"Brother, I see you wandering around every day, but you never seem to buy anything!"

"When are you going to give a brother some business?"

Chu Mu had only taken a few steps before Wang Mazi popped out from who-knows-where and sidled up to him.

Chu Mu had to admit he was impressed by Wang Mazi. A typical Cultivator valued their Cultivation level above all else.

To a nobody like him at the Qi Cultivation First Layer, those with even slightly higher Cultivation would put on the airs of a senior and look down on him with disdain.

But this Wang Mazi, a man at the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer and considered a minor expert in Jade Emperor Valley, was still perfectly polite to a nobody like him.

Even if it was just for the sake of earning Spirit Stones, this ability to be courteous to everyone was not something the average Cultivator could emulate.

Moreover, as far as he knew, the Jade Emperor Valley Law Enforcement Team had launched several major crackdowns on resellers in the past few months, wiping out quite a few peddlers. Yet this Wang Mazi was still cheerfully strolling the streets.

"Brother Wang, I’d love to give you some business, but I just don’t have enough Spirit Stones!"

Chu Mu sounded somewhat helpless, and he meant it. Although he had saved up nearly thirteen Lower Grade Spirit Stones, it really wasn’t enough to buy much.

At the Learning Pavilion, a single Tier One Lower Grade Fireball Skill cost ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

And for him, Magic was far more complex to practice than the Blazing Fire Technique.

Practicing the Blazing Fire Technique was essentially a continuation of his Body Refining Technique Cultivation. The mundane foundations were already there, and he had gained a fairly detailed understanding of the Meridians, acupoints, and his Dantian back in the mortal world.

But when it came to Magic, he had absolutely no foundation to speak of.

Over the past few days, Chu Mu had made sure to gather clear information.

Mastering a Magic technique wasn’t like a Sword Technique, which was just a few moves repeated over and over. There was an immense amount of knowledge to learn.

Take the Fireball Skill, for example. To learn it, he first needed a clear understanding of the principles of Magic. Then, he needed an extremely detailed understanding of Spiritual Qi and the Divine Soul.

Furthermore, every Magic technique had a stable structure, defined in the Cultivation Immortal Realm as a Magic Model.

Each Magic technique was sustained by its Magic Model. The Magic Model was constructed with Divine Sense and inscribed upon the Divine Soul. The slightest deviation could cause irreversible damage to the Divine Soul.

The Magic Model, in turn, was constructed from Magic Inscriptions. To learn Magic, one first had to have a detailed understanding of these Magic Inscriptions.

And as far as Chu Mu knew, there were officially-run schools in the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace.

Though they were called schools, it was merely a term borrowed from the mortal world. In reality, they were places for the equivalent exchange of knowledge.

For instance, if he wanted to learn the Fireball Skill, he could enroll in one of these schools.

The fee was forty Lower Grade Spirit Stones for a total of five lessons.

Chu Mu had even found out the exact course content.

The lessons were: Basics of Spiritual Qi, the Connection Between the Divine Soul and Spiritual Qi, the Connection Between the Fireball Skill’s Magic Model and the Divine Soul, an Explanation of the Fireball Skill’s Inscriptions, and Construction of the Fireball Skill’s Magic Model.

All five lessons revolved entirely around the Fireball Skill, without a single bit of content going beyond its scope.

And the lecturer was apparently a master at the Late Stage of Qi Cultivation.

However, these officially-run schools only seemed to offer equivalent exchange for some basic Magic and Cultivation Techniques.

As for anything else, like the fundamental knowledge Chu Mu yearned for, there was still no trace.

Right now, Chu Mu’s entire net worth was less than thirteen Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

Forget about attending classes at the school; he didn’t even have enough Spirit Stones to buy the basic knowledge to study on his own.

Chu Mu’s plan was to first buy a few books on the fundamentals of the Fireball Skill to study, then save up Spirit Stones for a while longer to buy the Fireball Skill’s Magic Model.

A book on the basics of Fireball Skill Inscriptions cost three Lower Grade Spirit Stones at the Learning Pavilion. A book on the principles of the Fireball Skill’s Magic cost another three. Add to that the fifteen Spirit Stones for the Fireball Skill’s Magic Model, and the total would only be twenty-one Spirit Stones.

Compared to attending classes, he could save almost half the Spirit Stones.

With his "Spiritual Radiance Blessing," Chu Mu was quite confident in his ability to learn and research on his own.

Besides, that was the Learning Pavilion’s price. If it was from someone like Wang Mazi before him...

Chu Mu smiled and played along. He didn’t have a Storage Talisman, and with such a large bag of Broken Spirits in his robes, if Wang Mazi wasn’t sharp enough to notice, his ashes would have been scattered to the winds long ago.

However, he wasn’t the same ignorant rookie he used to be.

Buying from a peddler like Wang Mazi meant risking breaking the law. If caught, he would be sent to do hard labor.

’The risk must be proportional to the reward!’

’Demanding half price wouldn’t be going too far!’

Chu Mu kept up the cheerful charade. Wang Mazi was forward and familiar, and so was he. With the experience of two lifetimes, he had at least that much skill.

After a long back-and-forth, they finally got down to business.

What followed was another round of haggling.

In the end, Chu Mu spent one hundred and twenty Broken Spirits to acquire the Fireball Skill knowledge he wanted. Wang Mazi even threw in a voucher for the Magic Experiment Hall.

Chu Mu departed, fully loaded and grinning, while Wang Mazi clutched a bag of Spirit Stones, looking equally pleased.

As for who got the better end of the deal, no one could say.

