Meeting Hall II

Meeting Hall II

"I'm not sure. Yesterday, Master summoned all the big and small merchants from the chamber of commerce to the estate. I heard them talking as they left, saying everyone was being asked to help search for something. I don't know what it was, but it actually required mobilizing such extensive connections."

Xiao Ba smiled and sighed.

Lu Sheng said nothing after hearing this, but his expression darkened slightly.

He walked in through the main gate and asked as he went.

"Have there been any strange incidents lately?"

"Uh, Young Master, although Xiao Ba is fairly well-informed, how could strange incidents happen every day?" Xiao Ba shrugged helplessly.

"Still, the Goldfish Wine Shop you often visit caught fire last night. Half the street beside it burned down. The blaze was so bright that even us servants, from so far away, could see it clearly. Tsk tsk."

"A fire."

Lu Sheng's heart sank, and a vague suspicion surfaced within him.

"Was it the street where they usually sold rouge and powder?"

"Wasn't it just!" Xiao Ba nodded fiercely. "I heard quite a few people died. Many of them were whole families—adults and children alike, all gone.

How miserable. I wonder which heartless bastard set that fire!"

The fire. Lu Sheng said nothing more.

He buried the matter deep in his heart and refused to dwell on it.

The Black Market Meeting had been arranged for three nights later, in an underground cellar outside the city.

Over those three days, Lu Sheng kept to his usual rest and meals. He could clearly feel his body growing sturdier, as if the Modifier's alteration of the Black Tiger Saber had also improved his physical constitution.

During those three days, he visited the street near the Goldfish Wine Shop again. Sure enough, it had been reduced to a charred wasteland, and many people were still busy rebuilding their homes.

Lu Sheng retraced the route he had taken before and found it exactly the same as the day he had seen it.

Even that dead-end alley was identical.

He had an answer in his heart, but he was not afraid.

Since this world had Water Ghosts, it naturally could have other things as well.

Over those three days, he had originally planned to alter the Shattered Jade Force manual he had bought.

But when he thought of the Black Market Meeting, he held himself back, lest altering it cause him to vomit blood and suffer severe injuries again. If that happened, he would miss his chance.

Time passed quickly.

In the blink of an eye, the appointed day arrived.

At around seven or eight that evening.

Lu Sheng changed into black clothes and put on a tiger mask. It was a crude children's play mask he had bought casually off the street.

A Zheng Family carriage was already waiting outside the Lu Estate.

He hurried into the carriage and saw Zheng Xianggui sitting inside, gripping a braised chicken drumstick in both hands and chewing away in huge bites.

The fat man was also dressed in black, but whether he wore it or not, anyone could tell from his exaggerated build that this fellow was the young master of the family hosting the Black Market Meeting.

"You're here, you're here. We were just waiting for you. Brother Sheng, hurry and get in."

Once the two were seated, the carriage slowly began to move.

Along the way, Zheng Xianggui gave Lu Sheng a stream of instructions—what he should do after entering, what he should not do, and how everything ought to be handled.

There was a whole pile of miscellaneous precautions.

Lu Sheng remembered every one of them.

They soon left the city, turned from the main road onto smaller paths, wound through the side roads for quite some distance, and arrived directly in the outskirts.

After traveling through the outskirts for a short while, the carriage entered an abandoned little village and stopped before a stone house in the center.

"This is it." Zheng Xianggui jumped down from the carriage. A black-clothed man guarding the entrance to the stone house stepped forward and bowed to him.

"Has everyone arrived?"

"They're all here. The first item is already being displayed."

Zheng Xianggui nodded and quickly urged them onward.

"Let's get down there. It's already started."

He pulled Lu Sheng into the stone house. In the middle of its floor was a wooden trapdoor, beneath which lay a staircase leading underground.

Lu Sheng followed Zheng Xianggui and two guards down the stairs. Below was a fairly spacious natural cave.

The cave had been arranged rather decently.

At its center was a large hall, while a ring of private rooms lined the surrounding stone walls, like little pouches hanging from the walls.

A sparse scattering of people sat in the hall. There were no candles lit in the surrounding private rooms, clearly indicating they were not in use.

"This place has quite a grand layout." Lu Sheng remarked.

"Hehe, we found this place by accident too." The fat man smiled and led Lu Sheng in from the back of the hall, heading toward the front row.

There were only around a dozen attendees at the entire Black Market Meeting, all seated separately in the front seats of the hall.

A tall, thin masked man stood on the stage, loudly introducing the item up for sale.

Two dwarves stood beside him, both dressed in gaudy red and green garments. Together, they held up a bronze tray containing a rust-covered short sword.

"An ancient short sword passed down from Great Glory Country. It is highly likely to be a sharp weapon forged by the ancient Duan Fengzi. Ancient Great Glory Country script is carved upon it, and even— Ah! Guest Number Four bids one thousand taels!

Is there a higher bid? Any higher bid!?"

The man onstage shouted loudly, full of passion.

Lu Sheng and Zheng Xianggui sat among the seats on the left.

The seats here were lined up in rows and seemed to be carved from white stone. They felt icy cold when one sat on them, utterly devoid of human warmth.

