Watching Gu Weinan and Chen Yun leave, Su Jie stood there for a while.
Sensing several restless gazes, he turned around and returned to the center of the Black Market.
"They really can't wait, can they!"
Su Jie pondered as he walked.
He had already sensed several groups observing him from the shadows. More than one faction had set its sights on him.
Clearly, the wealth he currently possessed had stirred the hearts of far too many people.
On top of that, his status as an outer disciple meant they had even fewer scruples about attacking him.
After turning back into the central district of the Black Market, Su Jie went straight to a building.
The Spirit Pill Association!
Seeing the three gilded characters on the signboard, Su Jie strode inside.
As its name suggested, the Spirit Pill Association was a shop specializing in all kinds of spirit pills.
Its stores had blossomed throughout Qingzhou, and it even had a branch in the Ghost Ridge Palace Black Market.
"Master Su, come in, come in! Your arrival truly brings light to our humble shop!"
The shopkeeper's eyes lit up when he saw Su Jie, and he immediately came over to greet him with boundless enthusiasm.
Su Jie had made quite a splash in the Black Market today. Many merchants recognized him and knew even more clearly that he was now loaded, with plenty of money in his hands.
"Shopkeeper, take me to the second floor."
Su Jie glanced around. The first floor mainly sold ungraded and low-grade low-level pills, most of them crude products refined by apprentices. None of them could catch Su Jie's eye anymore.
The second floor, however, held the real treasures. It even sold mid-grade pills.
"Of course, of course. Young Master Su, this way, please."
The shopkeeper's face crinkled into a chrysanthemum as he hurriedly bowed and led the way.
The moment Su Jie entered the second floor, he smelled a faint medicinal fragrance so alluring it made his heart swoon. Even the spiritual power in his body began circulating faster.
Before his eyes, countless translucent glazed bowls held pills shimmering with multicolored light.
Even from a distance, he could feel the powerful spiritual resonance radiating from these pills.
With so many pills piled together, the spiritual energy in the air had almost liquefied, forming a hazy mist of spiritual power that curled around them.
The pills displayed here were at least mid-grade low-level pills, and there were even several mid-grade pills.
"How many Nine Yang Pills do you have left?"
After looking around, Su Jie asked.
The Nine Yang Pill was a mid-grade low-level pill. It used nine kinds of yang-attributed plants as its main ingredients, supplemented by a large amount of yin-attributed plants, and was refined by a low-grade alchemist.
After taking it, one's spiritual energy circulation could be regulated and spiritual power nourished, thereby accelerating cultivation.
"Master Su, our shop has fifteen Nine Yang Pills left in total. You..."
The shopkeeper's heart stirred, and then he saw Su Jie wave his hand.
"Fifteen isn't many. Pack them all up. I'll take the whole lot."
Hearing such an extravagant declaration, the smile on the shopkeeper's face grew even wider, exposing his back teeth.
One Nine Yang Pill cost twenty Blood Marrow Crystals. Fifteen made three hundred Blood Marrow Crystals. He really was a major customer!
"Master Su, please wait. I'll pack them up for you right away."
After agreeing aloud, the shopkeeper scampered off to package the pills for Su Jie.
A dozen minutes later, Su Jie left the Spirit Pill Association amid the shopkeeper's enthusiastic send-off.
"Blood Marrow Crystals I couldn't earn in a year were just exchanged for pills like this. In the past, I wouldn't even have dared dream of it."
Looking at the jade bottles in his hand, Su Jie secretly sighed. The feeling of being rich was truly refreshing.
For the former Su Jie, buying even one of these Nine Yang Pills would have required nearly a month's worth of accumulated Blood Marrow Crystals, and that was while going without food or drink.
Now that he had bought fifteen in one go, they would last him only a month and a half if he took one every three days. Surely, no other outer disciple could be more extravagant than Su Jie.
After leaving the Spirit Pill Association, Su Jie turned and arrived at a nearby building bearing the three large characters Heavenly Craft Pavilion.
The Heavenly Craft Pavilion mainly sold various special magical artifacts, rather than offensive ones.
After entering the shop, Su Jie likewise received a warm reception from the shopkeeper.
