Reversing the Milky Way

The moment he was enveloped, Bai Cheng was surprised to find that all the sounds around him had disappeared. He looked to the side in astonishment and saw a customer not far from him haggling over a price. Bai Cheng could only see the customer's mouth movements but could not hear any sound, as if the whole world had become quiet.

At this moment, the stall owner in front of him spoke up: "This formation is called the Concealing Spirit Formation. It can block the detection of cultivators. Unlike the Spirit Trapping Formation, once you are enveloped by the Concealing Spirit Formation, outsiders cannot see what is inside the formation. It is usually used to hide items."

Just as the stall owner in front of him said, some people outside also looked at what was happening to Bai Cheng. However, all they could see was a pale purple sphere of light. Through the sphere, they could see some items on the stall, but the sphere itself was empty.

At this point, the stall owner also started to talk at length.

"Let me explain what this crystal is all about. The accurate name for this crystal is thunderstorm crystal, which is an artificially manufactured item."

After saying that, he took out a stone from his pocket that emitted a faint blue light. Bai Cheng recognized what it was at a glance.

"This is... a spirit stone?"

"That's right, this Thunderburst Crystal is made from spirit stones. After being consumed by cultivators, spirit stones turn into completely transparent, crystal-like stones. However, the structure of these stones is extremely unstable; they can be said to shatter at the slightest touch. Subsequently, some cultivators attempted to inject spiritual power into them, but without exception, the spirit stones would shatter the moment the spiritual power was injected. Unlike spirit storage stones, spirit stones are essentially disposable items."

After speaking, the stall owner paused and continued, "Legend has it that when a cultivator with the lightning attribute appeared and channeled his lightning spiritual power into a spirit stone, a miraculous reaction occurred. Knowing that spirit stones would shatter upon the infusion of spiritual power, the lightning cultivator only injected a small amount of his power. However, the spirit stone did not shatter; instead, it directly enveloped his spiritual power within it. The lightning cultivator then continued to inject more power. With each injection, the spirit stone slowly turned a pale purple, and the lightning spiritual power within it surged continuously. Finally, when the spirit stone reached a critical point, it exploded violently. Due to the close proximity, the lightning cultivator lost an arm in the explosion. However, he used this method to create a large number of lightning crystals, and this method was subsequently spread."

"Afterwards, a large number of cultivators, upon learning of this, jointly resisted its manufacture. Even if they knew the manufacturing method, they were not lightning cultivators themselves, so this touched upon their fundamental interests. In addition, the power of this lightning crystal was simply too astonishing. If it exploded within ten meters, even a cultivator in the early stage of Qi Condensation would be seriously injured, not to mention that this was a lightning crystal made of low-grade spirit stones. If it were made of mid-grade spirit stones, its power would be ten times greater. Within a hundred meters, a cultivator in the mid-stage of Qi Condensation would basically have no chance of survival, and within ten meters, even a cultivator in the late stage of Qi Condensation would be either dead or crippled. If it were made of high-grade spirit stones, even a strong person who had reached the early stage of Meridian Opening would have to be wary. Since it only required a trace of spiritual power to be injected into it to cause an explosion, this thing caused considerable panic for a period of time."

After saying that, the stall owner put away the spirit stones.

"I'll explain later why I knew you were using your divine sense to probe me. By now, you should know I'm a lightning cultivator. Because lightning is highly sensitive, I can easily detect the fluctuations of divine sense emanating from you. Divine sense is when you reach a certain stage in your spiritual energy cultivation, your internal spiritual power resonates with the external spiritual energy. You can use this resonance to probe the range of influence your spiritual power can have. Spiritual energy is everywhere in this world, except for some extremely special places, making it very difficult to probe those places with divine sense. Although the fluctuations in the air are extremely subtle, they are undetectable unless you are a cultivator extremely sensitive to spiritual energy. Lightning, due to its special nature, can detect these subtle fluctuations of spiritual energy in the air. Of course, cultivators can also detect these extremely subtle fluctuations after opening their Heavenly Meridians, but if you reach that level, you won't care about others' divine sense probes."

Bai Cheng was deeply moved after hearing these words.

Judging from his current cultivation progress, he has completed nearly two hundred cycles of the Small Heavenly Circuit, but he can feel that he is still a long way from the true Qi Condensation Realm. If the standard of reaching the Spiritual Qi Realm is quantified as ten, then he is probably only one.

Thinking about this, Bai Cheng sighed once again that cultivation was not something that could be accomplished in a short time.

As the stall owner removed the magic circle that had been enveloping the two, their figures reappeared in the same spot.

"Thank you for your guidance, senior. I am deeply grateful."

Upon hearing this, the stall owner immediately said there was no need to worry. At that moment, a noisy commotion caught Bai Cheng's attention.

"What's wrong with you? How dare you sell me defective products?"

Bai Cheng followed the sound of the commotion and saw a man in black arguing with a stall owner. After saying goodbye to the stall owner, Bai Cheng, true to his love of watching a good show, quickly headed towards the source of the disturbance. As the noise grew louder, it attracted the attention of even more onlookers.

Soon, Bai Cheng slowly approached the stall where the dispute had occurred, only to see the man in black pointing at the stall owner and shouting insults.

"Your longsword is clearly a defective product, yet you're selling it as a top-grade treasure. I'm being ripped off for spending those five hundred silver coins!"

Upon hearing this, the stall owner opposite the man immediately began to refute him.

"What a joke! This sword of mine is a genuine top-grade magic weapon. I obtained it after killing a cultivator. Although it was damaged during the duel, its quality is impeccable. Otherwise, I wouldn't have only charged you five hundred silver coins."

Bai Cheng was also startled upon hearing this.

'I see, I didn't realize this black market was also a place for selling stolen goods.'

