“I’ll give you four hundred immortal crystals for all of these.”
“...Thank you.”
Nie Shiyun had visited a certain artifact workshop that day. He weighed the few light stones in his hand and sighed helplessly.
Before setting out, he had stuffed his storage space with many magical tools he didn't usually use. Over the past two days, he had made several trips to various workshops to exchange them for immortal crystals, only to quickly discover that these artifacts had devalued as drastically as spirit stones in the Upper Heaven Realm.
Magical tools and precious tools were the most common items in the cultivation world; they were sufficient for most cultivators at the Golden Core stage and below. Those who were more extravagant might buy a couple of spiritual tools to serve as their natal dharma treasures. However, cultivators in the Upper Heaven Realm were born with Golden Core cultivation. The low-level implements Nie Shiyun had brought were little more than toys for children to practice with.
The low-level ones fetched almost no price at all. High-grade spiritual tools, by contrast, had some marketability, but Nie Shiyun still needed those for himself and didn't dare part with them recklessly.
He had been observing the market across several towns recently and learned that cultivators in the Upper Heaven Realm collectively referred to all such items as "Immortal Artifacts." They were categorized into four grades: Mortal, Profound, Earth, and Heaven, with each grade further divided into low, mid, and high ranks. The Purple Silk Immortal Robe he held was a high-grade Profound-rank defensive artifact. Had it not been completely ruined, it could have been exchanged for about fifty thousand immortal crystals. Unfortunately, the shop assistant had just inspected it and shook his head at the large holes, saying it was too much trouble to repair. If they were to take it off his hands, they could only offer five thousand as a token gesture.
Upon hearing this, Nie Shiyun decisively put the immortal robe away. Although he was short on money, he wasn't so short-sighted. As long as he could find a source for the raw materials or a similar fabric, he could repair it himself. There was no need to suffer such a loss.
“What, not selling it anymore?” the shop assistant asked.
“Your price reduction is too severe,” Nie Shiyun said honestly.
Seeing his sincere attitude, the shop assistant didn't mince words and spoke the truth. “It’s really not that we’re swindling you. Look at these holes... this is Purple Cloud Silkworm Silk produced in the Middle Layer. We in the Lower Layer rely on merchants to import it, and the selling price is exorbitant! If we used other similar threads to patch it, even if the effect was the same, it would look unsightly. The female cultivators certainly wouldn't buy it.”
Nie Shiyun appreciated the clear explanation. Even so, he was still unwilling to sell. “I understand, thank you. But I’ll pass. I’ll try to fix it myself if I get the chance.”
“Oh? So, Fellow Daoist is an artifact refiner? My apologies. May I ask which family you hail from?”
Nie Shiyun waved his hand. “I am merely a rogue cultivator. I have no family, nor have I joined any sect.”
The assistant’s interest vanished instantly. One must understand that secondary professions were built on piles of money. Without the support of a backing power, the materials wasted during practice, the refining facilities, and the astronomical prices of secret manuals—any one of these could drain a cultivator’s entire fortune. A mere rogue cultivator who dared to throw themselves into a secondary profession was either someone who had struck it rich and had more money than they knew what to do with, or an ignorant fool who didn't know the heights of the heavens.
Clearly, he believed the cultivator before him, who was selling off low-level treasures, was the latter.
“I see you’ve sold quite a few things today. Although they’re all low-level treasures, the quality seems decent. Take a word of advice from me! A young man should be down-to-earth and join a major sect, starting from the bottom.”
“Thank you for the suggestion,” Nie Shiyun replied.
The shop assistant could tell from Nie Shiyun’s expression that he hadn't taken the advice to heart, so he stopped trying to persuade him. He merely thought to himself that this man was beyond help.
Nie Shiyun wasn't annoyed by the misunderstanding and turned to leave at a leisurely pace. He knew the other party meant well, but he had already inquired: those sects famous for artifact refining usually only recruited disciples once every hundred years. Furthermore, after entering a sect, one had to perform menial labor for decades before being allowed to touch the secret manuals and materials of artifact refining.
