In the eyes of the others, they had stepped into the former Celestial River Dragon Mansion.
But in Yang An's eyes, they had simply landed on a lone island in a sea of fog.
Soon after Yang An and his companions set foot on the island, a figure approached and bowed to them.
"I am a Child in the service of the Perfected One. Please, follow me and rest for a while."
The Child was courteous and was to lead them to a place to rest. Yang An's group were the first to arrive at the "Shared Meal Assembly" and would have to wait for the other Cultivators.
Everyone responded in an equally polite manner.
A strange glint flashed in Yang An's eyes, but he reined in his emotions and followed behind the others. As he trailed after the Child into the island's interior, he did his best to avoid looking at the figure leading the way.
That was no Child. It was clearly a humanoid creature formed from countless Gooey Insects tangled together.
Each Gooey Insect was the size of a finger, like a slug, and they were all densely entangled. A single glance was enough to make one's Scalp crawl and their hair stand on end.
And it wasn't just this one Child. The farther they walked, the more "people" they saw. They all seemed to have their own duties and did not casually approach Yang An's group.
Among them were some who looked like perfectly normal humans, but there were also misshapen creatures that were deeply unsettling.
As he scanned his surroundings on this fog-shrouded island, Yang An could see the skeletal remains of unknown creatures scattered everywhere.
Some were bare skeletons, while others still had scraps of rotting flesh clinging to them. Some were as large as boulders, others as small as washbasins. They had even attracted flocks of birds that squabbled over the remains, completely ignoring the people moving about.
An occasional breeze carried the pungent stench of decay.
But his companions seemed oblivious to it all. Their five senses had been completely sealed by an Illusion Mimic Insect Corpse, trapping them in a different illusion. They could only see the legendary splendor of the Celestial River Dragon Mansion, not the grotesque and sinister reality of an island covered in bones.
Although everything on the island seemed utterly bizarre, Yang An didn't sense any immediate danger. He was like an unknown observer, standing apart from it all, quietly taking everything in.
The group followed the Glue Insect Child until they were led to a cave on the island. The interior was dotted with lamps and had been cleaned quite thoroughly; there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Seeing this, Yang An had no choice but to sit down with the others. He waited until the Glue Insect Child reappeared, carrying a pot of clear tea and several cups.
When the others weren't looking, Yang An inconspicuously dipped a finger into the tea. No prompt appeared before his eyes, meaning it was just ordinary tea. Only then did he relax.
The wait was rather long.
Pan Shi's injuries had not yet healed, so he took the opportunity to meditate and recuperate.
Pan Yu, on the other hand, was lost in her own world, an occasional goofy smile gracing her face. 'She's probably shipping fictional couples in her head,' Yang An suspected. 'Looks like she's been corrupted by another world's culture.'
The gregarious Hei Mei seemed eager to strike up a conversation, but Yang An ignored him, offering only a polite, faint smile while maintaining his distance.
Yang An's mind was elsewhere. He was considering what to do when the other Cultivators arrived.
Before the "Shared Meal Assembly" was the trading session, which was of course very important.
On the way here, Yang An had learned from Pan Shi that to acquire items from other Cultivators, one could only barter.
In this world, aside from the monetary systems of common folk, there was no universally accepted item among Cultivators that served as currency.
Mundane gold and silver were practically useless to most Cultivators, so transactions between them were typically conducted by exchanging items of equivalent value.
Of course, this didn't mean that a Cultivation Technique could only be traded for another Cultivation Technique, or an Elixir only for another Elixir.
It was a trade, after all, driven by the needs of both parties. As long as you could satisfy the other person's needs, an Elixir could be exchanged for a Cultivation Technique, and even gold and silver could perhaps buy a rare Magical Artifact.
Because of this, when they were unaware of the other party's needs, many Cultivators would inflate the value of their own items to maximize their profit.
Over time, it became common for items at the assembly's trade meet to be overpriced, or even for fakes to appear. Quite a few people had been deceived after misjudging an item's worth.
Sometimes, even the person offering the item didn't know its true value; they just kept trying to drive the price up.
It was like sifting for gold in a river. You might find a nugget, but most of the time, people misjudged or were tricked into treating ordinary pebbles like treasures.
This strong sense of déjà vu reminded Yang An of hunting for undervalued antiques in his past life. It was exactly the same.
But the more he thought about it, the more excited Yang An became.
His Golden Finger could not only use Purification to eliminate the costs associated with using an item, but it could also display an item's true information. This kind of bargain-hunting environment was undoubtedly perfect for him.
'Others might be deceived, but I definitely won't be!'
This was his unique advantage. The upcoming trading session was his time to shine.
The only problem was that he was currently very poor. He only had two items of any real value.
One was the practice method for the Lighting Technique, which had already been Purified and had no usage costs. The other was the Magical Artifact staff he had taken from the Filthy Daoist.
Yang An had no intention of trading the former. Through his conversations with Pan Shi and the others over the past few days, he had learned a few things and was beginning to understand more about the world of cultivation.
In this world, anything related to cultivation came with a cost. Whether large or small, light or heavy, one would inevitably have to bear the corresponding price for simply coming into contact with or using such an item.
Excluding mundane objects, there was absolutely nothing a Cultivator could use that didn't have a cost.
Nothing. Ever.
If Yang An were to reveal the practice method for the Lighting Technique with its cost eliminated, it would cause a massive uproar and bring him endless trouble.
He had thought of this long ago. Understanding the old saying that a man's wealth is his own undoing, he had destroyed the partial page of the Lighting Technique on the way here, committing the method to memory.
In other words, the only thing he truly had to trade was that disgusting staff.
The question, then, was how to leverage this Magical Artifact from the Filthy Daoist to get what he needed.
So, what did he need?
Without a doubt, a Cultivation Technique.
Although the Lighting Technique he had mastered was powerful, its limitations were too great. Its growth potential was tied to his own, and thus, was inherently capped.
In a direct confrontation, relying solely on the Lighting Technique and the Bone Relic Buddha Radiance, he was no match for a true Cultivator. Yang An was keenly aware of this.
Since mastering the Lighting Technique, he had survived mostly by relying on his judgment and his ability to seize opportunities.
A Technique was, after all, just a Technique. The person using it was what truly mattered.
Without a Cultivation Technique, a person was like rootless duckweed, drifting aimlessly.
Unable to become a Cultivator, he would forever remain a fragile mortal, unable to withstand a single blow.