Chapter Two: Casually Selling a Mid-Tier Cultivation Technique
On the first page, in Tianhe City, eighty kilometers east of the Jiayuguan section of the Great Wall.
Lin Yin arrived here and casually picked a martial arts academy.
He slipped some money to the admissions office.
The transfer went through.
He found the homeroom teacher, added the class group chat, took his uniform, textbooks, and the like, then left under the teacher’s astonished gaze.
Class? Forget it.
Study? Also forget it.
He had switched schools only to qualify for the entrance examination.
Besides, after the blood and fire of his previous life, after cleaving down demon kings with his blade, what common ground could he possibly have with these brats who had never even seen a battlefield?
He found a chain martial hall by the roadside.
Lin Yin counted his wallet.
Two thousand three hundred seventy-five yuan and fifteen cents.
Pathetically little.
Still, that was only natural.
For three years he had lived under someone else’s roof in the Lin family, never once even drinking the fifth-grade blood-and-vitality restorative soup twice. How could he possibly have any savings?
This money had been earned by taking the blame for others at the Imperial Capital Martial Academy.
Otherwise, given his temperament, how could he have been handed disciplinary notices every few days?
“Boss, rent me a training room for a week.”
“With the rest, just buy me some vitality powder, and help me open a bank card. Thanks.”
In a flash, the wallet was emptied.
A fresh, penniless pauper was born.
But since Lin Yin had dared to cut himself free from his family of origin, he naturally had his own confidence.
Money? Nothing more than a trivial thing that could be settled with a casual gesture.
Inside the training room:
“The entrance exam mainly tests vitality.”
“One can enter a top-tier academy once one reaches the first realm of vitality.”
“I should try to break through to the first realm in the next two days.”
“And once I reach the first realm, I can enter the Eight Nations Virtual War, raise my ranking, and claim rewards. If the butterfly effect has not occurred, then that heavenly-grade saber technique that nobody knows the origins of should still be in the prize pool....”
As Lin Yin murmured to himself, he sketched out a cultivation manual by hand.
With a snap, he tossed down the pen. The hand-copying was done.
Heavenly-grade upper-tier body tempering art: Sovereign of Flesh and Bone
Heavenly-grade upper-tier martial technique: Three Thousand Wandering Sabers
Cultivation methods were divided into body tempering arts and martial techniques.
Their ranks were further split into Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow.
A Black-grade method was already something ordinary martial artists dreamed of obtaining.
Earth-grade methods were fervently sought after by countless prodigies.
As for Heaven-grade ones, even the imperial clans of the eight nations might not possess many.
The better the method, the more solemn and sacred its packaging.
It was even said that Heaven-grade methods existed only within the heavenly temples of the imperial clans of the eight nations, adorned with crystal and guarded day and night by thousands.
These two hand-copied methods of Lin Yin’s had rough lines and casual lettering.
They looked no better than cheap street-market goods.
Yet if a powerful expert of the Military Commander realm, or even the King realm, were here and cast aside any contempt, then after careful study they would surely be left shaken to the core, their mouths watering and their eyes turning red.
As for those below the Military Commander realm?
No need to study them. They would not understand.
These two Heaven-grade methods were precisely what he had comprehended in his previous life after slaying the three great demon kings with his sword. They were peerless divine arts, and his trump cards from his former life.
Lin Yin pondered for a moment.
He picked up one of the methods.
Then he casually deleted some of the most important content.
The Heaven-grade method was successfully reduced to Earth-grade upper-tier.
But after thinking it over again, he deleted a bit more of the more important parts. After two rounds of deletion, it was finally reduced to Earth-grade middle-tier.
“Mm, about right.”
Lin Yin made a sweeping stroke of the brush and named the new method:
Body Meridians Tempering.
Then he opened the computer provided in the training room.
He searched through Baidu, entered a website, and looked around.
It was a human black-market darknet with a black background.
It sold everything under the sun.
From Earth-grade upper-tier methods to ordinary vitality powder, the goods were dazzling, and the traffic was not small. Even now, more than ten thousand people were online at the same time.
