Chapter 36: Qingyun (2)

Ming Ze was rather confused. “Yan-Xiong, what were you looking at just now?”

Yan Qing withdrew his gaze. “It’s nothing.” He asked, “What kind of place is the auction hall?”

Ming Ze was born and raised in Nanze Province, and his eyes lit up with a smile. “Is Yan-Xiong interested in this? The auction hall is just up front, and can be considered the most bustling place in Nan City. If you’re interested, we can go over and take a look.”

Yan Qing said, “Sounds good, let’s go take a look then.”

The black market’s auction hall was underground. Crooks mixed in with honest folk, and most people wore a mask. When they descended the mountain, they shed their Wangqing Sect disciple robes. Ming Ze donned himself in gold and white, while Yan Qing had exchanged his robe for a cyan blue one. The auction hall was spacious, and rows upon rows and layers upon layers of seats were arranged around the round stage in the center. Currently, the auction had yet to begin, and quite a few people were standing beside the hall, freely trading with each other.

Standing amidst the crowd, Yan Qing caught sight of a little peddler selling books. The peddler was sneakily crouched in a corner, with a spread of books in front of him, all carrying outrageous titles. Most importantly, though, business seemed unexpectedly pretty good? A good number of young men and women pretended to “casually” walk past, drop a chunk of spirit stones with lightning speed, immediately stuff a book into their sleeves, then rush away with large steps.

Yan Qing leisurely read aloud the title of one of the books.

“The Years I Spent at Wangqing Sect?”

The peddler looked up and cheerily said, “Aiyo, this fellow Daoist has a great eye, this book has been our best-selling one recently.”

Yan Qing was extremely curious. “What is it about?”

A torrent of words spilled from the peddler’s mouth. “It’s a story about how the protagonist, a rogue cultivator, makes a spectacular showing at the Qingyun Conference and smoothly becomes a disciple of Wangqing Sect. However, because he’s low-born and his spiritual roots are inferior, he suffers endless humiliation within the sect. Later, he accidentally happens upon a celestial artifact, cultivates in secret, and strives for Soul Formation step by step. Finally, he amazes the entirety of Wangqing Sect!”

Ming Ze, who had followed him over, nearly choked on his own spit—what kind of nonsense was this?! Leaving aside the fact that the Qingyun Conference has two venues, how could a mere rogue cultivator possibly make a showing? And with his inferior spiritual roots, how could the protagonist possibly have the qualifications to enter the Wangqing Sect?

Yan Qing listened with rapt attention, commenting, “Inspirational.”

The peddler saw some promise and eagerly sat up, chatting even more merrily with him. “Would you like a copy, sir?”

Yan Qing asked, “Did you give the protagonist any kind of romance plotline?”

The peddler: “Ah?”

Yan Qing said, “Don’t tell me that the protagonist doesn’t have a fiancée who looks down on him and breaks off their engagement? Or that there isn’t a crafty, tyrannical little mistress within the sect that constantly points out his shortcomings?”

The peddler thought he was making a lot of sense. “How clever, sir, I’ll write my next book according to what you said.”

Ming Ze: “…”

Yan Qing went to stop him. “Forget it, forget it, even though it’s a novel, you can’t deviate too much from reality.” Wangqing Sect had no crafty, tyrannical little mistress, only an icy, cold Xie Shiyi.

He turned his gaze to look at the other novels in front of the peddler. The Once-in-a-Century Qingyun Conference Rankings, The Definitive List of the Cultivation Realm’s Beauties, “Gossip from the Liuxian Continent, and—The Callous Sword Cultivator Fell in Love with Me.

“What’s this now?” Yan Qing picked up the book The Callous Sword Cultivator Fell in Love with Me. He flipped through a few pages and was thoroughly bowled over.

However, he was a person who could even stomach something like Ardent Phantasm, one of those smutty harem novels with a huge cast of characters. He wasn’t too fazed.

Yan Qing was seized with glee. “Path of Heartlessness? Soul Formation within a hundred years? Top of the Qingyun Rankings? Isn’t your male protagonist here just Xie Ying?! Why even give him a fake name, what fucking ‘Murong Motian’, ah.”

Hearing that name drop from the list, the peddler was so frightened he began to quiver. He nearly threw himself over to cover Yan Qing’s mouth, shouting, “Aiyo, please lower your voice, sir! Don’t slander me!”

Yan Qing reassured him, “What are you scared of? It’s not like Xie Ying is personally going to wield his sword and slaughter you over this.”

“Of course I’m not important enough for that.” The peddler looked left and right. After confirming that nobody had heard, he sighed in relief. He would rather die than admit guilt, and even doubled down on his admonishment. “Sir, Immortal Venerable Duwei isn’t someone we can joke about. Even if you don’t want to live, I’m still scared of dying. Anyways, my protagonist is named Murong Motian, I came up with it myself, and has absolutely nothing to do with Immortal Venerable Duwei—don’t drag the real person into this!”

