Nie Shiyun arrived at the largest settlement of the demon race, Fanhu City. There were still a few human cultivators within the town, so his presence was not entirely conspicuous, yet he could still feel the gazes of many passersby gathering on him. Accustomed to keeping a low profile, Nie Shiyun felt somewhat awkward.
Demon cultivators were, naturally, monsters that had already taken human form, and their appearances were no different from humans. While demon cultivators could easily sense each other's auras, it was difficult for humans to distinguish them once they had transformed. Otherwise, many more demon cultivators would surely have met with foul play.
In most places, one would only find demon cultivators blending into human crowds. However, within Fanhu City, there were many spirit beasts walking about who had not yet transformed, or whose transformations were incomplete despite having attained sapience. Seeing such a scene for the first time, Nie Shiyun found it quite wondrous. But fearing that a human staring at those spirit beasts for too long might be misunderstood, he did not let his gaze linger, heading straight for the largest inn in the city.
The grand inn lived up to its reputation; they did not treat him differently just because he was human. They merely kindly reminded him to act with caution before letting him stay.
Once he had a place to settle, Nie Shiyun went out for a stroll. In less than an afternoon, he had thoroughly mapped out the town. The demon race was indeed not flourishing; this so-called "largest city" was only about the size of the town at the foot of Yunqing Pavilion's mountain. The rumors that many demons lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests and rarely gathered in public were evidently true.
Fanhu City had very little resident turnover. Or rather, the demon race was naturally disinclined to move around; once they had a "nest," they often would not leave their family's territory for hundreds of years. When Nie Shiyun, a fresh human face, wandered around the town without looking like a traveling merchant there for business, news quickly spread. Many demon cultivators began to quietly observe this Golden Core human cultivator from the shadows.
Although Nie Shiyun had brought a fair amount of spirit stones, he intended to stay here for a long time. He couldn't be sure if he would encounter situations requiring large sums of money in the future, and living off his savings indefinitely made him feel uneasy. Thus, his first thought was to find a place to do some odd jobs.
Nie Shiyun went to the town's Artifact Refining Hall. Looking at the somewhat dilapidated building and the two or three mediocre Dharma tools placed in the shop, it was clear that this refinery had no master craftsman in residence. Nie Shiyun thought he was a shoo-in, but the shopkeeper he spoke with was uninterested, maintaining an attitude that they weren't short on hands. He claimed that the demon race didn't favor using Dharma treasures, relying mostly on their own bodies instead.
He took out his Yunqing Pavilion waist token, indicating he came from a family of artifact refiners, but the other party only spared it a glance, saying lazily, "Never heard of it. Besides, you're a human; surely you aren't short on money?"
Communication having failed, Nie Shiyun could only retract his waist token, thinking to himself that information flow between demon and human cultivators was indeed heavily obstructed. Adhering to the principle that even if a deal fails, goodwill should remain, he patiently explained to the shopkeeper that he had spent much of his travel funds on the way and had come to seek some cultivation materials, and he wasn't sure if his money would be enough.
"If you don't have enough money to buy them, you can go find them yourself in the nearby mountain ranges and ancient forests!" The shopkeeper looked at him askance and sneered. "Just be careful. You human cultivators have always been thin-skinned and tender-fleshed. Don't accidentally provoke some formidable spirit beast and end up in its stomach, or all your efforts will be for naught."
"Thank you for the advice," Nie Shiyun gave a dry smile and turned to leave.
Failing to receive a warm welcome from some of the demons didn't discourage him too much. He didn't waste any more effort asking other shops if they needed help. Instead, he turned and took a walk in the forests near the town. He didn't go deep, so he didn't make any grand discoveries. However, the spiritual energy among the spirit trees here was very abundant, and the spirit herbs grew quite lushly as a result.
