Chapter 90: A Sudden Thunder Tribulation

He gave a soft hum. “Then if anything like this happens again, you may call for me.”

His voice held a tenderness even he himself had not noticed.

“Thank you.” Ji Jiuxuan was overjoyed. She would never hesitate to spend money when it was right to do so, but being cheated by anyone was still unpleasant.

“Suit yourself. I want to buy a brush and paper for talisman-making. Could you help me take a look as well?” Thinking of the phantom’s strength, his eye for things should not be poor.

“Buy the materials. I’ll make it for you.”

That answer shocked Ji Jiuxuan greatly, while Long Xuan merely looked as though he had long understood.

“Wouldn’t that be too much trouble?” Her young uncle-master and Senior Sister Meng were both very skilled in artifact forging. Though she could be quite shameless with them, there were some things she was capable of doing herself and did not wish to burden them with every time.

Her uncle-master and senior sisters would not mind, and might even be pleased.

Yet though their kindness was genuine, she did not want to rely on it so carelessly that she felt, in her heart, she had gone too far. She also wanted to be good to them.

“It won’t be.” The phantom stood in the void, smiling. “There are suitable materials at the stalls ahead. Go and have a look.”

Joy blossomed in Ji Jiuxuan’s heart. “I have quite a lot of good materials in my storage space.”

Over the years, her second uncle-master, her grandfather, and the others had given her many things. She had forgotten to use them, and they had only gathered dust in her space.

“Leave the things in your space for now. The stall goods are decent; you can buy them.”

“An overlooked treasure?” She more or less understood what he meant. Since he said to leave the items in her space for now and buy from the stalls instead, it must mean there was a real bargain to be found.

In such matters, one’s attitude was the most important. If she rushed over all eager to buy, the seller would surely see through her.

“Anyways, which stall are those materials on?” Ji Jiuxuan wandered along, and by then the sky had already grown somewhat dark. There was a night market here, with lamps lit along both sides of the street.

The whole avenue was bright as day, and there was no need to worry about not being able to see what the stallholders were selling.

“On the left, the fifth stall.”

Ji Jiuxuan strolled over calmly. On the stall lay quite a few materials, as well as a broken talisman brush.

Curiously, she asked, “Boss, can a broken brush still be used?”

Repairing a broken brush required a hefty sum. Judging by the talisman brush before her, there were many marks upon it, and one could tell what manner of fierce battle its former owner must once have endured.

“The crystal on it is quite good. I was just about to take it off and sell it.” Seeing that she was only a child, the vendor did not intend to bully her. Smiling, he said, “Little friend, do you like it?”

He then pointed to the other things on the stall. “If there’s anything else you fancy, I can give you a good price with this one.”

Ji Jiuxuan was delighted. For some reason, the moment she saw that brush, she was drawn to it. A strange sense of familiarity lingered in her heart.

The phantom spoke again. “Suit yourself. Which material were you talking about earlier?”

Standing within the ring’s inner space, the phantom looked at the broken talisman brush, sorrow surfacing across his face. Countless scenes flickered before him, yet they were all hazy and impossible to see clearly.

“That broken brush.”

“Very well.” Ji Jiuxuan glanced at the other materials nearby and found that quite a few crystals were of no low grade.

If crystals were inlaid onto magical tools, they could enhance their power. There was no harm in not selling them separately, so buying them back would not be a loss.

“Then I want these few, and this broken brush.”

The stall owner was straightforward. “All right, I’ll remove the crystals for you right now.”

Ji Jiuxuan quickly stopped him. “No need. I simply like the brush’s design. I’ll have an elder at home copy one later. I can take the crystals out when I get back; they’ll come in handy then.”

Only after that did she pay the spirit stones and put the items into her space. Just then, a man came hurrying over. “Boss, where’s that broken brush from earlier? I want it.”

