Poor Scholars, Rich Warriors

As mentioned at the beginning, "Sharp Gold Sword Pointing" uses the finger as a sword and belongs to the Qi Sword School.

With its powerful wielder and the protection of sword energy, its strength alone makes it arguably among the top three in the Qi Refining realm.

Upon reaching the pinnacle of cultivation, one can condense a sword into a ethereal form, enabling close-quarters combat with no difference from ordinary magical swords.

Compared to other finger techniques, its advantage lies more in the word "sword," but it is also more difficult to learn.

For other finger techniques, you usually only need to understand how to guide the spiritual energy along the meridians.

The strength of a spell depends on whether the caster's will can direct spiritual energy unimpeded according to the instructions of the technique.

Furthermore, one must be perceptive; otherwise, if one's insight is slightly weak, one may make a mistake and be taken advantage of.

Aside from these other aspects, the key to this manual lies in the essence of sword intent.

This thing is hard to explain, hard to write down, and there's no specific method for how to refine it.

Most of what he wrote were figurative representations of the sharp metal and sword intent.

For example, phrases like "unyielding and indomitable," "free from distractions," "free from weakness," "abandoning gentleness for strength," and "discarding slowness for sharpness" are all just motivational platitudes.

However, one point deserves special mention.

To master this finger technique, one not only needs perception far beyond that of ordinary people, but also requires a secret medicine.

This method is derived from swordsmanship, which is a form of body refinement.

Therefore, the practitioner's physique is required to perform the technique. If the practitioner is not strong enough, forcing the practice may have some adverse effects.

Fortunately, this secret remedy is a medicinal bath; you only need to buy the herbs, boil them, and then soak in the bath.

If it were an ingested elixir, after several hundred years, with fewer people practicing cultivation, I'm afraid no one would know how to refine it anymore.

This secret medicine primarily repairs two types of damage: damage from physical training and damage to important areas such as meridians and dantian caused by beginners' difficulty in controlling sharp metal energy during qi circulation.

Now that you've read this far, buying it right now is the best option.

Otherwise, it would be too late to configure it after you've finished cultivating it.

After leaving the quiet room, he returned the booklet to the Elder who transmitted the scriptures.

He didn't say anything, but he mentioned again that he could come often in the future.

"I will definitely come here more often in the future, not only to take advantage of the freebies, but also to carefully understand the contents of the secret techniques. Just memorizing them by memory is not as effective."

Chen Lu had already used up his daily divination, but he didn't want to wait until tomorrow to consult the divine for such a trivial matter.

Outside the library, the three镖头 (bodyguards) were waiting for him.

It wasn't because he was out of trouble, but because whoever brought him in had to be the one to take him out.

If they disobey, they will be punished at best, and at worst, they will be sent to do hard labor.

There was an elder in the family who was not of the same surname. Elders usually had a cultivation level of at least Foundation Establishment, but he was no exception.

They often argued about this at the family gate, and it was common for them to part on bad terms.

But at most the next day, because of the things at hand, they had to sheepishly ask the master's son to take them in.

"Hiss, this is indeed a problem. I have to get every last penny out of this one-year right to use the quiet room."

"From now on, I'll come every day whenever I have time, but who has the leisure to patiently guide me in like this?"

Chen Lu sighed helplessly.

The Elder who transmitted the scriptures spoke so well and so kindly, it was as if he were truly being treated as a member of the main family.

But they didn't say how to resolve the issue of him coming in.

"It seems I'll have to wait until dawn to consult the diviner and see if there's any good solution."

Having made up his mind, he left the clan's territory and headed to the main street of Maple Forest Ward.

Maple Forest Village has two main industries: one is metal smelting, which sends the refined metal billets to Red Bamboo Immortal City.

Secondly, there are spiritual plants and herbs. The spiritual rice consumed throughout the entire Red Bamboo Immortal City comes from Maple Forest Workshop.

