"Hiss—"
The burly stall owner sucked at his teeth as if he had a headache, his eyes concealing deep wariness. After pondering for a moment, he named a price:
"One hundred..."
Su Haoran's expression remained calm, his gaze cold.
"One hundred and fifty taels! As you said yourself, that's the market price!"
In the end, the stall owner let out a long breath, his tone carrying both helplessness and relief.
This was the highest price he could offer. The young monk before him looked utterly ordinary, but the air about him was not to be trifled with.
It was an instinct he had honed over many years as a black-market stall owner.
To seize so many standard-issue weapons and armor from the Great Western Army and still stand here safe and sound—what that represented was enough to explain many things.
The transaction proceeded exceptionally smoothly.
The stall owner briskly counted out a Baoyuan Bank note worth one hundred taels, added fifty taels in silver fragments, and handed them over.
Su Haoran accepted the money, weighed it in his hand, and casually tucked it into his robes.
He did not leave immediately. Instead, he turned his gaze toward the market that remained lively beneath the night.
Now that he possessed a hundred taels of gold, he needed to turn this money into strength as quickly as possible.
His Iron Cloth Shirt had been stuck at the bottleneck of 99% Minor Accomplishment for a long time, only one final kick away.
That final kick required an enormous amount of Qi and Blood to drive it forward.
Su Haoran's gaze was like lightning as it swept over stall after stall beneath the dim yellow lantern light.
At a stall to his left lay several dull-colored chunks of ore. The owner boasted that they were Meteorite Iron and demanded three hundred taels.
Su Haoran took one glance and knew they were ordinary lumps of iron. He sneered inwardly and passed them by.
Not far ahead, someone was selling a broken sword. Ancient runes were carved into the blade, emitting a faint spiritual glow, and its asking price was even more outrageous—five hundred taels.
Unfortunately, the sword was already broken and had lost all spirituality. It was nothing more than scrap iron.
There were also bottles and jars of pills with increasingly grand names—Dragon Tiger Great Returning Pill, Marrow Cleansing Tendon Changing Pill—but with a mere sniff, Su Haoran could smell the unpleasant stench of inferior medicinal ingredients within.
If eating such things did not kill someone on the spot, that would already count as good fortune.
As he continued looking, Su Haoran's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
The goods in this black market seemed dazzlingly varied, but in truth they were a muddle of fish and dragons. Truly good items were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and even when they appeared, their prices far exceeded what he could afford.
Did he truly have to give up on finding external aids, return to buy several hundred jin of meat, and use the stupidest method—forcefully piling up Qi and Blood through food supplements—to break through to the Major Accomplishment realm of Iron Cloth Shirt?
Though that method was reliable, it was far too slow.
In these times, every day of delay meant another measure of danger.
Su Haoran was unwilling to accept it.
He patiently continued searching through the outskirts of the market, not overlooking a single corner.
At last, he stopped in a corner that was nearly devoid of visitors.
The stall owner was an old man as thin as a bamboo pole. His eyes were half closed, and he looked ready to doze off at any moment.
On his stall lay only a single yellowed sheet of old paper.
It was a pill formula.
The paper's edges were tattered, and the writing had become somewhat blurred, but the three large cinnabar characters at the top remained clear.
"Qi Replenishing Powder."
Su Haoran's heart stirred. He stepped forward and picked up the formula as if by chance.
"Three qian of ginseng, five qian of astragalus, three qian of Atractylodes Macrocephala, two qian of Angelica Sinensis..." His eyes rapidly swept over the list of medicinal ingredients as he murmured under his breath.
The more he read, the harder it became to suppress the delight in his eyes.
Of the dozen or so ingredients required by this formula, aside from the main ingredients—thirty-year-old ginseng and astragalus—the rest were all common herbs found everywhere.
They could easily be bought at any somewhat larger apothecary.
This was practically tailor-made for him!
With his current finances, buying medicinal herbs of ordinary age would be more than affordable.
With the aid of this Qi Replenishing Powder, his chances of breaking through Iron Cloth Shirt to Major Accomplishment could rise by at least fifty percent!
"Cough, cough."
Seeing Su Haoran absorbed in the formula, the skinny old stall owner finally opened his cloudy eyes and said listlessly, "Young man, taken a liking to it? This is a treasure passed down through my ancestors. They say it came out of the former dynasty's imperial palace. It strengthens the foundation, nurtures the origin, greatly replenishes Qi and Blood, and is a supreme treasure for martial artists to cultivate with."
Su Haoran sneered inwardly, but his face gave nothing away. He set down the formula and said blandly, "It's just a scrap of paper. The writing is nearly worn away—who knows whether it's real or fake? Name your price."
"Heh, listen to yourself, young man." The skinny old man immediately perked up and sat straighter. "This is an ancient formula! Do you understand? An ancient formula! It's worth a thousand gold! Since fate has brought us together, I'll give you a bargain—five hundred taels, and it's yours!"
"Five hundred taels?" Su Haoran looked as though he had heard a joke. "Heaven knows whether this formula is even usable. If I buy it and fail to refine the medicine, wouldn't that money be poured straight into the water?"
He raised a finger and tapped a damaged corner of the formula. "Look here. The name of the most crucial supplementary ingredient is missing by half. How am I supposed to prepare it?"
The skinny old man choked, his eyes flickering as he stubbornly said, "Th-then you can figure it out yourself! If you manage to figure it out, wouldn't you strike it rich?"
"I have no time to figure it out." Su Haoran's voice was decisive as he held out one finger.
