While waiting for his younger sister to return.
Lu Xuan washed away the impurities expelled from his body after swallowing the Qi and Blood Golden Elixir.
He changed clothes and hurried out.
The Black Market mentioned in the Future Mail was in the eastern district of Jinling City.
It took thirty minutes to get from the western district to the eastern district by bus.
After getting off,
Lu Xuan made a simple change to his disguise and followed the information in the mail to find the entrance to the Black Market.
"Entrance fee: 1,000 Federal Coins."
After paying, he entered the Black Market.
The so-called Black Market was an underground city.
It was said to be an air-raid shelter left over from the old era, with passages running in all directions.
Lu Xuan did not linger for even a moment. He went straight to the stall mentioned in the information—the only stall in the entire Black Market that sold Martial Art Manuals.
As for why the other stalls did not sell Martial Art Manuals?
The authorities had decreed that anyone who sold Martial Art Manuals would spend the rest of their life behind bars.
Martial Art Manuals were the painstaking work of generations of martial artists. They were national treasures and absolutely forbidden to be published.
Some might say that this made it easy for talented people to be overlooked.
But genuine talents had already been selected when they came into contact with basic Martial Art Manuals.
The ordinary people in society were, by and large, lacking in aptitude.
Of course,
some people chose to give up because of accidents.
Lu Xuan was one example.
But now, reality was forcing him to become a martial artist.
Moreover, Lu Xuan now felt that his mind was incomparably clear, as if he could understand anything at a glance.
It was as though his aptitude had been enhanced.
He could not waste such a talent.
Soon.
Lu Xuan found the person selling Martial Art Manuals in a corner of the Black Market.
He was a hunched old man, bald, with a handlebar mustache and a pair of sunglasses... He somewhat resembled Master Roshi from Dragon Ball.
He was the old man mentioned in the Future Mail.
The letter said that a broker had bought a Martial Art Manual from him and then resold it online for five hundred million.
"Young man, what are you buying?"
The old man stroked his little mustache and spoke hoarsely.
Lu Xuan lowered his voice. "A Martial Art Manual."
"Hm?" The old man looked up. An invisible force pressed toward Lu Xuan.
It was not a tangible force. It was more like waves crashing against Lu Xuan's brain.
Lu Xuan furrowed his brows. Acting on instinct, he released the power he had gained after swallowing the Qi and Blood Golden Elixir to resist it, provoking a delighted chuckle from the old man.
"Well, well. I didn't expect an unexpected harvest."
The old man held up two fingers. "Twenty thousand Federal Coins."
"Deal!"
Lu Xuan handed over the money without a second thought, grabbed the Martial Art Manual, and ran.
The old man was dumbfounded.
How could anyone not haggle?
But when he went looking for Lu Xuan, the young man had already vanished without a trace.
"Hey~ A reincarnated little rascal, slipping away that fast?"
The old man licked his fingers and began counting the money.
"Grandpa!" Just then, a beautiful figure appeared beside the old man. Looking at the money in his hands, the woman's eyes widened.
"You're selling Martial Art Manuals to people again because of your illness?"
"What are you talking about? Isn't my Martial Art Manual good?"
The woman sighed. "That Martial Art Manual of yours was picked up from the Starry Sky Battlefield. You cultivated yourself into a lunatic with it. Do you think it's any good?"
"Ah, I'm crazy?"
"Hahaha, so I'm crazy!"
The woman covered her forehead and shook her head with a sigh. "You sold it for twenty thousand Federal Coins, too. Last time, it cost me twenty million to get that Martial Art Manual back!"
She gazed at the vast sea of people and murmured, "I hope whoever bought it knows when to retreat. They absolutely mustn't force themselves..."
"It worked!"
Lu Xuan opened his eyes in delight.
With a single thought,
everything in the room floated into the air.
Moreover, guided by his will, the objects arranged themselves into all kinds of poses.
"I didn't expect this Martial Art Manual not to cultivate qi and blood."
That was right.
After buying the Martial Art Manual, Lu Xuan discovered that he could not cultivate qi and blood with it at all.
He had originally planned to return it.
But the Future Mail had mentioned that it was worth five hundred million.
That was enough to prove it was genuine, so Lu Xuan instead tried cultivating something else.
Mental Power.
Sure enough, this Martial Art Manual was for cultivating Mental Power.
A blessing in disguise.
"Although I can't become a martial artist for the time being, possessing this kind of power is enough."