As a newcomer, Nie Shiyun acted with extreme caution, repeatedly confirming that the spirit herbs and flowers he intended to pick had no sapience and were not products of someone's private territory. After an afternoon, his harvest wasn't much. He didn't bother sorting them, thinking that there likely wouldn't be anything particularly precious in the immediate vicinity of the town, and simply threw them all into his space to feed it.
After living in Fanhu City for a few days, he felt that if one ignored the pervasive hostility of the demon cultivators, this demon territory was truly a fine place to live—rich in spiritual energy and abundant in resources. The only other drawback was perhaps that the demons lived a bit too simply. Although, by the standards of Nie Shiyun, who had once been a modern person, the entire cultivation world was quite primitive, the demon cultivators lived even more rustically than human cultivators. Setting aside their level of artifact refining or talisman making, even the basic spiritual food in the inns and restaurants lacked variety. This was quite painful for Nie Shiyun, who had spent the last few years frequently visiting the town below Yunqing Pavilion to treat himself whenever he was free.
Staying in an inn indefinitely was still inconvenient. Thinking that he would be living here for a long time, Nie Shiyun steeled his heart and found a vacant storefront in the city, renting it for a year with a large sum of spirit stones.
The shop was not on the main thoroughfare, making it a bit poor as a business location, but there was a small courtyard behind the shop with two rooms. It was perfect—one for sleeping and one for artifact refining. Refusing to give up his comforts, Nie Shiyun forcibly carved out half the space in the room intended for refining to set up a small kitchen for himself.
Once settled in this manner, Nie Shiyun was quite satisfied. Although he didn't expect many customers to come to his door, he still cleaned the shop entrance and placed several refined treasures from his storage bracelet onto the display shelves. In the days that followed, he was in no hurry. He only opened the shop doors for a brief rest after returning from outside with spirit herbs or refining materials. For the first entire month, not a single person visited. He wasn't anxious, spending his time in the shop researching formations. Before going to the Misty Secret Realm, he had felt that formations were vital to artifact refining. Before leaving this time, he had specifically asked Nie Li to find formation books for him to study.
On this day, he was sketching on the counter, using a bronze knife for experimentation to carve a formation onto it, when he actually welcomed his first guest on such an ordinary afternoon.
The one who entered was a young boy who looked to be of tender age. Nie Shiyun guessed he hadn't been transformed for long, though any demon cub one picked out would likely be older than him in years. He didn't dare be too dismissive and politely asked what the other needed.
He couldn't tell what kind of spirit beast the boy had transformed from, but the child's body stiffened with tension at the question. Nie Shiyun heard whispering outside the door and glanced up, seeing several young demon cultivators of similar age chirping and giggling behind the door. He roughly understood; perhaps the story of a weirdo like him opening a shop that no one would visit had been circulating among the neighbors recently. This group of cubs had likely made some sort of bet, and the loser had to come into the shop to do something.
He didn't know what kind of person he was in the rumors, but there were likely no good words, otherwise he wouldn't have been used as a forfeit for a children's game.
"I... I want to buy this." The boy pointed randomly, likely not even knowing what the object was.
Nie Shiyun looked in the direction of his finger. It was a heavy axe made of profound iron. He then looked back at the boy's small frame and was left speechless.
"Is the bet that you have to talk to me and then buy something?" Nie Shiyun shook his head, speaking helplessly.
The boy shuddered, his face full of the shame and indignation of being found out but unable to retort. However, Nie Shiyun didn't kick him out. Instead, he took a small and inexpensive copper bow, which had a formation added to it to enhance the range of spiritual energy. It was made of the most basic materials, and seeing that it was a child, Nie Shiyun only intended to charge him two thousand spirit stones.
"Two... two thousand..." the boy said embarrassedly. "Is there anything cheaper?"
Nie Shiyun was choked up. He couldn't even produce two thousand? Had the demon cultivators fallen into such poverty?
He relented, saying that the insufficient portion could be made up with spirit herbs or other items of equal value. The boy was immediately relieved and pulled many trinkets and spirit herbs from his pockets. Nie Shiyun hadn't expected much, but when he looked closely, the boy had produced spirit cores he had never found before and Moon Spirit Grass in such quantities it was as if it cost nothing.
