Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation
chapter-461

This was because the owner of the stall did not know what exactly this black rock was. Even if he wanted to come up with something, he had nothing to build on.

After thinking for a long time, he still could not come up with anything. Thus, he could only resort to being mysterious and smiled, “Young Hero, you must know this!”

Xiao Chen shook his head and said, “I really don’t!”

The owner of the store was in a rush to give a price but when he saw that Xiao Chen was not biting his bait, he felt very depressed. He really did not know how else to introduce this.

The owner of the stall quickly got up and stopped Xiao Chen. He said anxiously, “Young Hero, don’t leave yet. If you truly do not know, then I will explain it to you.”

Xiao Chen said curiously, “So, what exactly is this?”

The owner of the stall thought hard and fast. After a while, he said, “This black rock is a Rank 10 Spirit Beast’s egg. If you hug it against your belly when you sleep everyday, after forty-nine days, the life within the egg will sense your life force. In another forty-nine days, the shell will slowly undergo a metamorphosis. Then, in another forty-nine days, the young of a Rank 10 Spirit Beast will hatch.”

The owner of the stall said all of this one breath. After he finished, he took a deep breath. He praised himself in his heart. Even he did not expect himself to be able to come up with all that.

Xiao Chen laughed in his heart. He really admired this person. Being able to boast to this level was truly a difficult thing to achieve.

Xiao Chen’s expression remained unchanged. He only said doubtfully, “A Rank 10 Spirit Beast Egg? Is that really true?”

Xiao Chen shook his head and said, “I don’t believe that. Why don’t you sleep with it for forty-nine days first. When the shell changes, I will come and buy it.”

The owner of the stall originally thought that Xiao Chen had believed him. He had not expected him this say something like that. This was just a rock, how could it change after sleeping with it.

The owner of the stall smiled embarrassedly and said, “This thing…it would only be effective if you sleep with it yourself. Otherwise, the Spirit Beast would not acknowledge you as its master.”

Xiao Chen directly said, “If you can hatch out something from it, I will give you 500,000 Inferior Grade Spirit Stones. If you want to sell it to me as is, I can only offer ten thousand, and I think even that is too much! I shall take my leave first!”

“Don’t go, ten thousand is fine. This black rock is yours.” The owner of the stall immediately shoved the raw Astral Iron into Xiao Chen’s arms, not letting him leave.

He then smiled and said, “Well now, Young Hero, you have purchased it already. It’s time to pay up!”

Xiao Chen looked at the raw Astral Iron in his arms. He felt both like crying and laughing. Originally, he had just been afraid of the owner of the stall noticing that he was interested in this and giving him a nonsensical price.

Unexpectedly, the owner of the stall has now shoved it into his arms and only wanted ten thousand Inferior Grade Spirit Stones. Compared to the value of Astral Iron, it was no different from giving it to him for free.

The owner of the stall even thought that he had gained a great advantage and was afraid that Xiao Chen would regret and change his mind.

Xiao Chen did not say anything else and directly tossed ten thousand Inferior Grade Spirit Stones to the other party. He then kept the raw Astral Iron and immediately turned to leave.

The owner of the store watched Xiao Chen leave. A huge smile filled his face as he said to himself, “If more of these rich heirs came everyday, it would not be hard for me to become rich!”

Xiao Chen smiled faintly and continued looking around the market. As he searched for a Fist Technique, he looked around to see if there was any chance to pick up something good.

Time slowly went by. Xiao Chen had already seen tens of Fist Techniques. However, they were all Medial Grade Earth Ranked Fist Techniques. There were very few Superior Grade Fist Techniques.

The ones that Xiao Chen found did not match his attributes or situation. It was hard to find a pure lightning-attributed Fist Technique.

As for peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Techniques, Xiao Chen had not even seen one. After looking around for a long time, he could not help but feel disappointed.

It looked like it would be very difficult for him to find a suitable Superior Grade Fist Technique within ten days.

