After some time, Han Li found a small unremarkable monastery inside the city. The Daoist priest at the monastery was a mortal that completely lacked magic power.
Han Li was quite satisfied with the location and gave some silver as alms to the priest, having decided to reside there for the time being.
Following the arrival of the next morning, he left the monastery and discovered an academy with the presence of a cultivator.
Since the academy opened in the Jin Capital, it couldn’t be considered to be small and was certain to have some backing. It was likely associated with a Confucian sect.
However, Han Li didn’t seem to care about this. After he snuck inside, he approached an elderly Confucian scholar and released the immense aura of his Nascent Soul-stage cultivation.
When the old scholar sensed this, he felt the entirety of the magic power in his body freeze. Realizing Han Li’s vast cultivation, he took a half step forward with a calm expression and saluted him, “Your presence honors the academy, Senior. Is there anything I may help you with?”
Han Li smiled and leisurely said, “You are quite tactful. I’ve sought you out for a few minor matters. Could you tell me about the markets in the Jin Capital and a few things about the upcoming auction? You should know quite a bit considering you’re a native cultivator.”
When the old scholar heard this, he promptly replied, “The location of the markets won’t be a problem, I will immediately make a map for you. However, I don’t know much about the auction. Is there anything specific Senior would like to know?” As he spoke, he took out a white jade slip from his storage pouch and began to inscribe the locations of the nearby markets onto it.
Han Li’s smile faded away and he calmly said, “I’d like to know about the date and location of the auction as well as any particularly rare materials that will appear.”
With a sincere tone, the old scholar answered, “The time and place won’t be a problem. In nine days, the auction will take place in the western market’s Treasureshine Pavilion. There will be two separate auctions for Core Formation and Nascent Soul cultivators held at different times. While Nascent Soul-stage cultivators may participate in the Core Formation-grade auction, Core Formation cultivators may not do the same. But, I’m afraid I cannot answer what materials will be up for bid. The auction is far too great in scope as it is being hosted by many great clans. How could an outsider know what will be up for bid? But according to past auctions, there should be over a hundred incredibly rare items. Additionally, a few seniors may also put up a few of their own rare items up for bid, extending the duration of the auction for up to a week.”
Han Li lowered his head and muttered, “So it was like that... The Treasureshine Pavilion!”
“Senior, I’ve already finished making the jade slip. Please take care of it.” The old scholar then offered the jade slip with both hands.
Han Li took it without another word and gave a cursory sweep of it with his spiritual sense before nodding with satisfaction.
“Very good. And you’d better keep quiet about seeing me. Otherwise...” After letting out a sinister chuckle, Han Li glowed with azure light before suddenly disappearing without a trace.
The old scholar widened his eyes and fell into the chair as he sank into deep contemplation.
After a long while, he swept his spiritual sense past the room and discovered that there was no one else there. He then let out a long sigh and wryly smiled.
...
After Han Li left the academy, he looked through the white jade slip and made his way to the West Jin Market.
This market was located in a remote street in the western portion of the Jin Capital and was hidden by a superior concealment spell formation.
When Han Li arrived at the entrance, he easily walked through the hidden restrictions and arrived at a desolate street. Of course, it was only perceived as a desolate street by mortals. As for Han Li, he saw several hundreds of cultivators at the very least that were enter and leaving a few stores on the street.
Han Li didn’t sweep his spiritual sense through the street. As the auction was close at hand, there were certain to be Nascent Soul-stage cultivators overseeing the market. Organizing such a large auction wasn’t something that wasn’t a laid back affair after all.
With that in mind, he slowly walked down the street and swept his gaze to either side.
The West Jin Market was clearly different from what he saw in the southern portion of the Jin Capital. The buildings inside consisted of two or three stories as if in a display of wealth. It seems like all the powerful businesses of the Great Jin cultivation world established a storefront in the capital to display themselves.
In that case, Han Li had no need to carefully choose which ones to browse. He promptly brought out a list of materials and began to ask about them at each of the stores.
Of course, all the materials that he had yet to acquire were all incredibly rare. In fact, Han Li didn’t have high hopes of easily finding theses materials and was only doing this in passing. He actually had different business to attend to in the market.
