Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

With both deals completed, the purpose of this trip has been achieved.

Although the purpose of this trip was to buy thousand-year-old spiritual materials, Gou An's special physique, which possesses the Green Wood Spirit Body, can naturally stimulate the aura of spiritual herbs and forcibly increase the age of the spiritual materials.

Combined with his masterful fire control techniques, it's not impossible to refine a perfect ancient pill; it just requires a bit more spiritual energy and effort.

"Master, shall we leave now?" Long Youzi asked curiously, following behind Gou An.

"No rush!" Gou An shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the masked cultivators coming and going. "I've heard quite a bit of news along the way."

"The black market has only been open for two or three hours, and most people are still trading. If you leave early, you'll be too conspicuous and easily spotted by the evil cultivators lying in wait outside the black waters."

"Shall we wait until later to set off?" Long Youzi nodded in realization.

"That's right." Gou An replied casually, "Didn't Xian Kongzi say he'll be waiting at the city gate early tomorrow morning? We rarely come here, so there's no need to rush to leave. Let's browse the stalls; maybe we can find a bargain."

After saying that, he led Long Youzi into a bustling long street on the side.

This place is completely different from the orderly shops just now; both sides are filled with makeshift stalls set up by unlicensed repairmen.

Unlike the scattered stalls on other streets, this place is more like a street market.

There were many vendors setting up stalls, and many people coming to pick up bargains.

Gou An glanced over and saw that the shops were piled with miscellaneous items, a dazzling array.

There are broken magical artifacts, unidentified ancient jade, moldy old cultivation manual fragments, and ineffective array plate materials—a wide variety of items are available.

Most of them were odds and ends obtained by independent cultivators, and their authenticity was indistinguishable. The real and the fake were mixed together.

Long Youzi glanced at them casually and felt they were worthless: "Master, these things all look like fakes and defective products. There's nothing good about them at all!"

"The black market stalls, though mostly filled with excrement, still offer opportunities to find gold in the dung." Gou An's tone was calm, but his eyes were already flashing with golden light as he glanced at each stall, not missing a single aura of spiritual energy.

He strolled leisurely along the way, and eventually stopped in front of an inconspicuous stall.

The stall owner wore a hideous little ghost mask, his body was hunched over, and his aura was murky and turbid. He looked like a down-on-his-luck old rogue cultivator with low cultivation level.

There weren't many valuable items on the stall; most were rusty and broken pieces. In the corner, however, lay an ancient scroll of yellowed and blackened animal hide, plain and unremarkable, with even the edges torn and missing, looking like a piece of waste paper.

"Fellow Daoist, may I take a look at this?" Gou An pointed to the animal skin scroll, his tone polite.

Seeing that someone was coming to buy, the old rogue cultivator said enthusiastically, "Fellow Daoist, just take what you like and judge for yourself. If the price is right, you can take it."

Gou An nodded, reached out and took out the animal skin scroll, preparing to study it.

Upon opening the animal skin scroll, one could vaguely discern traces of a map, though the marks were blurred due to its age.

Even with Gou An's exceptional eyesight, he couldn't discern anything amiss.

Long Youzi glanced at it, his face full of confusion: "Master, this tattered scroll looks like ordinary old parchment to me, nothing special."

Gou An did not answer, his gaze still fixed on the animal hide scroll, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the surface of the hide.

After a long while, Gou An finally looked up at the old rogue cultivator: "Fellow Daoist, what is the price of this item?"

The old rogue cultivator immediately perked up and said, "This item is ancient, and it's very likely a treasure map to a secret realm. I won't ask for a high price from you, fellow cultivator; three thousand spirit stones will suffice!"

"Three thousand? Why don't you just rob me?" Long Youzi couldn't help but ask directly.

"I dug this out of an ancient tomb a few years ago," the old rogue cultivator alliance added. "That tomb is at least a thousand years old, if not ten thousand. This animal skin scroll is definitely a treasure. Three thousand spirit stones isn't expensive."

"Black market rules: don't ask where it came from!" Gou An simply rolled up the animal hide again and said, "I don't care where this thing came from. I just want to buy it because I think the hide is of decent quality and I'm going to use it to line my doghouse."

Finally, Gou An held up two fingers: "One price, eight hundred spirit stones!"

The old rogue cultivator was slightly taken aback. Although the price was far from what he expected, he hadn't made a sale in a long time, and the item had been sitting in his possession for many years.

After much hesitation, the old rogue cultivator nodded in agreement: "Alright, then it'll be as you say, eight hundred it is!"

Seeing that the old rogue cultivator agreed, Gou An reached out and took out an ordinary cloth bag, filled it with eight hundred spirit stones, and handed it over.

After confirming the quantity of spirit stones was correct, the old rogue cultivator quickly pointed to the other items on the stall and said, "Fellow Daoist, these are also treasures I've collected for many years. See if there's anything else you like?"

"No!" Gou An put away the animal skin scroll and left without lingering.

Long Youzi quickly followed, unable to contain himself, saying, "Master, you've overpaid by spending eight hundred spirit stones on this!"

"Whether it's a loss or not is another matter!" Gou An took out the animal hide again, rubbing the surface with his fingertips, and said, "Do you know why I bought it?"

"Make a doghouse?" Long Youzi asked in confusion.

"Screw you!" Gou An couldn't help but curse before continuing, "As a monster living in the Monster Mountain Range, I have preyed on all sorts of different monsters, so I am naturally familiar with the textures of different monster hides."

"The only thing that's special about this animal hide is that it's made of a very special material. You human cultivators might not be able to tell the difference, but I can."

Upon hearing this, Long Youzi curiously reached out and touched the animal hide, but still looked puzzled.

Gou An had no choice but to continue speaking in a low voice: "This animal skin is not a tiger, not a cow, not a wolf, not a dog, not any kind of monster I have ever seen."

"What exactly is it?" Long Youzi asked curiously.

"Do you still remember the giant black-scaled python I used to raise?" Gou An asked in return.

"I remember!" Long Youzi nodded.

"He has the bloodline of a half-dragon and half-python, only his skin is somewhat similar to this animal skin scroll," Gou An said slowly.

"So..." Long Youzi suddenly realized, "This is dragon skin?"

"I'm not sure either, it's just a guess!" Gou An carefully put the animal skin scroll away again: "If it really is dragon skin, then what's written on it must be something extraordinary. Although the patterns are blurred, if we study it slowly, we might discover something remarkable."

"So that's how it is!" Long Youzi nodded. "Master has excellent eyesight."

Gou An glanced around again, but there was nothing else that caught his eye: "Let's go, let's check out the next place."

"Where?" Long Youzi asked curiously.

"Tianbaotai!" Gou An sniffed the air, then walked in one of the directions.

"Tianbaotai, what kind of place is this?" Long Youzi asked, even more puzzled.

"I just heard that this place is a black market auction house!" Gou An said. "The Tianbao Terrace opens on the 1st, 4th and 7th of every month. Today is the 21st, so we can go and see what's going on."