C4 Ghost Market

4 Ghost Markets

Lin Yan had once heard Feng Ling mention that fire was a pill refiner's foundation.

All pill refiners had to cultivate fire. The stronger the fire, the higher the tier of the pill refiner. Only then would he be able to refine pills.

On the other hand, the [Flame Mantra] was an introductory lesson that all pill refiners had to learn.

With curiosity, he flipped open the《 Flame Mantra》.

After flipping through a few pages, Zhang Xuan understood.

According to what was written, only with a spirit fire in one's body would one be able to become an apothecary.

And the 'Flame Mantra' was speaking of using the spirit fire of the Mandate to perceive the fire element.

All things contained a fire element. The pill refiner relied on the Flame Mantra to absorb the fire element. Once it was accumulated to a certain degree, it would be able to increase his strength. After that, he would control the flames, either to fight or to refine pills.

Upon seeing this, a crazy idea suddenly appeared in Lin Yan's mind.

His thoughts were — his dantian would often feel a burning sensation, and there was also a ball of mist. Could this be the spirit fire of his life? Would he be able to become an apothecary just by doing so? If that was the case, he might be able to break through the formation in a month. He would be stripped of his trash skin and the name of Genius would shine once again on the stage. Everything that is lost will be taken back...

Of course, he also knew that this idea was too unbelievable.

Before he was ten years old, he had already tested countless times, but he didn't have any life spirit fire in his body. Even if that ball of fog had a special effect, it couldn't possibly be a spirit fire. It should be fire, after all.

However, once that crazy thought was born, he couldn't hold it in any longer. It was like he had put a hundred cats into his heart and was scratching it with ten thousand claws.

His face was flushed, his palms were sweating, and his cold eyes were burning.

The burning pain in his dantian was even more obvious, and he could not endure the heat anymore.

No, I have to give it a try, or else I won't be able to rest easy.

As he thought of this, he held the firestone-sized fire spirit stone in his hand and began to test if there were any spiritual flames.

As an apothecary, the spirit fire was the key.

Lin Yan held the fire spirit stone in his hand and looked at it expectantly, hoping that he could see the flashing red light.

A moment later, the expectations in Lin Yan's eyes gradually turned into disappointment.

The ice-cold fire stone did not emit a red glow.

This meant that he didn't have a spirit fire in his body.

However, just as Lin Yan was disappointed, the fire spirit stone underwent a change.

It did not emit red light, but it gradually emitted green light.

The green light flashed on and off like a blue lamp on a dark night.

In the end, the azure light completely lit up.

"Spirit fire?!" Lin Yan cried out involuntarily.

Before he was ten years old, he had tested twice, but never once had he been able to light up a fire spirit stone. Logically speaking, if one couldn't measure their spirit fire before the age of ten, then there would be no hope for the future. Lin Yan was already 14 years old, yet he managed to find out the true essence fire. This could not help but make him happy.

"But why is it green?"

Lin Yan was curious. The Wind Spirit once said that when testing a spirit fire, the fire spirit stone would emit a red light because the flame was red.

But why was his spirit fire green?

After pondering for a moment and failing to find an answer, Lin Yan decided not to think about it anymore.

Since there was spiritual fire within, it meant that he was an apothecary.

He put down the fire spirit stone and flipped open the Flame Mantra.

The [Flame Mantra] was a basic course for pill refiners, so he had to study it carefully.

But when he turned a few pages, he stopped again. His face began to reveal a wry smile.

It was said in the "Flame Mantra" that once a person had spirit fire, he wouldn't be able to cultivate it immediately. He would first need to consume the Fire Spirit Zoysia as an arson before he could start cultivating.

Lin Yan closed the book as his mind raced.

The Fire Lingzhi was an extremely rare spirit grass that grew at the mouth of a volcano.

Only after ten years of budding and ten years of blooming could one grow in a hundred years.

The price of the lowest hundred year old Fire Spirit Zoysia was over a thousand silver, and it was even priceless.

Furthermore, the family business was basically in the hands of Lin Luo and his son. Every month, they only gave him ten or so taels of silver, so how could he amass a thousand taels of silver?

After pondering for a moment, Lin Yan gritted his teeth and took out a jade pendant from his body. This piece of jade was given to him by his father on his birthday. It was worth five or six hundred taels. Although it was a little far, Lin Yan decided to try his luck.

