by <unknown>
Li Yao pinched his nose as he opened a toilet stall. As expected, he found several dozen packed lines of information written on the back of the stall door.
“Are you lonely? Are you yearning for someone? During those long nights lying on your pillow, do you find it hard to sleep? Hurry and send a message to Spiritual Energy Crane Link Number 3877134. Succubi of the devils gate. Shrine maidens of the buddhist sect. Gorgeous female sword cultivators. 90 beautiful women are here for you to pick and choose from. You won’t need to suffer through long dark nights any longer!”
“We specialize in used flying shuttles. We have the best quality cars and the lowest prices. We absolutely don’t sell lemons. Message E-Crane Link No. 893764.”
“7734982. We have over a hundred ex-special forces soldiers and Ten Refinement Stage Cultivators. We specialize in resolving any ‘inconvenience’!” The word “inconvenience” was written in red. There was also a skull drawn at the end. It was a very fervent display.
Li Yao skimmed quickly, reading ten lines with a single glance. He scanned down and soon was able to find the information he wanted.
“We specialize in supplying strengthening drugs. Our prices are cheap and the drug’s effectiveness is stable. Our drug’s side effects are small. Scan the arcane glyph for further details.”
At the end of this strip of information was an engraved silver twine that made up a profoundly mysterious, intricate, and complicated arcane glyph.
Li Yao took out a handheld mini crystal processor from his pocket and turned on its scanning function. A blue ray of light swept over the arcane glyph. The crystal processor’s hologram jumped to a webpage. It was actually the local bulletin board of Floating Spear City, a post in the “Free Exchange Section”.
This post listed over a hundred different strengthening drugs. The post even introduced in detail the prices, effects, and side effects as well as instructions for use and other information.
The term “Strengthening drugs” referred to a collective group of drugs. Basically, every cultivator of every sect, even those who just dabbled in drug synthesis, have tried to create their own version of the strengthening drug.
Every strengthening drug contained different ingredients and underwent different synthesizing methods, thus they also had different efficacies.
Some drugs could raise one’s Spirit Actualization Quotient, health, and fitness. Some drugs could burn one’s life force to produce great martial power. Some could nourish one’s cells and maintain their cellular activity, increasing one’s lifespan. Some could cause one to be aroused to awe inspiring heights, to have a golden spear that can never fall, to be able to plow hundreds of women in a night.
After hundreds of years of research and development, each sect now produced thousands upon thousands of safer, more stable, and more effective strengthening drugs. However, the selling price of these drugs were on the absolute high end. Normal commoners would find them difficult to obtain for long term consumption.
The drug market was incomparably large. Naturally, there would be people who wanted to make knock-offs of the strengthening drugs.
After several hundred years of continuous experimentation, a small town called Serpent Mountain Village, located at the southern frontier of the Federation, finally managed to produce the first knock-off strengthening drug.
This was something that could ruin lives. They feared labeling their names onto the production of this strengthening drug and simply marked the drugs as produced by the “Knock-off Guild”.
Serpent Mountain Village continued to expand. It turned from a small town on the frontier’s edge into the most chaotic city in the Federation with a population of 10 million people. It became known as a “Lawless Ground”. The word “Knock-off” also became a term that specifically referred to imitated goods.
The drug that Li Yao was preparing to buy was a knock-off version of a strengthening drug that was well known to be used by youths for the university entrance exams.
This type of strengthening drug was synthesized mostly in illegal factories. Its quality varied extremely, and it was absolutely necessary to find a more reliable seller.
Li Yao took his time reading over the descriptive details of the drug. He first scrolled to the end of the post to skim over replies by other netizens.
He discovered that other netizens’ had not bad impressions towards this supplier. It seemed that the supplier did not fluff up his goods. Furthermore, the location of the business had an address that was a regular numbered address.
The type of reputation that this shopkeeper had was much greater than that of a wandering peddler.
