My Demonic Cores Are a Mountain

In the morning, West City Old Street was deserted.

Li Zhengyang pushed open the door to Myriad Treasures Pavilion.

Behind the counter, Su Jin wore a plain-colored cheongsam and rolled a string of glossy Bodhi Beads in her hand.

She was chatting with a young man standing before the counter.

The young man wore a tailored suit, his hair slicked heavily with gel, and the gold watch on his wrist was especially conspicuous.

When Su Jin looked up and saw Li Zhengyang in this state, she raised a handkerchief to cover her nose and teased, "Did you just come back from a slaughterhouse?"

Li Zhengyang stepped forward and rubbed his mud-stained shoes twice against the carpet. "I raided a few Demonic Beast nests and dirtied your place. My apologies."

The suited man took a large sidestep to the left and fanned the air with a look of disgust.

In his right hand, he held a gray-black stone, turning it over as he played with it. It was the Beast Core of a Third-Rank Martial Artist Ironclad Bear.

"Boss Su, I hired a professional team to get this Bear King Core." The suited man tapped his knuckles against the granite countertop, casting a sidelong glance at Li Zhengyang while speaking to Su Jin. "You run a business with your doors open, so you let any beggar walk in? Settle my account first."

Li Zhengyang did not even raise his eyelids.

He walked straight over and stood against the counter. With a flip of his right wrist, his Space Ring flashed.

Crash!

A heap of items poured down from midair and smashed onto the counter.

More than thirty Third-Rank Martial Artist Beast Cores still streaked with blood, mixed with hundreds of thick Red-armored Spider leg shells, Rockspine Beast barbed tails, and several rare medicinal herbs stained with wet soil, piled into a small mountain half a meter high on the counter.

The Beast Cores rolled down the slope of materials, making crisp clinking sounds as they collided.

The entire shop fell so silent that even breathing could not be heard.

Clack.

The Ironclad Bear Beast Core the suited man had been so proud of fell from his hand onto the floor.

He did not even bend down. He simply stared fixedly at that small mountain.

Su Jin's pupils contracted sharply.

The freshness of these materials could not be faked. The blood had not even dried, which meant that this young man had gone alone to North Mountain last night and swept through one, perhaps several, Demonic Beast groups.

This was no longer something an ordinary Martial Warrior could accomplish.

Without another word, Su Jin pressed a button beneath the drawer. A hidden door to the inner room opened, and two broad-shouldered security guards strode out.

"See this gentleman out. Pull down the shutter. We're closed to customers this morning." Su Jin pointed at the suited man.

Even as the two burly men carried him out of the shop, the suited man's mouth remained open. He did not manage to utter a single word.

The rolling shutter slammed all the way down with a bang.

Su Jin pulled out a pair of white gloves from the drawer and put them on, then picked up tweezers and began sorting and counting.

She inspected everything carefully, especially the Demonic Beast body parts. Every cut was a smooth surface from a single fatal strike. That meant there had been no prolonged struggle, only absolute one-sided suppression.

Half an hour later.

She took off her gloves, grabbed a calculator, entered a string of numbers, and pushed it toward Li Zhengyang.

"The quality of these materials is impeccable. The Beast Cores and all these miscellaneous items come to a total of 1.2 million Great Xia yuan."

After saying that, she took a pure black metal card from the safe and pushed it over as well.

The card had no unnecessary patterns, only a circle of dark gold lines along its edges.

Li Zhengyang glanced at the amount and was very satisfied, but he did not recognize the card.

"I'll transfer the money to you on the spot." Su Jin lifted her tea and took a sip, wetting her throat. "As for this, it's an Advanced Pass for the Underground Black Market. In times like these, you can't buy good Alloy Weapons, Cultivation Techniques made for actual combat and killing, or top-grade Spirit Materials through legitimate channels. With it, you can avoid the hassle of inspections when you go to the black market."

"I believe you'll need it in the future."

Li Zhengyang's eyes lit up.

He stuffed the black card into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and displayed his payment code.

"Boss Su, you're generous. A qualified businesswoman."

