Purchasing Fire Scorpions

Purchasing Fire Scorpions "Take a look, have a look! Absolutely genuine Five Poisons Talismans from the Five Poisons Sect! Usable at the First Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm—convenient, fast, and definitely an essential talisman for staying home, traveling abroad, killing people, and silencing witnesses!"

"Top-quality Qi Replenishing Pills! Only the last two left! Going cheap in a clearance sale—don't miss out if you pass by!"

"Buying all kinds of Magic Treasure Fragments! Fair prices, honest dealings for young and old alike!"

"Selling Great Wilderness Maps! The fastest shortcut to Wild Chicken Mountain! Reputation guaranteed, one hundred percent safe!"

"Buying Bluestone Fish Bones! Buying Bluestone Fish Bones! One hand for the bones, one hand for the crystals!"

"Selling a true formula for a family-inherited Qi Refining cultivation method at a loss! First come, first served!"

"Forming a team to hunt Stone Corpse Beasts in Ghost Tomb! Those below the Third Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm, don't bother!"

On an open patch of ground outside Lingyue City's eastern gate, a huge crowd was loudly hawking their wares.

"What the hell are Bluestone Fish Bones good for? There are actually idiots buying them?" said a burly man carrying an axe, his two thick brows drawn together in contempt.

"That's not even the stupidest part. I heard someone recently figured out a talisman formula that uses Bluestone Fish Bones to refine Water Arrow Talismans. Though I heard those Water Arrow Talismans are weak as hell—not even worthy of being called first-tier talismans, at best half-tier talismans—they're still somewhat useful." A skinny man with shifty eyes beside him said, "The dumbest thing is, last time I even saw someone buying fire scorpions."

"Monkey, you're joking, right? Someone actually buys fire scorpions?"

"Buying fire scorpion corpses! Fresh fire scorpion corpses wanted! Rotten ones and preserved ones, all rejected!" Before the thick-browed man could finish, someone began shouting loudly.

"No way?" The thick-browed man was instantly dumbfounded. "There really is such a damn idiot?"

"Green-Haired Old Man, are you sure you weren't lying to me?"

As the sun set, Wei Suo stared at the corpses of six fire scorpions in the little stone house, his heart aching terribly. "If you dare trick me, I'll definitely throw you into a shit pit."

The person the people at the little market outside Lingyue City's eastern gate had considered a super invincible idiot that morning was, of course, Wei Suo.

There was a reason the people in the little market thought Wei Suo was a super invincible idiot. Fire scorpions were merely low-tier first-rank demonic beasts. Aside from their scorpion tails, which could be used in refining, the rest was useless. Moreover, fire scorpions appeared only here and there in scattered numbers, so hunting down a sufficient quantity was truly troublesome. Thus, almost no one specifically went looking for fire scorpions to kill and sell. At most, when they went after other demonic beasts or materials, they would kill any fire scorpion they happened to encounter.

As a result, no one normally wanted fire scorpions. Yet when someone did want them, there might not be any available on the market for a while, and their price instead became rather high.

It was like the brothel in the city called Liuxia Alley. There were quite a few pretty older sisters inside, but there truly weren't any fat women who stood three feet tall with three-foot waists. If your tastes were really that peculiar and you insisted on finding such a fat woman, they would specially seek one out for you, and the price might not be any lower than that of the top courtesans.

Today, Wei Suo had spent one Low-grade Spirit Stone to buy six fire scorpions.

One Low-grade Spirit Stone might not have meant much to others, but to Wei Suo, who was so poor he had considered pawning his underwear, it was a huge sum. After spending that Low-grade Spirit Stone, only one last Low-grade Spirit Stone remained in his pocket.

"Don't worry, trust me. It's correct. Can you let me have a mouthful of fire scorpion blood first? I haven't drunk fire scorpion blood in over ten thousand years. I'm so weak I can barely stand it." At that moment, the Green Robe Old Man stared at the six fire scorpions piled together, golden light practically shooting from his eyes as he swallowed hard.

"Dream on. Hurry up and tell me what to do. If this really works, I'll let you drink some. If it doesn't, you can go drink from the shit pit."

The Green Robe Old Man truly had no way to deal with this fellow. He could only say helplessly, "Fine. Bring over one fire scorpion first. Cut it open along the black line on its back, but be careful not to cut too deeply."

"Oh..."

Wei Suo carried a fire scorpion onto the stone table. Though it did not look very big, it was still heavy as a rock. On the way back earlier, Wei Suo had been too busy grieving over his crystals to examine what the fire scorpions actually looked like.

Now that he looked carefully, he discovered that apart from being much larger than ordinary scorpions, fire scorpions indeed differed from normal scorpions in many other ways. Their entire bodies were covered in bright-red shells, like the shells of boiled lobsters. Their scorpion tails were almost as long as their bodies, like little steel whips, and the final segment of each tail resembled a red steel needle, giving off faint wisps of heat.

Just as the Green Robe Old Man had said, on the largest red shell on the back of this fire scorpion, whose head had been punched through, there was indeed a distinct black line.

"Damn, it's this hard?"

Wei Suo first took a kitchen knife, then switched to a black blade like a butcher's knife. After struggling away for a long while, he finally used a small chisel and hammered at it for ages before finally prying open that red shell along the black line.

The Green Robe Old Man rolled his eyes repeatedly. He had followed more than fifty masters, yet he had never seen such a pigheaded fool who needed so long just to pry open a fire scorpion shell.

But he did not dare say much now. If he truly angered this pigheaded fool, Wei Suo might really find a shit pit and throw him into it. Then he might become the first artifact spirit to drown in a shit pit.

"Do you see the red bone beneath it? Carefully remove it intact. Don't break it."

"Didn't you want blood? What use is this bone?"

"Ordinary fire scorpion blood is useless. Only the marrow blood inside this bone will work. Hurry, put it in a gourd. Once it dries up, it'll be useless."

"Alright, Green-Haired Old Man. What do I do next?"

"Crush the Silver Candle Grass and Fire Tail Flower into juice, mix them at a seven-to-three ratio, boil them for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, then place the mixture in a talisman mold and dry it to make talisman paper."

Wei Suo fussed around for a while longer, separately crushing the Silver Candle Grass and Fire Tail Flower into juice. Then, following the Green Robe Old Man's instructions, he carefully measured them out in a bottle and mixed the two plant juices at a seven-to-three ratio.

"Damn, isn't this smell a little too disgusting? Green-Haired Old Man, you're not deliberately screwing with me, are you?"

The two plant juices had originally been silver and crimson respectively, neither with much scent. But after they had boiled on the stove for the time it took an incense stick to burn, bubbling continuously as the liquid came to a full boil, they turned into a vermilion, viscous fluid that gave off a pungent smell like rotten salted fish.

"That smell means it's right. You can make talisman paper now. Once it's made into talisman paper, the smell will naturally disappear." The Green Robe Old Man nodded with certainty.

Half believing and half doubting, Wei Suo took out a black square talisman mold made of upper and lower halves. He had accidentally picked up this mold once before. It was an ordinary item, and since he did not know how to refine talismans, he had always tossed it beneath his bed. He had not expected it to come in handy now.

"Clumsy hands and clumsy feet. A textbook wastrel."

Seeing that Wei Suo had poured so much plant juice into the mold's hollow that it overflowed, the Green Robe Old Man felt a pang of heartache. But then he remembered that these two spirit herbs now grew everywhere, and he was left speechless once more.

(The fourth update is here. Can everyone give me a little more support?)