It was rumored that extreme experts, who dominated their races, could move mountains and defeat millions of soldiers with a single strike like gods. Even lower level martial artists could become terrifyingly powerful by practicing magic skills.
However, Ding Hao was of a low social status and not very bright, so he knew very little about cultivation. He only vagely remembered that martial artists were ranked from the lowest Apprentice Realm to Artist Realm, then Master, Grandmaster, and Genius Grandmaster. He could not remember what came after that.
Generally speaking, the first step of cultivation was exercising one's physical strength to the extreme.
Then, one could cultivate Qi manipulating magic skills by stimulating a "Magic Qi Seed" inside their dantian. An amorphous magic Qi would arise in the body and enter into the meridians.
Unfortunately, Ding Hao had no instructions on how to stimulate his Magic Qi Seed.
This was currently his greatest obstacle.
Luckily, he had found a solution.
A day's time flashed by.
When Ding Hao waved his sword next to the Sword-cleansing Pond for the 10,001st time, the sun was already setting.
He acted like nothing had happened and headed back to the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect. Of course, that beautiful mountain before him did not belong to him yet.
After arriving in the slums, instead of heading home, he covered his face with a ragged cape and walked towards an area deep inside the slums.
The crowd around him gradually thinned.
He was surrounded by strange rocks and eerie silence.
The occasional passer-bys were always also covering their face and walking in haste.
At this moment, the sun finally set, and his surrounding became pitch black.
Ding Hao followed the winding road past a few tall peaks and arrived on an empty grassy plain.
The plain was surrounded by creepy peaks and cliffs covered with torches, which brought a hint of light to this place. A lot of people had stalls set up here, and others were picking out goods. The sound of bartering swelled throughout.
This place was actually a market.
It was a black market in the slums.
It had everyone one could need, including weapons, herbs, and books on magic skills.
Of course, they were mostly lower level goods or counterfeits, so it took a keen eye to pick out something valuable from a pile of trash.
Those without this ability should not come here, because the only laws here were settled by violence.
If someone was too weak to defend themselves against robbery, they could not count on anyone to help them.
This black market was not very big.
It included mostly weaker thugs, since actually powerful martial artists did not want to come here.
Ding Hao found an empty spot and laid out a clean piece of cloth on the ground. Then, a placed a third-stage medicinal herb, Dragon Heart Seedling, on the cloth for sale.
This level of medicinal herb was very rare in this market, and its faint red flow instantly attracted some attention.
"Oh? Someone is actually selling a Dragon Heart Seedling? This kind of third-stage herb is great for fortifying one's physical strength. I haven't seen this kind of good on sale in the market for a long time. He must be stupid to sell it!"
"Hehe, it's only one. He probably accidentally found it somewhere and wants to make a fortune!"
"Maybe he's just some lucky weakling. Isn't he worried he'll be robbed here?"
Everyone spoke loudly with no intention of subtlety, all staring greedily at the shining Dragon Heart Seedling with an urge to test out Ding Hao's strength.
Soon, someone asked, "You there, how much is that?"
A muscular man who was over 2 meters tall walked up to Ding Hao. His long and scraggly hair framed a menacing face, and his eyes shone with evil intent. The fact that he did not hide his appearance showed he was confident about his strength.
"1000 taels of silver," replied Ding Hao quietly.
"1000 taels? For a weed? I'll give you 30 taels to be generous..." the man said, tossing down less than 5 taels of silver and grabbing towards the Dragon Heart Seedling.
"Whoosh!"
A burst of red light erupted in Ding Hao's hands.
The man's expression froze instantly, as if he had been struck by lightning, His hand hovered a centimeter away from the herb, but he dared not move it further.
Beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead.
Soon, a gust of cold wind blew past.
The scraggly hair on the man's head fell down to reveal a bald scalp.
Everyone watching could not help but gasp.
Anyone perceptive could tell that the man's hair had been sliced off by Ding Hao in the blink of an eye, without hurting an inch of his skin. This swordsmanship was indeed terrifying.
They were all stunned by Ding Hao's mastery.
The initially greedy gazes also disappeared in an instant.
While a Dragon Heart Seedling was valuable, it was not worth challenging this mysterious swordsman.
"Take your silver and leave!" Ding Hao said coldly, his sword resting on his knees.
"Yes, ye...yes sir, please forgive me. I crossed a line..." stammered the man as he grabbed his silver and scurried away.
The surrounding crowd was used to seeing this and continued haggling.
Dragon Heart Seedling was very valuable and the best option for many low-level martial artists, so countless buyers stopped by this stall. Ding Hao remained firm on his reasonable price, and he easily sold it in under an hour.
This money, combined with the silver and gold leaves he took from Zhao Xingcheng and Song Jiannan, added up to over 1600 taels of
silver.
This would have been a fortune to him before, but now...
Ding Hao closed up shop and strolled around the other stalls. He soon realized that this amount of money was nothing.
A couple minutes later, he stopped in front of a stall selling low-level magic skills books, as a book called "Qi Manipulating Skill" drew his attention.
