[Volume 2: Sharpening the Sword]

When he woke up, he was lying on a bed, with soft bedding underneath. Wisps of incense rose from the burner, and aside from the occasional warbling of orioles outside the window, it was quiet all around, as if the fierce battle before was just his own dream.

He felt his body. The clothes were still the same set, stained with large patches of blood from the previous fight and somewhat damaged. However, the pain in his chest where the Lingyin Sword had pierced through was gone.

The skin was smooth and flat, without a trace of injury. The place on his neck where the ribbon had pressed against no longer felt painful.

The Lingyin Sword had reverted back to a jade hairpin, inserted in his hair. His body's spiritual power was abundant, without any sluggishness, just like before he was injured.

The only thing missing was Zhou Chen.

He got out of bed and put on his shoes. Someone pushed the door open and came in, smiling attentively, "Young master, you're finally awake. You were unconscious for three whole days!"

The attendant brought in a basin for washing up and wrung out a towel to hand to him.

"Where is this?" Zhou Yin asked, looking around at the somewhat familiar furnishings.

"This is the Xian Family Inn in Lingzhou City. Did you forget? You and your friends had stayed here before," the attendant smiled.

He remembered now. Chen Zhong and Wu Feng had brought him and Chen Yuanzhi to stay at this inn before, just in a different room.

Zhou Chen asked, "What happened?"

The attendant's face lit up as he exclaimed in amazement, "You didn't see it. Earlier when you were fighting fiercely, we dared not come out and hid far away. But later, a giant golden bird suddenly appeared in the sky above Lingzhou City, circling overhead. When it spread its wings, it was bigger than the mansions of the county magistrate in the city combined. The feathers shimmered with golden light and five-colored rays. Heavens, it was so beautiful!

"But I didn't see it myself, I only heard it from another attendant. He was bold and sneaked out to look. As a result, the divine bird flew around once, then suddenly breathed fire down to the ground. The surrounding houses caught on fire. That attendant said you were enveloped in a layer of red light at the time, some unknown thing, so the fire didn't hurt you. Later, the divine bird flew off somewhere and only then did we dare to go out. And so, we found you!"

"Besides me, there was no one else?"

"There were, but they were all burned to death, charred black like charcoal. Their original appearances couldn't even be made out!"

From the other person's description, Zhou Yin slowly pieced together the causes and effects.

He vaguely remembered the expanse of gold he saw before losing consciousness.

Chen Yuanzhi and Chen Zhong were already dead. Zhao Yingchi, having taken a hit from the Heaven Washing Brush, would be seriously injured if not dead. As for those still alive at the time, they were none other than the few from the Hehuan Sect.

Perhaps they were all burned to death, or perhaps there were survivors. As for himself...

He had fully recovered.

Zhou Yin held his forehead, vaguely feeling there were still answers he couldn't figure out.

Was the divine bird mentioned by the attendant actually Zhou Chen or not? Or perhaps Zhou Chen's relatives happened to be nearby, sensed the danger, and came to conveniently take it away? If not, where did Zhou Chen go?

He couldn't answer these questions himself, let alone the attendant who shook his head repeatedly when asked, not knowing anything.

"You can go out first. Help me buy a set of clothes. Keep the extra for yourself." Zhou Yin tossed him a silver ingot.

The attendant was overjoyed. He fumbled to catch it, bowing and thanking profusely before withdrawing from the room.

When cultivators fought, ordinary people always avoided it like the plague. Even the authorities turned a deaf ear. Moreover, several cultivators had died this time with only Zhou Yin left.

The attendant originally didn't understand why the innkeeper insisted on carrying Zhou Yin back, but now it made sense and he greatly admired the innkeeper's foresight.

Based on the temperaments of cultivators they had seen before, if one woke up to find himself still sleeping in ruins, there was an eighty percent chance he would make trouble for them. But if they carried the person back and served him well, they might receive a reward like now. It was simply a windfall.

Zhou Yin was unaware of the attendant's little scheme. His gaze rested on the Sumeru ring on his finger.

There was still a bit of dried blood on the ring, having flowed down from his chest earlier.

Inside was the Heaven Washing Brush and one other item.