"Shopkeeper, bring me a storage pouch. The smallest size will do."
"The smallest storage pouch in our Heavenly Craft Pavilion, in terms of storage space, costs ninety-nine Blood Marrow Crystals."
"I'll take it."
A minute later, Su Jie had a small blue storage pouch in his hand.
The storage pouch was made from a rare heavenly treasure called Nine Heavens Crystal Stone. Only mid-grade artifact refiners or higher were qualified to craft it, so it had always been expensive.
Even this smallest storage pouch, with only one cubic meter of space, was worth as many as ninety-nine Blood Marrow Crystals.
Thus, ordinary outer disciples generally could not afford storage pouches. Only inner disciples would choose to wear them.
After opening the storage pouch with his spiritual power, Su Jie placed the Blood Marrow Crystals, White Bone Heavenly Sha Sword, pills, and other items on him inside.
But Su Jie did not stop there. He continued on his grand shopping spree.
Over the next few hours, he purchased various items related to cultivation one after another.
For example, meditation mats that could calm the mind, sandalwood incense that hastened entry into meditation, as well as Spiritual Grain, spirit water, and all sorts of miscellaneous things that could regulate the constitution and slightly strengthen the body.
After this bout of shopping, more than half the merchants in the Black Market knew that a tycoon had arrived. Whenever they saw Su Jie, they greeted him with extraordinary enthusiasm and invited him in.
Even the beauties from the Brothel of Ten Thousand Blossoms, who dressed themselves in gorgeous finery to entertain guests with music, came out onto the streets to drag Su Jie off to have fun.
Fortunately, Su Jie was an upright man who stood diametrically opposed to gambling and drugs. In the end, after great difficulty, he rejected them on the excuse that he did not have much money.
While Su Jie happily shopped to his heart's content, those observing him from the shadows grew increasingly anxious.
Several Ghost Ridge Palace disciples lowered their hoods and discussed in hushed voices while pretending to be passersby.
"Why does he keep buying things? He's already spent all his Blood Marrow Crystals."
"It doesn't matter. We'll get those supplies later, which amounts to the same thing. Besides, he still has the White Bone Heavenly Sha Sword."
"We'll make our move the moment he leaves the Black Market, so the others don't beat us to it."
Unfortunately, these ill-intentioned disciples did not know that Su Jie had no intention of confronting them head-on.
Walking along the Black Market streets, Su Jie had spent over a thousand Blood Marrow Crystals down to the last one. Looking at the fully packed storage pouch, he nodded in satisfaction.
These supplies were enough for him to cultivate peacefully for one or two months without concerning himself with the turmoil outside.
"Tsk, more than twenty people? Whoa, and that's not all. There are over thirty waiting for me. What am I, Tang Monk's flesh?"
After secretly detecting this with the Scouting Dragonfly, Su Jie complained inwardly.
With Su Jie's current strength, he was certainly not strong enough to deal with so many greedy wolves and tigers.
But Su Jie had never intended to tangle with them in the first place. If he could not afford to provoke them, could he not still hide from them?
"Once my divine skill reaches perfection, I'll come back and butcher every last one of you."
Su Jie snorted coldly, turned into an uninhabited alley, slipped into an abandoned courtyard, and closed the door. He then opened the ancient mirror, took one step inside, and returned to the world of Blue Star.
A long time after Su Jie had left, those disciples finally realized that something was wrong and hurriedly blocked off the alley.
Wave after wave of Ghost Ridge Palace disciples from different groups, but with the same objective, came face-to-face. Each side looked somewhat awkward.
Awkwardness aside, the disciples understood each other's intentions without a word and began searching the alley.
Unfortunately, these Ghost Ridge Palace disciples turned the alley upside down but failed to find even a single hair of Su Jie.
Naturally, unless they could chase him to Blue Star, they would have had better luck finding a ghost than finding him.
Unable to find him, the disciples naturally grew agitated. Some even suspected that someone had secretly ambushed and killed Su Jie.
No one knew who struck first. The disciples began accusing one another, and in the end, they actually slaughtered each other, leaving behind nothing but a complete mess.
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