Mythical Cultivation

It all comes down to a lack of resources. If I had enough Blood Qi Pills, I think my cultivation would progress much faster. Thinking of this, Wu Ming looked at the package. He hadn't dealt with the things inside yet. He almost forgot about it. He had been busy with the exercises and tasks since he came out of the Misty Forest. Now that he had some free time, he could go out and clean out the things in the package and buy some resources.

He took out the hundred or so gold coins from the package, then carried it out onto the street, observing the people coming and going. Aside from a few monks, the majority were ordinary people, hustling for a living, struggling to make ends meet, without much ambition. But as a monk, his life was completely different; there was no going back. After a moment of lamentation, Wu Ming also went to his own shop.

Seeing his third young master coming, the shopkeeper quickly stepped forward and asked, "I wonder if the third young master needs anything?"

Wu Ming, upon seeing this, threw out the package and said, "See how much the contents are worth and exchange them for gold coins for me."

The shopkeeper also arranged for someone to calculate the items, and the final value was more than 150 gold coins. Wu Ming was planning to buy some things for cultivation, and asked the shopkeeper to introduce them to him.

"Shopkeeper, the elixir is in that area. I want to take a look."

Hearing Wu Ming's question, the shopkeeper led him to a row of counters. "Third Young Master, this is the medicine section. Here are blood-clotting powders for healing, body-tempering pills for refining the body, detoxifying powders for detoxification, blood-replenishing powders for replenishing blood, and... I wonder which one you need, Third Young Master?"

It is called a medicine area, but in fact there are only seven or eight kinds of medicines. Only the Body Tempering Pill can be considered an elixir, and the others can only be considered medicines. However, the price is really not cheap. One Body Tempering Pill costs seventy silver coins, and a bottle costs at least seven gold coins. It is different from the five gold coins a bottle that Lin Jinxian told him before. I guess that is the price within the family.

"Are these all? Why are they all medicines, with only one type of body-hardening pill?"

"Third Young Master, you don't know that we don't have any alchemists in Qingshi City, so the pills are all imported from other places. They are expensive and in short supply. These body-tempering pills were specially put in by the family in order to promote the reputation of our Lin family. The quantity is not large, after all, the children in the family need them. So there are only some medicines made by doctors, but don't underestimate these medicines. Although their effects may be slightly worse than those of pills, their functions are exactly the same." The shopkeeper explained.

Wu Ming finally understood how rare alchemists really were. Even a shop belonging to one of the three major families in Bluestone City didn't have any decent elixirs for sale. It seemed like buying suitable elixirs outside wouldn't be easy. But he still had to ask, just in case.

"Do you have any Blood Qi Pills, or medicines with similar effects?" Wu Ming looked at the shopkeeper expectantly.

"Third Young Master, there is definitely no Blood Qi Pill. No one would sell this kind of pill. It is a rare pill and is rarely seen even in the black market. But what does Third Young Master want this pill for? Third Young Master can't use it, right?" the shopkeeper asked doubtfully.

"I just wanted to ask, of course I don't need it." Wu Ming laughed.

"But what is the black market? I've never heard of it."

"It's normal that Third Young Master doesn't know. The black market is an informal trading area where many shady transactions take place, such as the slave trade. However, because it's chaotic and there's no security, only things that are difficult to sell are usually involved there. I remember a few years ago, someone auctioned a ground-level martial arts technique from the Ouyang family in Tianshui City there. The incident caused a lot of uproar at the time, and the Ouyang family in Tianshui City even sent strong men there."

Hearing that there were earth-level techniques being auctioned, I figured someone must have obtained them by killing a high-ranking cultivator from the Ouyang family. An earth-level technique is worth hundreds of gold, which might not seem like much to some, but since there are so few of them, the average person might never encounter one in their lifetime.

"So what did you just say about the Blood Qi Pills in there? Is anyone selling them?"

"I remember it was last year when someone sold half a bottle of Blood Qi Pill on the black market for fifty gold coins."

Wu Ming thought, "Fifty gold coins for half a bottle! That's too shady! It really deserves to be called a black market." He thought, "I'll have to go check it out if I get a chance. There should be a lot of good stuff in there, but I don't know where it is."

"Boss, do you know where the black market is?" Wu Ming asked.

"Third Young Master thinks too highly of me. How could I possibly know the entrance to the black market? I only found out about it while chatting with other shopkeepers."

Seeing that he couldn't get any new information from the shopkeeper, Wu Ming decided to go back and ask Lin Jinxian, as he should know. After buying some detoxification powder, he decided to go to a few other shops to see if there would be any new results.

After walking around Qingshi City, he didn't buy anything in the end, so he had to go back. Just then, he ran into Lin Jinxian who had sent someone to inform him to get the elixir.

"This is the elixir for this month. Since you have entered the Blood Qi Realm, it's time to receive the Blood Qi Pill." Lin Jinxian said as he handed over a bottle of Blood Qi Pill.

"Father, I heard there's a black market in Bluestone City. I don't know where the entrance is, and I want to go check it out."

"Why do you suddenly want to go to the black market? The black market is not easy. With your strength, it's not a big problem, but be careful of something going wrong." Lin Jinxian warned and told Wu Ming the location of the black market.

Wu Ming returned to his residence with the pills, took out a Blood Qi Pill, and placed it in his mouth. A huge heat flowed into his body instantly. Wu Ming activated the Heavenly River True Solution to absorb the heat. After two hours, he was able to suppress it. However, it would take more time to slowly absorb and transform it into cultivation power, which he estimated would take more than a day. This bottle of Blood Qi Pills would barely last for half a month.

However, the effect was indeed good. Compared to practicing on my own, the effect was three or four times stronger. If there was a constant supply of pills, I think it wouldn't take that long to practice. Wu Ming also continued to practice to avoid wasting the effect of this blood qi pill.

After a day of practice, he finally absorbed the pill completely, and a few more strands of blood and energy appeared in his body. If he didn't use the pill, it would probably take him ten days or half a month to practice it.

The Blood Qi Pill was so effective that Wu Ming looked forward to the black market even more.

While the Lin family prospered, the Xiao and Bai families were faring less well. Seeing the Lin family's goods arrive safely in the city, while their own ambushers haven't returned, both families knew something was amiss. The patriarchs of both families sent people to investigate outside the city. They found only over twenty bodies lying in the outskirts. Knowing something was amiss, they immediately arranged for someone to collect the bodies and report the situation to the family.