Chapter Seventeen: Longxin City

I don't have any words for what I witnessed. It's just… Nevermind. I got two free storage bags from this incident though! This shall be dubbed the, "Nothing Happened!" incident. Right, [Aurora]? Nothing Happened. 

[Aurora] grew weary of its owner's undisguised pain as it saw that they took collateral damage from that incident. 

"Nothing happened", Yanqing repeated with a bright and clear smile on his face, with his eyes forcibly shut as if trying to remove any memory that occurred 5 minutes ago. 

This was just like that incident with Miss Guinaifen… At least no one will eat or destroy my new sword this time around, right?

"Look, [Aurora], we got you a new partner! This brand new sword is top tier in quality. If I hold it like this, you can see that the sword has perfect balance and edge alignment. And if you look closer you can see the matte on this! Although the sword is a bit shiny, it's due to the material it's made from…" Its master ranted on for the next five minutes. 

Why did it have to go through this? Was this destined by fate to occur? If [Aurora] had a face, it would be completely deadpan and set on ignoring any information its owner spoke about. The only part that caught its attention was, "Man, I wish I had two of these swords so I could add one to my collectio–" His words were cut short, literally, as [Aurora] slashed the blade into two pieces.

It was a mere facade hidden behind its luxurious appearance, it had no right to even compete with itself. [Aurora] had a name given by its master, while that nameless blade was garbage to be smelted. 

Tears appeared in Yanqing's eyes as he looked down at the sword–no, pieces of a broken sword. Pain wellowed inside him as he lamented by the broken sword's side. He was just happy that he finally got to add an unique edition to his collection again…

Sensing the pain that emanated from its master, [Aurora] flew around its master displaying several different ways of slashing, cutting, and stabbing in a fluid motion. It was incredibly smooth and breath-taking akin to a swordmaster dancing with a sword while they were one. Of course, this was Yanqing's routine of practicing his sword, but seeing it from an outside perspective brought Yanqing an enlightenment. 

He couldn't find any partners to spar with… so why not his own sword? If it was able to replicate his moves then it should be a perfect partner to deduce his own errors and fix them!

A mischievous glint appeared in Yanqing's eyes as he stared into the smooth, beautiful, and masterful blade that was [Aurora], sending imaginary chills down its… hilt? Pommel? But it did feel quite good to be gazed at by its master with such eyes… 

He definitely recognized how perfect its design was! It was incomparable to that trash sword with no name!

Anyways, Yanqing soon remembered that he had gracefully, 'accepted' the treasures of the two women before they fell to an unfortunate end. Now it was time to open the gift bags he had robbed– received from their corpses. 

Opening the third lady's storage bag we can see that it was much bigger than the poor light-skinned man and that it was filled, I mean filled, with books and papers. There was also a bunch of pen and ink inside of it.

The woman was completely broke though. There was not a single spirit stone within her wallet–I mean storage bag. A disappointment, but there was still another bag to open!

The bag of the second woman, the amaetur with the sword, was much more luxurious. It was almost as if she was the daughter of a rich family. Spirit stones, everywhere. As far as the eye could see, the bag was just spirit stones upon spirit stones. Confusingly enough there were no other items. 

After taking all of the papers and books from the first bag out, he discovered that… he was illiterate. He had been able to go on previously as the spoken language was the same as his home world, Luofu, but the written language was an entirely different beast… 

Seeing this, he had to pay a visit to a city once more… to learn how to write. Well… there could be worse things, like using a spear or using a bow, items less cool than the sword, or not being able to buy an awesome sword because you were broke. 

Normally he would have simply ignored this, but by looking at the pictures of the book, thank you to whoever made this picture, depicted several shapes connecting to one another. Each line angled to one another in a weird geometrical manner but with beauty. 

There were also several notes scribbled on it elegantly, but Yanqing… still could not read. But if he was right, and this was what he thought it was–formations then he may have received a massive boon. 

Although interests would affect the speed of Yanqing's sword, if these interests could make the speed of Yanqing's sword faster then… it would be an investment. 

Formations were practically omnipotent and could cross levels in the story as they culminated in the most annoying and overpowered manner. As long as a Qi Condensation Cultivator used it properly they could even stop a Core Formation Cultivator! Though… that formation was one of the stronger ones made by an insane genius of formations. 

Anyways, now he had to find a cultivation settlement. Considering that the four from earlier were able to chase one another then it means that a city should be near here. 

Yanqing promptly packed up all his belongings using his new storage bags before hiding some of the storage bags inside his baggy clothes. This was to prevent robbers or suspicion as one person would usually not carry more than one bag. 

Always be safe and cautious than to take risks like that, although he would probably welcome the challenge if they did come. 

