Night Exploration of the Black Market, Fat Sheep Ties Itself Up

The night was as dark as ink, soaking the alleys of the Southern District thoroughly.

Ye Qingxuan changed into a set of durable, dark-colored short-sleeved clothes, tucking the three taels of silver into the innermost pocket of his clothes.

"Brother, it's so late, are you still going out?"

A timid voice came from behind him. It was his sister, Ye Caiwei, rubbing her eyes, clearly awakened by his movements.

Ye Qingxuan turned around, walked to the edge of the bed, and sat down. He tucked the corner of her blanket in. "I'm going to take care of something. I'll be back soon."

"But... it's dark outside." Ye Caiwei's small hand clutched his sleeve tightly.

Ye Qingxuan didn't explain further. He simply got up and walked to the half-filled water vat in the courtyard. The vat was made of bluestone and was so heavy that two ordinary strong men would struggle to lift it when full.

He extended his right hand, his five fingers gripping the rim of the vat, his arm muscles tensing.

With a soft "crack," the heavy stone vat was lifted three inches off the ground by his single hand. The water in the vat sloshed, but not a single drop spilled out.

Ye Caiwei, watching from the doorway, opened her mouth wide, her eyes full of astonishment.

Ye Qingxuan slowly placed the water vat back in its original position, the ground emitting only a muffled thud. He walked back into the room and ruffled his sister's hair. "Nannan, don't worry, no one can bully your brother anymore. Go to sleep, lock the door, and I'll knock the secret signal when I get back."

With that, he didn't linger. He turned and melted into the darkness outside the courtyard.

The night wind brushed past, carrying the unique scent of Linyuan Prefecture City, a mixture of moisture and dust. Ye Qingxuan didn't take the main road but instead threaded his way through narrow alleys barely wide enough for one person. His footsteps were light, landing silently. After reaching the perfection of Body Tempering second stage, his control over his own strength had reached a whole new level.

At a secluded corner, he took out a pre-prepared black cloth hood from his pocket and put it on, leaving only his eyes exposed.

West of the city, the lawless zone.

There were no constables from the Fengtian Division patrolling here, nor could any gang control everything. Official rules were void here, replaced by the unwritten rules dictated by money and fists.

Ye Qingxuan's destination was a black market hidden behind a dilapidated mountain god temple.

He circled around to the back of the temple. At the base of a crumbling courtyard wall, there was an inconspicuous dog hole. A dozing man sat at the entrance of the hole, his clothes shiny with grease, a faded saber leaning beside him.

Ye Qingxuan approached. The man's eyelids flickered open, and he extended a hand.

Ye Qingxuan took ten copper coins from his pocket and placed them in the man's palm. The man felt the weight of the coins, then lowered his head and continued to doze, as if nothing had happened.

Ye Qingxuan crouched down and crawled through the dog hole.

Beyond the hole lay another world.

It was a downward-sloping path leading to a huge cellar. The air was filled with a strange smell, a mixture of earthiness, cheap wine, and sweat. Shadows flickered within the cellar; there were no less than a hundred people, most of them like Ye Qingxuan, with black cloths covering their heads or wearing bamboo hats with the brims pulled low.

Two rows of dim oil lamps cast flickering shadows across this underground world. People conversed in low voices at various stalls, trading all sorts of illicit goods: jewelry of unknown origin, poisoned hidden weapons, and even live people bound and gagged.

Ye Qingxuan's gaze was unwavering as he walked directly towards a corner at the very back.

There were several book stalls there, selling various handwritten martial arts manuals. Most were crude techniques, better than nothing, but some vendors occasionally had genuine rare finds.

His gaze fell upon a stall run by a tall, thin man.

The stall owner was also masked, his figure like a bamboo pole. His eyes, beneath the black cloth, gleamed with shrewdness. A few scattered booklets lay on the stall, one of which had "Locust Throwing Technique" written on its cover.

Ye Qingxuan stepped forward, picked up the booklet, and casually flipped through it.

"Good eye, honored customer." The tall, thin man spoke, his voice somewhat high-pitched. "This is a genuine introductory hidden weapon technique. Once mastered, you can injure people with flying flowers and falling leaves within ten paces. The price is firm at three taels of silver, no negotiation."

Ye Qingxuan remained silent, merely rubbing the pages of the booklet with his fingertips. The paper was ordinary rough paper, but the ink was fresh, clearly recently copied.

In his mind, he issued a command to the Heavenly Machine Codex.

The scroll moved slightly, but it did not record the technique directly as he had hoped. A line of small text appeared: "[Insufficient contact time, unable to grasp the full picture.]"

Seeing that he was only looking and not speaking, the tall, thin man reached out and pulled the booklet back from his hand. "Honored customer, have you finished looking? The rules here state that if you only look and don't buy, you have to pay extra."

Ye Qingxuan took out the silver ingot weighing over three taels from his pocket and tossed it onto the stall. "I'll buy it."

The silver ingot landed on the stall with a dull thud.

The tall, thin man's eyes lit up. He picked up the silver ingot and bit it, confirming its purity. A smile spread across his face as he handed the booklet back. "A decisive customer!"

Ye Qingxuan took the booklet but didn't leave immediately. He pointed to an empty space nearby. "I'll read it here. Please wait a moment."

The tall, thin man was taken aback, then seemed to understand. He nodded. "Please, honored customer."

Ye Qingxuan ignored him, walked to the corner, leaned against the damp earthen wall, and quickly began to read by the dim lamplight.