The residents of the Upper Heaven Realm lived longer than those in the lower realms, and consequently, all sorts of time cycles were stretched out, with social classes being very rigid. Nie Shiyun didn't mind working his way up from the bottom to earn money slowly, but since he was currently in a hurry to find someone, he naturally lacked that patience.
“Time...” Nie Shiyun lamented.
Fortunately, while he currently lacked money and cultivation, the one thing he did not lack was time.
The Jade Pendant Space had been growing slowly along with Nie Shiyun’s cultivation. After he advanced to the Deity Transformation stage, the area that was originally the size of a palm had now expanded to the size of a room. Moreover, after several tests, he found that as the space’s grade rose, it no longer had the voracious appetite of its early years, consuming whatever was placed inside. Thus, Nie Shiyun had the leisure to set up several simple rooms within the space, divided into areas for artifact refining and alchemy, cultivation, and a storage room for miscellaneous items.
Beyond the convenience, the most important change was that the flow of time within the jade pendant had become even slower. He had previously tried cultivating for ten days inside the space, and only about one hour had passed outside the jade pendant. In this way, Nie Shiyun could, as before, cultivate, refine artifacts, and rest within a single day with an efficiency that would seem impossible to outsiders.
Entering the jade pendant to cultivate in the wilderness was somewhat risky, so Nie Shiyun still chose to stay in an inn every day before entering the space. Although a hundred immortal crystals a day made his already meager wallet even thinner, he preferred to pay for peace of mind given his insufficient cultivation.
In just ten days, his cultivation had steadily maintained itself at the Great Perfection of the Deity Transformation stage, only one step away from Void Refinement. If he were still in the cultivation world, relying on the thin spiritual energy there to cultivate slowly, this would have surely taken a hundred years.
Unfortunately, he currently had no cave dwelling, nor did he have a group of friends and family to guard him while he advanced as he did before. Nie Shiyun pushed the matter of advancement aside for the moment and decided to head into the wilderness to gather some materials for artifact refining, selling treasures as he traveled forward.
After painfully spending fifty immortal crystals to buy a simplified map of the Upper Heaven Realm, Nie Shiyun finally figured out his current location.
The Upper Heaven Realm was divided into three layers: Upper, Middle, and Lower. The Lower Layer had the most vast land, with many mountains and forests and scattered towns. Cultivators in the Middle Layer lived more centrally; most prestigious families and sects gathered there, and various sect competitions and commercial exchanges were frequent. Upon reaching the Upper Layer, it seemed to return to the initial state, with various ethnic groups and sects living extremely far apart, having almost no communication with each other unless something major occurred.
He quickly identified his target destination—Nine Clouds City. As the largest town in the Lower Layer, it was a port for the two celestial ships that traveled between the Middle and Lower Layers each year.
What separated each layer was not clouds or rivers, but a void of primordial chaos.
Only after reaching the rank of True Immortal or above did a cultivator have the ability to cross the domains between layers alone. Everyone else had to choose to ride a celestial ship; otherwise, they would either be crushed by the intense pressure immediately upon entry or withstand the pressure only to become lost in the seemingly endless darkness.
No matter how fast Nie Shiyun’s cultivation speed was, he couldn't skip three levels to reach the True Immortal stage in the short term, so he chose to obediently take the ship.
Regrettably, the map only marked the locations of major towns and didn't specify what inhabited the wild outskirts. Nie Shiyun had to make his own markings on the map as he traveled through the countryside. For instance, which mountain peak produced a certain spiritual herb, which forest yielded special stones, and which area was home to difficult-to-deal-with demonic beasts—all were carefully recorded.
“If the ascension passage is ever repaired, this could probably be sold for money...” Nie Shiyun calculated to himself. The Upper Heaven Realm hadn't seen new blood in a long time, and everyone was set in their ways, so they naturally didn't need this kind of information. But it would be different when new cultivators arrived. Having done the research now, it would be a perfect opportunity to turn a profit in the future.
