A few days later.

In the bustling and lively Scatter Cultivator Market, Qin Lu sat before his stall, eating fresh fruit while watching the constant flow of cultivators, waiting for customers to arrive.

After his recent covert inquiries, he had learned quite a bit about the market’s rules.

The entire market district was under the jurisdiction of the Wuji Sect. Their cultivators watched over every main street to prevent fights and disturbances, much like the government offices of ancient times.

The densely packed Scatter Cultivator Market was the most strictly regulated.

Wuji Sect disciples patrolled all around the market. If they discovered any fighting or brawling, they would immediately intervene, directly expel the troublemakers from the market, and revoke their right to reside within the district.

Their methods were simple and brutal.

Therefore, setting up a stall in the market generally guaranteed safety.

This was also why Qin Lu was currently so relaxed.

The entire market was filled with constant noise and hawking. Even the two stall owners next to Qin Lu were shouting their lungs out, fiercely competing for the scattered customers passing by.

Qin Lu, however, was very quiet and never actively called out to attract business.

First, he wasn’t used to hawking yet and felt a bit embarrassed to lower himself to it.

Second, mainly because his stall had too few items—only talismans. He really had no face to shout about them.

At the moment, a few talismans were scattered on his stall. Besides the most familiar Water Qi Shield, there was another type of talisman with completely different symbols and brushwork.

It was the Cleaning Talisman.

During these past few days, he had stayed behind closed doors, continuously drawing talismans.

He had finally raised the level of his Water Qi Shield from ‘Novice’ to ‘Proficient’.

After the upgrade, the speed of crafting Water Qi Shields became noticeably faster. Moreover, with the improvement in quality, the amount of spiritual energy consumed was significantly reduced.

The progress was obvious.

And to increase the variety of talismans when setting up his stall, Qin Lu had begun researching the Cleaning Talisman.

With the experience gained from drawing Water Qi Shields, he successfully reached the Novice level in the Cleaning Talisman with almost no effort.

So today, he took out the newly crafted Cleaning Talismans and the Water Qi Shields saved from previous days and officially went out to set up his stall.

“Crunch, crunch.”

Eating the cheap fruit bought with a few taels of gold, Qin Lu sat idly on the ground.

Usually at this time, he would practice his Finger Flick Technique to pass the boring hours.

But since the Finger Flick Technique’s power had greatly increased after leveling up, he no longer dared to practice it in the market, fearing that people from the Wuji Sect would come knocking, demanding he pay for the stone slab repairs.

Suddenly, Qin Lu’s eyes lit up. He threw away the fruit in his hand and looked at the young female cultivator standing before his stall, his face full of eagerness.

“Fellow Daoist, please, take a look, take a look…”

After waiting for an hour, his first customer of the day had finally arrived.

The female cultivator swept a casual glance over his stall and said coldly,

“What’s there to see? You only have two types of talismans, don’t you?”

“Hehe…”

Qin Lu scratched his head and laughed awkwardly, offering no rebuttal.

The female cultivator picked up one of the talismans and asked offhandedly,

“What’s so special about your Water Qi Shield? It’s actually fifty taels more expensive than others?”

On the price tag, Qin Lu had raised the original price of two Spirit Stones for the Water Qi Shield to two Spirit Stones plus fifty taels of gold.

“Fellow Daoist has a good eye! It’s because my talismans have extremely strong defensive power. They were personally crafted by my elder brother. His cultivation is at the late Qi Refining stage, so the price is a bit higher!”

Qin Lu told this lie without batting an eye or his heart skipping a beat.

As a youth of the new century, Qin Lu deeply understood the importance of a brand having a high-quality spokesperson.

The good talismans he crafted himself were extremely difficult to sell at a good price due to the limitations of his own cultivation level. It was better to fabricate a so-called high-realm elder brother to boost the prestige of his talismans.

“Hmm…”

The female cultivator nodded slightly and began to gently probe the talisman with her spiritual energy.

Seeing she didn’t seem suspicious, Qin Lu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After a moment, the female cultivator put down the talisman and said,

“Your talismans are indeed very well crafted. How many do you have? I’ll take them all!”

