Li Shiming had about one hundred and ninety-two spirit stones that he could use, but he needed to save some for cultivation next month.

    He approached a book stall with a sign that read ''Zhang''.

    "You can only flip through one page here, turning an extra page means you have to buy it at its price!" Mr. Zhang, the stall owner, had seen Li Shiming''s transaction with Mr. Liu and knew he was a potential customer. As soon as Li Shiming stopped at his stall, he immediately said.

    Li Shiming picked up a book titled "Light Body Technique" and flipped open the first page, which contained only an introduction to the "Light Body Technique" and no substantial content.

    The ''Light Body Technique'' was described as a general spell in the introduction on the first page.

    Li Shiming did not know the specific meaning of a general spell, but since it was labeled as such, it likely meant that it was a spell that all cultivators could learn.

    He placed the ''Light Body Technique'' to one side and browsed through a few other books, "Fire Bomb Skill", "Object Driving Skill", "Voice Transmission Skill", and "Freezing Skill".

    "Mr. Zhang, how much for the ''Light Body Technique''?" Li Shiming asked, pointing to the book beside him.

    "All the secret texts here are ten spirit stones each!" replied Mr. Zhang gravely.

    Li Shiming figured in his mind that none of the books were cultivation techniques, all were spellbooks, and if they were openly for sale, they wouldn''t be any powerful spells.

    Such books at a rate of ten spirit stones each, the equivalent of ten jin of Spirit Rice, were not that expensive for him.

    But he knew very well that he couldn''t show any sign of wealth; this was not the ordinary world, but the Cultivation World.

    Both Fan Yiyang and Gu Jia had told him about the dangers of the Cultivation World, and he didn''t want to draw attention and bring about his own demise.

    "Five spirit stones per book, I''ll take three!" Li Shiming bargained.

    "Fellow, that''s not how you bargain. Twenty spirit stones for three books, I wouldn''t sell them so cheaply if I hadn''t had a poor start today!" Mr. Zhang seemed to reluctantly say.

    Without haggling further, Li Shiming took out twenty spirit stones, placed them on the table, and left the stall with three books.

    A smile instantly appeared on Mr. Zhang''s face as he collected the spirit stones and quickly replaced the books with three others.

    In truth, Li Shiming wanted to buy them all, but he did not want to seem too wealthy, so he only bought three.

    For someone new like him, all five spells were useful.

    He walked over to the area with temporary stalls, where the goods were extremely varied, containing all sorts of strange and exotic items.

    "I would like these talismanic ink materials, how much?" Li Shiming continued.

    "Talismanic ink materials ten spirit stones!" Mr. Hao replied promptly.

    Li Shiming took out the spirit stones and Mr. Hao pushed the items toward him; the deal was struck.

    He turned and left the market right away, and as soon as he was out, he activated a ''Basic Featherweight Talisman'' and dashed away into the distance with force.

    He didn''t head straight back to Central Capital but chose a longer, circuitous route instead.

    He was all ears and eyes, his senses fully open, as if all 190 CPUs of the large IBM z15 server were in full operation, constantly analyzing the information his senses brought him.

    Suddenly, his forward charge shifted into a change of direction.

    From the analysis of the large IBM z15 server, the way a bird had taken off from the forest ahead seemed suspicious.

    There''s a difference between a bird taking flight on its own and being startled into flying away, and the IBM z15 server''s database contained articles on this subject.

    Given the way that bird took off, there was an eighty percent chance that there were people in the forest.

    Moreover, this wasn''t a regular path, and reaching this place without the aid of a ''Basic Featherweight Talisman'' would be difficult given the steep and rugged terrain.

    The two figures in the forest watched Li Shiming change direction but showed no intention of pursuing.

    They could tell that Li Shiming was just a newbie; although he tried to act experienced in the market, Li Shiming revealed too many flaws.

    He seemed careful, but actually he had already caught the attention of quite a few cultivators.

    First of all, he had a storage bag which was quite eye-catching.

    He had always thought that every cultivator possessed a magic artifact like the storage bag, but he was unaware of the hardships of Loose Cultivators and never had real contact with them.

    Second, it was his calm demeanor when passing stalls selling magic artifacts, a kind of disdain for the artifacts on display.

    Experienced cultivators could immediately deduce that Li Shiming carried magic artifacts of better quality than those on the stalls.

    Lastly, there was the way he spent his money. Although it was just a hundred spirit stones in total, his newbie behavior earlier was enough to make some cultivators throw caution to the wind.

    Li Shiming thought about the map in his mind; there weren''t many ways down from the market, and he needed to get down the mountain quickly. Once he left this place, he could run freely anywhere.