He put down another secret manual he was looking through and said to the owner of the stall, “Sorry, this manual is not suitable for me.”

The owner of the stall was an old man over sixty. He glanced at Xiao Chen and said, “Little friend, unexpectedly, you have pretty high expectations. If you really have enough Spirit Stones, I can recommend you to someone. If you go there, you will definitely be able to find the secret manual you need.”

Xiao Chen seemed interested and said, “Tell me more!”

The old man merely smiled and did not say anything.

Xiao Chen understood what he meant and he immediately took out two hundred Medial Grade Spirit Stones and handed them over. “Senior, please give me a hand here!”

The old man weighed the bag with Spirit Stones and smiled in satisfaction, “After you leave this street, the third street on the left is the street that is dedicated to selling secret manuals. Go to stall 100 and take a look. The items there are very expensive, but they will definitely have what you need.”

Xiao Chen thanked the old man and took his leave.

After ten minutes, he arrived at the street that the old man had mentioned.

Indeed, it was as the old man had said. Although, the street was very small, there were very few people, and it was very clean. The stalls there were all filled with secret manuals.

Xiao Chen slowly counted in his heart. Soon, he arrived at stall 100. The person manning the stall was a fierce-looking middle-aged man over thirty.

He glanced at Xiao Chen and smiled. This was clearly a genuine smile, but it still made one’s hairs stand on their ends.

“Came to buy secret manuals?” the middle-aged man asked.

Xiao Chen nodded, “I only want Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Techniques and above. Ideally, they should be lighting-attributed.”

The middle-aged man did not say anything else. He rummaged around his stall and handed over four secret manuals.

Xiao Chen received them and flipped through them. The first secret manual did not have any attribute requirements. It contained a total of ten moves and was very tyrannical. Each move was more vicious than the last.

Its main focus was using aura to suppress others. When fighting a cultivator that was weaker, only one punch would be necessary to deal with him.

If fighting against a stronger opponent, unless one had very exquisite moves or was able to attack a lot faster, one could only clash head-on and try to suppress him in terms of aura.

However, its weak point was that its expenditure was huge. A regular Superior Grade Martial King would only be able to execute one set of this Fist Technique before running out of Essence.

The other problem was that the moves did not flow very well one after the other. It was very blunt and straightforward.

This Fist Technique was a Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Technique. Xiao Chen felt that it was not bad. If there were no other choices, he would take this. This tyrannical Fist Technique suited his needs.

Xiao Chen had plenty of Essence—much more than a regular Martial King. He could also switch between Essence and Vital Qi to support the expenditure. Hence, the first weakness could be neglected.

As for the second weakness, Xiao Chen did not care too much about it. For him, Fist Techniques were only a supplement. He still had exquisite Saber Techniques that flowed very well.

The second manual was a wind-attributed Fist Technique. It focused on achieving the fastest attacking speed possible and exquisite attack combos.

Xiao Chen shook his head and gave up on it. He already had Saber Techniques that were exquisite and very fast. There was no need for his Fist Technique to focus on speed as well.

Xiao Chen continued to look at the third manual. It was a lightning-attributed Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Technique—the Thunder Roc Fist.

An expert of the senior generation observed the high ranked lightning-attributed Spirit Beast, the Thunder Roc, and created this Fist Techniques based on his insights.

It contained the speed of the Thunder Roc and its berserk nature. It also contained the technique used by the Thunder Rocs when they hunted for prey and the insights that he gained throughout his life.

Xiao Chen thought to himself, Indeed, that old man did not cheat me. I managed to find two suitable Fist Techniques in an instant.

I should continue to look and see if there are any better ones. If there are no better ones, then I shall pick one from these two.

The fourth secret manual was called Dragon Claw Fist. It was a Martial Technique that combined both Fist Techniques and Claw Techniques. It switched between the fist and claw, catching the opponent off guard.

Dragon Claw…Xiao Chen quite liked these words, as he felt it might be compatible with the Azure Dragon Qi.

Xiao Chen continued reading. The Dragon Claw Fist was a peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Technique. His expression could not help but change.

