Eternal Life: I Can Sell Everything

Song Ciwan operated the Heaven and Earth Scale: [You have sold the Three-star Level Divine Dao Magical Artifact, the Spirit-Storage Banner, and obtained the Three-star Level Magical Artifact, the God-Binding Rope.]

God-Binding Rope: This item is formless yet tangible. It binds not only the physical body but also the Divine Soul. To bind a god and depart would leave behind but a walking corpse.

’It’s a good Magical Artifact.’ Song Ciwan ducked into a secluded corner and stopped. She immediately took out the God-Binding Rope and began the ritual to claim ownership of it.

Up to this point, she had acquired quite a few Marvels, but she had very few proper Magical Artifacts.

For instance, items like the Profound City Life and Death Seal and the Purple Gold Sea-Swallowing Gourd were incredibly powerful, but the Profound City Life and Death Seal only had two uses left, and the Purple Gold Sea-Swallowing Gourd was a single-use item!

Marvels were different from Magical Artifacts. Most Marvels had a limited number of uses, requiring one to keep count and use them cautiously. Magical Artifacts, however, had no such restriction. They were long-lasting tools for protecting one’s Dao, and some could even grow and be upgraded.

Song Ciwan wasted no time. It took her two quarters of an hour to successfully complete the initial refinement of the God-Binding Rope.

The God-Binding Rope coiled around Song Ciwan’s wrist like a wisp of smoke before sinking into her skin moments later.

Song Ciwan shook her wrist and once again transformed into wind to travel.

The city’s fireworks kept her company as wisps of formless aura crisscrossed and swirled in the air. Song Ciwan could often see and touch the ones that were close, within three feet of her. For those farther away, she had a vague sense of them but found it difficult to actually touch them.

She did consider flying up into the sky to capture a large amount of the formless aura. However, when she flew ten zhang into the air for the first time, an indescribable sense of terror struck her heart.

Song Ciwan instantly understood. Flying was forbidden in Pinglan City!

Even in her current wondrous state, seemingly in the Mortal World yet not of it, she still couldn’t break through Pinglan City’s flight restriction.

Song Ciwan immediately executed a Thousand-Pound Weight technique and plummeted to the ground.

Just then, a thin, thread-like stream of light shot across the sky where she had just been. The powerful gust of wind it generated seemed as if it could tear space itself!

Immediately after, a massive, semi-corporeal figure, at least a zhang tall, came flying down the street from the side.

The figure had a painted face, leopard-like eyes, and wore colorful, embroidered golden armor. It held a large Palm Leaf Fan in its right hand and a Ruyi Copper Token in its left.

On the copper token were two words, written in the flourishing script of the Great Zhou: Night Wanderer.

It was the Night Wanderer of Pinglan City!

This was the first time Song Ciwan had seen a Night Wanderer in person. She watched as the deity frantically fanned the air with his Palm Leaf Fan. After a moment, he frowned and muttered, "There’s no one here. Why would the No-Fly Array suddenly activate on its own?"

A moment later, a group of Soldiers from the City Patrol Department rushed over from the other end of the alley. After the two sides exchanged greetings, the leader of the squad, a Mortal Martial Artist nearing the Innate realm, spoke respectfully to the Night Wanderer. "Reporting, Your Excellency. My subordinates and I did not see anyone flying either."

The Night Wanderer waved his hand impatiently. "Forget it, forget it. The Array is probably just old. It’s not that strange for it to be a little too sensitive sometimes. In any case, you all just remember to be extra vigilant, understand?"

Faced with the Night Wanderer, none of the Soldiers from the City Patrol Department dared to misunderstand.

They all complied with nervous agreement. Only then did the Night Wanderer stride away into the night on his super-long legs, swaying his Palm Leaf Fan.

Watching this scene, Song Ciwan suppressed the lingering terror in her heart. However, she didn’t leave right away, instead waiting in place for about a quarter of an hour.

