Yang Fan and Ah Yin had spent this time exploring every corner of Heaven Dou City.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's auction, the towering outer walls of the imperial palace, the blood-pumping Heaven Dou Soul Fighting Arena... The new sights of Heaven Dou City had left Yang Fan almost overwhelmed.
But living in Heaven Dou City was expensive.
In a city where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, the subsidies from Spirit Hall alone weren't enough. And he had left the money he'd saved behind for the village that had raised him for eleven years.
So what could he do?
Robbing the rich to help the poor wasn't easy in Heaven Dou City. Those nobles might be debauched and incompetent, but most of them had the imperial family and sects backing them. He didn't want to offend the wrong people while he was still growing stronger.
Yang Fan sat hunched over in a teahouse, his brow furrowed. In his arms, Ah Yin quietly stretched out a leaf toward his face.
"Don't worry. We'll find a way. If all else fails, I can take you to dig up medicinal herbs and sell them."
Listening to the mental message Ah Yin sent him, her gentle voice soothed his thoughts and gave him some inspiration.
If he wanted to make money, he absolutely couldn't start at the bottom of the industry.
Digging up herbs was less profitable than buying them, and buying herbs was less profitable than refining medicine and pills.
Medicine refining and pill making weren't well known in this era. The Xuanming Sect had only just begun dabbling in them, and it would take thousands of years before the craft developed into a proper system. He hadn't been a Daoist in his previous life, so he didn't know much about these things. But he had Ah Yin, a theoretical expert, and a Martial Soul that enhanced his analytical abilities.
Wouldn't an appraiser have great prospects?
The wealthiest sect on Douluo Continent, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, had built its fortune on just that. Unfortunately, the original story hadn't said much about it, focusing instead on their support abilities.
"Ah Yin, you're so clever." With a plan in mind, Yang Fan relaxed. He even had time to tease the Blue Silver Grass.
And so, an inconspicuous little shop quietly opened its doors.
Mornings in Heaven Dou City always began with the clamor of vendors hawking their wares. In the western district's slum alley, the air was thick with the smell of cheap wheat porridge and the damp stench of the sewers.
Yang Fan struggled to push open the rickety wooden door of Yang's Grocery Store. Its hinges let out a teeth-grating creak.
The shop was barely twenty square meters. The walls were peeling, and the shelves were empty save for a few dusty, old Soul Tool parts and a pile of junk he'd scavenged from who knew where.
"Cough, cough..." Yang Fan rubbed his slightly itchy eyes and walked behind the counter to sit down. He was thin, but his eyes held a calmness beyond his years.
He extended his right hand and focused his mind.
Buzz.
For an instant, the air seemed to freeze.
A crystal-clear monocle, seemingly carved from the purest amethyst, materialized before his right eye. It slowly settled into place, fitting precisely between the bridge of his nose and the curve of his ear.
The world changed in that instant.
The shop, shabby and dim as it was, was suddenly covered in countless crisscrossing lines. Some of the unremarkable scrap metal on the shelves gave off a faint white glow, while other pieces were shrouded in a lifeless gray haze.
"Same as always. Most of it's junk." Yang Fan sighed and put away his Martial Soul.
With the inspiration granted by his appraisal ability, he'd first gone to apply for a job at an auction house under the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
But the people there saw his plain clothes and his small stature and kicked him out without even giving him a trial period.
Realizing that his age made people distrust him, he had no choice but to start from scratch and open a shop.
He didn't have much money. Opening a shop in a prime location like the Soul Fighting Arena or the city gates was difficult, so, beaten down by reality, Yang Fan had settled for the western district.
Fortunately, the previous shopkeeper hadn't known what he was looking at. He'd left behind a fist-sized lump of black metal, giving Yang Fan a chance to score a bargain.
The lump's surface was pitted and covered in dark red rust. It really did look like a worthless piece of scrap iron.
But when Yang Fan looked through his Martial Soul, the black lump instantly came alive.
Beneath the dead-looking rust, an extremely faint yet pure golden stream of light was hidden!
It pulsed like a breath. Though sealed beneath thick layers of impurities, Yang Fan could sense the terrifying fluctuations of Soul Power within it.
This time, he carefully channeled his Soul Power into the lens.
A faint purple light flashed across the monocle, and the golden stream of light in his field of vision suddenly magnified.
Yang Fan could clearly see a droplet of silvery substance, seemingly liquid, slowly turning at the very center of the Geocentric Fire Copper.
