The morning sun cast a dazzling shimmer over the sprawling northern quarter of the Pill King Market. Compared to the eastern alley of forgotten scrolls and dusty alchemy books, the northern side felt like a battlefield of brilliance. Here, the treasures weren’t secrets etched on burnt parchment—but weapons forged to dominate realms.
Spearheads gleamed like comet tails. Swords whispered ancient names. Shields pulsed with spiritual energy. Every stall, every shop, every chamber here echoed with the clang of steel and the hum of bound spirits.
Lin Lin clapped her hands in excitement as the trio passed under a massive jade archway inscribed with three bold characters:
“Heavenly Weapon Store”
“I’ve been saving for this,” she grinned, tugging Yun Rou’s hand. “My sister Mei Lin broke her last staff fighting near the Duskwood Grove. She deserves a new one—something beautiful and strong.”
Kent walked beside them, his eyes scanning every row of weapon stands, each one filled with spirit-bound arms sealed in jade-glass displays. He remained silent, but a quiet anticipation brewed within his heart.
The three moved from store to store. Each stallkeeper bowed respectfully as they recognized Yun Rou—the Vice Leader of the Kullu Nation—and some even whispered when they saw Kent, the boy who had drawn the sentient pill the day before.
Inside a tall open hall brimming with artifacts, Kent stopped suddenly.
There, at the far end of a golden rack surrounded by a protection talisman, stood a bow.
A long, shadow-dark, graceful weapon.
Carved from phantom bloodwood, with intricate runes of lightning and mist swirling down its limbs. Its string shimmered with a silver hue, made not from thread but from condensed moonlight essence. At the bow’s center, the symbol of a fallen star was embedded—faint, yet pulsing like a heartbeat.
“That’s…” Kent took a step forward, unable to help himself.
“That’s the Moon-Sighing Tempest Bow,” the shopkeeper stepped forward, careful and respectful. “Spirit rank—near Divine Awakening. It once belonged to Elder Zhiyu of the Nightwind Pavilion. She… fell during the Skyfire Siege.”
Yun Rou narrowed her eyes. “How much?”
“Five hundred thousand mana pearls.”
Even Kent blinked at that.
Lin Lin’s eyes widened. “That’s a sect treasury cost!”
Kent didn’t speak. He simply stared at the bow. A calling stirred in his blood. But he knew he couldn’t afford it—not yet.
“Not strong enough to claim it. Not rich enough to buy it. Not yet,” Kent thought.
As they walked on, Lin Lin soon found what she came for—a magnificent nine-tailed fox spirit staff. Its body was crafted from pink-white crystalized spirit bone, with nine tiny tails etched in silver swirling around the upper head like a flower in bloom.
“This one,” Lin Lin said firmly. “It matches Mei Lin’s aura and her Nine Spirit Flow technique.”
“Excellent choice, lady,” the stallmaster said, delighted. “It’s blessed with a mid-tier spirit, quick to harmonize with the Nine Tail lineage. One hundred thousand mana pearls.”
Lin Lin handed the pouch without a second thought. Kent smiled faintly.
“You love your sister a lot,” he remarked.
“She’s the reason I ever learned to fight,” Lin Lin replied. “She protected me every day when we were kids.”
Kent’s fingers brushed the edges of a few other weapons, but none resonated. Not like the bow.
Still, he didn’t let the trip go in vain.
In a stall nestled behind the main square, he found what he needed: manuals.
He bought several thick scrolls on Weapon Crafting through Spirit Infusion, Soul Imprint Binding, Living Weapon Synthesis, and an advanced tome on Spirit Refining Methods of the Northern Clans.
“Planning to make your own weapon?” Yun Rou asked, seeing the stack of books he tucked into his storage ring.
“If I can’t afford the best, I’ll build it,” Kent said softly. “But not now. I need resources. Gold. Spirit ores. Soul crystals. And time.”
Yun Rou looked at him, her eyes filled with an odd sense of admiration. “Then how will you get all that?”
Kent turned to face her, the glint of ambition in his eyes burning like a quiet storm.
“Alchemy,” he answered. “I’ll brew pills the world hasn’t seen. Sell them to nobles, sects, and warlords. The world wants power—I’ll give it to them… for a price.”
He turned back toward the exit, but not before casting one last glance at the Moon-Sighing Tempest Bow.
The afternoon wind carried dust and tension across the center of the Pill King Market, where countless cultivators, pill masters, and noble heirs mingled like celestial stars awaiting their turn to shine. But that tranquil rhythm was soon shattered.
A disciple, bloodied at the lip and still panting, stumbled toward Yun Rou, who was walking alongside Kent and Lin Lin down a shaded corridor near the Jade Lotus Pavilion.