Yan Qing found his denial as good as a confession, but didn’t call him out on it.

His fingers casually turned to a page. He looked down and glimpsed a paragraph from the book.

—The little Shidi’s ears heated up, and a blush arose on his powdery white cheeks. He was merely an ordinary Qi Refining stage disciple. What virtue, what ability did he possess to render him worthy of this kind of deep affection from the Chief Disciple? He averted his gaze, and his voice was soft and light as he coquettishly said, “I don’t believe it. I’m so ordinary, how could Muroung-Shixiong like me? I’ll only believe it if…” He bit his lip with pearly white teeth, hurriedly ducked his head, and, with red ears, said in a quiet voice, “If Shixiong gives me a kiss.”

Murong Motian gazed at him for a long time before softly smiling and saying with indulgence, “With you like this, how could I have the heart to refuse?”

With you like this, how could I have the heart to refuse?

Yan Qing lost it completely. “PFFT-HAHAHAHAHA!”

Ming Ze: “…”

What exactly did he do wrong? Why did he have to suffer this kind of psychological torture?

Yan Qing had his fill of laughter and raised a question. “Why is the protagonist a male?”

The peddler took another book from the mat on the ground. “I’m just taking different customers’ tastes into consideration! Here, in this book, the protagonist is a female cultivator. Only the name is changed, everything else is the same. Would you like to take a look?”

“No need, no need, thanks.” Yan Qing turned him down gracefully and didn’t accept the book he handed over. He merely smiled and probingly said, “Since your protagonist was written according to Xie Ying, isn’t this writing a bit out of character?”

The peddler stubbornly refused to plead guilty. “Bullshit! Murong Motian is my original character! Don’t spout nonsense!”

Yan Qing thought, You directly copied his life story, and practically even used Xie Shiyi’s birthday, yet you still claim originality?

Yan Qing said, “Alright then, I’ll buy this one.”

When he reached into the mustard seed space to take out a spirit stone, the utterly exhausted Budezhi instantly snapped awake, and its red pupils went wide. “What are you doing?!”

Yan Qing said, “Buying a romantic love story.”

It was so excruciating for Budezhi that it couldn’t bear to watch. It could only raise a wing to shield its eyes.

The peddler grinned from ear to ear as he received the spirit stone and handed over the copy of The Callous Sword Cultivator Fell in Love with Me to Yan Qing as if he were presenting a priceless treasure. “You have a great eye, sir! It’s a great read with lots of pleasant surprises.”

Ming Ze looked as if he had seen a ghost. He was so shocked he couldn’t even form his sentences properly. “Y-Yan-Xiong, are you interested in these kinds of books?”

Yan Qing rolled the book up into his sleeve and threw him a lazy smile. “I’m not.”

He just thought it would be utterly hilarious to see Xie Shiyi’s reaction. He didn’t know what kind of expression the original person would make when he read it, but, no matter what, it would certainly be marvelous. Hahahaha.

Ming Ze wholly didn’t understand why that smile of his was so profound, but he didn’t have to think too hard to know it couldn’t be anything good.

The young Ming Ze only caught a few lines from that book, yet he already felt it was an offense to public morals. He hesitantly warned Yan Qing, “Yan-Xiong, you and I just formed our Nascent Souls recently, and have just begun our journey on the Great Dao. It’s best not to have our minds on l-love.” When speaking of the word “love,” his ears became thoroughly red, and he began stammering.

Yan Qing gave a “pfft” of laughter and said, unconcerned, “Relax. If it weren’t for the fact that I didn’t have the innate talent for it, then I would’ve cultivated the Path of Heartlessness.” In his past lifetime in Shifang City, because that creepy old eunuch kept shoving beauties in front of his eyes day in and day out, he was so disgusted that he had long sworn off matters of love and affection.

Ming Ze froze. “Ah, the Path of Heartlessness?”

The number of Dao paths on this earth was innumerable. Each and every person searched high and low, experiencing the tumultuous turns of the mortal world, just to catch a glimpse of a thread leading toward the path to godhood. Cultivation as a concept was never about rigidly adhering to some superficial standard, and very few people could actually concretely name what Dao path they cultivated.

Except for the Path of Heartlessness. The Path of Heartlessness was the only Dao path in the cultivation realm with a concrete name, and it was also the Dao path that was closest to the natural Dao of the heavens, the source of all Dao. The aptitude needed for it was truly impossibly high. What was referred to as “heartlessness” required one to shed their human nature from the very onset and begin their cultivation from the point of view of a god. Naturally, the speed of their progress would be leaps and bounds above everyone else.

However, in the entire Upper Heaven, perhaps the only person who was truly enlightened to the Path of Heartlessness was Xie Shiyi, with his flawless crystal heart seeing through frost and snow.