Participating in the auction would certainly take up a large number of spirit stones. While Han Li originally possessed a great number of spirit stones, after he purchased a good number of materials as the masked cultivator, he had spent away most of them. Now that a large-scale auction appeared before him, he found himself short on spirit stones.
Han Li had planned on finding a large shop to sell a few rare materials for spirit stones as he would receive the most spirit stones from a wealthy store.
At that moment, he arrived in front of a three-story building and narrowed his eyes. The store was clearly much larger than its neighbors and it was receiving quite a few visitors.
Han Li then caught sight of the large sign that hung on its gates, writing the words “Hidden Fortune Pavilion” in large golden characters. It was the store that was known for its Hidden Fortunate Rooms .
He hesitated for a moment before walking inside.
The first floor of the building was quite spacious and was over a hundred meters wide. There were sixty handsome Qi Condensation servants that were welcoming guests and introducing a few of their wares to potential customers.
When Han Li entered, a young servant walked up to him with a smile and was about to greet him.
But then, a white-robed middle-aged man sitting at a corner of the room had taken notice of Han Li’s cultivation. He immediately placed down the cup of tea he was drinking and hastily shouted, “Step down, I will be taking care of this Senior.”
Afterwards, the middle-aged man tidied his clothes and saluted Han Li, respectfully saying, “We are honored to have Senior at our Hidden Fortune Pavilion. Since the first floor won’t have anything that will interest you, would you like to follow me to the third floor?”
Han Li’s gaze flickered and he answered, “Yes, I came here to look for someone in charge in the first place.” Then, he calmly followed the middle-aged man upstairs.
When the customers on the first floor saw this, they raised an uproar, realizing Han Li was a Nascent Soul cultivator.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a Nascent Soul-stage senior, but why does he look so young?”
“Tch tch, looks like the Hidden Fortunate Pavilion is getting some big business.”
Shouts of praise and surprise continued to sound out below.
The third floor of the pavilion was small, but it was quite elegantly arranged and had two beautiful female cultivators waiting. When they saw the middle-aged man bringing up a guest, they immediately prepared a pot of tea.
The middle-aged man waited for Han Li to sit down and waved his hand at the table with a smile. “Senior, please have a taste. This is the Mistrain Spirit Tea that our pavilion had acquired at a steep price. It had quite a unique flavor.”
Han Li ignored the tea and swept his sleeve past the table, placing a green jade slip on top of it. He calmly said, “There is no rush to taste the tea. Let’s first see if you have any of the materials I wish to purchase. To tell the truth, I’ve already been to many stores and I wasn’t able to find anything that I wanted. I’m not particularly hopeful that your Hidden Fortune Pavilion will have any of them either.”
“Since Senior is in a hurry, I’ll go ahead and have a look. Since you weren’t able to find them elsewhere, they must be quite rare.” The middle-aged man smiled and summoned the jade slip into his hand before he immersed his spiritual sense into it.
Soon, his expression had changed with surprise, but Han Li’s expression had remained unchanged. He had seen this reaction several times already when he showed the list to the other store owners. He wanted materials that were rarely ever seen in this world and were rarely heard of as well.
The middle-aged man withdrew his spiritual sense from the jade slip and wryly smiled. “It is no wonder that Senior wasn’t able to find these materials from the previous stores. They are beyond the grasp of ordinary stores. As for our pavilion, we only have a small Thunderspirit Crystal."
Having expected more disappointment, Han Li wore an expression of delight when he heard this and said, “You have a Thunderspirit Crystal?”
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment and then explained, “That’s right. Senior has come at a fortunate time. Our pavilion had just acquired the Thunderspirit Crystal, but there will be a bit of trouble as it doesn’t belong to us. Rather, a Nascent Soul cultivator with good relations to our pavilion has placed it in our care to exchange it for other materials. If the crystal isn’t exchanged for other materials, it will be put up in the coming auction.”
[1] Magic tools that are capable of expanding in size to create mansions and rooms. They’re also capable of having spell formations placed inside of them.