In a short while, Grey had reached the place where the gathering was said to happen. But since it was currently daytime, no one was here. The strange nonhuman race that was also waiting here was giving him nervous glances at times, wondering which race Grey was, because the Detective hat was covering most of his features. His Detective badge had also been kept away to avoid anyone recognizing that he was from the Detective Department. In his short time here, he came to know that the Detective Agency was feared and hated by a lot of nonhumans.

After several hours, more people began to flock in. Grey recognized most of them as they were humans, while the rest were nonhumans.

Around nine pm, the gathering officially started. Grey took a seat at the back end where he could watch everybody. His expression was nonchalant as he kept quiet. Soon, the games and selling of rare items started.

"I have a low-quality Foundation Establishment pill! Any race can use it and at any time. 1000 spirit stones!" One nonhuman race who covered his face spoke with a hoarse voice.

Grey felt his jaw open, but he quickly composed himself. A Foundation Establishment pill was able to help when advancing to the Foundation Establishment realm.

Ever since God descended, cultivation became hard. Resources became even more scarce, and advancing to the next realms could cause death, especially when advancing from the Qi Accumulation realm to the Foundation Establishment realm.

Foundation Establishment was the real first realm of cultivating. Once one stepped into it, it meant you were a real cultivator. You could control more of the world’s power and abilities. And it also meant that you had started to transcend to a higher realm while breaking your mortal shackles. Advancing to this realm was very hard because strange, unspeakable creatures from the void also sensed when a cultivator wanted to advance.

They possessed strange powers that could stop you from entering the Foundation Establishment realm. But if you failed to enter the Foundation Establishment realm on your first try, you would face a backlash that would cripple your cultivation forever.

Foundation Establishment pills increased the success rate of advancement from ten percent to twenty percent. Most people bought more than two because they didn’t want to take risks, but the price of just one low-quality pill was expensive, reaching as high as 1000 spirit stones.

So for the inhuman races to be selling it here, it meant they had some control over the market. Grey silently let out his perception to scan everyone present here but detected no strong fluctuations belonging to the Foundation Establishment realm.

The highest level here at the moment was the perfected level of Qi Accumulation, and it belonged to the person who said he wanted to sell the low-quality Foundation Establishment pill.

The gathering continued as more items were being sold. Many caught Grey’s interest, which included a strange cultivator weapon. The weapon was a whip which had belonged to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but after he died, it was left behind. Grey would have loved to buy it, but it was over three hundred spirit stones.

The next item immediately caught his fancy. It was a small purple crystal. The moment Grey saw the crystal, he nearly lost his composure. This purple crystal was exactly like the one he found on the first day he transmigrated to this world.

He never thought he would see another of this crystal again, and in such a way. The purple crystal let out a low purple light that bathed everyone in purple. The inhuman race that had first said he wanted to sell the Foundation Establishment pill brought it out from an iron box.

Other than letting out purple light, it did not have any particular function.

"What does it do?" Another cultivator asked shortly after.

"I don’t know, but I can be positive that it is worth something. But because I don’t know what it is, I’ll sell it for 100 spirit stones," the inhuman cultivator said.

Grey eyed the purple crystal with desire. Others may not have felt anything from the purple light, but Grey could feel the purple crystal in his chest reacting.

"You want to sell this thing for a price that high? How about you sell it for sixty spirit stones!" A nonhuman race that didn’t bother to cover his face said. His crooked nose bent to the side, and his lips curled up slightly like an evil grin waiting for a cackle to make the whole scene complete.

"No, sixty spirit stones is too low. How about eighty spirit stones!" The nonhuman race shook his head while giving a new price.

All the while, Grey eyed the purple crystal but didn’t speak. If one more person made a bid on it, obtaining the crystal would become very hard. So he decided to wait until either the price was almost settled or the value had gone down.

In the end, the purple crystal was purchased by Grey for a price of forty spirit stones. Grey did not have any cash on him, so he sent the amount to his account.

As Grey quickly put the box containing the purple crystal into his storage bag, he felt a strange reaction from the purple crystal within his chest. A purple light almost came out of his body at that moment, but he suppressed it. Making sure that no one noticed, he continued to watch the gathering. Many more items were sold or exchanged, but Grey didn’t buy a single one after the purple crystal.

