Business Opportunity, Thoughts of Borrowing Power Again

A few days later.

The Gathering Place was still bustling and chaotic.

It was still a crowd of simply dressed mortals and cultivators devoid of any immortal aura.

Haphazardly constructed earthen houses, stilt houses, and shacks, like a jumble of various bizarre architectural styles pieced together, were crammed tightly together.

Near the old, mottled streets, one could always see small gardens or medicinal fields sectioned off by faint Spiritual Energy formations.

In the marketplace at the center of the Gathering Place, many cultivators were setting up stalls.

The items for sale were nothing more than Pills, Talismans, Daoist Magic, and the like; Magic Items rarely appeared.

Chen Dengming, who had quietly infiltrated the Gathering Place, kept his hands tucked in his sleeves, wandering around cautiously, and gradually approached the marketplace.

No one had come to check him.

The mortals and Innate Martial Artists he encountered on the road respectfully avoided him, addressing him as "Immortal Master," which still made him a little uncomfortable.

Even when he met some cultivators, they mostly just brushed past him, either glancing at him or nodding in greeting.

Chen Dengming gradually relaxed, the tension in his back muscles easing, and felt he had been too nervous.

It seemed the wanted posters from Hutong Street weren't as important as he thought.

Hutong Street had no clout!

He had deliberately let his beard grow for over three months without shaving, all to maintain an air of mystery and avoid being recognized. Yet, he had walked in brazenly, and nothing happened.

Actually, when he thought about it, it was quite normal.

Except for a few bounty hunters who made a living from rewards, why would normal people constantly pay attention to wanted individuals?

Even if they glanced at it, they would forget it later.

In his previous life, there were often wanted posters circulating online with tempting rewards, but how many people could truly remember them?

After all, he had only been a mortal in the Gathering Place before. Although his record of killing cultivators was impressive, over three months had passed. It felt like using a cannon to swat a mosquito for the cultivators to keep obsessing over capturing him, a mortal.

As time went on, the cultivators of Hutong Street naturally lost interest.

Eighty percent of them probably thought this mortal had already died in the wilderness. If it weren't for the fact that Hutong Street's boss, Qian Yuan, had been thoroughly embarrassed, the bounty on the wanted list wouldn't even exist.

"How much for this Artifact Control Art?"

Chen Dengming confidently walked up to a stall and pointed at a book on the stall that was clearly a copy.

The three characters on the book, "Artifact Control Art," were a spell for controlling Magic Items after cultivation.

He currently possessed two Magic Items.

One was a Magic Flying Sword obtained from a short-lived male cultivator, fresh and hot.

The other was a Shuttle-shaped Magic Item he got after dealing with the old cultivator. That shuttle was still buried outside the Gathering Place and hadn't been dug up yet.

Since he needed to learn the Artifact Control Art to control Magic Items, otherwise, even after refining them, he wouldn't know how to operate them.

The cultivator manning the stall sized up Chen Dengming. Seeing that he wore a bamboo hat and looked disheveled and ragged, he frowned, "One Low-grade Spirit Stone."

Chen Dengming then looked at the other Daoist Magic on the stall.

There was the first-tier, first-level Golden Spear Technique, which could condense a golden spear to attack enemies using Golden Qi.

Besides that, there were some Pills with limited use for him. Among them were some Spiritual Medicines for healing, which could effectively and quickly dispel Spiritual Energy from the body.

These Pills were useful for Innate Martial Artists. If injured by a cultivator, their Innate True Qi couldn't dispel the Spiritual Energy, which could easily invade the heart meridian, leading to a tragic death. Taking these Pills could eliminate it.

He wanted to save the Spirit Stones for cultivation and didn't want to spend them.

Chen Dengming took out the book containing the Great Fireball Technique and said, "I'll trade this Daoist Magic for your Artifact Control Art, Golden Spear Technique, and this bottle of Spirit Dispelling Pill and Pure Spirit Pill."

The old man at the stall's expression changed, "Are you asking for the moon?"

Chen Dengming directly opened the book of Great Fireball Technique.

The old man felt the Spiritual Energy fluctuations within the text and diagrams of the book and immediately shut his mouth, readily handing over the goods for the trade.

The Great Fireball Technique in Chen Dengming's hand was traded to him by that female cultivator in red at the Ascension Convention.

That female cultivator had at least Qi Cultivation seventh-level cultivation.

For Daoist Magic like this to be recorded in a book for others to learn, it wasn't as simple as just copying the text and diagrams.

One also needed to inject their own Spiritual Energy and feelings while copying and drawing, thus forming a kind of spiritual charm that allowed learners to quickly grasp it, even learning it in one go.

Therefore, the higher the cultivator's cultivation, the more valuable the Daoist Magic manual they wrote. By the Foundation Establishment Realm, they were often Jade Slips, not manuals.

These kinds of manuals would generally have their Spiritual Energy completely depleted after a few uses, greatly reducing their value.

Chen Dengming's Great Fireball Technique had only been used once and could be used twice more, making its value at least three Low-grade Spirit Stones.

Trading it for the old man's items meant the old man still made a small profit.