The voice notification announced that 1.2 million had been received.

He turned, pulled open a narrow gap in the shutter, and slipped out.

Meanwhile, at the Quick Loan Finance Company in the east of the city.

Boss Sun sat in his office chair, blowing the goji berries floating on the surface of his water aside.

Slap.

A resignation letter was slapped onto the desk.

Feng Tiezhu stood before the desk in his old military uniform, expressionless. "Boss Sun, settle my account. I'm leaving today."

Boss Sun slammed his thermos onto the desk. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm done. Pay me."

Boss Sun pointed at his nose and cursed, "I paid a high salary to keep a retired instructor like you around and sent you to collect a debt of 110,000. You didn't get the money back, and now you want to run? You useless coward, did some vocational college student scare the guts out of you?"

Feng Tiezhu lowered his eyes and did not argue.

He knew exactly what kind of person Boss Sun was. Saying even one extra word to someone like this was a waste of breath.

If he could not get his wages back, he could not be bothered to use force. He turned and walked toward the office door.

The moment the door closed, Feng Tiezhu replied in his heart.

Good words cannot save a ghost determined to die.

These loan-sharking idiots had no idea what kind of living Yama they had sent someone to collect from.

A killing god who could nail a First-grade Grand Martial Master to a rock with one shot—anyone tired of living could go provoke him.

Inside the office, Boss Sun kicked over the trash can in fury.

He could not swallow this insult. The 110,000 and his pride had both been lost to that student.

He took out another dedicated phone, searched for a number, and dialed it.

The environment on the other end was noisy, accompanied by the sound of meat being chopped on a cutting board.

"Master Diao San, I've got a job for you." Boss Sun gritted his teeth. "A thorn in my side owes me 110,000. It's a dead debt, so I'm transferring it to your branch. This kid is a little slippery and beat up my men. I'll add a condition: I want his life. We split the recovered money fifty-fifty."

The chopping sounds stopped. A rough voice came through. "We'll take the job. Send the photo and address to my phone. You'll have results within three days."

After hanging up, Boss Sun snorted coldly.

Diao San was a genuine Fifth-grade Grand Martial Master, specializing in dealing with all kinds of delinquent debtors.

Dealing with a student without a background would be no more than a single slash.

After returning home, Li Zhengyang sat shirtless on his wooden bed.

His phone screen was lit up, and his bank balance showed 1,200,037 yuan.

A full 1.2 million!

A week ago, as a college student, 1.2 million would have been enough for him to live without worries.

But now, this was only the beginning.

At the Grand Martial Master realm, every rank he climbed required a full 2,000 points of Blood Qi.

He was currently a First-grade Grand Martial Master, with a Blood-Qi Value base of 10,628.

Without much thought, he brought up the System Interface and entered 1,200,000 in the recharge field.

He tapped it and confirmed.

The seven-figure sum in his account instantly vanished, leaving him with just over thirty yuan.

[Recharge successful!]

[Blood-Qi Value obtained: +12000]

[Current Blood-Qi Value: 22628]

[Blood Qi breakthrough threshold detected]

[Realm breakthrough: First-grade Grand Martial Master → Seventh-grade Grand Martial Master!]

He crossed six ranks in succession.

The enormous energy did not bring the stabbing pain it had before. Instead, it transformed directly into crushing pressure, surging upward along his spine.

The density of his muscles multiplied in an extremely short time, his blood vessels widened, and his internal organs were completely wrapped in liquefied Blood Qi.

The Astral Qi of a Seventh-grade Grand Martial Master completely lost control, breaking free of the restraints at the surface of his body and erupting indiscriminately in every direction.

The room was compressed by that violent Astral Qi.

Who knew how long passed.

Li Zhengyang opened his eyes. He raised his right hand and slowly curled his five fingers into his palm.

Pop.

The air in the center of his palm was forcibly crushed into a piercing explosion.

This money had been well spent. It saved him the years of hard work others needed and let him directly buy cultivation with cash.

Just as Li Zhengyang was immersed in the joy of his improvement, his phone rang.