Why did you provoke that old man? He's a reincarnation of a deity!

get out of class is over.

Jiang Youwei packed up her lesson plan, and before leaving, she glared fiercely at Xiao Nian's empty seat, then slammed the door shut with a livid face.

She had barely left when the back door of the classroom was kicked open with a bang.

A muscular man with a face full of scars, wearing a black vest, swaggered in with his two henchmen.

"Where is that old man named Xiao Nian?" the muscular man roared.

The instructors still in the classroom didn't dare to utter a sound. They recognized the muscular man in front of them—Zhang Hu, a near-advanced instructor and a peak-stage Qi Opening cultivator. He was the master of Zhao Ting, whom Xiao Nian had crippled.

"Zhang Hu is a ruthless person. He dared to fight to a draw with a martial artist who had just opened the meridians while he was still in the Body Tempering Realm."

"He's the kind of guy who, if he can't beat you today, he'll keep fighting you tomorrow, and if he still can't beat you, there's always the day after tomorrow. He's always in a state of battle."

"It is said that with his ruthless, persistent nature, no one in the entire academy below the rank of senior instructor dares to mess with him."

"It is said that the old man named Xiao Nian crippled his disciple."

"That old man's finished. He'll work himself to death," someone chuckled to themselves, as if watching a show.

Seeing that no one answered him, Zhang Hu slammed his hand on the steel podium: "Who exactly is Xiao Nian?!"

Qian Dazhuang quickly came over: "Brother Hu, it was that old codger, he just passed away during class."

"He dares to leave during class?" Qian Dazhuang sneered. "What does he think the military academy is? I'm about to be promoted to senior instructor, perfect timing, I'll teach this old geezer a lesson."

He glanced around the classroom, grinned, and said, "When that old man comes back tonight, you're not allowed to say anything to him, understand?"

The classroom fell silent.

"If you dare to tip me off, I'll make sure you can't stay in this school any longer."

A short, stocky boy stepped forward from behind Zhang Hu and said, "Teacher, why waste time talking to him? The three of us will just ambush him at the school gate tonight."

The boy was eighteen years old, less than 1.7 meters tall, with broad shoulders and a thick back.

Qian Dazhuang patted him on the shoulder: "Zhou Meng, did you hear that? You're leading the charge tonight. Let that show-off know who's in charge in Class C."

A low gasp escaped someone in the classroom: "Zhou Meng? Is that Zhou Meng?"

Which one?

"That's Zhou Meng, the guy who came in third place in the second-year martial arts tournament two years ago! His father was a martial arts graduate, and his grandfather's generation produced a martial arts champion. It's said he's already at the Qi Opening Realm."

"Is Wu Yong behind him? He's also at the Qi Opening Realm. They're both supposedly Zhang Hu's disciples, and they've both reached the Qi Opening Realm?"

"No wonder Zhang Hu dares to be so arrogant. With three different lineages, wouldn't he be able to walk around like a madman in our teaching circle? Turns out he has such a tough nut to crack."

Hearing people whispering about him, Zhou Meng stretched his neck expressionlessly and walked to the bronze cauldron in the corner of the classroom.

He took a deep breath, lowered his stance, and suddenly exerted his strength.

"boom!"

He knocked the bronze cauldron down with a single punch.

The pointer on the cauldron steadily points to the position of "Twelve Cauldrons".

The power of twelve cauldrons! This already surpasses that of an ordinary martial artist who has opened their meridians.

Zhou Meng, who is very conspicuous, enjoys the feeling of being discussed.

"Zhou Meng, very good! Tonight is your day to beat the old man to a pulp and avenge your junior brother!" Zhang Hu clapped and cheered.

Zhou Meng was smug.

……

At the foot of the Hengyue Military Academy in Chu Nan, there is a city. Because of the academy, this postal city, which was originally just a small town, has developed into a provincial capital.

In a secluded alley in the south of Xinyou City, Xiao Nian was standing in front of a rusty iron gate.

