The trip to Northstar City happened a few days later, and Mingwei travelled alone. This time, he wore the Longbow Sect’s junior disciple’s robes, and the merchant gave him a 50% discount on the fees. A longstanding arrangement between the merchants and the sect, since the Sect purchased bulk quantities.

In truth, the discount was unnecessary. Each disciple was given a small salary, which paid for their supplies.

Mingwei climbed on board one of the wagons only to discover that there were two other disciples on the wagon.

“Hello, fellow junior brother.” Two boys said. A cursory glance revealed they were wearing the outer disciples uniform, so that meant they were at least 3-stars.

“Greetings, senior brothers.” Mingwei made the customary fist and palm salute.

“What brings you to Northstar city?”

“I’d like to go to the market.” Mingwei said honestly. The two other boys looked like they were three or four years older than him.

“I see. Have you had your first hunt?”

“Sorry?”

“Your first hunt.”

“No. I don’t think I have.”

The outer disciples sniggered, and Mingwei wondered whether it was some kind of ragging exercise so common in sects. If so, he’d best be prepared. He didn’t like getting beaten. The two disciples left him alone for the rest of the trip and he arrived later that evening. Once again, he quickly found an inn to stay for the night.

The market of Northstar City was massive. There were at least five different streets that focused on cultivation resources, unlike Green Snow City which had two streets. Northstar’s general markets were also a pleasure to walk in, where the regular folks traded in produce, commodities and finer goods.

Anyway, he had a few days. The Sect wasn’t very strict with what a disciple did, after all, this really was a test for the junior disciples, to see whether they had the self control to cultivate when no one is watching. If they slacked, this was when they weeded you out, since you would fall behind in cultivation.

First, he went to the 5 streets that focused on cultivation, and he entered shop after shop. There were all kinds in Northstar City, the quality and quantity at display was superior to that of Green Snow, easily. There were items up to the 7th star at display.

Some shops were more focused on the lower end of the spectrum, and those tend to be larger, more ‘packed’ institutions. They resembled supermarkets, where low tier cultivation resources were displayed on racks.

“They really treat it like commodities, eh.” Mingwei had difficulty accepting it.

“Young master, what are you looking for?”

“Oh... soul-bound items for 2 to 3-stars.”

“Ah, this way, then.”

Annoyingly, they were all weapons. The best they had was a shield, and that wasn’t what Mingwei wanted. He wanted to avoid fighting altogether!

Such things repeated itself, shop after shop, and after a full day’s shopping he was exhausted that he didn’t find anything. It wasn’t that the quality on display was bad. In fact, for 2-3 stars, the quality of materials were fantastic.

It’s just... all weapons. Everyone in this world is a battle freak?

He sighed. He had asked all the shops where they got their goods, and most of them got them from other cultivators who dabbled on items or weapons on the side. Most of them would fight beasts, gather materials, make weapons, and after they were done with it, sold them to the shops, who would then sell it.

Better materials were always available.

Dejected, he decided to walk around the other common market streets instead. And his eyes soon popped out. He was extremely surprised when he saw stacks of bones lying by the side of the road.

So much so he went and talked to one of the vendors. “Uh, Mister, why are all these... uh.. Bones lying around?”

“Oh, after the cultivators stripped the beasts of their heart, the marrow and everything of any value, the bones are left here. Some of the dogs eat them, but it’s mostly left here to dry. The common folk occasionally buy them to boil soup, and to add texture to their food.”

“So much?” The vendor couldn’t believe Mingwei’s question. The city was home to the Northern Star Sect, and they used cultivation resources like water! Mingwei, of course, quickly sensed that he was acting like a country bumpkin again, and corrected himself. “I mean, how much?”

“Oh, uhm, 1 silvers for one tael.”

“How much for all of them?”

The vendor took a glance at it. “500.”

“450.” Mingwei tried to bargain, and the vendor shrugged. Silver changed hands, and Mingwei now had a large pile of beast bones. This was incredibly lucky, this world clearly didn’t know the potential within these bones.

He hauled the bones back to Redmaw Town and back to the Sect.

Yu Huadao was quite surprised to see the big pile of bones. “You must really like Bone Rib soup.”

Mingwei grinned. If the markets didn’t sell the soul-bound items he wanted, he would have to make one for himself.

-

The beast bones have been stripped of all contents with Qi, but that’s not exactly all there is in the bones. The fibers within these beast bones can be extracted. So, with a small knife, he spent days slowly cutting all the bones, just to preserve the maximum amount of bone-fiber. It took a whole week to do this, and eventually he was ready to get to the next step.

He had a pail of water, and he soaked the bone-fiber for two days. Then, he boiled it for another day. This process drained the bone-fiber of all the taste and flavor, and left a stringy fiber.

“You’re really cooking Bone Rib Soup?”

Mingwei just nodded. He wasn’t going to tell him the truth. After the boiling, he strained the soup, splitting the soup and the stringy boiled fiber. It’s soft, now. Next, he dried them by hanging them on a stick. The drying process took another two days. During these two days, he worked on the balance of the bones, to make a case.

Now, all the stringy fiber was dry. He examined each and every one, separating them from the poor quality ones, to those of the better ones. He had to buy a large number of bones, because not all fiber was of a good quality, and if he was a higher-star cultivator he could probably tell with some techniques. At this point, this was the way he could identify the good from the bad.

Thankfully, he had enough good ones to make a brush. It wasn’t a big brush, no bigger than a regular calligraphy brush. He tied it up and encased it in the processed bone-case. It was almost done.

To anyone else, it looked just like an exotic brush. This was a Beastbone Qi-Brush, easily a 4-star item!

It has extremely good Qi-absorbing and release quality, good for a brush! It naturally doesn’t store Qi, as it was once a ‘bone’, so it allows for more ‘clean’ symbols and runes. Important, if one wants to squeeze more runes into small objects!

Now, to finalise the marking, which binds the Qi brush to him. A drop of blood on the very top of the case, and the entire Qi brush glowed faintly.

[Beastbone Qi Brush assigned as soul-bound item]

[Forging - adds one additional rune for small items. Two for medium items. Three for large items.]

[Forging - Qi usage per Rune reduced by 20%]

[Qi gathering increased by 30 Qi per day]

Mingwei smiled. It’s effects were well within what he predicted! Now, he could go back to cultivating!