The six major regional markets outside Tianmu City's outer city are all quite large, with several markets of varying sizes. There are also more than a dozen large commercial alliances involved, with extremely abundant immortal cultivation resources for daily transactions.
They cover cultivation methods, elixirs, magical artifacts, puppets, spirit beasts, and more. These large commercial alliances are backed by considerable forces. The small and medium-sized shops should not be underestimated either, as you can occasionally find some treasures.
Occasionally, specialties from the Other-Demon Clan will appear, such as magic stones, magic crystals, etc., which are resources needed by many human demon cultivators.
As the main city of the Twelve Immortal Cities, Tianmu City has the most passing cultivators, especially rogue cultivators. Tianmu City is the force with the largest gathering of rogue cultivators in the Northern Plains cultivation world.
Currently, Tianmu City is the actual controller of seven of the twelve immortal cities. The remaining five immortal cities are controlled by the forces of nearby countries.
Even so, those five immortal cities generally have to listen to Tianmu City's dispatch.
Once a city is under control, regardless of its original power or composition, or even if it is a neutral sect, it will be tied to the Twelve Immortal Cities.
They will jointly undertake the responsibility of resisting the Other-Demon race.
Of course, this is just an alliance formed by the Lianyun Mountain Range and the dozen or so small and medium-sized countries nearby. The Cangyun Kingdom, where Haoyuan Sect is located, is one of these small and medium-sized countries. Their greatest responsibility is to resist the invasion of the Other-Demon race.
They fight their own battles in other stages and rarely participate in the disputes between the righteous and demonic factions.
Zhang Ling walked on the streets of the market, constantly looking at the shops on both sides of the street. Taking advantage of the few days before the trade fair starts, he also wants to collect some useful materials.
The main goal is to collect more materials for refining high-level puppets, as well as rare spiritual medicine seeds or high-level spiritual talismans.
At this time, he walked into a shop called Tieshan Pavilion(铁山阁: Iron Mountain Pavilion) and soon came out.
This is a shop that sells magical artifacts. In this short period, he spent more than 200,000 spirit stones to collect thirty to forty catties of iron essence.
Iron essence(铁精: iron essence) and other five metal essences are widely used and often needed for refining magical artifacts. They are also the most used materials for refining puppets.
Five metal essences are not natural spiritual mines, but are mostly refined from various raw ores.
Refining them himself would take too much time. He is not short of spirit stones now, so collecting them directly from the market is more cost-effective.
The consumption of materials for refining a high-level puppet alone can be equivalent to three or four ordinary magical artifacts.
Walking and looking along the way, Zhang Ling occasionally entered and exited some shops, collecting some materials or shaking his head in disappointment and leaving.
Unknowingly, he had been wandering around a market for two hours. Besides collecting some materials for refining treasures, he didn't find much in the way of spiritual medicine seeds.
As for fourth and fifth-grade high-level spiritual talismans, he bought even fewer. He only bought a dozen or so in total.
High-level spiritual talismans require at least cultivators in the mid-to-late Golden Core stage to refine. Moreover, they must be talisman masters who are proficient in the art of talisman making.
With his current Nascent Soul-level strength, refining some high-level spiritual talismans is not a problem. However, he cannot refine all types of high-level spiritual talismans with ease.
Currently, he can only refine a few types of earth-attribute high-level spiritual talismans. As for spiritual talismans of other attributes, low-level ones are fine, but Zhang Ling has never tried high-level ones.
Because it would take a lot of time to practice, which would be somewhat not worth it. This situation is actually very common among high-level cultivators above the Golden Core stage.
High-level cultivators are involved in refining tools, refining pills, making talismans, and other immortal cultivation arts, but they often only specialize in one or two of them. Or they simply don't spend time on these things at all.
There are very few cultivators who specialize in these immortal cultivation arts. Even if there are Nascent Soul cultivators, they cannot become proficient without spending time studying this path.
And after reaching the Nascent Soul realm, most of the time is spent in hard cultivation, seeking to break through to a higher realm. This is also the reason why there are so few alchemy masters and weapon refining masters.
So even with spirit stones, it takes a lot of time to collect a large number of high-level spiritual talismans, fourth and fifth-grade rare elixirs, and top-level formations.
Or you have to find master-level cultivators who are proficient in these things and spend a lot of resources to refine them.
During the Other-Demon race invasion two hundred years ago, Yanh Xia Fairy City specifically gathered many cultivators with alchemy experience and sent them to Wufeng Valley in Dongping Country, near the sea, to specialize in refining elixirs to resist sea beasts.
