Unscrupulous Merchant

"You're not buying it?"

Yun Chuan was somewhat surprised to hear the girl before him actually take the initiative to back down. As far as he knew, the eldest daughter of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect should not have been so easygoing at this point in time. Could he have mistaken her for someone else? Was this woman not Ning Rongrong?

"What, are you surprised that I voluntarily gave way?" Ning Rongrong could not help but chuckle when she saw the stunned look on the boy's face.

"I am indeed surprised." Yun Chuan nodded honestly. Then, wearing an openly curious expression, he leaned close to the girl and could not help asking, "May I ask your name, miss?"

Their faces were nearly touching, close enough for them to smell each other's breath.

At such close range, Ning Rongrong looked at the ordinary face of the boy before her and those exceptionally clear, beautiful black eyes. She should have been angry at someone getting so close to her, but as she gazed into his clean, limpid eyes, her heart suddenly began to race for some reason. She even felt a faint warmth spreading across her cheeks.

This unprecedented and unfamiliar feeling left Ning Rongrong flustered and at a loss. She hurriedly turned around and walked out, saying, "...My name is Ning Rongrong."

"Ning Rongrong... So she really is that spoiled Little Princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect." Yun Chuan watched the girl's graceful figure disappear into the distance and muttered to himself, "It seems the original work's description was too one-sided. A person's nature cannot be summed up in just a few sentences. Seeing really is believing."

After watching the girl disappear from view, Yun Chuan turned around, holding a small pouch of gold coins in his hand, and said, "Since she does not wish to bid, then this crystal should be mine, right?"

Seeing that the fat sheep had actually left, Flander could not help curling his lips. Then he lazily reclined in his lounge chair again, closed his eyes, and drawled, "You don't have enough money."

Yun Chuan frowned upon hearing that. "There are one hundred Gold Soul Coins here."

Without even opening his eyes, Flander said vaguely, "That was the previous price. Now, my crystal costs two hundred Gold Soul Coins."

Yun Chuan's brow furrowed even more deeply.

At this point, he recalled more details from the original work and knew that the man before him would ruthlessly fleece anyone he caught. Two hundred gold coins were definitely not the final price.

"Two hundred gold coins. Are you sure you won't change it again?" Yun Chuan's voice instantly turned cold. He wanted to see just how greedy this merchant could get.

Hearing that there was room to negotiate, Flander was ecstatic inside. Yet on the surface, he maintained that lazy appearance and said without opening his eyes, "Fine. Five hundred Gold Soul Coins. Pay up, and you can take it. Otherwise, leave."

Yun Chuan narrowed his eyes slightly but did not immediately lash out. Instead, he put away the small pouch with a flick of his hand and promptly took out a larger pouch. There were exactly five hundred Gold Soul Coins inside. If Flander knew when to stop, Yun Chuan would pretend none of this had happened. But if he remained insatiably greedy...

"Five hundred Gold Soul Coins for you. I'll take the item." He placed the pouch of money on the table, turned, and reached for the crystal.

Yet at that moment, the insatiably greedy Flander spoke again.

"You heard wrong. This crystal costs two thousand Gold Soul Coins!"

This time, the price had directly quadrupled!

Yun Chuan stopped in his tracks, turned around, and shot him a cold glance. "Though merchants are never without guile, business should at least be built on basic honesty. You have gone back on your word and changed the price again and again. Don't you think that is going too far?"

"That's the price. Buy it if you want it; if not, get lost!" Having already decided that two thousand gold coins were likely the limit of Yun Chuan's tolerance, Flander's attitude became exceptionally arrogant. He was not worried in the least that Yun Chuan would refuse to buy it.

"Heh."

Yun Chuan could not help laughing.

Reading the original work, he had not felt much about it. But now that he had encountered this himself, he realized just how irritating this guy was.

Contempt filled Yun Chuan's eyes. Ignoring him entirely, he walked straight toward the crystal, picked it up, stuffed it into his Soul Tool, and strode toward the door.

"Hm? You haven't even paid, and you think you can run off with the item?!" Flander, who had been secretly watching Yun Chuan all along, nearly sprang from his lounge chair in an instant. His ten fingers curled into claws as he lunged at him.

But Yun Chuan, with his back to him, sensed the fierce wind striking from behind. With a shift of his feet and a slight turn of his body, he easily dodged the attack.

"You think you can get away just because you're a soul master?" Flander's mustache twitched upward as he let out a crafty sneer.

Whoosh!

Amid a surge of powerful energy, a pair of enormous brownish-yellow wings unfurled from his back, covered in rigid feathers like forged steel plates. At the same time, seven soul rings—two yellow, two purple, and three black—rose one after another from beneath his feet, radiating brilliant light!

