Jian Xiner smiled and said: "Does Wu Gen Ge think it's strange that there are ordinary people's shops here?"

  She nodded at Zhao and continued, "There's nothing strange about it. As cultivators, we're also human and need to eat and wear clothes. According to the sect rules, outer disciples can only go out once a year and for no more than a month. So, these things to eat and wear have to be bought somewhere, right? There's a small restaurant here that serves delicious food, Five Roots Brother, do you want to try it later?"

  Zhao Di hastily shook his head and said "no need", he took the Bu Gu Dan, no need to eat human food, besides, cultivators value a clear mind and few desires, he didn't want to hinder his cultivation for the sake of his appetite.

  Jian Xiner knew that Wu Genge's determination was firm, and she didn't try to persuade him otherwise. However, when they arrived at a shop selling cosmetics and fragrances, she finally couldn't walk anymore and said: "Wu Genge, I have some women's things to buy, it might take a lot of time, you go around by yourself. Let's meet at the Ling Tea House at the end of the street in two hours."

  Zhao couldn't find what he was looking for and bid farewell to Jian Xian'er before immediately leaving the entrance of the store filled with the scent of cosmetics.

  He noticed that even within the Taixu Sect's internal trading fair, where all participants were fellow disciples, there were still many people wearing various cloaks and veils, apparently not wanting to be recognized by others.

  This means that even in such a sect's internal transaction, he can't use too many spirit stones. If someone notices him, it won't be good. Although the sect strictly forbids fellow disciples from killing each other and punishes such things severely, if he disappears without a trace, no one will likely stand up for justice on his behalf. It's just that by then, except for Jian Xiang'er, others might quickly forget about Zhao Di.

  After a moment's thought, Zhao Di turned into a secluded corner, took out the black cloak from his storage bag, put it on his head, and swaggered into a second-hand bookstore called "Fu Yu Zhai".

  As for his attire, it was all in the uniform style of Tai Xuan Men, everyone was exactly the same, which ironically made for the best disguise.

  As soon as Zhao entered the Fu You Zhai, he felt the grandeur of this bookstore. The spacious hall that could accommodate one hundred and eighty people without feeling crowded, seven or eight shop assistants in uniform attire, a row of counters over ten feet long, and behind them, bookshelves two to three meters high filled with various jade slips, all showed the magnificence of this bookstore.

  As soon as Zhao Diji entered the door, a young shop assistant in his early twenties came up to greet him, bowing and asking: "Sir, are you here to buy books? Which type of classics would you like to take a look at?"

  "Zhao replied in a low voice: 'Wang wants to buy a book that introduces the method of refining equipment, preferably from shallow to deep, the more detailed the better.'"

  The fellow said: "It turns out to be Wang Daoyou, please wait for a moment, I'll go get a few alchemy books and let you take a look." He led Zhao Di to a counter, after Zhao Di sat down, he started searching through several large bookshelves.

  In just a moment, this handy fellow brought Zhao Di seven or eight jade slips of various colors and another slender female servant presented Zhao Di with a cup of fragrant spiritual tea.

  Zhao Di did not go to taste the spiritual tea, but instead picked up one of the jade slips and placed it on his forehead, slowly pouring his divine consciousness into it. After a moment, he put down the jade slip and picked up another one, continuing to repeat the action.

  After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Zhao Di had roughly flipped through all seven or eight jade slips. Then he picked out two of them and said to his partner who was waiting quietly by the side: "I want to make a copy of these two jade slips, how many spirit stones will I need?"

  "These two classics require a total of one hundred and seventy spirit stones." The shopkeeper replied lightly.

  "It's so expensive!" Zhao was startled. Although the content of this jade slip was very useful to him, he didn't expect it would cost so many spirit stones.

  "Don't be surprised, fellow Taoist," the shopkeeper hastily explained, seeing Zhao's face reveal a look of displeasure. "You should know that these refining techniques and detailed contents have always been kept secret by each refining master and are not passed on to outsiders. Our store also spent a lot of money to collect these classics from all over the place. Although these two classics only record some primary and intermediate refining techniques, they are extremely detailed and meticulous. If you want to learn refining, fellow Taoist, they are indeed indispensable."

  "Make it a bit cheaper, I'm buying two at once!" Zhao Di said impatiently.

  "This... Alright, I can give you a price of one hundred and sixty-five spirit stones for the Dao friend. If it's any less, this humble one won't be able to make the decision." The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment before speaking resolutely.

