Stepping out the door, Mo Tiange first went to the usual spot where stalls were set up. Sure enough, Daoist Huang was there. She greeted him, "Uncle Huang."
Seeing her, Daoist Huang was quite pleased. "Little Tian! Haven't seen you for days. Why haven't you been out setting up your stall?"
Mo Tiange replied, "It's for the Immortal Platform Meet. I probably won't be coming out much recently."
Daoist Huang nodded understandingly. "Right, that's a big event. So, how are your preparations going?"
"Just the usual. For us loose cultivators, we can never seem to prepare enough."
This sentiment made Daoist Huang sigh in agreement. "Indeed, we can't compare to those scions of cultivation families who can ignore all other matters and focus solely on cultivation. Spirit tools, talismans, Spirit Stones—none can be lacking."
At this topic, Mo Tiange fell silent. If her father hadn't met with an accident, and her second uncle hadn't been forced to abandon the family, she probably wouldn't have had to spend so much time on miscellaneous affairs.
Daoist Huang comforted her again. "Little Tian, if you're short on talismans, Uncle can give you a discount. And if you don't have enough Spirit Stones, that's fine too—you can take them first."
Hearing this, Mo Tiange was somewhat moved. In truth, she didn't have a deep friendship with Uncle Huang; they had just been running small businesses at neighboring stalls for the past two years and chatted a lot. Uncle Huang himself had poor spiritual roots, his cultivation was only at Qi Refining Level 8, and as he grew older with little hope of advancing, he spent most of his time on business, hoping to save some Spirit Stones for his descendants. They were both low-level Qi Refining cultivators struggling in the cultivation world, neither better off than the other. In such circumstances, Uncle Huang was still willing to lend a hand—it was truly rare.
"No need, Uncle Huang. You don't make much selling talismans either. How could I take advantage of your kindness? Besides, isn't this how all loose cultivators get by? Our combat experience is far richer than those clan disciples'."
Mo Tiange said this with a bit of a guilty conscience. Although she was also a loose cultivator, she had a Foundation Establishment elder looking after her and had very few actual combat experiences. Though her second uncle did tell her a lot about such things.
Daoist Huang, however, nodded in agreement. "True. Those clan disciples may have elders to guide them, but how can you truly understand facing an enemy just by hearing a few words?"
Mo Tiange felt even more guilty. Remembering the purpose of her outing, she quickly changed the subject. "By the way, Uncle Huang, I haven't been out for two days. Any new news?"
"News?" Daoist Huang thought for a moment. "Oh, news about the Immortal Platform Meet? More and more people have been arriving lately. Look at this street—there are many more young cultivators now, probably all here for the Meet."
Only then did Mo Tiange notice that there were indeed more people than two days ago. The closer the Immortal Platform Meet got, the more people arrived. Many loose cultivators who failed to join other sects would come to try their luck, plus cultivation families from various regions. The outsiders now outnumbered the original residents.
"Sigh, more people means more trouble. Yesterday I heard that the life lamps of the most promising juniors from the Huang and An families—the ones attached to the Yunwu Sect—both went out. And they can't even find the bodies. Now the two families are accusing each other of foul play. Little Tian, you need to be careful too. Who knows if someone has ill intentions?"
Mo Tiange's heart skipped a beat. So the matter had already come to light. On the surface, she pretended to be surprised. "Really?"
Daoist Huang didn't notice her strangeness, just shook his head and sighed. "This kind of thing is all too normal. Every time the Immortal Platform Meet approaches, not only do competing cultivation families have incidents, but many loose cultivators encounter this too. Although we cultivators preach about the Dao Heart, inner demons are something you only face when forming your Core. These people don't care about such distant possibilities."
Mo Tiange felt slightly reassured. As long as suspicion didn't fall on her, it was fine. Seeing someone stop at the stall, she smiled and said, "Uncle Huang, you're busy. I'll go buy some more things and prepare."
"Alright, off you go." Daoist Huang responded and hurried to attend to the customer. The Immortal Platform Meet was a great opportunity to make money, after all.
Leaving the stall, Mo Tiange's expression turned heavy. She carefully recalled everything again, confirming she hadn't left any clues and no one had seen her leave. Although rationally she believed she was safe, she couldn't help feeling somewhat uneasy inside. She still wasn't calm enough. She told herself this over and over, finally calming her mood a little.
