“The simplest way is to use your family points to exchange for enough Vitality Stones. That will significantly increase your chances of obtaining a magic crystal at the trading fair.” After all, Seven Star Castle is a place where warriors primarily train, and Vitality Stones are rare resources suited for their cultivation.

“Dick, you need to think carefully. I know you’re dual-cultivating both magic and martial arts. Vitality Stones are crucial for your combat aura cultivation. You’d better not neglect your aura training just to focus on magic, or your mentor might start looking at you differently.”

Dick understood—this was also why Mentor Meng Qing didn’t tell him the method for obtaining magic crystals. The mentor was worried he might lose sight of his priorities.

“Don’t worry, my main combat strength comes from my aura. I constantly need to fight, and even for survival’s sake, I wouldn’t let my aura training fall behind,” Dick replied earnestly. Yet, he knew his Jade Pendant Space was anything but simple, as its main functions seemed tailored for the advancement of a mage.

However, ever since Dick first discovered the powers of the Jade Pendant Space, it had subtly enhanced both his mental strength and the quality and speed of his combat aura cultivation.

Dick had compared it to the training effect of a Vitality Formation, which also aids in aura cultivation, but even that paled in comparison to the overall benefits of the Jade Pendant Space. For both magic and aura cultivation, the pendant space... well, it was truly something extraordinary.

Of course, Dick still needed to investigate further. After all, he hadn’t earned many points, and thus, the number of Vitality Stones he could exchange was limited.

Dick felt that his sources of income were too few. Even his acquisition of magic gold was an unexpected windfall from a mission to a magic gold mine.

As for risking his life to earn points on missions? That was even harder! Damn it! Am I destined to be poor for life?

He hadn’t noticed it much before, but now that he had advanced to a level four warrior, he finally felt the pinch of scarce cultivation resources. It was tough to accumulate combat aura as a mid-level warrior.

And that’s with the Jade Pendant Space acting as a golden finger, drastically reducing his resource needs for training.

As for joining a team to hunt sea beasts? Dick was only a level four warrior—he wasn’t strong enough. Even if he wanted to go, no one would take him. In the Yaoguang Mountain hunting teams, you needed to be at least a level five bloodline warrior to participate, and regular warriors had to be level six at a minimum.

When the mission army returned to Seven Star Castle, Dick earned two kill points and twenty family points. That’s why Barbara said he had enough qualifications to join the trading fair. After all, without enough points, how could you exchange for resources? And without resources, why bother attending a trading fair?

Since Seven Star Castle had so many high-level mages, it was clear that many people practiced magic there.

Following Barbara to the trading fair for the first time, Dick saw that out of thirty mid-level cultivators, eleven were mid-level mages.

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The first level-four magic crystal appeared—it was of the metal element, and thus, useless to Dick. A fire-element magic crystal followed, but Dick watched it get snatched up by a fire mage, using Vitality Stones, of course.

Then, a water-element magic crystal appeared, confirming Dick’s thoughts—both warriors and mages owned magic crystals. After all, it wasn’t only warriors who hunted sea beasts; couldn’t mages join hunting teams too?

Finally, Dick made his move. He traded seven pieces of mid-level magic gold, securing the deal. Theoretically, Dick had offered a price higher than the market rate by at least two pieces of magic gold. The standard exchange rate for a level-four magic crystal and mid-level magic gold was five to one. For a level-five crystal, the price would be even steeper.

With such a generous deal, the mage had no choice but to agree. After all, magic gold was a vital resource for a mage’s cultivation. Unlike Dick, most mages didn’t have access to something like the Jade Pendant Space. Whether it was magic gold or magic crystals, the difference in cultivation effects was only understood in the most general terms.

Another fire-element magic crystal came up, and this time, Dick used twelve Vitality Stones to secure it. In Yaoguang Mountain, one Vitality Stone was worth one family task point, and ten Vitality Stones allowed you to use the Vitality Formation once. The standard trade rate in Seven Star Castle was ten Vitality Stones for one level-four magic crystal, so spending two extra stones was normal in a competitive setting like this.

After all, magical beast hunts were never-ending.

With one fire-element and one water-element magic crystal in hand, Dick achieved his goal and stopped bidding, mindful of his limited resources.

“Brother!” In Yaoguang Mountain, bloodline warriors addressed each other by name, but outside of it, between different family members, cultivators would respectfully address one another as “Brother.”

“What is it?” The mage, who had just made his deal, looked over at Dick. It was normal for people to strike up private conversations during the trading fair.

“I still have some magic gold. Do you happen to have any essence blood or meat from a level-four magical beast?”

“Essence blood, no. But what kind of beast meat are you looking for?”

“Anything from fire or water-element beasts. I’m not too particular. Just give me a fair price, brother.”

“Well then, how much magic gold do you have?”

“Thirty pieces of mid-level magic gold!” For a mage, the temptation of thirty pieces of magic gold was immense since it took ten pieces to activate a magic array.

“I don’t have that much beast meat on hand, but give me two days, brother.”

“Alright, here’s my communication token.”

The mage’s offer was quite reasonable, and Dick was satisfied. They exchanged communication tokens, marking the end of Dick’s trading fair journey.

Two days later, the mage proved reliable, delivering over thirty tons of well-prepared level-four magical beast meat, neatly packed in a space bag, without a bone in sight. Such expert handling was truly impressive.

Typically, the exchange rate was one ton of beast meat per piece of magic gold. Since beast meat was far less valuable than essence blood or magic crystals, the deal was entirely fair.

Doesn’t Yaoguang Mountain provide free level-four magical beast meat? Yes, but only in limited quantities, enough to maintain a healthy diet and modest body tempering. Yaoguang Mountain might have mid-level magic gold mines that could be exchanged for magical beast meat, but it wasn’t an unlimited supply for careless use.

With the final deal done, Dick was left with just a few pieces of magic gold in his pocket. Broke again!

Novels often depict transmigrators as all-powerful, able to amass vast resources for cultivation, but in reality, it’s far from that. Any money-making scheme you can think of? People in this world aren’t stupid—they’ve already thought of it. Why would it ever fall to you?

In the Yan Kingdom, mid-level magical beast meat might be scarce, but mid-level magic gold wasn’t. People could just trade directly with the higher-ups of Seven Star Castle—buying in bulk was always more cost-effective than dealing with someone like Dick.

So, what was Dick going to do with all that beast meat? Eat it, of course!

After a hearty feast of level-four magical beast meat from both fire and water-element beasts, Dick dived back into his Jade Pendant Space. Yes, this way, he could greatly increase the efficiency of the energy absorption from the meat, making it far more effective than just eating it directly.

If he only ate the meat normally, how long would it take him to go through thirty tons?