Longevity Martial Arts: Grinding Experience in the Chaotic World

Chapter 101: Chapter 91: Black Market Observations! Fishing Enforcement!

On the official road.

Gu Sheng’s figure sped swiftly, constantly keeping an eye on the mountain forests on either side. Although this wasn’t his first time venturing into the city alone, Gu Sheng maintained his usual caution, guarding against being ambushed by mountain bandits.

The Jade Skin Realm wasn’t invincible; being surrounded in an attack still posed certain dangers.

Fortunately, Gu Sheng’s perception skills exceeded those of ordinary martial artists in the Jade Skin Realm.

However, ordinary mountain bandits wouldn’t dare provoke Gu Sheng. At the very least, they’d need a leader in the Jade Skin Realm; otherwise, it would be futile. Gu Sheng actually somewhat hoped for less competent mountain bandits to show up, as it might bring him some extra income.

Thankfully, the journey remained uneventful and free of danger.

In just two hours, Gu Sheng arrived outside Canghe County’s city gates. Calming his aura, he followed protocol to queue up, pay the fee, and obtain a road pass, successfully entering the city.

It was now the second year of the Guangxing era.

Since Liu Yuanhu took over as acting county magistrate, he stirred up quite a commotion. In essence, he ceded some benefits, allowing the common folk at the bottom to live slightly more comfortably. The faces of the people traversing the city streets were visibly better than before.

Gu Sheng navigated with ease.

Not accompanying Gu’s Manor into the city, he had to find accommodations on his own. He casually chose a small inn to settle, then carried tiger skins, tiger bones, and other goods for sale to the households he’d previously established connections with.

Gu Sheng’s skins were always of excellent quality. After setting up stalls in the market a few times, he forged connections with several buyers who expressed willingness to purchase his skins at high prices.

Nonetheless, Gu Sheng was habitually cautious.

This time, the goods held significant value, worth at least sixty taels of silver. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he divided the tiger skins, tiger bones, tiger penis, and other items among several buyers, mostly choosing affluent households to deter greed.

Even so.

Gu Sheng still sensed that the stewards of two households had a somewhat peculiar gaze when looking at him.

Splitting the sales across multiple buyers; even twenty taels or so was no small fortune.

Gu Sheng silently made a mental note and returned to the inn.

He began tallying the silver he’d brought this time.

Apart from some jewelry and accessories buried in the courtyard at home, he’d brought half of his ready cash. Added to the income from this sale, he now had roughly one hundred and twenty taels of silver!

Blood Nourishing Powder wasn’t cheap; each portion cost five taels of silver. While this amount seemed substantial, it was only enough to purchase about twenty portions.

Moreover, Gu Sheng also needed custom-made arrows and weapons.

If he encountered suitable body refining martial arts, those would require funds as well.

Reflecting on this, Gu Sheng immediately felt that he was still quite poor.

”Martial arts truly are bottomless money pits!”

”If measured in silver, even with talent, attaining Refining Skin Realm requires an expenditure of at least a hundred taels of silver. Blood Refining Realm demands at least a thousand taels, perhaps even more.”

Gu Sheng couldn’t help but click his tongue in awe at the expenses of ordinary martial artists.

Daily nourishment with meat, the consumption of various ointments and powders—such costs flowed steadily like a bottomless pit. Gu Sheng was fortunate that he didn’t need additional resources to overcome bottlenecks; for others, the cost of breaking through realms was even more staggering.

Solely in this aspect, Gu Sheng spent sixty percent less, possibly even far less, than others.

Based on the rumors Gu Sheng gathered on the black market, take Blood Refining Realm, for example:

Blood Nourishing Powder only required five taels of silver per portion.

But a Blood Strengthening Pill, used to bolster vitality and increase the chance of breaking through bottlenecks, cost a whopping five hundred taels of silver per pill.

And it wasn’t even readily available—regarded as priceless. Such pills were rarely seen in the market, typically made from self-provided materials by high-caliber Pill Masters like Ge Qing.

Gu Sheng calculated silently in his heart.

He felt it was time to search for new methods of resource acquisition. Otherwise, after achieving Blood Refining Realm, his hunting efforts couldn’t sustain the cultivation expenses. Even now, he was already struggling to make ends meet, as hunting tigers was entirely dependent on luck.

Time slowly passed.

Nightfall came.

Using Shapeshifting, Gu Sheng altered his appearance, shrunk his figure, donned black nightwear, and rushed toward the black market.

The black market recognized wooden tokens, not individuals. Showing his black market token, Gu Sheng successfully entered the familiar black market.

Under the dim torchlight, various masked individuals sat selling their goods at stalls.

Nearby patrolling martial artists maintained order; no one dared cause trouble.

This was Gu Sheng’s third visit to the black market.

Last time, he came to prepare for killing Li Yu, purchasing knockout smoke from here.

Having visited a few times, Gu Sheng became much more familiar, unlike his first visit when everything felt foreign.

”Don’t miss out, folks passing by! Bedroom techniques! Exquisite bedroom techniques! Make you a groom every night!”

”Body Refining Ointment! Check out the Body Refining Ointment!”

”Family-legacy divine skill, Shapeshifting! A must-have for roaming the Jianghu, letting you easily change appearances. Upon mastering its advanced realm, it can even strengthen tendons and bones, offering outstanding benefits for Bone Refining!”

Gu Sheng suddenly halted.

He heard a familiar sales pitch. The vendor he’d encountered before during his last visit wasn’t here, but he hadn’t expected to see this stall again.

The figure was much shorter than average, and the voice differed from the last time Gu Sheng encountered him.

But Gu Sheng was convinced that this individual was the same person who sold him Shapeshifting previously.

”This guy’s mastery of Shapeshifting must have reached the Great Achievement Realm; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to shrink their body like this.”

He quietly observed from a distance. Unsurprisingly, after a while, a novice eventually fell for the ruse, stopping in front of the stall to haggle prices.

Shaking his head.

Gu Sheng spotted a familiar figure sitting down at a stall. One by one, the vendor laid out weapons without much advertising, merely sitting there. On all three visits, Gu Sheng had seen him at that exact spot, and he’d even watched others approaching him to commission weapons, making the vendor relatively trustworthy.