I rely on learning to achieve immortality.

When the other party mentioned "array master", Xu Zhou's heart skipped a beat.

He had put on an act, so how could his true colors have been seen through so quickly?

To confirm the cause, he concentrated, and his divine sense immediately transmitted an image.

In the scene, the elderly monk is wearing a gray robe with a white beard, and the right sleeve of his robe is empty, as if he has lost an arm.

Upon seeing this person, Xu Zhou immediately recognized him and realized where he had encountered a flaw.

The old man in the gray robe was not the shop owner, but a street vendor.

When Xu Zhou passed by today, he happened to see a sketch on the stall, which was covered with many runes, making it seem very mysterious.

He glanced at it a few more times and immediately recognized the sketch as a rough outline of a formation.

Driven by a sense of curiosity, Xu Zhou approached and struck up a conversation. He spent a few spirit stones to buy some inconspicuous trinkets and took the sketches as a free gift.

This sketch was probably drawn by a formation master when he was trying to deduce a new formation. However, he realized there was an error in the deduction halfway through, so he started over.

Although it was only a failed, half-finished product, it still offered considerable room for research for Xu Zhou, a low-grade array master.

I thought that buying it wouldn't cause any trouble, but unexpectedly, it still revealed its flaws.

The old man in the gray robe continued to curse.

"It's all your fault, you brat. You knew Wenfeng Pavilion was looking for an array master, but you waited until that person bought the sketches before telling them."

"The reward from Wenfeng Pavilion was a full ten spirit stones, and they just let it escape right under our noses."

"I told you to hurry up and catch up, and preferably treat them politely and bring them back, but you've been so useless, wasting all my efforts!"

"waste!"

Listening to the shouts and curses coming from the dark alley, and finding no other useful information, Xu Zhou slowly turned around and quickly left.

After walking a distance and confirming that no one was following him, he strolled around the market for a while before stopping and heading back.

Back at his residence, he activated the restriction to isolate himself from the outside world before sitting down to reflect on what had happened earlier.

"Is Wenfeng Pavilion looking for a formation master?"

"Are you so desperate that you need vendors to help you search?"

Speaking of Wenfeng Pavilion, Xu Zhou has gained some understanding of it through his leisurely strolls over the past few days.

It was an organization similar to the miscellaneous affairs hall of a sect, mainly helping cultivators make connections.

Many independent cultivators, when faced with difficult tasks and lacking companions for assistance, would register their missions there. If someone saw the mission and felt capable of handling it, they would accept it, and afterwards, they would receive payment according to the pre-arranged agreement.

Among them are tasks such as finding alchemists to refine pills or weapon refiners to help forge magical artifacts.

However, finding a formation master is quite rare.

Alchemists in the cultivation world are already scarce enough, but array masters are even fewer.

After all, array formation is an extremely difficult skill, and it almost always affects normal cultivation. Unless one has exceptionally high talent in this area, very few people will study array formation.

Ordinary people who need to set up formations either seek help from powerful forces that have trained formation masters, or they can only buy pre-made formation flags and formation plates. Almost no one directly seeks out a formation master.

I really don't know why they're looking for a formation master this time.

Xu Zhou pondered whether or not to go and take a look.

Judging from the conversation just now, and seeing how urgently they need array masters, the rewards must be quite generous.

Most ordinary array masters would be tempted at this moment.

Xu Zhou ultimately shook his head.

"There's no need for that."

"Wenfeng Pavilion is a mixed bag, and I'm not some resource-starved rogue cultivator. Going there rashly would be too risky."

He immediately put the matter out of his mind.

...

In the following period, Xu Zhou would disguise himself and go out every half month to buy array materials.

The time the boy followed her was just a coincidence; there were no further incidents when she bought materials afterward.

Dongling Market was, after all, a major transportation route with many cultivators coming and going. Even if some people found it strange, no one investigated Xu Zhou's background unless there was an obvious benefit to be gained.

Li Zelei was away from home for long periods and rarely returned, so he was completely unaware of Xu Zhou's actions.

Xu Zhou, however, was somewhat curious about his mission.

On one occasion, Xu Zhou asked another question. Li Zelei didn't hide anything and simply explained his mission in Dongling Valley.

It's actually quite simple. The task is just to patrol the vicinity of the market and prevent nearby snake-like monsters from getting close.

"Why would monsters appear around the market?" Xu Zhou wondered.

