On the street, Lu Heng was walking quickly, saber in hand.
Occasionally, some passers-by would cast curious gazes at him.
In fact, there were quite a number of people walking on the street carrying weapons, but these people were generally older than Lu Heng.
People would take a second look at him because of his young age. From their perspective, he was probably a star student of the University of Martial Arts who was highly valued by the faculty there.
After all, those who practiced martial arts in the dojos were not particularly talented. It was impossible for someone so young to receive their instructor's permission to carry a weapon out of the dojo.
After walking along the main street for a while, Lu Heng turned off into a small alley.
Then, he took many turns and walked for a long time before arriving at a slightly wider alley.
This was the so-called black market.
Of course, the black market was what people habitually called it. In fact, the alley had a name, which was Jing'an Alley.
Jing'an Alley looked no different from any other street on the surface, but many people in Jiangnan City knew that this place specialized in private transactions.
In addition, the primary subject of such transactions were materials brought in from the wilderness.
Yes, this was a controlled economy. In principle, price speculation was not allowed.
However, the problem was that the government only cared about the city, and not the wilderness.
The resources in the city could be distributed according to plan, but what about the things that were brought in from the wilderness?
For example, valuable monster materials, valuable herbs, and so on.
After these things were brought into the city by people, they had to think of ways to get rid of them.
The government would purchase a large portion of these materials, but the government would not pay a high price for materials that were not useful to them.
Therefore, in order to maximize their profits, some people would choose to trade privately.
In the end, as a compromise, the black market was born.
In fact, the real foundation behind the existence of the black market was not public demand for such materials, but rather martial artists.
Most of the materials traded on the black market were related to martial artists.
For the most part, the government did not place many restraints on martial artists. As such, regarding matters like these, they would often choose to turn a blind eye.
Of course, there was another reason. There were limited personnel managing and running the government departments, so even if they wanted to oversee these matters, they did not have the manpower or resources to do so.
'The black market primarily sells materials from the wilderness. I wonder if I'll be able to find some information about the monsters out there,' Lu Heng pondered as he walked through the crowd.
Jing'an Alley was only a small street, but there were more pedestrians here than on the main street outside.
It could be said that this was the most bustling street in all of Jiangnan City.
On both sides of the street were rows of simple and crude-looking storefronts. There were not many things on display, and it was completely different from the old commercial streets that Lu Heng had read about in the records.
However, if one were to walk in and inquire with the shop owner, they would discover that the shop sold far more things than what was on display.
Therefore, it was impossible to find what one needed just by looking at things from the outside. One had to take the initiative to ask.
After walking for a while, Lu Heng finally chose a shop.
Judging from the things on display in this shop, there might be something here that he wanted.
"Do you sell books here?" Lu Heng walked over to the shop owner and asked in a low voice, pretending to be very casual.
When the shop owner heard this, he immediately displayed a knowing smile. He looked at the saber that Lu Heng was carrying and said in a low voice, "I have something even more exciting here. I guarantee that you won't be able to control yourself after reading it. Do you want me to introduce it to you?"
"I'm just looking for a book. Do you have one here?" Lu Heng was not moved by the shop owner's words at all.
The shop owner was not angry when he heard that. He still said cheerfully, "Of course I have some. Tell me what flavor you like first."
"Do you have one about monsters?" Lu Heng asked.
Hearing this, the shop owner was momentarily stunned, but he quickly recovered and said, "Oh, man. Young man, your taste is quite unique. You must have a lot of experience, right?"
Lu Heng was speechless. After looking around, he lowered his voice and said, "What I'm looking for are teaching materials for university studies, the kind that specifically talks about the characteristics and traits of monsters. Do you understand?"
"Ah?" The shop owner's expression immediately became puzzled, and he looked at Lu Heng with confusion.
Was this person not a student of the University of Martial Arts?
Why did he come here to buy university teaching materials?
"Do you have them or not? Tell me quickly," Lu Heng urged.
The shop owner had no choice but to explain in a low voice, "Everyone who can use those books has one. Those who can't use them will never want to buy one to read. There's no market for those books at all."
"Got it."
Lu Heng turned around and left.
Seeing this, the shop owner hurriedly called out, "Remember to look for me the next time you have a need. I have all kinds of flavors for sale."
After walking out of the shop, Lu Heng continued to walk among the crowd, searching for the next shop that might have books for sale.
However, after this experience, he actually did not hold much hope in his heart.
The shop owner had made it very clear that those who needed it would already have access to the information, and those who did not need it had no interest in such books at all.
Since there was no market for such books, the chances of anyone selling them was basically nil.
After all, there was a considerable risk involved when it came to engaging in private transactions.
'Perhaps I can look for a few shops that sell monster meat and ask them.' An idea came to Lu Heng's mind.
He turned his head and happened to see a shop across the street that displayed some monster meat for sale, so he strode over.
When the butcher saw Lu Heng coming over, he immediately greeted him with a smile.
This was a real customer, unlike those idlers who only came over to ask and did not buy anything.
The butcher estimated that Lu Heng would at least buy ten catties of monster meat to eat.
After all, this kind of saber-carrying university student would have many ways to get his hands on tradeable currency, so it would not be a big deal for him to exchange some of it for fresh monster meat.
"Brother, what kind of monster meat do you want?" The butcher asked with a smile.
Lu Heng glanced at the meat on display and then asked, "Of all of the monster meat on sale here, which one came from the most powerful and hardest to kill monster?"
"Ah?" The butcher's expression froze.
He had not expected Lu Heng to ask such a question.
"Brother, I don't really understand such things. After all, I'm just a seller."
"However, if you want to ask me which type of monster meat is the most delicious and which type of monster meat is the most nutritious, then you've come to the right person."
Upon hearing this reply, Lu Heng secretly sighed.
However, he was already mentally prepared when he came over. He knew that there was a high probability that he would not be able to get the answer he wanted, so he was not too disappointed.
"Alright, then tell me which type of monster meat is the most nutritious. Also, tell me which type of monster meat is not edible. Tell me whatever you know."
Lu Heng thought that, since he was already here, he might as well learn about it. After all, this knowledge was also quite useful.
"Okay!"
The butcher immediately smiled and introduced the types of monster meat to Lu Heng.
However, by the time he finished speaking, he realized that Lu Heng was not planning to buy meat from him.
He had no choice but to put on a forced smile and send Lu Heng out. He was wondering what he said wrong and why he had not managed to sell anything to such a big customer.
After Lu Heng walked out of the butcher shop, he looked for a few other butcher shops to ask around.
The result was that, without exception, none of the butchers really understood monsters.
Lu Heng was not surprised by this at all. After all, these butchers were not martial artists. They would not leave the city and kill monsters themselves.
The monster meat they sold had all been purchased from martial artists. They only earned a profit from the resale price difference.
After some time, whenever Lu Heng saw another butcher shop, he simply chose not to enter.
He could not get the information he wanted from them anyway, and listening to them introduce how delicious the monster meat was made him especially hungry.
Lu Heng really wanted to buy some monster meat and have a taste, but he was really poor. He only had two food stamps in his pocket, so he could not even afford half a pound of monster meat.
'Forget it. Let's go back first.'
Lu Heng stopped, looked into the distance, and turned to leave.
Suddenly, he spotted a familiar figure.
'Isn't that the guy who sold me the flower poison ginseng last time?'
'Damn, that guy almost killed me. He has to give me an explanation today.'
'At the very least, he should return the two food stamps I paid for them.'
Lu Heng narrowed his eyes and strode forward.