’The Magic Experiment Hall... they can make money off this too?’

Chu Mu stared at the small card in his hand, unable to stop himself from grumbling internally.

This was the first time he had ever heard of a Magic Experiment Hall.

According to Wang Mazi’s explanation just now, private duels were strictly forbidden within the Jade Emperor Valley Marketplace. The use of any cultivation-related creations like Magic or Magical Artifacts without permission was also prohibited.

The fundamental reason was that when a Cultivator used a Magical Artifact or Magic, it would cause Spiritual Qi turbulence within a certain range, making the Spiritual Qi violent and difficult for Cultivators to absorb.

Furthermore, the influence of this violent Spiritual Qi could cause unpredictable changes to the local environment.

Thus, in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, this was known as Spiritual Power pollution.

Therefore, if a Cultivator wanted to test their Magic, they had two choices. They could either leave the Marketplace and go a hundred miles out, where they could blast away to their heart’s content with no one to bother them.

Or, they could choose to conduct their Magic experiments in the Marketplace’s Magic Experiment Hall.

And according to Wang Mazi, the facilities in Jade Emperor Valley’s Magic Experiment Hall were extremely well-equipped and could provide a very clear measure of a Cultivator’s progress with their Magic.

The Magic Experiment Hall was also equipped with Support Magical Artifacts for Spiritual Qi purification, which could cleanse the pollution caused by magical turbulence and prevent any damage to the Marketplace’s Spiritual Qi.

However... according to Wang Mazi, the minimum price for one experiment session in the Magic Experiment Hall was one Spirit Stone...

The corner of Chu Mu’s mouth twitched. ’That’s some easy money.’

He wanted to earn it too...

He felt the few remaining Broken Spirits in his robes. After months of hard work, a single purchase had sent him right back to where he started.

Chu Mu glanced at Wang Mazi, who was already chatting with another Cultivator by the side of the street. A thought occurred to him, and his brow furrowed slightly, but then his expression relaxed.

High prices and a tight monopoly on goods would inevitably lead to... the emergence of a Black Market.

Wang Mazi’s operation could be considered a Black Market in a sense.

But... couldn’t there be a larger, more organized Black Market?

’Risk and reward are directly proportional!’

’Find a secret place, set up a Black Market... even just charging an entrance fee would probably be enough to rake in a fortune.’

He refused to believe that no Cultivator would try to make that kind of money.

Fortune favors the bold, while the timid starve.

This principle was even more true in this Cultivation Immortal Realm.

’I should ask around when I get a chance...’

Chu Mu pressed his lips together, his mind racing.

If a Black Market like the one he imagined truly existed, there would surely be fewer rules, and anything could potentially be available.

Perhaps the fundamental knowledge he so desperately craved could be found in such a Black Market.

This time, Chu Mu didn’t linger in the Marketplace. Having just acquired the legendary Magic, he was already feeling an itch of impatience.

Upon returning to Li’s Ore Materials, Chu Mu headed straight for his room. The moment the door closed, the Restriction activated, sealing him off from the outside world.

Three books, three volumes of knowledge. The Tier One Magic, Fireball Skill, was now completely laid out before him.

’Magic Inscription...’

Chu Mu read the book seriously, his brow furrowed in thought from time to time.

After being in the Cultivation Immortal Realm for so long, he wasn’t completely ignorant about the so-called Inscription Array Text of Cultivators.

Magic, regardless of its grade, was constructed from Magic Inscriptions.

Talismans, on the other hand, were constructed from Runes.

In Artifact Refining Skill, the lines on a Magical Artifact were called Artifact Patterns.

And for Arrays, they were called Array Patterns.

These terms highlighted a key distinction between two different systems: one based on written characters, the other on drawn patterns.

But regardless of the system, their foundation was always the Yin Yang Five Elements.

Even the highest-grade existences were all evolved from the basic Yin Yang Five Elements.

And right now, before him, were three basic Fire Attribute Inscriptions.

The Fireball Skill’s Magic Model was constructed from these three basic Fire Attribute Inscriptions.

The "Spiritual Radiance Blessing" had already appeared. Chu Mu carefully studied the Fire Attribute Inscriptions drawn on the paper.

This volume was clearly not made of ordinary mortal paper. The Inscriptions were drawn on the page, which should have been a flat image, but the moment his Divine Sense swept over it, it instantly transformed into something similar to the 3D images of his past life.

He could even control it with his Divine Sense, moving it as he pleased.

The three Inscriptions were displayed with a full 360-degree, unobstructed view.

’There must be a fundamental basis for these Inscriptions...’

Observing the Fire Attribute Inscriptions before him, Chu Mu couldn’t help but speculate.

Each Inscription was like a complex symbol.

But since the Inscription System was derived from the Yin Yang Five Elements, its existence must have some kind of underlying logic.

It was like the Chinese characters from his past life. No matter what the character was, no matter how complex, it was always composed of the same few basic strokes.

It was impossible for the Magic Inscriptions before him to lack such a foundation.

Chu Mu slowly flipped through the books, but even after finishing all three, he found no mention of the knowledge he was speculating about.

The books on the Fireball Skill really were only about the Fireball Skill, with not a single piece of information beyond its scope!

In fact, it seemed that in order to prevent any content from going over the line, even some knowledge that should have been part of the Fireball Skill’s scope was just glossed over.

Take these three Fire Attribute Magic Inscriptions, for instance. An explanation of their structure should naturally describe their construction clearly.

But in this book, the three Magic Inscriptions were just printed on the paper, and their structural descriptions were also just glossed over or described vaguely!

...