Chapter 24: Preparation - Part 2

Bone Heart Sword appeared nonchalant.

"I have a mission in a few days, just came to check on the Yang Tengsha."

"Yang Tengsha, we have it. If Master Zhuang wants it, our shop can get it even if we don't have it." Wu Niang quickly returned to the counter with a smile, took out a dark red small wooden box from below, and handed it to Bone Heart Sword with both hands.

At this time, a few more customers entered the shop, men and women, dressed differently.

One of them had clean features, slightly pale skin, and looked much like a typical delicate son of a wealthy family, with a faint scholarly aura.

This fellow was wearing a pale yellow Taoist robe, a white belt, and carrying an ordinary longsword. He looked no different from the other outer disciples around him.

This person was none other than Lin Xin, who had been at the market for half a day. He hadn't bought anything at the market. Instead, he strolled around and identified the most popular shop, which was this Jade Light Pharmacy. He then stood guard at the door for a good few hours.

He was observing. By watching how shop owner Wu Niang treated different customers, he could tell which customers were powerful, which were ordinary, and which had high or low status. He then memorized each of these formidable, high-status individuals.

No one in this place could be trusted. Malicious competition went unchecked, clearly a brutal survival of the fittest. So, he simply collected information honestly on his own.

Standing in front of a cubicle hanging jade pendants, Lin Xin casually picked up an oval jade pendant. The emerald-green jade felt icy cold, as if it had just been frozen in an icehouse.

The jade pendant was very simply made, with just a symbol hollowed out in the middle, looking like many incomprehensible characters overlapping each other.

"This is a Cold Heart Pendant. It can suppress inner demons for a short time. The runes on it can last for half an hour," said an old farmer-dressed middle-aged man in a low voice beside him.

"Cold Heart Pendant..." Lin Xin flipped it over to look at the back, which had a price written in red ink: ten.

"Ten pieces of Jade Money, are you interested in buying?" The old farmer glanced at Lin Xin and shook his head, "This is for missions, it's useless to you now. It only has a shelf life of fifteen days."

"Just taking a look," Lin Xin said with a smile, then pulled out a book from a bookshelf next to the jade pendants, flipping through it. It was filled with somewhat complex characters, slightly different from those of his homeland, Dayuan, with more strokes, but still understandable.

"I'm Huang Guizhi, everyone calls me Old Huang. You seem like a newbie who just got in?" The old farmer casually asked as he picked up a black copper coin and looked at it.

"Good observation. I'm Lin Xin," Lin Xin smiled.

"Lin Xin... As a newbie, have you joined any small groups?" Old Huang asked in a low voice.

"Small groups?"

"Here, all newcomers have their own groups. It's to avoid being bullied, or being less bullied, no, to be precise, anyone below one hundred has a group. Not only does it help with missions, but it also allows resisting oppression from stronger masters and exchanging cultivation insights," Old Huang revealed with a grin, showing yellow teeth. "I'm with the Spirit Beads Gang."

"Brother, could you tell me how many groups there are for newcomers?" Lin Xin took the opportunity to ask for information.

"There are four long-standing groups: our Spirit Beads Gang, established by the head of our Spirit Beads Gang, Yin Yang Gang, He Opera Gang, and lastly, Poison Gang. This place is neither too big nor too small," Old Huang answered casually.

"Long-standing?"

"Yeah, there are many small groups too, but they're quickly formed and quickly disbanded. Anyway, it won't be long before a bunch of people die."

"Mandatory monthly missions?" Lin Xin's heart chilled.

"Of course. The sect allows you the chance to learn the Supreme Great Dao, naturally, it won't come without a price," Old Huang said matter-of-factly as he continued looking for things.

He picked up another copper kettle, seemingly taking a liking to it.

"Wu Niang, I'll take this," he said as he walked towards Wu Niang, bidding Lin Xin farewell on the way.

"I'll be leaving, take your time."

"Yeah, brother, take care," Lin Xin nodded. He now understood why the people in the town were always in a hurry, with the deadly threat of the monthly missions looming over them, making it impossible for anyone to lead a slow and steady life.

Thinking of this, Lin Xin remembered his own special ability, which could form a skill successfully after one attempt, with a one hundred percent success rate. Such an ability was most suited for refining pills.

He searched for books on alchemy in the shelves.

'Alchemy Dao Basics,' 'Binding Dan Decision,' 'One Hundred and Eight External Pill Essentials,' 'Medicinal Solutions.' In total, four basic, thin booklets.

After some thought, Lin Xin took the 'Alchemy Dao Basics' booklet, flipped it over to check the price.

'Fifty-five'

"Hiss... fifty-five Jade Money... so expensive!" He gasped. He didn't have fifty-five pieces of Jade Money, let alone one piece. He only had Gold Leaves, about two hundred and some Silver Tael. He had already known the exchange rate from lurking outside the shop for so long.

One piece of Jade Money is worth one hundred Silver Tael, that's the exchange rate.

