NOVEL NEXT Ch. 57
Chapter 57: Tidespring Silk Armor
After teasing Iron Egg for a while, Chen Beiwu opened the Immortal Alliance Official Website and began shopping.
A batch of premium talisman paper, fifty sheets, priced at five Spirit Yuan—he could buy two batches to practice talismans.
Ten sets of refined formation disks were priced at two Spirit Yuan—high quality and low cost, he could get twenty sets for practice.
A First-Tier high-grade Water Blade Talisman was priced at ten Spirit Yuan. Good—he wasn’t short on money now, so he directly bought five to replenish his stock.
Unfortunately, the Immortal Alliance Official Website imposed restrictions—Second-Tier and higher talismans required special permissions for purchase.
Otherwise, Chen Beiwu could have spent Spirit Yuan to buy dozens of Second-Tier talismans, and with the Quintuple Water-Locking Formation set as a trap, he could’ve given that Cang Thunder Tiger a surprise.
“Forget it. That mysterious Spirit Lake is tempting, but it’s not worth the risk.” Chen Beiwu shook his head and decisively cut off the fantasy.
Second-Realm Lesser Beasts varied in strength. The weak ones had just advanced to the Second Realm, possessing only around fifty years of cultivation. Even if they weren’t killed, being bombarded by dozens of Second-Tier talismans would leave them severely wounded.
But those with over four hundred fifty years of cultivation, brushing the boundary of the Third Realm, could rely on their innate arts to ignore rigid Second-Tier talismans.
If that Cang Thunder Tiger had more than two hundred years of cultivation, then it was no longer a target Chen Beiwu could covet before reaching Foundation Establishment.
“I still need to improve my cultivation strength as soon as possible.” Chen Beiwu clicked on the elixir category.
With the aid of Second-Tier talismans, a Qi Refining cultivator could burst forth with partial power of Foundation Establishment, so talismans had many restrictions. But elixirs, spiritual artifacts, and formations were different.
Most elixirs lacked killing power, and spiritual artifacts and formations required a Foundation Establishment-level host to fully unleash their potential.
Therefore, as long as a cultivator had enough Spirit Yuan, nearly all elixirs, artifacts, and formations sold on the Immortal Alliance Official Website could be purchased freely after registration.
[Qi-Gathering Pill]
[Qi-Consolidating Pill]
[Spirit-Nourishing Pill]
Looking at the dazzling array of elixirs on the Immortal Alliance Official Website, Chen Beiwu clicked through one by one, analyzing cost-performance ratio based on price and efficacy.
The Spirit-Nourishing Pill, a Second-Tier low-grade elixir, greatly boosted the rate at which Qi Refining cultivators absorbed spiritual energy after consumption.
The purer the Spiritual Root of a cultivator, the more significant the enhancement to spiritual energy absorption—up to fifty percent increase.
Note: This pill has a gentle effect. Consuming one bottle per month won’t damage a Qi Refining cultivator’s foundation, making it suitable for long-term use.
Seeing these notes, Chen Beiwu placed an order without hesitation, spending one hundred Spirit Yuan to buy a bottle of Spirit-Nourishing Pill to test its efficacy.
His current cultivation speed was already far superior to others at the same stage.
If the pill worked as described on the details page, Chen Beiwu felt he could raise his cultivation to the Eighth Level of Qi Refining within a month.
After buying the elixirs, Chen Beiwu glanced at the meager balance left on his mobile account and clicked on the artifacts category.
[Heart-Guarding Pendant]
[Mist-Hiding Bracelet]
[Spiraling Spirit Armor]
…
These Second-Tier low-grade spiritual artifacts either consumed too much mana, lacked sufficient defense, or had too many limitations.
In short, after selecting for over ten minutes, Chen Beiwu found not a single defensive artifact that satisfied him.
“Forget it, cheap goods are never good.” Chen Beiwu shook his head and decisively gave up.
Defensive artifacts concerned his life—no room for compromise.