…

After around one hour of flying around with [Aurora], Yanqing was finally able to spot a city in the distance. The city was quite large considering the other cultivation cities and settlements he had come across before. It seemed to be populated by quite a number of people. 

Seeing the guards he slowly landed and greeted the two in a different fashion, as foundational establishment cultivators weren't as dominant around here unlike the previous cities. 

He soon passed through the inspection check as the guards nodded their heads before he entered the city itself. 

It was unlike any other city as there were no rogue cultivators flying around in the air, buildings triumphed over the skies as there were countless cultivators walking around. Most with a cultivation of at least middle stage Qi Condensation. 

He was excited to enter the city, but he had to keep some restraint to prevent others from directly targeting him after all.

 After asking the guards some questions about his location, he was able to figure out that he was in the region in the Heavenly South of Yuanwu dominated by the Xin family… which sounded familiar.

This was the Longxin city directly ruled over by the Xin family with nearly every transaction taking place because of them. They even had a Nascent Soul Ancestor at the head!

He soon went by the stall with multiple spells for sale, including a face change spell, turtle breathing, techniques from the five elements including common techniques such as fireball, water arrow, and many others. 

Using the spirit stones he had from the second rich lady, he was able to purchase many of what he needed with much to spare.

[Water Archery] which uses your Qi to manifest an arrow made of water to shoot at his opponent. 

[Golden Blade] a technique that manifests a user's Qi into a reinforced Qi blade which was much weaker than [Sword Essence], but it could be stacked upon one another.

[Masked] which allows one to change their physical aspects with ease as long as they are cultivators.

[Fireball] because he wanted to see whether or not he could deduce something using the structure of the spell. Since freezing and burning were of a similar concept to one another, changing the level of energies, he could use this to create a new technique. 

[Purify] which was a low level spell used for cleaning, which Yanqing had to buy due to the fact that he wanted to keep his items clean and sanitary. Each and every sword and sheath had to be cleaned after all. 

There were also… 12 new swords in his storage bag. He had to buy them after all. They were quality swords. Due to the scarcity of resources there were only one of each sword which disappointed him greatly as he wanted to create a new sword collection…

He also spent some time around, purchasing beginner books for language and the such. Due to a cultivator's non-mortal status they were able to learn things such as language and script much faster than others. 

If an immortal technique were to be handed to a mortal, even after thousands of generations one would not be able to decipher a single part of it. Of course this was given, as even cultivators struggle with comprehending these techniques. 

Yanqing also scouted for news as he tried to sit in bars and stalls trying to overhear any conversations, but it seemed that this cliché didn't actually exist. He also tried to pay the bartender, but they just gave him a confused look. 

Sighing, as he turned to find the most conspicuous guide possible, which was a much harder task than he imagined since everyone kept to themselves. Finding a local was even harder since everyone blended in with one another. 

After finding out that everyone practically looked the same in appearance due to the [Masked] technique he soon went to an isolated corner to practice said technique. His blond hair soon turned black, alongside his eyes which turned dark brown to match in with everyone else.

His clothes were still too flashy though… and as a result he had bought two separate pairs of robes just in case. One would never know if an accident were to occur. That was what the general had said at least! 

In the art of war, one must never be unprepared for a conflict!

Soon with the spending of Yanqing, his wallet became dry and empty once more, leaving only the initial 83 spirit stones and the 4 demonic cores he had… 

A painful glance was sent into his storage bag as he lamented the fact that he was unable to purchase more swords. There were also 23 swords in total, not including [Aurora] in Yanqing's storage bags. 

Well, now he had to find a proper vendor. But he couldn't just find a foundational establishment cultivator to trade with as they would just spot him directly. Due to this issue he had to wander around for several days, even spending some days in an inn. The inn was clean, but that was it. 

After a total of four days he was finally able to spot a suspicious amount of cultivators towards a building. He saw this and began following them, hoping that he had finally located the mysterious auction house he had seen in the many novels he had read. 

...

[Items]: 

- 23 different swords of the Qi Condensation Stage. Each with a different element and design. They were wonderfully crafted and refined so Yanqing bought them carelessly.

- 2 extra white robes, fitting the size of a teenager and another the size of an adult.

- Several spells: [Fireball], [Water Archery], [Golden Blade], [Masked], and [Purified]

- Demonic Cores: 4

- Spirit Stones: 83

- Damaged material of demonic beasts worth: 2913 Spirit Stones (Yanqing forgot about them)

- 12 Poorly made talismans

- 23 Books about Formations

Note: The weapon the third woman had was just a spear and Yanqing completely ignored it after seeing it was not a sword and the quality was not the best.