The Confucian and Taoist Sages of Mortal Cultivation

"The essence of a level-two demonic beast?!"

"This is an extremely rare item."

The cultivators below the stage were overjoyed to see the essence of a level-two demon beast.

In particular, the two burly men who had been fighting over the mechanical beast and the strange man with the bag over his head stood up abruptly, both looking impatient.

After all, crafting puppets requires spirit essence as raw material, and high-level puppets often require higher-level spirit essence.

With the essence of these two level-two demonic beasts, at least two Foundation Establishment stage puppets can be crafted.

The burly man stepped forward, took out a jade-green box from his storage bag, and said, "I don't have the recipe."

"But I have a three-hundred-year-old Qi-Gathering Grass here, in exchange for two of your essences."

Yang Qingyuan looked the burly man over and noticed that his build resembled that of Steward Lin from the warehouse. He replied, "A three-hundred-year-old Qi Condensation Grass can only be exchanged for one essence."

Upon hearing this, the man in the straw hat looked rather grim. He poured out five armored archer puppets from his storage bag and introduced them, saying, "These puppet archers are comparable to cultivators at the peak of Qi Refining."

"I'll trade five archer puppets for your second demon beast essence. You definitely won't lose out!"

Yang Qingyuan shook his head and replied, "I only want the formula."

This puppetry technique is indeed profound, but his Confucian and Taoist magic can also create soldiers from ink. What he urgently needs right now is a prescription for pills.

Seeing that Yang Qingyuan refused to trade, the man in the straw hat turned cold and sinister. He gave Yang Qingyuan a deep look, memorized Yang Qingyuan's figure, and then used the Qi Condensing Grass to exchange for the essence of the Gale Wolf.

The strange man with the sack over his head next to him also had no prescription and could only stare blankly. He then secretly memorized Yang Qingyuan's figure.

The other cultivators sighed repeatedly when they heard that Yang Qingyuan only accepted pill formulas for trade, clearly unwilling to part with them.

Seeing this, Yang Qingyuan had no choice but to find another opportunity to trade the elixir formula.

Now that he had the Qi-Gathering Grass, he didn't linger any longer. He put away the black bowl and the spiritual medicine and walked towards the door.

After a moment's hesitation, Deacon Lin and the strange man with the hood over his head followed Yang Qingyuan and left the venue.

At the same time, a cultivator shrouded in black robes stepped forward, took out a red medicine box from his storage bag, placed it on the table, and said, "One thousand-year-old spiritual herb, Huangjingzhi, in exchange for a high-level formation, preferably a Core Formation stage formation."

When everyone saw that another thousand-year-old medicinal herb had appeared, they all gasped in astonishment.

Upon hearing this, Yang Qingyuan stopped and glanced at the man in black robes. He noticed that the man's figure was somewhat similar to Han Li's, but he didn't linger. After looking away, he left the secret shop and headed straight for the Heavenly Soldier Pavilion...

At this moment, inside the Heavenly Soldiers Pavilion, the red-faced shopkeeper was standing behind the counter, counting a black storage bag.

Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei were also standing nearby, putting a battle flag into their storage bags at their waists.

"Young Master, you're back!" Xin Ruyin smiled upon seeing Yang Qingyuan enter and asked, "How did things go?"

Yang Qingyuan found only the Qi Condensation Grass, but not the pill formula, so he was both happy and worried. He replied, "It's alright, I did find the Qi Condensation Grass."

The red-faced shopkeeper next to him also quickly stopped what he was doing and took out a crimson seven-stringed zither, four feet long and two feet wide, from behind the counter.

"Senior, this is the Chaotic Ancient Qin you commissioned." The red-faced shopkeeper held up the crimson qin and introduced it. "I have done my job well and successfully crafted this top-grade magic weapon."

Upon seeing this, Yang Qingyuan took the Luan Guqin, activated the "External King and Inner Saint Technique," released his divine sense, wrapped it around his fingertips, and then gently plucked the strings.

The clear, resonant sound of the zither echoed through the shop, causing the red-faced shopkeeper next to him to feel dizzy and his expression to change drastically.

"Senior, please stop playing!" the red-faced shopkeeper hurriedly explained, "My meager skills are no match for the torment of a top-grade magic weapon."

Seeing this, Yang Qingyuan stopped plucking the strings and was very satisfied.

This chaotic ancient zither has two effects. One is "Soul-Destroying Zither Sound", which can mix divine thought attacks into the zither sound, resulting in an area attack effect. Moreover, under Yang Qingyuan's control, it can also distinguish between friend and foe. The second is to release extremely sharp sonic blade attacks.

Of course, if paired with special sheet music, there are other effects, such as requiem, enchantment, and so on.

The "External King and Inner Saint Technique" does contain several musical scores, which Yang Qingyuan plans to study further after returning to the Bloodstained Forbidden Land.

Immediately afterwards, the red-faced shopkeeper handed the storage bag to Yang Qingyuan and introduced it, "Senior, these are the materials you asked us to collect. They are all used to refine that set of writing implements."

"However, I can only barely gather 80% of the materials, and there is only one copy of each type."

"If the senior fails to forge the magical artifact, there will be no second set of materials."

Yang Qingyuan took the storage bag and put it in his pocket, then asked, "By the way, including these array materials, how many spirit stones does it cost in total?"

The red-faced old man perked up, his face beaming with smiles, and said, "Thank you for your generous gift of 1,500 spirit stones."

"If you are willing to use top-quality materials instead, that would be wonderful."

Yang Qingyuan took out fifteen mid-grade spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them to the other party. Then he said to Xin Ruyin, "Let's go and browse the nearby shops."

"Let's see if we can buy a formula for a Foundation Establishment stage pill."

Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei put away the array plates and flags, and then followed Yang Qingyuan away.

Next, the three of them visited all the shops in the market, including the "Star Dust Pavilion" shop of the Heavenly Star Sect, in order to purchase the pill formula for Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

Unfortunately, these shops are only willing to sell finished pills, not the formulas.

However, there was a Foundation Establishment stage pill formula for sale in the "Star Dust Pavilion," but unfortunately, this pill was the True Essence Pill that Yang Qingyuan had already mastered.

Yang Qingyuan had no choice but to give up and head straight out of the market.

But as soon as he arrived outside the market, he vaguely sensed that many cultivators were following behind him.

Two of them were none other than Steward Lin from the secret shop and the strange man with the hood over his head.

"Heaven's sins may be forgiven, but self-inflicted sins are inescapable!"

Yang Qingyuan's face was gloomy. He did not release the black dragon, but instead, he and his servant Xin Ruyin rode away on a two-headed duck until they arrived at a dense forest.

"Ruyin, set up a formation in the forest." Yang Qingyuan landed his double-headed duck, a hint of killing intent flashing in his eyes, and coldly ordered.

Seeing this, Xin Ruyin knew that someone had followed them, and quickly said, "Don't worry, young master, I just made a few sets of array flags, which will come in handy."

After saying that, she and Xiaomei went into the dense forest to make arrangements.

Not long after, Yang Qingyuan noticed that the ground began to tremble.

The next moment, a giant tiger-shaped puppet appeared on the horizon in the direction of the market, rushing towards them.

The giant tiger puppet was seven or eight zhang long, and the aura it emitted was comparable to that of a pseudo-core cultivator. Standing on its back was a man in a bamboo hat, who was none other than Senior Brother Lin, the deacon of Huangfeng Valley and the son of the former leader of Qianzhu Sect.