The Suspicious Old Man in the Shopping District Sold Me a Seemingly Unreliable Technique

The next day, Xie Jian went back to the capital to make sure that Lan Xiang got enough rest. Who knew what would happen if she continued to stay there?

Although he felt lonely, Lan Xiang was also relieved. He shouldn't use up any more days just sleeping! With! His fiancée!

With a sigh, he saw her off as she entered the airport terminal and waved goodbye.

Lan Xiang was now eating alone at his house. The food cooked by Xie Jian was infinitely tastier than the ones cooked by the maids in his house.

"I definitely need to employ a chef."

Well, it was just his wishful thinking, since he had no power to hire, fire, or replace any of these employees, only his parents did.

He looked at the system interface as he munched on his food.

[Technique Improvement System]

Techniques currently learned: 1

Tech points: 500

Please work hard to accumulate points!

When he saw the "1" on the techniques learned, he rejoiced in his head. The truth was when he pleaded to Xie Jian to glance at the technique for one second, he wasn't sure if the system would accept that. His gamble succeeded and now he had officially "stolen" the Xie family technique!

About the tech points, it seemed that he would get some every time he learned a technique. He still wasn't sure though, he needed to test more.

"Techniques learned."

A new window opened.

[Techniques]

Xie Family Technique, Celestial River Stream

Purple level technique (More details...)

Advance to next level: 5000 tech points

"What a domineering name!" Lan Xiang nodded in agreement. However, when he saw how much he needed to advance, he widened his eyes.

Calming himself down, Lan Xiang looked through the more detailed description of the technique.

Xie Family Technique, Celestial River Stream

Purple level technique

Average cultivation speed: Slow

Strength increase: High

Element: Water

Founder: Xie Tianping (1221 years ago)

Sell value: 1000 tech points

"Hmm. Average cultivation speed is slow, huh? That means for someone like me, a trash without talent, it would be super slow."

He looked away from the system, temporarily giving up on cultivating this technique. His talent was too low to use it, not to mention Xie Jian would notice if he did cultivate it.

"What if I sell it?"

All of a sudden, a prompt appeared.

Do you want to sell: Celestial River Stream?

1000 tech points (10% interest when buying back)

Yes/No

"Hm, I can buy it back? But with extra interest. No for now, I don't need tech points right now anyway."

He closed the system interface and took another stroll. This time, at the shopping district, Fanzhu Street.

Left and right, Lan Xiang could see all sorts of wares. There was a middle-aged uncle promoting a wooden sculpture to an oblivious couple, an old man napping while sitting down on the carpet full of old items, and young street orphans selling baskets of flowers to the crowds of people.

He browsed casually, glancing at the objects that the sellers tried to get rid of, ahem, sell to the passers-by.

"Hm, no book-like things here, there as well..."

Lan Xiang was troubled. Even in this place, he still wasn't able to find cultivation manuals. Why were they so rare?

As he sighed, an old man looked at him from a dark alleyway. "Psst, kid! Come here."

Lan Xiang got ready to bail.

"Kid, I'm selling exclusive rare cultivation manuals...!" The old man opened his jacket, exposing his nipples... and the countless books bound to the jacket!

Lan Xiang got curious.

"Whatever, it's my only choice anyway. There isn't any other that sells book thingies."

Resigned to his fate, he conversed with the old man in the dark alleyway.

The old man opened his mouth and smiled, exposing his teeth, some missing and some crooked, all of them yellow. He rubbed his hands all mysterious-like and giggled.

"Young man, I can tell, we are destined..."

While he was talking, Lan Xiang tried to grab one of the manuals. His hand was slapped by the old man!

"No touching the merchandise! Unless, ahem, you plan to buy it. Here, take a look."

The old man picked a random book that had its name scribbled out.

"This is, uh, the Ultimate Dao Technique! It can, uh, stimulate your senses!"

Lan Xiang's eyes glimmered. "Can I take a look inside?"

"No, this is dangerous stuff, you can only look inside if you buy it..."

Of course, the old man's thoughts said otherwise. "I can't let you take a look inside, what if you change your mind because of the fraudulent contents!?"

Lan Xiang looked at the old man with a deadpan expression, as if to say "I do not believe a single word you're saying."

Scratching his non-existent hair, the old man compromised. "...I guess you can-"

"I'll buy it, how much?"

"Ah? A, ahaha, I mean, it's only 5, wait, 1 dollar!"

Seeing the desperation of the old man, Lan Xiang guessed that his "secret manuals" weren't at all reliable. Still, on the off chance that the system accepted it, he took the risk and bought it.

The old man happily threw the book to Lan Xiang as soon as he received the money. "Hehehe, stupid kid. Picked up in the dumpster for free and sold it for a dollar!"

As he gloated in his success, he felt someone tapping his shoulder.

"What is it? Eh?"

The old man was confused. Lan Xiang wanted to buy all of his techniques! Of course, he sold them all! Who wouldn't miss the chance to scam a naive young kid!?

After glancing at them once, Lan Xiang threw them all in the dumpster right beside them and walked away, whistling happily.

Left behind was the thoroughly bewildered old man. "Did he... just take pity on me and pretended to buy my manuals?"

He was touched.

.....

Lan Xiang considered today a bountiful harvest.

[Technique Improvement System]

Techniques currently learned: 22

Tech points: 710

Please work hard to accumulate points!

Each of those techniques gave him 10 tech points! Though it wasn't as good as the 500 that the Xie Family Technique gave him, it was better than nothing!

Out of the more than 50 manuals that he bought from the old man, only 21 actually worked. Still though, the old man was the only source he had found thus far.

"So, let's take a look at these manuals, shall we?"

[Techniques]

Xie Family Technique, Celestial River Stream

Purple level technique (More details...)

Advance: 5000 tech points

Bodhisattva Manual

White level technique (More details...)

Advance: 10 tech points

Stretching Exercises

White level technique (More details...)

Advance: 10 tech points

The Bible

White level technique (More details...)

Advance: 10 tech points

How to Cultivate for Dummies

White level technique (More details...)

Advance: 10 tech points

(Show more...)

"..." Lan Xiang was speechless. These cultivation manuals sounded stupid as hell.