Purchase

Li Pin avoided the alley where the Five Elements Body Refining Technique was being sold and went next door.

After circling around for a while, he stopped before a stall selling medicinal herbs.

One by one, he sensed how these herbs stimulated the Life Vitality within his body.

When he touched the Blood Burning Powder, his hand paused slightly.

"How much?"

"Three thousand per gram."

"Do you have Blood Burning Grass?"

Li Pin asked.

The stall owner glanced at Li Pin.

Blood Burning Powder was extracted from Blood Burning Grass. It could greatly stimulate one's blood and qi, setting it ablaze and boiling, allowing a martial artist to unleash greater combat strength.

It was similar to a stimulant.

The only downside was that using it would leave one weak for several days.

Li Pin wanted to buy Blood Burning Grass, so the man assumed he wanted to extract it himself to save money.

After considering it for a moment, he replied, "Yes. Thirty thousand per jin. If it's less than a jin, I can't be bothered to sell it."

"Give me a jin first."

"Sure. I'll have someone deliver it."

The stall owner took out his phone and sent a message. "Come pick it up in half an hour."

Li Pin nodded.

He had just sensed that Blood Burning Grass seemed particularly effective at stimulating Life Vitality. As for the specifics, he would have to test it after returning home.

If it was as he imagined...

The time it would take him to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm could be shortened again.

"Do you have any Old Herbs?"

"That depends on what kind of old herb you want."

"Hundred Year Ginseng."

"Yes, but it costs extra. Depending on the exact age, three to five thousand per gram."

The stall owner said.

After some thought, Li Pin realized he could not afford it.

A single Hundred Year Ginseng generally weighed more than three hundred grams. At those prices, it would cost over a million.

And the value for money was poor.

So Li Pin got up and continued checking the other stalls.

He wanted to see whether he could use his talent for perception to pick up some hidden treasures.

At that moment, however, he noticed subdued cries coming from a stall surrounded by a crowd.

"It really is a star artifact."

"Though it was forged from inferior Star Crystals, it's still a star artifact."

Hearing this, Li Pin moved closer.

There were no other goods on this stall, only an utterly ordinary-looking little bracelet.

It was priced at 2.8 million.

"A star artifact..."

This was Li Pin's first time getting close to an item related to a Star Refiner.

Martial artists could hardly activate the marvels of star artifacts.

And inferior star artifacts...

Basically possessed no marvels at all.

Yet to martial artists, these inferior star artifacts had an effect that Star Refiners did not care about, but which was of vital importance to them.

When a martial artist faced technological weapons, they could give those weapons a small chance of malfunctioning.

One had to know that no matter how powerful a martial artist was, they could not withstand machine guns and cannons.

Over the past few decades, Dan Jin martial masters and Gang Jin grandmasters who had suffered oppression and been shot dead by ordinary people were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.

But if that martial master wore a star artifact, his chance of survival would rise dramatically.

The more star artifacts they wore, and the better their quality, the higher the chance that technological weapons would malfunction when used against them.

If they were covered from head to toe in star artifacts, then under certain circumstances, they could, like Star Refiners, become immune to attacks from technological weapons.

That was why even inferior star artifacts could fetch such high prices.

"2.8 million."

Li Pin thought of the Star Crystal on him.

Even if it was not a star artifact, it could still sell for one or two million.

That was no small sum.

Together with the more than a million he would receive from Hongri Apparel, he could buy an apartment in the provincial capital of Jiangzhou.

By then, Li Yunyao would have finished the college entrance examination. He could take her and Mother Li and move to the provincial capital together.

High-level Star Refiners were stationed in the provincial capital. Its safety was far beyond that of a county town.

"Everyone knows I killed the Cat Demon. I can sell it through legitimate channels."

Li Pin made another round, then returned to the stall selling Dragon Form Fist.

