The entry for cultivating immortality states that after dying a hundred times, I attained immortalit

When Jiang Bai left the desolate hillside, the sun was already past noon. Instead of heading to the Bone Forest, he changed direction and headed towards the Black Stone Market.

The three Blood Fang Stronghold cultivators killed yesterday had fewer than ten Blood Crystals found on their bodies in total.

This amount of money is barely enough to buy some ordinary pills; to think that it can be used to exchange for valuable information is nothing short of wishful thinking.

Fortunately, Jiang Bai remembered that Blackstone Market was not just a market during the day.

He stopped by a stream, washed the dust off his face, took out a black robe and put it on, and then took out a disguise cream.

This ointment was one of the odds and ends he brought from the Jiang family. Although it wasn't particularly exquisite, it was more than enough to satisfy the eyes of an average cultivator.

Jiang Bai sketched the outline of his eyebrows and eyes in front of the water's reflection, making them rougher, and added some dark spots to his cheekbones, then used charcoal ash to deepen his skin tone.

In less than half an incense stick's time, a strange face in his thirties with a sallow complexion appeared in the water.

Wearing that black robe, he looked exactly like an ordinary rogue cultivator.

"That's about it."

Jiang Bai wrapped the blood-stained knife with a strip of cloth and carried it on his back, then tucked the bronze compass into his bosom.

After doing all that, he looked up at the sky.

The sun was already setting in the west, and there was still an hour before nightfall.

The Black Rock Market's ghost market only opens after nightfall.

When the moon was high in the sky, Jiang Bai returned to Blackstone Market.

The bustling market town had fallen silent, with only a few lights still on in a few scattered spots.

He crawled through the gap in the broken earthen wall on the west side, walked along the shadowy base of the wall, passed through several deserted streets and alleys, and arrived at the well in the center of the market.

Beside the well, someone drew a crooked arrow in white lime, pointing down into the well.

Jiang Bai flipped himself into the well.

There are stone steps on the well wall, and going down more than ten feet leads to the bottom of the well.

A narrow slit, just wide enough for one person to pass through, was carved into the stone wall at the bottom of the well, through which dim light shone.

After passing through the narrow gap, a bright and open view suddenly appeared before me.

This is a naturally formed underground cave, with luminous stalactites hanging from the ceiling, casting a hazy glow over a radius of about 100 meters. Dozens of stalls are scattered throughout the cave; some people have laid out rags on the ground to display their goods, while others have set up simple wooden racks to display their merchandise. There are quite a few people coming and going, most of them wearing hoods or face masks, and when they do talk, they deliberately lower their voices, their words becoming indistinct amidst the echoes of water droplets in the cave.

This is the Black Stone Ghost Market.

A secret place in the desolate state where rogue cultivators privately trade illicit items.

Jiang Bai pulled up the hood of his black robe and stepped into the crowd. His pace was neither fast nor slow. His eyes swept over the stalls on both sides. Most of the items sold here were magical artifacts of unknown origin, jade slips of cultivation techniques stained with blood, and pills with vague markings. Occasionally, one could also see the corpses of demonic beasts sealed in talismans.

These are not what he is looking for.

After passing three or five stalls, Jiang Bai stopped in a corner on the east side of the cave.

There was a simple wooden table there, and behind it sat a one-eyed old man wearing a shiny leather coat. He was leaning against an oil lamp on the table, slowly cracking sunflower seeds.

There were no goods on the table, only a wooden sign with three characters written on it.

Bai Xiaoge.

Jiang Bai walked to the case.

The one-eyed old man didn't even look up, spitting out two sunflower seed shells: "Buying information?"

"Buying information."

"In which area?"

"The Forest of Rotten Bones"

The old man stopped eating sunflower seeds, raised his intact right eye, and carefully examined Jiang Bai twice before smiling and saying, "Information about the Rotten Bone Forest is divided into three tiers: low-grade costs ten low-grade spirit stones, medium-grade costs fifty, and high-grade costs two hundred. Which tier would you like to inquire about, sir?"

