"After receiving the money, Gu Zhen didn't rush to leave. Instead, he returned to the star skills sales area and looked around.
He found that there were still no special-type star skills—only physical-skill-type and elemental-type ones.
Even a massive organization like the Yunfan Chamber of Commerce didn't stock Special-type skills. He had no choice but to accept reality and headed toward the physical skill-type section.
The highest rank of star skills available on the first floor was D-rank, and they were scarce. The second floor, meanwhile, mayne started with D-rank skills. However, his current authorization level wasn't sufficient to access the second floor, so he could only browse the first floor.
To gain access to the second floor, one needed to spend at least ten million star coins at the Yunfan Chamber of Commerce—a sum completely out of reach for him at the moment.
After searching for a while, he discovered that the physical-skill-type star skills here started at 100,000 star coins. Even the cheapest F-rank star skills cost 100,000 star coins.
Skills like the Grade D [Wind Shadow Step] and [Iron Fist Strike] started at one million and went up from there. No matter how he searched, he realized that with only 130,000 star coins in hand, he couldn't afford anything that caught his interest.
With no other choice, he decided to leave the area and instead went to the cultivation resources section. There, he spent 100,000 star coins to purchase eleven star power enhancement potions.
Star power enhancement potions were used to aid cultivation. They contained potent star power, which could help star warriors rapidly improve their realm.
He received eleven potions because of a 'buy ten, get one free' deal.
These eleven potions were enough for his recent cultivation needs, so he didn't need to buy more.
Carrying the eleven star power enhancement potions he had just acquired, Gu Zhen leisurely left the Yunfan Chamber of Commerce.
With 30,000 star coins still in hand, keeping them wouldn't be of much use. It was better to convert them into combat strength.
After some thought, he didn't head out immediately. Instead, he made a quick trip back to the academy and stored all the elixirs safely. Then, with his remaining 30,000 coins, he made his way to the famed Secondhand Market of Sunmoon City.
Here, one could find all sorts of unexpected items, including but not limited to star skills, star beast crystal cores, star tools, and star power enhancement potions.
And best of all, the prices were shockingly low. Sometimes even less than one-tenth of their original value. Of course...whether the goods were authentic was another story.
It was a gamblers paradise. Many adventurers came here to test their luck. The items were cheap, and if you hit the jackpot, you'd make a fortune.
Gu Zhen didn't consider himself a gambler, but today, he was willing to take the risk.
His target wasn't the high-end, expensive comprehension-type Star Technique stones, but rather the far cheaper paper-based skills.
Compared to star skills stones, paper versions were vastly inferior.
First, paper versions were much harder to learn from and difficult to master in a short time, often requiring months of practice to learn the star technique.
This long learning period led to the second issue: they were easy to fake.
Unlike star skills stones, which could be easily verified by checking the insights with spirit power, paper versions were different. It could take months, or at the very least dozens of days, to learn from them, making it hard to verify their authenticity after purchase.
Moreover, if the instructions were deliberately written incorrectly, practicing the star skills could lead to mistakes—resulting in severe injury at best, or death at worst.
That's why most martial artists nowadays trained exclusively with skills stones. Paper manuals had basically disappeared from the market.
They were cheap to produce too—anyone could make thousands of copies for just a few dozen coins. Even selling them for a few hundred brought in profit.
Gu Zhen had never practiced with a paper version before, but if this attempt proved feasible, it could save him a fortune while allowing him to learn more star techniques. Before long, he arrived at the secondhand market.
Even in the afternoon, the place was packed with martial artists hawking all sorts of items—skills, artifacts, beast cores—everything imaginable.
After searching for a bit, He found a shady little stall tucked away in a corner with seven or eight tattered skills manuals laid out.
An old man with graying hair and a crafty smile greeted him.
"Young man, looking for something? I've got everything here. If you don't see what you want, just tell me—I'll get it for you next time."
The old stall owner—Old Zhong—quickly began promoting his wares.
"This is the tooth of a Tier-2 Iron Wolf King—unbelievably tough…"
"This is a Grade D Fire-type Star skills—[Blazing Burst]! Incredibly powerful—own it and you'll be unstoppable!"
"This is a Grade-1 artifact, the [Featherlight Ring]. Wear it and you'll feel as light as a swallow. Absolute game-changer."
"This is…"
Old Man Zhong tirelessly pitched the items on his stall, but Gu Zhen ignored him. He quickly picked up a star skills book from the stall.
"Young man, you've got a good eye. That one you're holding is a C-rank star skill, Star-Breaking Fist. Once you master it, a single punch could make even a Realm Rank-3 star beast fall before you."
This C-rank star skill would cost millions of star coins out there, but since I feel a connection with you, I'll make you a deal—50,000 star coins.
Gu Zhen flipped through it briefly, put it back, picked up another book, and continued browsing.
Seeing him remain silent, Old Man Zhong lost interest in continuing his pitch. He leaned back leisurely, closing his eyes to rest, letting Gu Zhen look as he pleased.
As if this brat could figure anything out from just a glance.
Gu Zhen picked up and skimmed through the three physical-skill-type star skills books on the stall, then put them back. Finally, he picked up the first one again—Star-Breaking Fist.
Five hundred, Gu Zhen said, holding the book and stating his price.
Old Zhong's eyes twitched. "Kid, you just chopped off 99% of the price in one go!"
"No deal? Then forget it." Gu Zhen casually placed the manual down and turned to walk away.
Zhong remained unmoved at first—clearly used to this kind of buyer.
But Old Man Zhong had seen people like Gu Zhen before and remained unfazed, lounging in his chair with his eyes closed.
That is, until he noticed the brat heading toward Old Man Li's stall next door. Then he panicked.
"Young man, come back!" Old Man Zhong shouted anxiously. Making money was one thing, but seeing his rival Old Man Li profit made him furious.
"You're selling?" Gu Zhen returned to the stall and asked calmly.
Old Man Zhong wasn't his only option; Gu Zhen was just too lazy to waste time searching elsewhere.
"Seven hundred," Old Man Zhong said with a pained expression, giving his final price.
"Two books," Gu Zhen replied, picking up Star-Breaking Fist and another D-rank physical-skill-type star skill book, Iron Piercing Finger, holding both together.
"Fine, fine!" Old Man Zhong agreed reluctantly, waving his hand to urge Gu zhen to pay and leave.
Gu zhen didn't hesitate. He quickly paid and left the stall.
After Gu zhen was gone, the look of distress on Old Man Zhong face vanished, replaced by a sly grin of triumph.
He turned and pulled out two star skills books from a cabinet behind him—identical to the ones Gu Zhen had taken—and placed them on the stall.
Even the creases and damage on the books were nearly the same, making them look like ancient star techniques.
Old Man Zhong leaned back in his chair, kicking back with a satisfied sigh, he chuckled.
"Cost me a hundred to print both. Made six hundred. Heh… not a bad haul today."