After leaving the auction, Wen Jingshu headed to the adjacent trading street.
The Fusheng Auction was held on a grand scale, attracting a constant stream of cultivators to Yundan City. With so many cultivators gathered, trade was naturally bustling.
Looking at the endless rows of stalls, Wen Jingshu's eyes lit up.
The protagonists in storybooks always found peerless treasures at these kinds of street stalls. She wondered if she would have the same luck.
Wen Jingshu disguised herself as an ordinary-looking male cultivator, rolled up her sleeves, and began her treasure hunt starting from the very first stall.
At first, Wen Jingshu was patient enough to browse stall by stall. However, she soon realized that the items were mostly junk, and the vendors were telling outrageous lies without even blinking.
Wen Jingshu stared speechlessly at the battered brush in her hand while the stall owner babbled on enthusiastically:
“Senior Brother, you truly have an excellent eye! This is a treasure found inside an immortal's cave dwelling! You have no idea—when I found this treasure, it was radiating a brilliant, multicolored golden light. It was clearly no ordinary item! It has to be at least a Seventh-Grade Treasure Tool!
“Don't look down on it just because it seems tattered right now. That's actually due to a lack of spiritual energy. Once you take it back and nourish it with your spiritual energy for seven-times-seven, forty-nine days, you will surely restore this talisman brush to its former glory!
“I can see that this talisman brush is fated to be yours, Senior Brother. Tell you what, I'll give you a fifty percent discount. Just one thousand top-grade spirit stones!”
Ignoring him, Wen Jingshu silently put down the talisman brush and picked up a ragged stone next to it.
“Oh my, Senior Brother, you are truly extraordinary! You've managed to spot the only two great treasures at my stall!
“This stone was also brought out from that immortal's cave dwelling. When I first got it, it was surrounded by the laws of space! If I weren't in a rush to sell it because I desperately need money, this treasure would definitely be up for auction at the Fusheng Auction House. Even if it weren't the grand finale, it would still be eagerly fought over by a crowd of mighty cultivators!
“This is a stone that contains the laws of space. With just a bit of refining, it can easily be made into a storage ring capable of holding living creatures! If you take both this stone and the talisman brush, Senior Brother, I'll lower the price even further. I'll charge you a total of five thousand... no, let's make it three thousand top-grade spirit stones!
“Wait... Wait! Senior Brother, don't leave! We can still negotiate the price! If three thousand is too much, how about twenty-five hundred?
“Two thousand! Senior Brother, let's talk some more. If two thousand won't do... then five hundred! I'll even let you choose any other item from my stall for free!”
Five hundred? That was just a broken First-Grade talisman brush and a piece of ordinary black iron. She wouldn't even take them if he paid her five hundred spirit stones!
She was wealthy, but she wasn't stupid!
Wen Jingshu wandered for another hour and actually managed to find a few natural treasures that had been mistaken for low-grade spiritual plants.
Just as she was nearing the end of the street, the Shengsheng Bead she had been nurturing in her dantian suddenly stirred.
The last time the Shengsheng Bead had reacted, she had found the Boundary-Breaking Bead. Could there be another sub-bead of Yinian'an here?
Wishing to be certain, Wen Jingshu patiently continued her search.
Just as she pinpointed the location, she heard a neighboring stall owner say to another:
“Junior Sister Zhao, don't just stand there dazed. There's a fat sheep up ahead buying beads. As long as it's a round bead, she wants it! I remember your stall has plenty of beads. Hurry up and go!”
“Really? If you put it that way, then I definitely shouldn't sell them. What if I end up selling some heaven-defying opportunity? I'm not going, I'm not going.”
After saying this, the female cultivator addressed as Junior Sister Zhao packed up her things and prepared to leave. Watching the fleeing woman, Wen Jingshu found it both funny and amusing.
She was quite a clever one, realizing she might hold a great opportunity in her hands.
