Chapter 8: The Beginning of Establishment

Three days later, as dawn broke.

Chen Li pushed the door open and extravagantly activated a "Guiding Talisman".

With the talisman rapidly consuming itself,

the next moment, the vibrant colors of the world gradually faded, leaving only shades of black and white before his eyes.

"Another dangerous place has emerged," Chen Li silently noted its location and walked out the door.

With a name like "Guiding Talisman", it's easy to be misunderstood as something that points out directions or pathways, but in fact, it identifies paths to survival, discerning danger like foul aura or malevolent spirits in the vicinity, directing one to fortune and away from harm.

Its effective range is roughly a hundred meters in radius.

This means that these 'dangerous places' are all within the shanty area, and there could be many reasons for their presence, such as domesticated ghosts and demon beasts or magic artifacts emitting evil aura, all of which could trigger the reaction of the Guiding Talisman,

No longer as shockable as he was at the beginning, he's now much worldlier. Of course, the key is that he's no longer as utterly defenseless as he was when he first crossed over.

Not to mention that he has honed his Willow Leaf Dart, which serves as his ace in the hole.

Take the "Spiritual Power Finger Snap".

This spell, though initially the most rudimentary and seemingly useless, had undergone a mutation once his proficiency broke through to 'expert' level, the power becoming quite formidable. Within ten meters, it can penetrate gold and split stone, and even at twenty meters, it still possesses lethal power.

Most importantly, unlike higher-level spells that require incantations and hand seals with slow activation, this spell merely requires a thought—it can be launched in an instant, reflexively.

Chen Li believed that as long as he was close enough and the opponent lacked protective items or was unprepared, it would be quite difficult for a typical Loose Cultivator to evade his surprise attack.

Strength is confidence.

He no longer needed to be as excessively cautious as he was at the beginning.

Of course, avoiding these perilous areas whenever possible was undoubtedly the safest option.

...

In the early morning, the market was sparsely populated and had not yet reached its busiest hour. Chen carefully chose a spot to set up his stall.

He had thoroughly familiarized himself with the area over time.

Because he arrived quite early, there were plenty of good locations available for setting up a stall.

He picked a spot near the junction and took out a piece of beast skin from the cloth bag he was carrying on his back, spreading it on the ground. He then took out a wooden board with prices written on it and laid out all the talismans he had drawn during this time.

Displaying only two Evil-Repelling Talismans would no doubt appear monotonous and a bit strained.

If he could sell some of those low-level talismans, it would still be a profit.

After completing these preparations, Chen sat on a stone, anxiously awaiting the arrival of customers.

People bustled along the road, and before long, Chen welcomed his first customer, a young female cultivator.

She crouched on the ground, rummaging through his wares: "These are all the lowest level talismans. Do you have any Featherweight Talismans?"

"No, this is all I have."

Just when he thought the business wouldn't go any further, she said,

"Then I'll take an Evil-Repelling Talisman. Sigh! You have so few items here."

As she spoke, she handed over a Spirit Stone.

Chen received the Spirit Stone, still warm from her touch, and gripped it tightly in a daze.

He felt that even after ten or twenty years, he wouldn't forget the young female cultivator who looked seventeen or eighteen with baby fat cheeks, nor would he forget how stunning her goose-yellow Daoist robe looked in the sunshine.

And the intense beating of his heart at this very moment.

After the female cultivator walked away, Chen slightly loosened his grip and squinted his eyes. Not daring to look too closely, he glanced around cautiously and quickly placed the Spirit Stone into the inner pocket of his garment.

It took a good while before his excitement gradually settled down.

"Poverty curtails ambition," he lamented with a self-mocking laugh, cursing himself for not being worldly enough.

It was just another ordinary transaction that somehow became heart-pounding.

It was just a single Spirit Stone, after all.

With his craftsmanship in talisman making, when he'd be earning ten a month, a hundred a year... wouldn't he go crazy with joy then.

...

Next, his good luck seemed to have run out. Aside from selling a direction-pointing talisman for 12 taels of gold, he barely managed to sell the Evil-Repelling Talisman just before noon.

After closing up shop, with two Spirit Stones in hand, Chen Li headed straight for the Longevity Sect's talisman store.

"Talisman paper, 30 taels of gold per sheet! Low-grade talisman skins, ten for one Low-grade Spirit Stone... total is one Low-grade Spirit Stone and 30 taels of gold," a shop assistant recited with cadence and intonation.

Chen Li grudgingly paid the price.

He had wanted to buy a book on the craft of making talisman skins but was deterred by the steep price of six Low-grade Spirit Stones.

The exorbitant cost of knowledge in this world surpassed Chen Li's imagination and was highly monopolized; at least in this market, no one dared to make unauthorized copies.

After leaving the talisman shop, he extravagantly purchased ten jin of Spirit Rice from the rice shop.

The two Spirit Stones in his hand had not even warmed up before they were gone.

"Really, the market earns it, the market spends it, not a penny is taken home."

As Chen Li walked, he mused, his feet instinctively taking him to a building adorned with carved beams and painted rafters.

Two large red lanterns hung at the entrance of the building, spreading an ambiguous glow with a pinkish tinge.

A young female cultivator yawned as she came out of the doorway. Noticing a familiar face, her eyes lit up:

"Oh, isn't this Chen? You haven't been here in so long, have you forgotten about us sisters? Come in, come in, sit down, and have a cup of hot tea."

The female cultivator wore a red palace dress as thin as a cicada's wings, probably just out of bed with a trace of sleepy laziness still on her face. Even without makeup, her stunning face and graceful figure, along with a seductive aura, was entirely enticing.

'Is this the infamous courtesan cultivator from the legends, the one who practices evil secret techniques to suck a person dry to the bones?'

'Indeed, compared to those on Earth...'

Chen Li sneaked a glance and couldn't help but blush, not daring to look any longer. Before the female cultivator could approach, he hastened his pace: "Unfortunately, I have something to attend to today, next time, let's talk next time."

...

This little interlude didn't affect Chen Li's cheerful mood at all.

On his way home, he walked with a spring in his step, everything in front of him seemed to come to life.

The weirdly shaped, gnarly trees, the little fish swimming among the aquatic plants in the stream he passed, the beautiful birds flying overhead, even the unknown yellow flowers blooming by the roadside all held his interest, and he watched them with delight.

He looked towards the distant mountains shrouded in mist:

"I wonder what the world beyond this valley is like?"

Here, there were hardly any mortals; at the bottom were Loose Cultivators, and above them were the lofty sect disciples with enormous powers behind them. Although his biggest survival crisis was now resolved,

life here was somewhat stressful.

There was little hope left for his cultivation; all he wanted now was to live a bit more comfortably.

But no rush!

First, he would amass a hundred Spirit Stones.

...

As he passed his neighbor's home, he purposely lingered a while with a rice bag from the Longevity Sect's special selection.

Unfortunately, the sharp-tongued female cultivator didn't seem to be around today.

This left him feeling somewhat wistful.

His cheerful mood had significantly faded.