Jiang Bai took out two mid-grade spirit stones from his pocket, placed them on the table, and asked, "What are the differences between these three grades?"

The old man glanced at the spirit stones, his smile widening: "A low-grade spirit stone tells you there's bone-corroding water; a mid-grade spirit stone says there are seven late-stage Qi Refining cultivators guarding it; as for a high-grade one..." He lowered his voice and leaned forward, "A high-grade spirit stone would say that of those seven, three are spies from Blood Fang Stronghold, two are abandoned children from Bone Hill Stronghold, and the remaining one is a fugitive from Poison Ivy Stronghold."

Jiang Bai remained silent for a moment, then took out eight more mid-grade spirit stones and neatly arranged them on the table. Ten mid-grade spirit stones were exactly equivalent to two hundred low-grade spirit stones.

He stared at the old man's single eye and asked again, "What is the background of that seventh person?"

The old man slowly extended his thin, withered hand, carefully collecting the spirit stones one by one into his robes, his movements unhurried and deliberate. Only after the last spirit stone was in his robes did he lower his voice to a whisper: "The seventh one is not human."

Jiang Bai's eyes narrowed slightly.

The old man's voice was almost a whisper: "This corpse puppet has lived for sixty years. Its owner is the Old Man of Yin Bones—the Forest of Rotten Bones is his private garden."

really.

Jiang Bai sneered inwardly. The Old Man of Yin Bones, having failed to receive news of "resurrection" at the Burial Mound, had set up a trap elsewhere. The bone-corroding water guarded by that corpse puppet was clearly a trap aimed at him.

He turned to leave.

"Wait a moment, sir," the old man suddenly said.

Jiang Bai turned half of his face to the side.

The one-eyed old man grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "If I may be so bold as to add something, most of the fish in this desolate state that tried to take the bait ended up as someone else's catch."

Jiang Bai was silent for a moment, then turned around and said, "What if the fish drags the fishing rod into the water?"

The old man smiled so much his eyes narrowed into slits: "Then I'll congratulate you in advance, sir, and invite you to an extra meal."

Jiang Bai said no more and turned to disappear into the crowd.

The exit of the Ghost Market was at the other end of the cave, a stone staircase leading upwards. As Jiang Baimai ascended the staircase, his "Killing Intent Perception" quietly activated—about thirty feet to his right rear, two faint strands of malice locked onto him.

He kept walking and continued upwards.

At the end of the stone steps was an abandoned mud house. Jiang Bai pushed open the creaking wooden door and went into the house, then climbed out through the back window and landed in a narrow alley filled with clutter.

Those two malicious motives followed me like a shadow.

Jiang Bai walked more than ten steps in the alley, then suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at the alley entrance.

Two men in coarse cloth shirts rushed over. When they saw Jiang Bai suddenly turn around, they were both startled. They then reached for their waists, where there were bulging bulges, clearly concealing weapons.

"From Bloodfang Village?" Jiang Bai asked.

The square-faced man on the left grinned menacingly: "Good to know. Come with us; Elder Yin Gu wants to see you."

"What if I don't go?"

"Then we'll carry you there!"

The words had barely left his mouth when the two of them suddenly sprang into action!

Their movements were swift and their coordination was clearly excellent. The square-faced man drew a poisoned short dagger from his waist and thrust it straight at Jiang Baimian's face; the other man circled around to the side, four bone-piercing nails between his fingers, blocking any escape route.

Jiang Bai did not draw his sword.

He took a half step back with his left foot, slightly turned his body to avoid the sharp edge of the short spikes, raised his right arm, spread his five fingers, and gray-black corpse poison miasma surged from his palm, condensing into a one-foot-wide fog barrier in front of him.

The short spikes pierced the fog shield.

There was no sound of metal clashing, only a soft "hiss" as the eerie blue poisonous light on the surface of the short spike clashed and consumed each other's gray-black corpse poison, instantly dimming together. The square-faced man, in a panic, tried to retract his weapon, but found the short spike stuck in the mist and unable to be pulled out.

