Two months later, an ordinary three-masted ship slowly sailed into a crescent-shaped bay.
On the bow deck, Zhao Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly, gazing at the rather large market town by the dock.
"Finally, we've arrived at Windfire Island." Zhao Sheng murmured to himself, gently floating off the ship, flying over eight zhang of sea before landing on the pier's boardwalk.
Half an hour later, an ordinary-looking young man in a blue robe appeared in the market of Feng Huo Island, blending into the bustling crowd and remaining completely inconspicuous.
Windfire Island is a spirit island under the jurisdiction of Dragon Turtle Island, one of the Thirty-Six Constellations Spirit Islands. It is also the most famous weapon-refining island within the Dragon Turtle Island's sphere of influence. The island's market is renowned throughout the Shattered Star Sea, making it a prosperous place.
Zhao Sheng secretly observed and discovered that most of the buildings on Windfire Island were built from seabed volcanic rock. Under the sunlight, the surface of the buildings faintly showed a light red halo, making them look exceptionally bright, thick and hard.
On the streets, one can often see squads of elite Wind and Fire Sect warriors, fully armored, marching in unison to patrol the streets.
Zhao Sheng's gaze swept over them and he was surprised to find that the elite armored soldiers exuded an unusually strange aura, almost devoid of any vitality, resembling rather bizarre groups of living corpse puppets.
Zhao Sheng had long heard that the Wind and Fire Sect possessed a secret technique for crafting Yin Corpse Puppet Soldiers, and seeing it with his own eyes now, he couldn't help but be somewhat astonished. He secretly thought that the Wind and Fire Sect was indeed extraordinary.
After walking around the market for a short while, Zhao Sheng noticed that Feng Huo Island truly lived up to its reputation as a place for weapon forging. There were quite a few weapon forging shops in the market, and you could see several shops on almost every street.
He then discovered that the shops lining both sides of the market street mainly sold various magical artifacts, and primarily bought various materials for refining these artifacts.
As for shops selling elixirs, pills, and talismans, they exist, but not many.
The famous Windfire Island, renowned for its weapon crafting, truly lives up to its reputation.
Zhao Sheng traveled thousands of miles to Feng Huo Island.
On the one hand, it was to sell off the magic artifacts they no longer needed and to buy elixirs for cultivation, and on the other hand, to buy a few handy magic artifacts.
On the other hand, and most importantly, the purpose was to break the deadly trap in the Bei residence.
It would be even better if we could find out the origins of the ancient painting and the bamboo basket.
...
Two hours later, Zhao Sheng strolled around the market, going in and out of some shops, and inquired about the prices of various magical artifacts.
Once he had a clear idea of what was going on, Zhao Sheng stopped wandering around and found a place to stay in the neighborhood.
Over the next three days, Zhao Sheng changed his appearance repeatedly, visiting various weapon-refining shops and selling off his unused magical artifacts, such as water-splitting daggers, throwing knives, the Mandarin Duck Twin Axes, and substandard talismans. In the end, he received over eight thousand low-grade spirit stones in return.
After dealing with all that, Zhao Sheng, dressed as a pale-faced nobleman, went into a seemingly impressive shop.
This shop is quite large, with luxurious interior decoration, and the lowest quality of the religious artifacts it sells are all of superior quality, so it seems to be a shop that specializes in high-end products.
"Fellow Daoist, are you looking to buy magical artifacts or sell refining materials?" Upon seeing Zhao Sheng enter, a middle-aged man with a rough, sallow face, as if he had been burned, immediately stepped forward to greet him.
"I want to sell this item. Take a look at it." Zhao Sheng said nonchalantly, taking out a square stone box from his storage bag.
The box was opened gently, but only the middle-aged man could see what was inside.
Upon seeing the one-horned skull contained in the stone box, the middle-aged man's expression changed, and he immediately said to Zhao Sheng:
"Fellow Daoist, please have a seat in the private room in the back hall. I will immediately invite the manager to come and take a look."
Zhao Sheng nodded and calmly followed the man into the private room in the back hall and sat down.