The mortal realm had plenty of cultivators who slaughtered their wives, children, and parents as proof of their heartlessness, but, in truth, it was more accurate to say they entered the Dao through slaughter or desire. It was heartless, yet it wasn’t true heartlessness.

Yan Qing used his fingers to pull his hair out from Budezhi’s bite. His eyes curved in a smile. “That’s right, haven’t you seen the speed of cultivation when following the Path of Heartlessness?”

Ming Ze was struck dumb.

Indeed…Xie-Shixiong’s emergence. Completely redefined the meaning of “genius” in Nanze Province.

After they had been held up by the book peddler for a while here, the auction finally started. In the black market, every person was incognito, and thus the boundaries between nobles and commoners were dissolved. Rogue cultivators and aristocratic families all sat together.

Yan Qing and Ming Ze arrived early and took their places in the front row.

Budezhi perched on his shoulder and looked left and right. “What are you doing here?”

Yan Qing absentmindedly said, “I’m looking to see if they have any handy weapons.”

Budezhi was surprised. “What? Don’t you already have a weapon? Don’t you like playing with yarn?”

”?” What playing with goddamn yarn.

Yan Qing laughed and said, “You’re so cute and can even speak. Zi Xiao was so wrong to capture you earlier, he must’ve been utterly blind.”

Budezhi hatefully gnashed its teeth. “That’s exactly right, fuck that old fart.”

Yan Qing: “If Zi Xiao had any sense, he would’ve roasted you on a spit instead.”

Budezhi: “?”

As master and servant communicated with each other, Ming Ze couldn’t hear a thing and was seriously studying the auction stage unblinkingly. He earnestly wanted to acquire some talismans or elixirs that suited him before the Qingyun Conference, so he balled his hands into fists and concentrated.

Yan Qing and Budezhi had completely different attitudes: one had just casually come out to have some fun, the other was exhausted and only wanted to sleep. The majority of people in Nan City concealed their identity, but there were still others who brazenly entered with only a mask, not even bothering to change their clothes. Those who dared to show off like this usually were disciples of the Nine Great Sects and were unafraid of attracting the attention of others.

On the auction stage, a string of Buddhist prayer beads was currently being auctioned off to a cultivator wearing monk robes for a steep price of 600 spirit stones. Yan Qing looked at the Daoist. His robes were apricot yellow, and a long string of cyan beads hung from his neck. Foxiang Temple.

Yan Qing muttered, “Why is it that Buddhists always have so much money? Aren’t they all about renouncing worldly possessions like wealth?”

Budezhi was both jealous and puzzled. It gave a suggestion, “That’s right. How about you switch sects and become a disciple of Foxiang Temple?”

Yan Qing assertively declined. “No, Buddhism doesn’t suit me.”

Budezhi said, “How does it not suit you? If you join, you can even skip the step of shaving your head.”

Yan Qing sneered, “Wouldn’t you be even more suited for it then? Once you join, you can immediately start silent meditation.”

Afterward, two women from Lingyao Valley purchased a chunk of ganoderma.

Lingyao Valley was the world’s premier medicine sect. Compared to the Huichun Sect, who claimed to possess doctors with miracle hands but in reality were as crooked as they came, the difference was astronomical. The robes of Lingyao Valley were green, their color was light, and winding vines and branches were embroidered on the fringes. Their appearance was as fresh and clean as nature, especially elegant and refined.

Budezhi rolled its red eyes. “Don’t you think Lingyao Valley is covered in medicinal herbs?”

Yan Qing replied, “Probably.”

Budezhi’s eyeballs turned once more, and it confidently said, “Someday this lord will have to pay a visit.”

Yan Qing sneered. “What. Are you planning on letting things run their course again?”

Budezhi was vexed. “I said that stuff on the cloud boat on purpose to make those people let their guards down. How laughable, you think this lord is that uncultured? Of course, this lord wants to go to Lingyao Valley to rob them blind!”

Yan Qing paid no more attention to this master of proverbs.

The auction neared its end, and a lump of something strange was brought onto the stage. It looked like a mound of scorched remains. Any item that was being auctioned off here usually came from dubious origins and couldn’t be sold off in a proper auction, and they would also neglect to provide clarification.

The old man in charge of the auction lethargically said, “For the final item, the starting price is thirty thousand spirit stones.”

As soon as the four words “thirty thousand spirit stones” were spoken, the entire auction hall was in an uproar.

Many muttered, “Thirty thousand spirit stones to buy a lump of ash? What’s going on here?”

“Are they so desperate for money that they went mad?”

“Nobody would throw away their money like this.”

The old man faced these doubts unmoved.

Nan City’s auction wouldn’t have appraisals, and typically, it was the item’s original owner who set the starting price. Everything was up to fate.

TN: i can’t believe this universe has its own international bestselling author quan millz