Flying Sword with Fence

After Qin Ran left, Li Shiyin reluctantly went to the storage room.

Storage rooms require a lot of space, so naturally they also have spacious arrays set up. The inside space was much larger than it looked from the outside, almost catching up to the ratio of change between the inside and outside of the training hall.

This was Li Shiyin's first time entering the storage room. As soon as she entered, she was stunned by the dense and chaotic objects inside. At a glance, it seemed like everything was there, both recognizable and unrecognizable.

There were tools - hoes, shovels, sickles, baskets, everything needed. There were also unfinished or failed leftovers from the masters, broken tables, chairs, damaged array templates, broken railings, and so on.

Wait, railings?

Li Shiyin was holding a hoe and shovel. She suddenly noticed something strange about the railing.

She looked closely and found it increasingly bizarre, so she went over carrying the hoe and shovel and set the railing upright.

This railing... hmm, very strange.

It was surrounded by a circle of metal railings, about five feet tall. The base was a metal object, about ten feet long and three feet wide, with some strange patterns on it, probably some kind of array lines.

What made this thing so weird was that the metal object at the base looked a bit like a sword.

Li Shiyin stroked her chin and circled around it a few times. She suddenly recalled that the master seemed to be afraid of heights, which gave her a bold guess.

Although it seemed far-fetched, but... this was probably, most likely, possibly, the master's flying sword!

Qin Ran, who was rushing down the mountain, suddenly shuddered and nearly lost his footing, almost tumbling down the mountainside. He quickly stopped and felt a chill down his back, as if he had forgotten something important.

But he couldn't remember what it was for the moment, so he had no choice but to continue on his way.

As he ran, when he arrived at the main peak's Assembly Square, he suddenly recalled that he hadn't put away his epic invention - the railing flying sword!

"She just went in to get a hoe, she probably won't find it!" he reassured himself. "What are the odds of that happening?"

But he still felt uneasy, distracted and unsettled. A famous law circled around his head - Murphy's Law.

The Assembly Square was especially lively today, even more so than usual... mainly because there were more vendors setting up stalls.

The reason was that the Dao Sword Sect's Questioning the Dao Grand Meet had just concluded, and many new disciples had been recruited into the sect. Now was a good time to give them their first lesson on the cultivation world, as it was well known that new disciples were the easiest to cheat.

Not all the cultivators selling wares at the Dao Sword Sect were from the sect itself. There were also some from other sects and independent cultivators wandering around.

Qin Ran came today for two reasons. First, he wanted to buy some daily necessities for Li Shiyin. The poor girl had been wearing the same yellow clothes for days. He had to get her some changes.

Secondly, he wanted to find some sword cultivation techniques, including sword techniques, body techniques, concealment techniques, and battle techniques. He needed all of these.

If Li Shiyin wanted to pursue the path of the sword in the future, he had to prepare these things for her.

Qin Ran wasn't anyone famous. Plus, he was only in his early twenties. Without wearing his peak master's robes, walking down the street, no one recognized him. He was far less conspicuous than the newly recruited disciples. In his plain blue clothes, he crossed the square where disciples were training, and arrived at the marketplace without anyone greeting him.

That's right, in addition to the vendors, there were many disciples practicing martial arts in the square. After all, that was the original purpose of the Assembly Square, for disciples to train.

Arriving at the small market, Qin Ran started from one end and slowly browsed through the stalls, stopping to examine anything interesting. If the price was right, he would take out spirit stones and buy it.

However, after going through over a dozen stalls, he had bought many strange herbs but still couldn't find any interesting techniques.

There weren't many stalls left. If he still couldn't find suitable techniques, would he have to go ask at the Hall of Inherited Skills? But the Dao Sword Sect wasn't a major sect after all, and the publicly available techniques weren't up to Qin Ran's standards. Or should he really have Li Shiyin become a disciple at Sword Peak to learn their secret techniques?

Just as he was pondering this, he suddenly discovered an interesting technique at a small stall.

It was an ordinary little stall, with a cloth mat laid out and assorted books and jade slips placed on it. The stall owner also looked plain and ordinary.

But in the cultivation world, appearance and age were never the point.

The technique was called Tai Xuan Sword Codex, recorded on a cracked, yellowed jade slip. The damage to the jade slip was so severe that when Qin Ran extended his consciousness into it, he only sensed ruin and chaos.

"What's going on with this?" Qin Ran asked the owner.

"I don't know," the owner replied. "It's been passed down in my family. I found it in a box like this, it's just too old right?"

Passed down in his family? Qin Ran sneered inwardly, no doubt it was stolen from some ancient tomb. Were all these secret techniques and manuals family heirlooms?

But he only disdained it in his heart, and didn't show anything on his face. This was how places like this worked. Cultivators set up stalls to sell things, some real and some fake. You could buy or not buy as you wished, but never ask about the origin of the items.

Even if it was the Dao Sword Sect, they only provided the space for stalls and never interfered with transactions. If you got cheated here and bought fakes, don't make a fuss or cause trouble, because no one would side with you, only laugh at you.

Of course, if you had the ability to seek redress afterwards, no one would stop you either...

"How much for this?" Qin Ran asked indifferently.

"One thousand low-grade spirit stones," the owner quoted.

Qin Ran was silent. He held the jade slip to his forehead and examined the contents with his spiritual sense again, then asked, "Is there an unsealing verse?"

The unsealing verse was needed to decrypt the contents of the jade slip, like the passcode to unlock a phone. Without it, the actual contents could not be read.

"There is a verse," the owner replied.

"Ten low-grade spirit stones," Qin Ran offered.

"Get lost if you're not buying!" the owner yelled angrily.

Qin Ran still had no change in expression. He squatted and rummaged through the stall some more, then picked up a movement technique called Fierce Tiger Triple Leap, and a sword technique called Brush Clouds Sword Decision. He indicated them to the owner and said, "Ten low-grade spirit stones plus these two techniques, will you sell them?"

Seeing that Qin Ran was completely shameless, not only refusing to raise his offer but asking for more items, the owner's expression changed dramatically from anger to... obsequiousness. He was afraid Qin Ran would change his mind, and quickly said, "Deal!"

"Damn, got ripped off again!" Qin Ran cursed inwardly, as he took out ten spirit stones from his Cosmic Bag and exchanged for the unsealing verses from the owner.

The owner whispered the verses for unsealing the two jade slips into Qin Ran's ear.

Qin Ran nodded, put all three techniques into his Cosmic Bag, and continued walking forward.

Just then, a young disciple who had been waiting for a while sidled up and called out, "Peak Master Qin, please hold on."

Someone calling for him? Qin Ran frowned and looked back to see a handsome youth in black robes that he didn't recognize. "What is it?" he asked.

"This junior is Huang Feiyu of Sword Peak. I'd like to ask senior a favor," Huang Feiyu bowed respectfully to Qin Ran and said.

Although Qin Ran was young and not very powerful, he was still the legitimate Peak Master of Dan Peak. Hearing that this person was a disciple of the Dao Sword Sect, he accepted the bow frankly.

"This junior wishes to buy some Frost Condensation Pills, but I'm afraid I don't know much about pills..." Huang Feiyu saw that although Qin Ran didn't reply, he also didn't walk away, and was delighted inwardly. He hurriedly continued, "I wonder if senior has time to help out this junior."