Being forced to grow like a pig? But I'm immune to the consequences!

A straight and wide passageway runs through the entire passage, with stalls and simple shops neatly arranged on both sides.

The stall had glow sticks emitting a faint blue light. The light was dim and soft, not bright, but enough to make out the surrounding scenery and road.

Contrary to expectations, the passageway was not deserted at all; instead, one could see figures moving back and forth inside.

Wu Sheng composed himself and walked slowly along the passage, his gaze sweeping over the shops on both sides before stopping first at a stall selling medicine.

On the wooden stand outside the stall, there were more than a dozen small glass bottles filled with various liquids, which looked very similar to the potential-enhancing potions used for cultivation.

Behind the stall was a dilapidated recliner, where a man was leaning against, his face covered with a cloth so his features were obscured. He was lazily dozing off, looking drowsy.

"Boss, what are these?" Wu Sheng asked, his voice low and deliberately concealing his true feelings.

Upon hearing the sound, the man clicked his tongue impatiently, not even lifting his eyelids, and replied dismissively, "What else could it be? Just some..."

He had only spoken halfway when he seemed to suddenly come to his senses, or as if he had realized something, and his words came to an abrupt halt.

The man suddenly sat up from the recliner, lifted the cloth covering his face, and stared intently at Wu Sheng, who was wearing a mask.

He first scanned him up and down, then a shrewd and enthusiastic smile appeared on his face, a stark contrast to his previous laziness.

"Hehe, this brother looks like he knows his stuff!" He rubbed his hands together and enthusiastically pointed to the medicine bottles on the table as he introduced them.

"Don't underestimate these things; they're all potential-enhancing potions used by martial artists for cultivation. Not only that, I can also get my hands on evolution potions—not the defective ones from the Hyena Gang that harm the body, but the legitimate stuff from the inner city, high-end stuff that costs 100 contribution points to exchange for and won't damage your foundation!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Sheng reached out and picked up a bottle of medicine to examine it.

The packaging of this medicine was completely different from what he had seen at the martial arts academy. The bottle was rough, and the liquid inside was pale green, though it did look somewhat similar.

Seeing him pick up the medicine and examine it closely, the shopkeeper assumed he was interested and his face lit up with even more delight. He quickly pressed his advantage: "Brother, my prices are fair, I won't rip you off. Since this is your first time here and you seem to like what you're looking for, I'll give you a discount—three thousand yuan a bottle, how about that?"

Wu Sheng played with the medicine bottle, his gaze calm. After a moment, he silently put the medicine back in its place.

This action immediately alarmed the shopkeeper, who rushed forward: "Hey, brother, why did you put it down? Do you think the price is too high? You know, these potential-enhancing potions are incredibly rare in the inner city, even if you have money! If you really want them, buy a few bottles, and I'll give you a price of 2,500 per bottle—that's the lowest price I can offer!"

Wu Sheng didn't reply, but simply shook his head and turned to leave the stall.

Before he came, Zhang Yong had repeatedly warned him that the underground black market was extremely murky and that most of the potential-enhancing drugs sold on the market were defective products made from waste materials, and were extremely toxic.

If the harm of ordinary potential-enhancing drugs to the body is one, the harm of these defective black market products can reach two or even four. Even if there are genuine products, there is no way to distinguish them; buying drugs here is almost guaranteed to result in being scammed.

The fact that the boss just said he could buy it with "money" further confirmed that the medicine was defective, so Wu Sheng naturally wouldn't be fooled.

However, he secretly pondered to himself—these defective products, which would be deadly poison to ordinary people, might have other uses for someone like him who possessed a primordial core. But that wasn't his purpose for this trip at the moment.

Wu Sheng continued to stroll along the passage, visiting several stalls in succession. He found that most of them sold low-quality potential potions, exotic beast meat, and similar items.

However, the exotic beast meat here looks different from that distributed by the Martial Academy. I wonder if it's really exotic beast meat or some other kind of meat.

As he walked, Wu Sheng suddenly stopped in front of a stall.

On the stall were several broken, fragmented objects, neither jade nor bone, with strange, intermittent patterns carved on them. They looked somewhat similar to the bone jade that Uncle Zhao had given him.

Wu Sheng's heart skipped a beat, and he bent down to pick up a fragment. The fragment was cold and rough, with blurry and incomplete patterns, and felt like a worthless dead object.

"Boss, what is this?" he asked.

The stall owner was even more laid-back than the previous pharmacist. Leaning against the wall, a straw dangling from his mouth, he glanced at Wu Sheng casually and said dismissively, "You don't even know what this is, and you're here to look at it?"

Without saying much, Wu Sheng simply took out a hundred-yuan coin and handed it to the shopkeeper, saying calmly, "Boss, could you please explain?"

Upon seeing the money, the shopkeeper instantly perked up, a smile spreading across his face. He took the money and pocketed it before slowly saying, "You're a good shopper. Let me tell you about it. This thing is called a 'strange bone'."

"I've heard that only martial artists can use this thing, and that they can comprehend special secret techniques from it. As for what those secret techniques are, I don't know—after all, I don't have that ability."

Wu Sheng nodded slightly and then asked, "Where did this thing come from?"

"Since it's called 'Strange Bone,' with the word 'strange' in it, it's naturally related to strange beasts." The shopkeeper spat out the straw in his mouth and said casually, "But whether it's actually from a strange beast or not, nobody can say for sure. I've never seen one myself. These things are all dug out from the ruins outside the city, and most of them are incomplete, like the one in your hand, which isn't very intact."

A thoughtful look flashed in Wu Sheng's eyes as he traced the patterns on the fragment of the strange bone with his fingertips, but he simply put it back in its original place.

"Boss, do you sell anything else here?" Wu Sheng asked, looking up.

The shopkeeper raised an eyebrow with interest, looking him up and down: "Other things? What do you want? Well—I can get most of the things on the black market here."

Wu Sheng spoke calmly, enunciating each word clearly: "I need methods to conceal one's cultivation level, as well as methods for a martial artist's subsequent cultivation."

Upon hearing this, the boss was taken aback at first, then retorted, "Conceal your cultivation level? People in the Body Tempering Realm are, frankly speaking, just ordinary mortals. There's nothing special about them. You can't tell their strength from each other without a fight, so why would they need any concealment techniques?"

"What about the martial arts realm?" Wu Sheng pressed.

The boss didn't think much of it when he heard that.

For people in their line of work, they'd clearly seen it all, or perhaps they simply didn't care about other people's affairs. He continued, "Methods for concealing one's cultivation level? Even if you become a martial artist in the inner city, you won't learn that. Only our black market has the means. As for the subsequent cultivation methods for martial artists, we have those here too—it's just…it depends on whether you can afford the price."

The boss followed the rules and didn't ask Wu Sheng's identity or purpose, only discussing the transaction.