"One hundred taels. This formula comes from an unknown source and is incomplete. One hundred taels is the highest price I can offer. If you sell, I'll take it. If not, I'll leave immediately."
With that, he turned as if to go, without the slightest hesitation.
"Hey, wait!" The skinny old man panicked.
He had displayed this formula at several markets. Plenty had asked about it, but not a single person had bought it.
No one was a fool. Spending a large sum to gamble on an incomplete formula carried too much risk. Having finally encountered someone who genuinely wanted to buy it, how could he let him slip away?
"One hundred taels... that's too little..." The old man was still wavering.
Su Haoran did not stop walking. "I'll give you three breaths to consider."
"One."
"Two."
"Sold! I'll sell!"
Just as Su Haoran was about to walk three steps away, the skinny old man finally could not withstand the pressure. Gritting his teeth, he agreed.
Only then did Su Haoran turn around. He took out the hundred-tael banknote that had only just reached his hands and had not even had time to grow warm, handed it over, and tucked the Qi Replenishing Powder formula into his robes.
With the transaction complete, he did not linger for even a moment, swiftly turning and melting into the dark crowd.
Though the formula was now in his hands, one medicinal ingredient was indeed somewhat unclear.
However, Su Haoran happened to know this crucial ingredient, so in his eyes, this was a complete formula.
For safety's sake, he did not go directly to Qingshi City's largest apothecary. Instead, he twisted and turned through the city streets, making certain no one was following him before entering an old-established pharmacy in a secluded alley.
"Shopkeeper, prepare ten doses according to this prescription first." Su Haoran handed over the formula he had copied out and completed himself.
"Right away."
The pharmacy owner accepted the prescription and, after reading it, could not help giving Su Haoran another look.
This young man did not look very old. Could his body be so weak?
Though the formula used common medicinal ingredients, its purpose was clearly to replenish Qi and Blood, and it was not cheap.
One dose cost exactly one tael of silver.
Su Haoran paid ten taels and packed away the ten heavy bundles of medicine.
Afterward, he went to a butcher's shop and exchanged the remaining forty taels entirely for smoked cured meat and jerky, more than a hundred jin in total.
After tying everything into one large bundle, Su Haoran finally set foot on the mountain road back to Prajna Temple beneath the cover of night.
With his arms full of gains, his mood was quite good as well.
Once he returned to the temple, he could immediately enter seclusion and use the medicine's power to push Iron Cloth Shirt into the Major Accomplishment realm in one stroke!
The mountain road was rugged, and the night wind was icy.
Su Haoran's steps were light yet steady as he moved through the mountain forest like the wind.
However, after traveling several li, his brows suddenly knit, and his steps came to a halt.
Something was wrong!
A faint, strange fragrance seemed to be drifting through the air.
The scent was extraordinarily subtle. Ordinary people would never notice it, but Su Haoran's five senses were sharp, and he caught it clearly.
Like an invisible thread, it had been following him at neither too near nor too far a distance.
Someone had their eyes on him!
This thought flashed through Su Haoran's mind in an instant.
His heart sank, and a chill rose up his spine.
Was it someone from the black market?
He immediately recalled every scene from the market—the burly stall owner who had bought his weapons? The skinny old man who had sold him the pill formula? Or some third party lurking in the shadows?
There was no time to think further. Without the slightest hesitation, Su Haoran's figure flashed as he darted into a dense patch of shrubs by the roadside. At the same time, he restrained his aura to the utmost, as though he had merged into the darkness.
Barely ten breaths after he had hidden himself, rustling footsteps came from the distant mountain path.
Very soon, two figures emerged beneath the moonlight.
Walking in front was a tall man with an ordinary black cloth covering his face, obscuring his features.
Behind him followed a somewhat hunched man. He wore a blue-faced, fang-baring vicious ghost mask, appearing especially savage and terrifying beneath the moonlight.
What made Su Haoran's pupils contract most was that between the two men, they held the leash of a pitch-black vicious dog more than half a person tall!
The vicious dog kept sniffing the air, a low growl rumbling from its throat. At last, it stopped not far from where Su Haoran hid and began barking wildly in his direction.
"Woof! Woof woof!"
"Heh..."
The man wearing the Ghost Face Mask let out a cold laugh. His hoarse voice rang through the silent mountain forest, gratingly sharp.
"You can't run!"
He patted the vicious dog's head and addressed the pitch-black shrubs in a sinister tone. "Friend, stop hiding. My Thousand Mile Scent is a secret medicine passed down in my line. It is colorless and odorless, and once it touches you, it will not disperse for three days and three nights. Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, Blackwind will still sniff you out."
The black-clothed masked man also stepped forward, his voice cold as he echoed, "Hand over everything you got from Xunri Market, and we may show mercy and leave you an intact corpse!"
They had already investigated Su Haoran's background. He was merely a Sweeping Monk Disciple of Prajna Temple.
Had he been an official Martial Monk of Prajna Temple, they might have feared him somewhat. But killing a Sweeping Monk Disciple would take no more effort than blowing away dust.
If this brat had not been so cunning and taken so many detours through the city, they would have finished him off long ago.
Hidden in the darkness, Su Haoran's gaze turned cold at those words.
Murder for treasure!
He understood now. When he had traded for the pill formula, that skinny old man had set him up!
The so-called Thousand Mile Scent must have been placed on him then.
He slowly set down the bundle on his back, his right hand quietly closing around the hilt of the saber at his waist.
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