Though it was regarded as the street of commerce of Bone Spirit Town and not as respectable as the Purity Road, the Harmony Road was still an integral portion of the town.
In this street, the domestic clans and businesses had taken root and established themselves as the supreme authority of the location.
Other than the Eight Immortals Pavilion that An Fei no longer frequented due to the incident regarding the small fox and Fang Man, there were numerous shops advocating rare and beautifully crafted jewelry, household accessories, and even medicinal stores.
Due to the Harmony Road not possessing any association with the path of cultivation other than the members of the clans aspiring to be practitioners of spiritual essence, the stores were only able to display commonplace goods for sale.
Nonetheless, it was possible to hunt for accessories infused by spiritual essence – in the form of accessory and jewelry shopping.
In the Shattered Star Continent, there were two primary methods of infusing spiritual essence into accessories and other inanimate objects.
The first was a man-made infusion in the form of a craftsmanship or forging technique that utilized the practitioner’s accumulated reserves of spiritual essence; the spiritual essence would be concentrated into a unified stream, which was then poured into every naturally crafted vein of the specified object.
Depending on the intricacy and effectiveness of the technique in manipulating spiritual essence and the crafter’s own skill, the object possessed a chance of retaining spiritual essence and becoming an enhanced accessory.
This method was extraordinarily reliant on the crafters and their ability to process spiritual essence, and thus, was not suitable for general consumption.
Any enhanced object formed from a developed hammering, forging, or crafting technique was imbued by not only the imprint of the practitioner’s spiritual essence, but also the technique’s primary principles.
Thus, such accessories were incompatible with most cultivators and as a result – the majority of the man-made enhanced objects were tailor-made objects that were unique to a single practitioner.
The second method was to amass a great quantity of materials discovered from a region of land that was blessed with a large quantity of atmospheric spiritual qi, to the extent that the objects within the vicinity naturally absorbed the spiritual qi.
Once the materials gathered a sufficient quantity of atmospheric spiritual qi that they could release a distinct fluctuation, any blacksmith or crafter could uphold the materials to create an enhanced object.
The second method allowed for the mass-production of spiritual accessories and weapons that were widely compatible with the general practitioner.
As it implemented a higher catalogue of ingredients but a less developed primer and fusion, the enhanced objects could be forged by even a completely ordinary, mortal blacksmith as long as the given knowledge for the specific product.
Enhanced accessories could, just as their name permitted, enhance the basic abilities of a practitioner.
Some were capable of amplifying the agility, strength of a cultivator, or mitigate incoming forces by a certain extent.
Others could even bestow amplification towards martial arts techniques reliant on a specific elemental attribute, and a select few could bestow legendary blessings including longevity.
In this regard, man-made enhanced objects provided a more significant amplification compared to a general-made enhanced accessory crafted from materials imbued with spiritual qi.
Of course, the costs in acquiring a man-made enhanced object was exorbitant and nearly impossible to acquire for the average practitioner, thus many were not even aware of its existence.
The Xiao Clan’s Xiao Yue was exploring the Harmony Road for that specific reason.
As a domestic clan in Bone Spirit Town, the Xiao Clan still possessed basic knowledge regarding the path of cultivation.
Though they lacked their own specialized cultivation technique, the Xiao Clan was able to develop a unique set of martial arts techniques tailored towards the practitioners born in the Xiao Clan.
The knowledge regarding the hunt for enhanced accessories was not hidden from the Xiao Clan, and they dispatched Xiao Yue with a fresh platoon of guards – all for the hope of increasing her worth to Fang Man as well as the Fang Clan.
If she appeared before her betrothal door whilst possessing a spiritual accessory combined with her swift progress in cultivation as a peak Body Tempering Realm cultivator, then perhaps she could secure her position as Fang Man’s official wife – simultaneously securing the Xiao Clan’s successful future.
Even after An Fei’s display of intimidation, this goal had not changed.
The little raven watched from above as Xiao Yue with a platoon of twenty guards roamed throughout the Harmony Road, their senses attuned to their maximum capabilities to detect even the slightest fluctuation of spiritual qi.
For the chances of enhanced accessories imbued with spiritual essence were too low, they were only privy to the knowledge that accessories that possessed a fluctuation of atmospheric spiritual qi was their target.
“Young Miss, I believe that the stall towards the southern end of the street may possess one or two spiritual artefacts.”
A younger guard quickly returned from his search to inform Xiao Yue of his findings, leaning forwards to reduce the chances of eavesdropping.
The little raven watched with amusement as the young man attempted to maintain secrecy of the information, as well as attempt to rub at the Young Miss of the Xiao Clan’s tofu.
“Are you certain regarding the validity of the objects?”
Xiao Yue raised an eyebrow, unaware of someone who dared to covertly steal her tofu whilst their name was not Fang Man.
“I…” the young guard rubbed his head, a frown displayed on his rough countenance.
“Young Miss… the fluctuation I could perceive was not concrete… it was fleeting at times, and sometimes I could not even detect it at all.”
The young lady rubbed at the base of her chin, her lips soundlessly moving as she mused on the chances of her obtaining an enhanced object.
Just as she was about to agree to the young guard’s preposition, a senior soldier raced towards her, gasping for breath in anxiousness.
“Young Miss,” the older guard panted with his hands on his knees, passing a paper marked with a location towards the young lady instead of transmitting the information by mouth.
“The location marked on the page… I distinctly felt not just one, but three spiritual accessories! Not only that, the fluctuation emanating from one of them nearly blew me away…”
“That powerful?”
Xiao Yue murmured in surprise, her beautiful eyes bouncing with surprise.
The young lady gazed at the older guard with a slight tinge of suspicion, her mind unable to readily accept the situation.
The senior soldier before her was from her Father’s platoon, and was of a peak Body Tempering Realm cultivator!
Father even once praised the guard for reaching half a step into the Foundation Establishment Realm, but to think that the fluctuations of an enhanced object was able to repel him…
She needed it!
“Take me there, I need to obtain it at all costs!”
The young lady demanded, her lips twitching as they fought to restrain themselves from curving upwards into a delightful smile.
As they raced, her mind inadvertently flashed to a daydream of her walking alongside of Fang Man, their two hearts merged into one…
Caw!
Overhead, the little raven’s crimson eyes flashed with a hint of playfulness and laughter. With a flap of its wings, the little creature took alight from its perch, fully intending to offer its ‘mount’ a ‘delightful’ surprise.
–
“A ragged stall at the western end of the Harmony Road has some good objects?”
An Fei raised an eyebrow towards the unusually excited little raven perched on the end of a brick across from her body, her eyes suffused with more than a sliver of doubt.
The young girl frowned as she attempted to sift through the clues presented in her loose interpretation of the raven’s communication.
She felt that with each passing day, she could roughly decipher the contents of the information presented in the single ‘caw’ with increasing difficulty. It was only that…
“But why would a ragged stall possess any good objects?” the young girl mused quietly, directing another skeptical glance towards the little raven.
“Only the powerful domestic clans and their stores would dare to hoard any good objects, much less sell them…”
Caw!
The little raven anxiously hopped from one claw to another, its eyes flaring with a bright radiance.
The young girl waved her hand at the little creature, her countenance retaining its bemused appearance.
“I get it, I got it, alright? Don’t push me so hard, this young lady is tired for the day, ah.”
Caw!
How can you be tired for the day, all you did was eat baozi whilst this Esteemed Immortal had to scout a mortal’s actions for you!?!?
With much more wheedling from the sinister-intentioned little raven, An Fei finally scooped the small fox into the leather bag and began her ‘tiring’ journey towards the ragged stall claimed to possess interesting trinkets.
