Quota Certificate

Quota Certificate

Zhou Leng sat at his desk, recalling his conversation with Xue Chengsong, then wrote the main points down one by one on paper.

Afterward, Zhou Leng went next door to speak with Li Linhan.

Li Linhan was not a smooth and worldly person, nor did he know much about Martial University or martial arts schools. He spoke more about cultivation.

"...If you do not want to stop at the Innate Realm, then you should advance steadily and surely. Do not use Essence Qi Pills carelessly..."

"...If you use the wrong pills in the early stages, you will have to pay ten times the price to make up for it in the future. You may even be unable to make up for it at all..."

"...Pills have both benefits and drawbacks. You cannot go without them, but neither can you abuse them..."

"...Your third brother is at the Military Academy, and the guidance he receives surpasses even mine. He said that after you reach Qi Nourishing Perfection, do not rush to advance to the Blood Circulation Stage. Temper your true qi first..."

"...Before advancing to the Blood Circulation Stage, it is best to prepare two kinds of pills: one Essence Replenishing Pill and ten Blood Replenishing Pills..."

"Advancing through minor realms requires consuming vast amounts of food and supplements. That becomes even more true after advancing through major realms..."

"If you do not have enough Essence Replenishing Pills and Blood Replenishing Pills, your body's blood qi will fall into a prolonged state of depletion. It will take a very long time to make up for it."

"This is why some Blood Circulation Stage experts remain stuck for years, even with no hope of reaching the Innate Realm. They delayed themselves at a critical moment..."

Zhou Leng listened carefully.

Combining the views of the two men, his road ahead became clearer.

After leaving Li Linhan's home, Zhou Leng headed to the nearest Martial Arts Mall to prepare for his upcoming cultivation.

Just as he reached the entrance, a middle-aged man carrying a shoulder bag lowered his voice. "Handsome, need any medicine?"

Zhou Leng immediately shook his head.

"Ours is very cheap."

"No need, thank you." Zhou Leng politely declined.

"Find me when you need it." The man stuffed a business card into his hand.

Zhou Leng accepted it, then threw it into a trash can after walking some distance away.

News articles about people selling fake pills online appeared in Zhou Leng's mind.

The Martial Arts Mall was filled with a dazzling array of goods.

Gravity Training Armor, scouting drones, Demonized Cutting Knives, Demon Spirit Protective Suits, and other Demonized Items—even Demon Spirit Artifacts—were all available.

Qi Nourishing Pills, Blood Cleansing Pills, Blood Replenishing Pills, Body Tempering Medicinal Decoctions, Vitality Bone Powder, and more made his eyes swim.

Videos flickered at the counters selling martial arts instructional recordings, where renowned martial path masters delivered detailed lectures on-screen.

On Blue Star, once one reached the corresponding rank, one could freely study the original manuals and original videos for all martial arts and cultivation techniques. However, more detailed and targeted martial path instructional videos had to be purchased.

The cost of those videos was generally not too high, ranging from one hundred to ten thousand yuan.

Zhou Leng did not buy directly from the mall. Instead, he bought some discount coupons online, then used the martial arts video study vouchers awarded for the Improvement Award to redeem them directly in Martial City.

He first selected an instructional video by a Grandmaster Realm expert who had once cultivated both the Mysterious Tide Art and Wave Palm.

There was also a Grandmaster Realm expert who had cultivated both the Mysterious Tide Art and Eight Trigrams Steps, but because Eight Trigrams Steps was more profound, the price was higher.

Finally, Zhou Leng walked to the meat medicinal cuisine section.

Since he would be staying beneath the Frost Giant Tree for a long time in a few days, Zhou Leng bought six portions of meat medicinal cuisine.

He stood in the pill section for a long time, thought it over for quite a while, then bought another ten Great Replenishing Pills.

Great Replenishing Pills cost one thousand yuan each. They were an ordinary but comprehensive beginner pill, most suitable for use after cultivation breakthroughs. They could replenish everything the body needed and were also essential for high-level martial artists.

It was said that even other races such as Demons secretly purchased Great Replenishing Pills. They were hard currency across the Ten Realms.

After buying the Great Replenishing Pills, Zhou Leng looked at the other pills in the section.

