Transaction Complete

"This Dragon Tiger Pill can strengthen your spirit and help you sense Mysterious Factors. Sixteen thousand."

"This Super God Potion can make your Visualization Method advance a thousand miles in a day. Eight thousand five hundred."

"This Western Royal Special Rice boosts mental clarity and amplifies the Mysterious Factors around you. Three thousand two hundred per pound."

Old Master Wang sighed repeatedly as he moved pill after pill, potion after potion, and bag after bag of rice before Zhang Fusheng.

Zhang Fusheng fell silent.

What a conscienceless bastard.

Someone was even more conscienceless than he was!

He gave a bitter smile.

"You bought all of these?"

Old Master Wang waved his palm-leaf fan and said wistfully:

"I bought them all."

"This Visualization Method has been an obsession of mine for decades."

Zhang Fusheng said nothing.

After a moment, he pretended to take something from his chest. In truth, he directly communicated with the Ancestral Aperture between his brows and manifested the [Contract Book].

An utterly ordinary-looking sheet of parchment appeared on the table.

A vertical line ran down the center of the parchment, dividing it into two halves.

"The beginner-level Sunrise Meditation Technique. It'll ensure that you can sense Mysterious Factors."

[Sunrise Meditation Technique (Beginner Progress)]

Zhang Fusheng picked up a pen and wrote on the side of the parchment closest to himself. Then, glancing at the puzzled Old Master Wang, he wrote on the other side as well—the "purchase item" side.

[Meditation Technique Practice Time]

He made sure he had written "practice time," not practice progress.

Transactions involving cultivation and skills came in two types: one was progress, the other was time. The former referred to the "level" someone had reached in a skill.

The latter referred to the time they had spent on it.

[Memories Related to This Transaction]

Zhang Fusheng wrote again.

The parchment showed no reaction, which meant all of this fell within Old Master Wang's range of psychological acceptance—if it exceeded that range,

then even if Old Master Wang had no idea the transaction was genuinely valid, the deal still could not be completed.

In other words, it completely cut off Zhang Fusheng's path of completing transactions through fraud.

"Old Master Wang, you've practiced a Breathing Technique for some time too, right? Though I reckon you haven't gotten much out of it. I'll trade for the time you spent practicing the Breathing Technique as well."

[Breathing Technique Practice Time]

"Uh, and add your decades of life experience and worldly experience?"

[Life Experience, Worldly Experience]

The parchment began to heat up, signifying that the scales had started to tip. This transaction could no longer be completed unless Zhang Fusheng added more chips to the table.

He decisively crossed out that final line, and the parchment returned to normal.

"That's all."

Zhang Fusheng pushed the parchment forward. Old Master Wang looked at him as if he were an idiot.

After a long silence,

Old Master Wang took a step back and cautiously said:

"Little Fusheng, you can't join a cult. Those things harm people and brainwash them. Listen to your grandpa's advice."

Zhang Fusheng smiled.

"I know you don't believe me, but why not give it a try?"

"Don't you want to put an end to an obsession that has lasted decades?"

"You don't need to do anything. Just write your name on the parchment, press down your thumb, or even nod your head. Even if I'm talking nonsense and have gone mad, what do you stand to lose?"

Old Master Wang became even more wary. He thought the boy had been bewitched by cultists and might already have lost his mind.

A chill ran through his heart. The television had said it all—cultists were thoroughly deranged lunatics, capable of every evil under heaven!

Zhang Fusheng's voice suddenly sank.

"Mysterious Factors. Whenever I meditate on the Ancestral Aperture between my brows and envision the Heavenly Light of dawn breaking and the rolling morning clouds, I can clearly sense them floating around me—unimaginably gorgeous, incomparably radiant."

"Grandpa Wang, you're already over seventy."

Old Master Wang froze.

Though he did not believe a single word of it, when he searched his heart, if such a transaction truly existed, would he agree to it?

He would.

He definitely would.

Seeing Zhang Fusheng's incomparably earnest expression, the old man waved his palm-leaf fan. He only wanted this kid to leave, to get out of here at once!

He reached out and pressed a finger onto the parchment.

"Alright, alright, hurry up."

Before he could finish speaking,

Old Master Wang's eyes abruptly widened as he saw a pitch-black thumbprint emerge where he had pressed the parchment.

Clang!

A vast bell toll seemed to ring beside his ears.

"The transaction is complete."

Zhang Fusheng spoke in a low voice. The parchment shattered into droplets of luminous rain, gradually blurring and gradually vanishing.