His memory, after Body Tempering, far surpassed that of ordinary people. He could read ten lines at a glance and never forget. The force-controlling methods and 발력 techniques depicted in the booklet, the diagrams and incantations, were all rapidly memorized by him.

"[Recording fragment of martial art 'Locust Throwing Technique'...]"

"[Recording progress: 10%... 30%... 70%...]"

In the time it took for a stick of incense to burn, he had already read the booklet, which was only twenty to thirty pages long, from beginning to end.

"[Locust Throwing Technique successfully recorded.]"

"[Name: Ye Qingxuan]"

"[Realm: Body Tempering Second Stage (Perfection)]"

"[Martial Arts: Indestructible Vajra Body (Perfection, Progress: Six inches, Merit: 0/500)]"

"[Locust Throwing Technique (Uninitiated, Merit: 0/10)]"

It was done.

He closed the booklet, stood up, and casually tossed it back onto the stall of the tall, thin man.

The tall, thin man, bored out of his mind, was startled again when he saw this. "Customer, this... this is something you paid for."

"I've finished reading it."

Ye Qingxuan dropped these words and turned to leave without a shred of hesitation.

The tall, thin man held the booklet, looked at Ye Qingxuan's retreating back, and was completely bewildered. How could he know that the true value of this booklet, which he had spent dozens of coins to copy, had already been pocketed by the other party.

Ye Qingxuan crawled out of the dog hole and returned to the ground.

He pulled off his hood, letting the cold night wind blow away the stale air from the cellar. With this Locust Throwing Technique, he had filled the gap in his offensive capabilities. The Indestructible Vajra Body was for defense, and this hidden weapon technique was for offense. With defense and offense, his strength would reach a new level.

He was in a good mood, and his steps became much lighter.

However, as he turned a corner through two streets and the surroundings became increasingly quiet, his steps, without a trace, slowed down.

Behind him, there was an almost imperceptible sound of footsteps.

More than one.

Were there two, or three? They deliberately lightened their steps, trailing dozens of paces behind, thinking they were completely unseen.

Ye Qingxuan's lips curved into a cold, sharp smile in the unseen darkness.

In the black market, one did not flaunt wealth. He had paid with silver ingots deliberately. Having reached the peak of Body Tempering second stage, he was just looking for a suitable opponent to test how tough his muscles and bones truly were.

He didn't look back, nor did he speed up. Instead, he deliberately headed towards darker, more secluded alleys.

Ahead was a dead-end alley.

At the end of the alley, piles of discarded junk were stacked, with only a courtyard wall about two people high.

Ye Qingxuan walked into the alley, and the footsteps behind him quickened accordingly. Three figures, two behind and one in front, blocked the alley entrance, completely cutting off his escape route.

"Kid, stop right there!"

The leader was a burly man, holding a large axe. The blade gleamed under the moonlight. The two beside him, one with a short knife and the other with an iron ruler, both had fierce expressions.

Ye Qingxuan turned around, leaning against the cold wall, and looked at the three blocking the alley entrance.

"What guidance do you gentlemen have for me?"

"Guidance? Heh heh." The burly man sneered, weighing the axe in his hand. "Kid, didn't you hear? Is money from the black market easy to take out? If you're smart, hand over all the silver you have, and we might leave your corpse intact."

"Oh?" Ye Qingxuan asked, "And if I don't?"

"Don't?" The knife-wielding man beside the burly man licked his lips. "Then we'll have to take it by force. And by the way, we'll carve off a few pieces of your flesh and sell them to the dog meat stalls in the west of the city."

Under the moonlight, Ye Qingxuan's thin face showed no expression.

He slowly picked up three small pebbles from the ground and weighed them in his hand. The pebbles were of different sizes and shapes.

Seeing him like this, the burly man thought he was scared silly and impatiently shouted, "Attack! Let's finish this quickly!"

Before he finished speaking, the man with the iron ruler beside him lunged forward, his iron ruler whistling through the air, aiming straight for Ye Qingxuan's face.

Ye Qingxuan didn't move.

Just as the iron ruler was about to hit his face, he flicked his right wrist.

"Whoosh!"

A sound of air being cut.

A pebble in his hand shot out like an arrow from a bowstring.

The man only saw a blur before his eyes, and then a strong force hit his wrist. He cried out in pain, the iron ruler flew out of his hand, and clanged onto the ground. His right wrist had been dislocated by the small pebble, hanging limply.

The change happened in an instant.

The burly man and the knife-wielder at the alley entrance were both startled.

Before they could react, Ye Qingxuan's figure had already disappeared from his spot.

He didn't charge towards the alley entrance. Instead, he pushed off the wall with his foot, and like a gecko climbing a wall, he shot upwards along the two-zhang-high courtyard wall.

At the highest point, he twisted his body, and the second pebble in his hand shot towards the knife-wielding man!

"Watch out!" the burly man roared.

The knife-wielder hurriedly raised his saber to block.

"Clang!"

The pebble hit the blade, emitting a sound of metal striking metal. The knife-wielder felt an immense force transmit through the saber, numbing his hand until his tiger's mouth ached. He staggered back three steps before stabilizing himself.

At this moment, Ye Qingxuan's body had already landed lightly on the roof on the other side of the alley.

He looked down from above at the three shaken robbers in the alley, playing with the last pebble between his fingers.

"Gentlemen, do you still want the silver I have?"

He had thought he was just buying a martial art, but unexpectedly, he also got three live targets as a bonus.

This dark night in Linyuan Prefecture was truly full of surprises.

Who was the fat sheep in the end?