TBIP: Chapter 25 Part 2

He said he was resting, but Lou Xingyao wasn’t completely relaxed.

First, he went to the backyard to inspect the farmland.

In the days after they returned home from the Endless Forest, Lou Xingyao had reorganized the fields that had been abandoned for most of the year. He replanted them with spiritual rice.

After walking through the Endless Forest, Lou Xingyao already understood that when he bought this courtyard, the three acres of farmland would be uncared for.

Despite the months of hard work in the fields, the money earned from the few acres of spiritual rice wasn’t as rich as hunting a slightly higher level demonic beast in the Endless Forest.

Of course, for Lou Xingyao, it didn’t matter how small the mosquito was, it was still meat.

In the beginning, in order to put this farmland into use as soon as possible, he would water it with a bit of spiritual spring water every once in a while. He used 12% of his energy to take care of it.

Now that the land had become a lot more fertile, how could Lou Xingyao be willing to give up?

What’s more, the blessing of spells meant farming wasn’t a difficult task for him.

It was just a few more spells. Think of it as familiarizing himself with the operation and use of spiritual power.

Now was the time for the new season of spiritual rice to mature.

Lou Xingyao skillfully put all the spiritual rice into the storage bag. As usual, he meditated to restore spiritual power while sinking his consciousness into the personal space in his body for exploration.

This time, Lou Xingyao’s personal space hadn’t changed much.

However, in the spiritual fields, there were more spiritual plants that didn’t exist before. They were seeds all obtained from Lou Xingyao’s experience in the Endless Forest.

Among them, the most conspicuous one had to be the clusters of vermilion fruits.

Under the nourishment of the spiritual spring, the fruit that originally took more than ten years to grow was now full of branches.

Each one was round and plump, bright and dripping. They had reached the point where they could be picked.

It was difficult to use all these vermilion fruits in a short time, even if they were eaten as fruit snacks every day.

It seemed he would have to find a chance to sell some.

As he thought this, Lou Xingyao manipulated his consciousness and put all the spiritual plants that had grown in the spiritual field into the medicine cabinet.

Once all the matters were taken care of, it was time for lunch.

Lou Xingyao glanced at the sky, headed into the kitchen, and started to prepare his meal with Wen Hanshan as usual.

Just like planting spiritual rice, Lou Xingyao often used spiritual power when cooking.

Procedures such as cooking and preparing food were completed directly with spiritual power. This could also allow him to get a lot of exercise.

The only downside was that this method could only make some simple home-cooked quick dishes.

Fortunately, Wen Hanshan wasn’t a picky eater. He could eat the fasting pill, and he didn’t dislike coarse tea or light rice.

In addition, Lou Xingyao’s cooking skills weren’t bad. Even simple dishes had a lot of flavor, which could satisfy Wen Hanshan’s requirements.

During the meal, Lou Xingyao talked to Wen Hanshan about going out. “The spiritual rice in the field has been harvested. I will go to the market in the afternoon.”

The price of fresh spiritual rice in Xilin County was 1% higher. If it wasn’t for his own use, Lou Xingyao would generally sell it when the spiritual rice was just harvested.

“Okay, I’ll go with you.” Wen Hanshan nodded, indicating that he understood.

“Huh?” A trace of doubt appeared in Lou Xingyao’s eyes.

After returning from the Endless Forest, he often went to the market to replenish some living supplies.

Maybe it was because he was now at the sixth level of qi condensation and had some ability to protect himself in Xilin County, but Wen Hanshan no longer accompanied him as usual when he went out.

This also gave Lou Xingyao a lot of room to operate. He took the opportunity to sell a lot of excess spiritual plants from his space.

Unexpectedly, the other party suddenly changed his mind today.

It wasn’t that Lou Xingyao didn’t want to go with Wen Hanshan, but in addition to selling the spiritual rice, he wanted to sell the excess spiritual plants from the space this time.

Last time he went out, he took a fancy to a few pill prescriptions but couldn’t get them because he was still a bit short of the money required.

He thought he would be able to gain it today. However, that plan wouldn’t work out if Wen Hanshan was going out with him.

“It just so happens that I need to go out.” Wen Hanshan explained without seeing the small thoughts in Lou Xingyao’s heart.

“Okay.” Lou Xingyao knew that if he refused, the other person wouldn’t force it. Still, he nodded and agreed.

As for the spiritual plants in the space, the medicine cabinet was large enough. It wouldn’t be a problem to put in more.

What Lou Xingyao didn’t expect was that after selling the spiritual rice, Wen Hanshan turned to him and handed over a black robe and mask.

Lou Xingyao wasn’t a stranger to such an outfit. They were dressed like this the first time Wen Hanshan took him to the black market.

So this time, were they also going to the black market?

Lou Xingyao was puzzled in his heart, but he didn’t ask too much. He just silently covered himself tightly and followed behind Wen Hanshan.

Just like last time, the two of them first shuttled through several alleys for a few moments before arriving at the dilapidated courtyard where the entrance of the black market was located.

The last time he came, Lou Xingyao hadn’t drawn qi into his body. He just followed Wen Hanshan in a daze along the way.

But this time, he saw many tricks.

