“That’s not possible,” Lu Qingshan said. “Such a treasure would cause a storm inside the ghost market first.”

  “Which is why we can’t actually give them what they want. But we could hint at it, then leave before things get too chaotic.” Meng Zhang’s gaze was cold. “Or play the fisherman. Either way works.”

  Lu Qingshan stopped. He checked to see if anyone else was around. “The initial method isn’t the most important thing we have,” he muttered. “We could do it. One of many choices.”

  Meng Zhang nodded. “We’ll still have to deal with the people who catch wind of outsiders using their secret passages. They have their ways of knowing what was traded. When word gets out, be prepared to face assassins. They shouldn’t cause too much trouble in the city while the royal guard is there, though.”

  It sounded like a viable plan, but Lu Qingshan didn’t feel good about it. He wanted to find an alternative. As Meng Zhang left to acquire resources, Lu Qingshan aimlessly wandered around, deep in thought.

  He knew there was something special about the Blood Seas Inner Force after walking around the market for a while. None of the stores held any martial arts at Aperture Tempering, not even the stalls in the back. It was as if no such stage above Viscera Tempering existed. He tried to ask around - surely this was a question of great interest about the future of martial arts.

  Nobody gave him confident answers though. Meng Zhang had a list of experts he believed were most credible in the back area, and he asked three of them on that list. Not even they could say what the realm above Viscera Tempering was. They theorized it existed, but they didn't have martial arts who pointed directly at it.

  Maybe the Blood Seas Inner Force manual was a good way to convince the ghost market to work with them. He didn’t yet know the price of such knowledge, though, and opted to wait and see instead.

  After browsing the stores for martial techniques, Lu Qingshan dredged up three that might prove useful sometime in the future. The first was a low-level martial art: the Turtle Breath Inner Force. Said to improve longevity when practiced well, but warned against its slow growth, Lu Qingshan nonetheless decided to take it.

  His second purchase was a basic stealth technique called the Hidden Veil Technique. It wasn’t very good, only serving to obscure his facial features and silhouette at range. Still, it was affordable. And he expected to learn quickly.

  The third martial art would help shore up his weakness near water, the Wave Motions Fist. It wasn’t as good as some of the specialized martial arts developed by other schools and sects. But it was the best thing available to him without having to spend copious amounts of silver. In the end, Lu Qingshan was left with an amount of money he could count on his fingers, though the sect still had a massive amount of reserves.

  After he’d finished securing the three new martial arts techniques, Lu Qingshan met up with Meng Zhang again. This time, the man had returned with a frowning Liu Yingting in tow. He immediately guessed that negotiations had failed.

  “Meng Zhang told me about the plan. I think it’s a terrible idea.”

  “The risks are acceptable, I’ve told you many times.”

  “No. You haven’t seen how my family had to deal with them,” Liu Yingting said, his hands wringing his long hair. “Greed runs in their bones. It’s all they’ve ever known.”

  “And we can use that greed to ensure the news takes a while to leak. It will buy us plenty of time to act.”

  “What if it doesn’t? We’ll make the entire kingdom our enemy, Meng Zhang! All the ghost market has to do is casually let a few important people know. I wouldn’t put it past them to sell the information.”

  “They wouldn’t. They’re greedy. Immortal cultivation is an opportunity few mortals can have. Even if they could benefit from the information, they’ll try to keep it to themselves first.”

  "Too risky,” Liu Yingting said. “Remember, not everyone can cultivate. We don’t know how they’ll react after learning this.”

  Meng Zhang frowned. A dark look appeared in his eyes. “True. I hadn’t considered that.”

  "There has to be another option." Lu Qingshan began thinking. What had they not considered?

  A shorter person in a cloak and mask passed by his line of sight. Immediately, Qin Ye’s name came to mind. That was right. “We should go see Qin Ye and Li Fanghua,” he said.

  Immortal cultivators were held in such high regard that Seven Mysteries Gate had never considered they were already part of that group. It had only been a short two to three years. Most of what Qin Ye displayed were attacks that could be reproduced by other powerful martial artists like himself. But Lu Qingshan knew the means available to an immortal cultivator were widely varied.

  He found the two of them had joined their groups together and were wandering around a market for medicinal herbs. It reminded Lu Qingshan of the spiritual plants hidden inside the mountain ranges. They hadn’t had the time to make proper use of them, and so had left them there to grow. Maybe they were still there.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Qin Ye,” he called out. “We need your help.”

  After explaining their situation to the boy, he nodded. “The technique does have the concealment method you wanted. I’ve practiced it a few times, but it’s not really something suited for Mind Purification stage cultivators. If I want to use it freely on many people, I need to reach the Radiant Lake stage first.”

  “And how long would that take?”

  Qin Ye hesitated. “It should only take a year or two at most. Less if I had some spirit fruits and stones.”