It was also because of this task that he encountered strange things in the sea, and followed a strange mountain in the sea, and was directly taken to the Liuyun Sea cultivation world.
After strolling around for a while, Zhang Ling entered an inn and asked for a top-grade room to rest temporarily. In the next two days, he went in and out of several markets, collecting various materials.
This amount of time is naturally not enough to visit all the markets in Tianmu City, and with his current strength, most of the cultivation resources are no longer worth his attention.
As for the Taiyi Gold Crystal and Zijing Copper he was looking for, none of the large shops had them. Zhang Ling was somewhat disappointed that he could not find these two materials in Tianmu City, but he thought it was reasonable.
It may not be possible to collect these two materials at all.
During these days, Zhang Ling also learned from some cultivators that the cultivation world has been very unstable recently.
He didn't specifically learn about these situations, but while walking in the market and resting occasionally, he could always hear some cultivators talking about this. After paying attention to listening, he learned something about it.
There are three things that have had the greatest impact recently. One of them is also related to 烟霞仙城(霞仙城: Xia Fairy City).
It is said that the original city lord of 烟霞仙城(霞仙城: Xia Fairy City) passed away half a year ago. Although the Twelve Immortal Cities have not announced it, the news is constantly circulating privately. Senior Brother Tianfeng mentioned this in the sect.
The second thing is the blood sacrifice incident that has been raging in recent years.
A group of mysterious cultivators has been cruelly slaughtering cities and a large number of mortals in several countries with weak cultivation forces. Even several small countries have been directly destroyed.
Large-scale blood sacrifices of living beings are expressly prohibited in the cultivation world. Even if demonic cultivators dare to do so, they will invite the crusade of the righteous path.
Although cultivators are stronger than mortals, mortals are also the foundation of cultivators. Too many deaths and injuries will also affect cultivators.
These kinds of things have happened before, occasionally happening over the past thousands of years. Most of them are related to demonic cultivators practicing secret methods or sacrificing treasures.
But the scale is often not large and will be suppressed in a short time.
The blood sacrifice incident that has occurred is already happening for several years, and it is still happening, and it is still not clear what is going on and which force is doing it.
Speaking of which, intercepting that team of Other-Demon people with Old Daoist Ziyun half a year ago seems to be related to this matter. There are rumors that this is a sign that the Other-Demon race is about to launch another invasion.
But in the past, Other-Demon race invasions have never had this type of blood sacrifice incident.
Even several sects on the righteous path have specifically criticized demonic cultivators, saying that some demonic cultivators are sacrificing evil treasures. During this period of time, the righteous and demonic sides have become somewhat tense again.
The third thing is still related to the Other-Demon race.
There have been many more Other-Demon cultivators appearing in the Black Cloud Desert west of the Immortal City recently, including many high-level cultivators, who often hunt down lone human cultivators.
This is a very obvious sign of an Other-Demon invasion. Many cultivators have realized that something big is about to happen.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed. On the morning of the fourth day, Zhang Ling walked out of the inn and went all the way to the inner city.
Half an hour later, he arrived on a wide street in the inner city called Tianmu Street. This is a circular street that surrounds half of Tianmu Mountain.
The shops located on the street are all famous large shops, such as Wanbao Tower, Qiyu Pavilion, and Black Stone Workshop. Each shop is very unique.
The distant Wanbao Tower is thirty feet high, surrounded by a layer of white light. At the top of the pavilion, there is a crimson jewel, which is very dazzling in the sunlight.
Qiyu Pavilion is entirely made of cyan-white jade stone, and it is covered with many fairy spirit and strange animal patterns. It does not look like a pavilion, but like a large painted boat.
Moreover, the clouds and mist below are lingering, suspended in the air more than ten feet above the ground, and you can see many ladies walking through it.
The force behind Qiyu Pavilion is the Hehuan Sect(合欢宗: Joyful Union Sect) of the Demon Dao. The items sold inside are very different from ordinary shops. There are many items that female cultivators like, such as rouge and powder.
Of course, they are not ordinary goods used by mortal women, but are made of spiritual medicine and other materials. They also sell Ningxiang Pills, Dingyan Pills, and some strange items such as Hehuan San and Longfeng Wan.
Passing through one building after another with different decorations, a circular pool appeared in the center of the street.
This pool is thirty feet wide and divides the streets on both sides. The water is covered with a layer of white mist, and you can hear the sound of flowing water constantly ringing.
The spiritual energy around here is very abundant. There are fewer people here, and there are also two teams of ten foundation-building guards on both sides of the pool, patrolling back and forth.
Zhang Ling walked along a stone path on the water, and was not checked at all. Passing through the water mist in front of him, after a few steps, he saw a lonely black wooden pavilion in the center of the pool.