Although Superior Grade Earth Ranked and peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked only differed by one word, the difference in might was huge.

The might of a peak Superior Grade Fist Technique was already infinitely close to a Heaven Ranked Fist Technique. Furthemore, without reaching a certain cultivation realm, one would not be able to use it.

Using a Heaven Ranked Martial Technique could result in the body exploding. Xiao Chen himself had experienced that before.

So, a peak Earth Ranked Martial Technique was the most powerful Martial Technique possible under the Martial Monarch realm.

Xiao Chen felt doubtful, so he asked, “Is this Dragon Claw Fist really a peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Technique?”

The secret manual that the middle-aged man handed over only had the name and an introduction of the Martial Technique. It did not contain the incantations and the circulation method of Essence. So, Xiao Chen was not able to make a judgement on that.

The middle-aged man smiled and said, “My reputation is not just built in one or two days. Since it writes that it is a peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Martial Technique, it definitely is a peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Martial Technique. However, this Martial Technique is rather special. It is likely that it would be useless to you even if you bought it.”

“How so?”

The owner of the stall explained, “This Fist Technique can only be used with the purest Vital Qi. Furthermore, it has very high requirements on the physical body. If the physical body is not strong enough, even a cultivator who cultivates Vital Qi would suffer from serious internal injuries if he executed it forcefully. Before they could kill others, they would end up killing themselves.

“I can tell that you have a surging Essence. Naturally, it is impossible for you to be a physical body cultivator. You probably are not able to make your Vital Qi circulate as you please. Hence, it would be useless to you even if you bought it.”

Xiao Chen rejoiced in his heart. This Dragon Claw Fist seemed like it had been specially made for him. He casually asked, “How much?”

The middle-aged man felt suspicious and asked, “You want to buy it?”

Xiao Chen did not beat about the bush. He asked directly, “As long as the price is not too ridiculous, I will buy it.”

The middle-aged man said in a deep voice, “Don’t worry, all my goods are worth its value. As for the Martial Technique you want, although it is a peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Fist Technique, it is too peculiar. Thus, I will not offer you a ridiculous price. Thirty thousand Medial Grade Spirit Stones will do.”

Xiao Chen nodded and prepared to pay the thirty thousand Medial Grade Spirit Stones. He knew that the other party had quoted a reasonable price.

A peak Superior Grade Earth Ranked Martial Technique would go for fifty thousand Medial Grade Spirit Stones at an auction if there were no unexpected surprises.

Xiao Chen tried asking, “Can I pay using Inferior Grade Spirit Stones?”

The middle-aged man shook his head and said, “No. All Martial Techniques that exceed Inferior Grade Earth Ranked require Medial Grade Spirit Stones for payment.”

Xiao Chen did not hesitate and took out the stones, he had merely asked out of curiosity. He had already guessed that the other party would not agree.

After Xiao Chen handed over the Spirit Stones, the middle-aged man counted them. Then he took out the true secret manual from his spatial ring and handed it to Xiao Chen.

Xiao Chen flipped through the secret manual and verified that it was real before placing it into his Universe Ring.

Before leaving, Xiao Chen looked at the many secret manuals in the middle-aged man’s stall. He asked out of curiosity, “Where did you get all these secret manuals from? If the information is a secret, I am willing to pay Spirit Stones for it.”

So many secret manuals should have been the result of a land full of fortuitous encounters. Fortuitous encounters all had a great attraction to cultivators, and Xiao Chen was no exception.

The middle-aged man chuckled. He said, “No, it is not a secret. After you leave this place, this secret manual might even find its way back to my hands.”

Xiao Chen’s heart turned cold when he heard this. He now knew how the other party had obtained all these secret manuals—they had been all obtained by killing others.

Given that he could rob so many secret manuals, this person was at least a half-step Martial Monarch.

“Ha ha, don’t worry. I never make a move against my customers,” The middle-aged man laughed loudly when he saw Xiao Chen’s expression.