“Vice Leader Yun!” he cried, nearly collapsing to his knees. “Three of our outer disciples… they were—attacked… thrashed senselessly near the Stone Willow Garden. It was a lady from the Divine Fist Sect…!”
Yun Rou’s face darkened immediately. Lin Lin clenched her fists.
“How bad?” Kent asked, calm yet cold.
“Two of them… unconscious. Internal bleeding. The third… his jaw shattered. Elder physicians said it might take a month before they even wake properly.”
Yun Rou’s expression turned thunderous. “Lead the way.”
They arrived within minutes. At the open courtyard near Stone Willow Garden, a group of young cultivators were gathered around a tall, muscular woman clad in crimson battle robes. Her flowing ponytail swayed like a whip, and her arms—bare and bronzed—gleamed in the sun with hardened Qi lines etched into her very skin.
Three disciples lay groaning on the ground, broken and bruised.
A few of her subordinates laughed in low tones, applauding.
“That’s how our Sister Bai deals with disrespect.”
“A shoulder bump and you get broken bones? Hah, Divine Fist never kneels!”
Yun Rou stepped forward with sharp eyes.
“Are you the one responsible?” she demanded.
The woman—Bai Qi—turned her head lazily and glanced over.
“Yes, I am. They tried to shoulder-dash me,” she said nonchalantly. “So I responded.”
“You almost killed them over a bump?” Yun Rou’s voice trembled with disbelief. “You’re a lunatic! A ruthless demon in human skin!”
That struck something. Bai Qi’s lips curled into a dangerous smirk.
“Demon?” she whispered, stepping forward. Her fist rose like thunder made flesh. “Say that again, Vice Leader.”
Before her blow could fall, a blur flashed.
Bang!
A heavy gust exploded as Kent caught the incoming fist—palm to knuckle—with his own hand. The air cracked. Dust exploded beneath their feet.
Bai Qi staggered back, eyes wide.
“You stopped me…?” Her pupils contracted. “You’re a middle-earth wizard, but your body cultivation…”
“You’ve hurt enough people for the day,” Kent said, his voice low.
“Tch. You think you can—”
She lunged again, fast as lightning, with a cyclone roundhouse punch. Kent ducked, then sent a thunder-kick into her side.
Boom!
Bai Qi was flung across the courtyard, skidding across the stone tiles. Her subordinates screamed and charged.
Kent’s eyes glowed faintly.
“Don’t blame me,” he muttered. “You crossed the line.”
One after another, they fell.
A spinning elbow cracked a spear-wielder’s rib. A heel drop shattered a sword-user’s shoulder. Kent was swift, deadly, precise—his movements filled with refined rage and bone-honed instinct.
Yun Rou and Lin Lin watched with awe. This wasn’t just spell combat. This was martial dominance.
Bai Qi got up once more, blood at the corner of her mouth.
“You bastard,” she growled. “This humiliation—”
Kent didn’t speak.
He flicked his wrist, sending out threads of reinforced spiritual vine-rope. In a breath, Bai Qi and her lackeys were suspended upside down, tied to a thick tree trunk like sacks of rice hung for market punishment.
He wiped his hands as he turned.
“You attack the weak over an imagined insult? Then this humiliation is the least you deserve.”
Bai Qi shouted in rage, but no one dared release her. Onlookers began to gather. Some snickered. Others recorded the scene with spirit mirrors.
Yun Rou, still recovering from the near-hit, stepped beside Kent.
“Thank you,” she said, quietly. “If you weren’t there…”
Kent smiled faintly. “You’ve saved me before. I just returned the favor.”
A nearby elder from the Pill Market guards approached and gave Kent a subtle nod. “We’ll report this incident properly. Divine Fist Sect has no right to act this way here. She’ll face consequences.”
Kent only nodded. But his eyes lingered on Bai Qi’s furious, confused face.
She had never been overpowered before—especially not by someone who hadn’t even drawn a weapon.
“Middle-earth wizard? With that strength?” she thought, hanging upside down. “Who is this guy?”
But none answered.
The sun dipped lower, casting long shadows across the courtyard as murmurs spread like wildfire.
The boy who tamed a spirit pill had now tied up a demon of the Divine Fist.
The servants of Bai Qi brought them back to ground. Bai Qi was completely occupied with thoughts of Kent. She can’t imagine someone beating her against her own divine fist technique.
“I won’t leave you so easily.” She muttered with a murderous look.
“Madam, Please drink some water.” The servant handed a wooden glass.
She held the glass and shattered with her grip. “Prepare my armor.” She cried out angrily.