Sky Leaf Market

When Zhao Lung woke up, it was already dark and his body was cold. He was probably unconscious here for a good fours hours.

Zhao Lung tried to pull himself up, but the throbbing pain threatened to make him unconscious again, so he decided to rest.

When he tried to remember what happened, he discovered another set of memories alongside his.

Zhao Lung frowned as he looked over the set of memories, it looked like he was a businessman in his previous life possessing great wealth. He had made many deals and knew a lot of people, not all good. He had tricked people out of their money and had done a lot of shady things, but in the end, he had climbed to the top. The last memory he could remember is a loud sound like a horn, and something smashing against his body cracking all his bones.

Zhao Lung knew how terrifying the cold is at night, so he decided to look over the memories later when he recovered and got a full night's sleep.

Sky Feather Village may seem like a hot place, but during the night, the temperatures drop in half the time it takes to make tea.

Zhao Lung slowly got on his feet, in a breath's time he already began walking slowly towards the general direction of his home.

After some time Zhao Lung entered his cramped room, feeling the drowsiness and pain wash over him he collapsed on his small bed and fell asleep.

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Next day near the academy's exit

Zhao Lung walked hurriedly toward his home with an excited grin on his face, he only now realized the tremendous gift bestowed upon him and wanted to try it out.

After eating lunch, Zhao Lung went straight to the practice field and immersed himself in his memories. He scanned his mind and a book suddenly appeared, he willed it to open and saw the first page.

"Godly Thought Twist stage 1, in this stage the user learns the ability to use his mental energy to peer into another's thoughts and change them. The more severe the change in the thought the more mental energy required. This technique can pair with illusion dao qi to increase efficiency and decrease the use of mental energy."

After reading the introduction, Zhao Lung was amazed.

"Dao qi? Isn't this from the 3rd realm of cultivation, Mystic Realm?"

Zhao Lung had learned about different cultivation realms in school. The first one was the Consolidation Realm which aimed to build up the body and foundation to increase the storage of qi later on, the second one was the Warrior Realm when one gathers qi into their body to act as the fuel which is used to increase the force behind one's movement's and battle techniques, and then came the Mystic realm which turned the qi into dao qi, which held the power of the dao the user was practicing, and illusion dao qi was one of the daos.

A small frown appeared on Zhao Lung's face. So even though it is just the first stage of the technique, he needed to reach the third realm to use it to the fullest potential. It would take Zhao Lung years or even decades at the rate he was cultivating at to reach the Mystic realm, and this was just the first stage.

Zhao Lung comprehended the book planted in his mind, and after nearly three hours, he searched in the grass, until he found for what he was looking for, a small lizard. Zhao Lung grabbed the lizard and placed it on a rock after which he set his bag on it so it couldn't escape.

Zhao Lung slowly gathered and concentrated his mental energy, and forwarded it to the lizard. The lizard which was scrambling furiously, trying to overcome the large weight, suddenly stopped.

"Success!" Zhao Lung's face turned into a grin and he finally understood how useful this technique was. He followed the book's writings and soon got into the lizard's thoughts, after which he found a thought "ESCAPE!" which he tweaked slightly and in a breath's time, the lizard stopped its escape attempts.

Zhao Lung took off the bag and used the technique again, the lizard which was about to run away instead started running around him in circles. Zhao Lung's face grew slightly tired as he was still inefficient at using this technique. The lizard soon realized its thought was wrong and ran away.

Zhao Lung realized something and started running towards his home. In his room, he found his small bottle filled with 60 copper coins, his life's savings. He took out the money and ran out of the house. Zhao Lung hurriedly walked into the main part of the village, the Sky Leaf Market.

The Sky Leaf Market was filled with stands, which had people selling all kinds of things, groceries, weapons, battle techniques, precious herbs, and much more. The small street was crowded with people, going from stand to stand, the noise of people's conversations filled Zhao Lung's ears.

