Chapter 58: Spirit Gathering Board
“Once activated, this Spirit Gathering inscribed spirit tablet can directly gather the world’s spirit energy nearby. In addition, this spirit tablet can increase the amount of spirit energy a martial practitioner is able to gather by one fourth!”
“More importantly, this spirit tablet only requires the consumption of an extremely tiny amount of spirit energy to activate and can be used repeatedly!”
“If a martial practitioner cultivating in the wild had this spirit tablet, then the efficiency of their cultivation would increase. This spirit tablet would also increase the recovery speed of their spirit energy after a fight.”
“……”
Within Li’s Shop, Qin Lie held a spirit tablet within his hand as he eloquently spoke to the lady in white, passionately trying to sell his goods.
The expression atop the lady in white’s face was indifferent. After listening to his explanation for a while, she gradually became impatient, interjecting, “It only does that?”
“What else do you want?” asked Qin Lie, stopping.
“Does it help when attacking? Can it defend?” The eye-catching lady in white prettily furrowed her brows. “If all it can do is simply increase the spirit energy of the world by a fourth, then there is no need for you to continue.”
She turned her head towards the middle-aged servant beside her, disappointedly saying, “It seems we have come to the wrong place.”
As she made this remark, she already no longer held the interest she had previously and turned around, preparing to leave.
“Kid, how many spirit tablets do you have in total?” suddenly asked Li Mu at this juncture as he still lazily sat in the rocking chair.
“Seventeen,” replied Qin Lie.
“Take them all out and activate all of their Spirit Gathering diagrams. Let me see if there are any overlapping effects,” lightly said Li Mu.
“Overlapping…”
As if an extremely bright light had suddenly appeared within his mind, Qin Lie’s eyes suddenly became shockingly bright. He had been reminded of a crucial point through Li Mu’s words.
The white-clothed lady and her middle aged servant also suddenly stopped. Qin Lie didn’t bother thinking any longer, quickly taking out all of the successful spirit tablets and injected a wisp of spirit energy into each one, activating the Spirit Gathering diagram within.
One spirit tablet after another suddenly emitted a faint white glow, creating a rather strong suction force.
All of the scattered nature spirit energy around Li’s Shop was sucked over, as if a whirlpool gradually converged all of the energy towards this one spot, and rushed into the center of the store.
Originally, many of the store’s low grade spirit materials, spirit stones, and various metals had all been covered by a layer of dust, causing the air to feel turbid and polluted.
However, as the the world’s spirit energy slowly accumulated, the few people within the shop could feel the air begin to naturally freshen up. After taking a few breaths, they all felt their spirits rise.
“Put the spirit tablets farther apart. Put one in each corner of the stop,” commanded Li Mu as he rocked in his chair, narrowing his eyes.
Qin Lie’s eyes lit up again as he hurriedly took the seventeen spirit tablets from on the table in front of him and placed them in each of the store’s corners.
He separated the spirit tablets, leaving seven in the middle, while evenly arranging the other ten alongside the walls and corners.
Within the dilapidated shop, the seventeen spirit tablets released a serene, misty light. All the spirit energy of the world, which was circulating in Commerce Street, slowly began to move towards and gather within the small “Li’s Shop.”
Within the store, the lady in white and middle aged servant, who had been about to leave, had long since stopped in their tracks.
Surprise shined from both of their eyes. Their expressions were frozen as they silently looked at the glowing spirit tablets scattered within the store, quietly feeling the changes in the world’s spirit energy.
Qin Lie’s eyes became increasingly bright as he felt the changes, his heart full of surprise.
Li Mu still lazily reclined on the rocking chair. Within the extremely silent shop, only the harsh creaking sounds of his rocking could be heard.
Commerce Street.
Several of the slightly higher level martial practitioners nearby became aware of the sudden and strange change in the flow of the world’s spirit energy. Becoming stunned, they subconsciously followed the direction of the spirit energy towards “Li’s Shop.”
“That’s weird, nature spirit energy is beginning to gather over there. Is there a powerful expert about to break through?”
“No, it doesn’t seem like that. The flow of this nature spirit energy isn’t that fast; it’s actually extremely mild. It doesn’t seem to be attracted by a person, but by some powerful spirit artifact instead.”
“Could it be that some extremely powerful spirit artifact has appeared?”
“I don’t know, let’s go and find out.”
“Mn, let us go have a look.”
On the street, only a very small portion of the martial practitioners who could sense the change were moving to Li’s Shop. Upon suddenly feeling the weird changes in the world’s spirit energy, they all became perplexed as they slowly made their way towards the shop.
Armament Pavilion.
Within the top floor of the five storied pavilion, a skinny old man donned in luxurious silk clothing who was approximately sixty years old was just about to sleep.
“Hm?”
The old man suddenly looked outside the window, and taking a deep breath, his expression suddenly changed faintly.
He directly went downstairs, going from the fifth floor to the first floor under the respectful gazes of the many shop attendants.
“Elder Pan, you?”
“Elder Pan, why have you come down from the fifth floor?”
“Elder Pan, it is currently noon. Don’t you usually nap at this time?”
