Buns That Hurt the Teeth

"I'm not joking." Qian Bin straightened up and said seriously, "What you don't know is that Brown Bears are powerful demon beasts, few in number. They only appear in the deep mountains and ancient forests far from cities, and are exceedingly difficult to find.

"Moreover, Brown Bears possess tremendous strength and are covered head to toe in hard armor-like hide, which blades and swords can scarcely harm. Their strength rivals that of a martial artist at the peak of the Sinew-Transforming Realm.

Throughout all of Linji City, with its population of over a million and countless experts, fewer than a handful of Brown Bears are hunted in a year.

Brown Bear blood is a precious body-tempering medicine for martial artists, so naturally it is extremely valuable. Most of such medicinal ingredients are controlled by the Four Great Families of the inner city.

Our Luo's Shop also acquired some only after great difficulty through various channels, and our stock is limited.

Fifty taels of silver is already the cheapest price available on the market."

After pondering for a moment, Chen Cheng asked, "Aside from this main ingredient, how much do the other medicinal ingredients cost?"

Qian Bin carefully read through the list of medicinal ingredients, made a rough estimate, and smiled. "Every body-tempering prescription can only have one main ingredient, lest the medicinal effects conflict. The rest are auxiliary ingredients, and ordinarily they are not expensive.

"But this is clearly a prescription for a top-tier skin-tempering art, and the auxiliary ingredients are all precious medicinal materials as well. Buying one portion of each would cost around ten taels of silver."

For a single session of cultivating the Brown Bear Skin-Tempering Art, the ingredients for the medicinal bath alone would cost sixty taels of silver.

According to the manual, even a martial artist with exceptional bones and aptitude needed half a month to fully digest the medicine's effects when cultivating the Brown Bear Skin-Tempering Art. Thus, they could only soak in the medicinal bath once every half month.

Soaking twice each month, one could reach minor mastery in a year, major mastery in two years, and perfection only after three.

Those with poorer bones and aptitude would require even longer.

In other words, even with exceptional bones and aptitude, cultivating the Brown Bear Skin-Tempering Art to perfection required at least seventy-two portions of medicinal ingredients—more than four thousand taels of silver in total.

To Chen Cheng, that much silver was no different from an astronomical sum.

Chen Cheng had previously wondered why the manual had specifically included a note emphasizing that martial artists could cultivate several skin-tempering arts at once.

Looking at it now, that important figure Liu Yunfeng had mentioned had never expected Chen Cheng to successfully cultivate the Brown Bear Skin-Tempering Art at all.

Could Liu Yunfeng or that important figure have deliberately been toying with me?

Yet Chen Cheng felt that something was off.

"Liu Yunfeng has always treated me well. He probably wouldn't deliberately toy with me. As for that important figure, it was even less likely that he would have such thoughts. After all, I'm merely a probationary runner, not even a full-fledged runner. Between me and such a lofty important figure lies the difference between heaven and mud."

Chen Cheng frowned and thought for a long while, but still could not make heads or tails of it.

Seeing him deep in thought, Qian Bin was in no hurry and waited leisurely at the side.

In Qian Bin's eyes, it was no easy feat for Chen Cheng to transfer from being a mere jailer to the City Guard Office and become a probationary runner without some connections.

Furthermore, the fact that Chen Cheng could produce a medicinal ingredient list for a top-tier skin-tempering art was itself unreasonable. He must have had the help of some influential benefactor, and the art he cultivated had to be a top-tier skin-tempering art.

If Chen Cheng truly bought these medicinal ingredients from Luo's Shop, Qian Bin would make another handsome profit.

At the thought, the smile on Qian Bin's face grew even brighter.

"I earned quite a bit in commission from that Crimson Sun Great Root Art before. This time, I'll likely earn plenty again. Brother Chen truly is my god of wealth. It was indeed a wise move to forge a good connection with him back then."

Unable to sort it out, Chen Cheng simply stopped worrying about the medicinal ingredients needed for the Brown Bear Skin-Tempering Art and asked instead, "Brother Qian, how much does one portion of medicinal bath ingredients for an ordinary skin-tempering art cost?"