“Top-grade vitality powder, five thousand yuan, impossible to buy even if you have money, first come, first served....”
“Black-grade lower-tier saber, one hundred thousand....”
“Earth-grade middle-tier martial technique, Wave-Treading Slash, leaked accidentally from the royal family of a major human kingdom. It may be taken down at any time. If you want it, place your order now. Three hundred thousand!”
“The leftover fodder from the imperial clan’s horse farm of the Great Zhou Kingdom. Humans can eat it to increase vitality as well. Twenty thousand is not expensive. Hurry and grab some....”
As he read on, Lin Yin’s eyes stung a little.
For all its fame as the most renowned black-market darknet, the best thing it had was merely an Earth-grade middle-tier method.
Was there really not a single decent thing here?
Though, to be fair, that Earth-grade middle-tier Wave-Treading Slash was already the dream technique pursued by most martial artists for their entire lives....
Crackle, crackle... Lin Yin registered an account, linked his bank card, and uploaded a trading post.
“Earth-grade middle-tier body tempering art, Body Meridians Tempering. Temper the eighty-one acupoints of the human body in sequence according to the method. Minor mastery reaches the Vitality Realm, great mastery reaches the Bone Condensation Realm, and perfection reaches the Meridian Tempering Realm.... Price to be determined; highest bidder wins.”
After editing, he sent it.
The moment it was uploaded, many people took notice.
All because of that title; it was impossible not to notice.
After a brief lull in views, the numbers began to surge.
Word spread from one to ten, then ten to a hundred, all drawn in by the title.
One comment after another popped up beneath the listing:
“Is it real? Earth-grade middle-tier!”
“And it’s even a rarer body tempering art!”
“Fake, right? An Earth-grade middle-tier body tempering art? I heard my father mention that those are only fit for prodigies from great clans!”
“The seller is a level-zero new account?”
Someone noticed Lin Yin’s account information.
Aside from the cultivation method being sold, everything else was blank. More importantly, the account level was still zero—an utterly brand-new account.
“A level-zero new account really doesn’t seem trustworthy!”
“The idiot above, are you stupid? If he were selling other things, vitality powder, yellow-grade blades and swords, then new accounts would mostly be scams. But this is an Earth-grade middle-tier method. A new account actually makes it more believable!”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“It’s like if you dug up bronze artifacts in a tomb robbery—would you dare show your face and carry them around in public?”
“+1.”
“Sleepless, Hates Sword Practice [level-seven account]: +1. By the way, let me make a guess: the seller probably made this alt account specifically to sell the Earth-grade middle-tier method, just to avoid unnecessary trouble.”
“Damn! Even a level-seven big shot has spoken?”
“Is this real? Now I’m really tempted!”
“Earth-grade middle-tier—this is the kind of thing that can completely change your fate! Order, order! Huh? No price? Price to be determined? Big brother seller, I beg you, set a price!”
“Begging for a price +1!”
“+11!”
“+1111111!”
Seeing Sleepless’s comment, Lin Yin smiled faintly.
There were, after all, still clever people.
It was not like those mindless novels where whatever the protagonist did would instantly attract a swarm of doubters and mockers.
Ding dong!
The black-market darknet popped up an administrator message.
“Hello, honored member. I am administrator Zhang San. Your item has attracted a great deal of attention. Would you like me to enable auction mode for you?”
“Mm, auction it.”
“Very good. Please set the starting price and bidding increments.”
“Mm... starting price five hundred thousand, increase by fifty thousand each bid.”
He clicked confirm.
Everyone who had been watching was stunned.
A Heaven-grade method worth tens of millions, and it was only selling for five hundred thousand?!
Was this not heaven’s gift to them?
Countless people on the spot were utterly tempted and joined the bidding.
At the same time, the news rapidly spread across the internet.
Every minute, the number of people online at the black-market darknet soared.
Even countless old members who had long left the net, upon hearing the news, hurriedly registered and logged back in, all in an attempt to seize this peerless opportunity.
Major factions, royal clans, academies, legions, and even the imperial clan of Great Xia Kingdom all received the news in turn, and were drawn over by it.