30: Chapter 30 A beautiful young woman of sixteen, her body as soft as butter, hides a knife at her waist to slay a foolish husband.

Study Room Wood, a Grade 2 spiritual item.

Heaven and Earth, Mysterious and Yellow; the wood naturally forms spirit.

Taken from Grade 2 spirit wood, nurtured by dense Spiritual Qi for a hundred years.

It can be used to build a Spirit Study Room to store Cultivation Technique Secret Manuals.

Meditating on a Cultivation Technique within the Spirit Study Room allows one to immerse their mind, achieving twice the result with half the effort.

Jiang Xuan raised his eyebrows.

spirit garden soil and Study Room Wood—these two items are generally only used by Cultivation Families or Sects.

Loose Cultivators wouldn't even dare to dream of them.

A small grocery store run by a Mortal is actually displaying such goods?

He turned his head to look at Shopkeeper Ye Zide: "Shopkeeper Ye, where did you get these two items?"

Shopkeeper Ye Zide smiled and explained: "Immortal, you may not know, but this Junior has a cooperative relationship with Immortal Ou Huang of the Myriad Treasures Pavilion in the east of the city."

"These two items were placed here by the elder for me to sell on consignment, and this Junior just earns a small fee for the hard work."

Jiang Xuan nodded in understanding.

The Myriad Treasures Pavilion in the east of the city is a long-established shop in Tingfeng Town.

It has been open for at least several hundred years, and its reputation in the town's Cultivator circles has always been good.

The prices are fair, the quality is guaranteed, and for many Loose Cultivators, it is their first choice.

Ou Huang placing the goods in a Mortal grocery store for consignment is most likely because he felt these two items had been in his own shop for too long without selling, so he is expanding channels to try his luck.

"What is the price?" Jiang Xuan asked casually.

"Five hundred Spirit Stones for the spirit garden soil, and five hundred and fifty for the Study Room Wood." Shopkeeper Ye Zide held up five fingers.

Jiang Xuan calculated in his mind; the unlock condition for the Spirit Garden in the System is Qi Refining Stage 5. He is currently at Qi Refining Stage 4, still one minor Realm short.

Stockpiling the Materials in advance is not a bad thing; once his cultivation reaches that level, he can start construction immediately.

However, five hundred Spirit Stones is not a small sum.

He did not make a decision on the spot, but simply noted the price, chatted with Shopkeeper Ye Zide for a few more sentences, and then took his leave.

After leaving the grocery store, Jiang Xuan continued walking east along the street.

The sun had already risen to mid-air, and the flow of people on the street was denser than in the early morning.

As he walked, he looked around, calculating which other shops were worth visiting.

When turning a street corner, a strong scent of powder and perfume suddenly flooded his nostrils.

It was cloyingly sweet, wrapped in an indescribable, ambiguous aura.

Jiang Xuan looked up.

At the street corner stood a three-story wooden building, rising a head taller than the surrounding structures.

With upturned eaves and carved beams, the exterior of the building was hung with colorful thin gauze curtains, fluttering in the wind.

Two large red lanterns at the entrance were lit even during the day, and three gilded characters were on the plaque.

Yifeng Pavilion.

The sounds of stringed instruments and laughter drifted vaguely from inside the door, mixing together in an indescribable liveliness.

Two men walked out from inside.

One was a Cultivator, his robes neat but his face showing a satisfied weariness.

The other was dressed as a Mortal, walking a bit unsteadily with a look of endless aftertaste.

Beside them followed a woman each, dressed in revealing clothing, holding their arms as they walked them to the door, whispering tenderly, "Come back next time."

Jiang Xuan stood at the door for a while, taking a few extra looks.

In the days he had been doing business in the town, he had naturally heard of the origins of Yifeng Pavilion.

It was said that the backer behind it was the Town Lord of Tingfeng Town himself, a business that made a fortune daily.

It was a place where many Cultivators and Mortal men in town lingered and forgot to return home.

The women inside had various backgrounds. Some were from poor Mortal families, forced to walk the path of selling smiles.

Some were sold in by their families, growing up in the pavilion since childhood.

Even more were... female Cultivators whose cultivation had been sealed and resistance capabilities erased by enemies, thrown into such a place to be humiliated.