Next, he needed to prepare one Essence Replenishing Pill and ten Blood Replenishing Pills for his breakthrough into the Blood Circulation Stage, for a total of two hundred thousand yuan.

After deducting what he needed for daily cultivation, he still had a shortfall of around one hundred and fifty thousand yuan.

For now, he could only look.

"Your Essence Replenishing Pills are out of stock?" Zhou Leng looked at the shelf. There were no pills at all where the label read "Essence Replenishing Pill."

"You do not buy pills often, do you?" the sales assistant asked.

"Mm."

Today was Zhou Leng's first time spending money on pills.

The sales assistant continued, "Most pills on Blue Star are in a state of demand exceeding supply. Usually it is fine, but once preparations for war begin, the major powers buy pills in bulk. Manufacturing pills takes time. When production cannot keep up with demand during that period, pills go out of stock. Once they are out of stock, sales are restricted."

"For example, Essence Replenishing Pills have always been in high demand. It is the start-of-school season now, so they will probably enter a sales restriction period lasting two or three months. Unless you have a Quota Certificate, normal places will not sell them. At the most urgent times, you cannot even buy meat medicinal cuisine, let alone pills."

Zhou Leng remembered hearing others discuss pill quotas, but those were often transactions worth millions and had little to do with him, so he had never paid attention.

Zhou Leng asked, "If I want to buy an Essence Replenishing Pill now, I can only wait another two or three months?"

"Yes. There is no helping it."

"Are there any other channels?"

"There is only one official channel: buying them in Martial City with military rank and battle merit, though there are limits there too. Other than that, all legitimate channels require a Quota Certificate."

"Why must there be a Quota Certificate?"

"Think about it. It is not just our martial artists who need pills. The Demon Worshipping Cult and even the other races need them too. If anyone could buy them freely, the consequences would be easy to imagine. And those with Quota Certificates are basically from the Demon City Army, the Martial Guard Department, or Pioneer Company. Once war breaks out, of course their supplies must be guaranteed first. Naturally, there are also all sorts of other miscellaneous reasons."

"I see."

Zhou Leng took out his phone and opened the Martial Arts Mall. Sure enough, the Essence Replenishing Pills listed there were also marked out of stock.

This was a pill that cost one hundred thousand yuan per pill.

Zhou Leng searched online again. Every official platform was out of stock, and only some private merchants had inventory.

Some kept their prices unchanged, while others had raised their prices considerably.

As for whether they were real or fake, no one dared say.

"What a hassle..."

Carrying the meat medicinal cuisine and Great Replenishing Pills, Zhou Leng walked out of the Martial Arts Mall.

There were not many people on the pedestrian street in the evening. Before he had walked far, several people approached from ahead, one of whom was familiar.

"Zhou Leng, out shopping?" The man gave a slight nod, his gaze sweeping over the meat medicinal cuisine packages in Zhou Leng's hands. A trace of surprise flashed through his eyes.

Zhou Leng nodded as well. "Team Leader Jiang."

The man was Jiang Yan, the deputy team leader of Pioneer Company's slaughterhouse workshop.

The two said nothing more and passed each other.

"An acquaintance?" A young man beside Jiang Yan, dressed in shiny leather jacket and pants, had both hands in his pockets. He tilted his head and gave Zhou Leng's retreating back a sidelong glance.

Jiang Yan said, "A student doing work-study in the slaughterhouse workshop."

"Hm? A work-study student can afford that much meat medicinal cuisine? Even I cannot afford it. There are medicine boxes inside too. Those two plastic bags contain at least twenty or thirty thousand yuan worth of goods." the leather-clad youth said.

"Hmph. I was wondering why he would not answer my calls or come to the workshop. Turns out he has struck it rich." Jiang Yan sneered.

"Now I remember. You cursed that kid out. Was he one of the students who did not show up during the College Entrance Examination, resulting in too few hands and getting you chewed out by the manager, costing you your chance to be promoted to team leader?"

Jiang Yan's face darkened. "Tu Rong, stop bringing up the pot that will not boil."

Tu Rong laughed heartily, slung an arm around Jiang Yan's shoulders, and asked as they walked, "Want us brothers to help you vent some anger?"

The others grinned and gathered closer.

