Chapter 69: Daoist Ancient Treasure
Fang Shu had a Dao Talisman on him, so the most suitable magic for cultivation was one with a low threshold but high comprehension difficulty and considerable power!
His mind stirred, and he became instantly interested in this saber technique in his hand.
But he remained composed, merely continuing to flip through downward.
After looking at a few more pages, Fang Shu’s interest in this 《Red Snake Bloodline Fire Saber Technique》 grew even stronger.
This magic could use essence blood as a thread, wrapping it around the saber or sword, where it would boil and burn like fire, and after cultivating it to great completion, one could even transform blood into a saber, controlling a red snake, with the snake moving with the saber, its power reaching Fourth Calamity magic!
Its cultivation difficulty lay in the complex and obscure saber technique routines and saber technique illustrations, as well as certain requirements for the cultivator’s essence blood quality.
Those with superior essence blood would ignite fiercer bloodfire and sustain it longer.
Seeing these two points, Fang Shu compared them to the other magics he had seen today, and a thought immediately settled in his mind:
“This is it! Picking and choosing too much will only dazzle the eyes and disturb the mind.”
After all, his main purpose in coming to the Monster Market today was to sell goods and gather Talisman Money to buy Precious Medicine.
Magic like this—if encountered, buying one was fate, to keep in reserve, but being too persistent would be unwise.
While pondering in his mind, Fang Shu’s hands did not stop; he continued rapidly flipping through the booklet, wanting to scan the subsequent content into his eyes one by one.
But the stall owner noticed and lightly flicked an iron ruler beside him, which clanged onto the magic booklet, trembling as it pinned it down.
The other party said with a half-smile, “Keep looking, and you’ll have to pay.”
Fang Shu, seeing this, stopped with a look of sudden realization, promptly closing the magic booklet, showing no oddity.
But in truth, he inwardly sighed.
Based on his observations walking through the Monster Market, when stall owners sold various cultivation method classics, they wouldn’t take the secret script characters of the magic lightly just because they were extremely hard to copy and memorize; instead, they hid them carefully, only fully revealing the secret script after full payment.
The secret script characters were like that, and the easy-to-memorize cultivation steps and methods were even less likely to be fully shown.
This rendered Fang Shu’s “photographic memory” ability useless.
As for why the stall owners did this, it was to guard against “photographic memory” abilities.
Whether true photographic memory, drug-enhanced memory, or using magic to copy magic content, Immortal Cultivators had all sorts of methods to temporarily achieve photographic memory effects.
Thus, stall owners didn’t want to sell a cultivation method secret, only for the money not yet received while the magic’s details were fully grasped, even its flaws known inside out, making it unsellable.
His thoughts drifting, Fang Shu mused inwardly: “I hear Immortal Sects all have Scripture Pavilions, with cultivation method classics freely viewable, as if afraid disciples won’t learn them.
Perhaps only after joining an Immortal Sect can I freely flip through cultivation method secret manuals and bring out the wonders of the Dao Talisman!”
A wave of anticipation in his heart, but on his face, Fang Shu instead showed hesitation and conflict.
He said to the stall owner: “It is indeed Fourth Calamity, and indeed cultivable in the Refining Essence stage, but the difficulty of finely controlling qi and blood flow to form magic secret script on the saber or sword surface is truly great.”
He planned to nitpick to prepare for bargaining next.
Who knew the stall owner would sneer, as if seeing through him, and say:
“This technique is indeed hard to learn, but what does that have to do with me? No bargaining!”
Fang Shu carefully studied the other party a few times, seeing his serious expression, then cupped his hands, suppressing the bargaining words, and directly asked: “How much?”
The stall owner said dully: “Five thousand!”
These words immediately steadied Fang Shu’s mind.
He had already prepared for the other party to demand an exorbitant price, forcing him to bleed heavily. But unexpectedly, the other party only asked for five thousand money.
This price was not much different from First Calamity magic in the Marketplace, but the magic sold by the stall owner could reach Fourth Calamity Refining Qi level power!
The stall owner saw Fang Shu hesitate and said flatly:
“Don’t think it’s too expensive. The good-selling magics here were sold long ago; now only these things remain.
Buy if you like, no after-sales.”
Seeing this, what more could Fang Shu say? He confirmed the secret script in the saber technique was complete—even if incomplete, he could still glean something—then bought this Fire Saber Technique, pained on the surface but expectant inwardly.
After money and goods exchanged, Fang Shu held the saber technique booklet and flipped through it on the spot.
After reading the booklet’s content, he found its cultivation process manageable, but the comprehension difficulty truly high, especially the saber technique routines, which were utterly dazzling.
The corresponding method text was quite crude, at first glance extremely like just a fragment.
