Li Shiming even saw several stalls selling elixirs, which was also rare on Tianhai Island.
On Tianhai Island, alchemy is rarely practiced by casual cultivators. Even if there are casual cultivators who study alchemy, they are only making the lowest-level elixirs.
Most of the elixirs that are truly provided for cultivators in the middle and late stages of Qi Refining require the inner elixirs of sea beasts, which are not something that casual cultivators can access.
But here, he had already seen the elixirs provided for the cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining, and they were on the stall.
Li Shiming walked past the first fixed shop, which sold magical instruments. He did not go in, but only used his spiritual sense to probe in and saw the situation inside clearly.
The shop has a wide variety of magical instruments, from low-grade to high-grade, all with clearly marked prices on the first floor.
Each magic weapon has a scroll on which the shape and size of the magic weapon are clearly marked. There is also a description of the magic weapon below without any concealment. The spirit stones sold are also marked on it.
Besides making it clear at a glance, it also stopped some monks who did not have enough spirit stones and wanted to bargain.
He looked at the value of the magic weapons, and there was only one word: "expensive". The value of all the magic weapons was 30% higher than that of Tianhai Island, especially the top-grade magic weapons, which were more than doubled in value.
Li Shiming passed by several shops, and his understanding of the immortal cultivation world in Northern Shu was deepening.
It seems that because Bei Shu has more resources and a larger number of monks, the resources here are richer than Tianhai Island. But precisely because there are so many monks, the competition for resources is more intense.
This raises the value of magical weapons, and only those who possess stronger magical weapons can gain a say in the competition.
On the contrary, the prices of cultivation resources, such as elixirs, are relatively low, which makes it easier for cultivators to practice.
On Tianhai Island, only cultivators with sufficient talent can obtain the right to join the sect. The talent requirements of other small sects are a little lower, but those with talents such as five spiritual roots will be recruited into small sects on Tianhai Island, and they will be regarded as miscellaneous people and have almost no qualifications for cultivation.
But in Northern Shu, as long as one is found to have talent, then there is the possibility of cultivation.
Their aptitude is too poor to join a large sect, but many small sects or immortal cultivation forces will accept children with spiritual roots.
No matter how poor one's spiritual roots are, with the supply of elixirs, it is not a problem to become a cultivator in the early stage of Qi Refining.
After becoming a cultivator in the early stage of Qi Refining, he can be asked to earn spirit stones for the force, or take up a secondary position, or open mines, etc.
Mortals cannot survive for long in areas with abundant spiritual energy, and physical labor such as mining spiritual mines is done by monks.
While comparing, Li Shiming walked into a shop selling classics.
An old man at the fifth level of Qi Refining in the shop looked up at him, but didn't say anything, and returned his gaze to the book in his hand.
All the books are placed with their covers facing outwards on the shelf behind the counter, with a description and price below each book.
There were many Qi Refining techniques and spells, introductory techniques for various secondary positions, and even cultivation experiences written by the cultivators themselves. If Li Shiming had not known that this was a book store, he would have thought he had entered a sect's hidden skills pavilion.
What surprised him the most was that there were several jade slips placed in the middle, and the introduction below was actually a technique for the Foundation Establishment Period.
Wow, the foundation-building techniques are just displayed here, allowing cultivators to buy them.
But if you think about it, you will know that the skills that can be sold here are naturally not the best ones, but for independent cultivators, as long as they have a foundation-building skill, then there is hope.
Li Shiming saw what he wanted, a book map, priced at seventy spirit stones.
He could afford seventy spirit stones, but he still felt the high prices in Northern Shu. The most expensive books and maps placed on Tianhai Island would not be more than seven spirit stones.
"I want this one!" Li Shiming took out seventy spirit stones and pointed at the map in the book.
"This is a complete map for the monks of my clan to travel outside, and it covers information within ten thousand miles!" The old monk took the book, looked at Li Shiming with a look of connoisseurship in his eyes and said.
After giving the spirit stone, Li Shiming took the book.
The map is comprehensive, not only showing the geographical situation, but also the distribution of various forces and the locations of local markets.
More importantly, this is a map mainly for Qi Refining cultivators, and danger signs are marked in all areas beyond the realm of Qi Refining cultivators.
Li Shiming nodded and put the map away.
Just as he was about to leave the shop, he suddenly heard a loud roar outside, and it seemed that the ground in the market began to shake.