A quarter of an hour later, the City Patrol Department Soldiers were long gone, but the Night Wanderer who had left earlier somehow returned without a sound.

The giant-like Night Wanderer, over a zhang tall, stomped around the streets and alleys. A few times he almost brushed against Song Ciwan, but with a slight sway, her body moved with the wind, and she once again put distance between them.

The Night Wanderer still couldn’t find the culprit who had triggered the No-Fly Array, but he suddenly reached out and snatched at the air.

With that motion, his palm passed directly through the courtyard of a nearby residence and pulled a Little Demon out from one of the rooms. The demon had deathly pale skin, with grayish-blue bones showing at its limbs.

The Little Demon was only four feet tall but possessed a distinctly beautiful face. The moment it was seized by the Night Wanderer, it didn’t seem to realize what was happening.

A moment later, it began to struggle and scream, all four limbs flailing. "Where did you come from, you brutish god? I am an Attendant under Granny Qingshan! I have always been law-abiding in the city and have never broken the laws of the Great Zhou! Why have you seized me, you lout?"

The Night Wanderer’s voice boomed. "Law-abiding? You absorb the Essence Qi of men and women day and night. You’ve almost fully regenerated your flesh and blood, yet you, a Bone Demon, still dare to claim you’re law-abiding? Tonight, you are the one I’m here to catch!"

The Little Demon continued to shriek, "This family invited me themselves! What wrong have I done?"

The Night Wanderer said, "Devouring human Essence Qi is wrong. Stop your sophistry, you Evil Demon! What’s more, you got cocky and dared to fly into the air, violating Pinglan City’s no-fly decree. Did you really think Pinglan City is your Baiqing Mountain’s private garden? Evil Demon, face your punishment!"

Before his voice had even faded, the Night Wanderer grabbed the Little Demon and stuffed it into a jet-black Eight Trigrams Mirror hanging at his waist.

The Little Demon’s screams stopped abruptly as a wisp of blackish-green formless aura shot into the sky.

Song Ciwan watched helplessly as that wisp of aura cut through the night sky, flying toward some unknown, distant place.

It was just like the countless other wisps of formless aura flying out of the city—the greed, hatred, and ignorance, the love, loathing, and desires of myriad living beings...

After capturing the Little Demon, the Night Wanderer left, looking satisfied.

Song Ciwan stood on the other side of the Mortal World, feeling that everything she had seen and heard tonight could no longer be described by the single word "strange."

’This world has too many secrets. What does that door I pushed open in Illusory Nether City truly represent?’

She still couldn’t quite wrap her head around it, so she could only suppress her many questions and continue using Wind Manipulation to travel toward her original destination, the Hongsheng Martial Arts Hall.

Along the way, if she encountered any formless aura within three feet of her, she would casually capture it. When she did, the Heaven and Earth Scale would appear and collect the aura.

For example: [Human desires: joy, happiness, sorrow. Value: one mace, two candareens. Ready for sale.]

[Human desires: joy, sorrow, obsession. Value: two mace, six candareens. Ready for sale.]

...

These un-ascribed auras, drifting aimlessly, were usually very light. Song Ciwan collected them on the principle that something was better than nothing.

What Song Ciwan didn’t know was that while she was capturing "human desires" with her Heaven and Earth Scale, thinking it was better than nothing, the other Cultivators who had pushed open the door in Illusory Nether City with her and entered this state of being "both in and not in the Mortal World" were nearly seeing red over the slightest wisps of this drifting aura.

These Cultivators didn’t have a Heaven and Earth Scale, but since pushing open that door, they too had gained the ability to capture the formless aura with their bare hands.

At first, not everyone understood what this formless aura truly represented.

Later, when someone saw a Divine Dao Cultivator in the city using a special Magical Artifact to collect the formless aura and then feed it into certain Incense and Candlelight god statues to refine Wish Power Pills, the situation began to spiral out of control.