Still poor, coveted?

Unlike the others present, who cursed in outrage, one scar-faced young man remained silent.

But the disbelief in his eyes swiftly turned into jealousy and venomous resentment, along with a barely perceptible trace of greed!

"Why! Why did that little bastard get so lucky and end up with such a treasured saber! Why wasn't I the one who got it! That was four thousand Gold Coins!"

The more he thought about it, the harder it became to accept. The scar-faced young man glanced in the direction the two had left, a vicious gleam flashing through his eyes!

When Wang Zhi first grabbed him and pulled him along, Zhou Changqing was bewildered and instinctively wanted to shake off his hand.

But after hearing what Wang Zhi said, he gave it a moment's thought and understood his intentions.

So Zhou Changqing did not struggle and simply let Wang Zhi pull him away.

Soon, the two arrived at a bank in the central part of the Marketplace.

Most banks in the Jia Ma Empire had been established by the Imperial Family and belonged to it.

Apart from the imperial banks, some powerful clans also operated banks, but their scale could not begin to compare.

Backed by the Imperial Family's reputation, the imperial banks had become the empire's primary institutions for savings.

Here, anyone could safely deposit their savings and withdraw them whenever they wished.

Some powerful cultivators could also apply for special gold cards, which served as both proof of their deposits and symbols of their status.

For instance, Wang Zhi's gold card, patterned with blue and silver ripples, was available only to cultivators at the Dou Shi level or above.

After entering the bank, Wang Zhi readily transferred four thousand Gold Coins from his gold card to Zhou Changqing's newly issued single-striped gold card.

Then he hurried away, looking as though he feared Zhou Changqing might change his mind.

Wang Zhi could hardly be blamed. For someone like him, who frequented the Magical Beast Mountain Range and spent year after year fighting for his life, a good weapon was simply too important!

Otherwise, he would not have paid such a steep price to commission a Hundred-Forged Fine Steel saber inlaid with a magic core.

That saber was tough, highly resistant to damage, and exceptionally sharp. With its magic core amplifying his Dou Qi, it could boost his combat strength by thirty or even forty percent!

Yet compared with the treasured Ghost-Head Saber Zhou Changqing had sold him, his own saber was far inferior.

Although it did not amplify Dou Qi, Wang Zhi was certain, based on his many years of experience with weapons.

This treasured Ghost-Head Saber could double his strength!

After all, its sharpness alone was enough to slice through the protective Dou Qi gauze armor formed by a Six-Star Dou Shi or someone of an even higher realm!

That alone meant that, with this treasured saber in hand, Wang Zhi could fight desperately enough that even seven- or Eight-Star Dou Shi would have to retreat before its edge!

One careless moment might even leave them dying in bitter regret on the spot!

Such an increase in combat strength, even without raising one's cultivation realm, was enough to drive countless Dou Shi wild!

On that basis alone, this treasured saber was worth no less than an ordinary Second-Rank Pills!

(Although the Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid sold for forty thousand in the original story, that was because it ranked among the finest Second-Rank Pills, had irreplaceable effects, and benefited from being auctioned. Other ordinary Second-Rank Pills should have cost somewhere between five thousand and twenty thousand.)

And now, Wang Zhi had bought such a formidable weapon for just four thousand. Having secured such a bargain, how could he not fear Zhou Changqing changing his mind?

Watching Wang Zhi's swiftly retreating figure, Zhou Changqing shook his head slightly, then tucked away his gold card and left the bank.

He could tell from Wang Zhi's behavior that the Ghost-Head Saber he had refined and nurtured for half a month was certainly worth more than four thousand Gold Coins.

But Zhou Changqing did not mind.

It was only an Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapon. If he wanted, he could refine and nurture another in less than half a month.

Compared with his previous income of just ten Gold Coins a month, earning four thousand in half a month was already quite good.

And although the Ghost-Head Saber was decent, Zhou Changqing did not consider it a true product of Weapon Refining.

It was more like reprocessing an existing product.

It was only a small loss, after all. He would treat it as a special discount for Wang Zhi, his very first customer.

As he walked along the bluestone path home, a faint smile remained on Zhou Changqing's lips.

Touching the gold card tucked inside his clothes gave him a sense of satisfaction.

"Now that I have some capital, it's time to start making money breed money. After all, these four thousand Gold Coins won't buy what I want."

As he walked, Zhou Changqing considered what he needed to do next.

He now had a cultivation method, but he still lacked Dou Techniques.

Without Dou Techniques, he could not bring out his full strength, and that was a fatal weakness.

So he had to buy a Dou Technique, and it absolutely could not be below intermediate Yellow Tier.

Four thousand Gold Coins might seem like a lot, but when it came to buying a Dou Technique at intermediate Yellow Tier or above, that sum paled in comparison.

Besides Dou Techniques, Zhou Changqing also needed to collect a large number of books on subjects such as Formation Crafting.

He was not content merely to refine and nurture iron-cleaving mortal weapons like the Ghost-Head Saber.

He already had a general direction in mind for the weapons he would refine in the future.

Knowledge of Formation Crafting and related subjects would be indispensable.

And that was not all. He could not keep using ordinary Iron for Weapon Refining forever; its potential was simply too limited.

That inevitably meant he would need special metals in the future, and in large quantities at that.

Although they could not compare with precious medicinal ingredients, special metals would not come cheap either.

Some rare metals were even just as precious as high-grade medicinal ingredients!

Looking at it that way, could four thousand Gold Coins still be considered a lot?

He really needed to spend money at every turn.

"You only rue how little money you have when it's time to spend it~"

"Hm?"

With that sigh, Zhou Changqing reached the entrance to his courtyard. But before he could open the gate, his raised hand suddenly stopped.

As a transmigrator, Zhou Changqing had a much stronger soul than ordinary people. Even Xiao Yan, a fellow transmigrator, was probably a little inferior to him in that respect.

Thus, his soul perception was fully on par with that of a Dou Shi.

His thoughts had been wandering earlier, so he had not noticed.

But when he came back to his senses and tried to open the gate, he could clearly sense that someone else was inside his courtyard!

Zhou Changqing's eyes narrowed.

Why was someone in his courtyard?

The lock had not been damaged, which meant whoever it was had not entered through the gate.

So it could not be Xiao Yan.

Given Xiao Yan's current steady temperament, even if he came to the courtyard and found Zhou Changqing absent, he would never climb over the wall. He would simply leave and return another time.

That left only one possibility!

The visitor meant trouble!

"Could what happened today have drawn someone's covetous attention?"

Thinking of the stir he had caused at the Xiao Family Market that day, along with the four thousand gold coins tucked inside his clothes, Zhou Changqing could hardly avoid that suspicion.

Still, since he had detected the intruder so easily, and the aura he sensed was not strong.

That meant the intruder could not be much stronger than him, and might even be weaker.

(End of chapter)