Brother, how come you're a witch?

Su Yan certainly wouldn't actually let Ye Jingqiu and Liu Baishuang clash.

If he couldn't beat this guy in the future, he probably can't beat him now either.

But this joke made Su Yan realize more directly how much Ye Jingqiu valued his sword energy; in the eyes of a sword fanatic, the sword was indeed the most important thing.

If the mission fails in the future and you have no choice but to kill Liu Baishuang, you can ask Ye Jingqiu for help.

Su Yan pried Ye Jingqiu's hand open and explained the situation to her.

After hearing that it was just a joke and that there was something else going on, she didn't react much. She just lowered her eyes and devoured the breakfast Su Yan had brought in a few bites.

Then came the morning classes.

As always, I didn't listen to the lecture and instead chatted with my senior brother Li on Fetion, sending long messages but never receiving a reply.

"Huh?"

Su Yan clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Li Changsheng usually replies to messages frequently during morning classes, so why is he silent today? Is he so afraid that I'll ask him for money?

Then, glancing up at Liu Baishuang on the inner disciple's seat, the little demon girl sat upright with her eyes fixed straight ahead, studying attentively and listening to the lesson. Her master, Xu Qinglan, stared at her figure and nodded approvingly.

Then she looked at Ye Jingqiu beside her, who was passing a small note. This was part of the favor Su Yan wanted her to do: to gather all the members of the cultivation group together.

Su Yan didn't disturb them, and silently turned his gaze back, letting the class pass by listlessly.

"Ahem, that concludes today's discussion. Jiang Changming, please come to the Hall of Imperial Physicians later."

Today's elder in charge of the discussion was a medical practitioner. While tidying up the books, he called out Jiang Changming's name.

The other disciples cast sympathetic glances at him, then got up and left.

Su Yan dusted off his clothes, gave Ye Jingqiu a wink, and then went back to the outer disciples' residence alone.

He went back to his room first, retrieved what he had written all night, then went up to the top floor of his residence, pried open the discussion room that had been closed since it was repaired, and went inside to find a chair to sit down.

After waiting a while, the door to the discussion room was pushed open, and Ye Jingqiu poked his head in, followed by several figures.

"Come on in, make yourself at home."

Su Yan greeted them with a smile, and after they were all seated according to Ye Jingqiu's arrangement, he took out the training group application form and tried to match the names on the form with the names of these people.

Although Ye Jingqiu was an exchange student from Sword Ruins and had no foundation within the Xuanqing Sect, she still had some influence due to her title of genius and her pretty face.

At least, she can gather eight people to form a training group.

Now, these eight people are looking at Su Yan with either disdain or suspicion, clearly not convinced by this nominal group leader.

If it weren't for Ye Jingqiu's influence, they wouldn't have come here at all.

"Ahem, everyone."

Su Yan coughed lightly twice, met their gazes with a smile, and said:

"Can I see your swords?"

"What?"

All eight were accidents.

They all agreed to join the group because they admired Ye Jingqiu's swordsmanship talent, but when they saw that the group leader was Su Yan, an outer disciple, they all felt that this was a farce and that the group would not have any serious training.

But in this first group meeting, they immediately said they wanted to see swords. Does that mean our group will really discuss swordsmanship? But will we be able to practice our skills here?

The eight people hesitated for a moment, but then they saw Ye Jingqiu decisively unfasten the sword from his waist and place it on the table.

Oh, so you were looking at this sword...

All eight were somewhat disappointed, but sword cultivators were always happy to show off their carefully maintained flying swords, so they all took their swords down and placed them on the table.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Su Yan slowly rose, his gaze sweeping past Ye Jingqiu's sword and landing on another flying sword that was closer to him:

"Fellow Daoist, how many spirit stones did you purchase this sword for?"

The sword owner, a female cultivator, blinked and said, "I'm short of money; I bought it last month for 800 spirit stones."

"At this price, is it secondhand?"

"......Um."

"May I take a closer look?"

"please."

The female cultivator nodded, and Su Yan carefully picked up the sword and examined it closely.

Everyone was completely baffled. Even Ye Jingqiu didn't fully know what Su Yan was up to; she was just someone who collected sword energy to carry out tasks.