That meant all the Silver Tael he had was only enough to exchange for two pieces of Jade Money.

Lin Xin browsed through other books on elixirs, none of which were priced below thirty Jade Money.

After placing the books back, Lin Xin knew this method was not going to work.

"Aside from the field of elixirs, I could consider looking into Talisman or Formation," Lin Xin picked out the basics of Talisman drawing and Formation.

But none of the books were priced below thirty Jade Money, the lowest was thirty-five.

Sighing, Lin Xin could only start searching for the cheapest books available. Another man, who also seemed new and was startled by the prices, was browsing the shelves as well. They looked up and exchanged glances, both filled with helplessness.

"Don't flip through them if you can't afford them; these over here are what you can afford." Wu Niang, seemingly done dealing with the Bone Heart Sword, turned back and saw the two browsing. She pointed impatiently towards the corner of a bookshelf, where a pile of somewhat worn booklets were haphazardly stacked.

Lin Xin and the man walked over and squatted down, not angry, after all, they were indeed too poor.

Casually picking up a book, he noticed the label on the back: Clearance, one.

It meant one Jade Money.

He breathed a sigh of relief and began slowly flipping through the stack for the books he needed.

There were over thirty books, most of which were storybooks about bizarre tales, and a few were so blurry that the contents were indiscernible.

Lin Xin quickly found what he was looking for among them, a book called "The Growth Journey of an Alchemy Master" and four identical copies of "Detailed Analysis of Formation Tools."

Lin Xin set the former aside and started flipping through the latter, which had over thirty pages and quite a chaotic content. It was a record of how to apply formations to tools; the author seemed to have poor writing skills, often jumbling up the order of content. There was only one example of a formation with a complete production process described—it was the most basic formation that did not require the input of Spiritual Energy from the Qi Refinement Realm.

Lin Xin flipped through it, trying to remember some of the content, but even the simplest formation involved a complex original blueprint of a three-dimensional formation, very intricate in structure. Moreover, many complex processing techniques and precautions for materials were scattered throughout the book, and it was simply unrealistic to memorize them quickly.

"I have a high success rate; although this formation isn't very valuable, there's still some profit in converting materials into formations and making a margin," Lin Xin calculated in his mind. According to the book, formations usually have a low success rate, depending on materials and the individual's abilities.

Usually, including Formation Masters, they all pre-set formations using materials of a higher grade to increase the success rate. Given his high success rate, there would be a market for it.

"I'll take this book," Lin Xin stood up, handing the book to Wu Niang behind the counter.

Wu Niang didn't even take it, just waved her hand.

"One piece of Jade Money, newcomers can also settle with gold or silver."

Lin Xin pulled out a gold leaf worth a hundred Silver Tael from his waist pouch, carrying the book, he slowly left Yuguang Zhai. Looking back, the other newcomer was still carefully flipping through the books, seemingly planning to squat there and read for free.

Shaking his head, Lin Xin browsed the book, finding the section about the example formation.

He wanted to see just what kind of miraculous effects this legendary formation could produce.

'Minor Solar Yang Formation: Generates a small amount of Solar Yang Qi, slightly increases the temperature within the formation, useful for maintaining suitable plants. It can dispel Yin Evil Qi. The number of uses depends on the materials.'

"Solar Yang Energy?" Lin Xin shook his head slightly, this effect was too weak; the market value would probably be very low if he tried trading it.

However, right now, this was all he could afford.

Along the street, he used the remaining money to buy daily necessities, seasonings, rice, pots and pans for cooking, and even a bundle of firewood. Fortunately, the market was on the outskirts of the town, and where he lived was also on the outer edge, not far from the market.

After five trips, he managed to purchase all basic living necessities, including a bed, blankets, a water cup, and utensils, among others.

He also purchased materials for trying out the Minor Solar Yang Formation; since the formation itself was very basic and weak, the materials wouldn't be costly. Most were ordinary materials like stone powder, tree roots, live scorpions, etc., which Lin Xin could directly gather from the nearby woods.

After fully purchasing everything, Lin Xin prepared fifteen portions of the Minor Solar Yang Formation materials, each separately wrapped in paper.

The money on him was now reduced to just a few silver taels, and he was getting a bit hungry.

He took out the food bottle given to newcomers, opened the lid, and poured out a handful of brown grains resembling rice, popping them directly into his mouth to chew.

They tasted a bit like cocoa beans, a bit hard. After drinking some water, he swallowed them directly.

First, he settled everything like the bedding. The sky was gradually getting dark.

He shut the stone door, Lin Xin began his daily routine of practicing Internal Strength.

Small Return to Origin Technique slowly circulated within his body following his thoughts for over an hour, and his meridians started to feel some pain.

Strangely, just as the pain in his meridians appeared, it slowly subsided, as if something cool was seeping into the meridians, alleviating the friction damage they incurred.

Lin Xin's heart stirred, guessing that this must be the key to the accelerated Cultivation Practice inside the stone house.