Yun'an City's East Market is bustling with activity.
This is a hub for trading. Besides the permanent shops, many wandering martial artists and freelancers come here to buy and sell.
Shen Han looked around, noticing quite a few people selling secret cultivation technique manuals.
A cloth was spread on the ground, with a single secret cultivation technique manual placed on top.
Anyway, when he asked, they were always mysterious, powerful techniques passed down from ancestors.
The prices, naturally, were sky-high.
With only four taels of silver in his hand, Shen Han tried asking, but those seemingly powerful techniques started at a hundred taels of silver.
Seeing Shen Han dressed so shabbily, people around were not interested in greeting him.
Their attention was all on the young lords and rich young ladies.
After walking for quite a distance, Shen Han's eyes suddenly lit up.
In front of him was a small stall selling secret cultivation technique manuals.
Dozens of manuals were piled together, forming a small mountain.
Beside the small mountain, there was a sign: Five qian silver per book, ten books minimum purchase, no bargaining for small business!
Focusing attentively:
[Ordinary Cultivation Technique Manual] (White)
[Inferior Cultivation Technique Manual] (Gray)
[Full of Flaws Cultivation Technique Manual] (Gray)
[Incomplete Text] (Gray)
...
These entries piqued Shen Han's interest.
He squatted down and flipped through them one by one.
"Boss, can it be cheaper?"
With only four taels of silver in his pocket, he definitely had to save some money for daily expenses.
The stall owner glanced at Shen Han with some disdain.
"Four taels for ten books, no less."
After saying that, he turned his head, ignoring Shen Han.
Four taels is still a bit expensive...
Shen Han wasn't bothered by the owner's attitude. Buying expensive items naturally comes with good service, but he couldn't afford that service.
After trying to bargain again, he finally managed to get ten books for three taels.
He selected ten books and stuffed them into his bag.
Whether these ten cultivation technique manuals contained any profound techniques, Shen Han couldn't say for sure.
But after extracting the entries, at least these texts could provide him some improvement.
He then went to another shop and bought two children's reading books.
[Easy-to-Understand Book], [Obvious Knowledge Reader]
These children's books were cheap, only one qian silver for both.
Embarking on the path of cultivation requires increasingly high resources.
In the past few days practicing the "Mountain and River Qi Refining Technique", Shen Han could clearly feel his physical condition improving.
However, correspondingly, he also felt hungry faster.
Today, Madam Yun brought a variety of dishes and a large bowl of staple food.
Yet, after finishing, he still felt a bit hungry.
To enhance his strength, he needed to focus on cultivation and earn more money.
Otherwise, he couldn't even support himself.
Shen Han went to a steamed bun stall, bought twenty, enough to last two days.
He also purchased some pickles for flavor, which were quite nice.
Upon returning to his room, Shen Han wasted no time, immediately starting to extract entries from these ten manuals.
These unbelievably cheap manuals naturally had some gray, negative entries.
A few had white entries, all labeled as "Ordinary", "Commonplace", "Common".
In Shen Han's view, these manuals were even inferior to those with negative entries.
After extraction, they most likely remained ordinary cultivation technique manuals.
He decided not to bother with those gray-entries manuals.
Taking a deep breath, Shen Han fixed his eyes on the manuals in front of him.
The covers of the manuals were already half-torn, and many contents inside were missing.
A page missing a corner was quite normal.
[Incomplete Text], extract!
A slight sting, and the gray entry entered his sea of consciousness.
The incomplete text before his eyes suddenly became whole.
"Lonely Wind Snow-Treading Step"
The five large characters on the cover were revealed, a rather precious body technique manual!
It's worth noting that the entire Shen Family had only one body technique manual, and it was extremely difficult to comprehend.
But once comprehended, the rewards were enormous.
Agile movement is the foundation of all combat, Shen Han knew this well.
Picking up the manual, Shen Han immediately sat on the bedside to read it.
Although the "Lonely Wind Snow-Treading Step" was no longer incomplete, the methods within were still difficult to understand.
[Lonely wind, cold day, treading snow like stars, blood traces scattered, floral intent unfolds]
Just the first opening sentence was difficult for Shen Han to comprehend.
Having spent only a short time studying the martial path, and without a mentor guiding him, he couldn't understand the metaphors or implied meanings.
Shen Han hesitated for a moment, then picked up a children's book beside him.
[Easy-to-Understand Reader], extract!
This kind of purple entry was extremely difficult to extract.
But Shen Han knew he had to do it.
The body technique manual must be learned, as it would be his guarantee for survival and stability.
With veins popping on his forehead, besides Shen Han, probably no one would find reading a children's book so exhausting.
Four two-hour intervals passed, and it was completely dark outside.
The purple entry finally loosened, detached, and stored into his sea of consciousness.
Shen Han took a steamed bun beside him and stuffed it into his mouth.
Without hesitating much, he immediately applied the [Easy-to-Understand] entry onto "Lonely Wind Snow-Treading Step".
[Easy-to-Understand Lonely Peak Snow-Treading Step]
Seeing the purple words emerge on the manual, Shen Han flipped through the pages again.
[Lonely wind treading snow, leveraging to move, flowing with the trend...]
The content on the pages was all changed. The previously unclear words and implied parts were all explained clearly.
Shen Han quickly browsed through it, now able to understand the manual without hindrance.
The core of the "Lonely Wind Snow-Treading Step" body technique was leveraging momentum.
Like riding the wind and ascended swiftly, leveraging the momentum.
Of course, the "Lonely Wind Snow-Treading Step" wasn't that simple. The momentum wasn't just wind, it was snow, and it could also be the momentum he created for himself.
After understanding it, Shen Han didn't delve deeper.
There were still nine manuals at hand, and he could still try his luck to see if there were any useful manuals.
However, he was really too tired now. Extracting the purple entry consumed too much energy.
Shen Han lay on the bed, falling into a deep sleep in moments, waking only in the morning.
Along with some pickles, he took a bite of a steamed bun, and immediately began extracting entries from the other nine manuals.
[Inferior Cultivation Technique Manual], [Full of Flaws Cultivation Technique Manual], [Riddled with Errors Text], [Ancient Text], [Lacking Substance Reader], [Content Disorderly Training Manual]...
Aside from the [Ancient] being a white entry, the others were gray, extracted quickly.
Within half a stick of incense time, all entries were extracted.
Of the nine manuals, eight were of little use.
The manual contents were simple and hollow, all the most basic stuff.
Having already acquired the more exquisite "Mountain and River Body Refining Skill", those fundamentals body refining techniques were useless.
No wonder they sold so cheap.
However, that training manual was somewhat useful.
The "Hengyang Ironing Training Manual", a book about crafting weapons and armor.
Its original author was likely a blacksmith not adept at writing, with the original content being very disorderly.
Yet, after extracting the [Content Disorderly] entry, it turned out to be a good introduction to ironworking.
Body refining and body technique are the basis of my current stability.
The Shen Family would not allow me to marry Su Jinyu, but when faced with underhanded measures, I at least have the ability to protect myself.