He inputted this address into the Wanxiang Searcher. He did not discover any negative news about them.
Only then was he able to relax and look up the items he needed. Soon, he was able to find relevant information.
He saw, with a bit of surprise, that the prices for the typical knock-off good were higher than normal by around 5%. However, the owner had a statement saying that they used the exact same materials and ingredients as certified products. The synthesization procedure followed closely to that of the original’s. Their synthesized strengthening drug was of the utmost purity; there were absolutely no side effects.
After considering for a moment, Li Yao sent a message via E-Crane link to the owner, “I want one hundred of the ‘Proud Heaven’s Path’ strengthening drugs that are meant for university exam takers. Do you have any in stock?”
“I do, I am at my store. We can make the deal any time.” This amount of money was not small business. The owner had replied very quickly.
“OK, I am coming right away.”
Li Yao shut off the crystal processor. He thought and thought, and pulled out a pen. With great difficulty, he found a sliver of space on the stall door and squeezed within the crooked lines of information his own paragraph.
“Retired High Ranking Master Artificer of the Crimson Nimbus Guild that still burns with passion for work. Aided by over 10 elite disciples. Specializing in repairing every type of flying swords, artifacts, and flying shuttles. We provide an economical price. We can also provide maintenance for the above items.
At the end, he left the E-Crane link number he used for work. He schemed in his heart. If a cash cow were to drop in, he could let Old Wang play the part of the Retired High Ranking Master Artificer of the Crimson Nimbus Guild and ruthlessly gut the cash cow.
Feeling satisfied, Li Yao clapped his hands and walked out of the public restroom.
The address provided by the shop owner pointed to a location that was four districts away from the culinary street, a distance of approximately 1,500 meters. Li Yao increased his pace.
He went through two districts and happened upon an Automatic Arcane Glyph Vending Machine on the road.
This was a convenient machine that was commonly installed. In stock with the unit were several hundred different types of common Arcane Glyphs with prices on the lower side. It was self-service to purchase so it was very convenient for the city’s residents.
Li Yao thought of something. He felt for three coins in his pocket, took them out, and stuffed them in the vending machine’s coin slot. With a light tap of his finger, he selected the “Pattern Mask Glyph.”
The vending machine vibrated at high speeds for two seconds and something that was as light as a feather fell out from the dispenser below.
He ripped apart the packaging and discovered a sticky facial mask. Several dozen glyph script characters were engraved on the surface. They snaked down, interweaving and forming into an elegant decorative design.
He stuck the facial mask on his face, which created “tshh tshh” slithering sounds. Li Yao felt the muscles of his face contract and pull. He looked at the glass window of a store on the side of the street. There was a strange spider-esque design covering his entire face. If his bro for life Meng Jiang were here to witness this, he would probably not recognise him and wonder what deity this was.
The
underground ghost city had criminals mixing in with ordinary people. This was Li Yao’s first time dealing with this particular drug supplier. He did not know any inner information on the other party. He couldn’t help but be prudent and careful by changing his guise.
In this way, if the two parties produced any sort of altercation based on conflict, the worst case scenario would be a departure with a slap on the butt in a direct and efficient manner. A mess wouldn’t be left behind.
This type of Pattern Mask Glyph produces a unique decorative design on the face. Its use was to change one’s ambience into something else. The final effect can be maintained for 10 or so hours. It was the most popular and the hottest selling Arcane Rune in the Underground Ghost Market.
Since Li Yao was going to conduct in the shady business with only himself as a party, he believed that the drug owner would not find anything to be suspicious.
District No. 63 was the Underground Ghost Market’s spiritual energy supplier district. They were responsible for supplying the entire underground infrastructure and ventilation ducts with uninterrupted spiritual energy.
This place did not have many pedestrians. The passageways were narrow, and thick pipelines were crisscrossed all around, appearing like a myriad of entrenched giant metal snakes. Because they were worn through the years without repair, quite a few of the metal pipelines were full of rusted spots, and steam spurted out at the seams going “Tss Tss”.
