BXBX NOVEL Chapter 179 - 178: Black Market Medicine
Chapter 179 - 178: Black Market Medicine
After Bu Jing fell asleep, Jiang Li and the group discussed the future of Ring Universe. They unanimously decided not to introduce the cultivation system, and it would be sufficient to get people back on track.
Wuguo is a combination of martial arts and cultivation. It’s not pure martial arts, their cultivation cannot be separated from spiritual energy.
The martial arts of the Ring Universe are pure martial arts; they do not require spiritual energy. Although this is mainly due to the scarcity of spiritual energy, this in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. It has shown them that people can still reach high cultivation levels without spiritual energy.
They wanted to see if, given enough time, the Ring Universe could produce those who could reach the Transcendance Tribulation Stage, or true Martial Immortals through martial arts alone!
However, the prerequisite for this is that the martial arts scripture of the Ring Universe has not been lost.
In the current state of the Ring Universe, even the emperor does not have martial arts scripture from three hundred years ago. The only ones who could possibly have it are the two brothers, Bu Jing and Bu Tian.
Ah Bu was straightforward, he could only remember their family’s martial arts scripture “Four Pillars to Hold Up the Heavens”. For other techniques such as the “Heavenly Star Jue” or “Floating Tathagata Iron Hand”, he only knew their names.
Having just one martial arts scripture was obviously not enough to restore the prosperity of martial arts. Fortunately, Bu Jing was there, who could recite various martial arts scriptures.
Although Bu Jing agreed, he had doubts: “Even if I write it down, who would dare to cultivate it? If the court finds someone cultivating unofficial martial arts scripture, it would be a dead end.”
More than a hundred years ago, Bu Jing had released a martial arts scripture to see the response. Although someone found the scripture, hid it like a treasure, and cultivated it secretly, it was eventually discovered. It was only a matter of time before it was exposed.
He lived until he was fifty years old.
It’s needless to say, he must have been cultivating other martial arts scriptures. When the officials of Qi Country found out, they immediately took him into custody and subjected him to severe torture.
But the martial arts scripture he had was picked up by the roadside when he was a child. Even if he confessed, Qi Country could not trace it to Bu Jing.
The person who cultivated the secret scripture secretly died in the Heavenly Prison. He disappeared without trace, even his corpse was nowhere to be seen.
“Royal envoys?” Jiang Li laughed, “That would be the best. If they summon all the Heavenly Kings, I will take them on single-handedly. Let’s see if they can even touch a strand of my hair.”
Bu Jing was greatly relieved. Of course, he knew that the person who brought his younger brother home was extremely terrifying, unimaginably strong. But he wasn’t sure if these people would intervene and help. After all, they didn’t really cross paths. The only connection was that they owed a favour to his younger brother. He couldn’t just say, “You’ve already brought my younger brother back, why not continue your good deed and save our world too?” He couldn’t bring himself to say such shameless things.
So he asked the question to ascertain the stance of these three powerful beings – is it that they are only interested in known martial arts scripture, or did they intend to lend a helping hand?
Since these three powerful beings were backing them, Bu Jing had nothing to fear.
The Clan Leader of the Bu Family and Bu Tian were overjoyed when they heard the patriarch agreeing. They had long wanted to cultivate the martial arts scriptures that the patriarch had, but the patriarch always believed that it would increase the risk of exposure, so he refused to teach them.
Now, they could finally learn.
In a certain quiet dark market, the guests who came here only whispered their bargaining. No one made a loud fuss.
All the people who came here wore hooded cloaks, their faces were not visible.
Someone saw something of interest, stopped, squatted down and asked, “How much?”
The faceless salesman pointed at the sign:
Tonifying medicine, three silver coins a pack, ten for three packs.
“Ten? That’s too expensive. Can’t it be a bit cheaper?”
While ten silver coins was not a small amount for ordinary people, those who could visit the dark market were not ordinary people. Their martial arts abilities and wealth were stronger than ordinary people.
The salesman replied reluctantly: “Our medicine is made from genuine ingredients, including tiger bone, tiger whip, tiger skin, deer antler, ginseng and so on. If it’s any cheaper, we won’t be able to make a profit.”
