"Weakness is the root of all sin! I have to keep growing stronger! I'll stop at nothing to push forward, until I can completely master my own fate!"
After taking a long detour, he returned home under a pitch-black sky.
Lu Longjing and Lu Cheng were waiting for him at the table. Seeing Lu Yuan arrive covered in dust, Lu Longjing casually asked, "Where have you been? Why are you back so late?"
"I went out of the city to take care of something."
Lu Longjing asked curiously, "You practice martial arts all day. What could you possibly need to take care of?"
Lu Yuan smiled, then picked up some food and began eating.
"Xiaoyuan, try not to leave the city for a while. The village at the foot of Black Dang Mountain was massacred. Not a single person survived." Seeing that he hadn't answered, Lu Longjing didn't press him.
His son had grown up and had a few secrets of his own.
Besides, his son had been making such rapid progress in martial arts that he was already becoming hard to read.
Lu Longjing had a feeling that his son's day to soar to the heavens was not far off.
"An entire village was massacred?"
Lu Cheng forgot to chew, his mouth full of food as he stared in shock.
"Which bandits did this? How dare they? An entire village was wiped out, so why hasn't the government done anything?"
Lu Longjing shook his head. "The government? As long as they don't attack the city, they can't be bothered. It's only commoners who died, not nobles. Dead is dead."
"I heard it had something to do with the Taiping Sect," Lu Yuan said vaguely.
Lu Cheng said, "The Taiping Sect—the sect that claims its Talisman Water can cure illnesses? I heard quite a few commoners believe in it."
"Whether the Talisman Water really works or not, we should avoid contact with the Taiping Sect as much as possible. That sect seems far too much like a cult!"
Lu Yuan couldn't help marveling inwardly.
As expected, the older, the wiser. Lu Cheng was more worldly than most people his age, but compared with his father, that old fox, he was still green. His father had hit the nail on the head: the Taiping Sect was a cult.
After dinner, the servants cleared away the dishes. Lu Longjing gave him a look, and Lu Yuan understood, following him into the study.
"Take a look."
Lu Longjing tossed him a sheet of parchment.
"What's this?"
Lu Yuan froze. A quick glance suggested it might be a prescription.
"The True Essence Blood Refining Pill Recipe," Lu Longjing said.
"A Pill Recipe?"
Lu Yuan was stunned. "Father, where did you get this Pill Recipe? You weren't swindled, were you?"
Pills were worth a hundred times more than Medicinal Soup or Medicinal Liquid. Their effects were naturally far superior as well.
The liquid Lu Yuan had soaked in before had been for external use, while the dose he had taken orally had been Medicinal Soup.
Medicinal Soup and Medicinal Liquid were about the same in value; they simply served different purposes.
Simply simmering Medicinal Materials, drying them, and kneading them into little balls didn't make pills. That was just Medicinal Paste.
Pill-making required more than just Medicinal Materials. It also called for all sorts of strange and unusual ingredients.
Metals, beast bones, Demon Hearts...
Lu Longjing glanced at him. "Our Lu Family has been in the Medicinal Materials business for generations and supports so many alchemists. Do you think they're just there for show? Besides, do you think your father is so easy to fool? Don't worry, this Pill Recipe is genuine!"
"How much did it cost?"
Lu Yuan couldn't help marveling at his father's love. He was always surprising him without his even realizing it.
"Not much."
Lu Longjing replied lightly.
"How much is 'not much'?"
"Fifty-five thousand taels of silver."
Lu Longjing smiled. "That money was practically picked up off the ground anyway. Spending it on you is worth it."
Lu Yuan felt warmth in his heart. "Father, I won't let that money go to waste."
"Most of the ingredients in this Pill Recipe are common, but a few are very rare. I'll do my best to find them for you, and you should keep an eye out too."
As he left with the Pill Recipe, Lu Yuan felt as if the parchment weighed a thousand catties.
Most of the Lu Family's savings had essentially been turned into this Pill Recipe.
Although the Lu Family had been in business for many years, before Lu Longjing took charge, the business had been small and they hadn't saved much.
Only after Lu Longjing took over had it gradually grown, until it surpassed Li Yong's and made the Lu Family the biggest medicine merchant in Lingbao County.
In Great Sheng, fifty-five thousand taels of silver had purchasing power equivalent to fifty or sixty million in his previous life.
Of course, the Lu Family's wealth was worth more than fifty or sixty million. That was only their savings.
The Lu Family's total wealth would amount to roughly two or three hundred million.
No wonder they said that learning took money and martial arts took wealth. A single Pill Recipe had cost fifty or sixty million.
"True Essence Blood Refining Pill..."
Back in his room, he read the recipe over carefully.
It recorded the pill's precise effects, the ingredients needed to refine it, and the method of refinement.
A completed True Essence Blood Refining Pill contained immense Primordial Qi. It could replenish one's essence and blood in great quantities, while also tempering and refining one's Qi and blood.
Its effects were extraordinary.
Behind the martial progress of truly well-connected geniuses, in addition to their own talent, there were vast resources.
Pills were among the most important of those resources.
From what Lu Yuan knew, some heaven-defying pills could help a Martial Artist break through directly.
For example, a Martial Artist whose Qi and Blood were like a tiger could reach the level of Blood Qi Like an Elephant after taking such a pill.
Zhang Zhi had said that he once heard of a young noble from a great world who had been held to high expectations from birth. A great martial sect had been asked to provide a Great Return Pill and a Fetus Changing Pill for the newborn to take.
Either of those pills was worth a fortune.
That wasn't just a figure of speech. They had a concrete value.
If a Martial Dao Master took a Great Return Pill, it could increase their Qi and blood by sixty years' worth. The Fetus Changing Pill was the most coveted pill for a Blood Qi Like a Dragon Martial Artist seeking to break through.
"Mithril, Snow Fox Heart Blood... Those two ingredients are the rarest. They're almost impossible to find through ordinary channels... Wait! The Ghost Market!"
Lu Yuan remembered overhearing someone talk about the Ghost Market at his second auction.
The Ghost Market wasn't a place said to be inhabited only by ghosts. It was an underground market where the goods were a mixed bag: stolen wares, rare treasures, and fakes meant to swindle people.
He'd heard two explanations for the name. First, the market was full of "ghosts": counterfeit goods, items of unknown origin, and illegal wares.
Second, the Ghost Market opened in the dead of night, before dawn. As soon as the sky began to lighten, it vanished as naturally as mist swept away by the morning breeze, leaving no trace. No one organized or managed it. It was like wild onions growing in a wasteland—no one knew how they had come to grow there, or how they'd grown so big.
Lu Yuan had happened to learn where the largest Ghost Market in Taikang Prefecture was located.
Perhaps he could search there for Mithril and Snow Fox Heart Blood.
After saying goodbye to his father and brother, Lu Yuan immediately rode off toward the Ghost Market.
The Ghost Market was roughly three or four hundred li from Lingbao County, in the border region between Taikang Prefecture and the neighboring prefecture. It was a place neither side really governed, which was how it had managed to survive for so many years.
Perhaps everyone simply turned a blind eye to it.
Great or small, there were always people with things they couldn't conveniently handle who needed to buy or sell them at the Ghost Market.
Before setting out, Lu Yuan disguised himself.
This time, he didn't wear a mask. Instead, he applied makeup, stuck a thick beard beneath his chin, and made his skin look sallow. Anyone who didn't know him exceptionally well would never have connected him with Lu Yuan.
Before you continue