Gou Zai Fei Men made up myths

A-Tu squatted in front of a stall selling various odd stones and bone fragments. He picked up a dull, unremarkable stone, sniffed it, and rubbed it with his fingers. His eyes grew brighter, but he pretended to hesitate: "Boss, how much is this 'Sinking Iron Stone'? It looks like it has a lot of impurities."

The stall owner was a lean old man who glanced at A-Tu and said lazily, "Fifty spirit stones, no bargaining. Don't underestimate it; it's quite heavy and can be used to refine some heavy magic weapon embryos."

"Fifty is too expensive, thirty!" Atu started to bargain.

As the two were arguing, Li Xiaocao suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "An Ice Heart Orchid! And it's over three hundred years old!"

Li Xiaocao was squatting in front of a small stall in a corner, staring intently at a small jade basin on the stall.

In the pot was an orchid, its entire body as crystal clear as an ice sculpture. It had three narrow leaves, and a flower stalk emerged from the middle, with a pale blue bud the size of a pigeon egg at the top, ready to bloom. Wisps of cold air emanated from the bud, causing the surrounding temperature to drop a few degrees.

The stall owner, a middle-aged cultivator with a sallow complexion and only at the early Foundation Establishment stage, saw that Li Xiaocao recognized its value and quickly said, "Fairy, you have a good eye! This is indeed a three-hundred-year-old Ice Heart Orchid, born in the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Cave of the North. It is the main ingredient for refining 'Ice Heart Pill' and 'Mind-Clearing Powder,' and has miraculous effects on cultivation deviation and inner demon invasion! Only... eight hundred spirit stones!"

"Eight hundred..." Li Xiaocao bit her lip. Ice Heart Orchids were indeed rare, especially those three hundred years old, which were almost extinct in the Southern Region. The price wasn't outrageous, but it was still a huge sum for her. She only had a little over a thousand spirit stones on her, and she still needed to buy other auxiliary medicinal herbs.

"Boss, can you make it cheaper? How about seven hundred spirit stones?" Li Xiaocao tried to bargain.

"Seven hundred?" The stall owner shook his head. "Fairy, this is a three-hundred-year-old Ice Heart Orchid, priceless and unavailable. I only obtained this one by chance. Eight hundred spirit stones, that's the best I can offer."

Li Xiaocao looked at the Ice Heart Orchid, truly reluctant to part with it. With it, she could try to refine an improved version of the "Heart-Cleansing and Spirit-Tranquilizing Pill," which would be of great use to the sect leader and Senior Brother Shi Tie, especially in combating inner demons.

She steeled herself and was about to take out her money.

"I'll take this Ice Heart Orchid. One thousand spirit stones."

A voice, tinged with a hint of frivolity and arrogance, suddenly rang out.

Several well-dressed and imposing young cultivators appeared at the stall. The one in the lead was a handsome young man in a brocade robe, holding a jade-ribbed folding fan; he was the one who had spoken earlier.

Behind him followed three men and one woman, all of whom possessed considerable cultivation, at least at the late Foundation Establishment stage, with the young man in the brocade robe reaching the early Golden Core stage. On their chests, they wore a golden "Lin" emblem.

The stall owner was taken aback. He looked at Li Xiaocao, then at the young man in the brocade robe, and a troubled expression appeared on his face: "This... this young master, this fairy took a liking to him first, and they were negotiating the price..."

"Negotiation?" The young man in the brocade robe tapped his palm lightly with his folding fan, glanced at Li Xiaocao, and seeing that she was dressed simply and her cultivation was only at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, a hint of disdain flashed in his eyes. "Can she afford the price? I'll offer a thousand spirit stones, and I'll take this Ice Heart Orchid."

As he spoke, one of his henchmen threw a bulging bag of spirit stones onto the stall.

Li Xiaocao's face turned pale with anger, and she said urgently, "How could you do this! I saw it first! I'll offer eight hundred... no, I'll offer one thousand one hundred spirit stones!"

She was really going all out, squeezing out the budget she had set aside for buying other medicinal herbs.

"One thousand one hundred?" The young man in the brocade robe sneered as if he had heard a joke. "Little girl, do you know how much one thousand one hundred spirit stones is? Judging from your appearance, you must have been saving for half your life. This young master will offer... one thousand five hundred spirit stones."

