Three Rivers Town.

After bidding farewell to Zhaang Yumei, Zhaang Ye left the dense forest. The journey was tense but without any real danger. Carrying two large backpacks, he returned to Three Rivers Town.

In any other place, walking around with two such large packs would surely attract attention. But Three Rivers Town was not far from the outer forests of the Barbaric Beast Mountain Range. Adventurers and Medicine Gatherers entering the mountains often carried out materials in massive bundles, so someone like Zhaang Ye was a common sight.

Zhaang Ye had lived in Three Rivers Town for several years and was very familiar with everything about it. Without even glancing at the signs on either side of the street, he headed straight for a medicinal herb and material acquisition shop at the end of the road, backpacks in tow.

The shop’s owner was an old man in his fifties or sixties. He skillfully untied Zhaang Ye’s backpack and quickly began to take inventory of the Medicinal Herbs inside.

The old man quickly finished his count and gave a price: "The Medicinal Herbs in this pack include seven stalks of Seven-Leaf Nine-Flower Grass, five Red Tear Flowers, two Wind Vines, and eleven stalks of Thunder God Root. They’re all Aged Medicine. Huh? And three Jade Blue Flowers! Jade Blue Flowers are a mutated medicinal herb; each one is worth three thousand taels of Gold. Hmm, let me calculate the total... Got it. This bag of medicine is worth a total of fifteen thousand, one hundred and fifteen taels of Gold."

Hearing he had earned over fifteen thousand taels of Gold, Zhaang Ye couldn’t help but feel a surge of joy. Though he already had a large stack of Golden Tickets on him, no one ever complained about having too much Gold. With this extra fifteen thousand-plus taels, he would have much more leeway to purchase some High Level Elixirs and weapons.

Martial Artists could never have too much money. Cultivation Secret Manuals, supplementary Elixirs, suitable weapons, and even places for Cultivation—every single one required a vast amount of wealth.

Unless one was a one-in-a-hundred-million genius, they would need the support of these external resources.

Once Zhaang Ye confirmed the amount for the Medicinal Herbs, the owner opened the other backpack. Inside this one were the Snake Hide and several bone segments from a large snake.

Seeing the two dark, heavy pieces of Snake Hide, a pleased expression appeared on the owner’s face. He said, "This Snake Hide is excellent. The scales are thick and the leather is tough yet flexible. It could be made into three pieces of Snake Skin Armor. Hmm, these two pieces of Snake Hide are each worth two thousand taels of Gold. The bone segments aren’t worth much, say fifty taels of Gold per piece..."

The owner quickly finished his appraisal, offering four thousand three hundred taels of Gold. Added to the previous fifteen thousand, one hundred and fifteen taels, the contents of Zhaang Ye’s two backpacks converted to a total of nineteen thousand, four hundred and fifteen taels of Gold—a considerable income.

After taking the Golden Tickets from the owner, Zhaang Ye pondered for a moment, then turned and headed toward the town’s general goods market.

The general goods market was on the east side of Three Rivers Town. It was a place where all sorts of miscellaneous items were traded. Zhaang Ye had come here mainly because he wanted to buy a better saber.

Although the Thick-Backed Saber in his possession was still comfortable to use, its quality was very ordinary. After countless battles, the blade had snapped in half, and its edge was riddled with small nicks.

A weapon is a Martial Artist’s second life. Zhaang Ye was well aware of how important a weapon was for a Martial Artist. It was one thing when he was broke, but now that he had money, he would naturally buy a better saber.

Zhaang Ye browsed in a weapon shop for a long time before finally settling on a Thick-Backed Saber that had a faint blue sheen.

Seeing Zhaang Ye standing before the saber for a while, the elderly Shopkeeper chuckled. "You have your eye on a Thick-Backed Saber. Excellent taste. The Thick-Backed Saber represents both strength and wisdom. The back of the blade is a symbol of strength, while the edge is a symbol of wisdom. An edge without a strong back will easily break, but a back without a sharp edge has no way to apply its power. The Thick-Backed Saber perfectly combines strength and wisdom, ideal for powerful chops and slashes, overwhelming opponents with sheer ferocity. Of course, if your Saber Technique advances to the Great Success Realm, you could just as easily execute light and nimble techniques with it..."