Ji Jiuxuan had only just reached the neighboring stall when she saw the vendor not even glance her way and say directly to the man, “It’s sold.”

Clearly, the answer was unacceptable to him. He asked anxiously, “Sold to whom? I’ll trade for it.”

“That, I don’t know. That fellow daoist left long ago.” The vendor asked without concern, “You seem so anxious about it, fellow daoist. Does that broken brush have some hidden mystery?”

It was not unheard of for good things to be sold on a stall and then snatched up as a bargain by someone else. The vendor was evidently very composed about such matters. He could see the key point, yet not a trace of regret showed on his face.

The man gave an artificial laugh. “No.”

With that, he turned and left. His aura was somewhat strange. Ji Jiuxuan had already moved farther away by then, but suspicion rose in her heart. Could that broken talisman brush have some great origin?

From the look of the man just now, it seemed anything but simple.

When she came out of the shop after buying talisman paper, she just happened to see that same man bowing to another middle-aged man dressed in finery.

“Let’s go back.” The phantom’s voice sounded at that moment.

What Ji Jiuxuan did not know was that because the man had failed to find the broken brush, the middle-aged man was furious.

“Spare me, Lord Ping. This one was incompetent. I will certainly work harder to trace the brush’s whereabouts.”

“You useless thing. Why didn’t you use a soul-seizing art? The cultivator who sold it is far below your level, easily dealt with.”

The middle-aged man called Lord Ping was extremely displeased, even angry.

“There were too many people over there, and there were also disciples of the Black Heaven Sect patrolling. I feared being discovered and ruining the lord’s great plan.”

In a fit of rage, Lord Ping kicked the man aside. The man sprawled on the ground, clutching his wound, not daring to say another word.

By then, Ji Jiuxuan had returned to the Azure Horizon Courtyard. She took out the broken talisman brush and examined it closely, only to discover numerous ancient formations inside the entire brush. Though the brush itself was broken, so long as the formations could be repaired, the talisman brush might yet be restored.

The trouble was that these were all ancient formations, difficult to handle. In this world, those who knew them were probably few and far between, perhaps none at all.

“Take out the Space Falling Star Stone, the Black Scale Jade Stone, and the crystals. I’ll help you repair it.”

Ji Jiuxuan looked up and saw the phantom standing opposite her.

At that moment, she was pleasantly surprised to find his features had become much clearer. “Phantom, have you recovered some memories?”

She remembered he had once said that he had become like this because he had lost his memory.

“Not yet.” The images surfacing in his mind recently were still blurry, but there was clearly a faint thread of thought emerging.

Ji Jiuxuan obediently took out the materials he had named.

“You can watch from the side. In any case, you’ll need to learn formations in the future too. Though this is somewhat advanced, it will still be of some benefit to you.”

With that, the phantom made several hand seals toward the surroundings, and a barrier was instantly formed. With a light sweep of his hand, all the materials on the table floated up into the air.

Under the wrapping of spiritual energy, the Space Falling Star Stone and Black Scale Jade Stone melted. Once the formations inside the broken talisman brush were sorted out, they fused together with the already melted Space Falling Star Stone and Black Scale Jade Stone.

At first, Ji Jiuxuan could still make some sense of the melting process. By the end, she could no longer see clearly at all.

Within the radiance, she could faintly make out the black silhouette of the talisman brush, and that mysterious feeling drew her mind and spirit in so completely that she could hardly look away.

When the phantom fused the crystals into the talisman brush, clouds gathered in the sky above, faintly flickering with lightning.

This was no ordinary sight.

The great powers within the sect all looked up toward the sky, even locking their gazes onto the main peak shrouded by the clouds, trying to discover who had drawn down this tribulation lightning.

Thank you to the star vote for Moonlight from Bright Lake!

Thank you to the moon vote from Memory Without a Trace!

Thank you for the moon vote from I Love Liang Bo!

Thank you to Orange Jiji’s tip!

End of chapter.