The Price of Haggling

Wu Haishan lay down on the bed without taking off his clothes, and told Ah Guang to sleep on the floor.

Ah Guang fell asleep as soon as he lay down, while Wu Haishan tossed and turned on the bed. Who was that old man? His methods looked like those of a Pill Cultivator, but there was something Law Cultivator about him, too...

Forget it. Tomorrow, he'd wait outside the village. The moment that kid came out, he'd break his arms and legs, then take him back to report to Saint Aunt.

Xu Yuan had only just fallen asleep when the sounds of moaning and groaning from next door woke him.

The man was panting like an ox.

Xu Yuan was irritated and restless. At my age, I shouldn't have to listen to this, should I?

How could anyone sleep through that?!

He covered his ears with his clothes, but the sounds from next door only grew louder, and the woman got bolder and bolder...

After they were done, the man was still panting, not yet recovered, when Xu Yuan heard another woman's voice take over.

Xu Yuan clutched his head in misery.

In the latter half of the night, the neighbors on the other side started making a rapid pecking sound, as if a hard bird's beak were picking strips of fresh meat from bone.

"Are you people going to let me sleep or not?" Xu Yuan grumbled.

Jiao Erbo's place really was cheap, but as for the surroundings, he'd best not expect too much.

Wu Haishan was woken in the morning by a loud banging on the door.

"Traveling merchant, everyone's tired of waiting. Get up and do business!"

Wu Haishan sprang out of bed like a carp leaping from water, cursing himself for letting his guard down. If Xu Yuan had escaped... He hurriedly opened the door and rushed out to see if Xu Yuan was still there.

But the moment he reached the courtyard, a crowd of villagers blocked his way.

They carried all kinds of mountain goods: pelts, herbs, fruit, ore, and more. The moment Wu Haishan appeared, they held their wares up in front of him. "What will you trade for these?"

Wu Haishan panicked. "Move!"

He shoved the fat man blocking his way, but the man didn't budge an inch. He held up a bundle of long pheasant feathers. "I want two taels of salt."

Wu Haishan was stunned. He was a Nine Streams Pill Cultivator, after all. He shouldn't be so weak that he couldn't even shove an ordinary villager aside.

"Old Chen! Zhou Qiao! Wang Jiu!" Wu Haishan shouted for his three subordinates outside.

The villagers closed in around him. "Why haven't you started yet? You're not some fake merchant here to cheat us, are you?"

Wu Haishan raised his hands. "We really are merchants! Wait until my people gather, and we'll start right away!"

A little while later, someone behind the crowd suddenly called out weakly, "Old Wu, I... I'm here."

Wu Haishan hurriedly asked everyone to make way. Martial Cultivator Old Chen came shuffling over, leaning against the wall, his face dark and his steps feeble. Compared to his burly, formidable appearance the day before, he looked a whole size smaller!

Wu Haishan was shocked. "What happened to you...?"

Old Chen nearly burst into tears. "Dozens of them took turns all night! If I weren't a Martial Cultivator, I'd have died here!"

The fat man curled his lip. "Fifty taels for one night, and you only paid a hundred copper coins. Of course you'd have to pay in other ways.

"There are plenty of widows in the village. They just needed a little seed. No one was going to die."

Wu Haishan felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him. So that was what Ah Guang had meant when he said the local people were simple and honest and wouldn't haggle over prices!

"What about Zhou Qiao and Wang Jiu?" Wu Haishan shouted. They'd haggled over the price last night, too.

The fat man answered impatiently, "I told you, no one's going to die! Hao Erge has a lot of kids, so you should've paid more for lodging at his place. Since you didn't want to, you had to help feed them."

A chill shot from Wu Haishan's heels to the top of his head!

"What did you do to them?!"

Wu Haishan charged out without a second thought. In just a few strides, he reached the house where Zhou Qiao and Wang Jiu had stayed. He shoved open the door and saw them lying in the courtyard, sunning themselves.

Hao Erge and his wife stood nearby. "Let them soak up the sun. They'll grow back."

The moment they saw Wu Haishan, tears welled in their eyes.

Each man was missing a leg, severed at the thigh.

A deep claw mark scored each of their faces.

The night before, they'd been held down as their faces were clawed, unable to scream.

The moment Hao Erge saw Wu Haishan, he said, "I've got two baskets of herbs. I want a catty of salt. There are too many kids—they eat too fast..."

Wu Haishan erupted in fury and spat a stream of fire at him. "You still want to trade?! You evil things! I'll burn you all to death!"

Hao Erge let out a strange squawk and shot up onto the roof. Wu Haishan's Inner Fire missed.

From the rooftop, Hao Erge squawked, "These men are frauds! They're not merchants!"

"What?!" The villagers' eyes immediately turned cold. They surrounded the courtyard from all sides. "Beat the frauds to death!"

Wu Haishan suddenly calmed down. This village was definitely no simple place! And there was that Mountain Runner, whose depths were impossible to fathom!

"I'm not a fraud!" Wu Haishan hurriedly pulled out silver. "I have money! I'll buy whatever mountain goods you have, at a fair price!"

"What do we need so much money for? We want matches, salt, iron pots..."

Wu Haishan turned and saw Jiao Erbo's door open. Several villagers rushed over, assuming that everyone who'd arrived yesterday was cut from the same cloth. "You're a fraud, too..."

"I'm not!" Xu Yuan pulled out salt, matches, and several kitchen knives. "Whatever mountain goods you have, we can talk about the price. But I didn't bring any iron pots this time."

He'd bought them all from Granny Ying.

Xu Yuan shot Wu Haishan a cold glance. "I hate these frauds just as much as you do. They've ruined the reputation of us traveling merchants. Scum like this must never be spared!"

Hao Erge landed on the rooftop. Hearing this, he rolled his eyes and began squawking along. "Beat them to death! Kill the frauds! Save the meat for me..."

The villagers were already worked up, and this goading pushed them over the edge. They surged forward as one.

Wu Haishan broke out in a cold sweat, waving his hands again and again as he tried to explain. "We're absolutely not frauds! We're members of the Pingtian Society..."

The villagers surged toward him like a tide, about to swallow him whole. The panic and fear in Wu Haishan's eyes suddenly vanished, replaced by a look of ruthless menace!

Boom!

His Inner Fire burst forth, blasting from all seven orifices—his mouth, nose, and the rest.

The villagers were caught off guard and blasted seven or eight feet away, each one wailing in pain.

But their cries sounded strange. Some howled like wolves, some squealed like pigs, and some shrieked like birds...

Wu Haishan strode out of the courtyard. Hao Erge let out a strange cry and swooped down from the roof—but Wu Haishan hated him to the bone and had been waiting for him all along.

A pitch-black pill shot through the air!

Hao Erge had many children and was always timid and cautious, afraid that if he died, no one would raise his wife and children. Seeing a Pill Cultivator launch a pill at him, he wheeled around in midair, intending to fly back to the rooftop.

But the pill burst with a pop into a cloud of gray mist, and the shadow of a giant spider appeared within it.

The spider spun silk, instantly weaving a huge net that swooped down and caught Hao Erge!