Reentering the Black Market

Lin Qing decided to increase his cultivation time. Every morning, afternoon, and evening, he would cultivate for two shichen each.

He compressed as much as possible the time spent on trivial matters such as cooking, eating, and washing up. This still allowed him to ensure four to five shichen of rest each day.

Yet after only one day, he discovered a new problem: the ferocious beast meat was being consumed too quickly. In this single day alone, he had eaten four jin of ferocious beast meat.

An ordinary First-Tier Martial Artist at the mastery stage of a First-Tier Stance Art would consume roughly one jin of first-tier ferocious beast meat per day when cultivating for five shichen.

But what about him? His First-Tier Bedrock Stance Art had reached perfection and operated without pause through all twelve shichen of the day. Its cultivation efficiency was outrageously high, but it also brought an outrageous demand for energy.

That absurd consumption made Lin Qing's heart sink, and a surge of panic inevitably rose within him.

He immediately calmed his mind and attempted to communicate with the automatically operating Bedrock Stance Art inside him, intending to force it to stop.

Under the control of his thoughts, the stance art's aura, which had continuously circulated within his body, truly began to slowly stagnate. The rhythm that constantly consumed his body's energy vanished along with it.

Thank goodness—it really could be stopped. He immediately let out a breath of relief. If it could not be stopped, he would face a terrifying outcome: he might starve to death alive.

After confirming this, Lin Qing restarted the automatic operation of the Bedrock Stance Art. Unless driven into a corner, he naturally could not abandon such efficient cultivation.

Yet the practical difficulty remained right before him. At the rate of four jin per day, his current stock of ferocious beast meat could only support one more day of efficient cultivation.

He had to make another trip to the Black Market tomorrow night.

What gave him an even greater headache was the matter of money. He touched the money pouch in his robes. There was hardly any silver left inside.

When he had last left the Black Market, he had still possessed nineteen taels of silver. His daily living expenses over the past few days, along with that previous meal at Fortune Tower, had cost him three taels altogether. Now, only sixteen taels remained.

There was no way he could put all sixteen taels into buying ferocious beast meat.

When one was away from home, one always had to leave oneself a way out. He planned to take five taels from it as emergency funds and keep them close at hand in case of unforeseen need.

Even if he truly ended up with mountains exhausted and rivers depleted in the future, those five taels would allow him to maintain a basic life after stopping the stance art, rather than starving to death alive.

The next day, night fell over Azure Sun County, and pedestrians on the streets gradually grew sparse.

Lin Qing changed into a plain set of coarse clothes, tucked the black robe he had prepared long ago into his chest, quietly left his residence, and headed toward the city's maze of complicated alleys.

Following the concealed white marks on the walls, he twisted and turned through the crisscrossing, labyrinth-like alleys before successfully reaching the Black Market's entrance.

There were fewer people in the courtyard at the entrance than before. Lin Qing found an unused empty room, quickly changed into the black robe, took out a white cat-face mask and put it on, then headed straight down the dim staircase.

Four days had passed since his last visit to the Black Market. The flow of people had now visibly declined, and it no longer possessed the bustle of his previous visit.

Lin Qing did not linger at the entrance. He went straight to the stall area, and before long, he locked onto a target.

The man appeared to be middle-aged. A tiger mask covered his entire face. He wore a crimson sleeveless short shirt with its collar thrown wide open, exposing skin with a faint bronze sheen. One look was enough to tell that he was a martial artist from elsewhere.

This was precisely the target Lin Qing had been looking for.

He strode over, crouched in front of the stall, and inconspicuously opened his black robe slightly to reveal several stance art booklets tucked inside. Lowering his voice, he said:

"Boss, want some cultivation manuals? If you do, I'll sell them to you."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man raised his eyes and sized Lin Qing up. He asked no questions, merely extending a hand as he said blandly:

"Let me see."

Lin Qing cautiously swept his gaze around. Only after confirming that no one nearby was paying attention did he carefully take a copy of Thunderstrike Stance from his robes and lightly hand it over.

The man accepted the booklet and quickly flipped through it with his fingertips. After giving it a rough look, he handed the manual back to Lin Qing.

"My stall only sells fakes. I don't buy real goods."

Lin Qing was speechless for a moment. He helplessly shook his head, took back the manual, and murmured:

"Got it. You carry on."