A moment later, an elderly man with a white beard and a gray robe pushed open the door and entered. He smiled slightly at Zhao Sheng, cupped his hands and said, "I am Sun Delu, greetings, fellow Daoist. I heard that you have a treasure to sell. May I have a look at it?"
Zhao Sheng nodded, opened the stone box, and pushed it over.
When the old man saw the entirely black skull with horns on top, his pupils constricted slightly.
...
A quarter of an hour later, the old man put the one-horned demon skull back into the stone box, a hint of joy still lingering on his face.
Knowing that this was a low-grade spiritual artifact, he simply stated the truth: "It is a good item, containing the fire of decaying bones and having been refined by someone for over a hundred years. However, it is not easy to sell openly, and it is also suspected of being incomplete. Therefore, the price is lower than that of similar spiritual artifacts, around nine thousand spirit stones."
Zhao Sheng nodded slightly upon hearing this, seemingly agreeing with the other party's view.
Then, he smiled and said, "This price is good, but I don't lack spirit stones. I wonder if your shop has any puppet magic tools or top-grade magic tools? I'd like to barter with them, is that possible?"
The old man answered with great confidence: "Our shop is one of the shops directly under the Wind and Fire Sect. Of course, we can provide you with whatever you need, and we will never let you down."
Zhao Sheng pondered for a moment without giving a direct answer, then suddenly asked, "I heard that your island is going to hold a special auction soon. I would like to participate, but I wonder if there are any special requirements?"
The old man was taken aback for a moment, then laughed and said, "Special requirements? There are indeed two. First, you need a guarantee letter from a shop on the island. Second, you need to provide an item for auction."
The old man poured it out without hesitation, after all, this was no secret on Windfire Island, so there was no need to hide it from the other party.
Zhao Sheng nodded silently after listening.
He wanted to attend the auction because he had heard that Foundation Establishment Pills would be auctioned there.
In the Shattered Star Sea, Foundation Establishment Pills are far rarer and more scarce than in the Central Continent.
The reason is not only that there are very few alchemists in the Shattered Star Sea, but also a shortage of spiritual herbs for refining Foundation Establishment Pills. The main reason is that other continents have deliberately reduced the supply of Foundation Establishment Pills, causing them to be sold at exorbitant prices in the Shattered Star Sea. Even low-grade Foundation Establishment Pills are not available on the market.
For the sake of the Foundation Establishment Pill, he no longer hesitated and immediately said to the old man, "To be honest, I came to Windfire Island this time for the auction. If you could vouch for me, I have a spiritual weapon flying sword that I can sell to your shop at a low price."
Upon hearing this, the old man frowned slightly and began to ponder it to himself.
After thinking for a moment, he gently tapped the stone box and said:
"Very well, I can guarantee your fortune. I wonder if I could have a look at that magical artifact you possess?"
"Sure!" Zhao Sheng replied without hesitation.
As he spoke, he took out Zhen Yue's golden spirit sword from his storage bag, along with the spirit scroll hidden in a crimson spirit fire.
This scroll was the item he was going to put up for auction, and he also wanted the old man to give it an estimate.
Half an hour later, Zhao Sheng walked out of the shop with a smile on his face, but he had a pale red jade book in his hand, with the same pattern as the shop's signboard engraved on its surface.
In addition, he found more than two hundred mid-grade spirit stones in his storage bag.
After receiving the guarantee letter and spirit stones, Zhao Sheng went to two pill shops and bought more than a dozen bottles of Yunling Pills, spending nearly a thousand spirit stones.
Unfortunately, while there are many shops selling pills on Windfire Island, there are almost none selling seeds of spiritual herbs.
After asking around at several places without success, they had no choice but to temporarily abandon their plan to cultivate medicinal herbs in the Bei residence.
Half a day later, Zhao Sheng returned to his residence and began to cultivate in seclusion.
However, as the auction drew near, some news inevitably spread.
Hearing that Foundation Establishment Pills were being offered at the auction, more and more cultivators from outside the island began to appear.