Chapter 36 Mustard Seed Hiding Technique, The Scam

The five of them chatted for a while before parting ways, each returning to their respective homes.

Su Yu returned to the Thousand Feathers Pavilion, spending thirty taels of gold in one breath to purchase thirty third-grade Heart-Enlightening Pills, and conveniently sold the horned viper dragon bones he had obtained in the secret realm for five taels of gold.

Returning to his quarters, he began refining the Heart-Enlightening Pills.

However, when he refined up to the seventh Heart-Enlightening Pill in one breath, he was shocked to discover that the amount of Dao-practice gained from each pill began to decrease.

Normally, with the golden finger bonus, a single third-grade Heart-Enlightening Pill could grant sixty points of Dao-practice. Seven pills should yield four hundred and twenty points, but in reality, it only increased by three hundred and eighty points, falling short by forty points.

"Has drug tolerance set in this quickly?"

Although Su Yu frowned, he was not puzzled.

This situation was within his expectations, though he hadn't expected it to appear at this moment.

Drug tolerance existed in all circumstances. Back on Earth, he had heard that abusing antibiotics would lead to drug resistance, reducing or even nullifying the effectiveness of the antibiotics.

The same concept applied in the Other Shore. Any pills and heavenly treasures possessed drug tolerance and could not be used infinitely.

Even millennium scarlet fruits were only effective for the first three; consuming them further would not increase attributes anymore, and pills were naturally no exception.

Therefore, the notion of infinitely consuming Heart-Enlightening Pills to accumulate tens or hundreds of thousands of points of Dao-practice did not exist.

In the early stages, one could rapidly accumulate a large amount of Dao-practice through Heart-Enlightening Pills. Once drug resistance developed and the effectiveness of the pills decreased until they became ineffective, one would eventually have to rely on adventuring and slaying bosses to obtain Dao-practice.

Of course, there were still many pills superior to the Heart-Enlightening Pills for acquiring Dao-practice in the Other Shore, but such pills were both expensive and rare, so one shouldn't count on them too heavily.

After a brief silence, he sent a message to Wei Xia:

"Have you developed a drug tolerance to your Heart-Enlightening Pills yet?"

Wei Xia was still in Thousand Feathers City and replied quickly:

"You're only developing tolerance now?"

"Yeah."

"I stopped getting any effects long ago."

Su Yu asked in surprise:

"That fast?"

"My father prepared a batch of the highest-grade fifth-grade Heart-Enlightening Pills for me early on, accumulating a total of two thousand five hundred and fifty points of Dao-practice. By now, Heart-Enlightening Pills are completely ineffective for me."

"Alright."

Closing the communicator, Su Yu glanced at the remaining Heart-Enlightening Pills and continued refining them.

It was merely drug tolerance, not complete uselessness; they could still be used, and he would continue buying them later until they lost effectiveness entirely.

Events proved, however, that he had overthought it. As he continued refining the remaining Heart-Enlightening Pills, their effectiveness gradually diminished. By the time he refined the fifteenth pill, the effect had dropped to fifty percent of normal.

Out of the total thirty pills, Su Yu refined them all in one go, accumulating a grand total of one thousand three hundred and twenty-three points of Dao-practice.

Adding the remaining fifty-six points from before, he had a total of one thousand three hundred and eighty-nine points of Dao-practice.

When refining the very last pill, which could previously increase Dao-practice by sixty points, it now only increased it by six points, retaining merely ten percent of its effect.

"In the future, I'll just have to switch to other ways of accumulating Dao-practice."

Su Yu clicked his tongue, deciding not to purchase any more.

A ten percent effect was simply too poor; there was no need to spend money foolishly for such a marginal return.

It was worth mentioning that drug tolerance applied to the category of Dao-practice pills as a whole—whether first-grade, third-grade, or the highest-grade fifth-grade, they were all the same, because regardless of whether they were first or fifth grade, they were still Heart-Enlightening Pills, merely of different qualities.

Drug resistance disregarded quality; once the Dao-practice acquired through Heart-Enlightening Pills reached a certain threshold, any grade of Heart-Enlightening Pill would become equally ineffective.

Additionally, drug tolerance varied from person to person. Generally, the higher one's innate constitution, the higher the drug tolerance.