Lu Xuan guided it with a thought.
His Mental Power pulled the fruit knife from the wall. With another thought, the knife spun rapidly through the air. With a sharp whoosh, the fruit knife tore through the air, sliced through the iron bars on the window, then flew back to his side with several more whooshes.
Mental Power could control objects and launch attacks from any angle.
It could catch an enemy off guard.
That was enough.
"Whew~"
Lu Xuan ended his cultivation.
"With this ability, making money will be simple."
Making money!
That was Lu Xuan's top priority at present.
His parents' medical expenses could not be interrupted.
His younger sister could not continue drifting through life either.
"Taking out a loan is impossible."
Even with this power, taking out a loan still carried risks.
That left him only one choice: leave the city and head into the wilderness.
"The two letters mentioned that the Third Ward of Ruins City contains a strange treasure capable of turning someone directly into a martial artist. I must obtain it."
However, only martial artists could leave the city alone.
Although Lu Xuan possessed telekinetic power, he was not a martial artist.
Moreover, this power was his trump card. He absolutely could not expose it.
"Then I can only leave the city with a martial artist."
With that thought, Lu Xuan opened his computer and began searching online for martial artist companies. Normally, when martial artists from a company ventured outside, they would post announcements online. One purpose was to invite other martial artists to form a team; the other was to recruit bold ordinary people as members of a logistics team.
"Satellite City No. 3..."
"It has to be a major company. Ordinary martial artist teams are liable to die or get devoured as prey..."
He entered the keywords, and the information he needed soon popped up.
#Zero Martial Arts Company: Fifth-order martial artist leading a team to Satellite City No. 3#
#Monster Potion Company: Heading to the Wilderness area of Satellite City No. 3, led by a Fifth-order martial artist, with safety guaranteed!#
#Jiangnan Martial University freshman training expedition, urgently seeking logistics personnel#
"Monster Potion Company?" Seeing the familiar name, Lu Xuan could not help frowning. "This company is going to the Wilderness of Satellite City No. 3 too? Its conduct is questionable. It has nearly gotten me killed twice."
He could not afford to let his guard down.
As for the other companies...
"Zero Martial Arts Company is the strongest private enterprise apart from the Human Federation. Companies like this usually don't find much profit, and martial artists are proud. A slight mishap could easily create a grudge."
"Jiangnan Martial University is one of Xia Nation's four top universities. It has guaranteed safety and official backing. Its only flaw is its strict management, but it's also the team most likely to yield benefits... After all, this is merely a training expedition. The monster corpses they collect won't be of a high level, so there'll be plenty of room to profit."
After thinking it over, Lu Xuan sent messages to both Zero Martial Arts Company and Jiangnan Martial University to ask for details.
One should always compare prices from three different stores.
[Lu Xuan: May I ask what the requirements are for recruiting logistics personnel?]
Before long, both sides responded.
[Zero Martial Arts Company: Applicants must be between eighteen and fifty years old, possess sufficient corpse-collection experience, and preferably have a relatively good understanding of monsters. A Corpse Collection Certificate is optional.]
[Jiangnan Martial University: Applicants must be between eighteen and forty-five years old, possess a Corpse Collection Certificate, and have more than two years of experience clearing monster corpses.]
A Corpse Collection Certificate was a qualification for clearing monster corpses.
Lu Xuan had obtained one when he was fifteen.
Although he had never entered the Wilderness or truly experienced hordes of monsters, he knew enough about the basic information of all kinds of monsters.
[Lu Xuan: What are the benefits?]
[Jiangnan Martial University: The freshman training expedition lasts five days. The base salary is 20,000 Federal Coins, followed by commissions based on the corpses collected. Corpse collected +1, commission 15%...]
"Oh? It's a commission-based system?"
Lu Xuan abruptly sat up straighter, directly ignoring the benefits offered by Zero Martial Arts Company.
A commission-based system was definitely the most profitable.
For example, if a Third-order monster was worth 300,000 Federal Coins, he could take home 45,000 Federal Coins. If he managed to collect the corpse of a Fourth- or Fifth-order monster, he could earn hundreds of thousands in a single trip!
"It's Jiangnan Martial University!"
Lu Xuan immediately sent them his résumé.
He was not worried in the slightest that he would be rejected. Logistics personnel for wilderness martial artist expeditions generally accepted anyone, because the moment they joined the team, they had already tied their heads to their belts.
Fortune came through danger!
Before you continue