Xia Li nodded after hearing Ke Xiao's immature suggestion.

  He thought the same way.

  Regarding the choice between modern spirit artifacts and ancient artifacts, debates raged endlessly on the public net, with neither side able to convince the other.

  In artifact refining, modern technology hadn't effectively pulled ahead of ancient methods—artifacts forged using ancient techniques did have better ceilings and superior quality.

  This was because ancient artifacts required the refiner to infuse their life essence during the forging process, giving them spirituality and room for growth.

  Modern spirit artifacts, on the other hand...

  Assembled on factory production lines, they couldn't be called bad—their lower threshold was high while remaining cheap, making them convenient for mass deployment. The only drawback was their complete lack of spirituality.

  But Xia Li didn't really care about an artifact's spirituality anyway. Different pursuits led to different perspectives.

  Some people enjoyed nurturing, savoring the process of cultivating an ancient artifact. Xia Li was a pragmatist—he preferred having something that could unleash sufficient combat power the moment it reached his hands.

  After leaving Ke Xiao's shop, Xia Li headed straight for the other end of Black Street following the address she'd sent him.

  Along the way...

  "So this is Black Mountain?"

  Xia Li witnessed Black Street's truest face—a massive garbage dump where trash had piled up like mountains, forming a strange landscape of undulating peaks.

  Garbage from Upper City was dumped directly into Lower City, drawing countless scavengers to gather here.

  Every city had its Black Street, and every Black Street developed around a garbage dump.

  No...

  To be precise, the birth of Lower City itself was inseparable from garbage dumps.

  With population explosion and resource scarcity, as ground-level radiation receded, the lower-quality population simply chose to migrate downward.

  To survive, the earliest Lower City residents almost all worked in garbage recycling. After several generations of development, buildings sprouted up around the dumps, eventually giving birth to Lower City.

  After that...

  Hazardous industries collectively migrated downward. In Upper City, they had to worry about environmental pollution; in Lower City, they could be completely unrestrained.

  Thus, present-day Lower City had become a heavily polluted industrial zone.

  Following the address into the garbage dump, beneath an ordinary-looking garbage mountain, a rusted iron door lay hidden among the trash, utterly inconspicuous.

  Xia Li walked to the iron door and used his Heaven Chip to play the key frequency. The door opened automatically, revealing a downward staircase before him.

  "Another underground chamber?"

  This scene felt familiar to Xia Li—Ke Xiao's place had the same kind of downward stairs leading to a hidden room.

  Walking down the stairs to the bottom, there was only a small room at the end.

  A chubby boss sat behind a rusted iron counter, grinning as he watched Xia Li approach. The upper half of his face was human, while everything below his nose bridge was mechanical.

  "Welcome to Uncle Rusty's shop."

  "Modern spirit artifacts, ancient artifacts, biochemical weapons, even nuclear bombs—I have it all, as long as you dare to use them."

  "You even sell nuclear bombs?"

  Xia Li's mouth twitched. He actually wanted to carry one around—mainly for the sense of security, you know?

  Earth cultivators knew how to defend against nuclear bombs. With Heaven Chip assistance, they could seize the moment and hide in phase space to avoid the most destructive explosion, then use spiritual energy to protect their bodies while fleeing the high-radiation zone—that was enough to survive. Thus, nuclear bombs couldn't even kill Golden Core cultivators.

  But cultivators from the other side wouldn't know this!

  If they got hit suddenly, even Nascent Soul or Spirit Severing cultivators would die with grievances!

  "These are leftovers from the old days. They stopped producing them long ago. Want one for your collection?"

  "How much for a Tsar Bomba? Do you have any Big Ivans?"

  Xia Li immediately asked for the highest yield available—sleeping with one of those would be truly comforting, such a sense of security.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  "Kid, the yield you're asking for is way too big. I only have small warheads from the past. What do you need such high yield for? Planning a terrorist attack or what?"

  The chubby boss was stunned by Xia Li's request. Bombs of that magnitude, if any still existed, were held in the collections of major powers.

  Super-high-yield nuclear bombs still possessed extraordinary killing power today, but the pollution they caused was equally massive.

  "Forget the small yields then, no fun. Do you have an inventory list? Send it over."

  "Here you go."

  The chubby boss flicked his fingers, and an inventory list immediately appeared before Xia Li's eyes. Just the dizzying array of categories made Xia Li's eyes blur.

  "High-frequency thermal blade... not bad."

  "Plasma lightsaber? Seems a bit flashy..."

  "Thunder Bombs? Feel like they're not as good as polymer grenades..."

  Xia Li browsed and commented to himself. The chubby boss didn't say anything—after all, Xia Li wasn't asking him.

  Consultation fees were charged separately!

  After browsing for a while and roughly confirming what he wanted, Xia Li finally looked at the chubby boss.

  "I want one blade, one shotgun, one sniper rifle, several explosive-type weapons, one defensive artifact, and one escape artifact. I currently practice Martial Dao at Foundation Establishment. Any recommendations, boss?"

  After Xia Li finished, the chubby boss held up three fingers—meaning pay the consultation fee first. Xia Li didn't haggle over this small amount and paid directly.

  "Using ancient artifacts?"

  "No."

  "Really not? This shop just acquired an ancient spirit blade, now selling for only..."

  "I lose all desire to spend money the moment I hear 'ancient.'"

  Xia Li remembered Ke Xiao's words then. He hadn't expected this shady boss to really recommend ancient weapons right off the bat.

  Sure enough, the black shops in Black Street truly had no conscience.

  "Alright, Little Ke told you something, didn't she? Don't listen to everything she says—she's biased against ancient methods."

  "Actually, so am I."

  "Well..."

  The chubby boss was speechless. Ancient artifacts had higher profit margins since you could inflate prices by talking about the refiner's painstaking effort. Modern spirit artifacts were openly priced—factory robots had no "painstaking effort" to speak of.

  "Just give me good recommendations, boss. If I'm satisfied, I'll pay you a bit extra."

  "Deal!"

  The chubby boss smiled immediately. Though he couldn't sell ancient artifacts, getting extra spirit stones was nice too.

  "For a blade, go with Kalant Corporation's Kinetic Blade, MKII-2. Also, you're probably not the type who cares about flashy weapon aesthetics, right?"

  "Functionality above all."

  Xia Li expressed his viewpoint.

  "Good. Some people just love those high-frequency or plasma tech weapons—high killing power, sure, but they drain spiritual energy like crazy, have high failure rates, and suffer wear just from swinging through air due to technical limitations."

  "I see..."

  Xia Li nodded as if learning something new, though he'd actually been tempted to get a flashy light blade to show off.

  But if it malfunctioned at a critical moment, that would be embarrassing.

  "For snipers... do you prefer concealment or power?"

  "Power! One-shot, one-kill power!"

  "Then go with Tuos Corporation's Star Gleam Five. And for the shotgun?"

  "Something with higher concealment."

  Xia Li was being sneaky—wanting concealment for the shotgun while others typically wanted concealment for snipers and one-shot kills for shotguns. He was doing the opposite.

  "Then I recommend the sawed-off model or the module-embedded type. Do you have prosthetics?"

  "Yes, my right arm."

  "What model?"

  "Steel-Breaker Combat Arm."

  "Let me check..."

  The chubby boss began consulting his data, then nodded after a moment.

  "Can fit medium modules. How about hiding the shotgun inside your prosthetic? Saves you the motion of drawing the gun—just raise your hand and fire."

  "Perfect, that's exactly what I want!"