There seemed to be a lot of repetition in the alleys just now. Some places that had just been walked through a moment ago reappeared in front of them the next moment.

Originally, Lou Xingyao thought it was his illusion. Then once he saw the same secret passage for the third time, he couldn’t help asking a question.

“There is a maze outside the black market. After entering it, different route plans will be given according to the different choices of the cultivators.” Wen Hanshan wasn’t surprised that Lou Xingyao would find this and explained in a low voice.

A hint of clarity focused in Lou Xingyao’s eyes. He quickly understood why there was such an arrangement.

It was mostly to make it easier for people who went in and out to hide their identities.

Soon after, the two of them entered the black market again.

Like last time, Wen Hanshan’s goal was very clear. He directly led Lou Xingyao into a small stone house at the back of the black market.

There were around a dozen such houses in the black market. They were specially built in the black market for cultivators who didn’t want others to snoop when they were trading goods. Due to their special material, which had the function of blocking others from peeking, they were very popular in the black market.

At the same time, these houses came with the functions of booking an appointment and fixed-point trading.

After all, no one in the black market would show their true colors. However, occasionally, there would be a situation where a transaction couldn’t be completed and would need to be continued next time.

Every time this happened, the role of these small stone houses was revealed. The two parties could book a stone house and agree on a time to complete the subsequent transaction.

Wen Hanshan obviously came here because he had an appointment with someone.

He opened the door with Lou Xingyao, and there was already a person sitting in the room who had obviously been waiting for a long time.

The man was dressed like the rest of the people in the black market. He saw the two of them entering and chuckled. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

The words were slightly ridiculing, but his voice was extremely hoarse. It was obvious that he had done some type of disguise with it.

“It isn’t the appointed time yet.” Wen Hanshan glanced at the sky and replied indifferently.

His voice was also quite different from usual. Even someone as familiar with him as Lou Xingyao couldn’t tell his identity when hearing Wen Hanshan’s current voice.

“Of course, I know it isn’t the appointed time. Still, who made this such a big deal?” The man said while placing the storage bag on the table. “I brought you what you wanted. Inspect it.”

Wen Hanshan didn’t talk nonsense. He raised his hand and took the storage bag into his palm with a spell.

There was a moment of silence as Wen Hanshan obviously assessed whether the items in the storage bag met the requirements.

Maybe Wen Hanshan was silent for too long. After some time, the person in the room finally couldn’t help speaking again. “You also know that what you want isn’t a common item that can be found everywhere. These are almost at the limit of what we can reach.”

“I know.” Wen Hanshan obviously expected this and also threw a storage bag onto the table. “This is what you want.”

From the pattern and style of the storage bag, it could be seen that this wasn’t the one given by the man in the room.

This move also made the man obviously feel relieved. It was because it meant their deal was half completed.

As he thought about it, the man picked up the storage bag on the table and swept it inward like Wen Hanshan did.

Soon, the man looked at Wen Hanshan and nodded. “Happy trading.”

Happiness could be felt even from the disguised voice. It was obvious that the other person was very satisfied with the items given by Wen Hanshan.

“Hmm.” Wen Hanshan wasn’t a man of many words when facing outsiders, and his answer now was even more bland.

Wen Hanshan nodded in agreement, and a golden light flew out from him and the black-robed man.

The two golden rays of light converged in a short time, forming a mysterious pattern in the air. Finally, it dissipated without a trace.

Lou Xingyao was no stranger to this scene. After the completion of a contract, the power of the contract dissipated and manifested.

In order to make a deal, they needed to sign a contract. This was indeed what Wen Hanshan would do.

After the power of the contract dissipated, the man visibly relaxed. Then he stood up. “I paid a day’s rent for this room. Please excuse me.”

After speaking, he walked out of the room by himself without waiting for the two of them to react.

Looking at his hurried back, Lou Xingyao suspected that the other person was afraid Wen Hanshan would regret it and cancel the transaction.

Lou Xingyao, who had always acted as background board, couldn’t help feeling a bit of curiosity in his heart. What type of transaction was it that required the other person to be so cautious?

As soon as he had this thought, a storage bag appeared in front of him.

Looking at the style and color, it was obviously the one that the black-robed man had handed to Wen Hanshan.

Lou Xingyao subconsciously looked at Wen Hanshan in a puzzled manner. The next moment, he suddenly realized that the other person couldn’t see his eyes clearly in this outfit and hurriedly asked, “What is this?”

Even as he spoke, he followed Wen Hanshan’s meaning and took the storage bag.

He looked inside and found that the space in the bag wasn’t large. It was only one square meter.

What surprised Lou Xingyao were the items in the storage bag.

Almost all of them were books, but at first glance, he could see words similar to ‘Encyclopedia of Low-level Spiritual Plants.’

There was a pile of stacked papers among them, which were hand-copied papers at a glance. Some of the words written on them were vaguely revealed to be spiritual plants, so it could be roughly inferred that they were pill prescriptions!

In addition, there was an alchemy furnace in the storage bag.

Its grade wasn’t high based on its material and the style was very ordinary, but the existence of this alchemy furnace was enough to reveal a lot of information.

Obviously, all the items in this storage bag were materials and equipment related to alchemy!