Then there was the bigger problem — he couldn't buy it openly.

If others were to find out that a fool had gone to buy a Fire Lingzhi, they would probably suspect him and destroy his plans from within. His plans would be in vain.

Looks like I can only go to the Ghost Market.

Just as he said.

Lin Yan did not do anything during the day, he just hugged his head and slept on the bed. Only waiting for dark.

However, he had something on his mind, so how could he sleep? The bed was tormented by the tossing and turning of the bed.

He waited until it was dark, and reason told him to wait.

However, he couldn't control his emotions any longer, and he hurriedly circled the room. The sound of his heavy footsteps echoed in the small room.

Finally, in the dead of night, Lin Yan wrapped himself in a large black cloth from head to toe like a dumpling. He forcefully suppressed the excitement in his heart and quietly opened the door to his room.

When he reached the wall, he listened carefully to make sure no one was following him before he climbed over the wall. It was as if a tiger had shed a noose, and a bird had left its cages. It was in a carefree and relaxed mood, and with light footsteps, it charged straight towards the ghost market five li away.

The Ghost Market was actually a black market, a mountain stronghold that was built according to the mountains.

This mountain stronghold was a normal residential stronghold, but at night, it turned into a black market. Businessmen, assassins, and spirit users from all over the place gathered here, engaging in underground trade.

Here, you can buy medicinal materials, spiritual skills, and Magic Treasures that you can't buy in the daytime market. These people who possessed treasures either had their lives in their hands and were afraid to trade in the daytime, or were unwilling to show their faces. In short, he came to the black market for various reasons.

The black market has its own managers, guaranteeing the order of the market and fair trading.

By the time Lin Yan arrived, the market had already begun.

In the mountain stronghold, spirit practitioners could be seen setting up stalls all over the place. The torchlight shone on their faces, making them look like ancient antiques.

Lin Yan's black clothes did not attract much attention. There were all sorts of people here, and there were many more who were more curious than him.

After casually circling around the village, to his surprise, he easily found a person that sold Fire Lingzhi.

That person had placed a small stall with many kinds of secret manuals, spirit herbs, pills, and the like. Even if the entire Ghost Market was filled with his goods.

Amongst these goods, there was a brick sized block of ice. It was April, but the ice didn't melt at all. A thick layer of fog covered its surface.

After blowing away the mist, through the crystal clear ice, one could see that inside of it was a fiery-red Fiery Ganoderma that was shaped like a mushroom.

Lin Yan knew that although the Fire Spirit Zoysia was born at the mouth of a volcano, it had to be preserved with the Hundred Years of Ice deep within the iceberg. Otherwise, it would turn into powder and wouldn't be consumed within two days.

This hundred year old ice was extremely resistant to heat and would not melt even in the summer heat. Furthermore, once they left the cave of ice, they would become extremely hard, and wouldn't be able to split open the blades or pierce through the axes. The only way to take out the Fire Lingzhi was to use the ice from the place where the block of ice had been made into an axe. Only by breaking through the hundred years of ice outside could one obtain it.

After looking at the Fire Spirit Zoysia for a moment, the cold light in Lin Yan's eyes started to burn.

He was going to take this Flaming Ganoderma for sure.

He shifted his gaze away from the Flaming Ganoderma and turned his gaze onto the face of the vendor that was illuminated by the fire. He asked, "This Flaming Ganoderma …"

"Eight hundred liang." Before Lin Yan could finish asking, the stall owner blurted out.

Lin Yan's heart skipped a beat and he pretended to be surprised as he asked, "It's only eight hundred liang for this Fire Lingzhi, aren't you a little too greedy?"

"Nonsense, this is a black market, it would be weird if it isn't black." The stall owner snappily replied, "Eight hundred liang is still too much, you ignorant country bumpkin."

Being said in such a manner by the stall owner, Lin Yan was not angry at all. He knew that the price of this Fire Spirit Zoysia was absolutely over a thousand silver. Perhaps there was some special reason behind the stall, which was why it was being sold cheaply.

But even if it was eight hundred silver, he still wouldn't be able to take it out. In this day and age, he was poor.

After lovingly playing with the piece of Hundred Year Ice, a thought suddenly appeared in Lin Yan's mind.