As far as he knew, normal markets would have taken precautions to ensure that the threat of monsters wouldn't get too close to the market.

Li Zelei sighed: "This is a long story. To put it simply, a few months ago, a Foundation Establishment senior passed by and caused a disturbance in the market, damaging a corner of the market's grand formation."

This damage wasn't enough to stop the grand formation from functioning, but it reduced its ability to dispel evil spirits, which is why snake demons began to appear in the vicinity.

"Has the market's protective formation not been completed yet?"

"Not at the moment."

Li Zelei said, "Although only a small part of the formation is damaged, this kind of thing has far-reaching consequences, and it's not easy to repair. Asking the formation master who set up the formation beforehand to come back would be extremely expensive."

The Foundation Establishment elder guarding the market was somewhat reluctant to spend the spirit stones, and recently asked Wenfeng Pavilion to find a rogue array master to repair it.

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhou immediately understood why Wenfeng Pavilion was in such a hurry to find an array master.

A month has passed since this incident, but I never expected to receive an explanation now.

"Can that formation be repaired?"

"That's hard to say."

Li Zelei chuckled sarcastically: "Rogue array masters are rare to begin with, and their array skills aren't great either. I heard they did find two array masters, but judging from the progress, it'll probably take another six months to complete the training."

Xu Zhou nodded, made a few casual comments, and then stopped talking about the matter.

Although he had heard that the market was willing to spend a lot of spirit stones to repair the formation, he had no intention of helping.

His array formation skills were only at the lower grade; he wasn't qualified to repair a large array that protected the market.

Xu Zhou originally thought this matter would not affect him.

But things soon took a turn for the worse.

When he went to buy array materials again, he was told that the stock had run out.

"Please forgive me, sir. We do have the medicinal herbs you requested, but we simply cannot provide these ores and spirit wood."

Xu Zhou frowned slightly: "What's going on?"

The shopkeeper explained with a forced smile, "These stock items were bought up by the patrolling monks a few days ago, who said they were of great importance. As for what they were actually used for, we have no idea."

Xu Zhou tried several more companies, but received the same answer each time.

Seeing this, he realized that he probably wouldn't be able to buy the materials he wanted this time.

The materials cleared from those shops were almost all related to array formations. They were bought by the patrolling cultivators, clearly to repair the grand array.

Li Zelei once said that this great formation would take about half a year to repair.

Does that mean he won't be able to buy the materials he needs for the next six months?

Although he had bought a lot of materials in the previous month, he still hadn't been able to buy some key materials.

These materials are only useful to array masters. He originally planned to save them for the return trip, but this unexpected incident occurred.

If he stopped now, the materials he had wouldn't last much longer.

Going out to buy these things in the future will not only be troublesome, but it will also interfere with my studies and alchemy practice.

After thinking for a moment, Xu Zhou asked the shopkeeper if there was any way to buy the materials he needed.

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment before replying, "If you're willing to take a risk, sir, there is a way."

Upon Xu Zhou's inquiry, the shopkeeper continued, "If you would like, sir, I can help introduce you to an underground trading fair in the market."

Xu Zhou had heard of underground trading fairs before; they were private gatherings for cultivators, specifically for exchanging valuable items that were inconvenient to sell.

The reason it's considered dangerous is simply because these private gatherings often harbor malicious intentions. If they spot someone displaying wealth, they'll mark them and wait for an opportunity to attack.

However, in most cases, monks can indeed obtain the items they need at the trade fair.

The shopkeeper said, "The previous batch of materials has already been bought up. I heard that some shrewd people have reserved a batch in advance and are exchanging them at the trade fair. If you need them urgently, you can find them at the trade fair."

However, these materials at the trade fair will be much more expensive than ordinary materials, so please take note.

Xu Zhou remained silent for a while, then asked in a low voice, "Did you secretly withhold a batch?"

The shopkeeper chuckled and said, "What are you saying, sir? We do business with integrity as our foundation."

He paused, then added, "However, if you are willing to pay double the amount of spirit stones, I do have a way to help you collect the necessary materials in a short time."

Xu Zhou snorted coldly: "Too many."

After some haggling, Xu Zhou finally bought some array materials at half the usual price.

In addition, as a bonus, the shopkeeper provided him with information about the underground trade fair free of charge.

As Xu Zhou stepped out of the shop, his face was somewhat gloomy.

The materials he just bought were just a drop in the ocean for him.

Now it seems I really should go and check out this trade fair.