Chapter 425: Ten Years Later (1)

Xu Jingming leisurely strolled around the market and took in all the walks of life in the market. Suddenly, he swept his gaze and saw goods on a stall in the distance. His eyes couldn’t help but light up as he walked over.

This vendor sold handicrafts and had a look of anticipation as he watched Xu Jingming walk to his stall.

“Is this stone for sale?” Xu Jingming picked up a seemingly ordinary oval stone from the stall. The other items in the stall were bamboo baskets, bamboo stools, and bamboo chairs. This was the only stone.

This stone looked like an ordinary milky-white pebble at first glance, but it was covered with black cloud-like patterns.

“Yes, yes.” The peddler nodded immediately. “This stone feels warm to the touch. I used a huge hammer to smash it, but it didn’t leave a single mark. It must be a treasure.”

“Name a price,” Xu Jingming said.

The peddler extended his hand and replied seriously, “Ten taels of silver—at least ten taels of silver.”

An ordinary peddler only earned about ten taels of silver with a year’s worth of hard work. The peddler felt that it was quite unscrupulous to sell a somewhat special stone at such a high price.

“Alright.” Xu Jingming nodded. “Ten taels of silver it is.”

The peddler was delighted when he heard that.

As for the stall owner beside him, he said, “Yue, this is a treasure. It’s probably worth 100 to 1,000 taels of silver, much less ten taels of silver!”

“Do we still have a deal?” Xu Jingming looked at the vendor and asked with a smile. “I won’t entertain you if you raise the price.”

“Young man, they’re setting you up. They price it at ten taels but later want 100 or even 1,000 taels.” An old man carrying a basket walked over and reminded him, “These merchants are very cunning.”

“Yes, it’s a deal.” The vendor glared at the stall owner beside him and immediately handed the black and white stone to Xu Jingming.

Xu Jingming also took out a silver ingot and gave it to the vendor.

Money and goods were exchanged.

The peddler picked up the silver ingot and wiped it. He then took two bites before hiding it in his pocket and asked immediately, “If I can still find such a stone, do you still want it?”

“Yes.” Xu Jingming looked at him. “I’ll be coming to the market often.”

“I’ll look for more when I get back.” The peddler nodded immediately. He had picked it up by chance while chopping bamboo on the mountain. He planned on searching for more when he got back since finding one was equivalent to a year’s worth of hard work.

Xu Jingming then left.

“Take care, sir,” the vendor said obsequiously. Then, he glared at the neighboring vendor. “Smoking Chimney, you wanted to ruin my business, right?”

…

Xu Jingming held the oval stone and injected Demon Vanquishing Dharmic powers into it.

The stone immediately heated up, and Xu Jingming nodded slightly. Demon Vanquishing Dharmic powers at the sixth realm, coupled with the divine power I created, have great might, but it will also place a greater burden on the artifact. I have to get better materials. With this stone and some materials, I can almost refine a seal.

Only Demon Vanquishers could use these precious materials.

After Xu Jingming left the market, he continued touring the prefecture capital of Lanping Prefecture.

He had to visit the prefecture capital every time he arrived! He would also visit more than half of the county cities in the prefecture.

He watched the lives of all kinds of people in the city. When he encountered demons, he captured them and mentally refined them! When refining demons, the demons’ obsessions and memories fused into Xu Jingming’s consciousness, allowing him to gain a deeper understanding of their lives.

The Demon Vanquishing World was massive! After all, Lv. 8 and Lv. 7 cosmic lifeforms in a cosmic sector lived in the same Demon Vanquishing World. Even though the cost of setting up an account was high, and even though many Lv. 8 cosmic lifeforms would try other paths, the number of Demon Vanquishers here remained huge. The number of ordinary people was more than 10,000 times greater.

Countless ordinary people also had all kinds of fates awaiting them. Xu Jingming observed and studied them.

******

Not only was he studying in the Demon Vanquishing World, but he also spent time studying humanities and science.

In fact, I’ve long summarized some of the Cosmic Human Alliance’s humanities knowledge through my observational gains in the Demon Vanquishing World. Xu Jingming sat in his courtyard and read through the large amount of humanities knowledge on the screen. The brain of a Lv. 8 cosmic lifeform allowed him to memorize large amounts of knowledge with a glance. There were hundreds of examples gleaned from the Demon Vanquishing World in his mind that he could compare with.

Although the highest educational level in the humanities category is only Lv. 60, it’s still very important.

It’s said on Earth that character determines fate, but humanities determine character and fate. The more Xu Jingming observed, the more he placed importance on this aspect.

Even though humanities knowledge was vast and there were many essential books, he finished reading all the important ones in just half a month.

Human fate.

The fate of civilization.

No matter how you look at it, it just boils down to those things. Xu Jingming looked at the scientific knowledge in front of him. Science is truly limitless.

Although Xu Jingming was a science student before he learned the evolutionary method, his knowledge back then was still very superficial.

As a Lv. 8 cosmic lifeform, he was allowed to read a vast amount of knowledge from the Primordial Research Institute. He could even read the manuscripts of many great scholars! It was naturally of great help to Xu Jingming.

“Jingming, what are you reading?” Li Miaomiao walked over and took a look from afar. The densely packed words made her dizzy. “There’s all kinds of symbols.”

“Those are only some special symbols that can shorten the formulas.” Xu Jingming sighed. “Miaomiao, scientific knowledge is really magical. Can you believe that just a few formulas can be used as a foundation to deduce thousands of formulas and explain the meaning of everything in the universe?”