Lin Shu haggled his way through the market, slipping in and out of shops like a shadow. Eventually, he managed to sell the peak-stage bloodcore for 2,150 gold coins. Along the way, he offloaded some low-tier pills he had no use for, netting another 165 gold coins. When he counted his wealth, the final sum came to 5,068 gold coins. A grin tugged at the corner of his lips. For a Rank 1 cultivator, this was a fortune — enough to turn heads if he wasn't careful.
But gold alone wouldn't bring him power.
With his business in the market done, he headed toward the public lessons. Perhaps there would be something valuable, some insight into cultivation or combat that the books didn't cover. But to his disappointment, everything the instructors said was already in the texts he'd read at the library. Their words might've been useful for the clueless or the talentless, but Lin Shu had no time for shallow teachings. He left as quickly as he'd arrived, deciding that unless something special happened, the public lessons were worthless.
By the time he returned to his home, night had fallen. The small room was dark and quiet, the only sounds his footsteps and the soft creak of the door closing behind him. He sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall, staring into the darkness. His mind churned.
What next?
The institute required him to take missions every month — that much was clear. He could play along, complete the tasks quickly, and earn some rewards. Or… he could use the opportunity to hunt.
There were always stragglers on the road, lone cultivators returning from missions, or the occasional unlucky fool who wandered too far from safety. No one would miss them. Killing them would be risky, but the rewards…
His gaze flicked to the bag of gold. Wealth was power. Power was survival.
But what would he even spend it on? Pills for cultivation, of course — they'd speed up his progress immensely. Without them, advancing would take years. He'd already spent almost a year clawing his way to the middle stage of Rank 1. Reaching the high stage without help might take four, maybe five years. With pills, he could cut that down to two. Maybe one if they were good enough.
But there was a price.
Pills left impurities behind. Every time he used one, a bit of waste would build up in his body, hardening over time and clogging his meridians. If left unchecked, it would cripple his cultivation permanently. He'd read about a solution — the Crimson Flow Pill. One of those could cleanse his body and ensure his future remained intact.
Of course, it wasn't that simple. The Crimson Flow Pill was ranked, just like weapons and techniques. If he used low-tier pills to cultivate, he'd need a low-tier Crimson Flow Pill to cleanse himself. Mid-tier pills required a mid-tier cleansing pill, and so on.
And the price…
Lin Shu frowned. A low-tier Crimson Flow Pill could easily go for 4,000 or 5,000 gold coins. Even if he had the money, it wasn't something you could just buy off a shelf. Pills like that were snatched up the moment they appeared, traded in secret between clans and sect higher-ups. Finding one through normal means would be almost impossible.
Which meant one thing.
The black market.
If he wanted a Crimson Flow Pill, legal methods wouldn't cut it. He'd have to dive into the shadows, find the places no one spoke of openly — places where gold could buy anything, if you had enough of it.
But that was a problem for the future. First, he needed strength.
Lin Shu sighed. Without pills, his progress would crawl. With pills, he'd risk crippling himself if he couldn't find a Crimson Flow Pill in time. But was there really a choice?
No.
He clenched his fists. He'd take the pills. He'd advance, no matter the cost. When the time came, he'd find the pill he needed — or he'd take it from someone else.
In the end, it didn't matter how. All that mattered was power.
The next day came quietly, the first rays of dawn slipping through the cracks in Lin Shu's window. He rose without hesitation, his mind already set on his next task. He needed poison. Subtle. Lethal. A hidden edge to turn the tide in his favor when brute force wouldn't suffice.
As he made his way back to the market, another idea formed. What if he carried a sword on his back? Most would assume it was his weapon, never expecting the bone blades that would tear through their hearts. A simple deception — the kind that could mean the difference between life and death.
The market was already lively when he arrived, hawkers shouting their wares, cultivators moving with purpose. Lin Shu ignored the noise, slipping through the crowd until he found what he was looking for: an alchemist's shop. The scent of herbs and bitter medicine clung to the air, sharp and almost suffocating. Shelves lined with bottles and jars stretched into the shadows, each promising power or salvation in liquid form.
