Chapter 14: The Black Market

There was a black market in Pingyin County, which Chen Fei only learned about through Zeng Defang. He heard that the previous location had been not far from the northern wall of Pingyin County.

Now, due to the influx of refugees, the black market had opened directly within the county.

Chen Fei suspected that this black market must have official backing; otherwise, how could the county magistrate's office allow it to operate so brazenly?

Under the cover of night, Chen Fei wore a bamboo hat and a mask to conceal his face as he entered the black market.

Contrary to his expectations of something secretive and furtive, this so-called black market appeared quite lively. Aside from the lack of street hawkers, it was not much different from the night markets within Pingyin County.

Chen Fei wandered through the market, observing the surroundings. The items displayed at the stalls were strange and peculiar; many were things Chen Fei had never seen, or had even never heard of.

Whenever he encountered such items, Chen Fei would silently stand in the background, listening to the conversations of others to glean information.

To his surprise, by simply eavesdropping, Chen Fei actually obtained a considerable amount of useful intelligence.

As he walked and looked around, Chen Fei stopped in front of a stall. Many secret manuals were displayed there, but strangely, very few people lingered.

"You may browse freely, but these manuals are only partial versions. If you find one you like, we will discuss the price. At that time, I will naturally produce the complete manual," the stall owner said with a smile, glancing at the deerhide gloves on Chen Fei's hands as he noticed him stopping.

"Do you have any movement technique manuals?" Chen Fei asked directly without reaching out to touch them.

After thinking it over yesterday, Chen Fei realized that although he lacked both cultivation and techniques, what he lacked most acutely was movement techniques. If one possessed a good movement technique, the first choice when encountering danger would actually be to run.

As long as one could run fast enough, even if their cultivation realm was inferior to others, the probability of preserving one's life remained quite high.

"Of course I do. Young hero, take a look at these few," the stall owner said, rummaging through his stock and picking out several manuals to place before Chen Fei.

*Water-Dotting Skill, Swallow-Pressing Branch, Green Grass Crossing, and Wave-Treading.*

Chen Fei picked one up at random and flipped through it. After a moment, he put it down and picked up another.

In less than fifteen minutes, Chen Fei had finished reading all four manuals, his expression thoughtful.

"These are all basic lightness techniques. Do you have anything better?" Chen Fei asked after a moment of contemplation.

"I certainly do, but even if I dare to give them to you, do you dare to practice them?"

The stall owner looked at Chen Fei with a half-smile. "Aside from basic manuals, I naturally have better ones here, but as for whether they contain flaws or omissions, I cannot say. If something goes wrong because you practiced a manual I provided, I will not take responsibility."

Chen Fei had a moment of realization; ultimately, his experience was still too shallow.

With things like cultivation manuals, changing just a few sentences could go unnoticed by an ordinary person. If changes were made in critical places, the practitioner might even suffer from cultivation deviation, potentially resulting in something as common as paralysis.

The more profound the technique, the more likely this was to happen. Conversely, basic techniques had simpler pathways for circulating Qi and blood; even if practiced incorrectly, they wouldn't cause major issues.

Furthermore, as a martial artist's cultivation increased, any actual problems within basic techniques would become obvious at a glance. Take Chen Fei, for example: although he was only in the Skin-Refining Realm, because he had practiced several techniques to the Great Perfection stage, he could see that the four manuals he just read had no issues and were safe to practice.

"What is the price for these four manuals?"

"Two taels of silver each. How many do you want?"

"I'll take them all." As he spoke, Chen Fei placed eight taels of silver on the stall.

A smile appeared on the stall owner's face. He reached behind him, pulled out the second halves of the corresponding manuals, and handed them to Chen Fei. After checking them and finding no issues, Chen Fei placed the four manuals into the bag at his back.

"By the way, I'll take one manual for combat moves—something more profound," Chen Fei said after a moment's thought.

Chen Fei wanted to test whether his panel could complete these flawed or even broken manuals so that he could practice them.

The stall owner's brow twitched slightly, but he did not refuse. He searched through his stall, pulled out a manual, and handed it to Chen Fei. "The Immortal Cloud Sword, the unique sword technique of the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect."

"The Immortal Cloud Sword Sect?"

Chen Fei was slightly stunned. That sect was too famous. Within a radius of several thousand miles, the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect was likely the preeminent power.

The sect produced many masters, and every year, countless people wished to join but never had the chance. Chen Fei's predecessor had once harbored such fantasies, but unfortunately, he had died before achieving success.

Chen Fei took the manual and flipped through it, his brow furrowing and relaxing intermittently. With his current mastery of the Great Perfection Green Mountain Sword, he could see that the Immortal Cloud Sword indeed contained some profound and mysterious principles of the Way of the Sword.

However, much of it consisted of pseudo-profound nonsense. It looked more like someone had obtained a few sword moves and, because they were incomplete, had filled the gaps with their own interpretations or even delusional theories.

"What's the price?" Chen Fei looked up and asked.

"Fifty taels!" the stall owner grinned.

Chen Fei said nothing, merely staring at the man. *What a rip-off,* he thought. To dare ask such a price for a self-invented manual.

The stall owner did not back down, meeting Chen Fei's gaze calmly. *If I sell it at this price, what can you do?*

Chen Fei nodded, set the manual down, and turned to leave. This money hadn't fallen from the sky; he had only recently become somewhat well-off and needed to spend it carefully.

Spending this much money just to test the panel would make him nothing more than a sucker.

"Hey, don't go! You name the price!" the stall owner's voice called out from behind.

Chen Fei stopped, considered it for a moment, and said, "Three taels!"

"Deal!"

The stall owner agreed immediately, seemingly afraid Chen Fei would change his mind. He very decisively produced the other half of the manual and stuffed it into Chen Fei's hand along with the first half.

Chen Fei was somewhat speechless; it turned out his offer of three taels was actually too high.

However, he did not back out. After glancing at the second half of the manual, he saw that it did indeed contain some principles of the Way of the Sword. Buying this technique for three taels wasn't entirely a loss.

"Young hero, if you have any other needs in the future, feel free to look for me. I always set up my stall in this spot." Having completed two transactions, the stall owner was in a very good mood.

Chen Fei waved a hand, stowed the manual, and walked away.

He wandered through the black market for a few more laps and even specifically inquired about the trading of alchemy recipes. However, aside from basic recipes, the black market lacked even slightly advanced ones.

As the night deepened, Chen Fei did not linger and left the black market.

Returning to his rented quarters, Chen Fei took out the *Water-Dotting Skill* and began to study it seriously.

Half an hour later, the information for the *Water-Dotting Skill* finally appeared on the panel.

"Panel, simplify Water-Dotting Skill!"

"Simplifying Water-Dotting Skill... Simplification successful... Water-Dotting Skill $\rightarrow$ Walking!"