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Ten Shamans City, Tenth Market.
The first thing Qi Lin noticed when he came here was that the amount of people was drastically lower. The other streets and alleys from earlier were filled with unending streams of people, but this place was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. The sight of only the occasional pedestrian simply made him like he had taken a wrong turn. Qi Lin looked at the entrance to the Tenth Market. Indeed, he was at the right place.
“Customer, have you come to the Tenth Market to shop? The elixirs of our ‘Spirit Medicine Pavilion’ are absolutely affordable.”
The shopkeeper of a medical store beamed from ear to ear and greeted Qi Lin.
Qi Lin looked around, “Shopkeeper, why are there so few people in this place.”
“Ai, Brother is unaware, our Tenth Market’s location is not very suitable for business. It is at the very end of the Ten Markets, and it has but few paths and connections. Many spirit medicines are being sold elsewhere already, and the other markets on the outside deliberately depress their prices. The prices of our spirit medicines are just not competitive, so customers are fewer here.” The shopkeeper forced himself to smile.
“So that’s the case.” Qi Lin saw that this place’s medicines were indeed sold in stores on the outside. This was a disadvantage of the Ten Markets. With the markets so large and too bustling, there would always be a few that fared poorly.
“Brother, do you want to buy some? I can sell for cheap.” The shopkeeper chuckled.
Qi Lin bought a few to refine medicines, “Right, if I may ask, where’s the Fallen Soul House?”
“The Fallen Soul House??” The shopkeeper’s expression changed. “Brother, why do you ask.”
“I want to go live there.” Qi Lin asked curiously. “Is there a problem?”
“A big problem.” The shopkeeper whispered: “Brother, you must have come because you saw the Fallen Soul House’s low price? To be honest, that place isn’t suitable for cultivation or living.”
“What’s going on?”
As it turned out, for some reason, cultivators who lived there would lose their souls and would be unable to focus on cultivation. If a Golden Core Realm cultivator lost their three souls and six spirits before they were unified, problems would appear if they were unstable. The cultivators living in that place’s Heavenly Paradises would feel themselves lose their six spirits. Let alone safe cultivation, even resting there felt unbearable. Thus, it was called the Fallen Soul House.
“Is it so evil?” Qi Lin’s brow furrowed.
Generally speaking, only those terrains with ill fengshui could show such phenomenon.
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll go take a look.” Qi Lin was even more interested.
The shopkeeper sighed but did not stop him. In truth, many cultivators would not believe this the first time they heard of it, but they would fall and flee after staying a few days. The shopkeeper gave Qi Lin directions, and lastly, seeing he was so amicable, gifted him an “Evil Ward Talisman.”
…
“Little Sister, do you dare go?” Qi Lin smiled and asked.
“Wherever Big Brother goes, I go.” Qi Qi winked.
“Good.”
The Fallen Soul Heavenly Paradise’s True Name was “Fortune Bestowal Heavenly Paradise.” Its name was chosen specifically for charm and meaning, yet the outer hall was somewhat dilapidated. With just the first glance, Qi Lin noticed this heavenly paradise’s fengshui apparently had some problems. From the outside, it appeared blessed, but it seemed to be influenced by something and turned ominous.
However, while Qi Lin was interested in the fengshui, he did not care for it.
Before entering the building, he heard a loud voice from the door: “No more, I absolutely can’t live here anymore. How can anyone live in this place!! Even if you paid me, I couldn’t live here.”
A green-clothed cultivator caused a ruckus while a female cultivator was still persuading him: “Fellow, stay two more days. We have already invited an adept to come exorcise the place, there absolutely will not be a problem.”
“I must offer apologies to Lady Qi,1 This Li is honestly unable to take anymore.”
“I’m also leaving, not only is this place unhelpful for cultivation, on the contrary, it somewhat debilitates cultivation. I’m afraid staying any longer will cost me my Three Souls.”
The cultivators were causing a ruckus without any resistance.
Seeing Qi Lin at the doorway, the cultivators courteously nodded but they actually did not say anything to dissuade him.
Seeing she could not stop them, that Lady Qi sighed. When she spotted Qi Lin, she immediately put on a sunny and charming smile. “Fellow, you must have come to stay awhile, please, come in, come in.”
“En.”
“What’s the price here?” Qi Lin asked.
“Five hundred jade, the cheapest in all of the Ten markets. Our Fortune Bestowal Heavenly Paradise is on top of a leyline, absolutely adequate.” Lady Qi hastily said.
“Help book me a good room. I’ll live here for a few days.” Qi Lin said.
“Yes, yes.”
Lady Qi brought Qi Lin to an upper floor. This place’s rooms were all priced at three thousand Wu jade or more at their equivalents in the other markets, but because of fallen souls, the price was lowered to five hundred in the hopes people would make inquiries.
“Lady Qi, how long has it been since the fallen soul situation began in this Heavenly Paradise?” Qi Lin asked.
Lady Qi did not expect Qi Lin would ask this question. She thought for a moment: “Probably ninety years now.” In truth, ninety years ago, the Fallen Soul House was the Ten Markets’ hottest Heavenly Paradise. The Fortune Bestowal Heavenly Paradise was located over one of Fog Spirit Island’s leylines, which was extremely abundant in spiritual power. Cultivators who came here to form cores experienced twice the effect with half the effort. There was a time when several thousand Wu jade could not book a room for the night. But ninety years ago, for some reason, news of the fallen soul began to spread.
At first, a few cultivators clamored to check out of their rooms, saying that they sensed instability in their Three Souls and Six Spirits after moving in. At that time, the shopkeeper of the Fortune Bestowal Heavenly Paradise brushed the matter off, believing them to be troublemakers; the people who wanted to book rooms were innumerable, anyways. But afterwards, more and more people sensed something was wrong. Even the shopkeeper himself was unable to stay in the Heavenly Paradise to cultivate.
Afterwards, the Fortune Bestowal Heavenly Paradise’s reputation plummeted, and it became a disorderly place in Ten Shamans City.
Even with a price of only five hundred Wu jade, few people came. However, although they were infamous for fallen souls, there were still some skeptical cultivators who wanted to try since this place indeed was more abundant in spiritual power. Still, the majority would end up like the ones from before.
“So that’s how it is. Interesting.”
Qi Lin nodded.
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- 戚夫人 ↩
…..There’s another Qi person!
Different Qi from the siblings. I’ve updated with a footnote.