Black Market Meeting

This slash was fast and vicious, as though it had been practiced countless times.

Lu Sheng's body carried it out on instinct.

He saw a black shadow behind him—a black shadow pouncing toward him—get struck by the blade.

The saber's edge rebounded with a tough, hard sensation. Borrowing the tremendous impact, the pu dao swept the pouncing shadow aside.

Bang! The shadow crashed to the ground, rolled several times, and let out a whimper. In the torchlight, it was actually a wild wolf! A huge gash had been cleaved open across its waist.

Before he had time to think, Lu Sheng saw two more wild wolves springing at him from either side under cover of darkness.

His body instinctively reacted first.

He raised the pu dao to the left, using the shaft to block one wolf, then turned and swung, smashing it into the other.

Bang.

Those two bursts of strength immediately left him somewhat short of breath.

After all, not long ago, he had still been a frail young master from a wealthy family.

The two wild wolves were sent flying from the pain as well.

Panting heavily, Lu Sheng raised his saber with bloodshot eyes and unleashed Tiger's Ferocity at the nearest wolf! The blade slanted slightly as it came down from above. His wrist shook violently, vibrating three times in succession at the frequency prescribed by the mental method.

Whoosh! It was as though a faint tiger's roar rippled through the wind.

The two wild wolves shuddered in fright, their movements slowing by a beat.

The pu dao flashed with Blade Light, and one wolf's head was severed on the spot.

The other had its neck nicked by the saber tip, blood quickly seeping out.

Lu Sheng gathered his strength and struck again, this time using Tiger's Might.

His forearm vibrated four times, releasing four different bursts of force that combined with the strength of his entire body and converged upon the blade.

Tiger's Might emphasized speed more than Tiger's Ferocity, making it somewhat weaker in force. But a wild wolf's fragile neck could not withstand it either.

Before the wolf could dodge, the pu dao, its speed suddenly surging, chopped viciously into its neck.

Splurt.

The wolf's head fell to the ground.

Lu Sheng gulped down breaths of air.

That unbroken string of large movements had left beads of cold sweat seeping from his face.

Whine. There was still one wild wolf left—the one that had gone for the meat earlier.

It now circled around the rocks, its green eyes fixed fiercely on Lu Sheng.

My stamina is still too weak.

Lu Sheng felt a little anxious.

But his expression did not change. He knew that when facing wild beasts, he absolutely could not retreat or show fear.

"Hm!?"

His eyes widened as he glared fiercely at the wolf.

After staring intently at him for a while, the last wild wolf finally began to back away slowly.

Only after it had completely retreated into the darkness did Lu Sheng let out a hard breath of relief.

His strength was actually nearly exhausted. Both arms were weak and sore, and even gripping the saber made them tremble.

If that wolf had truly pounced on him, he was confident he would survive, but he would certainly have been injured.

Once he was sure the wolf had completely left,

Lu Sheng pulled out the torch and hurried toward Nine Links City.

This trip had made him understand his own limits.

As for the wild wolves outside the city, Uncle Zhao had once told him of his glorious exploits.

When he was young, after mastering his saber arts, he had faced three wild wolves alone with a single saber. At the cost of a minor injury to his forearm, he had slain all three.

That had already been an astonishing feat.

The wild wolves of this world were different from those Lu Sheng knew.

They were larger, each one much bigger and stronger than the wild wolves of Earth.

They were almost as large as big domesticated Golden Retrievers.

Another difference was that, unlike Earth's wolves, the wild wolves here traveled in groups of three to five and rarely gathered in huge packs.

Lu Sheng jogged all the way back to the city gate.

When he saw the torchlight atop the city walls, he felt somewhat relieved.

He rolled up his clothes to hide the bloodstained parts, concealed the pu dao, took out his Travel Permit, and strode toward the city gate.

"Brother Sheng, Brother Sheng, listen to me. This thing is no ordinary item. The moment it arrived in Purple Splendor City, I had someone send it back from there.

"They say that in the Central Plains, it was known as the foremost wondrous stone. Countless wealthy merchants and nobles rushed to bid for it. In the end, it fell into a river during an accident, was carried by the currents into the Purple Splendor River, and then fished up by a fisherman from Purple Splendor City.

"The twists and turns in between are too many to tell. If not for—"

"Do I look like an idiot to you?" Lu Sheng lightly shook his folding fan, looking at the fat man before him with a faint smile.

The fat man was called Zheng Xianggui. In Nine Links City, he was the second son of the owner of Minggui Auction House.

He was also Lu Sheng's closest childhood friend.

Lu Sheng and Zheng Xianggui had grown up together, practically sharing the same pair of trousers. They were birds of a feather, shouldering every matter together, with a friendship beyond compare.

But Zheng Xianggui had one greatest flaw.

He loved money.

As he put it, even real brothers had to settle accounts clearly, or resentment would sooner or later damage the relationship.

The two sat in the Peony Private Room of the Goldfish Wine Shop. The fat man had an alluring girl in a pink dress wrapped in his arms.

At the moment, the brat was staring at Lu Sheng with an agonized expression.

"Brother Sheng, this is where you're wrong. Your brother here finally got his hands on a peerless treasure and offered you a discounted chance at an internal auction. Fine if you don't appreciate it, but you're even mocking me."

The fat man pointed at Lu Sheng, looking heartbroken.

"Enough, enough. Put that act away. Do you have any news about the martial arts manuals I'm looking for?"

Lu Sheng continued.

The reason he had summoned this childhood friend was to gather more martial arts manuals.

One Black Tiger Saber Technique was not enough. Far from enough.

