Things have been going well for Zhu Furong. No family responsibilities, no one comes to disturb his training and no one causes any troubles for him.

It's the season of fall.

Zhu Furong is eight years old now. He has grown into a beautiful boy with a height of about 135cm. He is quite tall compared to the average children of his age.

Zhu Ling has also grown into a beautiful, intelligent looking girl at the age of twelve. The lack of parents played a significant role in her early maturity.

"Ha!... Ha!..." Wearing his all time favourite, comfortable white t-shirt and black trousers, Zhu Furong can be observed punching a wooden dummy in his courtyard.

A middle-aged man in grey hanfu is standing behind Zhu Furong giving him instructions from time to time.

This middle aged man is Zhu Furong's new Martial Arts instructor. He doesn't teach anything Cultivation related. What he teaches are the common Martial Arts techniques like hand to hand combat and use of different weapons. It's what Zhu Furong asked for as his eighth birthday gift.

Zhu Bohai the Great General couldn't deny his cute adopted grandson's wish and complied with his request the next day. 

Even though Zhu Furong can't Cultivate, learning common Martial Arts fighting techniques is quite useful. At least he can put up some defence in desperate needs. That's what Zhu Bohai thought.

Zhu Furong on the other hand knew what he needed. Cultivation helps to gain immense strength both internally and externally, but what's all this strength for if you can't use it efficiently? Also, power without control only brings disaster.

So to make full use of his immense Cultivation strength and to precisely control the flow of it, the best way Zhu Furong could find was to learn common Martial Arts fighting techniques.

Among all the techniques Zhu Furong learned, the one he loved the most is the Hand to Hand combat.

Maybe it's due to the Demon Race's bloodline flowing inside him which only respects the strong and brutal ones, or maybe it's due to the Monster Race's bloodline flowing inside him which is quite similar to the Demon Race in terms of its respect for the strong. 

Something about punching and kicking his enemies to a pulp, just clicked with Zhu Furong's instincts.

He learnt one important thing from the daily training with his instructor, speed matters and moving at a fast speed is quite thrilling.

He loved it so much that he added extra 50kg weights to each of his arms and legs during the training period. Making the whole weight he carried on his body 700kg.

His instructor didn't know about this, nor Zhu Furong had ever mentioned this to anyone. Not even to his mother like, Elder Sister.

...

It's evening time now...

A figure donned in a black hooded robe silently jumped off the six feet high brick walls from one of the back side corners of Zhu manor.

It's the corner where Zhu Furong's courtyard is.

Due to the lack of concern given to the adopted Young Master of the family, none of the guards paid any attention to the side of his courtyard. Thanks to this, no one noticed the black hooded figure.

The black hooded figure, after jumping off the wall, with his swift footwork, vanished into one of the alleys of the nearby houses.

The black hooded figure is none other than Zhu Furong.

In this one year, Zhu Furong has completely opened all of his 12 Major Meridians with the help of Zhu Xingzuo and the materials he gathered from the Tartarus Forest.

Now he is out of useful materials, and the materials required to support his opening of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians needs to be acquired.

He has saved quite a sum of money for times like this. From the time he was adopted in the Zhu Family till this day, he has never spent a single penny. He has amassed a wealth of 10 gold coins!

There are five forms of currency in the Ming Dynasty.

One Bronze Coin equals one US Cent.

Hundred Bronze Coins equals to one US Dollar which equals to one Silver Coin.

10,000 Silver Coins equals one Gold Coin.

Thousand Gold Coins equals one Large Gold Coin.

Hundred Large Gold Coins equals to one Platinum Coin.

Platinum coin is the highest denomination of currency and a wealthy National Treasury should at least hold the value of Hundred Platinum Coins.

Also, except for the Bronze Coins, for every other coin, there is a Paper Note of similar colour which holds the same value as the said coloured coin. It's to keep your pockets lightweight.

The paper notes of gold and large gold coins are of the same golden colour but are of different sizes. Same as their coin counterparts.

...

Dafan is the capital city of the Ming Dynasty, so it's quite obvious for it to be highly populated.

The roads are always busy and the markets are always bustling with customers.

In a city like this the crime rate is also high. It's not rare to find people in disguise and playing all mysterious. Hence our highly suspicious looking protagonist also didn't face any problems.

After going through several alleys and crossing a few roads, Zhu Furong arrived at the City Market.

The City Market of Dafan, consists of about 5,000 stores. You can find anything here. And if by chance there is something you can't find in the stores, there is a three storey Auction House at the centre of the City Market named Misty Eyes. You will definitely find what you are looking for there. But you will need to have a deep pocket. The name Misty Eyes is no joke, it will definitely make your eyes misty after you lose all your wealth.

Passing a few stores, Zhu Furong entered a medicine hall. He is looking for some herbs or pills for Cultivation. 

He shared his Divine Sense with Zhu Xingzuo so if Zhu Furong couldn't recognise something, Zhu Xingzuo who has lived for ages will definitely recognise it.

Contrary to Zhu Furong's attire, the store assistant was quite welcoming. It seems, to these people all that matters is business. It doesn't matter from whom it comes from.

Zhu Furong went through the shelves of medicinal pills and picked a few which caught his eyes. But after confirming the price, he thought it wasn't worth it. So he just bought one pill of each kind and left.