At that very moment, Jiang Baidong was moved.

He raised his left index and middle fingers together like a sharp blade, wrapped in corpse poison and miasma, and slashed diagonally upwards, striking the square-faced man's wrist.

The man reacted quickly, releasing the dagger and simultaneously raising his knee to strike Jiang Bai's lower abdomen.

But Jiang Bai's flirting was just a feint.

The move suddenly changed direction halfway through, the five fingers spread out like sharp claws, tightly gripping the man's knee as he thrust it forward, the poisonous miasma of the corpse rapidly invading through the palm.

"ah--!"

The man let out a piercing scream as his right leg withered at a visible speed, his skin covered in dense black spots. He struggled desperately, but Jiang Bai's hand held him firmly like an iron clamp, refusing to budge.

Seeing his companion restrained, the other man raised his hand and fired four bone-piercing nails. The nails pierced the air with a piercing shriek!

Without turning his head, Jiang Bai withdrew the mist shield in his right hand and swung it backward, unfurling the gray-black mist like a curtain. Four bone-piercing nails shot into the mist, only to fall to the ground exhausted after traveling half a foot, their bodies already covered in rust.

At the same time, Jiang Bai suddenly twisted his left hand with force.

"Snap!"

The square-faced man's right kneecap snapped with a piercing crack as it was twisted and broken. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his mangled leg and screaming in anguish.

Upon seeing this, the other person turned pale and turned to flee towards the alley entrance.

Jiang Bai did not pursue.

He bent down, picked up the short thorn from the ground, weighed it in his hand, and threw it. The thorn transformed into a streak of black light, catching up from behind and accurately piercing the fleeing man's left shoulder blade. The man screamed loudly, fell to the ground, and tried to struggle to get up, but the corpse poison had already spread along the wound, and half of his body quickly became numb.

Jiang Bai then walked to the square-faced man's side and stepped on his chest.

Blood trickled from the man's mouth, his eyes filled with terror: "Don't...don't kill me, I'll tell you Elder Yin Bone's plan."

"No need."

Jiang Bai bent down, took out a Blood Fang Village token from his waist, picked up another one from the ground, stacked the two tokens together, and rubbed them together vigorously with his right hand. The tokens quickly decayed and shattered under the corrosive effects of the corpse poison, turning into a pile of black ash.

Jiang Baisong spread his legs, his voice calm: "Go back and tell Yin Gu that I plan to take a stroll through his garden."

Having said that, he stopped looking at the two people on the ground and turned to walk deeper into the alley. The figure in black robes quickly disappeared into the night.

Only two cultivators from Bloodfang Village remained in the alley.

One had a broken leg, and the other collapsed from poisoning.

At this time, Jiang Bai had left Blackstone Market and was standing on a low hill in the northeast direction.

A night breeze swept by, causing the hem of his black robe to flutter.

On the distant horizon, the black shadows of the forest called the Bone Forest stretched and undulated under the moonlight, resembling a crouching behemoth.

The old man with the Yin bones was fishing, using a pool of bone-corroding water as bait and a sixty-year-old corpse puppet as a hook, quietly waiting for him, the "resurrected" fish, to take the bait.

Jiang Bai raised his hand, gazing at the gray-black corpse poison miasma flowing in his palm.

The "Hundred Poisons Tempering Technique" slowly circulated within his body, absorbing the sparse Yin energy of the surrounding earth into his meridians and refining it into purer poison power. Beneath the fading scar on his right arm, the hidden poisonous patterns revealed a vague desire—a longing for the Bone-Corroding Water.

"Fishing?" Jiang Bai withdrew his hand, looked towards the direction of the Corpse Bone Forest, a cold glint in his eyes. "Then I'll show you that some fish, once they take the bait, will capsize the boat." He leaped down from the low hill, his black robe billowing in the night like an owl, and sped towards the black forest.

A lone figure walks across the desolate plains under the moonlight.

As the old saying goes, if you want to eat me, I'll eat you first.