But that was a matter for later. Nie Shiyun finished his last entry for the day and tucked away his exclusive map. He looked up at the sky; the sun was nearly down. Traveling at night in an unfamiliar region made it easy to lose one's way, so he decided to camp out in the wild for the night.
Just as he was about to take an oil lamp from his space to light it, the flame at his fingertip was flicked by an unnatural breeze, and the surrounding bushes rustled. Nie Shiyun’s expression changed instantly, and he held his breath, listening intently to the sounds around him.
Was it a demonic beast? And more than one.
Nie Shiyun observed his surroundings, releasing his divine sense to try and detect where the enemy was hiding. He feigned ignorance, attempting to light the oil lamp once more and placing it on the ground.
The moment he crouched down, several bushes around him rustled simultaneously!
Nie Shiyun summoned the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover that had accompanied him for many years. Instantly, flames flared through the woods, illuminating the surroundings. And indeed, leaping from the bushes were the demonic beasts intending to ambush Nie Shiyun—four tiger demons.
The number was higher than expected. Nie Shiyun’s brow furrowed slightly. Their cultivation averaged around the mid-to-late Deity Transformation stage. If it were one-on-one, he would have confidence, but dealing with four at once was a bit overambitious.
As he considered his strategy, the massive tiger behind him roared and lunged. As if receiving a signal, the other three also closed in. Nie Shiyun didn't want to be attacked from both front and back; he tapped the ground with his toes and nimbly flipped onto his flying sword.
“Don’t let him escape!”
Following a powerful roar, one of the tigers on the ground transformed into human form, summoned a flying artifact, and aggressively pressed the attack.
As expected, they were demon cultivators. Tigers mostly acted alone; if they hadn't gained intelligence, they would rarely hunt in groups like this. From the current situation, it wasn't a case of demonic beasts wanting to eat a human, but rather four tiger-tribe demon cultivators who saw him alone and wanted to kill him for his treasures.
Demons had the highest attack power in their original forms. However, ordinary tiger demons couldn't fly, and Nie Shiyun was confident he could kite them until they were exhausted. By comparison, even if their strength dropped slightly, demon cultivators who could use flying swords and dharma treasures were clearly more troublesome.
The demon race moved quickly and attacked fiercely. Although their aim was a bit off, the side with fewer numbers would be the one to suffer if this dragged on. Nie Shiyun thought of his empty wallet and couldn't bear to gulp down Spirit Recovery Pills. His eyes darted around as he carefully monitored the battle, wanting to keep his consumption to a minimum.
“Little Bird,” Nie Shiyun called out softly. However, he didn't summon the Vermilion Bird Strange Fire separately; instead, he merged it with his own dantian, temporarily transforming his fire root into the strange fire.
“Uncle, why did this guy’s attacks suddenly get so much fiercer!”
“Don’t get distracted...”
Before the elder tiger-tribe member could finish his sentence, Nie Shiyun flicked his sleeve and ruthlessly unleashed a metal-attribute attack at the same time. He hadn't shown any sign of a second spiritual root attribute earlier, and his artifact was the Divine Fire Cover, so this move caught the opponents completely off guard.
“Waaah!”
The one hit squarely was not the two in front of Nie Shiyun, but rather the youth they were intentionally protecting behind them. Nie Shiyun had already seen that he was the one with the lowest cultivation in their group, likely brought along by the three elders. He targeted the tiger youth without hesitation, and as expected, the others were distracted trying to protect him.
Their tribal bond was touching. It was just a pity they had picked the wrong person to practice on. Nie Shiyun took the opportunity to catch his breath, taking the first pill of this skirmish to adjust his state.
The four tiger-tribe members were somewhat frustrated. This human’s cultivation was clearly also at the Deity Transformation stage, so why was he so difficult to deal with four-against-one!
Enjoying the story? Rate this novel:
Transmigrated into a Total Shou Novel as a Cannon Fodder, but Ended Up 1v1-ing the Male Lead | Chapter 153 | Ambush in the Wilderness | Novela.app | Novela.app
