Hearing the voice, Li Yan slowly turned around and looked. The person who spoke was the burly man outside the shop.
This person was over ten feet tall, dressed in fancy clothes. In his left hand he held a round jade bead the size of a baby's fist, which he was circling. He looked like a dressed bear, circling a small chestnut.
When Li Yan came over, he had already noticed this burly man. This man had reached the peak of the initial stage of foundation building, and his cultivation was quite impressive. At this moment, he was looking Li Yan up and down with a pair of sparkling eyes.
Sun Guoshu was also a little nervous. After all, the person he was targeting today was a cultivator from the Wuliang Sect. He had been in this free market for nearly twenty years, and countless cultivators had suffered at his hands.
He was a very cautious person and never touched the monks from nearby sects. But today, when he was looking for fat sheep here, he passed by the shop of this female monk from the Wuliang Sect several times.
However, she always looked timid when trading with anyone. No matter what price was offered by others, as long as it was not too outrageous, she would agree in a low voice. In Sun Guoshu's view, some prices were simply given away for free.
This made Sun Guoshu pay attention. After more than half an hour of observation, he came to the conclusion that this female cultivator from the Wuliang Sect was a rookie. This should be her first time going out alone and she knew nothing about many things.
Seeing this, Sun Guoshu couldn't help but hesitate. After all, this was a cultivator from the Wuliang Sect. If he touched her, it might bring him death.
But after thinking for a long time, he still couldn't control his greed. What's more, he had walked around here several times today, and the few monks from the Wuliang Sect he met had all left, and he never met any other monks from the Wuliang Sect again. This made him unable to suppress the restlessness in his heart.
"With this, I guess I won't have to worry for a few months at least. This little girl has earned at least two thousand spirit stones today. A big sect is a big sect. For independent cultivators like me who are building our foundation or cultivators from small sects, we work very hard, and it's good enough to earn dozens of spirit stones a month.
After doing this, at most I won't show up for a few months. I'll secretly inquire about it later. With this girl's personality, I guess she won't make a big fuss even after she goes back. I'll come out again after this storm has died down."
After Sun Guoshu thought it over, he walked around the market again. After confirming again and again that there were no monks from the Wangliang Sect, he waited for the right opportunity and went to the door.
Who knew that just when he was about to succeed and was about to carry out the next plan, a cultivator from the Wuliang Sect in the Qi Condensation Stage unexpectedly appeared. The moment he first saw Li Yan, Sun Guoshu was stunned and even more shocked.
But after seeing Li Yan's cultivation level clearly, he couldn't help but sneer in his heart.
But as the girl in the shop shouted, Li Yan regained his composure and walked out of the crowd step by step, and Sun Guoshu became suspicious again.
"That girl called this person 'Junior Brother'. She is a Foundation Establishment cultivator. How could she address a Qi Condensation Level 8 cultivator like that? Could it be that this person is hiding his cultivation level?"
For a moment, he was a little unsure about Li Yan's appearance, but after seeing Li Yan walking towards him step by step, no one else came behind him, so Sun Guoshu simply released his spiritual sense and scanned the surroundings.
However, he discovered that there were no other monks from the Wangliang Sect within his spiritual consciousness, which made him even more hesitant.
"Is this person alone? Could he really be a hidden cultivator? But from what I see, his cultivation level seems to be at the eighth level of Qi Condensation. Could it be that he is a person with outstanding talent and was promoted to an inner sect disciple?"
When Sun Guoshu saw Li Yan walking to the front of the shop without saying a word, he didn't even look at him. Finally, after hearing the discussions around him, Sun Guoshu realized that this matter couldn't be delayed for too long, so he made up his mind and asked again.
Li Yan looked at Sun Guoshu. He already had a vague idea of this man's routine, but he had not yet asked his fellow disciple what had happened. So he turned a deaf ear to Sun Guoshu's questions and turned to look at the girl.
"Senior sister, what's going on?"
When the girl saw Li Yan asking questions and seemed to be very familiar with her, she couldn't help but feel relieved. Just as she was about to speak, a powerful spiritual sense swept over, and the target was Li Yan.
Because she was standing too close, she felt the sweep of the spiritual sense. This spiritual sense was extremely powerful and rolled directly towards Li Yan without any pause.
But Li Yan seemed not to notice and was still looking at the girl calmly. The girl couldn't help but feel anxious. Although she had only been building her foundation for one year, she knew the huge difference between the Qi Condensation Stage and the Foundation Building Stage.
Here, although he knew that the other party would never dare to take Li Yan's life, it was possible that he would suffer some loss or even be left with psychological trauma. In this way, this incident might have an impact on Li Yan's future practice.
The attack of spiritual consciousness is an unexplainable attack, which will at least affect some souls. Moreover, she knew that Li Yan's real realm was the Qi Condensation Stage, and she couldn't help but be shocked.
She made up her mind. Although she knew that her cultivation was not as good as the other party's, she still released her spiritual sense immediately, intending to block Li Yan behind him. However, the moment her spiritual sense left her body, the spiritual sense that swept over suddenly disappeared one foot behind Li Yan.
This made her stunned, and she immediately withdrew her consciousness.
Sun Guoshu was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. After Li Yan ignored his questioning just now, he simply made up his mind and released his spiritual sense directly to probe into Li Yan.
But he really didn't dare to attack with all his strength, as he estimated that his end would be miserable. Without anyone else's help, the golden elixirs in the market would immediately crush him to death.
The purpose of releasing his spiritual sense was to see what level of cultivation Li Yan was at. If his level was really the Qi Condensation Stage, his spiritual sense would only make the other party's soul tremble and his breath unstable, but would not harm his life.
