Weird Man

Chen Mochuan glanced at the man beside him.

The man wore a black hood, a mask, and a pair of oversized dark sunglasses, his entire head and face wrapped up tightly. Only his relatively rare fiery red hair could vaguely be seen.

He was much taller than Chen Mochuan, around 1.95 meters. Even beneath his loose black tracksuit, his build looked quite burly. He even wore black gloves, wrapped from head to toe without a single gap. Even his shoes were hidden beneath his long pant legs.

If not for his flat chest and prominent Adam's apple, Chen Mochuan would've found it hard to tell his gender.

That outfit was truly bizarre, making him look exactly like the sort of villain commonly seen in film and television dramas.

Chen Mochuan grew wary and instinctively stepped two paces away, quickly picking out the items he needed.

There was a difference even among near-expiry goods. After finding two boxes of Blood Qi Supplements with relatively better dates, he immediately left the near-expiry shelf.

Before leaving, he glanced at the strange man again. The other party was continuously stuffing huge amounts of near-expiry martial arts medicine and supplements into his cart. At first glance, he really did look a little like a robber sweeping the shelves.

Still, Chen Mochuan wasn't overly worried. This supermarket was right next to a martial arts hall. Surely no robber would be stupid enough to make a move here. Otherwise, the Martial Artists stationed nearby wouldn't mind letting him have a taste of their iron fists.

Besides, what kind of robber ignored valuable property and specifically targeted near-expiry goods?

Since he'd cleaned out all the food at home last night, he headed to the food section and bought some ready-to-eat meals in case of emergencies.

While waiting in line to pay, Chen Mochuan suddenly heard a burst of commotion nearby.

Turning around, he found that the source of the commotion was that strange man. He stood before another register, with two shopping carts piled high beside him. They were filled entirely with martial arts medicine and supplements marked with yellow discount labels.

Chen Mochuan even suspected that this guy had cleared out every near-expiry item in the martial arts section.

The dispute between the cashier and the strange man drew a crowd of onlookers.

From the fragments Chen Mochuan heard, he roughly pieced together what had happened: the strange man's purchase total was too high, so the cashier said the supermarket manager needed to come authorize and confirm it. But the strange man seemed extremely anxious, and a small dispute broke out.

Fortunately, the supermarket manager soon arrived, followed by two security guards. The dispute quickly subsided, and the cashier began scanning the items.

Chen Mochuan secretly clicked his tongue. Even at discounted near-expiry prices, two entire carts of martial arts medicine and supplements were no small sum. Even if it wasn't over a million, it had to be several hundred thousand.

Was this guy here specifically to help the supermarket clear its inventory? he couldn't help wondering.

Some of those near-expiry items had extremely short shelf lives. He had no idea what the strange man intended to do with such a massive purchase.

But it had nothing to do with him. It was better not to meddle in other people's business.

"Your total comes to 4,325 yuan and 70 cents. How would you like to pay?"

He swiftly scanned the code and paid. Two boxes of Blood Qi Supplements at twenty percent off, plus a whole pile of food, still made his heart ache a little. The balance on his bank card had dropped below 1,500 yuan.

Before leaving the supermarket, he turned back for another look at the strange man. The first cart hadn't even been checked out yet.

October 12th, Sunday morning.

Chen Mochuan was jogging toward Mingxin Martial Arts Hall. He and Li Biao had arranged to meet there today.

Two days had already passed since his arranged battle with Lu Feng.

After two days of hard training, his Root-Solidifying Stance and Foundation Building Fist had improved once more, reaching [Mastery (10%)] and [Mastery (13%)] respectively.

And as the ten Blood Qi Supplements he'd taken to awaken his Spirit Talent were completely digested, he discovered that his original expectations had fallen through. Even with "Spirit Devourer," there was still a limit to how many supplements he could take each day.

With his current physical foundation, "Spirit Devourer" couldn't absorb supplements without limit. Once he exceeded his capacity, his blood qi would still become disordered.

Now, the number of supplements he could handle each day had merely increased from one to two.

Fortunately, thanks to "Spirit Devourer's" ability to absorb supplement energy more thoroughly, the daily increase in his Blood-Qi Value could now reach ten times what it had been before.

Compared to two days ago, his Blood-Qi Value had risen from [3.09] to [3.16].

But this also brought a new problem: he now needed to take sixty Blood Qi Supplements every month to maintain the fastest training speed.

Even if he bought nothing but discounted near-expiry items, the additional thirty supplements each month would still cost him another 6,000 yuan.

For his family, an extra 6,000 yuan every month wouldn't break their bones or shake their sinews. But for his parents, who carried a hefty mortgage, it would still be somewhat of a burden.

The night before last, he'd called his parents, who were away on a business trip. But since many details about Spirit Talent weren't convenient to explain over the phone, he'd only told them that his body had returned to normal and that the problem of his Blood-Qi Value increasing too slowly had been resolved.

Even so, his parents had been happy for quite a while. They'd also asked whether he had enough Blood Qi Supplements, but he hadn't yet told them that he needed more.

Chen Mochuan knew perfectly well that if he asked, his parents definitely wouldn't hesitate to spend that extra 6,000 yuan every month.

But he truly didn't want to shift that pressure onto them. His parents traveled often and already worked hard enough. He wanted them to live a little more comfortably.

He decided to first find a way to cover the supplement shortfall himself. Only when he was truly about to run out of food would he ask his parents for help.

Fortunately, the "stakes" he'd won from the arranged battle with the Lu Brothers could temporarily ease his predicament.

Every month, the Martial Arts Department's advanced class distributed Blood Qi Supplements to students as educational resources according to their rankings.

Top 10: 30 doses

11th–30th: 20 doses

31st–50th: 15 doses

51st–70th: 10 doses

Based on Lu Ren's rank of 29th in the advanced class, Chen Mochuan should've been able to win twenty Blood Qi Supplements from him.

However, things didn't go smoothly.

The day after the arranged battle, he went to Lu Ren to collect the stakes. To his surprise, the other party immediately turned hostile and refused to honor the debt.

Fortunately, on the morning of the arranged battle, when he spoke with Lu Ren at the entrance to the Martial Arts Arena, Chen Mochuan had kept an eye out because of the other's past "glorious deeds." He'd activated the camera function on his Personal Terminal beforehand and recorded everything Lu Ren said and did.

The video not only recorded the details of the arranged battle, but also the things Lu Ren had said about their homeroom teacher, Han Zhen.

Lu Ren immediately panicked and had no choice but to obediently hand over the twenty supplements he'd promised. He also guaranteed that he wouldn't pull any more tricks in the future.

Getting this batch of supplements finally relieved his urgent need.

As his thoughts churned, Chen Mochuan had already reached the entrance of Mingxin Martial Arts Hall, just in time to see Li Biao getting out of a car.

"Brother Chuan, you ran here?" Li Biao walked up to him.

Chen Mochuan nodded. "Yeah. It's a good warm-up. I can start training right away later."

"Just as expected of you!" Li Biao grinned. "A whole rare day of freedom—I need to learn from you properly!"