He browsed the offerings, noting the various pills and elixirs, most of them overpriced and useless to him. But tucked away in a corner, he found what he was looking for — poison. A small, dark bottle with a faint violet sheen to the liquid inside. The label caught his attention: Violet Python Venom.
"Good eye," came a raspy voice from behind the counter. An old man, his eyes half-lidded and bored, leaned over with a crooked grin. "Mid-tier stuff. Extracted from a Violet Python. One hundred gold coins for a bottle."
Lin Shu inspected the venom closely. Violet Pythons were bred in captivity, their venom harvested regularly, which made it relatively affordable. It wouldn't kill instantly, but once it entered the bloodstream, the victim's muscles would seize, leaving them vulnerable for a killing blow. Perfect for ambushes.
"I'll take it," Lin Shu said. Then after a pause, "What about an antidote?"
The old man chuckled. "Smart boy. Antidote's another two hundred. The venom's cheap because we can farm the pythons, but no one likes dying from their own blade, eh?"
Lin Shu placed three hundred gold coins on the counter. Poison was a weapon, but carelessness turned it into a double-edged sword. If the venom so much as touched an open wound, he'd be finished. Better to be cautious.
As the old man wrapped his purchases, Lin Shu listened quietly to the conversations around him. Whispers of long-term missions drifted through the shop. Guarding resource points. Beast-clearing expeditions. Merchant escorts. Those kinds of tasks took weeks, sometimes months. Dangerous, yes — but the rewards could be immense. More importantly, guarding a resource point meant proximity to valuable herbs, ores, and other treasures. If the opportunity arose, he could steal some for himself.
No one knew about his storage ring. That alone made him a nightmare to track.
But it wouldn't be easy. Rival institutes and clans fought over those points constantly. And then there were demonic cultivators — not those who slinked through the shadows like him, but the ones who openly reveled in slaughter, making every mission a battlefield.
Still…
Lin Shu tucked the poison into his robes and left the shop. He had preparations to make.
After leaving the alchemist's shop, Lin Shu made his way to a weapon stall. His arrows were running low, and he needed a new bow. The stall owner, a grizzled man with a scar across his nose, eyed Lin Shu skeptically but perked up when gold coins appeared. After some haggling, Lin Shu walked away with a fresh quiver of arrows and a new bow — a low-tier tempered weapon. It wasn't anything special, but it was sturdy, and for 250 gold coins, it was a fair deal. He weighed the idea of smearing venom on the arrowheads. A single shot in the dark could kill a beast or man before they even realized they'd been struck.
With his purchases secured, Lin Shu headed to the Quest Hall.
The hall was massive, its stone walls lined with worn banners bearing the Stone Path Hall emblem. Cultivators moved in and out, some in groups, others alone, each with the same sharp look of ambition in their eyes. The heart of the hall was the mission board — a towering wall of parchment, each mission carefully categorized by rank. There were separate sections for different cultivation stages. No one dared to take a mission beyond their rank, and picking one below your level was only allowed shortly after advancing, when your Qi was still settling.
Lin Shu scanned the board, eyes flicking past beast-clearing jobs and escort missions. Then one caught his attention.
Mission: Merchant Escort
Description: Escort a merchant caravan from Greenwood Hollow to Willowbrook. Ensure safe passage and defend against potential threats.
Reward: 100 gold coins.
Rank Requirement: Early Stage Rank 1 or higher.
Willowbrook. It was a modest town, not unlike Greenwood Hollow. The path between them would cut through a stretch of forest, the perfect place for ambushes from bandits, beasts, or other cultivators,he figured the mission would take a few days to complete and come back to the institute.
Lin Shu plucked the mission slip from the board. If he was careful, it would be a simple job. And if any unexpected opportunities presented themselves along the way… well, that was the kind of thing he was best at exploiting.