If the boy in front of him was really a foundation-building cultivator, he believed that even if he got injured, he would be able to find out something or other and then act accordingly.
Otherwise, facing a person whose background he didn't know, he wouldn't dare to leave now.
The girl had misjudged the effect of his spiritual sense. The reason was very simple. The girl seldom fought with others and was just obsessed with her favorite technique. For a moment, she did not see Sun Guoshu's intention at all.
Feeling Sun Guoshu's consciousness approaching at an extremely fast speed, Li Yan narrowed his eyes and thought to himself.
"Such a sharp and fast divine sense, it turns out to be a gold-type cultivator. No wonder he is so bold as to scan an unknown cultivator."
Among the five elements, the gold attack is the strongest, and it is often one point better than the cultivators of the same level, so Sun Guoshu relied on his peak cultivation in the early stage of foundation building and felt that he could barely test Li Yan's cultivation level. Seeing that Li Yan seemed to be unaware and still standing there like a fool, Sun Guoshu couldn't help but feel happy in his heart, it seems that the other party's cultivation may be really low and unable to detect his consciousness.
But when Sun Guoshu's spiritual consciousness was less than a foot behind Li Yan, a powerful rebound force directly bounced his spiritual consciousness away. This power of spiritual consciousness surprised Sun Guoshu.
You have to know that he is a cultivator at the peak of the early stage of foundation building. To be able to deflect his consciousness, one must be at least in the middle stage of foundation building.
"He...he...he is a cultivator in the middle to late stage of foundation building."
As this thought rang in Sun Guoshu's mind, cold sweat began to pour out on his back.
Although his attack came and went quickly, it was still sensed by some monks. Several monks around him showed an expression of "as expected" on their faces.
It was after seeing Li Yan that these cultivators guessed that Li Yan's true level of cultivation was probably not as bad as it appeared on the surface.
However, they never expected that Li Yan's actual combat power would collapse at the first blow when facing a frontal magic attack from a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and they would be completely unable to defeat the enemy. He only had a strong spiritual sense.
It's not just these few people who think this way. Even Sun Guoshu is thinking this way now. He can't help but groan in his heart.
"This person doesn't seem to be very old, but at this age he is already in the middle stage of foundation building. His status in the sect must be quite high. This... this... I have to find a reason to leave quickly. Especially as long as this girl opens her mouth, I'm doomed."
The girl from the Wuliang Sect standing in the shop had an expression of disbelief in her eyes, especially when Li Yan's consciousness appeared in an instant, a hint of surprise appeared in her eyes, but she was quickly awakened by Li Yan's questions.
"Sister, tell me what happened."
Following Li Yan's questioning, the girl calmed down and then spoke slowly.
This made the people around slowly reveal an expression of "as expected". Many of them knew what Sun Guoshu did.
The girl is a disciple of Four Symbols Peak. She just succeeded in building her foundation last year, and only stabilized her foundation-building state in the past few months.
She was quite skilled in the art of mechanical puppetry. Another senior brother from the Four Symbols Peak who was in the foundation-building stage was supposed to bring her to the market today, but that senior brother had something urgent to do, so he changed the time.
But the girl had been researching a kind of puppet recently, and several of the materials were urgently needed. In addition, the spirit stones she had on her had been mostly used up in refining a batch of puppets.
If she waited for that senior brother to be free, it would take a month, and the few senior brothers and sisters she was familiar with in the peak were either in seclusion or out for training.
Finally, the girl gritted her teeth and came to Peiyang Market by herself, but this was her first time to go out of the sect.
Although there was a simple jade map to guide the way, it was almost noon when we arrived here.
She went straight to the free market, and after selling the five puppets in her hands, she planned to use the spirit stones to buy some raw materials she needed, and then return to the sect.
But when she sold the last puppet, she casually placed a puppet she was studying on the table. When she was setting up the stall just now and no one came to buy it, she had been holding this puppet in her hand and looking at it from time to time.
Just as she was about to pack up and leave, Sun Guoshu appeared and asked about the price of the puppet. The girl thought he was asking about what she had just sold, so she answered him while packing up.
"Four hundred low-grade spirit stones."
After hearing this, Sun Guoshu said "OK" and was about to reach out to pick up the puppet on the table. With his other hand, he pretended to take out the spirit stone.
When the girl saw a hand reaching out to take the puppet on the table, she was immediately startled and grabbed the puppet back. How could she be willing to do so? This puppet was what she was studying and she would not sell it.
Her action made Sun Guoshu immediately quit and started yelling.
After hearing this, not only Li Yan understood, but many of the surrounding cultivators also understood the reason behind the incident.
Li Yan thought back to the monks' whispers about the man in front of him, and how could he not understand Sun Guoshu's plan.
This Sun Guoshu should be the person who has been hanging around here for many years. He should be a casual cultivator. He uses some deceptive means to deceive or blackmail some foreign casual cultivators or cultivators from small sects.
But today, because the senior sister from the Four Symbols Peak in front of him was a rookie who had just entered the world of martial arts, he set his sights on her.
Through this brief contact, Li Yan had a general understanding of this senior sister from the Four Symbols Peak in front of him, and sighed in his heart.
As a foundation-building cultivator, and also a cultivator from the Wuliang Sect, she was bullied to such an extent and almost let the other party succeed.
This senior sister should be the type of person who is devoted to hard training, and her mind is focused on the mechanical puppets. She has very little experience in the martial arts world, and her personality is very weak. This can be seen from the fact that even when she spoke to Li Yan, her voice was very low, as if she was afraid of disturbing others.
After knowing the whole story, Li Yan had a plan in mind.