In front of a towering building, stood a lone young man with white hair. As he looked at the tower, his eyes betrayed a bit of surprise. This young man was Curo. Although he hadn’t had any high hopes for this Merit Point Change as it was tailored towards Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment Disciples, he hadn’t expected it to be so populated.

In the fifteen minutes he had stood there, he had seen hundreds of Qi Gathering and Foundation Establishment Disciples enter and leave. He then set his steps inside and was greeted by a sight of rows and rows of stalls with Disciples selling materials and treasures. He had heard that in addition to the “Official Merit Point Exchange” the Sect also allowed Disciples to put up stalls to trade among themselves.

Since the Sect ensured that there was no troubles to be had inside the Sect, a lot of Disciples traded unneeded cultivation resources or treasures with one another for something they needed. Without spending time strolling around, Curo headed straight to the back end of the building where a row of tables with Qi Gathering Disciples were attending to various other Disciples. This was the so called “Official Merit Point Exchange”.

Curo calmly waited in line with the various other Disciples and when it was his turn, he calmly asked the Disciple in charge of the desk for a list of items. After getting the jade slip that recorded all of the items up for exchange with their value in merit points and Spirit Stones, Curo calmly scanned through for the things he needed. After finding all the things he needed and calculating how many Merit Points he would have left over, he started scrolling through the list of items to see whether there would be anything there to pick his interest.

He found several items that piqued his interest but in the end, he decided not to buy them. He had no need for these items so he didn’t see the point of spending the Merit Points to purchase them if they were only there to collect dust in his Spatial Estate. With everything picked out, he headed back to the desk and gave the list of items he wished to trade, the young lady’s face changed as she said, “I am sorry, I can’t complete a trade of this magnitude. Excuse me for a moment, while I call over someone who can.” Curo didn’t raise a fuss and calmly nodded his head and decided to wait.

Without even a minute going by, a middle aged man came out of the back room. He radiated the aura of a Foundation Establishment cultivator and seeing Curo, his eyes first showed surprise, then they narrowed. “I am not familiar with this Disciple, he doesn’t seem to be from any influential Clan or someone that has stood out…. Is he the famous boy from the Main Sect?”

His brows furrowed as these thoughts passed his mind. Without missing a beat, he smiled and gestured towards the back room and said, “Fellow Disciple, please follow me to the back room to complete the trade.” Curo nodded his head and followed the middle aged man into the back room. Actually, it was more like an office.

The walls were filled with bookshelves and in the back of the room was a table with stacks of documents on them. In the middle of the room was a small coffee table with two couches on opposite side of the table. The middle aged man gestured to one of the couches and said, “Please take a seat.” Curo nonchalantly headed to one of the couches and sat down. The middle aged man then set down on the opposite side of him as a young Qi Gathering Disciple entered and served them a cup of tea.

After taking a sip, the middle aged man set the cup down and said, “Without taking too much of fellow Disciples time, I will get down to business.” Curo sat up straight and the middle aged man continued, “The purchase you wish to conduct is worth over 700 000 Merit Points and the sheer volume of the materials and Pills that fellow Disciple wishes to purchase is an extraordinary amount.” He then took a deep breath as he cautiously said, “It is going to take a few hours to prepare all of the materials and Pills that fellow Disciple wishes to purchase. I am sorry if I seem rude but can fellow Disciple please pay the Merit Points upfront?”

As the man said that, it was obvious that he had an embarrassed expression on his face. Usually, you had to pay the Merit Points upon receiving the materials or Pills. However, since it would take a few hours to only prepare all of the items…. If it later turned out that Curo didn’t have enough Merit Points to exchange all of the items, then all of the work would be for naught and they would need to waste several more hours to store everything again. Curo understood the reason that the middle aged man asked him to pay up front. He didn’t know whether there were people that wasted their time like that but it seemed like it had happened before.

Curo took the Commander Badge out from his Spatial Ring and handed it to the middle aged man saying, “Please deduct the Merit Points from here.” After the middle aged man received the Badge, his face didn’t change as he left the room to deduct the points. As soon as he left the room and the door closed, the man’s face changed. He looked at the badge in his hands as he thought back to the incident that shook the Sect half a year ago.

The young man had slapped a Middle Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator down the Main Hall mountain with a single slap. Neither of the two Guarding Disciples had even had the chance to react before one of them had already flown down the mountain. That Disciple needed several months of secluded meditation with several High Grade Healing Pills to recover. Seeing the Badge in his hand, he knew that the young man sitting in the room was that very same person. He quickly deduced the Merit Points and instructed the Disciples in charge of preparing the items to hurry. He then headed back to the room and found the young man slowly sipping tea.

