“Meow!” Mo Xiaozhao was immediately angry, he turned his head and gave Mo Tianliao’s hand a slap. He actually dared to rub his shizun’s fur, what a bad disciple!
“Ah–” Mo Tianliao took in a sharp breath and withdrew his hand from the cloak, it had started bleeding.
Not daring to provoke this Lord Kitty again, Mo Tianliao stretched out both of his hands and left the kitten to thump around inside. This cloak cost three pieces of mid-grade lingshi, and it could hide a cultivator’s faint spiritual energy from his body, as long as others did not use spiritual means to specifically detect someone, the cloak could successfully hide a cultivator.
He would first go to the eastmost square in Ruyi Town to look around, according to the shopkeeper, there was an auction house there.
In a cultivation town, other than there being normal stalls, there were usually also a few auction houses. Some rare materials, refined pills, and valuable refined weapons had no fixed price, hence they needed to be sold in auction houses, where the highest bidder would win.
Mo Tianliao walked to the entrance of the auction house built by the black boulders with a straw roof. Some attendants came up to greet him: “Dear patron, there is no auction held today, please wait for tomorrow.”
Auctions were definitely not held every day, and usually were held once every few days, as rare items were not easily obtained.
“Here to sell.” A low, gravelly voice came from under the black cloak, sounding like an old man.
The attendant was only a small cultivator at the Second Stage of Qi Refining. He guessed that there could be a master refiner or alchemist under the cloak, and did not dare to be neglectful, quickly bringing him inside.
“What are the treasures this patron wishes to sell, could you let me take a look?” There were appraisers inside that would judge if the items were worth auctioning, because there were always people in the world who were looking to scam others for a quick buck.
Mo Tianliao glanced at the appraiser, his cultivation was high, at the very least above Foundation Building. When he used his spiritual awareness to examine him, he realised that the appraiser was actually in the early stages of Golden Core Formation! On second thought, no matter how small the auction houses were, if there were no skilled appraisers to verify, they simply could not open for auctions.
Mo Tianliao took out a long wooden box from his storage bracelet. He silently used a single hand to lift the seal on the box and made a gesture of invitation towards the appraiser.
The appraiser’s pupils shrank, the box was actually made of water wood that had been submerged for thousands of years! How wasteful!
He slowly lifted the lid, the box was filled with wooden thorns. He picked up a piece, the thorn was about three inches long with a simple carving, only two carved rings at each end layered with black iron to prevent hands from slipping. However, it could not be said that the craftsmanship was sloppy as the layer of black iron was extremely thin, and the junction where iron and wood met could hardly be felt.
The appraiser held a smooth wooden thorn between his fingers, filled it with spiritual energy, twisted his hand and threw it. With a thudding sound, the thorn passed through the thick stone pillars and was firmly nailed to the wall. It could not be removed using any methods.
“This magical weapon is of high quality, comparable to a low-grade special weapon,” the appraiser took out all of the wooden thorns. Each thorn was actually the same length, and no noticeable differences could be observed. “A total of fifty-eight thorns, each can only be used once.”
On saying this, the appraiser felt that it was somewhat a pity. If this thorn was a special weapon that could be controlled by the soul, it could be sold to cultivators already at Golden Core Formation and above. So many wooden thorns could be used to kill, the price was sure to be at least ten times more than the current price.
Mo Tianliao naturally also knew this, however to refine a special weapon, he had to add Tongming stone. This type of material was extremely expensive, and he could not find any in the rear mountains. Additionally, water wood was not that precious of a material, and it was not very worth it to refine it into a special weapon.
“If you use the thorn to attack people, you can pluck them off and use them again.” Mo Tianliao raised his hand and took out nine wooden thorns, leaving behind forty-nine. Cultivators were very superstitious, to them, multiples of seven were regarded as auspicious, and would sell better.
The appraiser nodded, “This item is valued at fifty pieces of mid-grade lingshi, able to auction.” After that, he took out a wooden sign with the auction house logo, split it into two halves, putting one half into the wooden box, and handing the other half to Mo Tianliao. The words on the sign stated that the auction would start tomorrow at noon, and that the holder of the sign could directly enter the auction house, there was no need to pay the entrance fee. After the item was sold, the wooden sign could be used to exchange for the lingshi, with the auction house charging a ten percent commision charge.
“Wu…” The furball in his arms clutched onto Mo Tianliao’s sleeves, crawled up onto his neck, and took a bite. Mo Tianliao was shocked and cried out unknowingly.
“Does this patron have any concerns or enquiries?” The appraiser paused, thinking that he was dissatisfied with the price. The hood completely covered Mo Tianliao’s face, which could not be seen at all. He could only test the waters and say, “This is the first time this patron is visiting, a ten percent commision is already very cheap, if this patron visits often in future, the commision can be further negotiated.”
A ten percent charge was not low, but it was still reasonable. Mo Tianliao did not make any more small talk, he left the wooden box behind and left the auction house. Most auction houses were very credible, so there was no need to worry about them running away with the money.
Mo Tianliao retracted his hands into the cloak, he picked up the Lord Kitty on his neck and stuffed him into his robes. The kitten was immediately unhappy and continuously butted his head against the cloth. He was covered by a black cloak and could not see anything. He lifted his paws, hooked his claws into the cloak, and with a sharp pull, a small mouth and a pair of sparkling eyes were revealed.
Mo Tianliao was helpless and could only go along with him. He slowly strolled around Ruyi Town with the kitten.
Ruyi Town was a small city, but sparrows were small while having all five organs, and they sold almost everything.
Walking into a shop selling jade stones, they saw that there were various uncut jade stones, large and small, as well as some exquisitely made jewelry.
