Shuanghe Market is divided into two areas, the Inner and Outer Workshops,

with the Inner Workshop mainly inhabited by the Meng Family, while the Outer Workshop is rented out to visiting cultivators.

Zhou Xun’s inn is located in the Outer Workshop.

Exiting the main gate, there’s the main thoroughfare of the entire market. Heading north, buildings of all sorts line both sides, densely packed with intricate eaves, all appearing majestic and grand.

"Celestial Abyss Pavilion!"

"Ten Thousand Treasures Tower!"

"Jingye Pavilion!"

"Yuelai Inn"

...

Zhou Xun and his doppelgänger looked over each with interest, then turned into a certain alley,

finally stopping before a small shop called "Qianfu Shop."

Qianfu Shop is a small talisman store, not considered prominent in a place like Shuanghe Square.

The shop owner is called Zhao Lao Nian, an elderly talisman master with a Tier Two Low-Grade level.

Zhao Lao Nian moved here four years ago, and since arriving, the old talisman master has been reclusive, mostly staying within the shop,

but the shop’s location is too secluded, and with too many talisman-selling shops in the market, aside from cultivators living nearby, hardly anyone visits.

Some well-meaning neighbors advised the old talisman master to rent a shop on the main road, suggesting that business would be much better this way.

However, Zhao Lao Nian ultimately declined such goodwill,

saying that by his words, he has little time left to live and is already halfway to the grave, and setting up this talisman shop is merely to have something to do.

On this day, Zhao Lao Nian is still sitting behind the shop counter, looking at a jade scroll.

Zhou Xun looked at the small shop before him, mana swirling at his fingertips, stained with some ash.

"Yes, this is the place!"

Zhou Xun nodded, exchanged a glance with his doppelgänger, and then stepped inside.

Watching two customers walk in,

one a suave young man, the other a burly middle-aged man, neither of whom were cultivators living nearby.

"Welcome, fellow Daoists, to my humble shop. What talisman might you be interested in?"

Seeing customers enter, Zhao Lao Nian trembled as he stood up, looking as if a gust of wind could topple him.

However, Zhou Xun knew that beneath the façade of this seemingly infirm old man lay an extremely dangerous existence.

Without delay, the moment Zhou Xun and his doppelgänger entered the shop, they struck without hesitation.

With a hand gesture, spirit light pointed towards himself,

a mysterious green energy surged out from the mysterious lotus seed in his dantian, merging with his mana and bursting outward. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

In an instant, spirit wood enveloped the entire courtyard,

manifesting Zhou Xun’s "Spirit Wood Limit" secret technique!

Having just learned this magic technique, today was the perfect opportunity to test its power.

At the same time, the doppelgänger moved just as quickly, patting the storage bag, a flash of blue spirit light appeared, and a foot-long blue flying sword hovered before the doppelgänger, surrounded by arcs of thunder light,

it was indeed the "Profound Thunder" sword.

Once sacrificed and refined by Zhou Xun, this treasure successfully ascended to a Middle-Grade Magical Treasure, significantly increasing its power.

Paired with the doppelgänger’s Middle-Stage Core Formation level mana, its power was shockingly at the Late-Stage Core Formation level.

The moment the thunder sword appeared, the doppelgänger changed hand seals, then lightly pointed at the elder in front of him.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by a faint thunder sound, the Profound Thunder Sword transformed into a streak of blue spirit light, shooting towards the elder.

The momentum was terrifying.

The elder, facing Zhou Xun’s sudden violent action, remained unafraid, lightly pointing fingers at himself twice,

immediately revealing a Peak Core Formation mana aura,

then his body flashed with spirit light, akin to instant teleportation, suddenly shifting several meters aside, just evading the strike of the thunder sword.

Yet the elder’s shop turned to dust from the impact of this strike.

The few individuals then engaged in combat in mid-air.

The immense suppression quickly drew the entire Shuanghe Square cultivators’ attention.

"Who are these people, daring to engage in magical combat inside the market, unafraid of the Meng Family’s sanction?"

"Did you see clearly? The aura from these three figures is unmistakably at the Core Formation level!"

"Three Core Formation cultivators, the Meng Family might not dare to intervene. It must be noted that the supposed rules only limit individuals like us, who don’t have enough cultivation!"

Back to the confrontation,

the elder swiped at his waist, a short, dark blade appeared in his hand,

and then his body flashed with spirit light, in the next instant his figure blurred, disappearing from where he stood.

Seeing this, Zhou Xun was astonished. Immediately changing hand seals, he swapped his position with a spirit wood a dozen meters away,

it was the position-shifting transformation within the Spirit Wood Limit.

At the moment Zhou Xun left his original position, a black short blade stabbed into the spirit wood he swapped into, shattering it in an instant.

This scene gave Zhou Xun a familiar feeling; previously using the Purple Sky True Thunder Array combined with the Extreme Blade, wasn’t it just this tactic?

Unexpectedly, today he encountered such a cultivator, he must admit, this style is truly troublesome.

When he used it himself, it seemed nothing much. Now being the target, he found this technique to be exceedingly tricky.

If it weren’t for Zhou Xun’s corresponding escape technique, he might well have met a bitter end.

While he wore a Tier Three Middle-Grade spirit armor, and his physique matched a Tier Three Great Demon, he truly lacked confidence in blocking that seemingly unremarkable yet extremely sharp blade.

Even estimating that compared to his Extreme Blade, it wasn’t quite a match for this knife.

Thinking of this, Zhou Xun put away the Profound Thunder Sword and then slightly opened his mouth, releasing thirty-six Liulei Seeds spreading across a vast expanse of sky!

Instantly enveloping the elder within!

Then, with a flick of his palm, a foot-long short blade appeared in his hand, looking upon the elder not far away.

"Take this as well!"

With that, his doppelgänger flashed with light, his entire body suddenly disappearing from place, reappearing behind the elder in the next moment, stabbing fiercely towards his head with the Extreme Blade.

Instantly, the elder’s figure shattered!

It was the elder, using an advanced escape technique to dodge the attack, leaving only an afterimage shattered by Zhou Xun.

Seeing this, Zhou Xun’s main body changed hand seals, thousands of spirit woods started sprouting countless vines, weaving around and then transforming into a massive net nearly a thousand meters large, slowly contracting,

with the intent of trapping the elder to death.

At this time, the elder’s figure suddenly appeared at the edge of the giant net, holding the black blade, gently slicing.

A streak of black light flashed, instantly creating an opening in the net,

the elder immediately changed hand seals, his figure blurring again, attempting to escape through the opening.

Just then, thousands of white thunder lights suddenly exploded along the vines at the opening.

Following that, a hunched figure appeared abruptly at the opening, then fell without any warning in free fall below.

This was the doppelgänger’s Yin Thunder Technique, capable of sealing the divine soul.

Earlier, when Zhou Xun summoned the vine net, he anticipated this possibility. The vine net was merely a superficial move; the true ultimate strike was the hidden Yin Thunder within the spirit vine.

Sure enough, the elder fell for it!

Instantly, Zhou Xun’s doppelgänger flashed, wielding the Extreme Blade, reappearing behind the elder, stabbing it fiercely towards the back of his head.