He sat back down and then produced a jade slip as and handed it to Curo alongside his Commander Badge. He then said, “Listed there are personal trades of Foundation Establishment Cultivators and upwards. If fellow disciple has time, he can take a look and see if anything catches your eye.” Curo raised an eyebrow as he had not heard of this kind of thing.

The middle aged man then let out a hearty laugh as he said, “Usually, only either Disciples with special standings or those that have reached Late Foundation Establishment and are preparing for Core Formation are included in the circle of these trades. It isn’t something weird that fellow Disciple doesn’t know of it.” Curo nodded his head and took the jade slip and casually looked through it. It didn’t have anything useful for Curo.

There were various Cultivation Arts, Pills, Treasures or raw materials. Curo didn’t have any use for any of them as he already possessed a Top Grade Cultivation Art and more Top Grade Pills for Cultivation than all of those people combined. Some of the raw materials did pique his interest however, as with the Official Merit Point Exchange, he didn’t have any use for them so he didn’t see the point of purchasing them. As he scrolled down the list, a certain item made Curo’s eyes turn wide. He quickly checked the description and immediately a wide smile spread on his face.

Curo then turned to the middle aged man and asked, “These trades…. Are the registered items here or do I have to meet the seller to purchase them?” The middle aged man quickly responded, “All the items for sale there are stored here. It is to ensure that no one can list an empty trade or change the prices later on.” Curo nodded his head and then set down the jade slip and said, “Then I also wish to purchase item number 77, “Soul Seed Refinement Method (Incomplete)””

Hearing this, the middle aged man’s face turned a bit odd. Seeing this, Curo frowned as eh asked, “Is there something wrong?” The middle aged man shook his head and gave Curo a pitying glance as he sighed, “To tell you the truth fellow Disciple, I don’t recommend purchasing that…. There have been several dozens of Core Formation Elders and even a Nascent Soul Elder that have studied the Art to maybe somehow complete it but all of them have failed.” Curo listened to the man and nodded his head. He had expected as much.

Curo then smiled as he said, “Fellow Disciple doesn’t need to worry. The Art just piqued my interest so I wish to purchase it. If by luck I manage to complete it, then it would good. If not, then I can put it back on sale for someone else to try their luck with it.” The middle aged man sighed as he nodded his head and asked for the badge again. After deducting the points, the man handed Curo a worn out jade slip. Curo immediately sent some Qi into the jade slip and carefully read through the contents. The more he read, the wider the smile on his face spread.

Seeing this, the middle aged man felt curious but felt that it was not his place to ask. After some time passed, a Qi Gathering Disciple entered the room and humbly gave the middle aged man a Spatial Ring. The man sent a bit of Qi into the ring to double check all of the contents before nodding to the Disciple, indicating that everything was there and that he could leave. After the Disciple had left the room, the middle aged man handed Curo the Spatial Ring and said, “All of the items you purchased are in there. Feel free to check them.” Curo nodded his head and accepted the Ring.

He sent a bit of Qi into the Ring and looked over all the items. Seeing that they were all of there, he nodded his head and stood up. After changing a few more words with the middle aged man, Curo left. After exiting the Merit Points Exchange, Curo headed towards the Mission Hall. After talking out all of the details of the mission with the Disciple in Charge, Curo left for the Sect Gates. After leaving the gates, Curo pulled out a small black board.

The board then enlarged enough for Curo to sit on it and after checking the direction he needed to go in, Curo left the Sect. He was heading towards the Laying Dragon Fortress and the road there wasn’t exactly long. If he kept this pace, he would arrive there in three days time. If he truly hurried he would be able to arrive with only a day. Curo then sat down cross legged and fished out two worn out jade slips. One of them was the one he had purchased an hour ago, the other however looked extremely similar to the one he had purchased.

He then mumbled to himself, “To think that I would finally find the beginning to this Refining Technique after all these years.” As he mumbled that to himself, excitement was obvious in his eyes. He had found the later part of the technique from the ruins of an Ancient Experts Tomb during his First Rebirth. He had always kept this jade slip, even though he couldn’t use it, in hopes of one day finding the beginning of the technique.

Now, roughly 8000 years later, he had accidentally stumbled on the beginning part of the technique.