"You don't need this much for that."
"But, this isn't worth anything..."
"..."
Nie Shiyun looked at the Moon Spirit Grass spread across the table. This kind of herb only appeared at night, and the wilderness at night was dangerous for humans without night vision. He didn't dare linger in the demon forests rashly, so he had only managed to harvest three or four clusters of this energy-rich herb in total.
"Is it not enough...?" the boy asked tentatively.
"It's enough, it's enough." Nie Shiyun hurriedly handed the copper bow to the boy and even kindly told him he could test it out, but the other party clearly had no heart for that. Having bought the item, he rushed out in a great hurry.
No refunds after sale. Nie Shiyun decided to write those words on a wooden board and hang it up later. Turning back, he threw the Moon Spirit Grass into the Chaos Space. He didn't have time to check it, but he knew from the slow rise in his cultivation that the space had absorbed a great deal of spiritual energy.
He suddenly realized that compared to laboriously harvesting things himself, perhaps sitting at home and swindling children's money was a more guaranteed way to make a profit.
That being said, it wasn't every day that children made bets to come buy his things. Nie Shiyun continued as before, heading out to explore after resting for a couple of days. On this day, his luck was good; he found a small vein of Ink Crystal. This material was pitch black and could be integrated into materials of any attribute, making it a universal and excellent base material. However, Ink Crystal was rare and could not be re-processed, making it a difficult material to master; thus, not many people used it. Nie Shiyun had only touched Ink Crystal once at Yunqing Pavilion and had never used it. Having obtained a fair amount now, he was suddenly eager to try.
Just as he reached his shop and wanted to open the restriction he had set, he saw several unfamiliar demons waiting at the door.
Could they be... waiting for him?
Seeing Nie Shiyun return, the demons quickly stepped forward, looking somewhat excited.
"A few days ago, the one who sold my son a treasure was you, right?"
Nie Shiyun's heart skipped a beat. Could they have discovered the amount of Moon Spirit Grass was wrong and come to confront him? Regardless, those had already been eaten clean by the space.
He only heard the demon continue to ask: "I heard you're willing to exchange spirit stones for spirit herbs and other sundries. May I ask if there are more treasures in the shop to exchange?"
He hadn't expected that business would actually come knocking. Nie Shiyun was startled.
"Of course, but I don't just take any sundries. This isn't the place to talk; why don't we go inside to discuss in detail?" Although Nie Shiyun didn't fully understand the market prices of the demon race, it didn't mean he couldn't read the room. It now appeared that the other party was the one asking for his help; he could certainly test the waters.
This business was viable!
From the conversation, Nie Shiyun learned that the other party was from the Spirit Rabbit Tribe living on a mountain not far from Fanhu City. He remembered the cub who came to the shop a few days ago; he was indeed easily startled, though he didn't know if it was a racial trait. Although it was just a lost bet with friends, that little rabbit had stubbornly saved face by buying something, spending all his pocket money. He went back feeling aggrieved and cried to his family.
The cub didn't understand, but the adult demon cultivators did. One look at the item and they knew it was worth more than its price. They lived far from Fanhu City and had never heard of such an artifact refining shop in town. Thinking of the constant skirmishes with the nearby Rat Tribe, the rabbits felt this might be a good opportunity to procure some Dharma treasures for their clansmen.
Demon cultivators who were skilled in artifact refining were few to begin with, and the items human merchants brought to demon territory to resell were often at extortionate prices, making them hard to afford. Learning that Nie Shiyun could indeed use materials and herbs to substitute for spirit stones, the Rabbit Tribe was overjoyed.
"But with so many spirit herbs, if they aren't made into pills in time, their efficacy will slowly degrade. I recall that for humans, consuming spirit herbs directly results in a greatly reduced effect." The Rabbit Tribe member looked at the list Nie Shiyun had grandly drawn up, which included almost every kind of spirit herb with no limit on quantity. He was quite surprised and, fearing this human didn't know the trade, kindly reminded him.