Instead of spending over a hundred Spirit Yuan on a standard low-grade Second-Tier artifact, he might as well wait for the payment from his livestream sales to settle and then buy a high-grade Second-Tier passive defensive artifact that could be used long-term.
For example, the high-grade Second-Tier spiritual artifact [Tidespring Silk Armor] on the Immortal Alliance Official Website, boasting a 99% positive rating.
This armor had three advantages that Qi Refining cultivators could not ignore:
First, an automatic defense function. When a Qi Refining cultivator faced an unavoidable attack, the Tidespring Silk Armor would automatically activate, manifesting a continuously flowing Tidespring water screen for defense. At maximum, it could block a full-force strike from an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Second, an automatic counterattack function. When the Tidespring water screen manifested, the armor would automatically release spiritual water silk to entangle the enemy, buying time for the host to escape.
Third, excellent escape ability. At the cost of completely destroying the armor and losing its spirituality, it could teleport the user to a random location two kilometers away.
However, such numerous advantages also came with a drawback that Qi Refining cultivators found hard to bear—its exorbitant price.
In wartime, a single Tidespring Silk Armor could fetch over ten thousand Spirit Yuan, pricier than five Foundation Establishment Spirit Roots.
Fortunately, the Immortal Alliance had been at peace for a long time, with no wars breaking out, and the price of the Tidespring Silk Armor had dropped continuously.
Now, a piece could be bought for only two thousand Spirit Yuan—Chen Beiwu could afford it once his sales income settled.
“With this artifact for protection, plus the Gate of Ten Directions of Chaos, even if a Foundation Establishment cultivator acts in Biyuan Market, they won’t be able to trap me.”
Thinking this, Chen Beiwu decisively added the Tidespring Silk Armor to his shopping cart, then continued browsing, searching for artifacts that could conceal his aura.
In the scheming world of cultivation in the Southern Wastes, the key in battles between cultivators lay in the information gap.
What was the information gap?
A cultivator’s aura and mana revealed much intelligence.
Powerful rogue cultivators would, before ambushing, analyze the strength and cultivation technique attributes of both sides by detecting their aura and mana, to decide whether to strike.
A Golden Core True Person, if inclined, could use a wisp of mana to perform the Ten-Thousand-Li Soul Lock and pursue a Foundation Establishment cultivator who exposed their aura to death.
This was how higher-realm cultivators crushed lower-realm ones.
It was no exaggeration—in the law-of-the-jungle Southern Wastes, every cultivator with some background always carried at least one aura-concealing artifact when going out to survive longer.
Chen Beiwu previously lacked Spirit Yuan, but now that he had it, he naturally had to make up for this last weakness to avoid being targeted.
After carefully selecting for over ten minutes, Chen Beiwu set his gaze on the mid-grade Second-Tier spiritual artifact [Concealing Jade Pendant].
It was a palm-sized green jade, with aura-obscuring script engraved on its front, offering two main functions.
First, it could block fluctuations in the host’s aura and mana, making it difficult for anyone below late-stage Foundation Establishment to detect their exact realm.
Second, it could blur the host’s appearance and disrupt others’ perception, at best preventing mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators from detecting them with divine sense.
This artifact was priced at five hundred Spirit Yuan—the best cost-performance ratio among concealment artifacts—enough to serve him until Foundation Establishment.
[Added to shopping cart successfully]
Seeing the interface pop up on his phone screen, Chen Beiwu shook his head.
Spirit Yuan in the account sure spent fast.
He merely browsed the Immortal Alliance Official Website for a bit, and the proceeds from selling Yellow-Tailed Dendrobium were almost used up.
Fortunately, his livestream sales business had started showing promise.
With that thought, Chen Beiwu listed the Yellow-Tailed Dendrobium in the Wanling app’s window at the high price of twenty-five Spirit Yuan per jin.
This way, during his next livestream, he could use huge discounts, clearance sales, and hunger marketing tactics to lure more cultivators into impulse buying.
After all, some cultivators bought things online not out of need, but for the thrill of getting a bargain—especially when missing it meant losing a one-time-only deal.