A moment later, Su Yan put down his flying sword and smiled confidently:

"The previous owner of this flying sword should have been a master of sword formation techniques. This sword was often located in the middle and rear of the sword formation, bearing the short-term accumulation and diversion of spiritual power. Therefore, it always injected a large amount of spiritual power while outputting a large amount of spiritual power. Moreover, it always emptied all its spiritual power when finishing the move. As a result, the spiritual power accumulation formations at both the front and rear ends of the sword have hidden damage. The crystal inside the sword is also severely damaged due to improper use."

"Furthermore, the original owner was heavy-handed and had an unstable lower body. In close combat, there was obvious compensation in the shoulders and neck. When he gripped the sword too hard at the moment of drawing it, the sword was severely worn on one side, lost its balance, and had several barely noticeable scratches on the lower side of the hilt."

"The above are all minor issues. The more important thing is that the array inscription that diverts spiritual energy has reached its lifespan limit after repeated heavy use. You are currently using a relatively basic spiritual energy concentration sword technique, so you haven't noticed it. Once you learn more complex spiritual energy output sword techniques in the future, this sword will soon be unusable."

"In conclusion, this sword is not worth 800 spirit stones at all; 400 spirit stones would be a reasonable price."

Su Yan explained in detail, and everyone listened in a daze, but in fact they didn't understand much of what he was saying.

How could I possibly discover so many intricacies just by looking at it a few times and touching it a few times?

However, it's not entirely impossible.

It's often joked that the Qi Refining stage is the most treacherous stage among low-level cultivators, with many ruthless individuals within it.

After all, the lifespan difference between cultivators below the Core Formation stage is not significant, and they spend most of their time on cultivation. However, some Qi Refining cultivators feel hopeless about breaking through, so they devote their energy to miscellaneous studies, thus developing various fancy skills.

The female cultivator frowned. As the person involved, she found it hard to believe that Su Yan had mentioned so many flaws in her newly acquired precious flying sword.

She picked up the flying sword and suspiciously checked it one by one according to Su Yan's instructions, injecting spiritual power to test it several times. She found it to be true, and couldn't help but bite her lip.

"I knew it! I was wondering why I sometimes missed my target after switching swords, and why the spiritual energy I stored up before the battle was being used up so quickly. Turns out there were so many hidden problems they didn't tell me about! I'm going to find that dealer!"

"Wait a minute."

Su Yan raised his hand to stop her:

"You've had this sword for a month now. The dealer won't admit it; he'll just say you damaged it yourself."

"Then, I'd better sell this sword quickly and get a better one."

"Fellow Daoist, you may not be able to see the problem with this sword, but the dealers can. Although they may not be as thorough as I am, they will definitely use it to drive down the price. Whether you sell it sooner or later, you will lose a lot of spirit stones. Besides, how do you know that your newly bought flying sword is without problems? Unless you go to an official store."

"What should we do then?" The female cultivator frowned and sighed.

"Easy."

Su Yan smiled slightly and distributed the materials he had written the previous night:

"This is why I called you here today. We low-level cultivators often need to change our magic tools frequently due to academic requirements, cultivation method changes, and other factors. We also have a great demand for spiritual plants and herbs. However, the goods in official stores are expensive, and the vendors in the second-hand market often take advantage of ordinary cultivators' lack of knowledge to buy low and sell high, maliciously driving down and raising prices."

"Our time is precious as low-level cultivators. Our lifespan is short before we break through to higher levels. Do we really have to dedicate so much precious time to studying these things if we don't want to be ripped off when trading magical artifacts and spiritual herbs?"

"No! This market is meant to serve us! We need more transparent and clear entries for recycling magical artifacts and herbs, and fairer and more uniform prices for secondhand items."

"Therefore, I plan to establish an organization based on our cultivation group, targeting low-level cultivators and specializing in secondhand recycling. I've already thought of a name."

Su Yan surveyed the crowd with a dignified and righteous air:

"The circulation of all things in the world is the way of rebirth, and the circulation of magical artifacts and spiritual plants is also the same. A sound and fair second-hand market will help cultivators to cultivate better. It can be seen that the word 'circulation' is very important. I want to take one word from it to name this organization."

Ye Jingqiu's eyes flashed slightly: "Could it be that the name of this organization is...?"

"That's right! Let's call her 'Liu Liu'!"