He picked up six pills for 12,000 silver coins. Bone Amalgam pill which helps in bone strengthening. Meridian Transverse pill, Meridian Flex pill and Meridian Tensile pill, all of which helps in meridian tempering. And the last two pills are Silver Gall pill and Red Cicada pill, both of which help in the tempering of internal organs.

After leaving the medicine hall, Zhu Furong went through several other medicine halls in search of materials to concoct the six pills he had bought.

Having some alchemy knowledge in his past life and with the help of his little brother Zhu Xingzuo, it isn't hard for Zhu Furong to recognise the materials used in the pills. Now with his past experience, he is going to concoct these pills on his own.

It is necessary, since according to Zhu Xingzuo, the pills are all good, but their potency is low for Zhu Furong's unique physique. So the amount he has to consume is quite high and to buy so many pills, it will take quite a large sum of money. So to save some money it's better to concoct the pills on your own, isn't it?

After going in and out of ten to fifteen stores Zhu Furong has collected all the materials he required. He has spent a total sum of 4 gold coins by now, he only has 6 gold coins left in his pocket. Cultivation materials are really expensive.

It was getting quite late by now. Zhu Furong left the house in the evening, so it's obvious. It's time to return home. But before returning home, Zhu Furong decided to check a few more stores. After all, it's the first time he has come out of the house in these 3 years, so he doesn't want to return so soon.

Turning around a corner, Zhu Furong entered a huge store named All Metals. As the name suggests, the store only does business of metals.

Zhu Furong wanted some rare materials for the later stages of Body Transformation. The last three stages, Bone Reforging, Marrow Tempering and Muscle Altering should be completed with high rank materials, else it won't make much difference in the original aptitude of the body.

The store is well maintained and luxurious. All the staff in the store are wearing good clothes. It's a two storey building with low rank materials kept on the ground floor and high rank materials kept on the first floor.

There are only one or two other customers in the store except Zhu Furong. A sales boy approached Zhu Furong with a smiley face and welcomed him inside the floor.

"How may I help you Sir." The lanky boy with brown skin tone humbly asked.

"Ehem!... I am looking for some rare metals." Zhu Furong answered in a mature tone. He tried to hide the fact that inside the black robe he is wearing is an eight-year-old boy.

"Do you have any specific names Sir or would you like to browse through our collection first?" The sales boy asked.

"Hmm... Let me see what you have." Zhu Furong answered.

"Please follow me Sir." The sales boy gestured and led the way to the shelves filled with different kinds and types of metals.

Zhu Furong followed the boy and explored the shelves for a few minutes.

"Anything else?" Zhu Furong asked.

"Er... Sir, if nothing catches your eye here then the first floor is the only option." The sales boy suggested.

"Hmm... Lead the way." Zhu Furong nonchalantly commanded.

"Er... Sorry Sir, but I don't have the permission to enter the first floor. Let me lead you to our Store Manager." The sales boy gave an apologetic smile and led the way.

The sales boy leads Zhu Furong to a counter where a chubby middle aged man with a face full of beard is lazily relaxing on a chair with his eyes closed.

"Assistant Manager Lau, is Manager Wu here?" The sales boy humbly asked in a low voice.

"Hmm?..." Assistant Manager Lau slowly opened his eyes. "Manager Wu is entertaining some important customers on the first floor." Saying this he closed his eyes again.

"Assistant Manager Lau... This Sir here wants to visit the first floor." The sales boy meekly said.

"Hmm?..." Assistant Manager Lau again slowly opened his eyes and scanned Zhu Furong from top to bottom. He then asked in a lazy voice. "What kind of metal do you want?"

Zhu Furong felt irritated by this guy's behaviour but he doesn't want to cause any disruption.

"I am looking for rare metals such as Meteorite ores, Luminescence Copper, White Jade or Golden Zinc." Zhu Furong quickly named a few rare metals he knew about.

"Hmm..." Assistant Manager Lau lazily nodded. "Money?" He asked.

Zhu Furong revealed two or three of his golden paper notes and the Assistant Manager Lau allowed him to enter the first floor.

A different sales boy in a different coloured hanfu led the way this time.

Arriving at the first floor, Zhu Furong noticed the floor to be even more luxuriously decorated than the ground floor. But the amount of metals present here is quite less, or too less compared to the ground floor.

The ground floor has about 70 shelves of metals, but the first floor only has 10.

Zhu Furong didn't talk much and started looking at the metals one by one. The sales boy followed behind him.

"Nothing else?" Zhu Furong asked after he had seen all the presented metals.

"The metals you mentioned before are all here Sir. Did the size or shape don't fit your needs?" The sales boy humbly asked.

"No, the size and shape of these metals are good enough. But I am looking for something even rarer. If you don't have anything else in the store then I will take my leave." Zhu Furong simply stated.

"Please wait a moment Sir." The sales boy bowed and went away to a counter at one of the corners. 

The sales boy started chatting with a tall middle aged man, wearing an expensive hanfu. The middle aged man has three strands of well maintained beard with no moustache. He is also entertaining some customers. From the looks of it, the middle aged man seems to be the Store Manager Wu.

After a while the sales boy came back to Zhu Furong and led him to Manager Wu.

Zhu Furong followed.