Although she had come out to gather news, she had other things to do as well. Having steadied her emotions, she headed towards the largest shop on Yunwu Mountain.
Although not a major sect like the Xuanqing Sect, the Yunwu Sect's shop had quite a complete inventory; you could basically buy anything there.
Mo Tiange didn't waste time and directly addressed the shop assistant. "Twenty Spirit-Replenishing Pills, do you have them?"
She was a regular customer here, often coming to buy pills, so the assistant was also very enthusiastic. "Yes, yes, Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment." With that, he turned to the counter, took out a relatively large jade bottle, carefully counted out twenty pills into a smaller jade bottle, and handed it to her. "Fellow Daoist, see if there's any problem?"
He had counted them in front of her, and the quality of the pills was decent. Mo Tiange nodded, took the pills, and paid the Spirit Stones.
That man and woman from yesterday didn't have many Spirit Stones, but it was enough for her to buy these. Come to think of it, robbery really was a good profession. The two of them, uncle and niece, worked hard but couldn't compare to accidentally killing two Qi Refining cultivators for quick gains. Of course, she was just thinking it. If she were like those people, only caring about momentary pleasure without considering the consequences of being unable to form her Core, she wouldn't be so shortsighted.
After buying the pills, Mo Tiange didn't linger and walked out of the shop.
She didn't need any more spirit tools. As for talismans, she really didn't have extra Spirit Stones to buy them. Thinking it over, what she lacked most were still Spirit-Replenishing Pills. The Immortal Platform Meet competitions were intense. If she encountered a strong opponent, her spiritual energy would surely be depleted. Then it would come down to who had more Spirit-Replenishing Pills and Spirit Stones. Although Spirit Stones also replenished spiritual energy, their effect couldn't compare to the pills.
Pills were far too important for cultivation. Most of the Spirit Stones the two of them, uncle and niece, earned were spent on pills. Mo Tiange had once thought about learning alchemy herself, but her second uncle had vetoed it.
Second Uncle said that alchemy, artifact forging, formation arrays, talisman crafting—each required significant mental effort. As a Qi Refining cultivator, spending most of your time on these wasn't worthwhile unless you had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment. Besides, since she had such talent in formation arrays, there was really no need to learn alchemy. You should know that nurturing an alchemist was truly difficult; even small cultivation families couldn't afford it, let alone them.
Mo Tiange wasn't really sure if she had talent in alchemy. Second Uncle said the Ye family members were all skilled in formation arrays, and very few were good at alchemy. It seemed more likely she had no talent, so she gave up the idea.
Returning to her residence, she first went to her second uncle's room. "Second Uncle?"
Ye Jiang, who was still healing, opened his eyes. "How did it go?"
"How did what go?"
Ye Jiang looked at her and shook his head. "Didn't you go out first thing in the morning to gather news?"
Mo Tiange stuck out her tongue. "Second Uncle, you really are the worm in my belly."
Ye Jiang shot her a glance and snorted. "No respect for your elders."
She laughed and leaned closer. "Second Uncle, Uncle Huang said the two families have already discovered the deaths, but they're accusing each other, saying the other did it. Nothing else was discovered."
Ye Jiang nodded. "That's good. Even if they discover it wasn't the other party, it would be very difficult to trace it to you. With the Immortal Platform Meet approaching, Yunwu Mountain is a mixed bag. They won't be able to find out even if they investigate."
This reasoning was the same as Uncle Huang's. Was it true that ginger was spicier when old?
Remembering yesterday's gains, she became excited again. "Second Uncle, I took stock yesterday. Although they didn't have many talismans, there were five Advanced Talismans among them. All things considered, I still came out ahead. There were also quite a few pills, including a bottle of Qi-Gathering Pills! Today I used their Spirit Stones to buy Spirit-Replenishing Pills, so I'm not short on things now."
"Oh? That is good news." Ye Jiang had thought these two didn't have many Spirit Stones or talismans. Now it seemed that having five Advanced Talismans made up for the losses. "In that case, you don't need to bother scrambling for more Spirit Stones. Second Uncle will teach you the variation of the Spirit-Trapping Formation now. Study it well these next few days so you have a better grasp when the time comes."
"Mhm." She nodded vigorously.
Ye Jiang smiled, patted her head, and handed her a jade slip. "This is the method for setting up the formation. Go study it. Come tell me tomorrow how much you've comprehended."