When it was time to depart, Grey followed the cultivator who sold the Foundation Establishment pill and the purple crystal. He had a suspicion that he was a Devil’s race cultivator.

Masking his presence with the Sky Mist Art, he silently followed the inhuman into a dark alley.

"Why are you following me? Are you not satisfied with the items? Come back at the next gathering, I’ll bring you some more," he said as he turned to face Grey.

Grey’s expression stiffened, but he walked out of the shadows.

"It’s you! What do you want? I said I’ll bring more items to the gathering, so get lost," the nonhuman said, but Grey did not seem to hear him. He suddenly burst into a run. A dagger could be seen in his hand at the moment as he rapidly crossed the distance of twenty meters.

The nonhuman seemed to be taken aback, but his expression turned to one of mockery. "You must be courting death!" he said, and a whip suddenly appeared in his hand. His perfected level of Qi Accumulation burst out at that moment.

But right as he was about to swing the whip at Grey, he saw a purple light that made him freeze and instinctively pause in his attack. He was hit by Grey’s Dragon Eyes!

With that slight pause, Grey crossed the distance between them and punched out with his hand. A sound akin to the breaking of air resounded at once. The nonhuman cultivator was sent flying back over a distance of fifteen meters. His disguise fell down due to his rapid speed, and Grey could see a dark face with two small horn-like protrusions on his forehead. But it was obvious that his horns had been cut previously.

While in the air, the Devil’s race cultivator suddenly did a backflip and landed on his feet. His expression was ugly as he looked at his slightly caved-in chest. If not for his perfected level of Qi Accumulation body, Grey’s fist might as well have punched a hole in his chest.

He realized that this sixth-level cultivator couldn’t be trifled with. With a roar, his perfected Qi Accumulation cultivation base spread out, and a wall of spirituality blocked the area.

The Devil’s race cultivator suddenly moved. A sledgehammer suddenly appeared in his other hand while he lashed out with the whip.

The sound of air being sliced apart could be heard at the moment, and the whip soon reached him in a matter of moments.

Without thinking twice, he sidestepped it and was now on a collision course with the sledgehammer. When a bright glint appeared in his eyes, the sound of metal being struck against metal resounded as Grey retreated. He held the slightly deformed dagger in his hand.

The nonhuman race, after seeing this, rushed at him again. But Grey did not seem to know fear. He quickly utilized the battle art he had comprehended from watching the captain. He moved like a fish in water while avoiding the sledgehammer and whip at the same time.

Maybe because the previous owner had died, or because he was not in the Foundation Establishment realm, the Devil’s race cultivator could not use the whip to its full power. Right now, he could only display power similar to the seventh level of Qi Accumulation.

Seeing his attacks failing, the Devil’s race cultivator did not want to drag out this fight any longer. He swung the whip at Grey once more, but Grey effortlessly dodged it. As the whip was recoiling back to its owner, Grey suddenly gripped it and pulled.

The Devil’s race cultivator did not expect that and was inadvertently pulled along. As soon as he was close enough, Grey silently spread out his shadow toward the Devil’s race cultivator.

While the Devil’s race cultivator was preparing for what was next, he did not see the shadow that left Grey’s feet and grabbed onto his own.

When he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg, he turned and saw parts of his leg turning purplish green, with some flesh even falling down. He looked down even further and saw a shadow wrapped around his leg.

In shock, he ignored Grey to deal with the shadow instead.

’Bad choice!’

But the moment he turned his back to Grey, Grey gripped the air, and the faint purple outline of a sword appeared in his hand. Once the sword appeared in his hand, a mysterious yet majestic aura spread out from Grey. His pupils turned purple with a slight tinge of dark-gold luster.

An illusionary sword manifested over his head. The Devil’s race cultivator looked over with a malicious expression on his face. The shadow had increased the amount of corrosive substance in his body by tenfold.

By the time he turned to look at Grey, he saw an illusionary sword made of purple sword light slashing toward him. An intense feeling of a life-and-death crisis suddenly arose. It did not even show when he was fighting Grey, but the moment this purple sword appeared, he felt that if he didn’t move, he would die. But to his amazement, he found that he couldn’t move at all. His movements seemed restricted by a foreign power. He could only watch in shock as the illusionary sword cut toward him.

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