West City Spending, The Price of a Secret Manual That Cannot Be Spoken Of

Lu Lin walked out of the Martial Arts School gates carrying ten thousand yuan in cash and grandly hailed a cab to West City's gate.

This was the foremost place for Martial Artists to sell their gains after leaving the city to hunt Monster Beasts. Monster Cores, Beast Tendons, monster blood, and monster bones were sold here in great quantities. The moment Lu Lin got out of the car, a bearded Martial Artist grabbed him and asked whether he wanted a fox pet that had just turned a month old. Lu Lin had to talk his way out of the man's clutches.

What a joke. Did he look like the kind of person who came here with money to buy pets?

Looking around, Lu Lin saw that, with evening approaching, huge numbers of Martial Artists were returning from outside the city. Some drove vehicles hauling enormous Monster Beast corpses behind them. Their rugged, heroic bearing made Lu Lin's heart race with longing.

The sounds of haggling and hawking rose and fell in waves. Lu Lin even saw two groups of Martial Artists nearly come to blows after failing to agree on a price. Fortunately, experts from the Wu'an Bureau responsible for market management appeared just then, and after some mediation, both parties left satisfied.

After getting his bearings, Lu Lin came to a stall that specialized in selling Monster Beast meat.

"Little brother, what'll you have? Freshly killed Black-tailed Snake, guaranteed fresh—absolutely incredible for soup."

"And we've got authentic Three-eyed Rabbit. This one's a top-grade white one, with delicious, tender meat. Whether braised or grilled, the flavor will leave you wanting more."

The owner loudly introduced the meats on his stall. Though Lu Lin's heart was tempted, one look at the prices of the two kinds of meat made him back down.

A Black-tailed Snake cost between 1,200 and 2,000 yuan each. The key was that one snake only looked to weigh three to five jin. Buying it just for the meat wasn't worth it.

As for the Three-eyed Rabbit, Lu Lin had no idea whether it really was a top-grade white specimen, but this owner was truly black-hearted. It cost 680 yuan per jin—how could Lu Lin afford that?

"Boss, how much for this Ironhide Porcupine hind leg?"

"This one? Eighty-five per jin." The owner clearly wasn't too interested in selling such cheap meat.

"Then weigh out ten jin for me."

"Ten jin? Kid, I can tell you're used to buying meat at the wet market. Here at the West City Monster Beast Market, hind leg meat is sold by the whole leg. If I sold you one or two jin at a time, would I still sell it this cheap?"

The owner spoke with a look of disdain, and Lu Lin felt a little embarrassed as well.

Buying Monster Beast meat here really was much cheaper than at the wet market, but he had to buy the whole leg. Lu Lin gritted his teeth. He had just received a ten-thousand-yuan tip today—wasn't that enough to buy some meat?

"Fine, Boss. Weigh this piece for me."

"A little over fifty jin. I'll count it as fifty. That'll be 4,250 total. Scan to pay or cash?" The owner skillfully bagged the meat.

Lu Lin froze. 4,250? That was way too much. He had bought meat plenty of times growing up, but spending over four thousand yuan in one go was far too extravagant.

"Boss, can you make it a little cheaper?"

"Hm? What's that supposed to mean, little brother? Is the quality of my hind leg meat bad, or do you think there's something wrong with my scale?"

"I, Old Wang, have been doing business here in West City for over a decade. This is the first time I've seen someone make a request like yours. The price is already this low, and you still want it cheaper?"

"How ridiculous!"

Hearing Lu Lin say that, the owner immediately lost any pretense of good service. He took out the bagged meat and tossed it onto the chopping block.

That left Lu Lin in an awkward spot instead. He had only tried to haggle out of habit; he hadn't expected the owner to be so hot-tempered.

"Fine, fine. Bag it up. I'll take it."

"But Boss, seeing how decisive I am, how about throwing in these two marrow bones?"

"You—!"

The owner clearly had never met someone as shameless as Lu Lin. Still, two marrow bones meant nothing to him. What mattered was getting this penny-pinching brat out of his sight as soon as possible.

"Fine, fine, you've beaten me. A grown young man buying meat like those old aunties—take them with you."

Taking the meat the owner handed over, Lu Lin casually asked, "Boss, do you have Monster Beast cores here? What prices?"

"Of course. How many do you want, and what order?"

"Tell me the prices first. If they're suitable, I'll take more."

The owner looked at Lu Lin and chuckled. "All right, kid. Being too clever isn't always a good thing. But I'll give you the straight truth: First-Order Monster Cores are three yuan each, Second-Order are twenty-eight each, Third-Order are 260, Fourth-Order are 4,000, Fifth-Order are 50,000. Nothing Sixth Order or above."

Lu Lin secretly did the calculations. If he exchanged them for Simplification Points...

For First-Order Monster Cores, converting one Simplification Point cost three yuan.

For Second-Order Monster Cores, converting one point cost 2.8 yuan.

For Third-Order Monster Cores, converting one point cost 2.6 yuan.

But once it reached Fourth-Order Monster Cores, the price suddenly soared. Converting one point cost four yuan, while Fifth-Order Monster Cores were even worse—converting one core cost five yuan.

By that calculation, buying Third-Order Monster Cores was still the best deal.

Lu Lin still had 5,750 yuan. Buying twenty Third-Order Monster Cores would cost 5,200 yuan and could be converted into 2,000 Simplification Points.

That price was a little higher than Lu Lin had expected.

If he spent money on Monster Cores, he would no longer be able to buy the weighted vest and ankle weights needed for load-bearing training.

After thinking it over, Lu Lin still decided to prioritize cultivation. That was what mattered most right now; it concerned whether he could become a Martial Artist. Once he became one, as long as he passed the Martial Arts Association's certification, he could receive a 5,000-yuan monthly subsidy, which would let him recover some blood.

He still had to wait a month for his salary. During this gap, Lu Lin had to carefully plan every penny in his hands.

"Forget it, Boss. I won't take any for now. Let me ask something else—do you buy equipment here? I have several F-grade Battle Sabers."

"Heh, kid, did you come here just to ask me about market prices? Fine, I'll give you some honest advice. F-grade Battle Sabers aren't worth much. Use them yourself if you can; if you can't, give them away. If you sell them secondhand, unless you've got a large quantity and the right channels, the buyback price will be two thousand at most."

"So low!"

Lu Lin cried out in surprise. F-grade Battle Sabers sold for twenty thousand yuan, yet their buyback price was only one-tenth of that. Just as the owner had said, he would rather use them himself or give them away than sell them secondhand.

"What price is that secret manual, if..."

"Stop!"

Lu Lin had not even finished speaking before the owner cut him off.

"Kid, this is a respectable meat stall. Once you've bought what you need, hurry up and leave. Stop asking questions left and right."

Seeing Lu Lin's curious expression, the owner had no interest in explaining anything to him. When he saw that Lu Lin still refused to leave, he was ready to come out and throw him out himself.

"Alright, alright, I won't ask. I'll leave, okay? I only chatted with you for a few extra sentences—is there really any need to chase me off?"

Lu Lin muttered to himself. Though he did not know why the owner had reacted so strongly upon hearing about selling secret manuals, there had to be some reason behind it that he did not know.

After leaving the meat stall, Lu Lin found a small shop specializing in martial artist equipment and bought a secondhand weighted training vest and several strap-on weight bags.

The vest weighed five hundred kilograms. There were two fifty-kilogram weight bags and two one-hundred-kilogram ones, bringing the total weight to eight hundred kilograms.