Tianyin City.

  A county town with a population of seventy to eighty thousand.

  The streets were bustling with people, filled with a tranquility and a lively, down-to-earth atmosphere that didn't exist in the cultivation world, making Wen Jiu feel a sense of reality.

  Mortal folk worked from sunrise to sunset.

  There were street vendors.

  There were hawkers calling out their wares.

  Children ran and played in the streets.

  There were also performers and acrobats showcasing their skills by the roadside.

  Before long, Wen Jiu followed the information recorded in the Three Fiends Corpse-Nurturing Method and arrived in the northern part of the city.

  The northern district was filled with gambling dens, brothels, and other illicit businesses. The moment Wen Jiu stepped in, he could feel eyes secretly watching him from the shadows.

  A quick sweep with his divine sense confirmed they were all ordinary mortals, so he couldn't be bothered to pay them any attention. Instead, he turned and stepped into a deserted alley.

  At first, the alley was utterly silent, but as he walked deeper, it gradually widened. Before long, Wen Jiu saw numerous practitioners of the demonic path coming and going.

  There were ghost cultivators, corpse refiners, and all manner of heretical cultivators. Many brushed past him, exuding an eerie and sinister aura far more intense than any demonic cultivators within sects.

  Compared to these, the so-called demonic cultivators in righteous sects were nothing more than surface-level pretenders.

  Before long, Wen Jiu encountered a middle-aged demonic cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining. Despite his low cultivation level, his body was thick with deathly energy.

  It was clear—

  He had killed a lot of people.

  The death aura clung to him, impossible to dispel.

  Wen Jiu stopped him immediately, his voice cold. "Fellow Daoist, how many spirit stones to lead me to the trading grounds?"

  The middle-aged cultivator sized Wen Jiu up warily and took two steps back. Though he made no overt movements, his gaze carried a distinct killing intent. However, when his divine sense swept over the black ghoul beside Wen Jiu, some of the wariness faded from his eyes.

  "Ten!"

  The middle-aged cultivator asked an outrageous price.

  Wen Jiu's expression darkened. He was displeased. "One."

  "Impossible! One is too little!"

  The middle-aged cultivator shook his head vigorously.

  Wen Jiu had no interest in wasting words. He wasn't going to add even a single grain of spirit sand to the offer. If he wanted to play the role of a true heretical cultivator, he couldn't be too easygoing. "Forget it, then… If you don't want it, someone else will."

  "Alright, alright! Deal!"

  Seeing that Wen Jiu was about to leave, the middle-aged cultivator rushed to stop him.

  Wen Jiu didn't hesitate. He pulled out a low-grade spirit stone and tossed it over.

  The middle-aged cultivator caught it with a sinister grin and led Wen Jiu deeper into the alley. Wen Jiu remained on high alert, constantly scanning his surroundings with his divine sense, ready to use Blood Corpse Evasion if anyone attempted an ambush.

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  Soon enough—

  They arrived at a pitch-black wall.

  "Go on in." The middle-aged cultivator took out a wooden token and stepped directly into the wall.

  Immediately, four words flashed through Wen Jiu's mind—Concealment Array.

  He took a step forward.

  The world before him shifted abruptly.

  Beyond the wall lay an underground marketplace.

  Everyone here was a heretical cultivator. The moment Wen Jiu stepped in, he saw numerous young women locked in cages like merchandise, waiting to be selected and bought. Some were mortals, while others were rogue cultivators.

  Wen Jiu only gave them a glance before looking away, further solidifying his understanding of demonic cultivators.

  "Here, take this Black Street Token. With it, you can come and go as you please in the future." The middle-aged cultivator tossed a black wooden token over.

  Wen Jiu caught it and scrutinized it with his divine sense. Confirming there was nothing wrong with it, he put it away.

  Once the middle-aged cultivator left, Wen Jiu continued walking through the underground market, soon noticing that there were many stalls selling people.

  Some were from cultivator families.

  There were even infants and newborn babies.

  "No wonder they have to hide."

  "If they weren't concealed within a mortal city, it wouldn't be long before the disciples of Dead Man Peak wiped them out."

  Wen Jiu withdrew his gaze.

