Chapter 46: Joyous Number 5 Marketplace
Meanwhile, Li Ling finally arrived at the gates of the Joyous Number 5 Marketplace after reorienting himself a few times due to changes in the locale compared to when he last traveled through this general area about a decade ago. As it were, the place was quite bustling, slightly less so than the number 9 marketplace due to the general ideological differences between the regions.
Not to mention, the sheer number of females of all ages here was overwhelming. About 90% of passersby were women—whether real or in disguise—so in order to blend in, Li Ling was currently wearing a light purple hanfu with a fair bit of makeup to make himself look feminine.
Along with the miraculous Essence Locking Technique to suppress his surging yang essence, anyone who looked at him or scanned him would truly believe that he was a female cultivator.
As for things like shame or shyness, he had been through too much to care. When he first passed through back then, he had been forced to disguise himself as a young girl and had many close encounters that could be seen as comedic from a third-person point of view, with Li Ling himself feeling extreme humiliation at the time.
He even remembered swearing that if he ever got the chance, he would annihilate the Boundless Joy Sect and bring righteousness to the world.
Ha.
While Li Ling walked over in a regal manner, he made good use of his Qi Seeking Technique to scan all those around him, gauging the strength of the cultivators here to see how feasible his plans of mass slaughter were.
One thing Li Ling had to say was that everyone here was truly fierce.
Most of the qi signatures he saw had a mixture of Qi Refinement and Mortal Flesh power, though not always at a high level. It seemed that rather than charge for higher realms, demonic cultivators—or those who resided in demonic cultivation regions—preferred to have stronger foundations and battle power per level than raw realm.
Well, it also helped that unlike righteous cultivators who relied on traditional cultivation practices, demonic cultivators could level up much faster by using other creatures as nourishment, as long as they could withstand the backlash.
Just at the entrance of the marketplace, Li Ling felt the first difference between the two types of sects. The market gate was guarded heavily by female cultivators wearing loose garbs, looking more like solicitors at a red-light district than stern security guards who were checking to make sure that safety was upheld.
"Hi dear~ Five Spirit Shards to enter the market~" The guard glanced at Li Ling and cooed pleasantly, seeming less like a stranger and more like a long-lost female friend.
Li Ling smiled and paid the amount without hassle, knowing that the fee was a flat rate. Unlike righteous sect markets, which had free entry and were covered by protection arrays, demonic markets were unmanned but guarded physically, because it fit the ecosystem far better.
"You whore! How dare you take my Senior Brother away and kill him!" A sudden cry sounded in front of Li Ling as a young girl aged about 17 swung her spirit artifact sword at another woman who was scantily dressed.
The scantily dressed woman chuckled and dodged backward, releasing a wave of pink mist with a sweep of her hand. "Oh dear, don’t be like this, dear sister. I simply saw your Senior Brother ogling my breasts and made an invitation he couldn’t refuse~"
The young girl seemed to recognize the pink mist and threw a grade 1 Detoxifying Pill along with a Clear Mind Pill, charging through the mist without a care for its effects.
"You lie! If you hadn’t seduced him, how would he have fallen? Who doesn’t know the power of the charm arts you whores of the Joy Sect use? Since you took his life, hand me yours!" The young girl was irate, her cultivation base exploding to reveal that she was at the seventh level of Qi Refinement.
Meanwhile, her foe was even stronger than her at the eighth level of Qi Refinement. However, she was soon made to retreat in disgrace and even coughed blood in pain, not only because these yang-plundering demonesses were not good at frontal combat, but because this talented young miss was also a body refiner at Mortal Flesh level 5.
With such a combo, she could even trade a few blows with a Qi Refinement Perfection combat cultivator as long as the person did not use daoist arts at the Expert level and above.
Interestingly, despite this being her home turf, no one, not even the nearby Joy Sect market guards, bothered to come and help. Rather, they were all cooing and chattering with laughter, causing the ears of any male onlookers to be filled with pleasantness due to their special lilt.
"Oh dear, sister is really angry~ Why don’t you let me make amends for your Senior Brother’s death and we call it even?~" The eighth-level demoness began to plead for her life, but even doing so, she handled it in a playful, charming manner.
PFFFT!
The young girl did not care about this and ruthlessly swiped her sword across the neck of the demoness, beheading her in public. She grimaced at the sight of the blood spurting from the neck of the corpse, but did not shy away from it, rather glaring at everyone watching the scene with a certain ferocity.
However, none shied away from the scene, even those who were weaker. Unlike in the righteous sect marketplace where those weaker understood the unspoken rules and did not want to give those stronger than them an excuse to torment them, the cultivators here seemed to be more casual.
The young girl seemed to realize this as well and snorted coldly, flinging the blood off her blade as she walked away. Meanwhile, a scramble soon ensued for the corpse that was left behind as various people reached for it.