“Haha, so Elder Pan does have times when he changes his habits. How interesting.”
Many of the martial cultivators on the first floor of Armament Pavilion had originally been gathered around the spirit artifacts, asking the shop attendants about details and prices. However, upon seeing that the elder had come down, they all became shocked, unable to resist opening their mouths and began whispering to each other.
The name of this old man was Pan Jueming. He was the true head of Armament Pavilion and had an extremely high status within Icestone City. Even Tu Mo and Yan Wenyan would respectfully call him “Elder Pan” when they saw him.
His unique habit of an afternoon nap was pretty much known to every martial practitioner who often visited Armament Pavilion. They also knew that during his afternoon nap, they must not make any loud noises within Armament Pavilion. Otherwise, they would be immediately kicked out and perhaps never to be allowed back in.
But today, at this special time, he had surprisingly come downstairs…
Everyone was completely astonished.
Even more so from what transpired afterwards.
All of the people who had previously ascended to the second and third floors followed Elder Pan downstairs. People with surprised expressions came down one after another from above. The two who had just ascended to the second floor for a little while came down, even though they probably hadn’t been able to see very many spirit artifacts during that time. Like Pan Jueming, they all walked out onto the street.
“Elder Pan…”
A sturdy looking male wearing the practitioner attire of Nebula Pavilion descended from upstairs and walked to Pan Jueming’s side, whispering something to him.
The name of this person was Wu Chong. He was the number one Hall Master under Nebula Hall Pavilion Elder Chu Yan and had just broken through to the middle stage of the Natal Opening Realm. He had come to Armament Pavilion to look for a spirit artifact which was suitable for his techniques.
Pan Jueming didn’t even turn around, only slightly nodding, as he lightly said, “It seems you felt it too.”
“Mn.” Wu Chong slightly bowed, his eyes showing deep respect, as he said, “My perception isn’t as sharp as elder’s. I only felt the change after following elder downstairs…”
After pausing for a moment, he then asked, “Elder Pan, from your point of view… what is happening?”
“We will know once we see it,” casually answered Pan Jueming as he suddenly began to move forward. Wu Chong and the others who had descended all quickly followed.
“What happened? Why can’t I understand what they are talking about?”
“I don’t understand either. I have no clue what they could be talking about. However, since Elder Pan didn’t take his afternoon nap, it could already be considered extremely peculiar…”
“They seem like they are going to look at something. Something that can catch their attention must definitely be ridiculously interesting!”
“……”
The people on the first floor were all low level Refinement Realm practitioners with correspondingly low perception skills. Unclear on what had happened, they began to curiously converse amongst themselves.
After a while, upon seeing Pan Jueming, Wu Chong, and the rest gradually walking further and further away, they finally reacted.
They all began to shout in surprise as they also followed, regardless of their original reason for coming to Armament Pavilion. They too wanted to find out just what exactly had happened.
If there was someone floating in the sky above Commerce Street, they would have been able to clearly see the subtle changes in the flow of spirit energy and discover how the world’s spirit energy surrounding Li’s Shop was circulating in a strange manner, as if Li’s Shop was a whirlpool. Right now, it was constantly gathering the world’s spirit energy nearby, causing the spirit energy within the shop to become very dense.
They would also be able to see the scattered people on Commerce Street gather in the exact same manner…
Within Li’s Shop.
Qin Lie, the lady in white, the middle aged servant, and the shop owner, Li Mu all seemed to not know of what was going on outside as they remained silent, quietly feeling the changes of spirit energy within the shop…
The seventeen spirit tablets that had been scattered amongst the various corners, cabinets, and table continued emitting a faint white glow as they gathered the world’s spirit energy closeby, causing a faint milky mist to gradually appear within the shop — it was the clearest indicator that the density of the world’s spirit energy within the shop had reached a certain extent.
“It’s almost four times…”
The bewildered voice of the lady in white’s middle aged servant suddenly broke the silence within the shop. His slightly dusky eyes looked from tablet to tablet as his expression gradually became serious.
Li Mu, who had been constantly rocking in his chair, suddenly stopped as he said, “If there were more Spirit Gathering Boards, the amount of the world’s spirit energy which would be gathered… should be even more.”
“Spirit Gathering Board?” asked a stunned Qin Lie.
Li Mu slightly smiled as he nodded towards Qin Lie. Afterwards, he looked in the direction of the door and leisurely said, “It should have a pleasant, easy to remember name.”
Qin Lie followed his gaze and also looked at the door, suddenly discovering that a lot of people had all gathered outside this remote and empty shop since who knew when.
“Miss, these seventeen Spirit Gathering Boards can be used to build a cultivation room. With these seventeen Spirit Gathering Boards and our place’s denser nature spirit energy, if there aren’t any problems, the effects… will be extremely shocking!” quietly brought up the middle aged servant.
“Name your price,” said the lady in white towards Qin Lie. She added, “I want them all.”
“This old one is also interested.”
At this time, the voice of Pan Jueming emanated over. Shock appeared within the eyes of many who stood outside as the head of Armament Pavilion was the first person to stride into Li’s Shop.
……