystery Crossbow and pull the trigger directly at one of them.
A bolt of spiritual energy burst forth instantly—completely unexpected, catching the two of them entirely off guard!
The Heavenly Mystery Crossbow was a mysterious-grade implement, after all, and this strike possessed the lethality of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator!
The man who was hit instantly sprouted a bloody hole in his body! At the same time, he was blown backward through the air, crashing hard into a tree behind him!
Seeing the situation, the other man rapidly retreated, widening the distance between them.
"Second brother! No!"
"This is the third floor's Heavenly Mystery Crossbow? How could you possibly activate it?!" the man exclaimed in shock.
Xie Guannan smiled faintly, though hidden behind his mask, the man couldn't see it.
Xie Guannan's silence made the air freeze over.
The man looked back at the corpse behind him, a nervous expression crossing his face.
That single blow possessed at least the destructive power of the mid-stage Foundation Establishment stage!
What on earth is going on with this brat?
He's clearly just a junior at the late-stage Qi Condensation, how on earth does he have the power?
It must be some secret technique!
He can only fire once, so he's trying to scare us!
He's gambling that I won't dare!
"With your level of cultivation, you can only fire once, right?" The man in black then spoke indifferently.
"Mm." Xie Guannan replied calmly.
"Hahaha, indeed, you almost scared me there for a second!"
"Wrong!" Xie Guannan replied immediately. As he spoke, he continuously pulled the trigger, firing nearly ten Heavenly Mystery crossbow bolts in succession.
This time, the man in black had nowhere to dodge!
"Protective Shield!"
As the words fell, a massive shield materialized, and when the ten arrows struck it, it actually developed a web of cracks.
"This defensive equipment is not bad!" Xie Guannan remarked mildly, viewing it naturally from the perspective of when he was still in the Qi Condensation stage.
Yet placed in his past life, a single breath of his could have reduced the entirety of Jianghai City to ashes!
Xie Guannan didn't wish to waste any more breath on him and drew the Xuan Sword.
He pointed his sword toward the vault of heaven.
Instantly, the leaves all around them rustled noisily.
Those leaves that had already drifted down withered to a pale yellow at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Falling Leaf Elegy!
A Thousand Hues of Falling Leaf Elegy!
Falling Leaf Slash!
The leaves surged toward the man in black carrying a desolate sword intent!
"No!!" The man in black wore a look of terror and screamed out.
Naturally, no one would hear him!
His entire body was sliced by countless blade-like qi, leaving him covered from head to toe in bloody gashes.
The man in black was drenched in blood, his eyes still glaring viciously at Xie Guannan as he died with grievances unredressed.
Xie Guannan couldn't care less!
He immediately searched the body for any treasures.
He muttered to himself, "Overestimating one's capabilities!"
Especially that magical treasure capable of seeing through cultivation concealment! That was a rare item indeed; he hadn't expected such a thing to exist in Jianghai City.
Before long, Xie Guannan spotted an artifact resembling a small handheld mirror.
Could it be this?
Without further ado, Xie Guannan dumped out everything contained within the storage ring.
Xie Guannan couldn't help letting out a chuckle.
"This must be a first-time offender!"
He shook his head helplessly.
There were only a few thousand taels of silver; no cultivation manuals, no demonic cores, just a few useless weapons.
"Must be too poor, that's why they resorted to robbery!"
"Still, this robbery method actually showed some brains." Xie Guannan couldn't help sighing.
Using an artifact in the Artifact Refining Pavilion to select targets, observing their movements, trailing them, and finally making a move.
If he had been an ordinary late-stage Qi Condensation cultivator, he would have inevitably fallen into the trap of these two black-robed men.
But who was Xie Guannan?
A Qi Condensation cultivator possessing a spiritual sea!
Not to mention it was nighttime; Xie Guannan could have hacked the two of them to death with a casual wave of his sword!
The carriage driver had fled on horseback, so now he had no choice but to fly on his sword.
"Can't rely on anyone!" Xie Guannan sighed.