Wei Xia's innate constitution was higher than Su Yu's, which was why Wei Xia accumulated a total of two thousand five hundred and fifty points of Dao-practice through Heart-Enlightening Pills, whereas Su Yu accumulated around two thousand two hundred, about three hundred and thirty less than Wei Xia.

Having finished the refinement, Su Yu opened his panel, his gaze resting upon his numerous Dao-spells, and after a brief contemplation, his consciousness landed on the Mustard Seed Hiding Technique.

This was a concealment technique that could lower one's sense of presence and suppress all personal aura. Reaching the highest level could even allow one to conceal oneself within a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru, completely hiding one's whereabouts—an essential technique for venturing out on adventures and explorations.

Advancing it to the first level required ten million cultivation points and fifty points of Dao-practice.

With a thought, his consciousness focused on the Dao-spell. One thousand cultivation points and the Dao-practice were consumed, an invisible fluctuation swept across his entire body, and then nothing happened; he felt no abnormalities.

Yet deep within his mind, a Dao-spell inexplicably appeared.

He pointed a finger, causing a water mirror to materialize. With a thought, he attempted to circulate the Dao-spell. Visible to the naked eye, the radiant glow and magical luster of his appearance, nurtured by cultivation, rapidly converged in the mirror; the brilliant light in his eyes vanished, and even his skin tone turned ashen, making him look just like an ordinary mortal.

He glanced back over his shoulder and discovered that his shadow had vanished.

"This is quite magical, and it's only at the first level."

The Mustard Seed Hiding Technique had a total of five levels. If he could raise it to the maximum rank, it would undoubtedly be extremely formidable.

Next, his gaze shifted to the second level of the Mustard Seed Hiding Technique, which required fifty million cultivation points and two hundred points of Dao-practice.

He had sufficient Dao-practice, but lacked the cultivation points.

"I'll upgrade it next time."

Su Yu closed the panel and sat quietly in place for a long while without moving.

"What should I do next?"

"I might as well go grinding for levels."

Cultivation points were never enough. Putting aside the Qi-refining mental cultivation methods and sword arts, he would still need to learn numerous secret arts, thunder spells, restriction spells, divine abilities, and so on in the future, all of which required massive amounts of cultivation points and Dao-practice.

Before setting off, however, he still needed to prepare some supplies. He browsed the Thousand Feathers Pavilion and spent five taels of gold to purchase a few special spells.

The Lesser Heavens Cloud Restriction Great Spell, a restriction technique that could be used in the future to forge flying swords and magical treasures, as well as to lay down restrictions to seal certain objects.

Advancing it to the first level required five million cultivation points and thirty points of Dao-practice, and it could forge up to second-tier flying swords and magical treasures.

The Invisibility Spell, which as the name suggested, allowed one to turn invisible and could be coordinated with the Mustard Seed Hiding Technique.

Advancing it to the first level required three million cultivation points and twenty points of Dao-practice.

Lacking sufficient cultivation points for now, he only upgraded these two secret arts to the first level, which would temporarily suffice.

The night passed quietly, and early the next morning, Su Yu left Thousand Feathers City, flying eastward to prepare for level grinding at the Yuan River.

The Poison Mist Swamp was still somewhat unsuitable; both the quantity of monsters and the resources fell far short of the Yuan River.

Plunging headfirst into the Yuan River, the Black Water Mysterious Pearl parted the lake water to form a water-free space, slowly sinking into the depths. The lake water was crystal clear, allowing him to see various aquatic monster species swimming about in the distance.

Sinking over a thousand meters in one breath, he stopped and immediately circulated the Mustard Seed Hiding Technique to suppress his aura, drastically reducing his sense of presence. With such a large transparent light sphere suspended in the water, monsters even a little further away completely turned a blind eye to him.

It wasn't until he summoned the Sun-Hiding Flying Sword, sending it flying out to encircle a nearby school of about level-sixty blue-backed carp monsters, that he drew the attention of the surrounding creatures.

Sharp sword qi crisscrossed back and forth, cutting deep gashes upon contact, and blood quickly stained the surrounding waters red.

Dispatching the group of fish monsters in a few moves, he recalled his flying sword and released it once again, rounding up another school of bluefish monsters.

"Well, well!"