Its full text conveyed a general meaning of “emphasize intent over form,” requiring the cultivator to specifically comprehend during cultivation.
But Fang Shu glanced at the eighteen secret script characters in the booklet that seemed to writhe, inwardly relaxing with a sense of picking up a bargain.
Especially as his Dao Talisman shook lightly, text jumping out:
【《Red Snake Bloodline Fire Saber Technique》 collected… analyzing… secret script complete… method abbreviated, needs derivation to complete…
Estimated time: one hundred thirty-eight days. Can slightly reduce time by observing snake movement trajectory. 】
The Dao Talisman could indeed analyze this magic, though it would take four or five months—quite long—but if analyzable, it meant he could cultivate it.
Fang Shu held the booklet, cupped hands to the stall owner, then took leave.
He strolled through the Monster Market, pondering whether to set up a stall to sell the saber technique booklet or have some stall owner buy it back, potentially saving most of the five thousand Talisman Money.
With the thought stirring, he really asked around in the Monster Market.
The stall owners offered even harsher buyback prices, all sneering, saying things like “tricky magic” and “only the general outline, how to cultivate,” the highest willing to take it for two thousand money.
Seeing this, Fang Shu dismissed the idea, no longer dwelling on it.
Two thousand money was considerable, but not too much for him now; instead, with the saber booklet on him, he could occasionally study the secret script characters.
Since it was hand-copied, the characters had a fierce aura—perhaps he could gain insights or aid the Dao Talisman analysis.
Putting away the saber technique booklet, Fang Shu checked the time and saw it was still over an hour until the moon passed mid-sky, planning to return to the Town at dawn for safety.
So he continued wandering the Monster Market, but this time targeting Precious Medicine.
After leisurely asking multiple stall owners, to Fang Shu’s regret, none allowed testing the medicine—buy or not, at most opening the box for a look, not even touching, let alone scraping powder.
This prevented Fang Shu from judging via Dao Talisman which Precious Medicine was genuine and free of issues.
Two hours passed, and he had not acquired a single Precious Medicine.
On the contrary, for secret script characters, he had freeloaded quite a few.
He repeatedly lingered near leatherworker and tailor stalls, collecting dozens of secret scripts from those “tattered hides and rags” at once, adding them to his Dao Talisman.
Because he just glanced while passing, the leatherworkers thought he wanted to steal their craft; later when approaching, they glared at him with hostile attitudes, fierce expressions.
Fortunately, the Monster Market was managed by Immortal Cultivators, rumored that the Owner had heaven-reaching background, so few Immortal Cultivators or monsters dared cause trouble.
Fang Shu shrugged, shrouded his sleeve, and wandered to other areas of the Monster Market.
Just as he thought he couldn’t buy Precious Medicine tonight and considered buying in the Marketplace, a corner of the Monster Market suddenly livened up.
“Open open open! Good grief, it really yielded yam.”
“Tsk tsk, struck it big—Precious Medicine from waste pit, over tenfold profit!”
The noisy spot was crowded with human and monster heads, all excited, whispering.
Fang Shu also squeezed forward and found Immortal Cultivators and monsters Gambling Stones in the Monster Market.
This work wasn’t unusual—Marketplaces had it too—but its tricks were only slightly better than drawing Opportunity Talismans; after all, you ended with a pile of broken stones, not a flimsy note.
Fang Shu had heard his Second Uncle mention that any raw stone possibly yielding Spirit Stones or Precious Medicine was long snagged at the Mine.
This thing, ten years ago when Second Uncle Yu Le first came to the Marketplace, had boomed fiercely.
Later, seemingly because too many were fleeced and everyone tired of the routines, it waned for a while.
Fang Shu narrowed his eyes, thinking inwardly: “Is the Gambling Stones trend starting again?”
He also squeezed forward to join the excitement.
He found that Monster Market Gambling Stones differed from the Marketplace’s “suitable for all ages” and “equal opportunity fleecing”—every stone gambled here was “Spirit Stone”!
Visibly, each contained spiritual energy; even the worst yielded at least some on the surface. But accordingly, the threshold was high, only accepting Spirit Stones, starting at least equivalent weight in Spirit Stones.
Fang Shu went forward to investigate closely.
After watching the excitement a bit, he found Immortal Cultivators and monsters were gambling not just Precious Medicine, but mainly objects called “Ancient Treasures.”
Or rather, the latter was the main draw!
“Ancient Treasure?” Fang Shu heard the term for the first time.
He subconsciously thought “Ancient Treasure” referred to relics left by ancient Immortal Cultivators, and curiously wondered why such treasures were sealed in Spirit Stones.
Then suddenly, he heard “Daoist” from bystanders’ mouths.
Ancient Treasure.
Its origins traced back ten thousand years to existences called “Daoists” who left them!
