Buying Books

Only the senior from the Talisman Sect took a glance at He Yi in the arena, gently shook his head, and closed his eyes without saying a word.

The person in charge received the order and immediately went down to investigate.

However, this did not affect the progress of the Talisman Master Convention.

The final group, the fifth group, took the stage right after and began their assessment.

There were no surprises this time; the fifth group's results were on par with the first three groups.

Once the results of all five groups were out, it meant the top five hundred list was officially finalized.

The dark night hung in the sky.

It was the familiar golden list once again.

Only this time, every name was much more conspicuous.

After all, the number of participants had sharply decreased to five hundred during this period.

Following this round of competition, the Talisman Master Convention was drawing to a close.

There would be one final assessment tomorrow, and after that, the ultimate rankings would be decided.

After finding Liu Chun's name on the golden list once more, Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu left the convention venue.

They planned to check out the place Yuan Qing had mentioned earlier where they could buy books.

Unlike the mortal realm, many shops in the cultivation world did not close at night.

During this time, Lin Xiao and the others had adapted to the schedule of the cultivation world—which was to say, there was no schedule.

Many shops would stay open for years on end without ever closing their doors.

Yet, some shops would close, and no one knew when they would open again.

Therefore, for Banxiang City, which essentially only opened for business once a century, the vast majority of shops would never close just because it got dark during this period.

Naturally, Lin Xiao and his companion didn't have to worry about the shop being closed when they arrived.

The two of them twisted and turned through the streets until they arrived in front of a shop with a banner bearing the word "Book" hanging outside.

Seeing the shop before them, both Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu fell silent for a moment.

They hadn't expected the cultivation world to have shops even more unpretentious than those in the mortal realm.

The entire shop was simply a giant turtle shell flipped upside down on the ground.

The entrance was at the protruding part at the front of the shell, which was probably where the turtle used to stick its neck out when it was alive.

Jiang Youfu hesitantly tugged at Lin Xiao's sleeve.

He couldn't help it; he had never seen anything like this before. He hadn't even seen a regular turtle, so suddenly seeing such a massive, bizarre-looking thing made him feel afraid.

Lin Xiao comforted him, saying,

"It's fine. It's just an animal's shell, similar to the snails we used to catch in the village."

Thinking of the snails Brother Xiao used to take them to catch, Jiang Youfu felt a bit calmer.

But he still subconsciously clung to Lin Xiao's sleeve without letting go.

Seeing the deep darkness at the entrance where the inside couldn't be seen, Lin Xiao also felt a bit apprehensive.

However, figuring that since this shop had been open in Banxiang City for so long without any issues, it should be safe.

He originally wanted to ask Fuzi to wait for him outside, but on second thought, he was worried about leaving Fuzi alone out there. So, without saying anything, he took the lead and brought him inside.

Once the two stepped through the entrance, they felt an instant silence in their ears, completely isolated from the noise of the streets outside.

The inside of the shop was extremely quiet.

There wasn't a single person.

That's right, not a single person, not even a shopkeeper or anything of the sort.

Lin Xiao turned his head to look back at the entrance they came through and found that they couldn't see the outside from the inside either.

Next to the door hung a small sign that read: [Leaving without buying a book costs five spirit stones. If buying a book, just pay for the book.]

Below the sign was a small glowing slot, clearly meant for inserting spirit stones.

He guessed that the entrance of this shop was the kind that wouldn't let you out without paying, and it probably had some function set up to detect whether the person leaving had bought a book.

He exclaimed inwardly: Goodness, this guarantees a profit as long as someone walks in.

Lin Xiao pondered whether his own sect could set up a shop like this in the cultivation world. It didn't require anyone to watch over or manage it, which was absolutely perfect for the Lingxian Sect located far away in the mortal realm.

But first, he needed to have the ability or items to set this up.

There was no rush for this right now.

Even if they wanted to open a shop now, it wouldn't be that easy. They had to find a location, secure a stable supply of goods, ensure a steady flow of customers, and so on.

These all required further consideration and couldn't be done just on a whim.

The inside of the shop looked much larger than the outside.

There were densely packed bookshelves lined up.

The shelves on the left were stuffed with numerous traditional paper books, while the right side held pieces of jade slips.

Next to each bookshelf was a price tag.

The jade slips were generally more expensive than the traditional books.

But there were exceptions.

The traditional books on the innermost rows of shelves were priced much higher than the jade slips.

Aside from these bookshelves, there was nothing else in the entire shop. Other than themselves, they didn't see a single customer.

Seeing that there was no one in the shop and no immediate anomalies, Lin Xiao said to Jiang Youfu:

"Fuzi, let's split up and see if there are any useful books here. We'll buy them together and take them back to the sect."

Lin Xiao had previously told him about the importance of books for the sect, so Jiang Youfu didn't ask any questions now. He nodded repeatedly, said "Okay," and immediately turned to start browsing the surrounding shelves.

Lin Xiao also hurried to the other side to look.

Perhaps afraid that people would read without buying, these books and jade slips only allowed one to browse the first few pages.

However, the provided portions were enough to let someone know what the book was roughly about.

Because they were basically looking for books related to historical records of the cultivation world, they were quite easy to distinguish.

But as Lin Xiao flipped through the books along the way, his desire to buy grew stronger and stronger.

Although many books had nothing to do with the history of the cultivation world, their contents were quite interesting.

There were books introducing demonic beasts, various secret realm journals from different people, and cultivation insights for various spiritual roots, among others.

There were even many cultivation methods and mental techniques.

But he figured they were all common goods; otherwise, they wouldn't be displayed so openly for sale in a bookshop.

Although their sect had its own mental techniques and didn't really need these, still...

Having a bit more reference material is always good, right?

Besides... who knows, after reading these things, he might get inspired to synthesize some other cultivation methods or spells in the future!

Ah, this one is about beast taming, I want it!

What? This one actually analyzes the relationships between the major sects in the Northern and Southern Spiritual Domains? I must get a copy of that!

Good heavens, there's actually a detailed guide to the secret realms of the Northern and Southern Spiritual Domains here!

...

So, before long, a large stack of books and jade slips had piled up in Lin Xiao's hands.

On the other side, Jiang Youfu, who had been earnestly searching for books according to Lin Xiao's instructions, ran toward him holding a thick book:

"Brother Xiao, Brother Xiao! I found it! Look and see if this is it! 'A Brief History of the Northern and Southern Spiritual Domains'!"