Hearing this, Qin Lu’s eyes shone, and his face immediately lit up with wild joy.

He’d met a rich person!

He had set up his stall seven or eight times now, but this was the first time he encountered a cultivator so generous with their spending.

“Great, great! I have a total of twenty here!”

Qin Lu immediately took out all the talismans from his bag, picked up the few from the black cloth, and handed them all to the female cultivator in one go.

After a careful inspection, the female cultivant said indifferently,

“A few of them are still a bit lacking. Forty-five Spirit Stones in total, how about that?”

“Deal, deal!” Qin Lu agreed immediately.

One side handed over the money, the other the goods. The transaction was complete.

Qin Lu’s eyes gleamed as he looked at the small cloth pouch now holding over forty Spirit Stones, his heart surging with excitement.

This was the reward for all his hard work!

Tucking the pouch into his robe, Qin Lu glanced around and was startled to find quite a few gazes fixed on him. His heart immediately tightened.

The smile on his face vanished rapidly, replaced by a serious expression.

Those gazes seemed somewhat malicious.

Looking at the few scattered Cleaning Talismans on the black cloth, Qin Lu’s eyes narrowed. He immediately began packing up his stall.

This damn shift was over for today!

Quickly bundling up his belongings, Qin Lu cautiously headed towards the market gate.

He pushed through the crowds and walked out of the city gate.

Qin Lu warily glanced behind him. Detecting nothing unusual, he then set off towards The Slums.

As he drew closer to the edge of The Slums, the number of pedestrians on the roadside continuously decreased.

Even though it was only three or four in the afternoon, cold sweat had unknowingly soaked Qin Lu’s back.

Because by now, he felt that two people seemed to have been following him all along!

“Damn it, here to rob me?”

Qin Lu’s heart raced, his body growing slightly stiff. He couldn’t help but look at the houses along the road.

The doors of the houses on both sides were tightly shut, with no one in sight.

“Could I be mistaken?”

Qin Lu muttered to himself, then tentatively quickened his pace, trying to put distance between himself and the two behind him.

But as expected, those two also immediately sped up.

“So it’s true!”

This discovery made Qin Lu instantly certain that these two were after him!

“No good! The area near home is sparsely populated. Going back there would definitely be a dead end!”

“Can’t go home!”

“What should I do then…”

“That’s it! Go find Steward Liu!”

Qin Lu’s mind raced, instantly finding a solution.

In this small patch of land that was the shantytown, the people of the Wuji Sect were the local rulers. Naturally, they also bore the responsibility of protecting their ‘subjects.’

When in danger, seeking out the Wuji Sect was definitely not wrong.

Thinking this, Qin Lu immediately changed direction, speeding up as he ran towards the house of Steward Liu from his memory.

“Hey! The kid’s spotted us! Chase him!”

Shouts immediately came from behind as the two men instantly began their pursuit.

This terrified Qin Lu, and he immediately broke into a desperate sprint at his top speed!

But when he turned a corner, his face suddenly turned deathly pale, and his entire body froze in place.

“How could this be…!”

He saw Fang Hu and two other men blocking his only path forward. All three held weapons, their expressions fierce.

“Finally waited for you…”

Fang Hu pointed at Qin Lu and said viciously to the man with inverted triangular eyes beside him,

“Big Brother, it’s him!”

Ambush ahead, pursuers behind!

Qin Lu waved his hands nervously and said,

“Uh… gentlemen, could there be some misunderstanding?”

The man with inverted triangular eyes sneered,

“Misunderstanding? You injured my brother. What misunderstanding could there be?!”

Just then, the two men who had been hot on his heels caught up. One of them shouted to the man with inverted triangular eyes,

“Big Brother, this kid has at least forty Spirit Stones on him!”

“Good!”

The man with inverted triangular eyes chuckled lightly. “Looks like we have a bit of an unexpected harvest today!”

This exchange between the two men made Qin Lu’s heart sink immediately. These two groups actually knew each other.

These two men weren’t here to rob us at all. Fang Hu sent them. This was a premeditated revenge!