“Give me one pack!”
He felt that, in some sense, he was making a gain.
Of course, this is not something he could say to the vendor.
The salesman quickly wrapped the tonifying medicine in oil paper and handed it over to the man.
The salesman laughed in his heart, yet another customer who thought they got a bargain.
“You’re such a miser! You sell a medicine for three silver coins, yet you don’t even give me a bottle. Instead, you wrapped it up in paper.”
The vendor chuckled reassuringly, “Don’t worry, once you finish using the medicine, you’ll definitely feel it’s worth every penny.”
After taking the medicine home, the man, upon seeing his ravishing wife lying on the bed, could hardly contain his eagerness. As he unwrapped the package to take the pill, he froze.
His wife was puzzled. Normally, the scoundrel couldn’t wait to get into bed. Why wasn’t he coming this time?
Curiously, she crawled over to see what her husband was doing. Under the candlelight, she saw the paper wrapped around the medicine and gasped in surprise.
Her husband hastily covered her mouth, “Keep it down! Do you want to alert the authorities?”
“But, this is a forbidden book!”
The paper wrapping the medicine contained a simple martial arts secret manual. Even so, they could tell that it was vastly different from the secret manuals issued by the Twelve Celestial Kings.
“Should we report this?”
“Report? Do we tell them I’ve been to the black market, or that I bought an aphrodisiac?”
His wife was silent. Either admission would be difficult to articulate.
“The vendor must have calculated that we wouldn’t expose this.” The man
gritted his teeth, yet a sense of temptation to secretly cultivate arose in his heart.
Although the scholars claimed that the martial arts manuals the Celestial Kings sought to destroy were rubbish and dangerous, shortening life expectancy and forbidden from cultivation, his martial arts intuition told him that the secret manual on this piece of paper could make him live longer.
Moreover, as a martial arts enthusiast, he found the techniques sanctioned by the Celestial Kings to be uninteresting, various editions but all fundamentally similar.
He wanted to try something new.
“Do you have any more medicine?”
Another person approached the vendor, asking in a low voice.
“What do you mean? Isn’t this all medicine?” The vendor pointed to the aphrodisiac displayed in front of him.
“I mean, do you have medicine wrapped in other kinds of paper?”
The vendor nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, of course.”
“Here are ten Liang of silver.”
The vendor handed over three bags of aphrodisiac, advising him, “These three bags of medicine contain different ingredients and need to be taken consecutively.”
The customer understood the vendor. Only after arranging these three medicine papers in a sequence would they form an entire secret martial arts manual, clearly different from one that could be bought for three Liang.
“You defy the will of the Twelve Celestial Kings, isn’t that treasonous? Aren’t you afraid of being pursued by the authorities?”
The vendor laughed, “Even if there are investigations, someone powerful will cover for us. Besides, the decree of the Celestial Kings isn’t absolute. To tell you the truth, my ancestor practiced the techniques from these manuals and lived for more than three hundred years!”
The customer’s pupils constricted, shocked by the news.
Of course, the customer wouldn’t directly believe the vendor’s words. He decided to wait until he got home, read what was written on the three pages, and then make a decision.
An almost negligible crack appeared in his firm belief that the Twelve Celestial Kings were saviors.
When the black market ended, the vendor stealthily returned to the Bu Family residence, accompanied by many others.
The vendor pulled back his hood. It was Bu Tian.
They used aphrodisiac and erotic comics as bait to distribute numerous martial arts secret manuals.
“Sirs, all the medicine has been sold out.”
“Mmmm, we know.”
Actually, there was no need for Bu Tian to report. Jiang Li and the other two had their Divine Sense covering dozens of cities around. They knew better than Bu Tian about the sales and the results.
They couldn’t force people to cultivate the secret martial arts manuals, and the belief in the Twelve Celestial Kings was deeply rooted in the Ring Universe. Even if Jiang Li and others overthrew the court by force, people would only see them as invaders and would not believe them.
This ideological issue couldn’t be resolved in a single stroke. Jiang Li and others planned to proceed gradually, starting from the black markets, targeting those whose faith was wavering and yet had money for cultivation..