Chapter 94: The Black Market

Bina didn't refuse. She also knew that I still had ten days left. Thus, we entered the stupa and instead of going towards Qin Mao's den, went to the hidden market there instead.

The building completely blocked the sunlight until we arrived at the arena. There was a tunnel from which we needed to go through to reach the entry/exit doors for the Azure Wind Arena.

The place was as lively as ever. Warriors fought and people betted. There were some new practitioners at the fighting ground, trying to make a name for themselves.

This arena gave rewards to whoever won 10 or 50 or 100 straight matches. A ''fighter,'' the term given to practitioners fighting at the ground, could choose to withdraw after winning 10 matches. He or she would get a small reward by doing so but if that fighter kept on going and won 50 straight matches, then the reward would be much bigger.

If that fighter lost even one match then no reward would be given, even if he/she had won ten matches earlier. This rule was set by Long Jung, the city protector himself. Until now, I learned from Bina, that no one had won 100 straight matches.

Only practitioners could participate so a Qi gathering cultivator sweeping the floor couldn't happen here. Cultivators had too high of status in this city and they had their own methods of competition, the methods lowly practitioners such as us were better off not knowing.

''So what is the reward for a century mark winning streak?'' I asked. That was the name for a hundred straight wins.

''The city protector would take him as a son-in-law if it's a man. If it's a woman, however, he would adopt her,'' Bina nonchalantly said. Her tone implied that such a feat was impossible and that Long Jung was only joking.

We had already entered the iron gates by then and were standing in a small lobby. Just behind that grey curtain to my left was the black market.

'Hmmm, so the city protector also has a daughter…' I thought. I had only known about his two sons until now, both were already senior trainees right after entering the Martial House.

I couldn't grasp one thing here. Wasn't First Sky Martial House run by a few Qi gathering cultivators? Why would the sons of an Essence Aggregation stage cultivator join such a place? It seemed that Martial House did more than just train the practitioners.

''Let's go.'' Bina motioned. I recognized one of the lackeys whom she had just talked with. He was going to inform Qin Mao that I was here, under the stupa.

I didn't care now. I had sufficient strength to run away from this place if Qin Mao decided to take care of me today. I hadn't just been chatting with Bina but was also making a mind map of this place internally. There were a few tricky routes from which I could slip away as long as I covered my face and didn't let that mafia boss's lackeys recognize me.

When we entered the black market, it was different from what I had imagined. I had thought that people would be secretive and mistrustful but it wasn't like that, well, it didn't seem at a glance.

Stalls lined up from one end of this underground hall till the other. The vendors were masked but that was it. They sold things openly.

''This is only for appearances. Leeches are hiding here.''

''I suppose.''

Our idle chit-chat started again. Bina had suddenly become a lot more talkative and I was honestly more than a little suspicious of her.

We both wore masks right after entering this hall. There was no sunlight underground so numerous torches burning with yellow fire were hung on the walls. These black and rough walls seemed old, it was unknown who or what had dug them.

I had a bit of money in my hand, about 20,000 gold kins. It wasn't a large sum here at Xuahour but it wasn't small either for a Viscera Purifying practitioner like me. Pailong pavilion had its own gold notes which practitioners could exchange for 1,000 gold kins.

The note was golden, of course, and had a simple design, a figure of two long wings printed on both surfaces. I had a hunch that these wings were of some demon beast.

''So what do they sell here?'' I asked, looking around.

''Everything that doesn't appear in normal markets,'' Bina replied.

''I know that. Give some examples.'' I walked toward a random stall and she followed.

''Slaves, body parts of rare beasts, items stolen from practitioners, forbidden pills, unknown recipes, inscribed items that use the powers of demon beasts, practice manuals for unorthodox methods to open meridians…''

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''Wait.'' That last part seemed interesting.

She added, ''They also sell secret cultivation techniques of various families but I don't think you have the money to even see those.''

Little did she know that those cultivation techniques were worthless to me as I had better techniques in my head. However, I didn't have much knowledge about unorthodox techniques. Those were practiced by demonic cultivators and Zuifan's memories only contained a few, which I was sure were only for reference purposes and not for training.

''What would you like to buy, dear customers?'' the stall owner came before us. He was at Body Tempering 9th rank.

''I have these eyeballs of an Urwar leopard. They sell pretty well you know…'' he rubbed his hands.

I wasn't interested and waved my hands. I told Bina to take me to a reliable seller first. This vendor had lower cultivation than us and it was common sense that he wouldn't be possessing anything rare.

Bina led me through the stalls and there was actually a staircase that led deeper down. Going there, we stopped before the first tent we saw.

Entering inside, I could see numerous body parts of various demon beasts hung on hangers or stands. A fat lady was sitting at the table. She had a violet and pink colored furry fan in her hand. Her face was painted with excessive makeup.

Seeing Bina, the woman kept sitting and playing with the bones of some unknown demon beast. She was at the 1st rank of Meridian Opening.

''Xoxo,'' Bina called, ''I've brought a customer for you.''

''Better not be another thief…'' Xoxo looked up. ''Hoo, this time it's a man… a boy actually.''

She stood up and put the bones back on the table. Scratching the table's surface with her long nails, polished pink, she asked, ''So what do you want, boy? Xoxo has everything, everything you want.'' She flapped the long coat she was wearing.

'So this is an underground trader… Why am I not surprised?' I eyed the woman. She seemed a bit crazy to me, though these types of people were mostly crazy.

''I want some bones, tusks, and hides of demon beasts to practice inscription.'' This wasn't for me but my sister and Ling'er. It was cheaper here so why waste money buying at legal markets?

I also asked for array patterns. Zuifan only knew about divine arrays, and he was a master of inscriptions instead. So he had little to no knowledge about what type of arrays lowly mortals used.

I was first considering improving my knowledge of inscriptions because that was what Zuifan knew and gaining his memories, I also was a quasi-master in inscribing. However, I had no experience in doing it myself, memories could only help so much.

In the end, I also bought some inscription materials for myself. Those came in boxes and this black market also had a delivery service to special customers. I was one such customer considering I already spent 5,000 gold kins on all these materials.

I also was a member of the Blood Fang mafia group and was discounted 1,000 gold kins on my purchase. Xoxo really had (almost) everything I needed in her shop.

''I don't recommend practicing this, but if you wanna take the risk, then here it is.'' She opened a black scroll. Written inside was a technique for Meridian Opening. The handwriting made me frown, it was similar to that of those doctors' on earth, almost illegible.

''Blood Thread Technique. The last part is unreadable but about 95% is there. I'm warning you, those who previously practiced this surely died after one or two years.''

That… made me retract my hand which was reaching for the scroll. The name was fancy, it looked mysterious and also had a killer background.

These types of techniques were what fictional cultivators used and normally it appeared to be written by a hidden master, which would make that cultivator beyond powerful in the future.

'Yeah, that ain't happening. I won't use this until I am absolutely sure.' I thought and picked up the scroll nevertheless. Being brave was one thing, being foolishly brave was another.

I knew my luck was simple and was only going to use this as a reference.. Courting death wasn't my hobby.

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