He nodded in agreement, and the two parted ways.
Qi Yuan headed toward a familiar spot, while Jiang Shu began browsing from the first stall in the square.
Unlike the vendors in the county town, the stall owners here simply sat in silence. Unless someone asked them something, they didn't say a word.
Jiang Shu crouched down. On the small stall were all sorts of little bottles. The labels on them read: "Poison, Bewitching, Aphrodisiac, Nourishing, Blood-Strengthening, Body-Strengthening..."
The first three were easy enough to understand.
Jiang Shu passed them over and asked quietly, "What do 'Nourishing,' 'Blood-Strengthening,' and 'Body-Strengthening' mean?"
The stall owner kept his head lowered, his enormous hat hiding his face. A few seconds later, he replied, "Nourishing vitality, strengthening the blood, and strengthening the body."
"These three bottles all contain medicinal powders. The vitality powder is for ordinary people, the blood-strengthening powder for martial artists, and the body-strengthening powder for Skin Grinding Realm martial artists. One dose of the first costs one tael of silver, the second five taels, and the third twenty."
"Mm."
Jiang Shu nodded, asked nothing more, and turned to leave.
Could he trust something sold alongside poison, bewitching drugs, and aphrodisiacs?
He'd only asked to get familiar with the prices.
He didn't head for the second stall, but walked straight onward. Only after making sure the first stall owner wasn't watching him anymore did he crouch down and look at a nearby stall.
Strange-looking cured meats were laid out on it.
Labels in front of the meat read: "Leopard-Flower Horse, Fox-Bear, Cliff-Piercing Python, Iron-Seeking Rat..."
Clearly, these were all kinds of exotic beast meat.
If the animals on Mystic Star were still mutating and evolving, then the animals in this world had been evolving for who knew how many years. These names he'd never heard before surely belonged to exotic beasts, each with its own abilities.
Skin Grinding Realm martial artists could only increase their vital energy by consuming exotic beast meat over a long period.
It was hard.
So hard!
He had no idea how many years these cured meats had been sitting here. Even if he bought them, how could he bring himself to eat them?
Eat them, and endure the pain.
Don't eat them, and his martial progress would stall.
Mystic Star was still the better place.
The academy.
Soon.
By the time he reached the academy, he would probably be a Skin Grinding Realm martial artist.
Never mind Heaven and Earth Precious Medicine.
There would certainly be no shortage of exotic beast meat.
He had no idea what the exotic beast meat at the academy would look like.
But surely it couldn't be these chunks of cured meat piled up at a stall.
Without stopping, Jiang Shu continued onward, looking around as he went and taking in the wide variety of goods in the Black Market.
Some stalls sold beast meat, others sold martial arts manuals, and some even sold information.
At last, Jiang Shu stopped.
A long row of weapons stretched out before him.
A dagger gleaming with a cold light caught his eye.
Whether it was lime powder or a stun baton, as his strength grew, both were gradually falling behind.
With his Full Body Vital Energy Circulation, the opponents he would soon face would be Skin Grinding Realm martial artists.
Perhaps a surprise attack with lime powder could still be somewhat effective.
But a stun baton was only enough to intimidate ordinary people.
Against a Skin Grinding Realm martial artist, all it would take was a slight dodge, followed by a well-timed kick to his wrist.
Even if the baton struck them, the injury might not be as bad as taking a few heavy blows from someone at the same level.
Before he had traded punches with Qi Yuan,
Jiang Shu had also thought that if he faced an ordinary Cowhide Realm martial artist, a successful surprise attack with lime powder might give him a chance to fight back.
But after trading punches for several days, Qi Yuan's strength had made him understand the truth.
The gap between him and a Skin Grinding Realm martial artist
was like the gap between him and an ordinary person.
When one's realm crushed the other, all those little tricks were useless.
To win against someone at a higher realm,
he absolutely needed a dagger that could truly boost his combat power and cut through a Skin Grinding Realm martial artist's skin.
Unfortunately, weapon restrictions on Mystic Star were simply too strict.
After martial arts began to be promoted, inspections had become even more stringent.
The only knives one could probably buy in Xia Kingdom now were fruit knives and kitchen knives.
Thinking about the power of those two kinds of knives, Jiang Shu couldn't help shaking his head. He looked at the dagger and asked in a low voice, "How much?"
The stall owner looked up, said nothing, and swept his hand through the air. Inner Strength rang out.
He was a martial artist too!
He picked up the dagger and brought it close to his own arm. A thread of blood immediately welled up.
"It can cut anything below Ironskin. Thirty taels of silver. No haggling."
The price was definitely steep, but Jiang Shu didn't have many other options right now.
Thirty taels of silver wasn't a huge sum for him at this point, either.
Right now, the most important thing was to increase his strength.
The dagger was only a stopgap. Once he safely reached the Skin Grinding Realm and could come to the Black Market alone,
he could rent a stall and bring some man-made diamonds and glass mirrors from Mystic Star to sell in the Black Market.
As long as he kept his identity secret, he could sell them for a high price and disappear afterward.
A hundred taels of gold, earned in a single night.
Jiang Shu put away the dagger, thinking to himself. Without realizing it, he made a loop around the square and rejoined Qi Yuan.
Qi Yuan now had a bulging bundle on him, its contents impossible to make out.
"Ready?"
Qi Yuan was a man of few words. He didn't ask what Jiang Shu had seen or bought.
"Mm."
Jiang Shu nodded.
The Black Market was a place where identities were concealed, and it was full of all sorts of people.
Every extra moment they lingered brought another chance of danger.
The two retraced their steps. Only after returning to the small courtyard did Qi Yuan remove his mask and take off his cloak. He let out a long breath.
Though he was already a martial artist, and though he had been to the Black Market many times,
he always remained extremely cautious there.
Qi Yuan sat down in a chair, opened the wine jug on the table, and took several swigs. After composing himself, he opened the bundle, and a wave of blood stench rushed out.
Inside the bundle were several huge chunks of bloody meat. Their stench filled the air, and it was impossible to tell what kind of exotic beast they had come from.
"The meat ordinary martial artists eat is usually common food like fish, chicken, and duck. But for us martial artists, that sort of meat provides very little vital energy. If we want to keep making progress in martial arts, we have to consume exotic beast meat over a long period."
"We martial artists can improve our martial realms through martial arts. And in this world, there are also birds and beasts that undergo natural changes and possess strength comparable to ours."
Qi Yuan spoke slowly.
Once Jiang Shu became a martial artist, Elder Qiu would tell him about this sort of thing. It wasn't classified information.
He was only explaining it now because he wanted to be on good terms with Jiang Shu and give him an early introduction.
"We martial artists consume exotic beast meat to improve ourselves. But every martial artist studies different martial arts and has a different constitution, so different kinds of exotic beast meat bring different results."
"Exotic beast meat that suits you can roughly double your training progress. Meat that doesn't suit you may not even give you a tenth of that. Usually, you have to try several kinds before you can figure out what you need."
"Our Hungry Tiger Martial Arts School's Roaring Tiger Mountain Strength, for example, mainly uses tiger and leopard meat. Of course, the piece I bought today isn't tiger or leopard meat. Pingling County is too small. If I kept buying the same kind of meat, people in the Black Market could easily guess who I was."
"In the Black Market, you have to keep your identity secret from beginning to end."
Before you continue