His face changed, and the starlight sea of the formation sensed the strong fluctuations of the formation, which was caused by the formation being attacked.
There was actually a cultivator who was forcefully attacking the formation outside the market town, and that cultivator's strength must have exceeded the Qi Refining Stage, otherwise he would not have been able to cause such a big commotion.
"Don't act rashly, the Wei family monks will handle everything!" The old monk was also frightened. He looked at Li Shiming vigilantly and warned him.
It seems that the old monk is worried that Li Shiming will take advantage of the situation to rob him, because Li Shiming's cultivation is much stronger than his.
Li Shiming didn't say much. He left the shop and the old monk quickly closed the door.
The market town was in chaos at this time. All shops were closed. Customers and stall owners in the market town were running. Some were running towards the exits, and some were approaching the Wei family’s residence, hoping to get safe shelter there.
Li Shiming knew very well that it would be best not to go to either side at this time.
When the situation is unclear, the best option is to find a place to hide first.
His figure came to the valley wall, which was covered by a formation that prevented any cultivator from approaching.
However, he took strange steps with his feet and followed the direction of the spiritual power line to enter the formation.
He then took out several formation flags and inserted them into the valley wall, forming a small isolation formation with his body as the center.
Because of the cover of the formation set up by Wei, it is not easy to discover his small isolation formation.
"Is this considered watching from the sidelines?" Li Shiming said to himself with a smile.
He was not too worried, as he had seen foundation-building cultivators before. Even in the worst case scenario, he could rely on his sword skills and control over the formation to escape.
At this time, the formation at the entrance of the valley was broken, and three foundation-building monks led more than thirty Qi-refining monks into the market.
"The Tie family is doing this, all cultivators are not allowed to move, anyone violating the rules will be killed!" A group of Qi-refining cultivators shouted to the panicked cultivators at the entrance of the valley.
There were only a dozen cultivators at the entrance of the valley, and among them there was not even a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Stage. When faced with such a powerful Tie family, they were all scared silly and dared not resist.
A group of Qi-refining monks from the Tie family easily subdued these monks, and there wasn't even a fight.
The doors of the fixed shops were tightly closed, but soon after the group of Qi-refining monks from the Tie family issued a warning, they were all opened again, and the monks inside came out and surrendered themselves obediently.
It was very quiet at the Wei family base. Even the dozen or so cultivators who had escaped were blocked outside the base. No Wei family cultivator showed up.
The Tie family cultivators acted quickly and controlled all the cultivators. As long as they did not resist, they would not be killed.
This made the monks involved in the dispute feel a little relieved, but this time their property loss was inevitable.
Every monk’s storage bag and belongings were searched, leaving only the clothes on their bodies.
The cultivators of the Tie family soon arrived outside the Wei family’s residence, and three cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage stood in three directions respectively.
"Wei Lin, don't think about waiting for other Wei family cultivators anymore. The Hu family had already surrounded and killed them before they came!" The Foundation Establishment cultivator in the middle said while summoning his spiritual power.
"Have the Tie family and the Hu family joined forces? This formation of my Wei family was built by a high-level formation master. Just attack slowly if you have the strength!" Wei Lin suppressed his anger and his voice came out from the base.
"You, the Wei family, occupy the market town and even want to occupy the spiritual mine. Your ambition is too big. You are courting death. Do you think you can stop us with this formation?" The Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Tie family said loudly.
After saying that, the three foundation-building monks of the Tie family used their super-grade magic weapons to attack the Wei family's base formation. Every attack would cause the formation to shake, but after attacking dozens of times in a row, they still could not break the formation.
Li Shiming, who was watching from the sidelines, saw the mystery in it. The formation was arranged very cleverly, and the core should be the spiritual vein.
The Wei family’s base should have a top-grade spiritual vein, and a defensive formation arranged with the top-grade spiritual vein as the core. As long as the upper limit of the attack does not exceed the power of the peak of foundation building, it will be difficult to break the protection of this formation.
This formation is not afraid of long-term attacks. As long as the spiritual power in the formation is not consumed all at once, the high-quality spiritual veins will continuously replenish the spiritual power in the formation.
No wonder the cultivator named Wei Lin was able to remain calm when he heard that other cultivators in the family were being besieged. It turned out that he was protected by this formation.