"You!" Li Xiaocao's eyes were red, she was both angry and anxious, but she really couldn't come up with 1,500 spirit stones.

The commotion attracted a crowd of onlookers from the surrounding area. Some pointed and whispered, some shook their heads and sighed, while others looked excited, waiting to see what would happen.

"The Lin family is bullying others again."

"That young lady must be from the Southern Region, right? She looks unfamiliar. What a pity, that Ice Heart Orchid was truly beautiful."

"The Lin family is a well-known cultivation family in the Central Region, with a Nascent Soul ancestor in charge. This little girl is probably going to suffer a silent loss."

Seeing this, Atu quickly ran over, tugged at Li Xiaocao's sleeve, and whispered, "Sister Xiaocao, let it go, a wise man doesn't fight a losing battle, let's go."

"No way!" Li Xiaocao was unusually stubborn for once. She looked at the Ice Heart Orchid and then at the arrogant young man in the brocade robe, her chest heaving violently.

The stall owner looked at the two bags of spirit stones on his stall, sweat beading on his forehead. On one side was the young girl who had arrived first but offered a low price, and on the other side was the wealthy and powerful young master of the Lin family. As a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, he couldn't afford to offend either side.

Seeing that Li Xiaocao still wouldn't give up, the young man in the brocade robe's face darkened: "What? Still not convinced? In this Suspended Mountain, no one dares to snatch anything from me, Lin Yushu. If you know what's good for you, get lost and stop getting in my way."

Behind him stood a burly, bald man with a face full of scars. He stepped forward with a sinister grin, his early-stage Golden Core aura subtly pressing down on Li Xiaocao and A'tu: "Did you hear that? Young Master Lin told you to get lost!"

A-Tu, whose cultivation was even lower, paled upon being struck by the oppressive aura and took a half-step back. Li Xiaocao's delicate body also swayed slightly, but she gritted her teeth and endured it.

Just as the atmosphere was about to become tense, a deep, booming voice rang out:

"Who the hell is bullying my junior sister here?!"

Shi Tie and Wang Hu, along with two other Qingyun Sect disciples, parted the crowd and strode over.

Shi Tie stared fiercely at the bald giant and Lin Yushu with his copper bell-like eyes. He released his late-stage Foundation Establishment aura without any concealment. Although he was weaker than his opponent, the fierce and violent aura that he had fought his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood made the bald giant frown.

Wang Hu stood silently on the other side of Li Xiaocao, his hand on the hilt of his knife, his eyes cold.

"Oh ho? A few more southern barbarians?" Lin Yushu closed his folding fan, a playful smile appearing on his face. "What, you want to make a move? You think you can take on a bunch of Foundation Establishment stage trash?"

"So what if you're in the Foundation Establishment stage? Even someone in the Foundation Establishment stage can beat you to a pulp!" Shi Tie had a fiery temper and couldn't stand such humiliation. He rolled up his sleeves and was about to step forward.

"Senior Brother Shi! Don't be impulsive!" Li Xiaocao quickly grabbed him, stamping her feet anxiously. The other party had a Golden Core cultivator with a powerful background; if they really fought, they would definitely be the ones who suffered.

"What, scared?" Lin Yushu became even more smug when he saw Shi Tie being held back. He stepped forward and tapped Shi Tie's chest with his folding fan. "Boy, I'll give you a chance. Kneel down and kowtow three times now, take your ugly junior sister and get lost, and I'll pretend nothing happened. Otherwise..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt an indescribable chill creep up his spine and instantly spread throughout his body.

It was a feeling of being indifferently watched by a higher level of life, as if one had become an ant, and above, a pair of cold eyes were looking down at one another.

Not only him, but also his followers, including the bald, burly man in the early stage of the Golden Core realm, all froze, their faces turned deathly pale, and cold sweat poured down their backs.

The cultivators watching the spectacle, especially those below the Golden Core stage, felt a strange tremor in their hearts and retreated, looking around with suspicion and uncertainty.

Only a very few cultivators who concealed their cultivation or possessed keen spiritual senses could vaguely sense that the suffocating pressure seemed to emanate from outside the crowd—from a young Taoist priest dressed in a simple blue robe who had appeared at some unknown time.