63: Chapter 63 Spellbook

The black market in the East City had been established for a long time.

It was the largest fence for stolen goods in Linjiang Prefecture and the surrounding areas.

Besides that, many contraband items appeared in the black market, such as armor, crossbows, and so on.

The Great Yong Dynasty did not prohibit martial arts, but it did prohibit armor and crossbows.

Privately possessing armor was a capital offense punishable by beheading, while privately possessing crossbows, although not warranting beheading, would still lead to imprisonment.

The scale of this black market was relatively large.

It had a total of eight entrances and exits.

Each entrance and exit was guarded.

Chen Hu used a copy card to probe the cultivation of these guards; they were all at the Middle Stage of Skin Refining.

After paying one tael of silver, he was allowed to enter.

Before entering the black market, Chen Hu had already used a transformation card to turn into a plain-looking middle-aged man.

Only after passing through an alleyway could one be considered to have officially entered the black market.

There were quite a few people in the black market tonight.

There were as many as over a thousand people.

However, the black market was not noisy; buyers and sellers chose to communicate in low voices when conducting transactions.

In fact, when most people bargained, they chose to use hand gestures.

Chen Hu swept with his Spiritual Sense and discovered three book stalls.

Thus, he walked to one of the book stalls unhurriedly.

However, this book stall only had three books on display: one was a Cultivation Technique, and two were Martial Skills.

The Cultivation Technique was called Supreme Technique, and the Martial Skills were called World's Greatest Divine Sword and Invincible Divine Blade.

In fact, regardless of the names of the Cultivation Technique or the Martial Skills, they were just gimmicks; this was a common tactic used by black market merchants to sell Cultivation Techniques and Martial Skills.

The first time he came to the black market, he had been fooled and really thought they were divine Secret Manuals.

Later, after receiving a warning from Xu Gang, he realized that these so-called Cultivation Techniques and Martial Skills were unranked, and many were even fabricated.

Chen Hu crouched down and asked the stall owner, "Do you have any books introducing exotic beasts, Spirit Medicine, and spirit fruits?"

"Slap!"

The stall owner threw three books directly.

Chen Hu picked them up and looked; they were 《Classic of Hundred Herbs》, manual of hundred beasts》, and 《Record of Hundred Fruits》 respectively.

He picked up the manual of hundred beasts》 and intended to flip through it, but the stall owner's voice rang out: "You can only look for thirty breaths."

Chen Hu nodded silently and flipped through it roughly, finding that every page of this book had pictures and text introductions about an exotic beast.

Among them was the third-tier exotic beast, Black Horned Beast.

However, the strongest exotic beast recorded in this book was only third-tier.

After putting down the manual of hundred beasts, Chen Hu picked up the 《Classic of Hundred Herbs》 and 《Record of Hundred Fruits》 and flipped through them roughly.

He could basically conclude that they were real books.

Thus, he began to haggle with the stall owner.

At first, the stall owner asked for an exorbitant price of 10 taels of silver per book.

After some intense bargaining, the price was negotiated down to three taels of silver per book.

After paying the silver and stuffing the three books into his black robe—in fact, putting them into his Storage Ring—he wandered around the black market.

During this time, he held a copy card in his hand, but he discovered quite a few Martial Artists at the Tendon Refining Realm.

Judging from the Evil Qi emanating from these Martial Artists, they were the type who had many lives on their hands.

When passing by the second book stall, Chen Hu suddenly stopped in his tracks.

It wasn't that there were any books on the stall that attracted him, but rather that the stall owner's head displayed a favorability of 60.

Obviously, this was the C-grade connection Chen Hu had unlocked.

He originally thought he wouldn't meet this person today, but he didn't expect him to appear in the black market.

Thus, Chen Hu crouched at the other party's stall.

The other party's stall didn't just display three books, but over twenty.

However, most were miscellanies and supernatural novels.

"My friend, I have a special book here. I wonder if you are interested?" The stall owner suddenly lowered his voice and took out a yellowed book from his sleeve.

"May I take a look?"

Chen Hu asked.

"Of course, feel free to look!"

For some reason, the stall owner found Chen Hu very pleasing to the eye and directly shoved the book to Chen Hu.

Chen Hu took it, opened it directly, and discovered that the first page recorded a technique called Soul Pierce.

He quickly watched this technique and felt a sudden shock in his heart, because he felt that he could Cultivate this technique and even cast it.

He suppressed the excitement in his heart and flipped to the second page.

The second page also recorded a technique called Soul Shock, and he still had the feeling that he could Cultivate it.

"Stall owner, how much for this book?"

Chen Hu closed the book, returned it to the stall owner, and asked casually.

"I find you quite pleasing, friend. If you want it, just give me two taels of silver!" The stall owner said with a smile. In fact, this book was collected from a villager's home, and it only cost 100 copper coins.

During this time, he had tried to promote it to many people, but none had bought it.

"Alright, two taels of silver, I'll take it!"

Chen Hu decisively took out the silver to buy the book.

After putting away the book, Chen Hu no longer had the heart to wander around and left the black market from the entrance he came from.

Because he had only spent a dozen taels of silver in the black market, he would naturally not be targeted.

He returned home very smoothly.

Arriving at the hall, he lit a candle.

Chen Hu flipped through the Secret Manual of techniques he had bought from beginning to end; it recorded a total of ten techniques.

The first three techniques were relatively easy, the middle three were more difficult, and the last four were even more difficult.

The first three techniques were Soul Pierce, Soul Shock, and Soul Insight.

Soul Pierce involved condensing Soul Power into a Soul needle to directly attack the enemy's Soul.

Soul Shock was also aimed at the opponent's Soul. After casting it, it could cause the opponent's thoughts to short-circuit. If used in battle, as long as the opponent had a moment of distraction, it was possible to turn defeat into victory.

As for Soul Insight, after casting it, one could sense the good and evil of surrounding living beings.

With a thought, Chen Hu began to Cultivate Soul Pierce.

Seeing his hands constantly forming seals, he also silently chanted the incantation.

Gradually, the Soul Power in his Divine Soul surged, gradually condensing into a mysterious rune.

With this rune, he could cast Soul Pierce with just a thought.

Next, Chen Hu spent some time condensing the runes for Soul Shock and Soul Insight.

As for the consumption, it was not significant.

After practicing a little, the consumed Divine Soul power was replenished.

Seeing that the first three techniques were Cultivated successfully so quickly, Chen Hu decided to Cultivate the fourth technique—Soul Curse Technique.

This technique could silently plant a Soul seed on the opponent's Soul.

This Soul seed would constantly absorb the other person's Soul Power. In just one week, the enemy's Soul Power would be exhausted, and they would become a living dead person.

It was truly suitable for plotting against people.

An hour later, Chen Hu exhaled a heavy breath.

At the cost of consuming 50% of his Divine Soul power, he finally succeeded in Cultivating this technique.

Although his mind felt quite exhausted, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

As for the fifth technique, he was not prepared to Cultivate it.

He was already very tired tonight, so he would Cultivate it tomorrow.

He wasn't even prepared to open cards; he went straight into the bedroom, took off his clothes, got into bed, and hugged Widow Wang to sleep.

The next morning, at breakfast, Chen Hu poured three cups of water for Widow Wang, Qianxue, and Qianyu and let them drink it.

Having had the experience of eating exotic beast meat, the three of them tacitly did not ask and picked up their cups to drink the spirit spring water inside.