Soon, they arrived at a large building with a big 'Forge Quarter Mega Market' signboard at the top.
People were going in and out of the building and some of them were holding and caressing the new spirit equipment they just bought. Most people who were here were mercenaries based on their clothes.
"So, this is where all the spirit equipment was being sold, huh? The building looks very old. Well, it's been here for ages." Leyvi commented while looking up at the big signboard.
Although he wanted to buy defensive equipment for his women for their protection, he had a different plan for himself.
Leyvi wanted to buy a glove and a pair of shoes that could enhance his punching and kicking power. He couldn't use the gloves and shoes he bought from the Mountain Dew Sect anymore because they were only tier-1 items. He had grown much stronger since then.
Not just tier-1, even tier-2 equipment couldn't handle his strength anymore. He could sense it when training with Valenia. If he goes all out, he could destroy her tier-2 broadsword with Qi detonation.
"Let's go. We have ten thousand middle-grade spirit stones to spend. You can pick three tier-3 items here. I will cover all the cost." Anda said with a smile.
"Three?? Madam, you are so generous! Just like darling! Muah muah!" Nala kissed Anda's cheeks.
Nala already knew that Anda would be paying for their stuff, but she thought it was only for one item since they were expensive. She didn't think that Anda would let them have three! She couldn't even afford one in the past.
The ten thousand middle-grade spirit stones were the prize money for the top ten alchemists in the alchemy competition. It was equivalent to a million low-grade spirit stones. Anda didn't mind spending all of this money.
A tier-1 spirit equipment base price usually ranged from 5 to 500 low-grade spirit stones, tier-2 spirit equipment ranged from 500 to 5000 low-grade spirit stones, while tier-3 spirit equipment ranged from 5000 to 50000 low-grade spirit stones.
As for the tier-4 spirit equipment, the price usually starts at 50000 low-grade spirit stones in an auction, where the final bidding price might even go past a million low-grade spirit stones mark.
What about the tier-5 equipment? Unfortunately, Nala did not know about it. She could only speculate and extrapolate about tier-5 equipment from the price of tier-4 equipment, which was already astronomical.
"Hahaha! It feels so good to have a rich wife. Come Anda, give me money!" Leyvi loudly said.
The crowd immediately looked at Leyvi, obviously feeling a certain way by what he said. Some had envious expressions, while some had mocking faces.
"Hmph! Shameless! You call yourself a man?"
"Dammit! Why can't I get a rich wife too?"
"What a loser, selling himself to a woman for money!"
A few from the crowd said some unpleasant words as they walked away.
"Haha. You hear that, Anda? It's been a while since I saw people give me weird looks and heard people say mean stuff. It feels nice." Leyvi joked.
"Hehe." Anda giggled. "Can you stop saying things like that in the crowd? Your hobby is weird. Let's go." Anda pulled Leyvi's ear and entered the market.
"But it's fun seeing their expression. Ah, don't pull my ear! Val, help! Save your man!" Leyvi pretended to be hurt.
Valenia immediately distanced herself away from Leyvi. She knew that once he started acting goofy, his thick skin would grow thicker instantly, and he would drag others in his goofy act. Since she was a serious person, she didn't want to be seen as goofy, absolutely not!
After Leyvi and the group entered the mega market, they just continued walking towards the tier-3 section. There was no need to stop at tier-1 and tier-2 sections.
"Alright ladies, we are here. You can pick your things up now. Make sure to select spirit equipment with defensive capabilities first." Leyvi said.
The ladies nodded and moved to the aisle where their preferred equipment type was put on sale.
Leyvi then went to the spirit weapon section. He felt a little disappointed because at first he thought that he could buy a tier-4 weapon, but they were only available in auctions.
As someone who had already experienced the way an auction works, he could honestly say that he didn't like it. He preferred buying things that have a fixed price.
"Hmm....which one should I pick?" Leyvi muttered while looking at the lines of tier-3 combat gloves on the shelf. He also read the brief description of the gloves slowly.