There are two stone pillars several feet high in the pavilion, surrounded by a layer of colorful spiritual light. The spiritual light on the two stone pillars is intertwined with each other, forming a layer of five-color light curtain.
Beside the stone pillars, there is also a figure standing.
The figure on the left is ten feet tall, like a bald man, holding a thick crimson spear in his hand.
The figure on the right is much shorter, wearing a red dress. He is smiling and asking a cultivator wearing a hat. "Fellow Daoist, are you going to the ghost market?"
The cultivator wearing a hat nodded, took out a middle-grade spirit stone, and threw it over.
The bald man stretched out an iron-black palm, grabbed the middle-grade spirit stone, and coldly said a "Please" word.
The hat man did not say a word, and directly passed through the five-color light curtain and disappeared.
Zhang Ling happened to see this scene, and his expression did not change at all. He could see at a glance that the light curtain was just some kind of teleportation method.
But when he walked to the pavilion, he found that the man and woman were not cultivators, but two high-level humanoid puppets. He looked at them a few more times.
These two high-level puppets are much more sophisticated than the turtle puppet and iron lion puppet he refined. Except for their dull expressions, at first glance, they are no different from ordinary cultivators.
"This fellow Daoist, are you going to the ghost market?"
The red-skirted female puppet saw Zhang Ling and immediately asked with a smile on her face.
Zhang Ling did not reply. The spiritual power fluctuations of these two puppets have reached the late Golden Core stage. They also have a certain degree of spirituality. He wondered how they were refined, and he became interested.
Are they from the Tianji Sect(天极门: Sky Pole Sect)?
The puppets he refined came from the Tianji Sect(天极门: Sky Pole Sect), and the circulated Tianji Puppet Art(天极傀儡术: Sky Pole Puppet Art), but what he got was incomplete. It only records two kinds of high-level puppets.
Zhang Ling thought to himself, if he has time, he has to go to the Tianji Sect(天极门: Sky Pole Sect) to see if he can get a few more high-level puppet refining methods.
The Tianji Sect(天极门: Sky Pole Sect) is located in the easternmost coastal country, Shuiyuan Country, and its power is not small. This Shuiyuan Country is also one of the countries that make up the fourth force of the Tianhai Immortal Alliance.
With a muffled bang, the Han puppet took a step forward and said in a muffled voice. "To enter the ghost market, regardless of any cultivation level, you must pay a piece of middle-grade spirit stone."
Ghost markets are generally held secretly, but in Tianmu City, a special area has been designated. The Nascent Soul trade fair he is going to participate in is held in the ghost market.
He had a certain understanding of the situation here before. Zhang Ling smiled slightly and threw out a middle-grade earth spirit stone.
The Han puppet caught the spirit stone and retreated.
He did not stay any longer, passed through the five-color light curtain, and came to a dark environment.
Looking around, the place where he appeared was still a pavilion, exactly the same as the pavilion outside. Even the puppets on both sides are the same. It is also a tall man and a beautiful female puppet.
The only difference is that the clothes worn by the two puppets are different from the two puppets outside.
"Private fights are not allowed in the ghost market. If you violate the rules, you will be responsible for the consequences."
The Han puppet's cold voice came into his ears. Then the female puppet also said. "Fellow Daoist can stay here for three days. If you want to go out, you must also pay a piece of middle-grade spirit stone."
Zhang Ling glanced at the two puppets casually, and walked forward along the stone road on his own. A layer of gray mist covered his vision.
After a few steps, the fog dissipated. The environment also became much brighter, although it was still not as good as the daytime outside, it was roughly equivalent to the scenery at dusk.
Looking up, he also found that the top of his head was a white and blue water curtain, flowing silently.
This place seems to be underwater.
Passing through a stone archway, a wide black stone street came into view.
There are also many shops on the street, but they look much more ordinary. Some shops are very dilapidated and seem to have not been renovated for a long time. However, there are many monks, and most of them are extraordinary.
The lowest cultivation level is the late stage of foundation building, and there are even more monks in the Golden Core stage.
Zhang Ling swept his consciousness slightly and sensed two Nascent Soul-level monks.
The area of this ghost market is not small, with ten vertical streets and ten horizontal streets. The covered area is more than ten miles.
After spending a little time, he wandered around this ghost market.
Soon after, Zhang Ling came to a two-story pavilion only three feet high. The plaque above was written with four characters, Hidden Wind Pavilion.
The door of the first floor of the pavilion was half-covered, and there was a weak yellow light flashing inside, which seemed a bit strange. This is the location of the trade fair. He did not stay and walked in.
