Stop grinding, I'm really just a free spirit.

Chapter 54 Pledge

As dusk fell, he found about a dozen more reasonably sized fragments of magical artifacts in his bag.

It only cost two spirit stones.

In the days that followed, Chen Bai moved between various shops, large and small, in the market.

He would draw talismans at home every morning, go out in the afternoon, and return in the evening. He explored every shop in the market, big and small, including weapon-making shops, spiritual material stores, and secondhand stalls.

If you come across a suitable fragment of a magical artifact, you should acquire it immediately; if the price is not right, you should not linger.

Over the course of a few days, nearly half of the spirit stones in the storage bag had disappeared.

However, he had accumulated a whole bunch of fragments of magical artifacts.

He used the small cauldron to refine the low-grade spiritual materials from the fragments one by one, and carefully stored the obtained spiritual material essence in his storage bag.

On the third day, Chen Bai counted the spiritual materials in his bag and estimated that he had enough, so he headed south towards the market.

Fairy Yueyi had previously mentioned a weapon-refining shop to him called "Chiyeju," located on North Street of the market.

The Chiyeju restaurant run by the Le family was significantly more impressive than the surrounding shops, even just in terms of its storefront layout.

The three characters "Chiyeju" on the black lacquered plaque are written in gilded clerical script with vigorous strokes. A wooden couplet hangs on both sides of the door: "Chiyeju is forged through a thousand hammers and a hundred forgings, and a piece of refined gold is cast into a mysterious body."

The inscription at the bottom is engraved with a small furnace mark, exactly the same as the pattern on the back of Fairy Yueyi's jade pendant.

The shop wasn't large, but it was kept extremely clean.

The black iron gate was wide open, and two bronze lion-shaped furnaces, each about half a person's height, stood at the entrance. The lions' mouths were slightly open, emitting wisps of very faint pine fragrance.

There were no shouts like those from ordinary shops trying to attract customers, nor were there dazzling arrays of religious artifacts piled up at the entrance. There was only a door, a couplet, two incense burners, and a long, narrow passageway that could be vaguely seen inside.

Chen Bai could tell at a glance that this behavior indicated they were targeting regular customers.

As he stepped into the shop, a dry yet warm aura of fire elemental energy rushed towards him.

The shop was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside, with the main hall measuring about three zhang square.

The walls were all fitted with copper lamp holders, and the flames inside the lampshades were not ordinary candle flames, but clusters of the lowest grade of fire, with a stable and non-glaring light.

A huge map of spiritual materials hangs in the center of the north wall, densely labeled with the names, attributes, and grades of hundreds of spiritual materials. Next to the map hang miniature rubbings of several finished magical artifacts, including swords, knives, and cauldrons...

A rhythmic clanging sound could be faintly heard coming from the back room, deep and melodious, as if someone was repeatedly hammering a piece of stubborn iron.

"Thump! Thump! Thump..."

The sound wasn't a loud, harsh noise, but rather it had a peculiar rhythmic quality.

Each strike paused precisely at the point where the echo was just beginning to dissipate, and the next strike followed with perfect precision.

A middle-aged shopkeeper in his early forties, wearing tortoiseshell glasses, was leaning over the counter, flipping through the account books.

The man had a fair complexion and a light beard. He wore a dark brown short robe with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a pair of large hands with thick knuckles and several light-colored burn marks on the edges of his palms.

He looked up when he heard footsteps.

His gaze swept over Chen Bai, and then he greeted him:

"Please come in, sir! Our shop specializes in custom-made magical artifacts and also buys and sells spiritual materials."

"I wonder if you've come today to have ritual implements made, or to exchange materials?"

Chen Bai took out the jade token from Fairy Yueyi from his sleeve and handed it over. "My name is Chen Bai. I've come today to have a magical artifact crafted."

The middle-aged shopkeeper took the jade pendant, his brows twitching slightly. He first glanced at the character "乐" (meaning "joy") on the front, then turned it over to look at the pattern on the small tripod on the back.

Then, he held the jade plaque up to the light of the lamp stand.