Bloody Claw Gauntlet. Forged with soft elonium steel infused with enhanced and modified demonic beast claws. Each glove has three retractable, razor-sharp claws extending from the knuckles. When Qi is channeled through the claws, they emit a cutting aura that extends their range by a few inches.
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Mountain Crusher Gauntlet. Reinforced with stone essence and heavy iron alloy. Upon charging with Qi, the user can create a seismic shockwave that destabilizes the ground, knocking enemies off balance.
Phoenix Feather Gloves. Infused with artificial phoenix feathers and flame-resistant silk. Grants the user fire-based Qi attacks. Punches create fiery shockwaves and ignite enemies upon impact.
Thunderstrike Gauntlet. Forged with conductive metals and lighting-charged gems. Create and enhance lightning-based Qi, creating electric arcs that damage and paralyze opponents with each hit.
Explosion Glove. Crafted from impact-resistant leather and embedded with Qi-absorbing beads. The user can unleash stored Qi in a concentrated punch, creating a massive explosion on impact that damages everything within range.
"A claw...strong punch.....fire fist.... lightning fist...explosion, huh? Isn't this my Qi detonation technique? Tsk tsk...rich people really have it easy. They could just buy a spirit weapon, no need to learn it like me," Leyvi complained when he read about the Explosion Glove.
The Qi detonation technique was a technique he accidentally acquired during a desperate fight with a demonic leopard, but without sufficient prerequisites, he wouldn't be able to unlock it.
After he had advanced to the Foundation Building realm previously, he noticed that his Qi capacity was much bigger than Anda's and was confused as to what decided this outcome.
Later on, Lilian's breakthrough to the Core Formation realm gave him a hint of this mystery. What if each realm held hidden cultivation secrets that normal cultivators didn't know about?
Leyvi felt that he stumbled upon this secret by chance without realizing it, and he ended up with a Qi capacity that was way bigger than that of other cultivators of the same level. After asking multiple people about their experience when breaking through to the Foundation Building realm, he finally found out the difference between him and their process.
When their refined Qi filled their dantian to the threshold, they proceeded with the breakthrough. They did try to add more refined Qi beyond the threshold, but they couldn't add much because they felt their dantian might burst if they forced it.
It was not the same with him. When he reached the maximum refined Qi threshold for the first time, he kept pushing for more, enduring some long and painful process. He finally felt like reaching the limit after months of slowly adding more refined Qi.
So the question was, why could he do this when others couldn't?
After he thought about it carefully, Leyvi was almost a hundred percent confident that the reason his dantian could endure more refined Qi getting added compared to the others was because of his Fiery Trailblazer martial skill.
In the process of learning the martial skill, he had to learn how to pour a large amount of Qi into a certain part of his body and contain it. The better he became at containing the Qi, the more Qi he could pour, increasing his power as a result.
Wasn't this basically the same as how the dantian works? Containing Qi.
Because of the nature of his Fiery Trailblazer martial skill, he became highly proficient at containing Qi, and it allowed him to contain more refined Qi in his dantian, far exceeding the amount it was originally supposed to contain.
This was the theory that he came up with after going through everything. As for whether it was true or not, he had begun preparing to find out the truth of the matter. He would let Tal, Tasya, and everyone currently in the Qi Refinement realm practice containing Qi and increase its proficiency as much as possible.
However, they didn't necessarily have to practice it by learning his Fiery Trailblazer martial skill. There were other ways to do it, and much less dangerous. If this proves to be true, they will have another cultivation secret added to the list.
In conclusion, Leyvi's Qi detonation technique was only possible because he was good with jolt Qi to begin with, extremely proficient with containing Qi, and had an enormous Qi capacity.
He even considered the Qi detonation technique to be the continuation of his Fiery Trailblazer martial skill and planned to include it in the martial skill after he made a few more revisions later.
So seeing a spirit weapon that could replicate his hard-earned technique easily made him feel a bit bitter.
However, he immediately cheered because being able to do it without relying on external things was far better than only relying on a weapon.
Suddenly, Leyvi saw other combat gloves that caught his attention at the end of the shelf.
"Hahaha! I like this one. I want this!" Leyvi expressed his interest after he read the description.