As the saying goes, cultivation knows no years.
Seventeen years passed in the blink of an eye, until one afternoon, Zhang Ling's cave door rumbled open.
This cultivation retreat was indeed a long one!
Zhang Ling stood on a giant rock outside his cave, arms outstretched, breathing in the long-missed air. The distant sky was clear, offering a view of most of Azurewater City.
Although his cave was only located in the lower part of Sky Pillar Peak, it was still hundreds of feet above the ground.
This nearly twenty-year seclusion was the longest Zhang Ling had undertaken since he began cultivating.
For the first two or three years, he often visited the city's market, but for the remaining dozen years, he never left his cave. Now, his cultivation has reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage.
After standing on the giant rock for a while, Zhang Ling walked towards Azurewater City at the foot of Sky Pillar Peak.
The streets of Azurewater City were bustling with people, as lively as ever, with cultivators entering and leaving shops selling various resources.
On one street, Zhang Ling looked around, a sense of nostalgia in his heart. He now had only one thing to do: prepare for Core Formation.
Now was a critical period for his cultivation, and he couldn't afford to be distracted. He put everything else aside.
With this in mind, Zhang Ling walked towards a pavilion called Myriad Treasure Pavilion on the left side of the street.
However, after entering for a short while, Zhang Ling shook his head and came out. After pondering for a moment, he continued walking down another street.
This street was much wider, making it difficult for four or five carriages to travel side by side.
On both sides of the street, rows of shops of similar size lined the street.
These shops either had glittering signs or were adorned with flags of different styles. They bore various names such as Flowing Cloud Treasures, Chen's Magic Item Shop, Five Elements Cultivation Arts Hall, and so on.
Looking up, there was a tall stone archway with the words 'East Spirit Market' written on it.
This was the East City Market of Azurewater City, also the largest market in the city.
At this time, some cultivators were coming and going on the street, entering and exiting various shops. There were many cultivators on the entire street.
Zhang Ling walked into the street, but did not enter these shops. Instead, he went straight ahead along the street.
He was now looking for spiritual objects that could increase his chances of breaking through to the Golden Core stage. Ordinary shops probably wouldn't have them; only those large shops might have such spiritual objects.
Thinking this, Zhang Ling couldn't help but quicken his pace slightly. After walking for hundreds of feet, his eyes suddenly lit up, and a small bluestone square of several acres appeared.
The square was paved with giant bluestones of the same style and size. This was a circular square, and some of the bluestones on the ground showed faint spiritual light, extremely exquisite and gorgeous.
In the middle of the square, there was a rhombus-shaped giant black stone floating in mid-air, surrounded by glittering runes. Cultivators walked around this giant stone.
Zhang Ling glanced at the giant stone and stopped paying attention to it. This was an array eye of this market. There were many such things in the entire Azurewater City, and they were not rare.
Around the square were several tall buildings. Some of these buildings looked like ordinary houses, while others looked like pavilions or palaces.
"White Cloud Merchant Alliance, Heavenly Water Pavilion, Wang Treasure Building, Taoran Residence"
The names of these pavilions were also very famous. Most of the cultivators around the square were gone, but their cultivation was not weak. They were all Foundation Establishment cultivators, and five late-stage Foundation Establishment experts were also seen among them.
Most of these people covered their faces, looking cautious and careful. Zhang Ling was the same. He wore a gray robe and a bamboo hat.
Zhang Ling did not hesitate and walked towards a tall building on the left. This was a three-story pavilion with two white flags hanging, embroidered with a flower pattern. The plaque on the pavilion also read 'Orchid Grass Hall'.
Upon entering Orchid Grass Hall, the first thing you see is a hall, which is not small, about thirty feet long and wide.
Around it are rows of black wooden shelves, on which are placed strictly different jade bottles, with nearly a hundred pieces at a glance. There are also a few shelves with some spiritual herbs.
On both sides of the door, there are also several pill furnaces of different sizes. At a glance, these pill furnaces are mostly high-grade pill furnaces. Their value is several times more expensive than ordinary top-grade magic weapons, which shows the foundation of this shop.
In front of each shelf, there are several guys in gray short shirts. They are greeting seven or eight monks to choose and recommend elixirs and herbs.
As soon as Zhang Ling came in, a young guy saw his identity as a Foundation Establishment monk at a glance, smiled, and quickly walked over.
The young guy first gave Zhang Ling a deep salute, and then softly asked:
"This senior, what kind of elixir do you want? Our Orchid Grass Hall has several kinds of elixirs suitable for Foundation Establishment monks."
Hearing the guy's careful words, Zhang Ling smiled and said nothing, just nodded.
"Senior, please come this way." This guy was even happier and led Zhang Ling to the back of the right row of wooden shelves.
Zhang Ling followed behind, his eyes flashed with spiritual light, and he could see that this young man was also a cultivator, with the strength of the eighth level of Qi Refining.
After a while, the young man led Zhang Ling to a single room, and then patted the storage bag on his body, took out three bottles of elixirs and placed them on the table. \\"Senior, please see, this is Peiyuan Dan, Yinling Dan..."
Zhang Ling looked at the three bottles of elixirs that the young man took out. He did not check them, but suddenly asked; "There is no need to look at these. Do you have Cold Jade Pill and Fire Toad Liquid here?"
"Ah, Cold Jade Pill, Fire Toad Liquid. Senior is going to break through to the Golden Core stage." The young man was stunned when he heard Zhang Ling's words, and then exclaimed in surprise.
"Why, do you have to ask about my background when buying things here?"
"Ah, senior, please forgive me, I am rude." The young man's face changed, and he quickly bowed. Then he quickly said: "I don't know what spiritual objects senior needs. I will ask the manager."
Looking at the young man's nervous appearance, Zhang Ling waved his hand and said, "Go ahead."
"Senior, please wait a moment."
After the young man left, Zhang Ling was thinking about whether he could find spiritual objects to assist in Core Formation in these shops.
The Cold Jade Pill and Fire Toad Liquid he just mentioned are not the same as the several spiritual objects that assisted Core Formation that he heard when he was cultivating in Beiyuan, but this kind of thing is a common Golden Core spiritual object in Liuyun Sea.
Among them, the Cold Jade Pill is refined from the fourth-grade ice-cold attribute snow lotus flower. There is a place on Baiyun Peak on Tianmen Island where this spiritual medicine grows, but it is controlled by the official forces of Azurewater City, and ordinary monks cannot enter.
However, every once in a while, a few Cold Jade Pills will flow out. If you are lucky, you can also buy them in the Azurewater City market.
As for the Fire Toad Liquid, the hope of finding it in Azurewater City is even smaller.