Li Shiming became somewhat interested, mainly because the danger was not great. Among the three foundation-building cultivators, only one was in the middle stage of foundation-building, and the strength of the other two was only in the early stage.
The three foundation-building cultivators all practice ordinary techniques, which can be judged from the power of their attacks.
Since none of these cultivators are proficient in formations, he might have a chance to sneak into the Wei family’s base to take a look.
He did what he wanted to do. He put away the formation flags and moved along the valley wall towards the Wei camp.
He came to the junction of the Wei family’s base and the valley wall, and ahead was the defensive formation of the Wei family’s base.
Li Shiming carefully sent out a trace of spiritual thought and made contact with the defensive formation. Fortunately, there were three Tie family foundation-building cultivators who were constantly attacking the formation, making it impossible for the person controlling the formation to detect other abnormalities, which gave him an opportunity.
IBMz15 analyzed the information perceived by the spiritual mind and began calculations based on the knowledge of the formation.
In Li Shiming's spiritual consciousness, he soon received data support provided by IBMz15, and the spiritual power lines appeared under his spiritual consciousness.
This formation was set up by a high-level formation master, and its level is extremely high. If it were a normal high-level formation master, it would still be quite troublesome to break this formation.
Especially when one does not want to alarm the monks inside, the difficulty increases exponentially.
Li Shiming was simple. When the three Tie family foundation-building cultivators attacked again, he stepped into the defensive formation.
Countless spiritual power lines are running through the formation. If you move any of them, you will be attacked by the formation.
He used his spiritual thoughts to constantly guide the spiritual power lines to bypass his body. This required extremely complex calculations to support it. Otherwise, as long as there was the slightest conflict between the spiritual power lines and the overall formation, it would be discovered by the formation host.
At a distance of just one meter, Li Shiming and the IBM z15 performed a massive amount of calculations before they were able to enter the base silently.
After passing through the most stringent defense layer, the spiritual power circuits inside were not so complicated, allowing him to travel through the spiritual power circuits, which also greatly increased his movement speed.
The Wei family’s residence invited an expert in formation to arrange the structure. The buildings in the entire residence were built according to the formation’s orientation, and each building is a node.
Li Shiming didn't know how the Wei family had the ability to invite such a high-level formation master to take action, but he was amazed by the formation here.
The monks of the Wei clan's base were all gathered in one place, right at the entrance of the base, where there was a formation defense layer that confronted the Tie clan monks.
This gave Li Shiming more opportunities and he didn't have to worry about being discovered.
The spiritual energy in the base is extremely rich, which means that no mortals will appear in the base.
His figure flashed between the buildings, and he carefully released his spiritual thoughts, sweeping across every area.
The defensive formation of the Wei family's base already had a general design drawing in IBMz15, and it was constantly being improved as his spiritual thoughts continued to extend in the base.
Li Shiming also had a clear goal and no longer searched randomly like before.
He approached the mountain behind the Wei family’s base, and the closer he got, the more cautious he became.
His spiritual sense sensed a slight fluctuation of breath, and there were actually cultivators guarding the spiritual vein of the Wei family’s residence.
He hesitated for a moment, then immediately made up his mind.
He threw out the seventy-two formation flags in his hand. As soon as each flag touched the ground, it was integrated into the defensive formation of the base and disappeared.
Soon all seventy-two formation flags disappeared, and the formation near the mountain was completely under his control. The connection with the formation host was also cut off, and the seventy-two formation flags continuously sent false messages to the formation host.
After doing all this, he walked towards the wall of the back mountain. A secret door hidden by a formation did not stop him at all and allowed him to walk in.
This is a cave residence. The spiritual vein is located in the center of the cave residence hall, and a cultivator in the early stage of foundation building is sitting cross-legged there.
"Who are you?" The monk was startled, raised his head, looked at Li Shiming, who was wearing a bamboo hat and a veil covering his face, and asked in a deep voice.
He saw that Li Shiming was a Qi-refining cultivator and he could control him, so he did not take action immediately but asked instead.
Li Shiming, however, noticed the aging of this cultivator in the early stage of foundation building. Generally speaking, the ageing rate of a cultivator's face is very slow, and cultivators generally do not pay too much attention to their appearance, so they seldom practice techniques to maintain their appearance, wasting their own spiritual energy.
The aging of this cultivator in the early stage of foundation building does not only refer to his appearance, but also the exhaustion of his vitality, which is approaching the end of his life.