Cultivation is just so scientific!

Chapter 39 Purchasing

Li Shiming had about one hundred and ninety-two spirit stones that he could use, but he needed to save some for cultivation next month.

He approached a book stall with a sign that read ʼZhangʼ.

”You can only flip through one page here, turning an extra page means you have to buy it at its price!” Mr. Zhang, the stall owner, had seen Li Shimingʼs transaction with Mr. Liu and knew he was a potential customer. As soon as Li Shiming stopped at his stall, he immediately said.

Li Shiming picked up a book titled ”Light Body Technique” and flipped open the first page, which contained only an introduction to the ”Light Body Technique” and no substantial content.

The ʼLight Body Techniqueʼ was described as a general spell in the introduction on the first page.

Li Shiming did not know the specific meaning of a general spell, but since it was labeled as such, it likely meant that it was a spell that all cultivators could learn.

He placed the ʼLight Body Techniqueʼ to one side and browsed through a few other books, ”Fire Bomb Skill”, ”Object Driving Skill”, ”Voice Transmission Skill”, and ”Freezing Skill”.

”Mr. Zhang, how much for the ʼLight Body Techniqueʼ?” Li Shiming asked, pointing to the book beside him.

”All the secret texts here are ten spirit stones each!” replied Mr. Zhang gravely.

Li Shiming figured in his mind that none of the books were cultivation techniques, all were spellbooks, and if they were openly for sale, they wouldnʼt be any powerful spells.

Such books at a rate of ten spirit stones each, the equivalent of ten jin of Spirit Rice, were not that expensive for him.

But he knew very well that he couldnʼt show any sign of wealth; this was not the ordinary world, but the Cultivation World.

Both Fan Yiyang and Gu Jia had told him about the dangers of the Cultivation World, and he didnʼt want to draw attention and bring about his own demise.

”Five spirit stones per book, Iʼll take three!” Li Shiming bargained.

”Fellow, thatʼs not how you bargain. Twenty spirit stones for three books, I wouldnʼt sell them so cheaply if I hadnʼt had a poor start today!” Mr. Zhang seemed to reluctantly say.

Without haggling further, Li Shiming took out twenty spirit stones, placed them on the table, and left the stall with three books.

A smile instantly appeared on Mr. Zhangʼs face as he collected the spirit stones and quickly replaced the books with three others.

In truth, Li Shiming wanted to buy them all, but he did not want to seem too wealthy, so he only bought three.

For someone new like him, all five spells were useful.

He walked over to the area with temporary stalls, where the goods were extremely varied, containing all sorts of strange and exotic items.

There were also some books, but he didnʼt bother to look at them.

From his experience buying the secret texts, he could infer that the sellers would not let one flip through their books freely, making it impossible to judge the authenticity without seeing the content.

Li Shiming would rather trust a permanent stall rather than these temporary ones.

At the temporary stalls, he even saw people exchanging treasured objects drawn in mortal scripture for spirit stones, although he didnʼt know what kind of cultivators would use spirit stones to trade for those items.

”Hmm!” He was passing by a temporary stall when he slowed down at the sight of something next to the stall.

It was the root of a plant along with two branches that had been cut off and lay nearby.

What caught his attention were the faint traces of Spiritual Energy on the roots and the two branches; of course, most items in this market contained Spiritual Energy.

But plants with Spiritual Energy were Spirit Plants, so how could one appear here?

At the cut of the root, there were signs of having been burnt, and the two branches seemed to be burnt as well.

It was unclear whether the poor state of the root and branches was due to the length of time since they had been severed or some other reason.

”Fellow, how much for this?” Li Shiming bent down, pointing to the Spirit Plant root and the two branches as he asked.

”This was something I picked up, take it for five spirit stones!” said the stall owner, his face covered with a cloth, his voice muffled in response.

Five spirit stones wasnʼt expensive, if this spirit plant were intact, let alone five spirit stones, the price could likely be many times higher.

Li Shiming didnʼt know whether he could revive it or not, but five spirit stones was worth a try.

The stall owner probably thought the same, which was why he set the price at just the right level.

Li Shiming took out five spirit stones and collected the roots and two branches of the spirit plant.

Having reached the end of the market, he turned and quickened his pace, his purpose this time very clear, to head for the first stall at the entrance.

”Mr. Hao, how much for the talisman paper?” Li Shiming asked in a deep voice.

”A stack for ten spirit stones!” Mr. Hao, the stall owner, squinted his eyes, which now sparkled, his voice somewhat aged.

”Iʼll take two stacks and how much for this talisman pen?” Li Shiming didnʼt bargain as he had observed that many cultivators came to this stall to buy talisman paper and the transactions were very brief, indicating that the prices were fixed.

”The Red Rabbit Brush, made from the fur at the tail of a red-haired rabbit, thirty spirit stones!”

”I would like these talismanic ink materials, how much?” Li Shiming continued.

”Talismanic ink materials ten spirit stones!” Mr. Hao replied promptly.

Li Shiming took out the spirit stones and Mr. Hao pushed the items toward him; the deal was struck.

He turned and left the market right away, and as soon as he was out, he activated a ʼBasic Featherweight Talismanʼ and dashed away into the distance with force.

He didnʼt head straight back to Central Capital but chose a longer, circuitous route instead.

He was all ears and eyes, his senses fully open, as if all 190 CPUs of the large IBM z15 server were in full operation, constantly analyzing the information his senses brought him.

Suddenly, his forward charge shifted into a change of direction.

From the analysis of the large IBM z15 server, the way a bird had taken off from the forest ahead seemed suspicious.

Thereʼs a difference between a bird taking flight on its own and being startled into flying away, and the IBM z15 serverʼs database contained articles on this subject.

Given the way that bird took off, there was an eighty percent chance that there were people in the forest.

Moreover, this wasnʼt a regular path, and reaching this place without the aid of a ʼBasic Featherweight Talismanʼ would be difficult given the steep and rugged terrain.

The two figures in the forest watched Li Shiming change direction but showed no intention of pursuing.

They could tell that Li Shiming was just a newbie; although he tried to act experienced in the market, Li Shiming revealed too many flaws.

He seemed careful, but actually he had already caught the attention of quite a few cultivators.

First of all, he had a storage bag which was quite eye-catching.

He had always thought that every cultivator possessed a magic artifact like the storage bag, but he was unaware of the hardships of Loose Cultivators and never had real contact with them.

Second, it was his calm demeanor when passing stalls selling magic artifacts, a kind of disdain for the artifacts on display.

Experienced cultivators could immediately deduce that Li Shiming carried magic artifacts of better quality than those on the stalls.

Lastly, there was the way he spent his money. Although it was just a hundred spirit stones in total, his newbie behavior earlier was enough to make some cultivators throw caution to the wind.

Li Shiming thought about the map in his mind; there werenʼt many ways down from the market, and he needed to get down the mountain quickly. Once he left this place, he could run freely anywhere.