Chapter 27: My Brother Wang Never Licks Toxic Blades

For the sake of the Great Dao, Luo Chen decided to indulge in a bit of luxury!

Inside the Spirit Medicine Pavilion, amidst the smiles of the counter maids, Luo Chen painfully withdrew five hundred low-grade spirit stones.

"Five bottles of Qi-Nurturing Pills. We look forward to your next visit!"

Of the one thousand one hundred spirit stones he had just acquired, nearly half vanished in an instant.

Anyone would feel the sting.

However, Luo Chen knew deep down that at this stage, this expenditure was mandatory.

Logically, he should have invested his spirit stones into expanding the business of the "All-Wonder Pills" to rapidly increase his proficiency and generate massive net profits.

Only by doing so could he escape his current predicament and walk toward a sustainable path of cultivation.

But the external environment had changed!

He had killed two cultivators in succession and looted the legacies of three corpses.

The cultivator surnamed Gao, in particular, had such a vast fortune that he might have had a significant background.

If someone came knocking, disregarding the regulations issued by the Jade Tripod Sect in Dahe Market, and attempted to kill him by force—how could he resist with his current strength at the fourth layer of Qi Refinement?

The Soul-Breaking Nail was indeed powerful, but it was not invincible.

Wang Yuan had once managed to escape calmly after being struck by a nail, only to turn around and kill two people.

Even if Luo Chen hadn't killed that third short-lived fool back then, Wang Yuan certainly could have cut him down with his blade.

Wang Yuan was only at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement; there were many far stronger than him.

Therefore, Luo Chen could not rely on luck.

Moving into the Inner City was one solution.

Rapidly increasing his cultivation realm was another.

After experiencing the effects of the Qi-Nurturing Pills last time, Luo Chen knew that he was likely destined to rely on pills for his cultivation for the rest of his life.

He had tested it last night; the combination of his Perfect-grade Eternal Spring Art and a first-tier spiritual vein did not bring him to the point of a qualitative change.

To achieve a qualitative change, one had to accumulate progress slowly over time.

Time?

With only seventy-five years of lifespan remaining, time was exactly what Luo Chen lacked!

Thus, taking pills was a necessity; he had no choice!

After carefully storing the five bottles of Qi-Nurturing Pills into his storage bag, Luo Chen’s footsteps faltered slightly.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and headed toward the Spirit Source Pavilion.

It was a good thing he was a cultivator; if he were a mortal, his teeth would have been crushed from gritting them every time he had to shell out spirit stones.

The Spirit Source Pavilion was a shop opened by the Five Elements Divine Sect—one of the six great upper sects of the Far East—in Dahe Market.

The Five Elements Divine Sect was world-renowned for its elemental spells, and most experts within the sect possessed an extremely exquisite mastery of one particular elemental art.

Among cultivators whose combat focused primarily on magic treasures and talismans, this was considered quite unique.

Rather than combat, the Five Elements Divine Sect preferred applying elemental spells to production.

Their cultivation of various spiritual plants could be called the pinnacle of the Six Domains.

Even the Medicine King Sect, which was also skilled in spiritual plant cultivation, could only slightly surpass the Five Elements Divine Sect in the specific field of medicinal herbs.

Beyond that, the Five Elements Divine Sect had almost no rivals.

To put it simply, the most common spiritual rice in the entire cultivation world of the Six Domains was basically produced by the Five Elements Divine Sect.

Although other sects cultivated spiritual grains in their own private lands to varying degrees, for some reason, their spiritual rice was far inferior to that of the Five Elements Divine Sect in terms of both taste and spiritual energy content.

One could only say that in the field of spiritual plant cultivation, the Five Elements Divine Sect's competitiveness overwhelmed the Six Domains.

Upon entering the Spirit Source Pavilion, Luo Chen first spent one spirit stone to buy ten catties of spiritual rice, then walked up to the counter.

"May I see the spell catalog?"

The beautiful young clerk's eyes lit up, and she briskly produced a book.

"Which kind of spell is the guest looking to purchase?"