The Jade Spirit Rhinoceros Horn.

The Mirror Sea Sect's treasure that the Hehuan Sect had painstakingly schemed to obtain was now on him.

What exactly happened after he fell unconscious?

Although this magic tool had been passed down from Sword Immortal Xuan Ying, it wasn't actually refined by Xuanying. No one could say its true origins. The successive sect leaders of Mirror Sea only regarded it as a supreme treasure because of the founder's dying instructions.

If it only had the effect of curing all poisons, the Qinggu Sect and even the Hehuan Sect wouldn't have risked life and limb, sending people one after another to try to obtain it.

And Zhou Chen...

"Young master! Young master! I'm back!"

With Zhou Yin's permission, the attendant pushed open the door and came in, holding clothes. "I didn't know what color you like, so I bought two sets. You can pick the one you prefer to wear."

Zhou Yin asked, "Do you know if there is a market nearby for cultivators to trade?"

The attendant said, "Yes, yes! It's in the east part of the city, not far from the city gate. Go into the Liu Family Alley and there's a large market area every first and fifteenth of the lunar month. The immortal masters trade things there.

"Today happens to be the fifteenth. But you won't see it if you go during the day. You have to wait until the lamps are extinguished at night. It starts around 9pm and ends at 1am. I've never been myself, only heard others mention it, so I don't know if those times are accurate."

On the continent, ordinary currency and silver was used among mortals, but cultivators liked to use spirit stones as an equivalent. However, there were far more mortals than cultivators after all. So when out and about, cultivators often ran out of spirit stones, lacked various cultivation materials, or wanted to buy a suitable magic tool but couldn't find one. At times like this, a place was needed for cultivators to conduct transactions.

Therefore, no matter the size of the country, as long as there was a place frequented by cultivators, there would be such a location. The local people called it the "Immortals' Market" - even though cultivators were far from being immortals, in the eyes of ordinary people, their ability to fly in the air and possess various divine powers made them no different from immortals.

Zhou Yin said, "I've never heard of an Immortals' Market that only opens at night."

"Indeed, when I first heard about it, I was also startled, thinking wouldn't that make it a ghost market? However, the ways of the immortals have always been different from mortals. It's said that this immortal gathering held at midnight is not lacking in people at all, and they often sell rare treasures!"

The servant, because he had given extra silver and because he wasn't as arrogant as the other cultivators, lowered his voice, intending to say a few more words.

"I also heard that this immortal gathering is held at night because some of the treasures inside can't be exposed to light. They are all, you know... stolen goods without owners. The buyers and sellers are afraid of the original owners coming to find them, so once the items are sold, they clean up and disappear without a trace, leaving everything neat and tidy."

Zhou Yin's heart stirred: "This explanation is quite interesting."

The servant became even more excited: "You think so too? I originally wanted to go take a look, but my wife wouldn't let me no matter what, saying it's held for immortals, and mortals who go might lose years of their life. But there are indeed people who aren't afraid of death and went to open their eyes. I heard them say after returning that it's truly like a heavenly market.

"There are screens made of waterfalls, studded with stars. When you put your hand through, hey, it's like going through a wall, but with the screen there, you can't see the other side. It's truly magical! I heard there are also things like singing and talking puppies. Some immortals scoop up a ladle of water and splash it into the air, and in an instant, the Milky Way appears..."

He chattered on and on, but Zhou Yin didn't get any more useful information. The things the servant mentioned were just ordinary tricks, nothing special.

"I need to stay here a few more days. Go tell the innkeeper for me."

"Alright!" The servant stopped talking and responded, then left.

His current mid-stage Foundation Establishment was nearing perfection, and he could almost prepare to seclude himself to break through to the late stage. However, the spirit stones he brought with him were running low, so he still needed to go sell some talismans to exchange for spirit stones and take the opportunity to check out that immortal market that only opens in the middle of the night.

He was originally a man of few words. Once the servant left, the room felt even more empty.

If that little thing that always chattered and acted coquettishly was still here, it would surely be crying out that it was hungry by now.

His gaze swept over the ring and he stopped his thoughts.

He had always been alone, and in the future, he should still be alone.