The flagpole

Thanks to the convenience of river transport, Ancient Market Town not only had the largest Weapon Market in Eastern Province, but was also the foremost distribution center for medicinal ingredients along the upper and lower reaches of the Divine Splendor River.

After leaving the Divine Weapon Hall, Chu Xisheng prepared to head to the medicinal market on neighboring Yellowwood Street for a shopping spree.

But as they crossed an alley toward Yellowwood Street, Chu Yunyun suddenly stopped.

She looked toward the entrance of a nearby shop, her expression wavering between surprise and uncertainty.

"What is it?" Chu Xisheng, who was walking ahead, turned and followed her gaze.

It was a pawnshop tucked away in the alley, and most of its pawned goods were weapons.

At a glance, Chu Xisheng noticed that the shop's doors and windows were old and weathered.

The weapons displayed at its entrance were all ordinary, with nothing of any quality.

Chu Xisheng was puzzled.

The fact that the pawnshop was not on the main street showed that its proprietor had very limited means.

He wondered what had caught Chu Yunyun's attention.

Without a word, Chu Yunyun walked inside and stopped before a wooden barrel beside the door, examining its contents carefully from top to bottom.

Dozens of long-shafted weapons-sabers, spears, swords, and halberds-were piled inside.

After looking for a while, Chu Yunyun pulled out a black iron spear roughly eighteen feet long.

To Chu Xisheng, it was simply an iron spear.

It had a metal shaft eighteen feet long, with a sharp spearhead at the end.

Chu Xisheng also examined it closely, but could find nothing unusual about it.

Its shaft was black, with serpentine markings that showed it had been cold-forged from black iron.

For some reason, however, the shaft was excessively thick, a size larger than an ordinary spear.

That would make the spear extremely heavy, placing a tremendous burden on its wielder.

There were also several deep scratches on it, suggesting that its shaft might not be particularly sturdy.

But the person who had taken a fancy to it was the former first-rank divine general, the Overlord Martial King Qin Muge.

Chu Xisheng raised his brows slightly. "You like this spear? If you do, buy it."

At his peak, Qin Muge had been hailed as "peerless with both lance and halberd," but Chu Yunyun now had only a pair of ninth-rank short halberds, and lacked a suitable lance.

As Chu Xisheng saw it, there was no fundamental difference between a lance and a spear.

A spear generally had a pointed head with sharpened edges on both sides and backward-facing barbs at its base, much like an arrowhead, inflicting further damage when pulled out. It had no tassel, making it easier to throw.

A lance had a pointed head with sharpened projections on either side, its diamond-shaped design suited to piercing armor. A red tassel behind the head kept blood spray from reaching the eyes.

"How is this a spear?" Lu Luanli gave him a sidelong glance. "It's clearly the pole of a military banner, just missing its flag and red tassel."

She looked puzzled too. Wasn't Chu Yunyun a Spellcaster? She should have no use for something like this.

Chu Yunyun silently stroked the "flagpole." She, too, had failed to discern what was extraordinary about it.

Yet when she had passed the pawnshop entrance earlier, her heart had skipped a beat, and she had vaguely sensed something inside calling to her.

Unfortunately, she had already lost her true essence. Otherwise, she would only have needed to send a wisp into it to uncover its nature.

Just then, Chu Yunyun's expression shifted slightly again. She had discovered a strange, barely visible character engraved on the end of the flagpole.

Just as Chu Yunyun was about to examine it closely, a middle-aged man approached from inside the shop and said with a smile, "Has this spear caught your fancy, honored customer? What a pity. Someone pawned it here, and its term has yet to expire, so we cannot sell it. But we have plenty of fine lances and spears, both seventh- and eighth-rank. You may take your pick."

Chu Yunyun frowned and put the flagpole back. "Forget it. Let's go."

The flagpole might possess some miraculous quality, but Chu Yunyun was unwilling to seize another person's property.

None of the shop's other lances or spears interested her.

Chu Xisheng's expression shifted slightly, however, and he asked the middle-aged man, "Shopkeeper, when does this spear's pawn term expire?"

He actually wanted to ask where the flagpole's original owner was and buy it directly from them, but that would have broken the rules.

The shopkeeper gave a rueful smile. "Its owner pawned it half a month ago. By the rules, we have to wait six months before we can sell it."

Shaking his head, Chu Xisheng turned and continued toward Yellowwood Street.