There was a peephole the size of a cat's eye in the iron gate, and a voice came from inside: "Unfamiliar face."

"Open the earth." Xiao Nian whispered the code she remembered from her previous life.

A rustling sound came from inside the iron gate, then the gate opened a crack. A withered, skeletal hand reached out, palm facing upwards.

Xiao Nian took out two taels of silver from his pocket and placed them in that hand. The withered hand weighed them in its hand and then withdrew them.

A moment later, the iron gate opened completely, and an old man with a hunched back glanced at Xiao Nian before stepping aside to make way.

"Go inside. No returns before the goods are sold. If someone targets you, deal with it yourself; it's none of our black market's business. You understand the rules, right?"

"Understand."

Xiao Nian stepped inside and walked for about a quarter of an hour before a huge underground space appeared before him.

This is the largest underground black market in Xinyou City.

The black market was vast, with hundreds of stalls lined up along both sides of the passageway, selling everything from weapons and medicines to old books, animal hides, ores, and even live monster cubs.

The shouts of vendors rose and fell, and buyers thronged the streets.

Xiao Nian walked slowly forward along the main passage, her gaze sweeping over each stall.

Most things didn't meet his standards. Most of what he saw were cheap imitations.

The so-called thousand-year-old Ganoderma lucidum is questionable in terms of whether it is even a hundred years old; it is full of rudimentary tricks and is indistinguishable from the real thing.

That's how the black market works; 99% of it is junk, and the occasional good item is like finding gold in the shit.

Xiao Nian strolled leisurely when suddenly a stall in front of her was surrounded by layers upon layers of people, creating a noisy atmosphere with a few excited shouts of price.

"I'll offer a thousand taels!"

"I'll give you 1,500!"

"Two thousand taels! Don't try to take it from me!"

Xiao Nian walked over and glanced inside through the crowd.

On the stall was a palm-sized jade box with the lid open, inside which lay a section of dark, murky root.

What truly caught Xiao Nian's attention was the piece of animal hide used to wrap the medicinal herb.

At first glance, the animal hide looked no different from ordinary tattered animal hides, and the stall owner casually placed it under the medicinal herbs.

"Void Beast Hide? There's actually something like that here." Xiao Nian thought to himself, but remained outwardly calm.

Void Beasts possess spatial properties, and their hides can be crafted into spatial magical artifacts. While Xiao Nian previously looked down on them, they are now extremely valuable on Blue Star, where magical artifacts are scarce.

He looked at it for a moment and quickly figured out what the stall was all about.

Many people were bidding, but only one person actually wanted to buy it; the rest were shills.

A middle-aged, overweight man in a long robe needed medicinal herbs, while a thin, old man with a mustache saw that the overweight man was determined to get them, and his shill kept raising the price.

"Two thousand five!" the fat man shouted through gritted teeth.

"Three thousand!" one person lazily raised his hand.

The fat man's face twitched. He looked at the piece of medicinal herb in the jade box, then at his purse, and finally gritted his teeth and stomped his foot:

"Four thousand taels! This is all the money I have left! I won't accept any more!"

The young man making the bid and the stall owner exchanged a quick glance.

The stall owner nodded.

The young man who had bid sighed, "Fifteen hundred taels? That's too expensive. Here, take it. I'm poor, I can't afford it."

The fat man finally breathed a sigh of relief, took out a stack of silver notes, counted out 1,500 taels and handed them to the stall owner, then carefully put the jade box into his pocket.

The fat man turned around and squeezed through the crowd, hurrying away.

Xiao Nian noticed that several young people, at least at the Body Tempering stage, had quietly followed behind him.

Xiao Nian smiled. He turned around and followed.

The standard scam involves first using a promising medicinal herb to lure in a genuine buyer, then having the shill keep raising the price until it skyrockets.

Once the transaction is complete and the buyer is leaving with the goods, they send men to intercept them on the way, retrieve the goods, and pocket the money. A zero-cost transaction—why not?