Jiang Yan looked back at Zhou Leng's nearly vanished figure. His eyes flickered as his right fist clenched, then loosened. "Forget it. He has an elder working as a minor supervisor in our company. Though he lost an arm, he is still a Vitality Stage expert."

Tu Rong smiled. "A Vitality Stage expert? Tsk, that is a bit of trouble, but it is fine. Our boss is Vitality Stage too."

"If I really want to vent, I should go after that Hu Yi. I can handle him myself."

"Then let us go eat. But I have to leave early today. I made plans with Tao Bing. Since that kid started following Young Master Chang, he has been acting all high and mighty. Tsk."

Jiang Yan said to himself, "Help me think of a way first. I do not know which screw in our manager's head has come loose lately. He is like he has gone berserk, flying into a rage and cursing people at the drop of a hat. If he does not nod, I have no way to move up another step. I have not been sleeping well these past few days."

"All right, all right, I will help you first. Seeing you today, your complexion really is worse than usual."

"Mm. These past few days, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night. Come on, let us eat meat medicinal cuisine hotpot and replenish ourselves."

A faintly glowing crescent moon hung in the sky, with four small crescent moons suspended beneath it.

Zhou Leng looked at the sky and quickened his pace.

After Blue Star entered the Martial Path Civilization, humanity worshipped strength, and violent incidents surged.

Dragon Country retained old-era policies through its Martial Mansions and was relatively safe, but most countries were chaotic beyond recognition.

During the technological era, Cactus Country's chaos was known to all. As soon as the presidential election began, dozens of candidates were killed.

By the Martial Arts Era, at least half of all countries were comparable to Cactus Country, completely controlled by capital, rogue armies, religions, and criminal syndicates.

Even though Dragon Country was one of the safest nations, the rampant use of force had still bred many underground factions.

Zhou Leng looked at the surveillance cameras overhead.

This was a crowded urban district, so the cameras were still there. In places with slightly fewer people, every camera had been smashed.

The appearances of those people beside Jiang Yan flashed through Zhou Leng's mind.

Though the people around Chang Luan dressed in gaudy colors, no matter how rebellious they were, they still looked like students.

The people around Jiang Yan were clearly thugs from those underground factions.

Only that Team Leader Jiang Yan had bloodshot eyes, making him unpleasant to look at.

After returning home, Zhou Leng borrowed two clay pots from Li Linhan and stewed two pots of meat medicinal cuisine at once.

Over the past few days, Zhou Leng had already brought tools such as a solar-powered electric stove beneath the Frost Tree in batches.

He had originally wanted to bring a tent and other supplies, but found the temperature there pleasant, with no wind or dust, not even insects, so he could not be bothered to bring them.

However, the pleasant temperature there was only pleasant for one person and one dog. Ordinary food placed there cooled rapidly, like it was in a natural refrigerator.

After informing Li Linhan, Zhou Leng brought everything he needed and arrived at the Frost Giant Tree.

He began his long martial path cultivation and Divine Script Studies.

The first form of the "Chapter of Establishing Image" was currently the most important, but even with meat medicinal cuisine, he could only cultivate it once every three days.

The burden it placed on his body was too great. He had to give his body time to slowly recover and grow anew.

After every cultivation session, his entire body would ache intensely.

Starting from the third day after cultivation, every part of his body—bones, muscles, skin, and all the rest—would improve.

Especially his strength.

Basic strength was even harder to improve than internal techniques and external techniques. Only upon reaching the Body Tempering Stage and Vitality Stage could it slowly increase.

Aside from the "Chapter of Establishing Image," he could not neglect the others either.

The Mysterious Tide Art was the foundation beneath all foundations. If it did not reach Perfection, he could not advance to the Blood Circulation Stage.

Wave Palm and Eight Trigrams Steps were the external techniques best suited to him, and he needed to strengthen and refine them.

Mountain-Piercing Fist, Flying Cloud Leg, and Body-Moving Footwork made up for the shortcomings of Wave Palm and Eight Trigrams Steps. Combining multiple external techniques would allow him to handle many possibilities.

With this High-Grade Spiritual Land and reduced sleep, Zhou Leng's cultivation speed far exceeded that of an Ordinary Martial Artist.

Cultivating, cultivating, continuing to cultivate...