Yellowwood Street was the largest medicinal market in Xiushui Commandery. It had not only over a hundred long-established apothecaries, but also many independent medicinal ingredient merchants.

Chu Yunyun went on a shopping spree here, gathering all the materials she needed for her Spell Arts.

They also had thirty bottles of Yanghe Powder prepared at cost, enough to extend each sibling's life by forty-five days.

Chu Xisheng spent over four hundred taels of demon silver on thirty Origin-Nourishing Pills and gathered all the supplementary ingredients for the secret medicine required by the third level of the Origin-Nourishing Art.

The secret medicine's main ingredient was the Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoon, a wondrous medicinal ingredient found in volcanic ice lakes.

Only the frozen summit lakes of extinct volcanoes produced this peculiar Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoon, something as marvelous as winter worm, summer grass.

Chu Xisheng could only gaze at it and sigh.

He had asked about the price of Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoons at all the major medicinal shops, and not one quoted less than seven hundred taels of demon silver.

More importantly, Chu Xisheng had nowhere to gather it himself.

Even the nearest extinct volcano was over thirty-six hundred li from Xiushui Commandery.

Moreover, those frozen summit lakes were monopolized by local martial aristocratic clans and powerful houses, which allowed no outsiders to lay a finger on them.

When Chu Xisheng emerged from the largest medicinal shop on Yellowwood Street, he clutched the less than seventy taels of demon silver remaining in his pocket, his brow furrowed with worry.

In another month, he would perfect the second level of his Origin-Nourishing Art, but where was he supposed to earn that money?

Escort work? Manual labor? Hunting in the wilderness? Gathering medicinal ingredients? Or guarding someone's house?

-Those brought in money far too slowly.

Robbery would be quick, but first, Chu Xisheng could not get past his own conscience, and second, this world's local tyrants and evil gentry were not easy to provoke. Their homes were filled with guards.

The authorities cared nothing for the lives of common people, but if you dared touch a wealthy household, they would unleash all their hawks and hounds and spare no effort to capture you.

Without the abilities of the Bloodwind Bandits, he could not take on this porcelain-mending job.

"We can earn the money for the Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoon gradually." Chu Yunyun looked at Chu Xisheng, warning in her eyes. "No settling for less!"

She had just seen Chu Xisheng ask the price of another medicinal ingredient, the Crimson Blood Ice Vine.

It could substitute for the Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoon and was much cheaper, costing only two hundred taels of demon silver.

The problem was that all the secret medicine formulas for the Origin-Nourishing Art had been continually refined by the Formless Divine Sect for over ten thousand years.

It was said that the supplementary ingredients were adjusted every five years and the main ingredient changed every two hundred years to account for changes in human bloodlines and the world.

At present, the Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoon produced the best results.

This formula ensured that unsealing one's bloodline left no lingering problems. It was the genuine "Orthodox Xuan Sect," pointing straight toward the supreme Great Dao.

The reason most martial practitioners of this age achieved little was not insufficient talent, but the scarcity and expense of secret medicines.

Many people might toil for ten or twenty years without saving enough silver for an Ice Silkworm Fire Cocoon worth seven hundred taels. So they changed their tune and chose cheaper secret medicines to take.

But by doing so, they limited their future Martial Dao cultivation to seventh rank, or even eighth rank.

The hidden dangers and toxicity of cheap secret medicines were enough to destroy their futures.

A single wrong step now would affect Chu Xisheng's future Martial Dao achievements.

Chu Xisheng smiled ruefully at her words. He had not intended to settle for less; he had merely wanted to learn the market prices.

Brow furrowed, he asked thoughtfully, "Yunyun, what work is there in this world that could earn me money quickly and make me famous?"

Chu Yunyun wondered how anything so good could possibly exist in this world.

No! There was something. When she had led armies north on campaign, she had not only earned a great deal of money, but also made her name resound throughout the world.

There were also those world-renowned heroes who turned "chivalry and righteousness" into a business, raking in bushels of gold every day.

But that clearly did not suit the two of them.

"There is, actually!"

With that silvery, bell-like voice, Lu Luanli approached from a distance, carrying a large bundle on her back.

She had parted from Chu Xisheng for a while earlier and had also bought quite a few medicinal ingredients on Yellowwood Street.

She gave a derisive laugh and pointed south. "At the South Street Temple Fair-the Black Market Arena Matches. Fight a few matches there, and you can earn money and make quite a name for yourself. You'll earn even more in death matches, though there's a risk."

Chu Xisheng froze for a moment, then his eyes lit with interest.