Next morning, I got up early. Packing up my things and making room for my newfound wealth all in one spatial bag. Though it could hold more and reduce the weight, its limits were evident. However, it was fine.

I carried my original bag on my back and satchel rested across my shoulder and on my waist. I went and said my goodbyes to my family, kowtowing three times.

Then I set out towards the town, a good three day journey on the dirt road.

To be fair, I honestly wasn’t surprised that Yan Chan's body rested on the side of the dirt road. Nor was I surprised when I got into town that Chen Ping was being bullied by a group of burly men. Even though they were by far, weaker than me.

I don’t make a habit of playing white knight.

The sun is bright enough to make out the cobblestone road, but cracks line them and mud rose out. It must have rained recently because the mud was impressionable.

I layered qi under my feet and walked around the city that’s in much better condition than my village. I made a lap around the main street and only picked out two buildings, the blacksmith and tailoring store.

I stopped on the street and watched people walk around me. I tried to identify anybody dressed like me or might have had extra satchel they were carrying. Usually these would be the hunters, but as I watched.

I noticed nothing of the sort.

The only people going into the blacksmith store came from carriages with families emblems. Others didn't look rough or anywhere near like an adventuring type.

I noticed a carriage driver park near me and sauntered over with quick steps. Fishing out a silver round that I pinched between my index knuckle and thumb.

“Hey mister, mind telling me where I can sell pelts at and where there is a store that sells cultivation scriptures or the like?” I asked, while waving the coin.

The old man turned to me, his eyes flashed upon seeing the silver. “Ah son, what you are looking for is not on the mainstrip. This is just where the famous lay their wares for specific travelers. If you go up about fifty paces and make a right, you will come onto the local market. You can find anything there for cultivation resources to families buying specific items such as pelts and herbs.”

I spread my hand a bit and five coins appeared before I passed them over to the greedy old man who tilted his straw hat at me.

After about fifty paces, I turned down a street with two brown stone stores posted up front. As I walked past the first three buildings, the street opened up into a wide area. Tents or portable stalls wagons were set up.

Like the old guy said, everything could be seen from here.

It’s loud and crowded. Trash littered just about everywhere but I could pick out people clearing it up. They just weren't making much headway with people throwing it down at the same time.

I stepped into the chaos and looked at the signs that gave a hint to what they were for. Well, I first picked up a kind of rice and egg dish with stripps of green and meat in it. It was cooked right there on a large frying pan. The guy shifted the pan like a pro, while mixed and scrambling the ingredients.

To be honest, it kind of smelled good so I bought a bowl and dug in.

I am half curious where all the mosquitos and bugs are with how nasty the other areas are. The food area at least had a routine group picking up trash. After searching with my eyes for a while, I found the reason why. All the pillars held some kind of incense that seemed to be forming a dome over the area.

After finishing three bowls, I found a meat on a stick with what I hoped was potatoes. However, no matter what it was, it tasted great.

After filling my stomach. I proceeded to walk around. I didn’t expect to find what I had hoped to find easily. If this is anything like game markets, players or Npcs would call out their merchandise or what they were selling.

Sadly, people seemed to know what was what.

I was just about to pull another coin trick, when I spotted a group of guys pilling herbs and pelts on the stall counter. Behind the stall dressed a rich middle aged man in blue tunic, the man carefully looked through the pelts and analyzed the herbs.

I glanced around his section to see a few people looking envious. I crept closer to get a better understanding of them, personally, when someone stopped me. I glance at the hand reaching for me with a sideways tilt.

“If you are going to sell anything. I advise you to wait until this man is done and sell it to his clan. They are number one Clan within a hundred miles radius and won’t stoop to sending people to kill you if the deal goes sideways.” a youngster whispered as he pulled back his hand.

After saying his piece, he slipped back into the crowd of sellers. As I am new, it wouldn’t hurt to listen to someone else. Even if they were trying to recruit business for this family, it didn’t truly matter as long as I got good pricing for my pelts.

When it was my turn, I unloaded my bag. The middle aged man looked at all the pelts with a surprised look which faded away quickly. He glanced back at another elder gentleman which shook his head.

I guess this was them figuring out if they could rip me off or not.

The middle aged man spread each pelt out, his hands grazing them as he looked for flaws. When he finished he turned to me with an easy going smile.

“Lad, you have excellent quality pelts that are from late stage core formation beasts. I am willing to offer seven gold rounds per pelt for a total of forty-two rounds. Sounds good to you?”

I nodded and he passed over the gold right after. Stack in stacks of seven. I pocketed them and grabbed a handful of beast cores, spreading them out on the counter.

The middle aged man picked up a few before passing two of the stage nine core formation cores to the Elder dressed in elegant robe.

“Pay him.” the elder croaked out.

The middle aged man turned to me as I dumped the rest of the cores onto his counter. His fingers trembled as he stopped some from falling. I doubt it was due to the fact they were precious. If his family was powerful, then they just had to send his clansmen to the beast lands.

The middle aged man counted them then provided me with twenty taels of gold and twenty gold rounds. Taels were just strips of gold with the Zhou Dynasty emblem, counted for hundred gold rounds.

“Are you perhaps looking for anything, lad?” The middle aged man asked, while collecting the beast cores in his chest.

I tilted my head and checked the sun nodding.

“What kind of cultivation scriptures or arts do you have?” I asked, while glancing behind me.

The elder flicked his slender hands and four yellowed stain booklets fell onto the table. I picked the most complete on up and searched through it. My lips smacked in disdain, profound scripture focused on the earth element.

I already saturated my body with fire essences. The next book I picked up was slightly burnt but it had fire essences emitting from it, thus my best choice. As I flipped through it, I noticed it’s more obscure than the previous book.

Obscure being the worlds were like a riddle you had to solve. It could be between an earth and heaven grade. I flipped through the others and found out they were arts.

I decided to pick the Cloud Stepping body movement skill and incomplete Heavenly Sins scripture. Even though it was incomplete, it had seven levels. I ended up spending a tael and half on it but it was a decent deal.

I trotted off, ignoring those who were watching my back. I am a peak stage core formation expert. Most of the crowd is between peak and first stage core formation. I had nothing to fear from them as I wasn’t planning on leaving until I broke through into the golden core.

I walked into the first inn I spotted and bought a room for a month. I headed straight up and sat on the bed, pouring over the first level of the scripture. It might have taken me two days to process the first level and my realm might have fallen from peak stage core formation to fourth stage as I cleanse myself of the former basic scripture.

Plus the quality of essence absorbed through practicing this scripture was ten times denser. It might take me a little longer than planned to break through to golden core but I had high hopes for it.