  He had no interest in meddling.

  And even if he did, there was nothing he could do.

  He continued forward, passing numerous stalls selling rare herbs and treasures. The vendors were all eerie and abnormal—so much so that, even after spending so much time in the Land of Mangled Corpses, Wen Jiu still felt a chill under their scrutinizing gazes.

  After searching around, Wen Jiu spotted a stall displaying items that closely resembled Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water. The vendor was an old cultivator with a scarred face, reclining lazily while a tattered ghostly figure kneaded his shoulders.

  As Wen Jiu approached, the old cultivator squinted his cloudy eyes and spoke in a hoarse, gravelly voice, like sandpaper rubbing together.

  "Little friend, what do you need?"

  Wen Jiu examined the Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water, sensing their aura carefully before saying, "I want Blood Fiend Crystals and Heavenly Fiend Water."

  "Blood Fiend Crystals, twenty each. Heavenly Fiend Water... fifty per jug," the old man stated without hesitation.

  Wen Jiu turned and left immediately, not even bothering to say a word.

  The old cultivator chuckled, quickly sitting up and calling out, "Fellow Daoist, if it's not your first time here, you should've said so earlier! Blood Fiend Crystals, eleven each. Heavenly Fiend Water, twenty per jug. If you buy in bulk, I can offer a discount, but only for fifth-grade or higher."

  Hearing a more reasonable price at last, Wen Jiu turned back. "Ten Blood Fiend Crystals—will you sell them?"

  "Ten? No way... You know how dangerous the Blood Fiend Abyss has been lately. Blood Fiend Crystals aren't easy to get." The old cultivator shook his head.

  Wen Jiu glanced at the stall's stock—five Blood Fiend Crystals and six jugs of Heavenly Fiend Water. "I'll take all of them."

  "Fifty-five... one twenty... You can have them all for one seventy," the old cultivator offered.

  Wen Jiu carefully scanned the goods with his divine sense, confirming their authenticity before storing them in his pouch. He then handed over 170 low-grade spirit stones and asked, "What's been happening at the Blood Fiend Abyss lately?"

  "You haven't been there recently, huh? That's probably for the best—you'd just run into those bastards. The Bloodied Garment Tower's people have been stirring up trouble inside, making the demons and fiends unusually violent." The old cultivator grumbled in frustration.

  Wen Jiu didn't press further. Instead, he continued browsing the stall and purchased a few other rare materials, spending over eighty more low-grade spirit stones—all essential for crafting a corpse-nurturing coffin.

  Afterward, he wandered through the market a few more times. To his surprise, he managed to gather all the materials needed for the coffin.

  As expected, for left-hand path cultivation, it was always faster to buy from other left-hand path cultivators.

  It seemed he'd have to visit Tianyin City more often in the future.

  But just as he was about to leave, Wen Jiu noticed he was being followed again.

  Even after leaving Tianyin City, his pursuer still trailed behind.

  He considered using Blood Corpse Escape to shake them off, but suddenly, a divine sense transmission reached him—it was from Mu Canglong.

  "Kid, keep walking. Lure him out of the city!"

  Wen Jiu was momentarily stunned.

  Mu Canglong was here?

  Well, it made sense. If they were investigating the Bloodied Garment Tower, this black market was the best place to start.

  Others might not know about this trade hub, but as the descendant of the creator of Yinzou's corpse-nurturing techniques, how could he not?

  So Wen Jiu continued walking, leading the pursuer out of the city. About ten miles from the gates, the stalker finally made a move—it was none other than the scarred old cultivator.

  The moment he appeared, he unleashed his ghostly servants with a sinister grin, confident that he had Wen Jiu trapped.

  But just then, Mu Canglong and Liu Xiao burst out of the dense forest, riding their swords. More than a dozen talismans rained down instantly, obliterating the ghostly creatures and knocking the old cultivator unconscious in the blink of an eye.

  Everything happened in a flash.

  With the matter swiftly handled, Mu Canglong grabbed Wen Jiu and the unconscious old cultivator, flying another ten miles before stopping.

  "Brother Liu, Steward Mu!"

  As soon as they landed, Wen Jiu cupped his hands in greeting.

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