Discovery in the Street Stall District

As time passed, more and more creatures entered the market. Their numbers soon reached several hundred. Intimidated by the ten First Rank Fire Sunflower Soldiers, creatures of all races behaved themselves. After several hours, not a single troublemaker had appeared, which surprised Song Chi somewhat.

In just a short while, all the goods he had bought wholesale yesterday had sold out. With prices at least tripled, he had made a handsome profit.

Yet amid his delight, Song Chi also sighed inwardly.

His starting capital had truly been too limited. Even with several times the price difference, this batch of goods had earned him less than a thousand strands of Zero Rank Floating Continent Essence. It was not a small amount, but it was certainly not much either.

Fortunately, trading in the free stall area continued nonstop. The transaction tax alone could earn Song Chi quite a bit more.

With funds worth over a thousand strands of Zero Rank Floating Continent Essence, Song Chi felt rather confident and disguised himself as a trader before blending into the stall area.

Of course, saying he had over a thousand strands of Zero Rank Floating Continent Essence was merely a figure of speech. It was not that he actually possessed that much Floating Continent Essence. In fact, he currently held more Life Cores. It was only that, according to the exchange rate within Kindling Human Civilization territory, their total value exceeded a thousand strands of Zero Rank Floating Continent Essence.

Resources like Floating Continent Essence were generally used as currency only by intermediate or higher Star Sea civilizations. For lower civilizations, Life Cores were the true hard currency.

The stall area was not large. An area of 10m x 10m was exceptionally cramped for more than several hundred intelligent Star Sea creatures.

Seeing this, Song Chi could only spend 150 strands of Zero Rank Floating Continent Essence to upgrade the market from lv0 to lv5.

Amid the uncertainty and astonishment of hundreds of intelligent creatures, the Myriad Heavens Market began expanding rapidly. It soon grew from 100m x 100m to 300m x 300m.

At the same time, the stall area expanded from a pitiful 10m x 10m to 30m x 30m. It was still crowded, but far better than before.

Name: Myriad Heavens Market

Market Owner: Song Chi

Level: lv5

Size: 300m x 300m

Basic Configurations: 24 vacant shops, 1 30m x 30m stall area, 1 one-story inn (30 guest rooms), 1 lv0 All-Attribute Cultivation Room (doubles efficiency during Void Energy cultivation), 1 lv0 Void Energy Protective Array, 1 lv0 Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform.

Additional Configurations: None (0/4)

Trait: Disaster Evasion (can move freely through the void and evade natural disasters by an unseen force)

Upgrade Requirements: 60 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank), total market transaction volume of 600 strands of Floating Continent Essence (Zero Rank)

Remarks: An inconspicuous small market located on the dark side of the Shattered Star Sea. It seemingly only allows creatures below First Rank to enter, though it has decent potential.

Looking at the market status panel visible only to himself, Song Chi frowned slightly.

Even the Additional Configurations section had gained two more slots when the market reached lv5, yet the All-Attribute Cultivation Room, Ultra-Long Range Random Space Gate Deployment Platform, and Void Energy Protective Array had not changed at all. Clearly, strengthening these three later would require additional resources.

Naturally, this news did not put him in a good mood.

The only consolation was that the monthly market opening still brought excellent profits. As long as he had sufficient starting capital and the space gates were deployed in decent locations, the earnings would remain stable.

After upgrading the market, Song Chi began wandering among the stalls, hoping to find some overlooked bargain.

Prices varied across the Shattered Star Sea. Perhaps certain cheap items held by other races were extremely scarce resources within Kindling Human Civilization territory.

As his gaze swept across one stall after another, Song Chi kept shaking his head.

"One ton of refined iron ore for twenty Zero Rank Life Cores? That's twice the market price outside. Even a dog would shake its head at that."

"Two tons of mithril ore for eight First Rank Life Cores. That's a little cheaper than market price, but without a sales channel, I'd lose money if I went through the black market. That won't do either."

More than ten minutes later, Song Chi halted before a small stall set up by a bull-headed man.

His gaze appeared to wander aimlessly, but from the corner of his eye, he had been watching a palm-sized black sphere.

Marvel: Fine-Gold Rawstone

Quality: White

Can Evolve Into: 1 {Golden Moon Guan Dao}, 2 {Golden Rock Shield}, 3 {Golden Rock Hull Armor}

Remarks: A premium among White marvels.

This unremarkable black spherical object was actually a White marvel.

When Song Chi first discovered it, he had been extremely excited. When he had mentioned picking up bargains earlier, he had only meant finding batches of goods with profitable price differences. He had never even considered Star Sea Marvels, let alone expected to encounter such a tremendous surprise.

Every Star Sea Marvel was immensely precious and required an extremely long time to be nurtured. Even the lowest-grade White marvels were no exception.

Pretending to inspect the other items on the stall, Song Chi finally picked up the black sphere as though casually.

"What is this?"

Hearing his question, the bull-headed stall owner scratched his head sheepishly. It had obtained the item by killing a warrior from a hostile tribe and had never figured out what kind of ore it was. It only knew that the thing was exceptionally hard; even the tribe's finest blacksmith could not smelt it.

"If you want it, give me 100 Zero Rank Life Cores. This ore is of very high quality. Once forged into a weapon, its destructive power will definitely be astonishing."

Song Chi frowned and began bargaining.

"We don't even know what kind of metal ore it is. One hundred Zero Rank Life Cores is too much. Cut it in half—how about fifty?"

If he agreed immediately, the other party would inevitably become suspicious. Only after repeated bargaining would he avoid arousing suspicion.

In the end, Song Chi bought the White marvel for seventy-five Zero Rank Life Cores.

Looking at the Fine-Gold Rawstone in his hand, his expression remained calm, but inwardly, he was already grinning from ear to ear.

As its name suggested, Fine-Gold Rawstone and fine-gold ore were essentially the same kind of ore. The difference was that Fine-Gold Rawstone was formed from the concentrated essence of an entire large fine-gold vein, making it far more valuable than ordinary fine-gold ore.

Its status panel also made this clear. As a metal-element marvel, it could not only be transformed into Kindling Starship hull armor, but also into individually usable weapons and shields.

After this gain, Song Chi wanted more. He appeared around the various stalls with increasing frequency, but he never found a second Star Sea Marvel.

He did buy several batches of resources rarely seen in Kindling Human Civilization territory. Even if he later sold them through the black market, he could still earn over a hundred strands of Zero Rank Floating Continent Essence. Better than nothing.

Second by second, time passed. With more than half of this market opening already gone, Song Chi's expression had turned somewhat unpleasant.

He clearly remembered designating one space gate to be deployed within a mechanical civilization territory recorded by Kindling Human Civilization, yet not a single mechanical being had entered the market so far. This disappointed him.