Amused by the Shopkeeper’s enthusiastic sales pitch, Zhaang Ye waved his hand and said, "Shopkeeper, what I want to know is the quality of this saber."

The Shopkeeper said proudly, "I forged this saber myself. I infused high-quality steel with Purple Mountain Copper and tempered it nine times. The blade’s composition is pure; it can slice through an ordinary steel saber with a single strike."

Zhaang Ye drew the saber and inspected its edge, finding it sharp and smooth. He gave it a light flick, and it let out a clear, long-lasting metallic ring. The quality was indeed excellent.

Just then, the Shopkeeper produced a steel saber from somewhere. Zhaang Ye tested the Thick-Backed Saber with a single slash. With a light CLINK, the steel saber was sliced into two pieces.

Zhaang Ye examined the edge of the Thick-Backed Saber again. It was still perfectly smooth, without a single nick. It was truly a fine saber.

Zhaang Ye made his decision and asked, "This saber isn’t bad. How much is it?"

"Heh heh, not expensive at all. Three thousand taels of Gold."

"Three thousand taels of Gold!" Zhaang Ye couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. "Even if it were made of solid gold, this saber wouldn’t be worth that much, would it?"

The Shopkeeper chuckled. "If it were made of gold, it certainly wouldn’t be worth this much. The key is one of the materials used to forge it: the rare Purple Mountain Copper. A piece of Purple Mountain Copper the size of a fingertip is worth several hundred taels of Gold. Infusing the blade with Purple Mountain Copper not only makes it harder and sharper, but it also makes it easier to channel Sword Qi. On that point alone, this saber is far superior to ordinary ones. My asking price of three thousand taels is by no means high."

Of course, Zhaang Ye wasn’t going to fall for the sales pitch. He immediately countered, "Fifteen hundred taels."

The Shopkeeper’s face fell. "My goodness, you’ve cut the price right in half! I can’t take a blow like that. The lowest I can go is twenty-nine hundred taels."

Zhaang Ye shook his head, about to press for a lower price, when a voice suddenly came from the doorway. "Heh heh, Shopkeeper, why bother haggling with a piece of trash from the family? Even if you offered that saber for three hundred taels, he couldn’t afford it."

Hearing this voice, Zhaang Ye’s brow furrowed. The speaker was none other than his own brother, Zhaang Jin.

Zhaang Chengtian, the Patriarch of the Zhaang Family in Three Rivers Town, was quite fond of women. The more women he slept with, the more brothers Zhaang Ye ended up with. Zhaang Ye was the seventh son, with five older brothers above him. Zhaang Jin was one of them.

Although Zhaang Ye had many siblings, his aptitude was mediocre and his Cultivation was low, so he had been looked down on by them since childhood. Zhaang Jin, in particular, had always found fault with Zhaang Ye and would bully him from time to time.

After Zhaang Ye left home a year ago to train, Zhaang Fang and the others had ordered Zhaang Jin to keep an eye out for him. Zhaang Jin had been on the lookout for a year without finding a trace of Zhaang Ye. He never expected to run into him just by chance while wandering through the general goods market today. Overjoyed, Zhaang Jin’s old habits flared up. Without a second thought, he had jumped out to mock and ridicule Zhaang Ye.

A year ago, even if he were ridiculed like this, Zhaang Ye would have had no choice but to endure it and wait for a chance to retaliate. But now, his Cultivation had reached the Martial Arts Third Layer, and he no longer needed to be wary of Zhaang Jin.

Zhaang Ye slowly turned around and said coolly, "If I’m a piece of trash, then you’re the older brother of a piece of trash. In other words, you’re the trash of all trash, the Top Grade of trash."