The metal passageways were dim and dark. Half the crystal stone spiritual energy lanterns were broken. The other half flickered between bright and dark. The lighting was intermittent.
At the depths of a passageway was a narrow, sliding metal gate that was half opened. Imprinted on the gate was a black wolf that was baring its fangs and brandishing its claws. The black wolf had a military spike stabbed in it that drew blood from its head. And on top of the metal gate were four square-shaped words that were made by welding metal strips.
“Militant Wolf Slayers!”
Sudden shouts, the “thump thump” sounds of beating, the smell of rust, and the dense stench of men came from inside.
This was a Cultivation Gym.
Chapter 19: Militant Wolf Slayers |
The Star Glory Federation had a culture rooted in martial might. The cultivators with outstanding martial strength held the most paramount of statuses. Without exception, all common citizens of the Federation wished to step onto the road of cultivation and achieve the highest level of glory.
Even if one was not able to become a cultivator, people loved to steadfastly work on their strength, sharpen their physique, carve out their build, and dedicate their lives to maintaining cultivation practices.
And so, fitness centers could be found on every major street and alley, consisting of cultivation gyms and martial art schools. The majority of those that practiced cultivation in these centers weren’t extreme martial experts who were fearsome and vicious, but rather were obedient and disciplined law-abiding students and workers who strictly followed the rules.
When Li Yao saw the “Militant Wolf Slayers” sign, he felt more confident towards buying the drugs.
He knew that owners for places like these were mostly feverish cultivation fanatics. The knock-off strengthening drugs they synthesized were meant to be consumed mainly by themselves and the members of their cultivation gym. Their priorities weren't necessarily to increase profits, so they often did not cheap out on manufacturing costs, guaranteeing the final product’s quality.
Li Yao felt around on the spider design on his face and strolled along inside.
The front gate of the cultivation gym was not large and lead to a completely different world inside — a dozen or so muscular dudes dripping in sweat grasped barbells with bursting muscles in a three to four hundred square meter strength training room. Steel rope and iron plates pounded with “bang bang” ringing. A ripped giant was in the corner ferociously pounding on a sand bag.
Li Yao gazed around in a circle. He noticed that these ripped giants weren’t lifting too much weight and that their facial appearances were relatively kind and friendly. The feeling that they gave off wasn’t that of fear and violence. They appeared to be ordinary job workers. Li Yao couldn’t help but let out a sigh with his heart feeling more at ease.
He walked to the corner and prepared to ask the ripped man who was punching the sandbag a question; this gentleman looked to be the most friendly of the bunch.
This ripped man was in the middle of a pulled tight stance. He thrusted the pulled-back hand forward. The explosive power unleashed by the entire body coalesced into this one heavy fist. The sandbag was smashed and flew upwards towards the sky, just happening to collide into Li Yao’s face with a “Pow!” sound.
The ripped man let out a “Ah!” and asked worryingly, “You ok dude?”
Li Yao’s head was dazed and his nose was somewhat painful. His nostrils throbbed twice and he shook his head saying, “It’s nothing. May I ask where I can find Zhao the gym leader?”
…...
In a small, small tea room located in the back of the strength training room, two buff dudes each sat upon their own green-camo-colored cushion. In between these two were two mugs, bacon, roasted chicken, peanuts, and other sorts of cooked food.
The person on the left was approximately forty to fifty years old. On the bald, bump-riddled head was a tattoo of the wolf stabbed with a military spike. His left arm was missing, cleanly chopped off from the shoulder blade. In its place, was a spiritual-energy-powered prosthetic arm engraved with over a thousand glyph characters.
Over on the right looked to be a young man no older than 30 years old. He wore a very low-key gray-colored military jacket. He seemed to have worn it for many years since the colors had already been washed out and faded.
