Chen Yue walked to a relatively spacious corner where a few scattered stalls were set up, selling a motley assortment of goods.
Ancient, mud-caked weapons, pungent-smelling jars and bottles, and even cages covered in black cloth that occasionally squirmed...
Chen Yue stopped before a stall displaying various old books and scrolls of silk and brocade. The owner was a skinny old man, shrunken in the shadows with his hands tucked in his sleeves, his eyelids drooping as if he were asleep.
Chen Yue crouched down, his gaze sweeping over the books.
Most of the covers were damaged, the writing blurred. Their titles were impressive, but it was hard to tell if they were genuine.
"Do you have any Body Technique Secret Manuals?" Chen Yue asked, lowering his voice.
The stall owner lifted his eyelids slightly. His murky eyes swept over Chen Yue before he slowly rummaged through a worn-out burlap sack behind him, pulled out a thin booklet, and tossed it in front of Chen Yue.
Chen Yue picked it up. The paper felt coarse, and the cover read Cao Shangfei. He quickly flipped through a few pages. Inside were simple humanoid diagrams accompanied by rudimentary techniques for breathing, raising Qi, and jumping. Its quality was roughly equivalent to the Iron Mountain Fist, making it a very basic Body Technique.
"How much?" Chen Yue asked.
"Ten taels," the stall owner said, not even lifting his eyelids as he named a price.
Without another word, Chen Yue stood up and started to walk away.
"Hey, wait up!"
The stall owner seemed to wake up then, calling out hastily, "Business is all about haggling! The price is negotiable, very negotiable!"
Chen Yue stopped, turned around, and looked at the stall owner from under his conical hat. "I want all the Body Technique Secret Manuals you have at your stall. Give me a total price."
The stall owner paused, sizing Chen Yue up suspiciously. "Customer, don’t bite off more than you can chew. Different Body Technique Secret Manuals follow different paths. Mixing them up will do more harm than good."
"I have my own plans," Chen Yue said, his voice flat.
Seeing Chen Yue’s insistence, the stall owner didn’t press the matter. He rummaged in his burlap sack again and pulled out four more equally crude booklets, placing them with the Cao Shangfei manual.
"Here, these five. Cao Shangfei, Stepping on Water Plants to Cross the River, Eight Steps Chasing Cicada, Raccoon Cat Step, and Night Traveling Skill. They’re all basic stuff, but the methods are sound, not just made-up nonsense. If you want them all... I’ll give them to you for ten taels!"
Chen Yue picked up the other four booklets and flipped through them quickly. As expected, they were all the most basic of Body Techniques, each with a different focus but all similar in quality to Cao Shangfei.
’If I can fuse the essence of these five basic Body Techniques, each with its own focus, taking their strengths and compensating for their weaknesses, I might be able to create an even stronger Body Technique.’
"One tael," Chen Yue countered, cutting the price down to the bone.
The stall owner’s eyelid twitched violently, then he slapped his thigh. "Deal!"
Chen Yue: "..."
Chen Yue suddenly felt he might have still offered too much. The prices in this black market were indeed absurdly inflated. Still, getting five basic Secret Manuals for one tael of silver wasn’t a loss for him.
After paying and stowing the five booklets, Chen Yue asked, "Do you have any Saber Technique Manuals?"
A smile appeared on the stall owner’s face. Without wasting words, he took six saber technique booklets of varying thickness from a wooden box and handed them to Chen Yue. "All basic moves and explanations, common stuff. I won’t rip you off this time. Six of them, take ’em for half a tael of silver."
Chen Yue took them and glanced through them. They were indeed all the most basic saber technique routines with straightforward explanations. He nodded, paid the half a tael of silver, and put away the six Saber Technique Manuals as well.
After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Yue said, "Do you have... any higher-level Cultivation Technique Manuals?"
The stall owner looked up, studying Chen Yue intently for a few moments, then suddenly let out a low, sly chuckle, revealing several yellowed teeth.
"Customer, now you’re getting interesting. If you were an ordinary person with no Cultivation, this old man here has a few family-heirloom Divine Skills to sell you. But while the Qi Blood in your body is faint, it can’t escape these old eyes of mine. That sort of deceptive junk won’t fool you."