"I have my own uses for them." There was no such thing as "not in time"; they would enter the stomach of that gluttonous space in a single second. Nie Shiyun thought to himself.
The Rabbit Tribe cultivator only reminded him because he feared the human would later find the items useless and go back on his word. Hearing him say this, he felt at ease and stopped worrying about what he was going to do with so many spirit herbs.
Both sides felt they had made a huge profit; this business could be described as a win-win among win-wins.
For the next few months, Nie Shiyun actually found no time to go out. The Rabbit Tribe said they wanted to equip all the transformed demon cultivators in their clan with low-grade Dharma tools. Hearing their requirements, they were similar to what human Qi Condensation cultivators would ask for—very typical of prioritizing quantity over quality. However, Nie Shiyun didn't put on any airs of a master refiner; as long as they paid, he would make wooden sticks or slingshots. This accumulation of small amounts resulted in a bountiful harvest.
After this, unexpectedly, the demon cultivators of the Rat Tribe also came knocking.
For a moment, Nie Shiyun felt like a nefarious arms dealer, providing weapons to two nations simultaneously while sitting on the city wall watching them both suffer. However, he never said he would supply only one side, so maintaining an impartial attitude, he worked overtime to refine many treasures for the Rat Tribe demons as well.
Just when he thought things were settling down, Nie Shiyun found that from then on, his business gradually got on the right track. It couldn't be called flourishing, but he was somewhat famous in the surrounding area.
In the mouths of the demons, he was a somewhat eccentric human artifact refiner who was willing to take scrap metal and accepted almost all spirit herbs. Initially, he had intended to use the brand of Yunqing Pavilion, the artifact refining family, but based on his later observations, high-level demon cultivators had their own channels and generally wouldn't patronize his small, shabby shop. Meanwhile, these low-level and scattered demon cultivators were very wary of so-called great human sects. Nie Shiyun simply put away the Yunqing Pavilion waist token and only hung a sign with the character "Yun" (Cloud) at the shop entrance.
Gradually, Nie Shiyun's scope of business expanded from selling mass-produced low-grade Dharma tools to custom-ordering high-grade treasures and repairing Dharma treasures with a damage rate of over sixty percent.
This limit was set very generously. Whether it was weapons, flying tools, or armor, any slight damage would affect their use. Many artifact refiners had their own rules, such as only repairing items they had made themselves. Most demon cultivators bought their Dharma tools from merchants and had no idea where the refining rooms were located. This caused a great headache for demon cultivators whose treasures were slightly damaged but who were unwilling to give them up.
Nie Shiyun thoroughly entered a life of counting spirit herbs until his hands were soft. His cultivation rose steadily; he figured that if he continued like this, reaching the middle stage of the Golden Core realm by the time of the Great Cultivation Assembly would be no problem.
More than half a year had passed since Nie Shiyun took root in Fanhu City. On this day, he had just finished organizing the dew crystals left by a small flower demon who had just departed. He was musing that these things were crystal clear and quite beautiful; in the future, he could use them to refine some little trinket to swindle money from female cultivators.
"Excuse me, is this the artifact refining shop..."
Nie Shiyun's sign was written somewhat ambiguously; it wasn't the first time someone had entered to ask if this was the legendary artifact refining shop of Fanhu City. Hearing the visitor's inquiry, he didn't even look up as he responded, "Please come in, please come in."
The other party didn't follow up, nor was there any movement. They stood at the door without moving an inch. Only then did Nie Shiyun look up in confusion.
This... isn't this Zhai Bairong?
Clearly, Zhai Bairong hadn't come looking for him specifically; the frozen expression on the other's face explained everything perfectly.
Nie Shiyun was also stunned. He had never expected that he would have a chance encounter with Zhai Bairong in a place like this.
***