It also includes several surrounding towns and cities whose main industries are monsters, spirit wood, spirit medicine, and silkworms.

Although not as cheap as markets that primarily produce spiritual herbs, they are comprehensive enough, with cultivators also cultivating those low-profit spiritual herbs.

With my salary cut in half, I naturally want to buy the cheapest things.

Those pharmacies with stable quality but slightly higher prices are no longer an option; we can only go to the markets where farmers gather spontaneously.

If you have a good eye, you can buy the same quality items from the pharmacy for 70% of the price.

Upon arriving at the market, Chen Lu went to the bamboo shed next to him as usual, preparing to pay the entrance fee of a broken spirit stone.

But when he arrived, he found that there was no one there, only a lonely banner bearing the royal family crest.

Although each person received a small amount of spirit stone, the number of people who entered was well over a thousand.

Little by little, he earned nearly ten thousand spirits each month.

Apart from the cost of two guards who each pay 30 spirit coins per month, it's almost pure profit, a passive income.

Such a huge benefit, and they just let it go.

Chen Lu was curious, but didn't pay attention, and simply followed the crowd into the market.

In an instant, a strong aroma of snacks wafted over, whetting one's appetite.

People's love for food knows no boundaries.

Even in the world of cultivation, wherever people gather, there are always some people selling food that is similar to that in the mortal world.

Only by delving deeper did he see what he needed.

He primarily targeted vendors who were not from the Wang family.

Those who come from independent cultivation sell their goods very cheaply, but because they lack a lineage, the quality is often not very good.

The Wang family's scions sell good things, but the prices are also high, almost the same as those in pharmacies, so there's no need to go there.

Children from other families are different; they inherit traits from their mother's clan, so their quality is very good.

To survive alongside the former two, one must combine the strengths of both: be cheaper than the Wang family and better quality than independent cultivators.

These kinds of vendors are usually the first to sell out, and Chen Lu was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to find one today because he arrived late.

"Fellow Daoist, how much are these blood ginseng roots?"

Chen Lu squatted down and searched through a pile of dirt.

The stall owner, who had been standing to the side pretending to be busy, quickly responded, wiping the dirt off his hands, and said:

"Nine lower-grade spirit stones per stone! If you want all four, thirty lower-grade spirit stones will suffice!"

Chen Lu was instantly shocked, exclaiming in his heart, "This is fucking too expensive!"

This secret medicine contains a total of nine ingredients: three main ingredients, three auxiliary ingredients, and three guiding ingredients.

This main ingredient requires eight pieces of Xia Ling. What about the other two ingredients?

Although one dose of medicine can be used three times, an ordinary rogue cultivator would not be able to get one dose of medicine in a month!

He remembered that there was a kind of pill that was advertised as containing blood ginseng, with ten pills in a bottle, priced at ten lower spirits.

One pill a day for a month, no more than thirty doses.

But who takes pills every day? At most, a dozen or so a month.

This secret medicine is used after you have finished cultivating; the more you cultivate, the more you need to use it.

Even if you practice less in a month, you still need to use at least four sets, which is about twelve times.

This time, it was equivalent to a month's worth of pills for an ordinary cultivator.

Upon careful recollection of those body-refining cultivators, he realized why people say that scholars are poor while warriors are rich.

Cultivating the Dharma is literature, while physical training is martial arts.

There's almost nothing that costs money when practicing magic. You can just find a corner, put some broken stones and rotten wood there, and you can practice as long as it's quiet.

Body tempering requires elixirs, medicinal baths, protective gear, and sparring partners—any one of these is a huge burden for magic cultivators.

Not to mention the various expenses involved in becoming an apprentice.

He originally thought that spending at least fifty spirit points on cultivation each month was already exaggerated enough.

Unexpectedly, it was completely inadequate in the face of body tempering.

Chen Lu suddenly regretted choosing "Sharp Metal Sword Finger," a money-devouring technique that combines body and magic training.