The Outer Disciple Market was not a place of trade—it was an open scar on the western flank of Bone Mountain.
There were no jade pavilions or mystical light formations to keep the insects away, as in the Inner Sect's markets. Here, reality was raw and brown. Rows of filthy blankets sprawled across trampled mud, forming a chaotic maze of patched tents dripping with rainwater and desperation. The air was a thick stew of cheap incense burned to mask the stench of nearby latrines, the sweat of a thousand unwashed bodies, and the sickly-sweet rot of poorly cured medicinal herbs.
In this place, the official currency—the Spirit Stone—was scarce. Here, trade was conducted with older, more dangerous currencies: favors, secrets, flesh, and promises no one intended to keep.
Xie Luan moved through the stalls with the elegance of a specter wandering a graveyard.
He was wrapped in a gray hooded robe stolen from Wang's corpse before Li had dragged it to the ravine. The oversized fabric concealed his skeletal thinness and cast his pale face in shadow. Li followed close behind, clinging to Xie Luan's shadow like a second skin, clutching Mo Zha's small pouch of coins to his chest with white-knuckled hands.
"Master…" Li whispered, his voice barely audible over the roar of haggling and shouted deals. "I asked around at the entrance stalls. The prices are inflated. A single stalk of Tiger Bone Grass costs ten stones. We only have the thirty the Elder gave us. It's not enough for real poisons. We should go back and—"
"Money is a resource for people without imagination, Li," Xie Luan replied without slowing or turning his head.
His black eyes, hidden beneath the hood's edge, scanned the goods with the precision of a gem appraiser standing in a landfill.
He saw rusted swords sold as 'Ancient Artifacts of the War Era', their blades unable to cut bread. He saw medicinal pills made of ninety percent clay and ten percent burnt weeds, marketed as Blood Condensation Pills. He saw paper talismans painted with squid ink that promised protection from demons—but wouldn't even stop the rain.
Garbage, Xie Luan thought, a cold contempt settling in his gut.Ignorance sold to desperation. In a market of the blind, the one who sees is king—and I am the only one with open eyes.
"We're not buying what they want to sell," Xie Luan said."We're taking what they can't afford to lose."
He stopped at the darkest, dampest corner of the market, far from the main lanes, where the ground was more sludge than soil and the fading sunlight barely reached.
There, seated on a broken stool, a young disciple with yellowed skin and deep eye circles watched over a bamboo cage. Inside it, three Iron-Scale Vipers lay coiled sluggishly, their scales dull with a metallic sheen. They were low-rank spirit beasts common to swamps, but their venom was infamous for turning blood into jelly.
The vendor clutched his right arm tightly to his body. His sleeve was stained with a thick, yellowish fluid. Cold sweat beaded down his fevered forehead.
Xie Luan smiled beneath his hood—a joyless curve.
Got you.
He approached the stall. His silent, unmoving presence made the vendor look up with glassy eyes.
"How much for the vipers?" Xie Luan asked, his voice rough and deliberately unpleasant.
The vendor blinked, struggling to focus."Five stones… each," he croaked. "They're good… very active… freshly caught…"
"They're dying," Xie Luan corrected, crouching to peer through the bars. The snakes barely reacted; their lethargy was obvious."And so are you."
The vendor flinched."W-What are you talking about? If you're not buying, get lost!"
"One of them bit you," Xie Luan said. It wasn't a question—it was a diagnosis. He pointed at the hidden arm."Probably while you were caging them. Iron-Scale vipers are slow—but vindictive."
The vendor tried to hide his arm further, but pain twisted his face."I don't know what you mean! It's just a scratch from a branch!"
Xie Luan moved.
He didn't use Qi. He used speed and anatomy.
His pale hand shot from his sleeve like a striking cobra and seized the injured wrist. His thumb pressed precisely on the Neiguan pressure point, blocking neural flow while amplifying pain.
The vendor let out a strangled scream as his knees buckled and he nearly collapsed onto the table.
"Iron-Scale venom is an alkaline coagulant," Xie Luan whispered, leaning close like a confessor at a deathbed."It starts by numbing the fingers. Then the blood thickens. You feel cold, don't you? A cold creeping past your elbow."
He tightened his grip slightly."It's already past your bicep. In two hours it reaches your kidneys and destroys them. You'll piss black. In four hours it reaches your heart. Then your blood will be so thick your heart won't be able to pump it. It'll turn into a solid stone in your chest."
The vendor broke down, his tough-merchant façade shattering."I don't have money for the antidote…" he sobbed, mucus and tears streaking his face."The Medicine Hall charges twenty stones for the purification pill… I just wanted to sell them to pay… I don't want to die…"
"The Medicine Hall is a scam for rich idiots," Xie Luan said coldly."You don't need their luxury antidote. You don't need Qi. You need basic chemistry. You need to neutralize the alkalinity."
He released the arm, letting it drop onto the table like dead meat. Xie Luan reached into his own sleeve and pulled out a twisted, ugly black root covered in fine hairs. He'd ripped it from the roadside near the latrines minutes earlier—a common weed called Dogfang Root.
