DIV Chapter 14: Ancient Secret Realm

"The talisman brush that Wu Yun used was also a first-tier low-grade talisman brush, with slightly better quality than mine," Li Chang'an examined a talisman brush.

The brush he had been using was the one he bought at the very beginning. Its quality was quite ordinary, since he had been rather poor back then.

"Now that I'm not short of spirit stones, I can consider purchasing a mid-grade talisman brush," Li Chang'an pondered.

Mid-grade talisman brushes were superior to low-grade ones in all aspects, especially in conducting spiritual energy, but the price was also quite hefty. Even an ordinary quality one cost over one hundred spirit stones.

For his former self, this would have been an astronomical price. Now, this price was within his affordable range.

"It's good to have money!" Li Chang'an sighed. In the past, he would have wished he could split one spirit stone in half to spend.

He put down the talisman brush and continued cataloging other items.

Soon, a dark red stone caught his attention.

"Oh? It's actually a Ground Fire Stone!" Li Chang'an was slightly surprised.

Ground Fire Stone was a first-tier superior-grade fire element treasure! Quite rare and valuable, beloved by artifact refiners.

Using Ground Fire Stone as the main material and casually adding some auxiliary materials could produce extremely high-quality first-tier superior-grade fire element artifacts!

"Unfortunately, it's not a wood attribute treasure. I can use it for trading in the future," Li Chang'an shook his head inwardly. He himself had wood spiritual roots.

Fire element artifacts were incompatible with his own spiritual energy. He estimated that Wu Yun had also planned to trade away the Ground Fire Stone, since Wu Yun also had low-grade wood spiritual roots.

After storing away the Ground Fire Stone, Li Chang'an continued cataloging the remaining items. The rest were not very valuable and were quickly finished.

...

The next day, Li Chang'an visited the Hundred Treasures Pavilion. He spent one hundred thirty spirit stones to purchase a mid-grade talisman brush of decent quality.

Shopkeeper Qian of the Hundred Treasures Pavilion didn't quite understand this.

"Fellow Daoist Li, you've only mastered low-grade talisman techniques and can't even draw high-quality talismans. You have no use for a mid-grade talisman brush. Why waste your hard-earned spirit stones?"

Shopkeeper Qian tried to dissuade him. He was a conscientious businessman with quite a good reputation in the market.

Li Chang'an showed a helpless expression and responded, "Sigh, my techniques have recently hit a bottleneck and I haven't made any progress. Perhaps a better talisman brush might help."

Seeing his insistence, Shopkeeper Qian stopped trying to persuade him, only reminding, "Fellow Daoist Li, cultivation should be your priority. Techniques are merely auxiliary. You should buy more things that help with your cultivation level."

"Shopkeeper Qian is right!" Li Chang'an nodded, then left the Hundred Treasures Pavilion.

That afternoon, he regulated his mana and mental energy, and used the new talisman brush to attempt drawing mid-grade talismans.

The brush tip moved slowly and steadily across the talisman paper. The entire process was extremely smooth, much easier than before.

Before he knew it, a mid-grade Golden Blade Talisman was successfully drawn!

"Indeed, to do good work, one must first sharpen one's tools!" Li Chang'an smiled.

The money spent on the talisman brush was well worth it!

For the following few days, he continued as before, staying at home all day to cultivate and draw talismans.

...

On this day, at evening time, Wu Feng's voice suddenly sounded outside.

"Fellow Daoist Li, are you home?"

Hearing this, Li Chang'an opened his door. He smiled and cupped his hands toward Wu Feng.

"Fellow Daoist Wu, it's been a long time."

"Fellow Daoist Li..." The moment Wu Feng saw Li Chang'an, his expression changed slightly.

His gaze lingered on Li Chang'an for a moment.

"Fellow Daoist Li, have you seen my brother recently?"

"Fellow Daoist Wu Yun?" Li Chang'an shook his head slightly.

He looked puzzled and asked, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing much, it's just... my brother and I have had some recent conflicts."

"I see," Li Chang'an made an understanding expression.

He pondered for a moment, "Fellow Daoist Wu, you two didn't have a conflict over the distribution of that Earth Dragon Saliva, did you?"

Li Chang'an looked around and lowered his voice, "I'm not saying anything bad, but for major matters like Foundation Establishment, even blood brothers need to settle accounts clearly."

"This..." Wu Feng was stunned.

He clearly hadn't expected Li Chang'an to steer the conversation in this direction. The so-called Earth Dragon Saliva was just an excuse they had made up to trick Li Chang'an into leaving the market!

The two conversed for a while longer. Li Chang'an never provided any useful information.

Wu Feng seemed somewhat dispirited and finally cupped his hands in farewell.

After turning around, a trace of killing intent appeared in his eyes.

A few days ago, Wu Yun felt that waiting indefinitely wasn't a solution and planned to act directly by going to Li Chang'an's door. The others all disagreed.

So Wu Yun left alone, swearing confidently that he would return with Li Chang'an's head.

But... after that, there was no news from him, as if he had vanished from the face of the earth!

"Could he have been killed by Li Chang'an?" Wu Feng's expression was grim.

He didn't think Li Chang'an had that capability, but there were always exceptions to everything.

...

Inside the house, Li Chang'an closed the door, his expression also carrying more coldness.

"This Wu Feng is indeed more cautious than Wu Yun."

He didn't know what this group of rogue cultivators would do next. Regardless, Li Chang'an had divination guidance and held the advantage in terms of information.

For the following few months, he constantly paid attention to the divination and kept watch on all matters large and small within and outside the market.

To his surprise, Wu Feng never came again, as if he had completely given up.

During these months, there was indeed one major event that occurred, attracting the attention of almost all cultivators in the market: an ancient secret realm!

Not long ago, in a valley not far from the market, the ground suddenly collapsed, revealing a passage.

Through that passage, one could enter a broken secret realm that might contain treasures left from ancient times.

Such secret realms were not uncommon. From time to time, news would spread of secret realms appearing somewhere.

"It's said that in ancient times, there was an earth-shattering great battle that left the entire world in ruins."

"The countless secret realms now are the result of that great battle."

"The Zheng family has issued a call, encouraging rogue cultivators to enter and seek opportunities..."

Chu Daniu and others couldn't make up their minds and came running to find Li Chang'an.

The four people reunited in Li Chang'an's house.

"Big Brother Chang'an, what do you think?" Sun Yulan's beautiful eyes were like water as she asked softly.

"Me?" Li Chang'an shook his head slightly.

He had no plans to go at all. After all, he wasn't short of spirit stones. Wasn't it better to stay home peacefully and draw talismans?

"I won't go. If you want to go, I can sell you a batch of talismans at low prices to give you more means of survival. Of course... it's best not to go."

Although the divination hadn't given any warnings, these kinds of ancient secret realms were always full of dangers!

Chu Daniu immediately said, "Since Big Brother Li isn't going, then I won't go either!"

Ever since his brush with death, he had resolved to learn Li Chang'an's way of being cautious and steady.

However, Xu Fugui and Sun Yulan were somewhat hesitant. They had no technical skills to rely on. If they didn't take some risks, they would have no chance of Foundation Establishment in this lifetime.

"You'd better wait a bit longer. After the first few batches of cultivators have explored, then go in to seek opportunities," Li Chang'an offered his suggestion.

The first few batches of cultivators might find more opportunities, but they would also face more unknown dangers. Mid-stage and late-stage Qi Refining cultivators had stronger survival methods.

As for people like Xu Fugui in the early stage of Qi Refining, they shouldn't rush to the front.

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