Once he finished his noodles, Li Yuan went to bathe. The spring nights were still chilly, but his body was strong enough that he wore just a loose robe afterward. Under the lantern glow in the rear courtyard, he spread out a piece of leather and a map.
A red lantern swayed in the breeze, casting enough light to read by. He studied the leather map he’d taken from Ruan Ah-Fei, recalling what Senior Li had told him back in the black market.
Senior Li knew every shady dealing out there. The moment he saw the leather map, he recognized its origin. It was a so-called ghost market map, also known as a fence’s den map. It was traded among only the shadiest circles.
Compared to a black market, which still operated in towns or counties, the so-called ghost market was always out in the wild.
Items there were so illicit they couldn’t even be sold on a regular black market—bloodstained, stolen goods of every kind.
Sellers were often dangerous fugitives, hiding from bounties or embroiled in bizarre conflicts. They needed resources and money but couldn’t trade in the open, which was why they operated in the ghost market.
Even a ghost market needed someone in charge. Someone had to hold down the fort, much like Senior Li did at the black market. But these gatekeepers had to be fearsome enough to maintain order among ruthless criminals. Otherwise, one or two bloody brawls and the whole market would collapse.
To enter the ghost market, you needed a pass, and that pass was this map. The date marked on it showed when the market would be held. Of the seven red dots scattered across the map, only one was the real gathering spot. The rest were decoys. Even if someone else got hold of the map, they wouldn’t know which location was genuine.
When the market ended, participants would receive a new map—another ticket for the next gathering.
Now, with both the leather fragment and a rough regional chart Xue Ning had purchased from a merchant caravan, Li Yuan carefully studied each of the seven red dots, cross-referencing them one by one.
After studying the map for a while, Li Yuan realized it was pointless to try matching each of the seven red dots to locations on the rough chart. All seven sites lay deep in the mountains, where the map showed nothing but unmarked wilderness. And they were far apart. There was no practical way to check them one by one.
“Never mind,” he muttered, rolling up both maps. He didn’t regret killing Ruan Ah-Fei; even if he’d spared him, there was no guarantee the man would have revealed the genuine ghost market location. And without a foolproof way to test the truth, who could know if the information was real?
“I’ll see if another chance pops up later. If I can get the correct location someday, I’ll send someone to check it out and bring back the next ticket. If it doesn’t work out, I might try my luck at one of these points anyway.”
He carefully put the ghost market map away and opened Wilderness Demon Taming instead.
With his path to higher cultivation currently blocked, Li Yuan focused on broadening his skills. He had plenty of time, so he flipped through the manual, page by page, late into the night. The deeper he read, the more captivated he became.
The eighth rank portion of Wilderness Demon Taming seemed fairly straightforward.
But once fully mastered at seventh rank, it promised a peculiar mutual power boost between demonic beast and master.
Essentially, if Li Yuan forged a special link with a demonic beast and kept it nearby, both he and the demonic beast could enhance each other’s strength.
The manual didn’t fully explain the principle behind this; it appeared to be a spiritual connection rather than a physical one.
This was new territory for Li Yuan; he hadn’t encountered anything like a mind-soul link before. Still, having read a lot of novels in his past life, he knew abilities affecting one’s soul were not unheard of, just unfamiliar in this world.
He also saw why the Blood Blade Sect had never found a suitable demonic beast tamer. One needed a natural affinity with beasts, the kind that only emerged when a person’s taming skill reached the Master level. Under normal circumstances, without a dedicated lineage or training system, who would ever develop that level of expertise?
Engrossed in these thoughts, Li Yuan kept reading. By the time the moon was high in the sky, he finally closed the manual. Much as he’d have liked to continue, he knew staying up too late would slow his progress in the morning. Plus he was eager to earn more stat points.
He returned to his bedroom, where a single oil lamp burned low. Beneath the blankets, he could see the soft outline of someone already lying down. He could have used Scent Seeking to find out exactly who it was, but he decided not to spoil the fun. Smiling, he slipped off his clothes, blew out the lamp, and climbed under the covers.
The figure beneath them felt almost feverishly warm as it nestled against him, driving away the lingering cold and emptiness. Her small toes curled around his muscular calf, and he needed no further proof of who it was.
He whispered, "Yan Yu...”
She hushed him with two fingertips on his lips, her breath hot against his ear.
"Such a sweet man... Take care of me tonight. Don’t speak.”
In the former territory of the Wei Family, the conflict raged on. By day, it was tense; by night, it became a silent meat grinder, swallowing Blood Blade Sect disciples, hidden Wei loyalists, and Sun Family forces one after another.
Meanwhile, the Ginger Tavern had never been more secure. Li Yuan’s rise in skill, combined with the presence of Zhou Jia and Tang Qiu—not to mention Tie Sha’s favor—meant no one dared stir up trouble there anymore. With safety assured, the business was able to expand. The distillery grew, profits kept rolling in, and cash flow entered a healthy cycle.
Outside Silver Creek, more and more porridge stalls popped up. Countless refugees survived thanks to the free meals, and Li Yuan’s name spread far and wide. People outside the township praised him as compassionate or even started calling him a saint.
All the while, Li Yuan devoted himself to studying Wilderness Demon Taming. The skill was notoriously difficult, and it took him a full month of experiments with his blackrock mastiff Cinder before he finally reached the entry level. For him, though, the day he learned it was effectively the day he mastered it.
Yet again it was time to allocate some stat points!