Slaughtering this flock of bluefish monsters actually yielded a dropped loot—a third-grade Bluefish Sword.

Bluefish Sword (Third-grade Flying Sword): A flying sword forged from the fish bones of a bluefish monster.

Attributes: Attack power 30-50, attack speed 20-40, sword-piloting speed 20-40, sword art bonus 20%, special trait: Bluefish Dragon-Evolving Formation.

Bluefish Dragon-Evolving Formation: Gathering one hundred and eight Bluefish Swords into a set allows one to deploy the Bluefish Dragon-Evolving Formation, summoning a terrifying 150-level template Azure Flood Dragon phantom.

Equipment Requirement: Basic Sword Art level fifteen.

"Hmm..."

Su Yu's evaluation was:

"All show and no substance!"

The attributes of the Bluefish Sword were lower than the average of third-grade flying swords, and its strength was not high either. Its sole shining point was the attached Bluefish Dragon-Evolving Formation; gathering one hundred and eight of them allowed one to deploy the formation and summon a flood dragon phantom to assist in battle.

At first glance, it seemed very powerful—a 150-level terrifying template flood dragon was quite formidable.

However, the problem was that it required one hundred and eight swords. The market price of a third-grade flying sword, depending on quality, was ten to twenty taels of silver per sword. The Bluefish Sword's own attributes should place it at the bottom tier of ten silver per sword, but because of its attached trait, its price soared as high as twenty taels of silver per sword. One hundred and eight swords would cost twenty gold and sixty silver.

Wouldn't spending twenty taels of gold to buy a fifth-grade premium flying sword be a much better deal? Who would buy a Bluefish Sword whose attributes were only slightly better than a second-grade flying sword?

Moreover, one couldn't count on the Azure Dragon Dragon-Evolving Formation either. Gathering one hundred and eight swords did indeed summon the flood dragon phantom, but the issue was that simultaneously driving one hundred and eight second-grade flying swords consumed an astronomical amount of magical power, making it unsustainable.

Furthermore, the durability of the Bluefish Sword was not high, and in a clash with high-grade flying swords, it was very easily snapped in half.

Once too many were broken, the formation would shatter on its own.

Combining all these negative factors, this sword was quite the tasteless chicken rib, loved only by wealthy second-generation heirs who had money to spare and liked to put on airs to pick up girls.

Casually putting away the Bluefish Sword, Su Yu changed locations and continued grinding monsters.

These monsters were all trash-tier templates; their health and defense were similar to ordinary templates, but their intelligence was extremely low, possessing only biological instincts and posing almost no threat. They were affectionately dubbed experience mobs by players.

With almost no pauses, he farmed from morning until night, successfully accumulating 1.26 million slaughter experience points.

He did not return to the base in the Poison Mist Swamp for the night, instead staying at a small riverbank town nearby.

This town also belonged to the guild, seemingly serving as the stronghold of some independent squadron. The town's scale was even larger than Susha Town, though its importance fell far short.

There was a plaza at the town's east gate where a large number of players gathered to form a flea market.

After eating dinner, seeing that it wasn't yet very late and not wanting to sleep too early, Su Yu strolled through the flea market.

At the entrance, he spotted a grocery stall and casually sold off some miscellaneous items harvested from his previous grinding sessions, such as fish scales and fish bones. Including the Bluefish Sword, he brought in a total of thirty-two taels of silver.

After wandering around and turning a corner into another row of street stalls, he suddenly bumped into someone. Just as he was about to turn around, that person abruptly leaned in close and lowered their voice to say:

"Brother, I've got a batch of contraband high-grade flying swords here going cheap. Do you want one?"

As he spoke, he pulled open his coat, revealing a crystal-clear flying sword hanging inside, upon which was inscribed...

Suspended in Air (Seventh-grade Flying Sword): Premium, forged by mixing pristine white gold with dazzling light crystals.

Attributes: Attack power 600-880, attack speed 480-720, sword-piloting speed 500-750, sword art bonus 70%, attached Dao-spell......

Before he could even finish reading, the man zipped his coat back up and looked cautiously around from side to side, adopting a wary demeanor.

"A seventh-grade flying sword?"

Su Yu was greatly startled and immediately asked:

"How much?"

The man held up two fingers:

"Five hundred taels of gold."

"Too expensive."