"Could that be... Liquid Soul Silver?" Yang Fan sucked in a sharp breath.
On Douluo Continent, Soul Silver was a rare metal indispensable for crafting high-grade Soul Tools. Just this one droplet of Liquid Soul Silver was worth at least a hundred times as much as this shabby little shop!
With that single droplet of Liquid Soul Silver, Yang Fan immediately realized that this appraisal ability truly deserved its place among the classic cheat abilities of old-school novels.
The ability to turn a small investment into a fortune, then multiply that fortune again and again, far outstripped other cheat abilities.
Yang Fan also discovered that after he successfully found a hidden treasure, his Martial Soul rewarded him with a considerable boost to his spiritual power.
By the standards of the Dragon King Era, he estimated it had increased by at least ten points.
That might not sound like much, but in the original story, raising one's spiritual power by that much required either being tortured on the brink of death or having great fortune and stumbling upon an opportunity.
And he'd managed it with a simple lucky find.
Yang Fan wasn't sure whether this was a natural trait of his Martial Soul or an ability unlocked after the Blue Silver Emperor leg bone had replenished his origins.
He suspected it was the latter. Before his evolution, he hadn't received this kind of feedback when he found a bargain in the Whale Rubber.
He couldn't help feeling relieved.
Good thing he hadn't wasted his life at Nuoding Academy.
Time was cultivation. That was absolutely true on Douluo Continent.
If he waited until Tang San and Xiao Wu went to Shrek before taking action, even with Ah Yin's Soul Bone, it would be difficult to defy fate and change everything. By then, he would have no choice but to risk being poisoned and make a deal with Poison Douluo.
Don't be fooled by how easily Poison Douluo was tricked in fanfiction. In reality, the man was sharp as a tack.
He clung tightly to the Heaven Dou Imperial Family's thigh and even arranged for his granddaughter to marry a genius from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the strongest sect of the time. Did that sound like something a muddle-headed old fool would come up with?
Poison Douluo had spent years studying the problem with his Martial Soul. Was his knowledge of pharmacology really inferior to Tang San's Immortal Herb Catalog?
He'd simply wanted to curry favor with the Clear Sky Sect. For a disgrace among Titled Douluo to spirit away the son of the legendary Clear Sky Douluo right in front of him would be giving himself far too much credit.
Even if he went to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he'd sneak in quietly, just as he had when he stole Ah Yin.
He didn't want to gamble on the character of a powerful Soul Master.
Ordinary Soul Masters already looked down on ordinary people as if they were beneath them. The gap between a Titled Douluo and an ordinary Soul Master was far greater still.
Now that appraising treasures could boost his spiritual power, giving him a way to earn money and cultivate at the same time, he was in even less of a hurry.
He would wait until he had someone keep an eye on Dugu Yan and follow the trail to learn Dugu Bo's travel patterns. Only then would he make his move.
He would replenish the Heart of Eros, then visit other eras to pick up some things that would give him a crushing advantage. Only then would he consider whether to trade with Dugu Bo for that treasure trove.
He served several customers throughout the day. By the time dusk fell, he was getting tired.
When there were no treasures, his Martial Soul's feedback was weak. The difference was like a drop of water compared to a ladleful—not much, but better than nothing.
After closing the shop door from the inside, Yang Fan arranged two long benches and laid a stone slab across them. He spread out his bedding, watered Ah Yin in the corner, then sat down and began to meditate.
He didn't have money right now, so it wasn't time to enjoy himself. He planned to sell that droplet of Liquid Soul Silver to the imperial family's auction house, then use the money to buy other treasures and multiply his profits.
With Ah Yin's guidance, the cultivation method he practiced was now among the best on the continent. When it came to meridians, few people could know more than a Soul Beast who had personally experienced taking human form.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill was good, but he had to be alive to use it. Trying to obtain it during the Douluo or Peerless eras would inevitably attract Tang San's attention. If he became a god even a step later than Tang San, wouldn't he be doomed? The Dragon King Era, when the Divine Realm had gone off to play a MOBA in a black hole, was his best opportunity.
If he wanted to crush his opponents with knowledge from the future, he had to go to the farthest era ahead. For now, he couldn't reach the Ultimate Douluo era because the Heart of Eros hadn't been repaired.
Yang Fan had expected that. By then, Douluo Continent had already advanced to a higher level, and its rank was only greater than that of his incomplete Heart of Eros.