After bowing respectfully and leaving, Qin Zhaoming suddenly felt a gaze and turned around, meeting Fang Yi's eyes.
As if they had coordinated it, they both smiled the same way and parted.
'...I can't tell.'
He wasn't sure whether Fang Yi had sold him out or not.
Qin Zhaoming sighed and shook his head.
In any case, it was true that Fang Yi had helped him, so he decided not to seek revenge unnecessarily.
'Let's forget about it for now.'
If he had a grudge, he could repay it to the gatekeeper who had tried to force the slave contract.
He was about to go straight home to cultivate when he paused.
'Should I take a look at the market in the inner city?'
Was it because his pockets suddenly felt heavier? He became curious about the market in the inner city, which he hadn't dared to visit before.
He walked along the well-maintained main road toward the commercial district.
As he appreciated the scenery while strolling, he marveled.
'It's clean?'
Unlike the dirty and shabby outer city, the inner city was orderly and clean.
Even the ground wasn't soil but solid blue stone. It was smooth like asphalt, seeming like it wouldn't shake even if a carriage ran on it.
Suddenly, a feeling of profound emotion welled up.
'The day I'll live here is not far off.'
He was different from the past. With spirit stones, he was confident in all his actions.
Jingle!
Without realizing it, he felt the pouch inside his chest.
He felt proud as he touched the 2 spirit stones he had obtained from selling dew. How much effort he had put in to get these spirit stones when he was an ordinary person...
In the past.
The memory of three years ago when he had come to Zeyang City recklessly, wanting to become an immortal, flashed in his mind.
'It took about half a year just to solve basic necessities and obtain the Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique.'
Looking back now, he had been lucky in many ways.
After awakening his past life, it was fortunate that the immortals' village he had reached by risking his life recklessly was Zeyang City.
This was because the most common cultivation technique here was the Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique.
To exaggerate, about half of the books lying around in the garbage dump were about the Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique.
If that hadn't been the case, he wouldn't have dared approach a cultivation technique as an ordinary person.
Of course!
Just because it was common didn't mean it was a poor technique. Rather, it was far superior to most cultivation techniques.
'They say it's a basic technique disseminated by the unparalleled powerhouse, the Star-breaking True Lord.'
Twenty thousand years ago.
The first immortal descended, breaking through the curtain of the sky.
He called himself the Star-breaking True Lord and bestowed numerous teachings as if guiding an undeveloped civilization.
One of them was the 'Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique,' which became a beacon of hope for countless mountain gatherers.
The Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique was easy for anyone to learn.
Water, Wood, Metal, Fire, Earth. As long as one had just one of the five attribute spirit roots, they could enter the path.
It also had another unique advantage: its strong compatibility.
The spirit qi accumulated through the Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique did not reject other energies.
Like a pure five elements technique, it was balanced and peaceful. It had the characteristic of embracing all things without leaning to one side.
This meant that transitioning to advanced cultivation techniques later was free and easy.
'No wonder it's regarded as the scripture of mountain gatherers.'
If there was one drawback, it was that the speed of accumulating spirit qi was extremely slow, as it embraced everything.
Therefore, most mountain gatherers entered cultivation with the Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique and then found suitable techniques to forge their own paths when they had the means.
Qin Zhaoming was the same.
He planned to find a proper advanced cultivation technique someday and make it his primary technique.
Just as he was touring the market while imagining the future...
"Huh?"
In the darkening streets as the sun set, a particularly alien light caught his eye.
There was a spot where people were especially concentrated on one side of the street, and despite it being night, it was as bright as day.
'What is it?'
He was puzzled because there were no street lamps in Zeyang City.
'It's not like they're needed anyway.'
All cultivators were superhumans.
Using spirit qi, it was possible to see as clearly as day even in pitch darkness. It was rare to use light-emitting objects.
The moment he approached the light out of curiosity...
Qin Zhaoming's mouth fell open.
"A light bulb...?"
He unconsciously muttered in a daze. It was unavoidable due to the familiar object displayed on the stall.
He stared as if entranced at the self-luminous object.
The symbol of modern electrical civilization.
A filament light bulb.
He could see a glowing object inside a transparent, round glass ball. Along with the brilliant beam of light pushing away the darkness, memories of his past life surfaced.
Faced with a trace of his homeland after three years.
He couldn't come to his senses at all. He stood still, unable to move like someone possessed by a ghost.
'...No, it's a bit different.'
After a long while, Qin Zhaoming, who had calmed his racing heart, sighed.
When he regained his senses and looked again, it was different.
The light-emitting object inside the glass ball wasn't a filament. It was a stone with strange characters engraved on it.
Though disappointed briefly, his curiosity grew even more.
The stall selling light bulb-like objects was different from others.
'Potions and... golems?'
Besides the light bulbs, there were many other unusual items.
Glass bottles filled with red liquid reminded him of healing potions from games, and clay figurines reminded him of golems.