"This isn't expensive at all; the market price for a seventh-grade flying sword is over one thousand gold, and mine is only half of that."

"I don't have that much money."

"How much do you have?"

"Eighty-four gold."

"Eighty-four gold?"

"Way too little, no deal."

The man waved his hand dismissively and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute."

Su Yu reached out to press him down and said through clenched teeth:

"Can you lower the price a bit? I'll go borrow some."

A seventh-grade flying sword! Such a cheap price was hard to encounter even once in a lifetime; if he let this slip by, he would regret it to his dying day.

Furthermore, with a high-grade flying sword, he would definitely be able to pierce Ding Lingyu's defense. Coupled with a good defensive magical treasure—sixth-grade would suffice—he would have the confidence to defeat Ding Lingyu.

"I must secure this."

The man hesitated for a moment, then extended a single finger:

"One hundred and fifty gold, not a copper less. You can go borrow some money from your friends."

"Deal!"

"Add me as a friend first."

"Right, I need to take a screenshot, otherwise my friends won't believe me."

The man said with an impatient expression:

"Why are you so troublesome? The price has already dropped to one hundred and fifty gold and you're still making a fuss. If you can't afford it, don't buy it; I'll go sell it to someone else for two hundred gold."

Watching the man walk away, Su Yu opened his mouth, but ultimately did not press the issue. He turned around, soared into the air, and flew toward the Poison Mist Swamp, contacting Zhuang Zhuo and the others along the way.

"Brother Zhuang, lend me some money; I'm buying a flying sword."

"How much do you need?"

"How much can you lend at most?"

"Fifteen gold."

"Alright, I'll pay you back after the next minor exam."

"Thanks a lot!"

"Don't mention it!"

........

"Brother Gu, lend me some money; I'm buying a flying sword."

"Don't you already have a sixth-grade flying sword?"

"Yeah, I want to buy a seventh-grade flying sword."

"You can afford a seventh-grade flying sword? How much is the seller asking?"

"Someone is selling it for one hundred and fifty taels of gold, claiming it's discounted contraband."

"???"

"Contraband doesn't get discounted like that. Are you sure you aren't being scammed?"

"No, I saw the flying sword's attributes; it's definitely a seventh-grade flying sword."

"That makes no sense."

"Do you have a screenshot?"

"No."

At that moment, Shi Ning suddenly sent him a message:

"Brother Su, you're definitely being scammed."

"Is it a seventh-grade flying sword called 'Suspended in Air'?"

"Ah, you know about it too?"

"Hahaha, you've been conned. That's actually a first-grade flying sword; it's just that the flying sword's name is—Suspended in Air (Seventh-grade Flying Sword): Premium, forged by mixing pristine white gold with dazzling light crystals. Attributes: Attack power 600-880, attack speed 480-720, sword-piloting speed 500-750, sword art bonus 70%, attached Dao-spell......"

"???"

"You read that right, that entire string of descriptions and attributes is the name of the flying sword."

"This guy was scamming people in the Thunder Eagle Guild's territory before, and when he couldn't survive there anymore, he ran over to this side."

Su Yu came to a halt. His complexion turned from pale to red, then from red to cyan—ashamed and furious, shifting continuously.

"Damn it!"

Since even the name was spelled out, it was undoubtedly true.

He swiftly turned around and flew back, soon spotting that fellow whispering to someone beside the flea market.

Su Yu descended from the sky, directly summoning the Constellation Mirror, and cast a beam of white light down to freeze him in place.

His sudden action immediately caught the attention of the market guards. A squad of Thousand Feathers Guild players flew over, and Su Yu hurriedly went up to them, revealing his guild member identity and explaining the ins and outs of the matter.

The captain immediately produced a Spirit-Binding Rope to tie the scammer up, and after a search, retrieved the fake seventh-grade flying sword.

The rest went without saying; the man was directly dragged away.

Daring to run scams on their turf involving such a massive sum—if successful, the impact would be extremely vile, and he would undoubtedly face severe punishment.

They wouldn't kill him; that would let him off too easily. Most likely, he would be locked up—locked away for a dozen or so years to let him know the consequences and vent the fury in Su Yu's heart.

"Too dangerous. I almost suffered a massive loss."

Su Yu specially expressed his gratitude to Shi Ning.