After walking out of Moonview City, Yun Hanshuang used his Lightness Skill to speed toward a small grove in the distance.

Once at the grove, Yun Hanshuang pulled a thin thread from his mouth, with a ring attached to the end. With a wave of his hand, he cast a Cleaning Technique, cleaning the ring thoroughly before hanging it around his neck. Then he took out the map of Marsh Island.

On the map, Marsh Island resembled a peanut with three seeds. The Yun family's Moonview City was located on the middle seed. Using Moonview City as the dividing line, to its left was the mortal world, occupying three-tenths of Marsh Island's area. The remaining territory was divided among five major powers.

These five powers were: the Heaven Alliance Merchant Guild, Lion Tiger Mountain, the Ice Fire Sect, Imperial Heaven City and Emotionless Mountain.

After reading the introductions of those five powers, Yun Hanshuang suddenly realized that he didn't understand the Yun family at all. Because among these five powers, the most powerful, Imperial Heaven City, only had five Nascent Soul stage experts in charge on the surface. And the Yun family—according to what Yun Hu had inadvertently revealed, currently the Yun family always had fifteen Nascent Soul stage cultivators stationed in the family. These were only those stationed within the family; those moving about outside hadn't even been counted. Yun Hanshuang guessed the number outside wouldn't be fewer than those stationed within. With so many experts, the Yun family could clearly dominate all of Marsh Island, yet the Yun family willingly stayed in Moonview City, being an insignificant little family.

‘What secret is the Yun family hiding? If I revealed that I can cultivate, I might be able to learn these secrets!’

Though he thought this, Yun Hanshuang would not do it. For some reason, Yun Hanshuang had an intuition that before reaching a certain level of strength, it was best not to reveal to acquaintances that he could cultivate.

‘Forget it, even if I knew, what could I do? With my current strength, I can't help much anyway. Right now, cultivation is the most important thing.’

Yun Hanshuang no longer dwelled on the Yun family's secrets. He locked his gaze onto the four circles on the map. The places circled were the four yin-cold places of Marsh Island.

‘Unmelting Cold Pool, Profound Yin Ghost Cave, Ten Thousand Mile Snow Forest, Nether Demon Cave. Of these four places, only the Ten Thousand Mile Snow Forest suits my current need for tempering.’

After deciding on his next itinerary, Yun Hanshuang put away the map. He didn't set out immediately, but climbed up a large tree to rest and wait for nightfall.

Under a bright moon hanging in the clear night sky, Yun Hanshuang, now in his female form, leaped down from the tree. At this moment, he wore a black robe that covered his entire body. Yun Hanshuang did not cultivate but swiftly sped toward Moonview City, because he had long planned to purchase some cultivation resources before going to train.

Back in Moonview City, Yun Hanshuang headed straight for the medicinal pill shop run by the Yun family. This was his first time coming here.

‘Cloud Pill Pavilion.’

Yun Hanshuang looked up at this largest pill shop in Moonview City. Although it was nighttime, quite a few cultivators had come to purchase pills. Pulling the hood of his black robe down further, Yun Hanshuang then stepped into Cloud Pill Pavilion.

Upon entering Cloud Pill Pavilion, Yun Hanshuang saw dozens of counters arranged in a row. He walked to a counter with no customers. The attendant behind the counter, seeing Yun Hanshuang, immediately stood up and said very respectfully, "What does the Immortal Master require? Our Cloud Pill Pavilion has seventy-three types of first-tier pills, forty-six types of second-tier pills, seventeen types of third-tier pills, and two types of fourth-tier pills."

"I wonder if your Cloud Pill Pavilion has these two pills: the Profound Yin Pill and the Ice Soul Pill?" Yun Hanshuang lowered his voice and stated the pills he needed. These two cultivation-enhancing pills were suitable to take while cultivating the Profound Yin Formula.

