"How much?"
"One copy of the Thousand Spider Poison Hand, and you dare ask for five hundred thousand? Gold Soul Coins, no less?"
Li Jingzhe was a little slow to react. He knew a thing or two about prices in the Douluo World.
You knew Holy Soul Village, right? That little village of just over three hundred households... Five hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins was enough to cover an entire village's food and daily expenses for generations. Even for a Soul Master, that was no small sum!
Tap... tap... tap...
Li Jingzhe lightly drummed his fingers on the tabletop, lost in thought.
Beside him, with every tap, Dugu Yan felt her heart rise higher and higher in her chest...
Just as she was thinking about what she could offer in exchange...
"One million!" Li Jingzhe suddenly said.
"What?"
Dugu Yan wondered if she'd heard him wrong...
"I said, one million Gold Soul Coins!" Li Jingzhe said coolly.
"How much?"
Ye Lingling's voice shot up. She cut in first, "One million? Why not just rob us? You're asking a million for this one lousy book? Gold Soul Coins, no less? Have you ever even seen a Gold Soul Coin? How dare you ask for a million!"
She loved books, and even felt they deserved a measure of humanlike respect. But what kind of book could possibly be worth a million?
"Rob you?"
Li Jingzhe chuckled. "Isn't that what I'm doing right now?"
That was right: one million Gold Soul Coins!
As for the system's estimated price of five hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins?
Well, he'd decided not to take the system's price as a reference!
"You..."
Ye Lingling was furious. The icy beauty looked ready to breathe fire.
But Li Jingzhe ignored her and turned to Dugu Yan.
"What, you think it's too expensive too?"
"N-no..."
Dugu Yan quickly came back to her senses. "I-I just didn't expect it to be so cheap... Are you really sure I don't have to pay anything else?"
Such an enormous windfall, for a mere million?
She didn't even feel right accepting it!
Ye Lingling looked at her as if she'd seen a ghost... Cheap? No, Yanzi, what were you thinking? You wanted to offer him something else too?
"Well, well. Didn't expect someone to be so eager to hand over money."
Li Jingzhe gave Dugu Yan a leering once-over. "Then how about..."
Dugu Yan's eyes widened. She couldn't help shivering and took a step back. As if she'd imagined a certain scene, her pretty face flushed red in an instant.
"You, you..."
Her lashes trembled, her heart pounded wildly, and for a moment she didn't know what to do with herself.
"What are you thinking..."
Li Jingzhe was speechless. "I meant, does your family have any spirit herbs? Snow Silkworms, Red Ginseng, things like that... Ten of each, and they have to be old enough. Don't bring out trash that's less than a hundred years old and embarrass yourself."
Of the three techniques he'd gotten from the starter pack, the Muscle and Tendon Classic was easy to practice, and Lingbo Microsteps wasn't difficult either. The Dragon-Elephant Prajna Technique, however, was the pinnacle of external cultivation, and its demands for training resources were just as extreme.
The early stages were manageable. Ordinary medicinal herbs could do the job. But by the middle and later stages, one needed hundred-year-old treasures at the drop of a hat. The technique had an especially great need for herbs that nourished the body and promoted blood circulation while dispelling stasis.
The Dragon-Elephant Prajna Technique had thirteen levels. It was easy to get started; anyone could pick it up. Even the dullest person could make progress with persistence and hard work. But making further advances was difficult.
After mastering the basics, one needed either to pile on resources or to grind away at it over time.
But "grinding away over time" meant counting in millennia. In theory, it would take a thousand years just to reach the threshold of the thirteenth level, while the martial arts legend Zhang Sanfeng had lived only two hundred years.
And what about piling on resources?
That wasn't a small expense either!
Look at the Golden Wheel Dharma King. A martial arts prodigy and tutor to an emperor, he'd been supported by an entire nation and still only just managed to reach the tenth level...
Fortunately, this was the Douluo Continent, a fantasy world.
Rare treasures and spirit herbs that were hard to find in the martial world weren't difficult to come by here.
And few natives of this world understood the true value of such treasures and spirit herbs. They merely recognized the plants and knew their medicinal properties, then treated symptoms as they came.
Take the Snow Silkworms and Red Ginseng in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, for example.
