Lu Qingshan brought back their items and scattered them across the Azure Wind and Stone Axe Gang's territories. These excursions to the ghost markets still needed to be carefully considered. For the time being, he sold the common materials through their channels, leaving only the rarer items behind.

  It was enough for a few more weeks at the Nine Wines Restaurant. While Liu Yingting turned his focus on finding a way back to the ghost markets, Lu Qingshan continued to visit the inn, allowing Li Fanghua to feed both him and Qin Ye like they were from a very wealthy family. Even some major forces wouldn’t be this extravagant.

  They slowly built up rapport with the group of six travelers throughout the course of the month. All the money they had just acquired vanished, and Li Fanghua’s own reserves disappeared as well. Lu Qingshan was forced to sell a rarer pile of ore just to scrape by.

  Fortunately, Liu Yingting had discovered a few reliable ways out of the city that wouldn’t alert anyone at all. They were completely sequestered away in dark corners. While it was unlikely for more than a few people to sneak out at a time, these places were exactly what they needed.

  Lu Qingshan called out the Bloodsense Bug. He was fairly certain the bug’s master was a patron of the ghost market, if not one of their rulers. Perhaps they had also seen his potential like Wu Ruoling did.

  That meant through tracking the insect’s spiritual link, he could find the location of the ghost market. They could never hide from him unless that patron died with his corpse far away. But the current ghost market contained many secrets

  Being able to discover some of the ghost market’s secrets would make it simpler to negotiate with them. If he did this right, he could perhaps find a way for the Seven Mysteries Gate to enter the city in their entirety. Their supplies would no longer be a worry, and the plan to take over the city would increase in speed.

  Still, the danger was too high. Lu Qingshan couldn't call himself invincible in the mortal world just yet. He had never seen a true Innate realm expert in action. Going to the ghost market’s stronghold was not the wisest decision now that he knew they were tracking him.

  But working with their agents was much less risky. With an exit out of the city secured, Meng Zhang was free to call on his past contacts at the ghost market. He quickly returned with a meeting spot: a forest outside the city.

  Lu Qingshan waited until the group of six travelers were no longer able to afford going to the Nine Wines Restaurant as much. As experienced martial artists, they often did what lone experts had to do, taking on other people’s missions for money. Over the past month, he’d tracked their movements and was confident they wouldn’t notice his disappearance.

  On a night they left for another mission to the nearby forest, Lu Qingshan exited the city in complete silence. No horse was needed, as his stamina surpassed the common beasts by a vast amount. He didn’t stop to rest, just running freely in the direction until he reached the meeting spot.

  Along the way, he continuously practiced the Seven Steps Technique without restraint. At the Aperture Tempering realm, this level four technique proved itself beyond imagination. His speed skyrocketed as seven steps overlaid onto one another, transforming into seven-seven steps.

  Forty-nine cracks appeared in the earth as Lu Qingshan propelled himself deeper into the forest. He quickly recovered from the backlash. Another series of cracks spread through the earth like a winding serpent. Soon he disappeared from the city’s horizon, with only a Bloodsense Bug and his Marrow Tempering flies to accompany him.

  ---

  Five cloaked figures in white masks stood in a circle at the meeting spot. Lu Qingshan peered down at them from above a tree.

  He dropped down. In surprise, the glint of blades flashed. Lu Qingshan’s arm blocked them all without even a scratch.

  “The ghost markets?” he asked, while they all backed away, looking at him warily. “I’m here for the trade.”

  “We were not expecting someone of your stature,” one of the white masks said. “Where are the goods?”

  “All on me.” Lu Qingshan motioned at them to follow. They gave each other a doubtful look before keeping pace with his footsteps.

  Behind a hidden tree were the boxes of materials that Liu Yingting had smuggled here over the course of a few days. Nearby, Meng Zhang stayed hidden.

  “Here they are,” Lu Qingshan said. “Everything we offered is here as a first batch. The other shipments will arrive if everything goes well.”

  A pair of white masks dragged out the boxes. There were six in total. The first one spilled out iron ingots when it was opened. The second contained large quantities of the rarer Black Iron metal. None of the boxes fell behind, as they either contained important medicinal materials or rare jewelry, all difficult to use goods collected over the past year.

  “Satisfied?” Lu Qingshan asked, watching the six boxes be checked one by one. The Seven Mysteries Gate didn’t have a personal forging expert other than Dong Qianyu, so using these stolen Black Iron ingots was much more of a risk for their regular gang forces. Trading these to the ghost market would help shore up some deficiencies.

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  “Very good,” a ghost mask said. “Bring him what we agreed on.”

  Two ghost masks left to go find where they placed their own shipment of goods. Lu Qingshan’s Bloodseeker Flies had already found their hiding place, but he let them slowly carry their three containers to him.

  Inside were the exotic materials he had requested Liu Yingting try to find from the ghost markets. One set was for Liu Yingting to create batches of Black Blood Pills once Lu Qingshan was able to control those Green Heart Worms. Another set consisted of rarer herbs that looked innocuous, but were highly poisonous.