After completing this transaction.

Chen Dengming wandered around the marketplace again, observing the market and looking for business opportunities. He wanted to sell the Magic Flying Sword of the bounty cultivator he had killed, preferably exchanging it for a greatsword-shaped Magic Item to replace the fallen Dengming Saber.

Ideally, the blade would have an array inscribed within it to amplify Spiritual Energy.

When he slashed down, the blade energy surged several yards, and it also conserved Spiritual Energy.

But in the end, he was somewhat disappointed.

There were small blades among the Magic Items, but not a single greatsword.

There were other decent Magic Items too, such as Storage Bags.

But unfortunately, a Storage Bag with a space half a zhang square was worth twenty Low-grade Spirit Stones and was being sold by a Qi Cultivation third-layer Cultivator.

He was poor and couldn't afford it, so he could only watch wistfully.

"There's no need to buy it anyway, only half a zhang square? What can it even do?..."

"Exactly, this Fellow Daoist speaks the truth. If you're not buying, then I don't want to buy either."

"It's hard to even hide a person."

"Exactly, exactly..."

Chen Dengming stood on the side, muttering. Like the other Cultivators nearby, he was envious, but his face showed disdain. He was finding excuses, being picky and critical, to justify his poverty.

"If you're not buying, get lost!"

The stall owner Cultivator angrily yelled at them to leave, and the group dispersed dejectedly.

Chen Dengming continued to look around. "I'm poor, this won't do. I don't want to hear any damn romantic love stories right now, nor do I want to sell fish. I just want to make money..."

However, after this stroll, he gradually found his own business opportunity.

Although there were many items sold at the stalls in this market, they were only Talismans, Daoist Magic, Magic Items, Pills, and so on. There were no Gu poisons at all.

Gu poisons are good things; they are treasures that can turn the tide of battle by allowing the weak to defeat the strong with surprise attacks. Once they are introduced, there will definitely be an endless stream of customers.

The key is that, as far as he could see, only he and that young lady from the Lüo Family, Lüo Bing, could refine them.

And Lüo Bing, a pampered young lady like her, would never bother to refine Gu poisons herself to earn money from a bunch of Rogue Cultivators she looked down upon.

Therefore, if he wanted to do this business, he could monopolize it and make a fortune. Then, he wouldn't lack the resources needed for cultivation.

However, to monopolize it, relying solely on him, a newly arrived Qi Cultivation first-layer little Cultivator, was obviously not enough. He still needed to borrow influence.

"Borrowing influence last time attracted the attention of Xu Ning, the owner of the Golden Character Workshop. This time... I need to show my own value even more, otherwise, it will be no different than playing with fire."

Chen Dengming pondered in his heart, feeling that he needed to think carefully.

He turned and ambled over to the bounty board near the Rogue Cultivator gathering area.

There were more than a dozen wanted posters hanging on this board.

One of the papers depicted the image of a handsome young man, which was none other than himself—"Wanted: Chen Dengming, Innate strength. Those who know his whereabouts report to Hutong Street or bring him to me. Reward: one Low-grade Spirit Stone. Remark: Those who impersonate and claim the reward will bear the consequences themselves!"

Chen Dengming looked at the newly added remark and couldn't help but shake his head.

This bounty was just a formality. It was likely that someone had exploited a loophole and casually took the head of a Mortal who looked very much like him to claim the reward, but was seen through, hence the remark.

His gaze suddenly fixed on one of the wanted posters.

The poster clearly depicted the image of a gaunt man, who was unmistakably the Cultivator he had met earlier on the hillside in the wild.

"Hutong Street wants Jiang Qiang, strength: Qi Cultivation second-layer. Those who know his whereabouts will be rewarded with one Low-grade Spirit Stone. Those who bring his head will be rewarded with five Low-grade Spirit Stones."

"No wonder that guy was so vigilant earlier. Damn it, a life is only worth five Low-grade Spirit Stones. Those two short-lived brutes were also chasing him enthusiastically. However... it's worth a bit more than my life."

Chen Dengming shook his head inwardly and moved his gaze away, looking at the bounty posted by the Lüo Family at the very top.

Although he had discovered Jiang Qiang's whereabouts, he certainly wouldn't report him to Hutong Street and walk into a trap.

Risks should either not be personally undertaken, or they should be left for large-scale business operations.

"The Lüo Family is recruiting unusual individuals. As long as they can assist in refining the Golden Silkworm Gu, they will be rewarded with one hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones and the right to reside in the Lüo Family Mountain City for one hundred days."

After Chen Dengming read the Lüo Family's bounty, a glint flashed in his eyes.

Compared to the news he had overheard from people more than two months ago, the Lüo Family had now added detailed reward items to the bounty. It was no longer an empty promise and indicated their willingness to reward.

This made them seem much more sincere and also showed that this "fishing" was not malicious.

However, the Lüo Family was, after all, too powerful. Although he had some trust in that Fairy Lüo, he didn't dare to trust her completely without reservation. Some precautionary measures still needed to be prepared first.

Today's 6k update is complete. Please set this book to sticky and enable update reminders.