"Immortal Master, these items total eight hundred and fifty spirit stones." After the young man quoted the price of the books, Zhang Ling nodded.
Then, the young man began to remove the restrictions on the books. Although he was not a cultivator, he reached under the counter and took out a white jade token.
Zhang Ling glanced at it. The jade token was engraved with spiritual patterns and was a magical artifact.
As soon as the jade token was in the young man's hand, a layer of cyan light lit up on it.
The young man seemed to be very familiar with this process. He waved the jade token over the many books and jade slips on the counter, and the cyan light turned into a light curtain, illuminating the books and other items.
After a few breaths, the light flashed and disappeared.
"Immortal Master, the restrictions on these books and jade slips have been removed."
"Mm."
Zhang Ling responded and put the books into his storage bag. At the same time, a yellow light flashed, and a pile of spirit stones appeared on the counter.
The young man immediately looked at the spirit stones with a beaming smile. He said a few respectful words to Zhang Ling and then saw him out of the shop.
Zhang Ling walked down the street, pondering the jade token the young man had held earlier. It seemed to be a special magical artifact. The young man hadn't used a trace of spiritual power to activate the jade token and remove the restrictions. Could it be that the magical artifacts here were special?
It seemed he would be staying here for a while.
In the following days, Zhang Ling simply strolled around Black Rock City every day, entering many shops to learn about anything that caught his interest and buying a large number of books.
However, he paid particular attention to books on selling pills and spiritual herbs. He collected quite a few pill formulas, although most of them were low-level. This gave him some understanding of the alchemy techniques here.
In addition, he also collected several cultivation methods. Although it was impossible to buy any top-tier techniques in the market, ordinary cultivation methods were easy to find. With these cultivation methods, he also learned what types of cultivation methods the cultivators of the Flowing Cloud Sea practiced.
After wandering around like this, Zhang Ling had a clear understanding of the cultivation methods here. He was very familiar with the various cultivation methods and Five Elements techniques sold in the shops, which were not much different from those in the Northern Plains cultivation world.
If there was any difference, it was that, in addition to cultivators, some people in the Flowing Cloud Sea practiced another set of cultivation methods, which they called "Demon Refiners."
Zhang Ling was initially unfamiliar with this strange name, but after reading a few Demon Refiner cultivation methods, he became somewhat interested.
These Demon Refiners were actually a branch of the ancient demon cultivators. This type of demon cultivation method, which was almost extinct in the Northern Plains cultivation world, had been inherited in the Flowing Cloud Sea.
In some ways, he himself could be considered a Demon Refiner.
Zhang Ling thought this because the strange vines parasitic on his body were somewhat similar to the Demon Refiners here.
Speaking of which, the Profound Soul Demon Refining Art that he was currently practicing was a demon cultivation inheritance.
The cultivation of Demon Refiners was basically the same as that of ancient demon cultivators, which involved fusing the bloodlines of demon beasts to cultivate.
Although the path of Demon Refiners existed here, ordinary cultivators would not choose this path. Only those with low spiritual root aptitude would choose these cultivation methods.
Low-level Demon Refiners were not weaker than cultivators. In terms of physical strength, they were even stronger than cultivators, but few Demon Refiners could break through to the Nascent Soul stage. It was said that these cultivation methods had obvious flaws.
Cultivators who practiced this path might eventually turn into half-human, half-demon forms. If they could not maintain their minds, they would only become bloodthirsty monsters.
The mainstream cultivation methods here were still the inheritance of cultivators. The Flowing Cloud Sea had no concept of national boundaries. Most of the forces existed in the form of islands.
Of course, there were also many large sects.
The Flowing Cloud Sea was very, very large, far beyond Zhang Ling's imagination.
The numerous islands varied in size. Black Rock Island, where he was now, was just a small island. The number of cultivators living on an island depended on the concentration of spiritual veins.
Large islands could accommodate millions of cultivators, and there were also some sects, families, and rogue cultivators.
Of course, there were also many islands without spiritual veins, inhabited by a large number of mortals, which were the foundation of the cultivators in the Flowing Cloud Sea. It was strictly forbidden for cultivators to kill mortals here.
The reason for this situation was that the human population here was small, and another major reason was that this place was not peaceful and there was an external threat.
The Flowing Cloud Sea was not only inhabited by humans, but also by demons and vast, desolate regions.
It was said that when the Flowing Cloud Sea was formed, a large number of desolate beasts appeared in the desolate regions and occupied a large area.
As for what desolate beasts were, Zhang Ling did not learn much from the books. He only knew that most of the desolate beasts were transformed from humans and demons that had been eroded by a special spiritual energy.
This was somewhat similar to the Demonic Infiltrators, but Demonic Infiltrators could maintain their own consciousness, while desolate beasts had no consciousness and seemed to only know how to devour and kill.
This special spiritual energy that eroded humans and demons was called turbid energy.
According to research by some high-level cultivators, this turbid energy was very complex, containing a mixture of the power of the Five Elements, Yin spiritual power, death energy, baleful energy, and some unknown spiritual energies.
Once a cultivator was exposed to it for a long time, they would go mad and lose consciousness. Even high-level cultivators were not immune.
With this deadly turbid energy gathering in the desolate regions, a natural disaster called "Turbid Mist" would form every once in a while.
Once the Turbid Mist broke out, any living being in its path would be eroded. Therefore, the humans and demons of the Flowing Cloud Sea formed an alliance to resist the desolate beasts.
Of course, humans and demons also attacked each other, and it was not as peaceful as it seemed on the surface.
Zhang Ling was not very concerned about the situation and forces in the Flowing Cloud Sea, but the chaos here was even more serious than in the Northern Plains cultivation world.
However, these were not things he needed to consider now. The most important thing was to resolve his own injuries.
With this in mind, he had been searching for ways to repair his meridians for several days.
He stayed in Black Rock City for the time being. Until more than ten days later, he really found a solution.
Speaking of which, the solution still relied on pills.
He originally had no hope for the "Jade Bone Pill," an ancient pill formula, but he had actually inquired about the missing main ingredient, the "White Jade Ganoderma," a spiritual herb.
During this time, he had read many books on spiritual herbs. The spiritual herbs here were not as abundant as those in the Northern Plains cultivation world, but some ancient spiritual herbs remained in some places.
The "White Jade Ganoderma" was what he saw in a book introducing the forces of the island.
In a place called Tianmen Island, there was a White Cloud Peak where this spiritual herb grew, and it seemed that the yield was not low. White Cloud Peak was said to be a giant peak tens of thousands of feet high, where cold-attribute spiritual herbs grew, and White Jade Ganoderma was one of its specialties.
With the information about the White Jade Ganoderma, Zhang Ling was overjoyed, and then inquired about where Tianmen Island was.
He had also bought some sea charts during this time and knew that Tianmen Island was a medium-sized island larger than Black Rock Island, where many cultivators lived.