As for basic magic skills manuals that were peddled in the black market, mysterious remaining copies of original texts or those of high quality aside, as long as they were ordinary copies recorded manually, there would ordinarily not be any reason to suspect that they were fake. It was one of the unwritten rules of the trade. The Qi Guiding Formula was a method of the lowest level for practicing mystical skills. It was not even considered as mainstream but just an ordinary skill. As such, it could not be classified as either of the four major ranks - Divine, Heavenly, Earth or Human. Naturally, there was no risk of counterfeit copies of it existing in the market. Even if it were so, its price was also not cheap for ordinary folk. Ding Hao browsed through it once, and paid 500 taels of silver to buy the manual after discerning that there was nothing wrong with it. With this Qi Guiding Formula manual, coupled with his otherworldly understanding capability,
"Qi, Qi is an incredible thing. The strength given off by the limitations of the physical body is an invisible force. It can crack steles of stones, move mountains and seas. It can defy the heavens and change fates; it can prolong life and make things appear out of nothingness... This incredible Qi, it attacks the 12 main meridians of the human body in order, and refine the acupoints. In that way, supreme power is produced and this is the foundation of a martial artist..." Ding Hao quickly became immersed in the contents of the book. So the humans on the Land of Infinity all had 12 meridians in their body. And within each meridian, there were nine main acupoints. Once martial artists activated the seed of Qi and grasped Qi, they could then use it to refine their physical body. The Qi would rush through their meridians and refined their acupoints. This was the most basic way of cultivation. The Martial Arts system had been perfected according to the evolut
Under the silvery white moonlight, a group of red sword light twinkled in and out of existence. They rolled back and forth, and the sword whistled. It was free and casual. Ding Hao's movement grew from slow to fast and then slowed down from rapid to extremely slow. He was immersed in a mysterious state. Four hours passed in the blink of an eye and the moon hung in the middle of the sky. Ding Hao's movement was so slow that it could not slow down any further. It was like the slow-motion in films but had a certain charm to it. If someone had been staring at the trajectory of the rusted sword by the side, they would definitely feel exhausted, dizzy and faint within moments. The power of the sword had far exceeded that of regular sword skills. What was even rarer was that Ding Hao did not sweat as profusely as before. Instead, he only had a few drops of fine, crystal clear sweat. "Whoosh!" Ding Hao kept his rusty sword an
Ding Hao could not help but secretly sigh. Based purely on appearance, this woman was indeed startling. However, her cold and arrogant expression looked like an unmelting ice glacier. Even her profile felt as if she held herself several thousand miles aloof from others. This made Ding Hao feel rather uncomfortable. This young woman had to be the handsome young man's cousin whom he referred to as Li Yi Ruo. There were two maidservants wearing light armor standing beside her. Their expressions were just as cold and stern. Ding Hao glanced at them casually and discovered that the horses that these people rode all had hair that was as black as ink. The horses were more than two meters tall and their four legs were strong and nimble, just like ferocious beasts. They were Dark Cloud Lion Beasts which were also called half-demon horses. It was said that they possessed a demonic bloodline. They could travel 5000 miles in the day and 1500 at night. They wer
Except, the mysterious tanned teen had too much filth on him. Upon meeting the pond water, dark wisps quickly spread through the pond water. "Sister, sister, Ding Ding is thirsty. I want to drink water too!" A tender young voice of a little girl suddenly sounded from the basket. When the "young man" heard the voice, he quickly climbed up from the water. He scooped up a handful of clear water and lifted the tattered cloth from the basket. There was a seemingly pale jade-carved little girl in it. She looked to be only two or three and had her hair tied up like goat horns. Her large eyes were filled with innocence and were as clear as black pearls. Her pale and chubby cheeks and dazed expression made her look extremely adorable. Ding Hao could not help but immediately think of his sister Ding Ke'er when he saw the intelligent and cute girl. The little girl shrieked in joy and lowered her head to take a few sips of wat
Of course, Xiao Chengxuan's cheers also meant to embarrass Li Canyang and those from Xiyang Town. Ding Hao's attack had angered the arrogant and cold Li Yiruo. "Who are you? How dare you hurt my maidservant?" Li Yiruo had already changed into her boots. Her white female warrior costume showed off her curvaceous and sexy figure. It was unlike a body possessed by a 14 or 15-year-old girl. She had a cold smile on her face, looking proud and mighty like a peacock. Her eyes were sinisterly cold. "We are not allowed to be noisy or fight by the Sword-cleansing Pond of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect." Ding Hao was also a stubborn person. He laughed coldly and said, "If she dares to make another move, she would not just be simply hurt." The pale-faced young man Li Canyang heard this and felt weak as he thought of something. He frowned and asked, "Are you a disciple of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect?" Ding Hao l
The young man's appearance was ordinary, but he was a master of swordsmanship! The Swordsmanship-seeking Sect was indeed the largest sect in the thousand-mile radius. Its power was unfathomable. The young man dressed ordinarily and did not seem to be someone important. However, his swordsmanship was stunning. Could it be that the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect disciples were all so talented? Everyone was shocked. Clang! Just then, a cluster of sparks suddenly erupted in the battle. This was the first time Ding Hao's rusted sword and Chen Wu's long sword met. The two figures collided and parted immediately. Ding Hao swayed, but his expression remained unchanged. He kept his sword and stood on the spot. However, Chen Wu stumbled and took four or five steps back. His face flushed red and then, he gained his foothold. Chen Wu breathed in rapidly and held his sword by its hilt with the sword pointing down. This was the sta
"Hey, don't look at me like that. I'm serious. Hehe, what do you think of my sister? She's a super beautiful lady. If you're interested in her, I can help you." The little girl looked at the large tree in the distance and pouted. She finished one of Ding Hao's meat biscuits in a few bites and her mouth was covered with scraps. Her chubby hand reached out at a lightning-fast speed and snatched up a second biscuit. Ding Hao was speechless. The pony-tailed little girl was rather odd. Honestly speaking, Ding Hao had helped them out earlier was not just because he didn't like Li Yiruo's arrogance. The stubbornness and strength in the mysterious girl's beautiful eyes, as well as the weakness of the two girls depending on each other, had struck a chord in the deep part of his heart. Ding Hao was reminded of the hardship he and Ding Ke'er had endured as they depended on each other. And thus, helped them out under the risky guise of pretending to be a Swordsman