Qian Bin answered with a chuckle, "That isn't expensive. Take the Iron Sand Skin-Tempering Method, for example. Each portion of the corresponding medicinal bath ingredients costs only five taels of silver.

"If one has exceptional bones and aptitude, around a hundred portions of medicinal bath would be enough to cultivate to the perfection of the Skin-Tempering Realm."

Cultivating the Iron Sand Skin-Tempering Method required a manual worth fifty taels of silver and one hundred portions of medicinal bath ingredients costing five hundred taels. Altogether, that came to five hundred and fifty taels, roughly the price Chen Cheng had estimated.

"So it seems the medicinal bath ingredients for ordinary skin-tempering arts aren't too expensive." Chen Cheng voiced his thoughts. Of course, that was only in comparison to the Brown Bear Skin-Tempering Art. To him, five hundred taels of silver was still something he did not even dare dream of.

Not too expensive? Could Brother Chen truly have met an influential benefactor and struck it rich? Excitement flickered in Qian Bin's eyes as he smiled.

"You should know that cultivating an ordinary skin-tempering art produces slightly inferior body-tempering results and causes some damage to the body. Ordinary medicinal baths cannot heal it completely. Once the root of an illness is left behind, it can easily flare up in old age, bringing pain and torment.

"Top-tier skin-tempering arts, however, produce exceptional body-tempering results and cause extremely little harm to the body. With treatment from precious medicinal baths, one can recover completely without worrying about leaving behind the root of an illness.

"Brother Chen, I still recommend that you cultivate a top-tier skin-tempering art. As for the Brown Bear blood, if you buy it exclusively from our shop, I can speak with the shopkeeper and get you a ten percent discount."

"I'll consider it further," Chen Cheng replied without giving anything away. Only then did he realize that Qian Bin had likely taken him for a big spender, and he secretly felt rather embarrassed.

After leaving Luo's Shop, Chen Cheng strolled leisurely along the main street.

The several nearby streets were the most prosperous area of Ruyi Ward. Even in the depths of winter, people still streamed through them in an unending flow, bustling with life.

Street vendors calling out their wares, wanderers of the martial world carrying all manner of weapons from north to south, common folk constantly entering and leaving the shops lining the street...

Petty townsfolk and people from every walk of life filled the streets, coming and going in a ceaseless tide, brimming with the smoke and fire of human life.

In the midst of this bustling marketplace, all he saw and heard were the countless faces of ordinary people, and Chen Cheng's thoughts churned.

He too was only one among the multitude, firmly held in the grasp of an invisible hand. Like duckweed adrift on the water, he could not control his own fate.

If he wanted to change this situation, the only path was to cultivate martial arts and become a martial arts expert.

But how difficult was martial cultivation! The Skin-Tempering Realm alone had blocked the path of who knew how many martial artists.

Fortunately, I have the Iron Garment Art, an internal breath art. Even without the means to cultivate a body-tempering art, I can still cultivate the Skin-Tempering Realm to perfection.

With that thought, Chen Cheng suddenly quickened his pace.

Amid the crowd behind him, a man dressed in gray padded clothes had been following at a distance. Seeing that he was about to lose Chen Cheng, he hurriedly picked up his pace as well.

Chen Cheng strode swiftly onward and turned a street corner.

The man in gray hurried around the corner after him, only to find Chen Cheng stopping in front of a bun shop. After hesitating slightly, he stopped beside an old peddler's cart not far from the bun shop and pretended to examine the goods.

The bun shop was small, a storefront of barely ten square meters. The ones selling buns were a young couple in their twenties.

The husband stood in front with a five- or six-year-old girl, calling out to customers, while the woman, carrying a baby on her back in a swaddling cloth, kneaded dough and steamed buns in the rear.

"Sir Runner, would you like some buns or steamed bread? Our buns and steamed bread have just come out of the steamer—piping hot and delicious," the young owner greeted him warmly.

"Give me two meat buns to try."

Chen Cheng called out casually, his gaze seemingly drifting by chance toward the man in gray not far away.

"Sir Runner, your buns."

Chen Cheng took the buns the young owner had removed from the steamer and bit into one. Then his expression suddenly darkened, and he cursed loudly.

"What kind of lousy bun is this? It's hard as a rock—it nearly broke my teeth!"