Zhao Lung having been here many times before, walked up to a stand decorated with red stripes selling battle techniques. This stand was where he got his "Feather Steps" technique and filled him with memories of excitement. Zhao Lung walked up to the merchant and asked him for any of the fist battle techniques he had.

Zhao Lung was very fast, but speed was nothing without strength, he desperately needed a fist battle technique to complement his speed, in order to deliver a decisive strike to end the fight. Surely if he could get his hands on a fist technique, as long as he worked hard, he had a chance to make the top 80 to become an inner disciple.

"Sure, I have 3 fist battle techniques at the moment, The Molten Iron Fist which is a passive technique focuses on making your hands as hard and hot as molten iron, The Dragon's Fury Fists which is an active technique focuses on delivering fast strikes as strong as a dragon's fury, and finally The Howling Wind Fist which is also an active technique focusing on delivering strikes with explosive strength but puts a lot of stress on the body of the user so it's only suitable for strong single attacks to finish off the enemy." The merchant looked expectantly at Zhao Lung.

Zhao Lung thought for a moment, he needed explosive attacks to complement his speed so he chose The Howling Wind Fist.

"How much does The Howling Wind Fist cost?" Zhao Lung eyed the manual of The Howling Wind Fist lying on the table in front of the merchant.

"Oh, The Howling Wind Fists cost 1 silver, but since it's on sale, I can offer you, 80 copper" The merchant picked up the other two manuals from the table, and placed them out of sight.

Zhao Lung knew even using all of his life savings only added up to 60 copper, so he decided to use the hard method. Zhao Lung concentrated on the merchant and saw the thoughts in his head. He quickly changed the 80 copper to 50 copper, as he knew the less original the thought was the more mental energy it would use.

"How about I give you 50 copper for it?" Zhao Lung's mouth showed a hint of a smile.

"Well of course! That's what I said the first time." The merchant looked weirdly toward the youth, having said the price the first time, why would he try to barter it for the same price?

Zhao Lung laughed in his heart as he passed over 50 copper, took the fist technique and left. A tired expression grew on Zhao Lung's face as he suddenly felt the urge to sleep. He hurried home, put the remaining 10 copper and the newly bought book under his bed, and fell asleep.

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In the red-striped stand, a middle-aged merchant suddenly remembered something, the book he had sold to the blond youth a few hours ago, cost 80 copper, but he had forgotten the price and asked for 50 copper instead. The merchant cursed at himself for having such a lousy memory considering his age, and thought no more of it.

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Zhao Lung woke up a few hours later when the sun was still shining. He remembered how he had used the technique on the merchant and realized that just changing the number a little caused him to fall asleep for a few hours, proving it to be much harder to use on humans, but nevertheless, he had gotten a new battle technique and saved a half year's worth of effort.

Zhao Lung realized he could still use some of his money to make money, so he hurried over to the market again. When he was there he wondered for a moment at what he could buy to maximize the profit.

He walked towards a blue-striped stand and asked the potion merchant for all the potions costing 10 copper. The merchant looked at Zhao Lung as though he looked at a beggar, and took out several potions. After Zhao Lung picked the potion, Body Consolidation Potion, that was 20 copper but was on sale for 10 copper. The potion master explained that the Body Consolidation Potion was a potion that focused on improving the body of a person in the Consolidation Realm and his cultivation speed.

Zhao Lung walked out and walked to another stand. He offered the potion master his recently bought potion. Zhao Lung started concentrating on the man's thoughts but when he realized that the potion master's cultivation was at Warrior Realm, he instantly stopped his attempt. Zhao Lung knew that the mind grew along with the body, so someone at the Warrior Realm had a mind twice as tough as the Consolidation Realm.

"This potion is only useful for Consolidation Realms so I will buy it for 10 copper from you." The man looked at the potion in Zhao Lung's hands as though it was dirt. Without being able to use his ability, it was a waste, so Zhao Lung denied the man's offer and left.