  Lu Qingshan turned to Liu Yingting and Meng Zhang. “Can you two find out if those two exist?”

  “They don’t,” both of them said. “We already checked. Such things don’t usually appear in mortal lands like ours. If they do, someone else usually snatches them up immediately, since they provide benefits for whoever eats them.”

  Lu Qingshan frowned. With spiritual herbs needing processing and fruits requiring great amounts of fortune, it seemed they’d have to wait. “Can you still use the concealment on one person at a time?”

  Qin Ye looked pensive. “I can, but it will slow down my cultivation the longer I do this. And I can’t do it for everyone, or I’d lose an entire year of progress just to replenish myself.”

  To enter the sealed city, they had three options. Lu Qingshan initially believed he could enter alone with just breath-concealing martial arts. He was wrong, but Qin Ye had made this choice viable again. Other than working with the ghost market, the next option was to force the boy to halt his cultivation progress and repeatedly bring people in with him.

  On this, Qin Ye had his mind set on saying no. Lu Qingshan could accept that. “Then here’s the plan,” he said. “Meng Zhang, Liu Yingting, stay here and continue negotiating with the ghost market. We don’t need all the Seven Mysteries Gate disciples to enter the city at the same time. Trickle them in if you can.”

  He began walking over to Dong Qianyu as well. “I will go in with Qin Ye. Li Fanghua, how do you feel about staying outside the city?”

  “I’m fine with it,” she said.

  “Good.”

  “Wait,” Qin Ye said. “If we do this, it’ll still cost me some time. I want three things.” His eyes shone with greed.

  “I’m not giving you the sword. Not if it’s only me entering the city.”

  “Fine. Two things then: three spirit stones, and that Fire Escape technique.”

  "I thought you couldn't use that without fire-element spirit qi?"

  "I just want to study it."

  That Lu Qingshan could accept. Which reminded him, they should find an opportunity to test the Iron Pine Sect’s spirit roots. After they had been properly vetted with the right amount of missions.

  But with the Seven Mysteries Gate forced to stay out of the city, food became a problem. They were a small, elite group of martial artists, which meant they could take on most forces. But that strength came with a hefty price.

  It was said that the poor became scholars, while the rich practiced martial arts. Not having enough food to supply the sect would mean slowness in their practice, widespread dissatisfaction, and even the regression of their power if they starved long enough. That alone eliminated most viable sources of shelter in the vicinity, including the weak bandit camps littered around the countryside.

  And with the city on lockdown, it was unlikely he alone could transport enough food to feed them all. Lu Qingshan frowned for what felt like the hundredth time today. He was beginning to think life in the mountains was actually easier.

  “We could try attacking the Jade Skies Sect,” Meng Zhang suggested.

  “That’s an awful idea. Do not do anything to stand out.”

  The food problem was quite oppressive. Lu Qingshan was trying to think of solutions. The ghost market couldn’t help either, as they weren’t built to feed a lot of people.

  “We can only take it one step at a time,” he muttered. “There’s still enough secret medicine for now but we really should work on finding a source of food in the near future.”

  “Permission to raid supply caravans and merchants heading towards the city in the future?”

  “Please don’t,” Lu Qingshan said. “I think the royal guards will turn on the bandits next. Restore order to the city and the plains — after all, most of those bandits were part of sects at one point.”

  It was almost time to leave the ghost market. He took one last look at the far end of the cave tunnel. Without coming into contact with other immortal cultivators, his spirit stones had little use as a currency. They were best sent to Qin Ye and Li Fanghua for their needs. It made those martial arts look really tempting, along with the items in the other stalls as well.

  Still, Lu Qingshan decided to keep a low-profile. Excavating the potential of the ghost markets was a long-term project. He'd be back later.

  With the sect reunited, they exited back out the tunnels and returned to the cave where all their boats were docked. Standing along the cavern wall were three of the white ghost masks, who noticed their arrival.

  “Leaving?” one of them asked. Lu Qingshan nodded.

  The Seven Mysteries Gate split into two rowboats, steadily following the ghost mask's boat out of the tunnels. They took a different route from the entrance. Another tunnel was carved into the walls where the waters carried them rapidly downstream. They ended up in a long stretch of grassy fields, completely different from the river entrance.

  As Lu Qingshan stepped out of his boat, the ghost mask left him a few parting words. “If you’re still injured the next time you return, you can come to us for a discussion. We are willing to work with an expert of your caliber,” he said.

  Lu Qingshan gave him a small nod, wondering how they knew he was injured and why they brought it up. He was about to answer when an arrow whistled by his head. Before it could hit one of his disciples, he grabbed it and crushed it with his fist.

  His eyes narrowed at the raised flags on horseback in the distance. They bore the Bright Flame Kingdom’s crimson dragon insignia but tinged with white. Behind him, the ghost mask's voice turned from deep and cold to loud and panicked. “They brought the army here?” he cried.