If Li Yao saw this person, he would be excited to the point of pissing and collapsing. This awe-inspiring young man was the idol of every student in Crimson Nimbus Second, the new upstart within the cultivator circle of Floating Spear City, a member of the foundation stage — Fiend Blade Peng Hai!
At this moment, Peng Hai was not producing half a single bit of the imposing air of a cultivator from his body. He raised his mug and spoke frankly and straightforwardly towards the bald tattooed man, “Old Instructor, come. To our years in fierce battle during those days in the Demon Beast Wasteland. Another cup!”
The mugs clearly contained the coarsest of Sorghum Liquors. Peng Hai was of great extravagance, living a life of luxury as a big member of the cultivation circle. But his behavior was as if he had encountered the nectar of gods, drinking it all in one gulp. He smacked his lips loudly, “Good alcohol! This sh*t is what all men ought to drink!”
Moving somewhat rigidly, the bald headed tattooed man used his spiritual energy prosthetic arm to grasp and raise the mug. He said, deeply moved, “Peng Hai, kid, I know that you place great importance in feelings. Our camaraderie, even if you have become a cultivator of the Foundation Stage, has not been forgotten by you. You have not forgotten this old instructor and the days we braved through the fires of hell together! Even now, you are considerate. It’s fine when you come every few days to drink with me, but it really isn't necessary to continue to practice cultivation at this place of mine. This place of mine is meant for amateurs. Our achievements are very low. As a Foundation Stage Cultivator, you are wasting your time by practicing here!”
Peng Hai laughed, “Old Instructor, the friendship between us simply cannot be described adequately with the words, ‘braving through the fires of hell’. Think back to that year when we executed ‘Operation Razor’s Edge’ together. That one time... If you had not blocked them off for me, I would be long dead to the point of no return. How would I have been able to become a Foundation Stage Cultivator then? And Old Instructor, you...”
His gaze swept over to the the left side of the bald tattooed man’s body. Peng Hai’s voice carried with it a hint of heaviness when he said, “You actually threw away your entire left
arm. The shock was so much that even your heart lost 70% of its strength. You fell from the 13th stage of refinement all the way down to being a common military grade man, having no choice but to leave the ‘Wolf Regiment’.”
The bald tattooed man gestured back and forth with his hand. He said unperturbed, “The road of cultivation is filled with danger at every corner. I’ve faced death in the eye, yet I am still alive. When I had already stepped onto this road of no return, I had lived life on the edge far early on. I am prepared to lose my life to the underworld at any time! This is just a hand I’ve thrown away. What does it matter? If you couldn’t even see through this point, why did you continue to cultivate in those days? Wouldn’t it have been safer to just go home as soon as possible and live life as a white-collared office worker and marry a wife? You don’t need to keep on carrying that matter in your heart. We, who choose to cultivate, when our arms are severed, when our legs are cut, those limbs still return to the origin through death, happily seeing God. This is fate! My severed arm was decreed by fate! What does it have to do with you? I’ll repeat again. If I can’t cultivate myself, then why can’t I teach others to cultivate? This uncle collects a huge veteran’s disability pension every month. I drink some alcohol, roast some skewers, and everyday, there’s always someone on top of my bed. You don’t know how free and chill I have it, how happy I am! As for the old war companions who still remain in the military, you are correct. Quite a few have become Foundation Stage Cultivators. There are even two people who formed their core becoming big shots. What does that matter? You can’t say for sure that tomorrow they won't become a sack of chunkless diarrhea inside a fiend beast’s stomach without even a trace left behind! If you think about it, I got off good. Hahahaha!”
Peng Hai cheerfully replied, “Seizing opportunities, letting go of worries. You are the Old Instructor of my memories. Your bones clang like iron with your body of steel! However you are a bit mistaken, Old Instructor. I am not wasting my time by coming here everyday. I’m actually engaging in some extremely important cultivation methods.”