"See this?" he said, holding it before the vendor's bulging eyes.
"A… a weed?" the boy stared in desperate disbelief."Are you insane?"
"It's an extremely potent natural anticoagulant. Pure acid. If you chew it, it'll thin your blood and stop the viper's coagulation instantly."
Xie Luan paused, letting hope bloom."It'll hurt like hell. You'll feel fire in your veins instead of ice. But you'll live to see dawn."
The vendor looked at the root as if it were a celestial treasure. His good hand trembled as he reached out."Give it to me… please…"
Xie Luan pulled the root back."The price is the cage. All three vipers."
The vendor hesitated—then looked at his swollen, purple, icy arm.
Survival crushed greed.
"Take it!" he screamed. "Take them! Just give me the root!"
Xie Luan tossed the filthy root to him. The boy caught it and shoved it into his mouth without washing it, chewing frantically through dirt and bitter fiber, swallowing the acidic juice like nectar.
Xie Luan took the bamboo cage and handed it to Li, who accepted it nervously."Pleasure doing business."
They turned and melted back into the crowd. Behind them, the vendor screamed in agony as the acid burned his stomach—but he was alive.
"Master…" Li whispered, staring at the hissing snakes."That root will really cure him?"
Xie Luan didn't look back."It'll delay his death by about three days."
"…What?"
"Dogfang Root thins the blood, yes. It prevents cardiac arrest today. But in those quantities, it's lethal to the liver. His liver will liquefy by Thursday. He'll die anyway—just more slowly."
Li swallowed hard, pale. A chill crawled up his spine."You… you lied to him."
"I sold him time," Xie Luan corrected."He wanted to live today. I gave him today. The future is a problem he won't have to solve. And in return, I got my ingredients for free."
Li hugged the cage to his chest, silently swearing he would never, ever betray this man. Xie Luan's mercy was more terrifying than an executioner's blade.
They continued on.
They now had the foundation of the poison—the vipers. What they lacked was camouflage. They needed something to mask toxicity from a cultivator's senses.
They entered a cleaner section of the market, where the ground was covered in dry straw and the smells were less offensive. Here, Inner Disciples sold goods to fund their own vices.
Xie Luan stopped at a stall run by a young man in blue robes. This disciple wasn't desperate—he was bored and radiated arrogance. Several jars of mid-grade herbs sat on his table, but his attention was fixed on a cultivation manual resting on his knees.
The disciple frowned, tracing lines in the air with his finger, frustrated.The manual was titled: "The Silent Water Flow."
Xie Luan observed. He didn't need to read. He only needed to watch the micro-movements—the stagnation in the shoulder, the tension in the neck, the Qi misalignment.
"Your energy flow is wrong at the third meridian," Xie Luan said calmly.
The disciple snapped his head up, furious."What did you say, outer trash?" he spat."You dare speak of higher cultivation? Get lost before I break your legs."
Xie Luan didn't move."You're forcing water up the Yang channel of the arm when it should descend through the Yin. The scribe of your manual made an error in the diagram. If you keep practicing like this, you'll tear your rotator cuff and cough blood before the next full moon."
The disciple flushed with rage, hand going to his sword."You lie! This manual cost me fifty stones! Trash like you knows nothing!"
"Try it," Xie Luan said evenly."It costs you nothing. Reverse the flow at the Hegu point on your wrist. Just one cycle."
The disciple hesitated. His sword slid an inch from its sheath. But weeks of stagnation—and the dull ache in his shoulder that robbed him of sleep—outweighed his pride.
"If you're lying, I'll cut out your tongue," he snarled.
He closed his eyes and adjusted his Qi.
Silence.
Then his eyes flew open.
Pure astonishment erased his arrogance. The pain vanished, replaced by a cool, fluid sensation. The blockage shattered.
"It worked!" he gasped, touching his shoulder."The Qi flows! By the heavens—it flows!"
He looked at Xie Luan anew."How… who are you? Are you a master in disguise?"
"I'm someone who observes," Xie Luan said quietly."Knowledge has a price, Senior Brother."
The Inner Disciple understood. His disdain was gone."What do you want? Money?"
Xie Luan pointed to the table."That blue vial. Lotus Dream Powder."
The disciple frowned. It was worth about fifteen stones. The advice was worth a hundred.
A bargain.
"Take it," he said, sliding it forward."And take this as well, for the trouble."
He tossed over a small pouch of dried herbs—Ice Mint.
"Now go. If anyone asks, we never spoke."
Xie Luan pocketed the items and gave a shallow bow, mocking in its perfection."The wise trade. The foolish steal."
They left the market as night fully fell.
Li walked in a daze."Master… you obtained lethal venom and anesthetic powder… and didn't spend a single copper."
Xie Luan felt the weight of the ingredients against his skin. His body ached, dampness made him cough—but his mind burned brightly. He had death. He had sleep. He had deception.
"Let's go home, Li," Xie Luan said, his voice edged with steel."Tonight, we open the kitchen."
A thin smile curved beneath the hood.
"And the main course… is an Elder."