Immortality: Raising an Ant Queen to Cultivate by increasing stat points

the stall owner gestured with a hand, indicating Qin Niu could examine the goods himself.

Qin Niu picked up the Blood Silkworm Soft Armor. It was incredibly light, almost weightless. However, upon contact with the skin, he could feel a unique warm energy enveloping the surface of his skin, which was extremely comforting.

It seemed the rumors that Blood Silkworm Soft Armor could help a burnt person regrow skin must be true.

Yet, just this ability alone made the price of the Blood Silkworm Soft Armor as high as forty thousand Silver Money, which was obviously unreasonable.

“With such a steep price, could you introduce its uses to me?”

Qin Niu asked.

The stall owner remained silent.

“Will you sell it for ten thousand Silver Money?”

“No sale!”

The stall owner shook his head.

“You need a lot of blood silkworm silk to weave an armor like this. You must have raised a lot of blood silkworms. Would you sell a few to me?”

Qin Niu was simply trying to draw out the stall owner.

“This armor is an ancient artifact from at least ten thousand years ago. Blood silkworms have long been extinct, young brother, you jest,”

the stall owner finally cracked and offered a brief explanation.

“I’ve only heard that Blood Silkworm Armor can regenerate skin. With just this single function, even as an ancient artifact from ten thousand years ago, a price of forty thousand Silver Money really does seem a bit outrageous.”

Qin Niu shook his head, preparing to leave.

“Blood Silkworm Armor can ward off myriad insects, prevent the invasion of gu poison into the body, and moisten and regenerate skin. Forty thousand Silver Money for one, fair and square,”

the stall owner’s voice was slightly strained.

It sounded like it could be an old man.

But intuition told him it was more like someone pretending to be an old man.

Qin Niu hadn’t planned to buy it, he was only curious about the artifact and wanted to understand the value and use of blood silkworms.

Unexpectedly, wearing the Blood Silkworm Armor could protect against the invasion of gu.

If Qin Niu had been wearing this Blood Silkworm Soft Armor during his fight with Elder Mei, he wouldn’t have been invaded by the Black Spider Gu.

While the issue had been resolved, in the future, facing powerful enemies, warding off various evil gu was a relentless challenge.

He had to find a way to make a set of Blood Silkworm Armor for protection.

But spending forty thousand Silver Money for one was, of course, out of the question.

It wasn’t an immediate necessity. He could raise blood silkworms himself and then weave the Blood Silkworm Armor.

He had snatched a blood silkworm cocoon from the He Family, but he didn’t know yet whether the silkworm inside was male or female. If he could find another one, pairing them, Qin Niu could then breed blood silkworms on a large scale.

The problem was that blood silkworms had been extinct for years, and finding another one seemed nearly impossible.

“I’ll look around some more.”

Qin Niu bowed slightly and, with his wife, continued deeper into the black market.

Despite Black Tiger City’s small size and population of about a hundred thousand, the black market was much larger than the Cultivation Market.

Both the vendors and the visitors were numerous.

The place was bustling with activity.

This showed that everyone enjoyed trading outside the boundaries of the law.

In the black market, one could buy various items that were not available elsewhere, including slaves, maids, and all kinds of prohibited goods.

They hadn’t gone far when they saw a crowd gathering around a stall.

The people were observing a stall that displayed a feather, fiery red in color.

You could see the feather shimmering with a red light.

It seemed as if flames were burning within it.

“Phoenix Feather! Priced at ten thousand Silver Money, can be used to practice fire-based magic,”

the stall owner announced.

A simple feather was surprisingly priced at ten thousand Silver Money.

This was simply an exorbitant amount.

It was many times more valuable than gold.

Qin Niu’s heart stirred, thinking of Perching Phoenix Mountain where an avian demon that could breathe fire would kill Spirit Qi Realm warriors as though it was a walk in the park. Even if it was not a Fire Phoenix, it must have been an extraordinarily formidable demon bird.

“I’ll take it,” said a gentleman in white, striding to the booth and presenting a Gold Note worth a thousand taels.

He purchased the phoenix feather straight away.

The onlookers gasped in admiration, their chatter a buzzing swarm.

Yet the gentleman in white simply drifted away.

Qin Niu, relying on his sensitivity to qi, was certain that this gentleman’s cultivation was at least at the Spirit Qi Realm.

Terrifyingly powerful.

Even stronger than Vice City Lord Bai’s presence.

Such a formidable person was likely practicing spells for the Immortal Master rank.

Only Immortal Masters had the skill to practice spells.

Ordinary people, even those strong in the Spirit Qi Realm, were incapable of casting spells.

However, nothing is absolute; those in the Spirit Qi Realm could still cast spells using talismans or certain special items.

“So the black market is really where Black Tiger City hides its hidden dragons and crouching tigers.”

Qin Niu subconsciously lowered his stance; his own cultivation at the Innate Realm didn’t seem like much before these true powerhouses.

From not too far ahead came the pleading cries of a young girl.

“Please… please stop hitting me, I won’t do it again!”

Her clothes were tattered, and her exposed back was nearly all bone, streaked with bloody lash marks.

“My husband, why don’t we buy that girl and take her home?”

Wang Wanyan had a kind heart and couldn’t bear to see such human suffering.

Moved by pity at the sight of the little girl’s plight, she immediately wanted to act.

“Let’s not be hasty; let’s look around a bit more.”

Qin Niu held her back, speaking in a low voice.

The city’s schemes were deep, full of pitfalls. Without extra caution, one could easily be ensnared.

Qin Niu had learned this the hard way.

“Look at the stall owner whipping that girl; his eyes aren’t on her but secretly checking out passersby. He’s likely trying to garner sympathy to sell her off quicker.”

“Ah… there are such people? That’s despicable!”

Wang Wanyan was surprised and angered upon hearing this.

“To sell someone, is there a need to beat her? She’s just about twelve or thirteen years old; too young, it’s too pitiful.”

She clenched her fists in anger but did not confront the stall owner.

“Let’s go deeper inside.”

Qin Niu took Wang Wanyan’s hand and bypassed the slaver’s stall, continuing inward.

This area was full of slave stalls.

Some slaves had their necks locked, tethered to the stalls like cattle.

Others sat on the ground, expressionless, with shackles on their ankles and wrists.

Young girls and women were locked in large iron cages.

Many were scantily clad, emaciated, with eyes full of fear or indifferent expressions.

There were even children for sale, some as young as three.

Both boys and girls.

Those buying children were mostly large landowners.

With vast lands to tend, these landlords needed many slaves to work, so they bought children and raised them from a young age to labor.

For some exceptional children, there was even the chance of being singled out for education in literacy and arithmetic.

These children, as they grew, would become loyal servants to the landowner’s family.

Assigned to various jobs.

Steward Yan Qi of the Yan Family was such a person, adopted young by the family and then raised to become the steward.

Raising children from a young age not only saved costs on purchasing slaves but also ensured loyalty to the family, making large landowners particularly fond of adopting these children as slaves.