Mo Tianliao’s gaze stopped on a piece of azure cold jade, that piece was crystal clear and flawless. It seemed to be glowing slightly with a faint white mist, which was caused by its own chill.
“This is the finest cold jade. It stores spiritual grass of the water attribute that can protect spiritual energy from being damaged,” The shopkeeper enthusiastically introduced. “If it is made into jewelry, it can also be a great gift for your sweetheart.” While speaking, he took out a piece of cold jade carved into a hairpin. Although there was only a simple pattern of streaming clouds carved onto the hairpin, it was very beautiful.
Mo Tianliao looked at the sloppily made hairpin with dislike and lifted up that piece of azure uncarved jade, “Five pieces of mid-grade lingshi.”
“Definitely not!” The shopkeeper immediately waved his hand and indicated that this grade of fine cold jade could be refined into spiritual weapons. For such a large piece, it would cost at least ten pieces of mid-grade lingshi.
“The cold jade has markings, and an ice core can be formed from it, this jade is flawless, and can only be made into ornaments, five pieces of mid-grade lingshi is already very high.” Mo Tianyi bargained mercilessly.
“In this case, the cold jade is able to form an ice core, even ten pieces of high-grade lingshi is not enough to buy it.” The shopkeeper shifted his eyes, people who did not know about jades all thought that jades without markings were better, but cold jades were different. Cold jades with ice cracks within were more valuable, although they did not have a clear and pleasant appearance.
In the end, Mo Tianliao bought that piece of flawless cold jade with fifty-five pieces of low-grade lingshi.
Mo Tianliao went around to other shops and bought a set of carving knives and some cheap materials for refining weapons. When the time was nearing dusk, he found an inn to stay for the night.
The environment did not matter to cultivators. If Mo Tianliao is alone, it was also okay for him to randomly find a place to meditate. However, he had a kitten with him, and to prevent others from coveting it, it was safer to stay in an inn.
Entering the room, the kitten jumped onto the bed and padded around with his tail standing up straight.
Mo Tianliao took off his cloak and sat down on the bed. He took out the piece of cold jade to inspect it.
When the kitten saw this, he also came over and flopped down on his arm to look at the jade. However he saw it, it was just an ordinary piece of cold jade, what did this idiot buy it for? Suddenly, he recalled that the shopkeeper said, although this cold jade could not be refined into a spiritual weapon, if it was carved into jewelry, it would be very beautiful.
“Meow!” Mo Xiaozhao was immediately unhappy, and slapped the jade stone out of Mo Tianliao’s hand.
Mo Tianliao quickly flipped his hand and caught the jade stone that was flying to the ground. He stretched out a finger and tapped the white-furred head. “Don’t make trouble, I want to carve it into something nice.”
He then took out a set of knives he had just bought from his storage bracelet and started carving a design on the jade.
Sure enough, he wanted to carve it into a piece of jewelry! Damn it, who do you want to give it to? Is it a female disciple of Woqing Cove, or the little maidservant of Qingning Palace?
Mo Tianliao transferred his spiritual energy to the blade of the knife, one cut could immediately cut into the jade, cutting the jade was like cutting tofu, it was very easy. Mo Tianliao’s workmanship was very fast, he first cut a square, then cut a circle like he was cutting an apple, hollowing the jade, and then changed his knife for a smaller knife to continue carving.
The snow white kitten turned his back on Mo Tianliao and flicked his tail angrily, he wasn’t in the slightest bit willing to appreciate the exquisite craftsmanship that was like flowing water.
“Finished!” Barely fifteen minutes were up and Mo Tianliao had finished carving it, “Xiaozhao, look.”
The little furball back-faced him, Mo Tianliao was ignored.
A single finger poked the furball, Mo Tianliao was ignored.
Tugging the kitten’s tail, Mo Tianliao was still ignored.
Mo Tianliao lay flat down and shifted his face in front of the kitten: “Xiao Zhaozhao?”
A pair of light-colored glassy eyes slowly lifted up, the kitten was silent for a moment, then he opened his mouth, and bit Mo Tianliao’s face.
“Ow ow ow!” Mo Tianliao rubbed his bitten nose. Trying to gain favour, he placed the jade piece in his hands in front of the furball. “Great lord, don’t be angry, this servant pays respects to you with this.”
The kitten turned his head and looked at it. The jade piece was not a hairpin or a jade token that was ugly beyond compare as he had thought. It was a round and transparent small bowl., without any extra carvings. The bowl was very shallow, with a slightly raised center. With such a design, when eating, the bowl would not block his whiskers.
It was exactly the same as the cat bowl he used in Mo Palace!
“Make do with this first, when we return we’ll buy a nicer one.” Mo Tianliao petted the kitten apologetically.
Cats’ tongues could not eat food that was too hot, even for spiritual beasts, it was the same. The bowl made of cold jade could cool the food down without making it too cold, just the right temperature to eat. Previously in Mo Palace, Mo Tianliao dug out a fist-sized piece of ice core from a piece of cold jade that took ten thousand years to form, and used the core to make a cat bowl for Xiaozhao.
The white kitten looked at the small light blue bowl, then looked at Mo Tianliao who was gazing at him with a gentleness in his eyes. He slowly lifted his paws and pulled the small jade bowl in front of him. Humph, seeing that you heart is so filial, this teacher will grudgingly accept it.
would like to recap on all six grades of refined weapons again! from low-grade to high
兵器: normal weapons, used by mortals
法器: magical weapons, used by cultivators
宝器: special weapons, can be controlled using the cultivator’s soul/spirit
灵器: spiritual weapon, can be nourished/infused with spiritual energy, can be used to kill others with higher cultivation
仙器: immortal weapons, supposedly able to be used to fight a hundred enemies and not lose
神器: divine weapon, able to destroy the entire world, never seen before until mo tianliao made one