Chapter 17: Reading Notes

Crisp slapping sounds resonated in the spacious fighting room, occasionally accompanied by the sound of cracked ceramic.

Yang Zhongyi's palms slapped out like lightning, forming an impenetrable curtain of shadows that enveloped Lin Shen with scorching air waves.

Facing his opponent's fast and fierce attacks, Lin Shen remained as unperturbed as a reef standing firm in the storm.

He nimbly dodged Yang Zhongyi's palm strike. When he couldn't dodge, he would quickly adjust his movements and used the intact strengthened ceramic plates on his body to withstand the attack to minimize the damage.

After another four to five minutes, they suddenly retreated at the same time, putting distance between them. "That was great! Let's rest for a while."

Yang Zhongyi took a towel from the shelf, wiped his sweat, and casually threw another one to Lin Shen.

Seeing Lin Shen take off the protective mask and wipe the sweat off his face, Yang Zhongyi couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

When Lin Shen first became a training partner, he could barely last an hour, but now, Lin Shen could last two hours under Yang's full-on attack.

Although the double protections helped a lot, his combat strength was still quite outstanding. [模糊]At least, Yang Zhongyi had never seen an ordinary student like Lin Shen. "Speaking of which, why haven't you come to school for the past few days? I almost thought you had given up on this part-time job."

As he wiped his sweat, Yang Zhongyi casually chatted with Lin Shen. "I've been busy moving for the past few days. I only finished yesterday."

Yang Zhongyi finally understood.

In fact, Lin Shen hadn't found out Yang Zhongyi was also a student of Willow Academy until recently.

Like most of the disciples of influential families, Yang Zhongyi rarely went to the academy. He spent more time in Taiyang Martial Arts School than in the academy, so Lin Shen didn't recognize him at first.

After chatting for about twenty minutes, Yang Zhongyi stretched his arms sideways and looked at Lin Shen with raised eyebrows. "Are you done resting? Shall we continue?"

Lin Shen nodded and suddenly asked, "Can I fight back?"

Yang Zhongyi was stunned for a moment before he grinned. "No problem, as long as you're not afraid of getting beaten to the ground!"

Lin Shen smiled and got up to prepare for the battle.

The dangerous battle with Tian Dian the other night made Lin Shen realize one of his weaknesses—he had too little combat experience!

At the end of the day, he was just a student. He cultivated by the book, only practiced palm techniques in cultivation classes. He had very little combat experience.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to sacrifice Clone 2 to kill Tian Dian that night when he had the advantage of ambushing Tian Dian.

In light of this, Lin Shen felt he should overcome this weakness.

After thinking about it, only training with Yang Zhongyi could achieve this goal.

Although it was training but now actual battle, he could still gain a little experience.

But first of all, he had to be able to fight back during the training, instead of spending the entire time defending himself.

After some preparation, the two of them quickly began a new round of training.

The protective gear provided by Tai Yang Martial Arts School was exquisite. Although it weighed more than 5kg after the strengthened ceramic plates, it didn't affect the movement of his limbs. His speed was lowered slightly, but it didn't affect his ability to attack and parry.

When Yang Zhongyi heard Lin Shen's request to fight back, he felt Lin Shen had overestimated himself. Yagg Zhongyi only agreed because he found it interesting.

However, as soon as they started fighting, he realized he had underestimated Lin Shen.

When Lin Shen used the Blazing Sun Palm, it shocked Yang Zhongyi even more. "Mastery in Blazing Sun Palm!"

Yang Zhongyi looked at Lin Shen in surprise.

He thought he had outstanding talent and sufficient cultivation resources. However, he had only reached Proficient in the Blazing Sun Palm.

Who would have thought that Lin Shen, an ordinary student from a welfare institute, could have reached the same level in the Blazing Sun Palm as him? "Could this guy actually be a genius?"

Yang Zhongyi's battle intent was ignited after the initial shock. He shouted, and his attacks became more and more ferocious. …

Dinner was still a sumptuous spirit beast meat feast. Lin Shen and his three clones finished all the food like a tornado and began to meditate as usual.

After that, the three clones cultivated separately. Lin Shen took out the notebook left behind by Tian Dian from his storage jade plate and sat on the sofa to read it.