He paused, then casually pulled out a booklet and tossed it to Chen Yue.
"This is the Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield. You definitely won’t be able to master it, but it has some ideas on Body Forging. Think of it as a bonus, something to read for fun."
Chen Yue took the Tiger Roar Golden Bell Shield manual and flipped through it. Just as the stall owner had said, the content was incomplete, and the incantations were incoherent, making it seem more like something haphazardly pieced together.
However, some of the conditioning techniques it described for vibrating Qi Blood and stimulating the muscles, bones, and membranes were quite novel and different from the methods of his Mountain Shattering Technique.
"Thanks." Chen Yue put away the "bonus" manual, and without lingering, quickly left the black market.
Returning to the Alchemy Room in the pharmacy, Chen Yue bolted the door and eagerly lit an oil lamp.
He first looked at the five Body Techniques: Cao Shangfei’s Vertical Jump and Qi Raising, Stepping on Water Plants to Cross the River’s Light Body Leverage, Eight Steps Chasing Cicada’s Continuous Step Technique, Raccoon Cat Step’s Stealthy Light Spirit, and Night Traveling Skill’s Night Sensing...
Each had a different focus, but their fundamental principles were the same: mobilizing Qi Blood and coordinating it with breathing and muscle exertion to achieve faster, lighter, and more agile movement.
Chen Yue read extremely quickly. By combining the information with his control over Qi Blood from having achieved Great Success in the Mountain Shattering Technique, many of the rudimentary key points became instantly clear to him.
As the hour slid toward midnight, the familiar ripples appeared right on time.
[Daily Settlement]
[Diligently practiced Mountain Shattering Technique, Cultivation +15]
[Diligently refined Solid Essence Pill, Solid Essence Pill EXP +50]
[Diligently studied Secret Manuals, Cao Shangfei EXP +1, Stepping on Water Plants to Cross the River EXP +1, Eight Steps Chasing Cicada EXP +1, Raccoon Cat Step EXP +1, Night Traveling Skill EXP +1]
[Skill: Light Body Technique (Entry Level 1/100)]
[Skill: Vertical Leaping Skill (Entry Level 1/100)]
[Skill: Shifting Technique (Entry Level 1/100)]
[Skill: Shallow Grass Step (Entry Level 1/100)]
[Skill: Swift Walking Technique (Entry Level 1/100)]
The five newly acquired Body Technique Secret Manuals had all reached Entry Level and appeared in his skill list after just one night of diligent study and comprehension.
The next day, Chen Yue rose at the crack of dawn. After completing his morning cultivation and taking a Solid Essence Pill, he immediately began his daily task of refining twenty Blood Circulation Pills, which he finished before noon.
In the afternoon, he went to a relatively spacious corner of the small courtyard and began to practice the five Body Techniques he had just learned.
Instead of practicing them one by one in a step-by-step manner, Chen Yue constantly replayed the different focuses and power-exertion techniques of the five Body Techniques in his mind, attempting to fuse them together in his movements.
It was a good idea in theory, but the execution was a complete mess.
All five Body Techniques were only at Entry Level. His understanding was still shallow, and he had no muscle memory. The result of forcing them to fuse was that his movements became extremely strange and awkward, even conflicting with one another.
But Chen Yue’s eyes were focused. He showed no sign of discouragement, simply trying, adjusting, failing, and trying again, over and over...
As Chen Yue’s Qi Blood roiled, a cold, sinister throbbing came from the black spot on his chest.
At midnight, all was silent. Chen Yue sat cross-legged on his bed, his Heart Spirit calm, awaiting the routine daily settlement.
[Daily Settlement]
[Diligently practiced Mountain Shattering Technique, Cultivation +15]
[Diligently attempted to fuse Body Techniques, fusion successful, obtained new Body Technique: Wind Chasing Technique]
[Realm: Skin Refining Realm (300/300)]
Wind Chasing Technique!
The fusion was a success!
Before the joy could fully set in, Chen Yue’s attention was drawn to the [Realm] section. The experience bar for the Skin Refining Realm was full!
BUZZ!
It was as if something inside his body had been instantly ignited!