It felt like the genre itself had changed from what he usually saw.
'An alchemist? Wasn't this a world of immortals? What this person is selling feels somewhat different?'
All sorts of questions poured in along with the shock.
Indeed.
Qin Zhaoming wasn't the only one who found this stall peculiar. Numerous spectators, attracted by the light, buzzed with conversation.
At that moment, someone couldn't contain their curiosity and shouted:
"Hey, proprietor. What exactly is this glowing sphere?"
A young man, whose youthful features hadn't completely disappeared, flinched.
He couldn't lift his head as if intimidated by the sudden attention. Like a timid person, he barely explained with a trembling voice:
"W-well... this glowing sphere is a luminous orb that I created directly through enchantment."
"Enchantment? What's that?"
"Sounds familiar somehow."
The puzzled spectators murmured.
After some time passed...
A middle-aged man who appeared to be in his fifties stepped forward.
"Are you perhaps a mage, which is said to have gone extinct in ancient times?"
"...No! Of course not. I just happened to learn it by looking at an old book."
"Well, even if it were magic, it's just an inferior technology that was conquered and perished under our cultivation civilization."
"Hahaha! That's right. Who would learn such useless things unless they were a fool?"
The young man's face momentarily hardened at people's mockery, but he soon laughed along.
As if the tension had eased, he spoke confidently without trembling:
"Ahem! Anyway! This luminous orb doesn't consume any spirit qi. As long as it's not broken, it works semi-permanently."
"Oh?"
"Just place it under the sun, and it absorbs light on its own. After charging for about half a day, it can shine brightly for a week."
Some spectators' eyes showed a coveting emotion.
"It's interesting that it doesn't consume spirit qi, but what's it for?"
"That depends on how you use it. With a luminous orb, you can see clearly even in dark places! It would be convenient when gathering herbs at dawn!"
"Pfft! Have you ever climbed Mount Zeyang?"
"What...?"
"If you go to the mountain with such an orb, you'll just be spotted by demon beasts and eaten! In a place where even torches can't be used comfortably, you want us to use something so conspicuous?"
People watching the young man, who couldn't answer properly, smirked.
They chuckled and left as if they had seen something amusing.
Most left, but some remained. They asked with interested expressions:
"It could be useful for growing spirit herbs that like sunlight. So, how much is it?"
The young man, who had been looking dejected, hastily exclaimed:
"10 spirit stones!"
"...10 spirit stones, not fragments?"
"T-ten is almost the cost price! After subtracting material costs, there's hardly any profit!"
Even the spectators who had stayed and shown interest exclaimed.
"Ugh! That's too expensive!"
"Tsk tsk. You have no business sense at all. Selling such a toy for 10 spirit stones. With those spirit stones, one could learn the authentic Spirit Eye Technique from the Scripture Pavilion and see as clearly as day even at night."
"That's exactly right."
They all shook their heads.
After observing that much, Qin Zhaoming quietly left.
Unlike others, he didn't mock the alchemist youth. He had no intention to. Rather, he felt grateful.
'Immortals aren't everything.'
At this moment, Qin Zhaoming felt an intense thirst for knowledge.
He realized that his vision had been narrow and his understanding of the world extremely low.
He wanted to venture into the vast, endless world beyond Zeyang City.
"...Someday, definitely."
He preciously stored the impulse that shook his heart in a corner of his mind and slowly looked up at the sky.
He gazed at the night sky, which had completely darkened after sunset.
"There. I will ascend to the sky and look at the wide world."
Under countless stars that seemed about to pour down at any moment, he swore to those that filled his vision.
※※※
Before he knew it, half a year had passed.
Qin Zhaoming's life went on regularly.
Every two weeks, he climbed Mount Zeyang to earn spirit stones, and he poured all his remaining time into cultivation.
He never skipped a single day of cultivation.
This was because he had resolved to become a powerful figure to see a wider world.
He was also careful when selling dew. He disguised himself as much as possible and didn't just visit the Spirit Elixir Pavilion.
Even at the cost of losing money, he sold dew to various shops.
This was because he worried about becoming a target of greed if he sold too much dew to one place.
And then, when he had accumulated 20 spirit stones...
Qin Zhaoming immediately purchased an elixir for cultivation.
It was a spirit elixir called a Qi Condensation Pill, which greatly aided the cultivation of Qi Refinement practitioners.
Of course, this elixir wasn't purchased from the Spirit Elixir Pavilion. He had no intention whatsoever of eating an elixir given by the suspicious Fang Yi.
He purchased it from the Thousand Treasures Tower, the largest shop in Zeyang City.
"Let's begin."
Qin Zhaoming, who had sat cross-legged, swallowed the Qi Condensation Pill without hesitation. He closed his eyes and operated the Five Elements Qi Refinement Technique.
All preparations were complete. Now it was time to advance to Qi Refinement level 2.