  And the third was something much more esoteric. He shook the small box beside his ear. The buzzing of insect wings made him smile underneath his veil.

  “Good,” Lu Qingshan said. “We are very willing to continue this cooperation. Next week, same place?”

  The five ghost masks nodded, disappearing the forests as soon as they finished inspecting the quality of their items. Lu Qingshan shook the box of insects while he watched them go.

  His flies tracked their exit and swept through the area. Meng Zhang came out of hiding, initiating his own patrol. Meanwhile, Lu Qingshan began chanting a low whisper.

  The bugs in the box calmed down. He opened it. Inside were bright, colorful beetles, a species known for their toxicity. Though they weren’t anything special to martial artists compared to the other exotic ingredients, Lu Qingshan had some ideas with his Insect Harmony Mantra on experimenting with all types of insects available in the area. And perhaps, he might discover something unexpected.

  These beetles were only the first batch. Lu Qingshan took the items back into the city, sneaking inside through the same passage. Meng Zhang would remain outside to secure the second shipment. In another few months the Azure Wind Gang’s leader would near the Marrow Tempering stage herself, freeing up much of the man’s time.

  Lu Qingshan brought the toxins to Liu Yingting while he kept the box of beetles for himself. He recalled most of his Bloodseeker Flies from their patrol and only let the dying ones continue to remain hidden around the Song family manor. Then, he started to endlessly grind experience for the Insect Harmony Mantra.

  Four weeks went by. Visits to the Nine Wines Restaurant became rarer, while trading sessions continued with the ghost market. A second and third batch of Black Blood Pill materials came in - the final portions necessary to begin creating the mixture. Now they just needed some Green Heart Worms to finish the process later.

  In the meantime, Lu Qingshan focused on accelerating the speed of his Insect Harmony Mantra’s growth. Five different exotic insect species had arrived through the ghost market’s connections, all with some unique trait different from the area. One was a group of wasps with a numbing sting. They’d have some medicinal uses.

  Another was a set of similarly poisonous beetles who had skills in biting through wood and laying eggs wherever they went. Lu Qingshan ordered this species to drastically increase his number of controlled insects.

  The final three specimens were truly exotic. One was a set of hairy spiders with a vague humanoid face on their back. Another was a group of beautiful moths that drank sap and shimmered in the moonlight. Last was a single, very rare male silkworm, discovered with congenital deficiencies during its hatching. He didn’t know how the ghost market had gotten their hands on this.

  If he could get his hands on wild silkworms, there was a possibility for him to create an industry from them, thereby solving their monetary issues. But their location was not found anywhere in the area. The capital city of the kingdom had some, though wide scale silk production was still very lacking.

  Lu Qingshan continued practicing with his newest batch of insects. He had them interact with one another, working together with nearby grasshoppers, ants, and beetles to carry bits and pieces of food around the house. He tried forming a small food cycle, with the Bloodseeker Flies as the top predator, but this actually slowed down his growth instead. So he kept a status quo, replacing the Bloodseeker Flies' deaths with the Wood-Eating Beetles at the Song family manor.

  Through this, his Insect Harmony Mantra picked up speed. The tradeoff was that he was so deep in focus that he could no longer grind experience for his other martial arts, except for a single breathing method at a time. For now, this was acceptable, and he chose the Great Ape Breathing Method.

  Surprisingly, the human-faced spiders were the easiest to link his senses with, even though they weren’t insects. The Insect Harmony Mantra currently worked best with actual insects, less so with arachnids after reaching the fourth level, and only worked to sense the locations of worms. But these spiders were the exception.

  Another two and a half months passed. His Elders only traded with the white masks three additional times, slowly building up the ingredients necessary for another Hundred Poisons Elixir. They secured more batches of the human-faced spiders along with additional species of poisonous bugs and the rare set of scorpions. Through all these species he was able to push the Insect Harmony Mantra’s growth forwards by another level.

  Lu Qingshan checked his progress. It was so close. But they had only visited the Nine Wines Restaurant four times in the past two and a half months. Three of those visits had been in the first of those months and they were clearly showing signs of slowing down. Lu Qingshan felt it was time to refresh their presence in the minds of the six foreign travelers.

  Finally, two days later.

  Lu Qingshan felt something shift in the air as the Insect Harmony Mantra reached the sixth level. His chanting stopped - was that spiritual qi? Beside him, Li Fanghua looked up in surprise, but then frowned.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Just felt a slight fluctuation.”

  Lu Qingshan nodded. Whatever feeling that was, it definitely came with the breakthrough in the Insect Harmony Mantra. He closed his eyes and continued chanting, determining what had changed.

  His senses unfolded fully as he managed to finally form a connection with the worms beneath the earth. They were small, warm, and blind. But they instinctively seemed to know where to go to find food. Lu Qingshan had some crawl up into the air, devouring the dead plants in nearby soil.

  With this new ability, Lu Qingshan was ready to try controlling the Green Heart Worms. Just as he was about to rush towards the Blade Shadow and Lower Mountain Sects, Qin Ye came running to his door.

  "There's a problem with the Stone Axe Gang. People are disappearing every night."