"Mid-stage Qi Refinement? Have you learned all the essential spells? If not, I highly recommend this set of spells; it's only five mid-grade spirit stones."

Luo Chen's eyes twitched.

Five pieces... five hundred!

"These all contain personal annotations from the masters of our Five Elements Divine Sect, guaranteeing a rapid start for you."

"If you have already learned them all, you might consider the improved elemental spells of our sect. For example, this Fire Bird Spell, an evolution of the Fireball Spell! It consumes the same amount of spiritual energy but is much more versatile. When you're short on spirit stones, you can even set off fire bird fireworks for people to earn some pocket money."

"This one is also quite good; the Water-type Small Cloud-Rain Spell is very suitable for watering flowers!"

"The price? It is naturally high quality and low cost—only three mid-grade spirit stones!"

Luo Chen left the Spirit Source Pavilion in a daze.

Spells?

He didn't buy a single one!

They were simply too expensive. A Fire Bird Spell evolved from a Fireball Spell dared to ask for three mid-grade spirit stones—that was three hundred low-grade spirit stones!

He wasn't crazy enough to spend money on that.

As for the few spells he truly wanted, their prices left his brain oxygen-deprived.

It was all because he was poor!

The Five Elements Divine Sect was famous for its elemental spells, but they also had deep knowledge of other types of magic.

Consequently, every Spirit Source Pavilion sold various spells.

They might all be common low-level spells, but after being annotated by the masters of the Five Elements Divine Sect, they were very easy for cultivators to master.

If they were improved spells, they were even more formidable.

That was why Luo Chen had wanted to take a look.

However, the prices had deterred him.

"It seems I can only go to the rogue cultivator market to scavenge for those 'three-no' spells."

No sect endorsement, no master's annotations, and no after-sales guarantee.

Arriving at the rogue cultivator market in the south of the city, the flow of people was sparse and the atmosphere somewhat desolate.

A large market had just concluded, and the small market wouldn't open for another three days.

With the mindset of "might as well try my luck," Luo Chen began wandering through the market.

However, after a full circuit, he was somewhat disappointed.

It wasn't a small market or a large market; the stallholders were all long-term vendors selling goods with stable production.

Things like cultivation techniques and spells were definitely not "stable production" items.

They all had to be produced by those who lived by the edge of a blade.

"Licking the edge of a blade every day... aren't they afraid the blade is poisoned? I haven't seen a single one today. Did they all get poisoned to death?"

Luo Chen cursed irritably and prepared to leave.

However, as he was exiting the market, he ran into an acquaintance.

Seeing him, Luo Chen's heart blossomed with joy, and his pulse raced like a startled deer.

"Brother Wang! My brother!"

As expected, my Brother Wang never licks poisoned blades!

Wang Yuan glanced at him and walked toward his own stall.

Luo Chen scurried after him like a little follower.

What did he mean "like a little follower"? He, Luo Chen, was protected by Brother Wang, that's what!

A piece of gray cloth was spread on the ground, and with a wave of Wang Yuan's hand, a dense pile of items appeared on the cloth.

Various blood-stained magic tools, all sorts of books and bamboo slips, and even a single yellowed jade slip.

Looking at this pile of items, the thick scent of blood made Luo Chen's eyelids twitch.

"Brother Wang, you've had quite a harvest lately!"

The corner of Wang Yuan's mouth twitched. "Not all of it is mine."

Luo Chen had inquired before; Wang Yuan indeed didn't just engage in killing and looting or village skirmishes.

He had a legitimate job.

That was handling "dirty goods" of unknown origin for the Broken Mountain Gang, from which he could collect significant profits.

Therefore, Luo Chen saw Wang Yuan at every market, regardless of size.

It was a very promising job.

"Has there been no fighting outside lately?"

How could the battles between cultivators be called "fighting"!

Wang Yuan's eyelids drooped. "It's stopped. It'll start again in a few days."

Gang skirmishes followed such rules?

Luo Chen was a bit stunned.

But it was a good thing; otherwise, how would Wang Yuan have the time to set up a stall?