They couldn't keep a single Spirit Stone they earned; it was all completely divided up by the managers of the pavilion and the enemies behind them.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xuan shook his head gently; such things were not rare in the Immortal Realm.

Just as he was about to step away, a figure had already come up to greet him from inside.

"Immortal!"

The voice was sweet and soft, carrying a habitual coquettishness, and one could smell the jasmine powder on her from several steps away.

The person who came was a young woman wearing a long, light blue gauze dress.

Her face was sweet, her almond eyes smiling, her waist so slender it could be grasped in one hand, and as she walked, her skirt swayed lightly, her grace quite charming.

She walked quickly to Jiang Xuan, looked up at him, her gaze circling his face, and there was a clear spark of brightness in the depths of her eyes.

"This servant saw that Immortal has been standing at the door for quite a while; could it be that you want to come in and sit for a bit?"

Her voice was as soft as if dipped in honey water, her pair of almond eyes curved, and the smile overflowed from the corners of her eyes to the corners of her mouth.

If it were half a month ago, he might have considered it, but now he only wanted to protect his kidneys well.

Jiang Xuan shook his head: "No, just looking around."

The woman was not discouraged; instead, she leaned forward half a step, turning her body, and the light blue gauze swayed around her waist with the movement.

"Immortal, is it that you think this servant is not pretty?"

When she said this, she tilted her head slightly, her tone carrying a hint of perfectly appropriate grievance and coquettishness.

It was as if she were a little hurt after being rejected.

Jiang Xuan looked at her carefully for a moment.

She was indeed quite pretty, with delicate features, fair skin, and a good figure.

In the Mortal world, this appearance would definitely be at the level of toppling cities.

But compared to Su Yue's cold and heroic aura, Ye Baiyuan's youthful brightness, and Jiu Xi's cute and naive charm...

This woman had an extra layer of smoothness and sophistication polished in the world of romance and pleasure.

Her smile was beautiful, but it faded by the time it reached the depths of her eyes, carrying a sense of familiarity practiced thousands of times.

Jiang Xuan nodded with a smile: "Pretty."

Upon hearing this, the woman's eyes brightened instantly.

She gently lifted a corner of her light blue gauze skirt, revealing a section of snow-white, delicate calf, with a thin red string tied around her ankle.

She turned slightly to the side, her tone becoming even more coquettish: "Then, does Immortal want to see... something even prettier?"

Jiang Xuan stepped back half a step and shook his head with a smile:

"A fair maiden of sixteen, body soft as cream, hides a blade beneath her waist to slay the foolish man."

The woman's smile froze on her face.

She was stunned for a moment, the coquettishness in her almond eyes vanishing instantly as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her head.

Then, she turned around expressionlessly, her light blue gauze skirt swinging in a crisp, clean arc, and she walked away without looking back.

She didn't even leave behind a "Take care."

Jiang Xuan shrugged, unbothered, and turned to walk away from the front of Yifeng Pavilion.

After walking a dozen steps, he turned back to look at the colorful three-story wooden building one more time.

The gauze curtains fluttered in the wind, and the red lanterns looked somewhat inappropriately glaring in the daylight.

A burst of women's laughter drifted vaguely from inside the building, indistinguishable whether it was genuine or forced.

Jiang Xuan withdrew his gaze and continued walking along the street.

The sun had already passed its zenith; he estimated that the time was about right, having visited the places he should have and distributed the name cards he needed to.

So he changed direction and walked back toward his own shop.

At the entrance of Yunyou Shop.

Jiang Xuan stepped over the threshold and immediately saw Su Yue behind the counter, sitting cross-legged in a rattan chair, eyes closed and regulating her breathing.

Her face was cold and aloof, her brows relaxed, and her whole person was upright, like a white jade statue guarding the shop.

Sensing someone entering, Su Yue opened her eyes, her phoenix eyes swept over him, and then she closed them again.

On the counter were neatly arranged several Spirit Stone bags and a stack of paper filled with small characters.

At the same time, the System's notification sounds rang in his ears one after another, finally stopping at a number.

[Progress: 68.5%]

Jiang Xuan smiled slightly.

Before he went out, it was 51.1%; in just one morning, it had increased by 17.4%.

Su Yue's ability to watch the shop was even more reliable than he had imagined.

He walked to the counter and picked up the stack of paper to flip through it.

The handwriting was neat and sharp, with every stroke written clearly.