He now understood the odds of a master like Uncle Zhao surviving in the wilderness.

No wonder he had never heard of anyone traveling far alone. With so many fierce beasts in the wilds, setting out by oneself was simply courting death.

Uncle Zhao, Zhao Dahu, was renowned throughout Nine Links City, yet he could only handle three wild wolves alone. Four might have been his limit. Any more than that, and even one of Nine Links City's finest fighters would have to kneel.

"Martial arts manuals are hard to distinguish as real or fake, and many have hidden traps within them. Even if they're genuine, getting even the slightest detail wrong in some training methods can leave you permanently crippled after practicing for long enough.

"Brother Sheng, what do you want them for? Without a master to guide you, buying manuals is of little use."

Zheng Xianggui rubbed the White Jade Ring on his hand curiously.

"You understand that much, at least." Lu Sheng smiled. "Naturally, I have my own use for them. Don't concern yourself with it. Find a few for me to look at first."

Zheng Xianggui tilted his head.

"There are some. We recently had a client consign two martial arts manuals.

"We had masters appraise them, and they should be genuine copies. But without a master, no one dares practice them."

"What price?"

Lu Sheng got straight to the point.

"Aiya, aiya, Brother Sheng, what are we to each other? Why be so formal?" Zheng Xianggui said with a coquettish laugh.

"Can you stop being disgusting?" Lu Sheng was speechless. "Name a price. Hurry up, I'm pressed for time."

"I can only sell you one. The other has already been reserved by another distinguished guest."

Zheng Xianggui smiled.

"One is fine. Did you bring it?" Lu Sheng raised his eyes.

"Brother Sheng understands me best. Since I knew you were in a hurry, I brought it directly." Zheng Xianggui took a thin Gray Cloth Booklet from his clothes.

"This manual doesn't have many moves. It's only a special technique for generating force. One flat price: one hundred taels!"

"Let me see it first."

Lu Sheng held out his hand.

One hundred taels was the equivalent of a hundred thousand yuan. This fat man really dared to name a price.

The fat man chuckled twice and placed the booklet in his hand.

Taking the manual, Lu Sheng examined it carefully.

This manual seemed to be a small section torn from some larger volume. It happened to contain only a little instruction on force generation.

According to the records inside, the force it cultivated was called Shattered Jade Force.

It was said that after reaching great mastery, one could begin accumulating the strength of the entire body from the instant of making a move. Once the accumulation was complete, it could erupt fiercely, greatly increasing the speed and power of one's attack.

Lu Sheng looked it over. Its method seemed not to overlap with the Black Tiger Saber's mental method, so they should be usable in combination.

But this was not what he wanted.

What he wanted was the kind of legendary Internal Breathing Technique Manual that could strengthen his physique, vitality, and spirit.

From the miserable state he had been in after using the Modifier once, he had concluded that if he wanted to lessen the side effects of modification, he had to improve his physique.

"Do you have any of those legendary Internal Breathing Technique Manuals?"

"Internal Breathing Technique Manuals?"

Zheng Xianggui stroked his chin.

"Brother Sheng, you've stumped me. If something like that really appeared on the market, regardless of whether it was real or fake, it would be snatched away in the blink of an eye."

"You said it yourself—real and fake are hard to distinguish. Your family should have some copied records like that in storage, right?"

Lu Sheng understood how things worked as well. When auction houses sold items like manuals, they would first make a copy to retain as a record.

After so many years in business, the Zheng Family's auction house had undoubtedly accumulated quite a few such copies.

"Those, Brother Sheng... even I can't necessarily tell whether any are genuine.

"If one out of a hundred is real, that would already be pretty good. So far, no one has managed to cultivate any qi from them. Are you sure you want them?"

Zheng Xianggui hesitated.

"As your brother, let me advise you: don't fool around with those copies. If something goes wrong and you ruin your body, there may be no remedy."

"You have a way to find them?"

Lu Sheng raised a brow. He knew the fat man's expressions well. Whenever he looked like this, it meant he had a solution in mind but was hesitating over whether he should say it.

"There is a way. The kind of manual you want will indeed be up for auction this time."

A trace of difficulty appeared on Zheng Xianggui's face.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Lu Sheng raised a brow.

"It's not that I didn't want to tell you, brother. It's that this item is to be auctioned at the Black Market Meeting..." Zheng Xianggui said helplessly.

"The Black Market Meeting?"

Lu Sheng immediately understood.

The Black Market Meeting was an anonymous auction. No customer revealed their face or name. Most of the auctioned goods had dirty origins, and some even carried the stench of blood.

Those who liked attending the Black Market Meeting were mostly desperadoes and vicious individuals.

"Can you arrange for me to attend?"

Lu Sheng had already made up his mind to participate.

Ordinary criminals would not dare provoke the Lu Estate.

The Lu Family alone had thirty or forty sturdy able-bodied men, and among the guards were several masters like Uncle Zhao.

Master Lu Quan'an also had innumerable ties to the Government Office. If trouble arose, he could even call on the army for help.

A great household like this truly had no fear of ordinary vicious criminals.

Thanks to Old Driver, pingchuwu, Lonely at Night, Zhang Sheng 44641438, Yubing, Wind at Dawn, This Is Not the Life I Wanted, Fishing Master, and the other friends for their rewards.

Thank you all for your support, recommendations, and favorites.

I never expected so many old friends to support this book as soon as it opened. It was a small but pleasant surprise.

Someone asked whether this book would still follow the old formula from the previous one. What Lao Gun wants to say is that I don't like writing the same thing twice. So everyone can rest assured—it cannot be another Eternal.