"Both of these pills are available in our Cloud Pill Pavilion, but only first-tier and second-tier, no third-tier or fourth-tier. First-tier Profound Yin Pills are five to fifteen Low-Grade spirit stones each, second-tier Profound Yin Pills are twenty to forty Low-Grade spirit stones each. Because Ice Soul Pills are more effective, the price for first-tier is eight to twenty-four Low-Grade spirit stones per pill, and for second-tier, thirty-two to sixty-four Low-Grade spirit stones per pill."

Yun Hanshuang wasn't surprised that the same pill of the same tier had different prices. Because during the pill refining process, impurities are inevitably produced, and these impurities affect the pill's efficacy, so pills also have quality grades.

Alchemists divide pill quality into four grades:

Common: the pill can exert seventy percent effect (only those reaching the Common grade can circulate on the market).

Good: the pill exerts eighty percent effect.

Supreme-Grade: the pill exerts ninety percent effect.

Perfect: the pill's effect is exerted one hundred percent (does not circulate on the market, so shops generally only introduce the prices for the first three qualities).

"For both pills, I want two hundred Supreme-Grade first-tier pills each, and one hundred Supreme-Grade second-tier pills each." Hearing Yun Hanshuang's request, the attendant happily turned to fetch the pills, already calculating in his mind how much commission he would get this time. After placing all the pills Yun Hanshuang wanted onto the counter, the attendant began calculating the total number of spirit stones in front of him.

"First-tier Supreme-Grade Profound Yin Pills: fifteen Low-Grade spirit stones each, two hundred pills total three thousand Low-Grade spirit stones. Second-tier Supreme-Grade Profound Yin Pills: forty Low-Grade spirit stones each, one hundred pills total four thousand Low-Grade spirit stones. First-tier Supreme-Grade Ice Soul Pills: twenty-four Low-Grade spirit stones each, two hundred pills total four thousand eight hundred Low-Grade spirit stones. Second-tier Supreme-Grade Ice Soul Pills: sixty-four Low-Grade spirit stones each, one hundred pills total six thousand four hundred Low-Grade spirit stones. The grand total is eighteen thousand two hundred Low-Grade spirit stones. Please review, Immortal Master."

The attendant handed the calculated result to Yun Hanshuang for verification.

"No need to look. I also want to buy some Fasting Pills, Water Spirit Pills, as well as various detoxification, healing, and other pills. Get me some of those as well, all Supreme-Grade quality."

Afterwards, Yun Hanshuang purchased nearly five thousand Low-Grade spirit stones' worth of additional pills.

After paying the spirit stones and storing all the pills into his spatial ring, Yun Hanshuang exited Cloud Pill Pavilion. The fourth-tier spirit artifact White Frost was too conspicuous for Yun Hanshuang at present, and he currently couldn't bring out its true power either. So Yun Hanshuang planned to visit the "Gleaming Pavilion" to see if there were any spirit artifacts suitable for his current use.

Gleaming Pavilion was run by the Lin family, another cultivation family of Moonview City. The Lin family primarily dealt in spiritual ores and spirit artifacts. Entering Gleaming Pavilion, Yun Hanshuang saw the entire shop hung with all kinds of spirit artifacts, with quite a few cultivators making selections. Yun Hanshuang didn't look at the spirit artifacts on the first floor but went straight up to the second floor. The number of spirit artifacts on the second floor was nearly half that of the first.

"Fellow Daoist, what kind of spirit artifact do you need? Our Gleaming Pavilion not only has ready-made items but can also customize." A cultivator at the Early Qi Refining stage approached Yun Hanshuang with a smile.

"I'd like to see ice-attribute and yin-attribute spirit artifacts, preferably Supreme-Grade quality. I'd also like to buy a storage ring with five hundred cubic units of space." Spirit artifacts, like pills, are also divided into four quality grades. Yun Hanshuang directly stated his needs.

Hearing Yun Hanshuang's requirements, the cultivator took out a thick book, flipped a few pages, and said, "Our Gleaming Pavilion currently has only four Supreme-Grade second-tier ice-attribute and yin-attribute spirit artifacts: a saber, a sword, a mage robe, and a pair of gloves.”

“Aside from the sword, can you bring the other three for me to see?"

The cultivator nodded, indicating he could, then turned to fetch them.