  Zhao nodded and took out two mid-grade spirit stones, one red and one yellow.

  That fellow took the Ling stone, and very skillfully took out two blank jade slips. He put Zhao Di's selected jade slips together with the blank ones, and after a strange incantation was cast, the contents of the jade slips were copied. He handed over the copied jade slips along with dozens of low-grade Ling stones to Zhao Di.

  After Zhao took over the jade slip, he used his divine sense to detect it again. After confirming that there was no mistake, his palm lightly waved a few times, and a white mist flashed by, putting these things into his storage bag.

  Zhao Di had originally wanted to browse other books in the store, but having already spent such a large amount of spiritual stones, he didn't dare show off his wealth again and left the You Yu Zhai.

  Zhao Di planned to go directly to several shops that sold elixirs and see if there were any suitable spiritual elixirs or wonderful medicines for himself.

  But just a few steps out of the door, he was drawn in by words being passed among a group of onlooking monks.

  "This is a mid-grade spiritual artifact! If you just inlay a mid-tier ice-attribute spirit stone, it can exert its full effect, regardless of whether the user has an ice-attribute heterodox spiritual root or not."

  "Nonsense, where would I get a mid-grade Ice Spirit Stone? You know that Ice Spirit Stones, Wind Spirit Stones and Thunder Spirit Stones, these rare variant attribute spirit stones, are priced at twenty to thirty times that of ordinary five-element spirit stones! If I could afford a mid-grade Ice Spirit Stone, why would I buy this broken shield from you? It's enough to directly exchange for the best top-quality artifact!"

  "You don't know the value of things! You're just a Qi Refining stage cultivator, can you even use an extreme-grade artifact? Can you bring out its full power? Spirit artifacts are so rare, they're precious because they're scarce, get it?"

  "Pfft! The Spirit Tool uses its own spiritual energy, so it can be used however you want! This spirit device consumes the spiritual energy of a spirit stone. A mid-grade ice spirit stone is that expensive, and using it a few times will deplete its energy, and then you'll need to replace it! You say that spirit devices are rare, but that's because they're basically useless! Your broken shield, even if equipped with a mid-grade ice spirit stone, is only equivalent to the defensive ability of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. But using it once is equivalent to spending hundreds of spirit stones. Who would use your broken shield?"

  "Yes, cultivators in the Qi Refining stage don't need to use it at all. Even if those in the Foundation Building stage use it, their actual strength won't increase much, it's simply a waste of spirit stones."

  "You may not want it, but that doesn't mean others won't! The Eight Hundred Spirit Stone is non-negotiable. If you don't want to buy it, then just leave, don't interfere with my business!"

  "Still 800 spirit stones, cheating idiots! You can even buy a very good high-quality magic tool or an almost top-quality one!"

  "Who's cursing! If you don't buy it, you're crazy for being poor!"

  Zhao Di only heard the four words "Medium-grade Spirit Tool" and was immediately attracted, becoming one of the onlookers.

  "This is a special magical tool that can exert the same power as a foundation-building cultivator! He immediately thought of some records about spiritual tools mentioned in an ancient book."

  Strictly speaking, a spirit tool is also a type of magic tool. Unlike ordinary magic tools, a spirit tool does not rely on absorbing the user's spiritual energy to exert its power. On the contrary, when manipulating a spirit tool, the user only needs to inject a small amount of spiritual energy to control and guide it. The main source of spiritual energy for a spirit tool is the spirit stone embedded within it.

  This is a very ancient way of refining instruments that has been passed down from the ancient times, and now due to various reasons, it rarely appears and almost only exists in classical books.

  All spiritual instruments have inlaid spiritual stone grooves, which can extract the spiritual power contained in the spiritual stones and exert the corresponding might of the spiritual instrument. At the same time, every time a spiritual instrument is used, some spiritual power will be consumed from the inlaid spiritual stone. When the spiritual power in the spiritual stone is completely consumed, new spiritual stones must be replaced to continue using it.

  But Lingjue is not something that can be used with any kind of spirit stone. According to the properties of the original materials used when refining the Lingjue, it can only use spirit stones with matching spiritual power attributes.

  These two people who were scolding each other mentioned the Ice Spirit Stone again and again, it seems that this spirit tool was forged from ice attribute materials, only with the Ice Spirit Stone can its power be activated, inlaying other attribute spirit stones has no effect.

  (Second update! Seeking collection and recommendation, striving for four updates today!)