The content recorded in the notebook was a little messy. There were insights and understandings about cultivation, as well as some of Tian Dian's daily experiences.

Although Tian Dian's cultivation technique wasn't one of the three fundamental ones, cultivation techniques could be comprehended by analogy, and his comprehension was quite useful to Lin Shen.

However, what attracted Lin Shen the most was Tian Dian's experience in the notes, especially the black market mentioned in it!

Just as there was light and darkness, no matter how prosperous a city was, there were dark corners where light couldn't shine.

Dragonside City was no exception.

Among the five major districts of Dragonside City, the most prosperous Central District was the core area of the entire city. More than 80% of the influential people of the city could be found there. It was said that most of the cultivator masters lived there.

The second was the Western District, a business district, and the Southern District, where the middle class lived. Apart from Central District, they were the most prosperous districts of the four.

The Eastern District was, in general, where the commoner lived. Lin Shen's previous apartment building and his new residence were both located here.

Willow Academy was also located in the Eastern District.

The Northern District was an industrial area.

In private, it was also known as the slum.

This was because a large number of poverty-stricken people lived there. Not only was it far less prosperous than the other four districts, but the public order was also extremely chaotic. The crime rate was the highest among the five districts and far exceeded the second.

In fact, if Lin Shen hadn't revealed some cultivation talent when he was young and obtained the allowance from the Three Sect Prefecture, someone like him who came from a welfare institute would usually end up in the Northern District.

They would either be exploited by large companies or factories for the rest of their lives and live on a meager salary or fall into the darkness and become rats in the gutter, losing their lives in battle someday in the future.

Lin Shen couldn't help but sigh when he recalled what the North District was like.

He composed himself and continued to browse through the notes.

The so-called black market referred to a street in the Northern District.

The black market was just a name used by outsiders. People living on that street were more used to calling their residence "black street".

It was a gray area not affected by the law with its own order and appearance.

On black street, many items that were prohibited from circulating outside could be bought.

For example, there were pills that had both obvious effects and powerful side effects, cursed artifacts, medium materials needed to cultivate some evil technique, rare herbs of unknown origin, and even somebody's life.

Tian Dian had clearly stayed on the black street for a long time.

The notes on what he saw on the black street accounted for almost a quarter of the entire diary.

Lin Shen devoured the notes.

Although the welfare institute he came from was in the Northern District, he had never been to black street.

Reading the notes had opened his eyes.

His pupils contracted when he saw the last page.

This page recorded Tian Dian finding a medicinal liquid called the Condensing Liquid when he was purchasing medicinal pills in a shop on black street.

The so-called Condensing Liquid was a by-product of the Condensing Pill.

To put it bluntly, it was a liquid waste.

However, the Condensing Pill was a precious pill used by Long Breath Stage cultivators to increase their Qi. Even if its liquid waste contained a rich amount of energy and was still effective for Qi Transformation Stage cultivators, on the other hand, the Condensing Liquid had a huge flaw.

As a by-product of the refining process, it was mixed with a large number of impurities. In professional terms, it contained intense pill poison. [It would cause irreparable damage to the user, causing their lifespan to decrease.

In other words, the user would be using their lifespan to exchange for cultivation achievement!

Because of this, even though the Condensing Liquid's effect was as good as the Essence Tempering Pill, very few people were interested in it.

Other than some desperate cultivators, almost no one would buy such a thing.

A thought suddenly flashed through Lin Shen's mind when he saw this.

Others might be afraid of the toxin, but he wasn't!

He could let his clone use the Condensing Liquid, especially Clone 2, who had the talent of God's Jealousy.

Since its lifespan had been halved, reducing it a little wouldn't matter much.

Compared to the powerful medicinal effects, the side-effect of shortening one's lifespan was nothing.

More importantly, the Condensing Liquid was very cheap!

One liter of it had the same effect as a bottle of Energy Tempering Pills, but the price was only 2,000 spirit coins, which was cheaper than \one Energy Tempering Pill.

To Lin Shen, that was the top quality with the lowest price! "There are still more than three bottles of Essence Tempering Pills left, which can take me to the seventh level at most. At that time, if I don't have any new medicinal pills, my cultivation speed will definitely decrease significantly!"

Lin Shen's eyes flickered, and he quickly made up his mind. "Looks like I have to pay a visit to the black street!"