Unfortunately, only Wen Jingshu could fully activate this sub-bead. Even if someone else obtained it, they would only be able to unleash half of its power.
Wen Jingshu silently followed her out of Yundan City. It wasn't until they reached the outskirts that she revealed herself and said:
“Junior Sister Zhao, shall we have a chat?”
Looking at the male cultivator who had suddenly appeared before her, Zhao Chan was utterly terrified.
Forcing herself to look calm, she smiled at Wen Jingshu and said, “Does Fellow Daoist know me? May I ask what business you have with me?”
“You possess something I want. In exchange, I can give you two Marrow-Cleansing Pills. Furthermore, if your remaining spiritual roots include a fire or wood spiritual root, I can also grant you a spot as an outer disciple of the Pill Sect.”
Hearing Wen Jingshu's words, Zhao Chan's heart pounded wildly. Marrow-Cleansing Pills and a spot as an outer disciple of the Pill Sect! Either of these was enough to completely change her life!
At the same time, she became even more certain that the treasure in her possession was truly extraordinary!
Seeing her expressions shift rapidly, Wen Jingshu did not beat around the bush and said directly:
“You've guessed correctly. That item is indeed a treasure. It is already a stroke of immense luck that you managed to stumble upon one. However, this is only one of several pieces of that treasure. Do you have the confidence to gather them all in your lifetime?”
As Wen Jingshu spoke, she activated the Shengsheng Bead. Zhao Chan suddenly felt her storage bag slip completely out of her control. In the next second, it burst open, spilling a messy heap of items onto the ground.
Among the items, a black bead floated up into the air. The bead trembled slightly, shedding its dark exterior to reveal its original golden luster.
The golden bead flew to Wen Jingshu's side, circling her several times as if in excitement, before finally slipping into her dantian and settling quietly next to the Shengsheng Bead.
Seeing this, despite a pang of reluctance, Zhao Chan knew that this opportunity did not belong to her.
Suppressing the trace of greed in her heart, Zhao Chan knelt before Wen Jingshu, prostrating herself as she said word by word:
“Zhao Chan thanks Senior for granting me this opportunity!”
Wen Jingshu could have easily killed her to take the treasure, yet she had chosen not to. Zhao Chan felt that the other party was a person of noble character who disdained to make things difficult for a minor rogue cultivator like herself.
Besides, what Wen Jingshu said was true. Even if she had been lucky enough to obtain this single bead, would she ever be able to find a second or a third?
In comparison, the Marrow-Cleansing Pills offered by Wen Jingshu were what she truly needed.
She possessed four spiritual roots. If she could successfully cleanse away two of them, she would become a dual spiritual root cultivator! That would be a true defiance of fate!
Not to mention, Wen Jingshu had also promised her a spot as an outer disciple of the Pill Sect!
People often said that rogue cultivators lived a free and easy life, but only rogue cultivators themselves knew the hardships they endured. Given the chance, who wouldn't want to join a sect?
This was especially true for female rogue cultivators, who had to guard against both backstabbing and lecherous creeps.
Seeing how sensible she was, Wen Jingshu casually handed her two Marrow-Cleansing Pills.
To others, Marrow-Cleansing Pills were priceless treasures, but to the Wen sisters, they were nothing more than jellybeans.
Their entire family consisted of exceptionally talented alchemists. When others requested them to refine pills, they could complete the refinement using just a single set of ingredients. The remaining sets naturally ended up in their own pockets, meaning they had as many medicinal herbs as they could ever want.
Furthermore, fearing that two positives might yield a negative and result in their children having four or five spiritual roots, their parents had prepared plenty of Marrow-Cleansing Pills and Spirit-Tempering Pills long before they were even born.
Marrow-Cleansing Pills could cleanse away redundant spiritual roots, while Spirit-Tempering Pills could improve the quality of one's spiritual roots. With these two types of pills in hand, even if the sisters had been born useless, they could still have transformed themselves into geniuses!
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