Old Master Wang's [experience] and [time] spent on the Visualization Method and Breathing Technique, along with a small portion of his memories concerning this transaction, all entered Zhang Fusheng's Ancestral Aperture between his brows with the somewhat dim Contract Book, ready to be used at any time.

And likewise,

Zhang Fusheng could feel his understanding of the [Sunrise Breathing Technique] rapidly becoming blurred. What he had sold was his progress in that skill, so his memories of the Breathing Technique remained, but they had become utterly unfamiliar, as if he had never practiced it.

Even his vague perception of Mysterious Factors was stripped away along with it.

Old Master Wang stood rooted in place. His palm-leaf fan no longer swayed, and at some unknown point, his eyes had already closed.

Zhang Fusheng quietly left.

Before leaving, he did not forget to conveniently take that bottle of aged liquor with him.

Fifty-one years of practice in the Visualization Method and Breathing Technique. Of course, the time Old Master Wang had truly spent on these two [skills] should have been far less.

But it was enough. Over the past three years, Zhang Fusheng had spent only two or three hours a day on the Visualization Method.

"Good thing the Contract Book can 'store' the proceeds of a transaction. It would be even better if it could 'split' them into smaller portions."

Zhang Fusheng let out a breath. He first tried the Sunrise Meditation Technique, only to discover that he had forgotten every last bit of its contents.

As he carefully sensed himself, he discovered a faint weariness—after selling his Visualization Method progress, the mental enhancement granted by the beginner-level Visualization Method had also been stripped away, so naturally he felt exhausted and drowsy.

He shifted his thoughts to the Contract Book. Within the Ancestral Aperture between his brows, the Contract Book had become somewhat dim, yet it was brightening bit by bit. Very slowly, but undeniably so.

"This is..."

"Charging?"

Zhang Fusheng thought for a long time but could not find a more fitting term. He silently sensed the information fed back by the Contract Book. Once it brightened again, he would be able to make another transaction.

And the time... one month?

There seemed to be something that could accelerate the "charging," or rather, speed up the Contract Book's recovery, but the information it provided was extremely vague.

"I have to wait a month."

He sighed softly. His thoughts touched the speck of light in the Contract Book that represented Old Master Wang's "transaction memories," and in an instant, an additional fragment of memory appeared in Zhang Fusheng's mind.

It was what had happened moments ago, from Old Master Wang's perspective.

"As expected, memories can be traded. I can directly purchase the memories related to a transaction as well. That way, I won't need to worry too much about being exposed anytime soon."

"It's time to sign up."

An indescribable excitement surged in Zhang Fusheng's heart. The Visualization Method at the Martial Arts Academy had to be far better than the Sunrise Breathing Technique.

His comprehension might be poor, but he had still managed to reach beginner level in a Visualization Method after three years—so what about fifty-one years?

Minor Accomplishment?

Or even Great Accomplishment?

He had heard his teacher say that a Visualization Method at Great Accomplishment possessed wondrous mysteries.

What was it called... "I Observe as I Should Be."

"To the Martial Arts Academy!"

After knocking again and confirming that Old Master Wang remembered none of what had happened before, Zhang Fusheng decisively headed for the city center.

District Three.

He could barely wait, and even splurged for once—he took a taxi.

From Seventh District to District Three was over thirty, nearly forty kilometers. The ride alone took more than an hour.

Ordinary residents of the Lower-Level District and Mid-Level District were not actually permitted to enter the Upper-Level District.

The entire Upper-Level District was enclosed by high walls, with checkpoints at every entrance and exit, just like an inner city and an outer city. But Zhang Fusheng was different.

He was a prospective freshman at Jiang University.

As the best university in all of Jiangzhou City, Jiang University might be nothing across the Federation as a whole, but at least locally, Jiang University students had, in a sense, already completed a small step of "class advancement."

Beep!

His identity card was swiped, and the indicator light turned green.

The staff member nodded and handed the identity card back. At the same time, he reminded the driver:

"Leave immediately after dropping off the passenger. You only have one hour of permitted stay. If you need an extension, apply online."

The driver nodded and bowed.

After passing through the checkpoint, they soon reached their destination.

"One hundred and seven. Sir, can you round it down a little?"

"Round it down? Do I look like something that can be rounded down?"

Zhang Fusheng looked at the round-faced, bearded driver in white socks. After a moment of silence, he hurriedly paid and got out.

People online had recently said that the crooked winds and evil airs of Heavenly Shu Province had blown into Golden Province. When boys went out, they really had to be careful.

"One hundred and seven!"

Zhang Fusheng bared his teeth in pain, but when he stood before the [Hong Ji Martial Arts Hall], that heartache vanished completely.

"The Visualization Method, and then..."

"Contract Book, give me some points!"