Under the firelight, the jade plaque faintly revealed a layer of extremely faint crimson patterns, which was the unique spiritual mark of the Le family.

He nodded, as if confirming something.

He returned the jade pendant to Chen Bai with both hands, his tone carrying a subtle but serious tone.

"So you're a distinguished guest of the fairy! My apologies for not recognizing you!"

Since you were introduced by the young lady of the family, Fellow Daoist Chen, if you have any needs, our shop will certainly do its best to assist you.

As he spoke, he pulled out a blank sheet of spiritual paper from under the ledger and took out a fine cinnabar pen. "I wonder what kind of magical artifact you would like to create?"

Could you elaborate?

Chen Bai sat down in front of the counter, took out several items from his storage bag, and arranged them on the counter.

The first item was a fist-sized, dark yellow object, with a dense and heavy texture, shaped like a miniature mountain.

"Essence of the Earth's Veins".

It was extracted from the body of the Ironback Mountain Pangolin in the past.

This item is taken from deep within the earth's veins, naturally formed by the earth's veins, and is of sufficient weight, more than enough to be the main material for a fetal breathing ritual implement.

Next, however, were two yellowish-brown crystals, one large and one small.

The larger ones are sunken soil crystals, with a smooth and transparent appearance, and are about the size of a fist.

The smaller ones, however, are like ordinary stones, with pitted and uneven surfaces, and look completely unremarkable.

The middle-aged shopkeeper adjusted his glasses, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes, and picked up the stone, about the size of a fingernail:

"What a beautiful mother-of-the-earth stone! It's in excellent condition, and it's rare to find one this big."

The shopkeeper put down the stone in his hand and looked at the soil crystal next to him. "This soil crystal is a companion mineral to this Mother Earth Stone. Although its grade is slightly lower, both are earth-element spiritual materials, so they complement each other."

Chen Bai nodded and praised, "Shopkeeper, you have a good eye!"

In fact, he had extracted these two earth-elemental spiritual materials from hundreds of broken magical artifact fragments a few days ago.

Judging from their shape, these fragments all belong to the same magical artifact. When pieced together, they can be barely identified as a bronze hammer.

However, because it was broken so thoroughly, there was no possibility of remelting and recasting it.

After being bought by Chen Bai, the two earth-elemental spiritual materials were extracted from them by the small cauldron, which was an unexpected surprise.

The middle-aged shopkeeper's smile hadn't faded yet. He waved his hand, about to say something modest, when he saw what Chen Bai took out next.

His expression froze, his eyes widened like saucers, as if he had seen something unbelievable.

"thump!"

Chen Bai pulled hard from the bag and took out a huge cloth bag.

It looked quite heavy; it made a dull thud just by being placed on the counter.

Uncover the cloth bag.

Countless spiritual materials, large and small, ranging from pebbles to gravels, were simply placed in the cloth bag:

"Crimson Feather Black Iron", "Hundred-Refined Iron Essence", "Deep Abyss Stone", "Guangling Sinking Sand"...

These items are not valuable and come in small quantities, but they are abundant in variety.

It sits quietly on the counter, emitting various colors of light, dazzling and radiant.

"Shopkeeper, which of these spiritual materials are usable? I want to refine a seal, preferably with two mysteries: one, that it can be the size I desire, and two, that it is heavy enough to have enough power to defeat the enemy in one strike."

Chen Bai pushed the heavy cloth bag. "If you're short of any materials, use these to make up for it."

Even the middle-aged shopkeeper, who was well-traveled and experienced, was momentarily stunned.

"this……"

The shopkeeper gave Chen Bai a strange look, suppressing the urge to ask, "Ahem, according to your request, this custom-made embryonic breathing artifact should be a mid-grade first-tier artifact..."

He glanced at the materials in the bag, then carefully spoke:

"Since you brought your own materials and are a distinguished guest introduced by Miss, there is no need to pay in advance."

"Let's pawn this bag of spiritual materials first, and talk about it again when we've used them all up, okay?"

Chen Bai readily agreed.

It just so happens that he doesn't have enough spirit stones in his bag.

Using these accumulated spiritual materials as collateral would naturally be the best option.