The fat man sat beside him and leaned over to whisper.

"The thing you want is the fifth item, second from last."

Lu Sheng nodded without speaking.

That short sword onstage clearly looked as though it had only recently been dug out of the earth. It had probably been obtained through grave robbing.

Quite a few people below were still bidding. In just a short while, the price of the sword had risen to eighteen hundred taels.

Even Lu Sheng's heart thumped at the sound. That was nearly twice his monthly allowance.

He stopped watching the bidding onstage and instead focused his attention on the guests around him who were making offers.

Most of the guests at the Black Market Meeting carried weapons, both long and short.

Most were dressed in black, though there were exceptions.

Among the dozen or so guests, three had made no effort to conceal themselves.

One was a red-haired burly man carrying a large saber on his back and wearing close-fitting yellow leather armor.

Another was a skinny young man with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks. He was very short, with two bulging black leather pouches tied around his waist, though no one knew what they contained.

The third was also the most eye-catching.

Or rather, it was a pair.

A man and a woman.

The man appeared to be a guard. He wore a fitted silver outfit and carried a longsword at his waist. His face was expressionless, and only when he looked at the woman did a trace of gentleness appear on it.

The woman wore a black dress, unlike the long gowns of ordinary women in ancient times.

She wore a tight-fitting dress, similar to a bodycon skirt from Earth.

From head to toe, she wore only a single close-fitting one-piece dress.

The woman was dressed provocatively, yet her legs were long and her waist slender.

Lu Sheng could not help looking at her face again.

Her nose bridge was high, her eyes soft and alluring, as though water glimmered within them, giving her the impression of always being on the verge of smiling.

Her long hair draped over her shoulders, smooth, black, and lustrous enough to faintly reflect light.

This is far better than any Photoshop or makeup technique.

Lu Sheng silently praised her.

It was obvious at a glance that this woman had a powerful background. So beautiful, yet daring to reveal her face so freely at the Black Market Meeting—only someone extremely confident in her own strength would dare do such a thing.

"That one is Duanmu Wan." Seeing Lu Sheng notice the woman, the fat man hurriedly leaned closer and introduced her in a low voice.

"But I wouldn't advise you to set your sights on her. That woman is fierce!"

"Fierce? How fierce?"

Lu Sheng was slightly curious. It was not that he had any designs on her; she was simply too conspicuous, so he had looked at her a few extra times.

The fat man smiled and glanced at the second auction item, which had already begun onstage.

"Duanmu Wan came to Nine Links City two months ago. They say she arrived with a merchant caravan.

Master and servant, joining a merchant caravan alone and traveling such a long road. That alone was no simple matter."

"Indeed, no simple matter." Lu Sheng nodded.

"Besides, because she's beautiful, once she arrived in Nine Links City, she went around stirring up romantic trouble. Quite a few handsome young masters were seduced by her. And do you know what happened?" The fat man shook his head and sighed.

"What happened?"

Lu Sheng's curiosity had been piqued as well, and he asked along with him.

"A whole group of young masters were bewitched out of their minds. In the end, they gathered together to duel and brawl. Quite a few were seriously injured, and several even died." The fat man clicked his tongue.

"Even so, those who were badly wounded or crippled still spoke fondly of her. Yet in the blink of an eye, she had forgotten them all completely."

"..." Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes, his heart turning cold. He had heard of this matter too, but he had not known the cause was this woman. Those men were crippled and still thought fondly of her—this could no longer be explained by beauty alone.

He immediately branded the woman named Duanmu Wan as extremely dangerous in his mind.

A woman who could have so many people dancing in the palm of her hand either possessed extraordinarily high emotional intelligence or had special methods. It was best to stay as far away from such a person as possible.

He focused his attention on the auction onstage.

The fourth auction item had now appeared.

It was a brass-colored half-body leather armor.

"This leather armor is called Ice Wolf Armor. It is made from the combined tanned hides of nineteen white wolves from the White Grass Ice Plains. Nineteen layers of hide, after tanning, are no thicker than a copper coin.

Its resistance against blunt weapons, sabers, and swords far exceeds ordinary leather armor. It is practically equivalent to wearing an additional coat of chainmail."

The black-clothed presenter loudly introduced the armor.

"The starting price is two hundred taels!"

No one below responded.

The host did not mind. He had a dwarf spread open the leather armor, then drew a short sword and viciously stabbed at its edge.

Thud.

With a dull sound, the short sword slid aside. The leather armor had gained only a tiny scratch.

"Three hundred taels!"

Seeing this, someone immediately called out a bid.

"Four hundred taels!"

"Six hundred taels!"

The price onstage climbed higher and higher. Seeing the leather armor, Lu Sheng was tempted as well. This sort of leather armor was light and flexible, easier to move in than metal armor and would not hinder one's movements. If its defensive power truly matched the introduction, it was indeed a fine item.

He wanted to place a bid, but when he saw the price rapidly approaching one thousand taels, he could only restrain himself and give up. His true purpose was still the manual coming next.

He could not lose the big picture for a small gain.

In the end, the leather armor was purchased by the red-haired burly man carrying the saber.

Immediately afterward came the second-to-last item.

An internal cultivation manual.