Snow Silkworms tasted sweet and were warm in nature. They could dispel toxins and nourish the body. Red Ginseng tasted bitter and was slightly cool, making it ideal for promoting blood circulation and dispelling stasis, as well as regulating the body. Then the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well had increased their age... If Dugu Bo had even a tenth of Huang Yaoshi's medical knowledge, the little bit of poison in his body would have been cured long ago.
But thanks to Dugu Bo knowing what things did without understanding why, he was bound to have a stockpile of the medicinal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, aside from the immortal herbs!
"Ah? Oh... That's what you meant!"
Dugu Yan's face turned even redder, her eyes full of embarrassment and indignation, but she hurriedly replied, "I-I have some..."
Smack—
Dugu Yan snapped out of it and immediately took eight Black Cards from her Storage Soul Tool, slapping them onto the table. These Black Cards were unregistered, and each held one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins.
Then she looked at Ye Lingling. Before she could say anything, Ye Lingling took out two Black Cards as well... She could tell that the book meant a lot to Yanzi!
Dugu Yan gave Ye Lingling a grateful look.
Then she turned back to Li Jingzhe, her voice tentative, with a hint of ingratiation. "Boss, I'll bring the hundred-year-old Snow Silkworms and Red Ginseng tomorrow... I'll leave a million Gold Soul Coins as a deposit for now. Could you sell me the item first?"
She held up the Thousand Spider Poison Hand, her eyes full of urgency.
"Credit?"
"Heh, interesting..."
Li Jingzhe looked at Dugu Yan with amusement and couldn't help asking, "But what makes you think I'd give you credit? The only connection we have is that you barged in here late at night and gave me a good scolding, right?"
Dugu Yan choked. She stared at his half-smiling face and the Thousand Spider Poison Hand so close, yet still out of reach. Her heart itched like a cat was scratching at it.
Seeing the rascal needle her again, Ye Lingling was about to speak up for her.
Dugu Yan quickly tugged at her. If Lingling said anything now, it would only make a situation that was already hanging in the balance even more uncertain.
Then she hurriedly said, "I, Dugu Yan, always keep my word! Ten Snow Silkworms and ten Red Ginseng, all a hundred years old. I've made a note of it. I have them; I just didn't bring them with me!"
"Then how about I leave this with you as collateral..."
Dugu Yan took out the Poison Bead. "It contains the poison of a Titled Douluo!"
"Fine, take it!"
Seeing how Dugu Yan was about to offer Ye Lingling as collateral next, Li Jingzhe couldn't be bothered to tease her anymore. He took the ten Black Cards and gestured for her to take the item and leave.
He wasn't worried she'd run off without returning. Before a transaction was officially complete, things produced by the system weren't so easy to take. Besides, the sooner Dugu Yan started practicing the Thousand Spider Poison Hand, the sooner he'd enjoy the return from his power-doubling rebate, wouldn't he?
"Wait... what about the rest?"
Dugu Yan saw that Li Jingzhe had taken the money but showed no sign of producing the rest of the Thousand Spider Poison Hand, and she panicked.
"It's written in there, isn't it?"
Written in there?
Dugu Yan flipped through the Thousand Spider Poison Hand again, half believing and half doubting... Huh? That was strange. The Wordless Heavenly Book was now filled with text. She quickly checked it over. It was genuine!
The protective measure she'd guessed was in place for emergencies was written on the last page!
Only now, with the complete Thousand Spider Poison Hand in her hands, did she dare believe it. She'd bought it—the Self-Created Soul Skill that could free her family from their bloodline curse—for just one million Gold Soul Coins!
As for the extra herbs she'd promised, the Dugu Family had plenty in its collection.
As she thought about it, Dugu Yan's eyes filled with tears, and two streams ran down her cheeks.
"Yanzi?" Ye Lingling beside her called out helplessly.
"Waaah..."
But Ye Lingling's voice was like a blade that cut through the last defense in Dugu Yan's heart.
She buried her face in Ye Lingling's chest and burst into loud sobs.
"Yanzi, it's all right. I'm here..." Ye Lingling didn't understand, but she still comforted her gently.
"Waaah, if only this had appeared sooner... My father, my mother... They... Waaah..."
Dugu Yan choked on her words.
Ye Lingling opened her mouth, but in the end, her words of comfort turned into a sigh.
Before you continue