Dragon Form Fist could be incorporated into the chi dragon of his Eight Fiends True Fire Strength. He spent 160,000 to buy this fist art that led directly to Embrace Dan.

After buying the manual, he returned to the herb stall and purchased a jin of Blood Burning Grass.

Just as he was planning to browse a little longer, he noticed that the flow of people had thinned. Some stall owners were even packing up early and hurrying away, as though something had happened.

Li Pin watched for a moment, then soon followed the crowd out of the alley.

A short distance away, at the mouths of several alleys, more than ten people stood silently. Their expressions were icy, their demeanor warning strangers to keep away.

Yet not a single one of them stepped into the alley.

Li Pin watched for a moment and quickly recognized two of them.

"Five Elements Sect's vice sect master Cao Zuoqiu, and Qi Dongyuan!?"

Both were figures with Associate Senior Titles. Of them, Cao Zuoqiu had successfully achieved Embrace Dan five years ago.

The Five Elements Sect's master, Cao Tianyou, was a Gang Refining Grandmaster. After founding the Five Elements Sect thirty years ago, he had single-handedly pushed it to the top position in Canglong City. At his peak, he had claimed a top-ten placement in the Ninth National Martial Arts Tournament, his prestige resounding far and wide.

But now he was advanced in years, his blood and qi gradually declining. Four years ago, he had moved to the provincial capital, Jiangzhou, to live out his retirement.

The ones holding up the Five Elements Sect were Cao Zuoqiu, Qi Dongyuan, and their eldest disciple Zhao Yuan, who had followed Cao Tianyou to the provincial capital in pursuit of development.

Now even Cao Zuoqiu and Qi Dongyuan, who were stationed in Canglong City, had arrived. The dozen or so people beside them were all experts who had achieved mastery in strength training...

Clearly, they had come for the man who dared openly sell the Five Elements Sect's core inheritance.

The only reason they had not charged directly into the black market was that they were restraining themselves, giving the black market's owner some face.

"One Dan Jin, one Embrace Dan."

Li Pin, who had been moving with the crowd, came to a stop.

At that moment, an uproar that could no longer be suppressed erupted from within the black market.

Immediately after, the man who had previously sold the Five Elements Body Refining Technique emerged at an unhurried pace.

That calm, composed expression showed that he did not regard the dozen members of the Five Elements Sect as worthy of notice.

With such an attitude...

He had deliberately sold the Five Elements Body Refining Technique.

Sensing that something was wrong, everyone in the black market hurried away, not daring to stay and watch the excitement.

Still, several dozen people stopped and refused to leave.

A Dan Jin battle!

And it looked like a fight to the death. Such a scene was exceedingly rare in Canglong City.

"Wang Daoyi."

Cao Zuoqiu stared at the man.

"You came."

The man called Wang Daoyi said blandly, "How do you plan to die?"

"Fourteen years ago, my father saw that your heart was twisted and knew you would someday grow traitorous bones. And sure enough... you stole the core inheritance of my Five Elements Sect and swept away all our precious supplies. Today, you even dare to openly appear on Five Elements Sect territory!? Do you truly think we cannot kill you?"

Cao Zuoqiu shouted sharply.

"I was the one charging at the front. I was the one fighting tooth and nail. I was the one taking the blame and punishment. Yet when the moment came, you still refused to give me the core inheritance?"

Wang Daoyi sneered. He put on a pair of specially made gloves, then raised his hand and rolled up his sleeves layer by layer. "Come. Let me see just how far you trash, in whom that old thing placed such high hopes, have trained the Five Elements Body Refining Technique."

The instant he finished speaking, his body moved.

Alone against twelve members of the Five Elements Sect, he showed not the slightest fear. Instead, he launched the attack first.

The moment he moved, he was like thunder in motion, like a fierce tiger descending the mountain. A horrifyingly vicious Killing Intent rushed straight at them.

Li Pin knew at once.

Wang Daoyi had killed people!

And more than one!