Xiang Rong was even angrier and shouted, "So what if my face is round? Did I use your spirit stones to make my face round?!"

Dong Jingwei was also unhappy. He stubbornly said with a sullen face, "Round Face is the one who swallowed my spirit stones!" After saying that, he ignored Xiang Rong and lay down on the table without raising his head.

After listening to the conversation and seeing Dong Jingwei's listless appearance, Shi Xuan probed his spiritual sense into the storage bracelet, touched the nine hundred and seventy high-grade spirit stones that he hadn't even warmed up yet, and seemed to be deep in thought.

It seems Dong Jingwei has quite a network of connections.

Elder Li quickly walked in, and the disciples immediately fell silent.

"Your first mini-exam will be in three days. The top ten disciples will be able to enter the sect's Sword Tomb and choose a natal spirit sword that is destined for them. On the other hand, the bottom five will have to clean for a month. Think it over carefully, whether you want a spirit sword or cleaning!"

"I want a spirit sword!" "I don't want to sweep the house!"... A cacophony of voices rose up in a somewhat disorderly fashion.

Xiang Rong turned her head, stuck out her tongue, and whispered, "Is it because I don't want to enter the Sword Tomb?"

Dong Jingwei also glanced back at Shi Xuan seemingly casually, as if Shi Xuan was the stumbling block to his entry into the top ten.

Shi Xuan immediately wanted her senior brother to use her round face illusion to show Xiao Dong the harsh realities of the world. But she decided against it. She would give him another chance at the arena tonight. If he went again, she would see if he could turn over a new leaf and become more discerning.

In the afternoon, Shi Xuan went to the black market for rogue cultivators again.

She came in a hurry last night, heading straight to her destination. This time, she wants to wander around first.

The time for the duel had not yet arrived, but Shi Xuan had already registered and then began to wander around, observing the underground world.

Upon closer examination, this place is not fundamentally different from the ground, except that it is more disordered.

There were many cultivators wearing hoods whose faces were obscured, and no one knew whether they had committed any evil deeds or were wanted by any sect.

The transactions were all done at a fixed location, and once you finished buying, you might never be able to find the stall owner again.

Here, no one cares where your goods come from, making it perfect for selling stolen goods—a true haven for desperate criminals.

Shi Xuan walked around the trading area, occasionally buying a few medicinal herbs that caught his eye.

As Shi Xuan passed by a stall, the stall owner caught his eye. He was a handsome young man with some talismans in front of him, and he looked like a talisman cultivator.

What caught Shi Xuan's attention was that the stall owner was clearly seriously injured. His face was pale, and he seemed to have no strength left to sit up, struggling to stay upright.

Shi Xuan stopped and looked at the items on the stall, then asked, "Do you have any random teleportation talismans?"

The stall owner seemed to take a couple of breaths to realize that he was being spoken to.

"Hmm," he nodded with difficulty, slowly took out three talismans from his pocket, and said intermittently, "These are... drawn before."

It's obvious that it was drawn a long time ago. Given his current appearance, he probably couldn't even draw the simplest talisman.

Shi Xuan took the three talismans and asked, "How much?"

The stall owner held up two fingers, hesitated for a moment, then put one down and said, "One hundred, mid-grade spirit stones, one sheet."

This is incredibly cheap. A random teleportation talisman of this quality would easily sell for five hundred mid-grade spirit stones in the market above. Shi Xuan was a little curious, wondering if things were cheap in the black market, or if this person was just selling them cheaply.

On second thought, she realized that this person was probably in a hurry to use spirit stones, and he seemed to be seriously injured, perhaps needing spirit stones to heal. Recalling her experience in the Divine Cauldron Sect's market, she could understand somewhat of it.

After paying, Shi Xuan did not leave immediately. She looked at the other items on the stall, which were all low-grade talismans of decent quality. Judging from these, the stall owner must be a talisman cultivator with considerable talent. Despite being so seriously injured, he was still very polite, suggesting that he came from a good family. She wondered why he had fallen into such a predicament.

"I'll take all of these." Shi Xuan took out a high-grade spirit stone and bought the entire stall.

The stall owner next door glanced at Shi Xuan and muttered across the distance, "Even if you give him spirit stones, it won't help. He'll damage his dantian, and he won't make it." His voice wasn't too loud or too soft, just loud enough for both of them to hear.

Shi Xuan remained unmoved, collected the talismans from the stall, and then asked, "Is your dantian damaged?"

The young man nodded with a gloomy expression, as if all his vitality had been drained away, exuding an aura of despair.

“Damaged dantian is not a big deal, I can heal it,” Shi Xuan said.

"Hehe," before the young man could reply, a sneer came from the next stall: "I've never heard of anyone whose dantian is broken and can be cured. Xiao Leng, you've probably met a swindler."

Shi Xuan then turned to face him directly, and replied with a polite smile, "Summer insects cannot understand ice. Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean no one can do it. It only shows that your knowledge is too limited."

The man angrily retorted, "Me, ignorant? I, Wang Laosan, have traveled across the Qian Yuan Continent for many years. What haven't I been to? Every major sect and family, without exception, has suffered damage to their dantian. At best, they become ordinary people. Not a single one of them has been cured! I'm putting it out there today: if you can cure him, I'll give you everything I have on this stall!"

Shi Xuan looked at the items on his stall: a pile of dark ore and several magical artifacts he couldn't identify.

"If I can cure him, that would be an eye-opener for you. You're trying to fob me off with this piece of junk? You didn't even ask if I'd even consider it good enough!"

"You!" Old Wang's chest heaved with anger as he pulled a bronze token from his storage bag. "This is a pass to the Azure Dragon Secret Realm. If you can heal your damaged dantian, I will give you this token!"

Shi Xuan had never heard of the Azure Dragon Secret Realm, but judging from his clenched teeth expression, it must be quite something.

Shi Xuan nodded and asked, "Should I return the items from that stall?"

Wang Laosan: ...

She seemed even more disbelieving. Wang Laosan said, "Here! I'll give you everything as long as you can heal it! Hmph, a powerful being who can heal a damaged dantian would still care about my paltry sums. I'd like to see how you end up today!"

“Then it’s settled,” Shi Xuan looked at him and sighed sympathetically, “Hey, you know, this bet you made is ridiculous. If you win, you get nothing, but if you lose, you have to give me so much. I really feel sorry for you.”

That sarcastic tone and that smug expression made Wang Laosan's fists harden.

Shi Xuan then turned to look at the young man Xiao Leng and said, "You see, I have no choice but to treat you today. You can't refuse treatment and affect my winnings."

Xiao Leng gave a bitter smile. In his current state, he had no room for choice. Penniless and severely injured, the few spirit stones he had from selling talismans wouldn't even buy him a few healing pills.

He nodded in agreement. Since his life was already nearing its end, he figured he might as well try anything, and it wouldn't be a big deal if he died.