"Wow, a late-stage Qi Refinement corpse! I can make a great corpse puppet with this!"
"No one block me! Her body is still warm, I can hatch many Dark Spider Eggs from it!"
"I just want to borrow the body for a day or two! I can’t afford to bed a real demoness, so trying their corpse should not be wrong, right?"
"Such rich blood! She has likely drained more than a hundred men, my Carnivorous Vine Gourd needs her!"
Li Ling’s eyes initially lit up as he prepared to unsheathe his spear and reap the lives of everyone who participated in the scuffle under the guise of wanting the corpse, but he had to give up with a sigh when the Joy Sect guards came around.
"Hey hey~ You guys know the rules, everything in the market not purchased belongs to the sect~" One of them crowed enticingly, making those scuffling shudder as their eyes cleared and they instantly left the area, not wanting to break the spoken rules.
That’s right, the Joy Sect directly stipulated that if something was found in the market, it belonged to the sect. If you lose your storage ring due to pickpocketing, then you’d better find that thief and slaughter them, because if someone else does, it becomes theirs.
If all parties somehow died and the ring fell to the floor, its ownership defaulted to the market immediately.
"If you want to buy my Junior Sister’s corpse, you can come to the Human Treasures Pavilion in the market center~" The other Joy Sect guard explained to the crowd, especially for the newcomers.
Li Ling watched all of this with arms folded, severely tempted to take a weapon out and begin a crazed slaughter. However, the impulse was suppressed by him as even he knew when and where to be frivolous with his behavior.
In the end, he bypassed the scene and went deeper into the market. The Joy Sect number 5 market had a layout completely different from the number 9 marketplace that Li Ling was used to.
First off, this one did not have class or realm-based sections, but was rather a mishmash of whatever was convenient. You could see a row of uniformly constructed houses, then a bunch of shops, gambling dens and brothels surrounding them, clearly catering to the people there.
Secondly, the sheer amount of pink and purple decorations was becoming overwhelming. The majority of denizens here were women—demonic path women especially—who plundered yang as a part of their daily practice or occupation. By nature, aside from their nymphomaniac behaviors, they were more traditionally feminine than what was stereotyped.
Li Ling looked at the various beauties of all types of builds and sizes, and couldn’t help but feel tempted. The last time he had indulged himself was when he was on Earth, where as an architect with a relatively solid job and car, he could pick up a few girls every month for fun.
Since coming to Firmament Heaven, he had been on tenterhooks, not daring to indulge because he vaguely remembered that such things had actual detrimental effects on cultivators unless they reached a certain realm first.
So yes, it was true. The almighty Li Ling, who had caused so much death, dismay and mayhem in just about a week or so since awakening the Infinite Slaughter System, was actually a virgin.
Well, physically at least.
Still, he had abstained for fear of harm, but the Essence Locking Technique made it such that such a thing would never be a problem. In that case, he could completely become a hedonistic madman, indulging crazily in the pleasures of the flesh.
Li Ling smiled and looked away from the temptations.
Anyway, such things would always be there, especially with where he was heading. When he set his base down and got his system working in its most optimal state, there would be plenty of time to enjoy what life had to offer.
As it were, Li Ling came to this marketplace to offload his goods and see if he could find a suitable Foundation Establishment technique before moving on. If possible, he could buy a new mount, one that was not tied to "demonic cultivator Li Ling," and use it to make his future journey much easier.
Li Ling initially wanted to set up a stall and flaunt his goods to attract bandits to try and attack him later, but he saw that the stall area was already chock-full of people. The great thing about demonic sect markets was that they allowed the sale of everything, so anyone could see what they wanted.
As such, Li Ling saw everything that should not be sold under the sun. From forbidden techniques, to slave trading live races, to even trading those same creatures dead.
Li Ling stopped before a stall that sold some bizarre techniques, the seller being a rickety old man with scattered teeth who was at Qi Refinement level 3. Of course, that was just for other people to see, as Li Ling’s Perfection Qi Seeking Technique had long sussed out that the old man was at Perfected Qi Refinement.
Li Ling had nothing to say to this, as about half of the people here either directly flaunted their cultivation or hid it, for various reasons. He himself limited his cultivation to the seventh level, high enough to be given basic respect among bottom-level cultivators like these while low enough to still play pig to eat the tiger.
"Hehehe, young lady, you have good taste by stopping here. Old Li’s techniques are absolutely the best in the entire world, with none being able to match!" The old man boasted through a wheeze, grinning widely and displaying his rotting gums.
Li Ling raised an eyebrow and began to peruse the techniques, but was slowly shocked and pleased to find that these techniques, while unorthodox, actually boasted great utility.
Immediately, Li Ling selected three of the best he had seen and put them down on the table, glancing at the old man with a flicker in his eye.
"I’ll take these three. Give me a discount of 50% or I’ll kill you and everyone you love."