Bai Cheng glanced at the items being sold at the stall in front of the vendor: various longswords, swords, daggers, accessories, jade pendants, and even alchemy cauldrons. After carefully examining them with his divine sense, Bai Cheng noticed that these items all retained different spiritual energy attributes, presumably left by different people.

After what he had just experienced, Bai Cheng suddenly seemed afraid to use his divine sense to probe the stall owner in front of him, for fear of being detected again.

However, at this moment, the man in black who was buying things suddenly became extremely agitated.

"I came here for a cheap price, but who knew you'd smuggle a defective product here to fool us? Believe me or not, I'll report you to the supervisors here!" The man in black said, pointing at the stall owner.

Upon hearing this, the stall owner remained seated, exuding a chilling aura that emanated from his body and beneath his mask, instantly creating a tense atmosphere.

Bai Cheng subconsciously noticed that the spiritual energy emanating from the stall owner had reached the mid-stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. The man in black, who was buying things, seemed oblivious, continuing to point and strike at the stall owner. This indicated that the man in black was not a cultivator; otherwise, anyone who cultivated would easily detect such obvious spiritual energy fluctuations—a manifestation of spiritual energy circulating within the body. This was clearly a sign that the stall owner was somewhat angry.

Just then, a man in red who was patrolling the venue walked over, and the man in black who was buying things quickly stepped forward and told him about the stall owner selling defective products.

The man in black thought that the man in red would give him an explanation after hearing about this, but to his surprise, the man in red only glanced at him and then said a sentence.

"What? You think it's too expensive? If you think it's too expensive, you can go to the Treasure Pavilion to buy it. Buy it if you want, otherwise get the hell out of here!"

Upon hearing this, the man dressed in black was clearly somewhat unconvinced.

"You! You all just wait! I'm going to the government office to report you! No, I'm going to the Censorate to report you!"

After saying that, the man in black stormed off toward the exit. At that moment, the cultivator who had appeared at the entrance of the stone gate also walked over slowly. After he came to the side of the man in red, the man in red understood with just a glance and quickly followed the man in black who had just left.

"Gentlemen, although this underground manor is protected by the patriarch, please do not cause trouble here. Business is a matter of mutual consent. I will say it again: if you do not wish to come to this underground manor, you are free to leave."

After he finished speaking, the crowd dispersed, but Bai Cheng remained standing in front of the stall owner.

"Sir, how much is your alchemy furnace?"

After saying that, Bai Cheng pointed to the only alchemy furnace on display at the stall.

"Hey, young man, you have good taste. A top-grade magic weapon level alchemy furnace, one thousand silver coins."

Bai Cheng was somewhat amazed after hearing this.

"It's so expensive?"

"Expensive? Where is it expensive? It's been this price for years, whether on the black market or elsewhere. This is the minimum quality required for an alchemy furnace, and the price is at least a thousand silver coins. If you go to the Treasure Pavilion, the price might be about two hundred silver coins more expensive, since they charge a handling fee."

Upon hearing this, Bai Cheng carefully examined the alchemy furnace in front of him, and then followed the path to the end of the underground manor.

At the end of this so-called manor stood a huge stone gate, through which the stall owners must have entered. It was unclear what the other side led to.

After walking around inside, Bai Cheng wanted to leave.

At that moment, he noticed a very peculiar sign in front of a stall owner. It simply read: "No profit, no killing," with a red crescent moon drawn below the characters.

Seeing this, Bai Cheng was a little puzzled, so he went up to talk to him.

"Boss, what are you buying here? There's no name or price tag."

Upon hearing Bai Cheng's words, the stall owner merely raised his head slightly to glance at Bai Cheng before lowering it again and ignoring him.

Upon witnessing this scene, Bai Cheng wisely left.

Just then, a man came up to the stall owner. Without saying a word, he took out ten silver coins and handed them to the stall owner, who immediately set up a golden hemispherical magic circle to envelop the two of them.

Bai Cheng could only vaguely see the person inside the magic circle talking to the stall owner, and the person who had just arrived handed a portrait to the stall owner. Then, the stall owner seemed to take out a plaque and began to carve the portrait directly onto it. After finishing carving, the stall owner handed the plaque to the person in front of him and kept the portrait for himself.

After that, the two talked for a while, and then the man took out a package that looked rather heavy and handed it to the stall owner. The stall owner then waved his hand to remove the formation, and the other man left as well.

Upon seeing this scene, Bai Cheng understood what was happening.

'So that's how it is. I never imagined this underground manor could operate such a business in Wuling Town. It's hard to fathom what kind of power is behind it. You know, Wuling Town is under the jurisdiction of the Supervisory Bureau; even highway robbery wouldn't happen there.'

Bai Cheng stayed there for another half an hour before leaving the underground manor.

As he stepped out the door, he happened to run into the man in red who had left earlier. As the two brushed past each other, a faint smell of blood wafted into Bai Cheng's nostrils.

Bai Cheng turned his head and glanced at it, and suddenly felt a little scared.

When Bai Cheng returned to the hotel, it was already past midnight. The hotel had turned off all the lights, with only a faint glow emanating from the entrance.

After returning to the hotel, Bai Cheng woke up the waiter who was sleeping at the front desk, retrieved his bag, and then went back to his room to rest.

However, the moment he pushed open the door, a gleaming long blade, flashing coldly in the moonlight, was aimed straight at his face.

Bai Cheng was startled by the sudden turn of events and quickly retreated to dodge the attack.

"who?!"

However, as soon as he finished speaking, two dark figures darted out of the door and pounced on Bai Cheng. In the dim light, Bai Cheng could finally see the two men clearly. They were dressed in dark night clothes, their faces completely covered except for their eyes, clearly indicating that they had ill intentions.