Only through Jia Shiheng did Lu Zhiyuan learn that Stillshade had a black market. Apparently, it had once operated a short distance outside the northern city wall.
Because of the refugees, it had now moved directly into Stillshade.
He guessed it must have official backing. Otherwise, how could the county office allow it to operate so openly?
That night, wearing a conical hat and a face covering to conceal his features, he went to the black market.
Instead of the furtive atmosphere he had imagined, he found it bustling. Apart from the absence of hawkers' cries, it was little different from Stillshade's night market.
He browsed the stalls as he walked. They held all sorts of strange things, many of which he had never seen or even heard of.
Whenever he encountered something unfamiliar, he stood quietly behind the others and listened to their conversations, gleaning what he could.
Surprisingly, simply listening earned him a good deal of useful information.
Eventually, he stopped before a stall displaying many manuals. Oddly, very few people lingered there.
"Feel free to browse, but these are only excerpts from the manuals. If you find one you like, we can discuss the price. Then I'll bring out the complete manual."
The stallholder glanced at Lu Zhiyuan's deerskin gloves and smiled.
"Do you have any manuals for movement arts?" Lu Zhiyuan asked directly, without touching the books.
He had thought it over yesterday. He lacked both cultivation and techniques, but what he needed most was a movement art. With a good one, his first option in danger could be to run.
If he ran fast enough, he would have a good chance of surviving even against someone at a higher cultivation stage.
"Of course. Young hero, take a look at these." The stallholder rummaged around and placed a few manuals before him.
Water-Treading Art, Swallow's Perch, Grass-Crossing Art, and Wavewalking Art.
He picked one up and browsed it. A moment later, he put it down and took another.
Within fifteen minutes, he had read all four. He looked thoughtful.
"These are all manuals for basic lightness arts. Do you have anything better?" he asked after a moment.
"I do. But even if I sell one to you, do you dare practice it?"
The stallholder gave him a faint, knowing smile. "I have more advanced manuals, certainly. But I don't know whether they contain omissions or errors. If practicing from one of my manuals harms you, I won't take responsibility." Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Lu Zhiyuan began to understand. He was inexperienced after all.
A few altered lines in a technique manual could be impossible for an ordinary reader to detect. Changes at crucial points might cause cultivation deviation, a dangerous failure in training that could leave someone partially paralyzed.
The more advanced the technique, the greater the danger. Basic techniques, by contrast, used simple routes for circulating blood vitality. Even mistakes during practice would not cause much harm.
As a martial artist's cultivation advanced, problems in basic techniques also became easy to spot. Lu Zhiyuan was only at the Skin Tempering stage, but he had practiced several techniques to Perfected proficiency.
He had found no problems in these four manuals. Their techniques could all be practiced directly.
"How much for these four manuals?"
"Two silver taels each. How many do you want?"
"All of them." He placed eight silver taels on the stall.
Smiling, the stallholder took each manual's remaining half from behind him and handed them over. Lu Zhiyuan checked them, found no problems, and put the four manuals into the bag on his back.
"And give me a manual for a combat technique. Something more advanced," he added after some thought.
He wanted to test whether the panel could complete techniques found in incomplete or damaged manuals and make them available for practice.
The stallholder's brows twitched slightly. He searched the stall and handed over a manual. "Immortal Cloud Sword Art, the signature sword art of the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect."
"The Immortal Cloud Sword Sect?"
Lu Zhiyuan paused in surprise. The sect was famous, probably the dominant force across a region spanning roughly thousands of kilometers.
Powerful martial artists kept emerging from it. Countless people sought admission each year without ever getting the chance. The body's former owner had dreamed of joining, too, but died before realizing that ambition.
Lu Zhiyuan took the manual and browsed it, his brow alternately furrowing and relaxing. With Greenpeak Sword Art at Perfected proficiency, he could tell that the manual contained some profound principles of swordsmanship.
Most of it, however, was plausible-sounding nonsense. It looked as though someone had obtained a few sword techniques and, finding them incomplete, filled the gaps with personal interpretations and even fanciful ideas.
"How much?" he asked, looking up.
Lu Zhiyuan simply stared at him. That price for such a fabricated manual? He was being taken for a fool with money to burn.
The stallholder calmly met his gaze, refusing to yield. That was the price. What could he do about it?
Lu Zhiyuan nodded, put down the manual, and turned to leave. His money did not come from nowhere. He had only just gained a little breathing room and needed to spend carefully.
Spending so much simply to test the panel would make him a fool.
"Hey, don't go! Name a price!" the stallholder called behind him.
He stopped and considered. "Three silver taels!"
"Done!"
The man agreed immediately. As though afraid Lu Zhiyuan would change his mind, he promptly produced the other half of the manual and thrust both into his hands.
Lu Zhiyuan was speechless. Apparently, even three silver taels had been too high.
Still, he did not go back on his offer. He briefly examined the latter half of the manual and found that it did contain some principles of swordsmanship. Paying three silver taels for it was not a complete loss.
"Young hero, if you need anything else, come find me. I always set up here." Having made two sales in succession, the stallholder was in excellent spirits.
Lu Zhiyuan waved, packed away the manuals, and left.
He made a few more rounds of the black market and specifically asked about pill formulas. Apart from basic ones, however, there were no more advanced formulas for sale.
As the night deepened, he left without lingering further.
Back at his rented home, he took out the Water-Treading Art manual and studied it carefully.
An hour later, its entry finally appeared on the panel.
"Panel, simplify Water-Treading Art!"
"Simplifying Water-Treading Art... Simplification successful... Water-Treading Art → Walking!"