With that, he rose and continued searching for the next buyer. The Black Market was a place where fish and dragons mingled, with all kinds of vendors. Running into a wall was to be expected. He was not discouraged and continued patiently weaving among the stalls, asking every suitable stall owner.

Time trickled by. An entire shichen passed. Lin Qing traversed more than half the stall area and, after much persuasion, finally sold off all the stance arts in his hands, successfully recovering thirty taels of silver.

During that time, he caught sight of Shi Jian among the crowd again. He had no intention whatsoever of stepping forward to greet him. After merely glancing at him from afar, he quietly shifted his gaze away.

After successfully selling the cultivation manuals, Lin Qing immediately turned toward the shop area to look for a store selling ferocious beast meat.

This time, he would not go to the Myriad Beasts Shop. If someone recognized him through his voice or some other subtle detail, purchasing so much ferocious beast meat within such a short time would inevitably arouse suspicion. Though the chances of inviting trouble that way were not great, it was always better to be cautious in all things.

The ferocious beast meat shop he chose was no smaller than the Myriad Beasts Shop. The meat within was arranged neatly, and its prices were identical to those of the Myriad Beasts Shop.

For resources consumed in such great quantities, neighboring merchants kept their prices consistent and would not maliciously undercut one another.

Lin Qing bought ten jin of first-tier ferocious beast meat and also purchased a sealed iron box.

He hid the iron box within his voluminous black robe, then found another ferocious beast meat shop farther away and bought another ten jin, wrapping it in oil paper.

After buying the ferocious beast meat, he did not linger. He swiftly left the Black Market, changed back into his clothes, wrapped the ferocious beast meat in the black robe, and returned to his residence by the same route.

Qin Hundred-Household Commander had not yet left Azure Sun County, and Lin Qing encountered no accidents on his return journey.

The following night, Lin Qing did not continue cultivating the Drifting Cloud Stance Art. After several days of cultivation, the progress of the Drifting Cloud Stance Art had reached 290 points. It would reach perfection tomorrow night, but he had other plans for tonight.

The enormous consumption of ferocious beast meat meant that he would have to enter and leave the Black Market frequently from now on. The Black Market was already a place where dragons and snakes mingled, where people from all walks of life and desperate outlaws were countless.

It was time to learn some means of preserving his life.

He pulled several booklets of basic martial arts from the cabinet in his bedroom. He had casually bought them back when he recorded the Life-Nourishing Art at the county bookstore.

There were Basic Fist Art, Basic Leg Art, Basic Movement Art, Basic Sword Art, Basic Saber Art, and Basic Spear Art. They were the most rudimentary, but also the most fundamental martial arts.

Those advanced martial arts were nothing more than different combinations of various basic martial arts moves, coupled with unique techniques for exerting force.

For instance, a straight punch in a Yellow Rank fist art might possess unique force-exertion techniques or methods of mobilizing Qi and Blood Realm, making it roughly twenty percent more powerful than an ordinary straight punch. Yet its move was still a straight punch.

These basic martial arts were the true foundation of every kind of advanced martial art.

Lin Qing sat before the table and read through these basic martial arts booklets one by one.

Only after a full shichen had passed did he finish carefully reading through all of them.

He slowly closed the final booklet. With a thought, he opened the system. New entries had appeared on the panel.

[Host: Lin Qing]

Realm: Mortal (breakthrough time: 194 days)

Fused cultivation arts: Bedrock Stance Art, Essence-Stabilizing Foundation-Firming Art (expand)

Recorded cultivation arts: Drifting Cloud Stance Art (290/400), Qingyun Stance Skill (0/400), Thunderstrike Stance (0/400), Coiling Dragon Stance Art (0/400), Mountain-Suppressing Stance Art (0/400)

Body control rating: Low Mortal Rank

Recorded martial arts: Basic Fist Art (0/100), Basic Movement Art (0/100), Basic Leg Art (0/100), Basic Sword Art (0/100), Basic Saber Art (0/100), Basic Spear Art (0/100)

As for the realm breakthrough time, aside from the automatic operation of the Bedrock Stance Art over the past few days, he had also cultivated the Drifting Cloud Stance Art on his own. It had therefore decreased slightly faster than normal.

The various basic martial arts had also been recorded on the panel as he had hoped. As for this body control rating, he could currently only make a few guesses based on its literal meaning.