As night came, the streets begun to quieten down with occasional cries of children coming from the houses. The radiant moon hid behind the clouds, causing the city to submerge into a state of darkness.

A dark silhouette was running soundlessly through the closed shops, its speed was so fast such that when someone noticed it, the silhouette would be long gone.

Every time the dark silhouette exited each shop, its appearance would change little by little. Finally, the dark silhouette phased out of the last shop. Glancing at its newly gained comical hat, gloves and shoes, Shadow smiled in satisfaction.

***

Earlier that day.

When Shadow just phased through the wall, he accidentally bumped into a patrol soldier. After looking at Shadow's face, the patrol soldier fainted on the spot without even uttering a single word.

Shocked by the reaction, Shadow immediately found a small bucket of water and gazed into it.

Puuu!

The bucket of water was instantly destroyed by Shadow. Rooted to the spot, Shadow immediately touched his face to affirm it. As expected, he was without a mouth or a nose-just a pair of different colored eyes.

'Shit! My face is too darn scary, how did it become like this?' With that thought in mind, Shadow quickly hid in a small alley and waited for the sun to set before making attempts to cover up his face.

***

utilizing the cover of the shadows casted by the houses, Shadow stealthily arrived at a run-down looking warehouse with holes above it.

Shadow accidentally discovered an abandoned warehouse earlier on and decided to take refuge in it after getting his disguise.

Unbothered by the walls, Shadow passed through the walls and found an extremely dark and obscure spot to cultivate. Before closing his eyes, Shadow popped in a few Dark Qi pills and laid down comfortably on the ground, with swirls of Dark Qi flowing towards him.

***

"Argh! So noisy." Shadow sleepily took off the comical hat that was covering his face and immediately squinted. 'Damn it! So bright.'

The sun had long risen when Shadow woke up and the light rays were beating down mercilessly on his face. With a feel of his cultivation, Shadow knew that he was still at the Qi Formation upper stage and without much progress in his cultivation base, killing the imperial army is out of the question.

Careful not to phase out of the wall, Shadow fully materialized every part of his body and push opened the door. In front of him, was a sea of people, completely different from the scene at night.

Although Shadow was fully clothed in black under the hot sun, it wasn't abnormal as some powerful figures might want to remain mysterious and thus, disguising themselves. Except for a few glances from some passer-bys, the others remained indifferent about it.

Satisfied by the lack of reaction, Shadow immediately wandered into streets, looking for methods on how to achieve Core Formation stage.

"Meatballs! Selling delicious meatballs! 2 for 50 copper!"

"Don't know what to buy for your kids' birthday? Fret not. My shop..."

The streets were extremely crowded and shameless advertising could be heard coming from the vendors. Shadow, being newly exposed to such things, were of course curious. However, he quickly reminded himself of the main objective and shook the temptation from his head.

"Profound... Weapon..." Shadow was using his Dark Qi to sharpen his hearing and happened to hear those 2 words. Shadow's senses perked and immediately traced towards the source of the sound.

When he reached the source, a large group of people was gathered outside a magnificent looking building. Shadow could sense that there were several Qi Refining cultivators and mortals mixed within that crowd.

Unknown of the situation, Shadow lowered his head slightly and asked a Qi Refining cultivator in a rough voice, "Fellow cultivator, may I ask why is there such a large group of people gathered here?"

"Huh? Can't you..." The Qi Refining cultivator wanted to scold the man that asked the question for being blind but immediately stopped. He carefully gazed at the man's clothing and concluded that this mysterious senior in front of him might have a higher cultivation base than him.

Thus, he immediately changed his tone and smiled while replying, "Respectful senior, up ahead, the young master of the Bai clan, Bai Leng Mo, is selling a low grade profound ranked weapon for 10,000 spirit stones! This is simply outrageous! Daylight robbery! If it isn't the Guild House giving the Bai Clan face, he would long been kicked out of their courtyard. Hmph!"

"Much thanks," Shadow indifferently said before going forward to take a look at the 'outrageous' young master.

When Shadow squeezed his way to the front, he saw an average looking young man looking at the crowd with a gaze of profoundness. A sign stood beside him, 'A set of Profound ranked daggers for 10,000 spirit stones. No negotiations!'

Shadow could hear the people around him loudly criticizing the young man for his outrageous price, however, the young man silently stood there, unfazed by the criticisms.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Shadow and he stepped forward and spoke, "I am willing to buy this for 10,000 spirit stones."

"..." Silence ensued. The young Qi Refining cultivator was flabbergasted. 'What was again the reason I explained to him? Why did I even...sigh...'

Young master Bai smiled and gazed at Shadow, however, he was unable to see Shadow's facial features. With a nod of his head, he motioned Shadow to follow him into the Guild House to make the payment.

Inside a room that young master Bai rented in the Guild House, both of them sat down on each side.

"Here is the set of Profound ranked daggers. Please inspect. If you are satisfied, please make the payment." Young master Bai respectfully said, after all, getting someone to buy a Profound ranked weapon for 5,000 spirit stones is already considered overboard, what more 10,000.

Shadow inspected the daggers carefully. Each dagger was about the size of his hands and was extremely light. The material it was made from was a mixture of the core of a meteorite and other metals, causing the quality to decrease by quite a fair bit. In total, there were 5 of them.

"I will make the payment. However, under one condition." Shadow suddenly said, surprising young master Bai.

Young master Bai frowned and contemplated for a while before saying, "I will hear about it. If it's too absurd, then the deal is off."

"Teach me how to get into Core Formation realm," Shadow went straight to the point.

The cease of his eyebrows lightened as he nodded his head. Soon after, the payment was made and the 2 parties got what they want.

"My name is Bai Leng Mo, call me Bai will do. What's your name?" Bai suddenly remembered that he did not even get to know the other party's name even after the trade.

"Shadow," Shadow curtly replied, not caring about the formalities.

Ignoring Shadow's attitude, Bai smiled and said, "Shadow. I like the name. There are several books on Core Formation in my Bai Clan. I can get some of them for you. Let's go."

With that, both of them left the Guild House by the back door and stopped a carriage to bring them to the Bai clan.