"Young man, since you were willing to pay five hundred Gold Soul Coins for this seemingly ordinary crystal, its value must surely far exceed two thousand Gold Soul Coins. It isn't excessive for me to charge you two thousand, is it?" Flander wore a smiling expression after activating his Spirit Avatar, but his words were rather sharp. Judging from the smooth, unhesitating way he spoke, this was clearly not the first or second time he had done such a thing.

"Whether you take this to the Imperial Court of Suotuo City or Spirit Hall, you will not gain the slightest advantage. You should just pay obediently. Besides, it is not as though you are truly losing out."

In the Balak Kingdom—or rather, across the entire Douluo Continent, regardless of the country—the law had always favored high-level soul masters and great nobles.

Seeing how young Yun Chuan was, Flander had concluded that he was at most a Soul Elder, perhaps a Soul Ancestor at best. As a dignified Soul Saint, if this truly went before the authorities, the one in the right would certainly be him. After all, there was a saying: might makes right. Whatever those with strength said was right, and whatever they did was correct.

Yet in the face of Flander revealing his soul rings in such an undisguised display of threat, Yun Chuan's expression did not change. His face instead showed intense displeasure and deep contempt.

"You could have named two thousand from the start, yet you insisted on breaking your word and repeatedly changing the price. I have truly never seen such a shameless unscrupulous merchant before. And you call yourself a Soul Saint? You have disgraced every Soul Saint!"

The moment his words fell, Boom!!

In an instant, one dark black soul ring after another slowly emerged around Yun Chuan. In the end, seven black Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings rose from his body. An incomparably domineering aura immediately filled the entire shop, making the objects lining the walls tremble and rattle. The damaged Soul Tools among them abruptly shone with multicolored soul light.

Yun Chuan's Soul Power had reached level seventy-nine. In particular, all the soul rings he had absorbed were Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings, causing the density of Soul Power within him to have long since become no different from that of a Titled Douluo.

Thus, the moment he released his soul rings, the immense and overwhelming pressure of his Soul Power nearly frightened Flander senseless.

Looking at the seven profound soul rings around the youth's body and feeling the invisible terror pressing down on the surroundings, Flander felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. He shuddered violently.

"Seven Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings? What kind of fucking monster is this?!!"

As Flander stared at the seven black Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings floating around Yun Chuan and felt the Soul Power pressure that nearly suffocated him, he groaned inwardly. This time, he had really gone too far!

At that moment, sensing that Yun Chuan was not someone to provoke, all the craftiness and arrogance vanished from Flander's face. Looking embarrassed, he hurriedly forced a smile and said, "A misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding! I never expected this little brother to be a Soul Saint as well. It was this old brother who failed to recognize greatness and offended you unintentionally. I hope little brother can forgive me. Take the crystal as you please, and feel free to take anything else you fancy in the shop. This old brother will not charge you a single coin. Consider it my apology."

"If apologies and compensation were useful, what would we need the Imperial Court for?" Yun Chuan sneered as he looked at Flander's groveling manner.

"Then what does little brother want?" Flander asked cautiously.

"Very simple..."

Lightning gradually flickered across Yun Chuan's entire body, accompanied by crackling arcs of electricity. Soon, his whole body was enveloped in blue lightning! He had become a being of living electricity—Lightning Release - Lightning Body!

"...Right now, I just want to beat the hell out of you!"

Boom!!!

The entire little shop shook violently.

From outside the doorway, flashes of lightning could be seen within, along with the occasional pleading cries of a hoarse middle-aged man, and the crackling sounds of furniture, tables, and chairs being smashed apart.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom...

The shopfront shook again and again. After it continued for quite some time—

A youth dressed in white, with long black hair hanging loose around his shoulders, walked out with a satisfied expression. His ordinary face looked refreshed and invigorated, as though he had just enjoyed an especially thorough massage.

Inside the little shop—

The surrounding furniture had been smashed to pieces, and Soul Tools were scattered all over the floor. Even the walls were covered in cracks. But the most tragic sight was the tiled floor, which had been utterly shattered. Especially at its center, where a large pit had appeared. Inside lay a... pig-headed man whose hair stood straight on end, face black as coal, eyes swollen and bruised, and clothes burnt and carbonized.

Though he was angry, Yun Chuan had not killed Flander. After all, having read the original work, he had a fairly favorable impression of this character. Why kill the guy? Beating him up was enough.

Yun Chuan was not some bloodthirsty person.

Besides, he had obtained a crystal on this trip, one that seemed capable of allowing him to advance even further. He was in a good mood, so naturally he had even less reason to kill him.

"Right now, the most urgent thing is to find a hotel and figure out exactly what this crystal can do." Yun Chuan had only just arrived and did not yet have a place to stay. So he decided to find a hotel first, settle in, and then slowly explore what use this crystal had.