Black Market

Following Wei Dayong through the twists and turns of the black market, Wang Quan felt his eyes spinning and his ears ringing with endless hawking.

"Take a look, take a look! A family-transmitted Blazing Palm incomplete manual. Cultivate it to make your palms spout fire, and split rocks like you are breaking tofu!"

"Come and see! Qi Condensing Pills, the real deal! Help you find the feeling of Qi, and take one step into the doors of cultivation! Only fifty taels!"

"Exorcism Talismans! Protective talismans! Take them out with you, and demons and ghosts won't come near! A single sheet works like a charm!"

"Look at this Mysterious Iron Sword Billet! Blended with cold iron, it cuts through iron like mud!"

Cultivation technique books, pills, ghost-drawn talismans, rare ores, wild beast bones... and some oddly shaped grass roots and unknown things twisting around inside jars. This chaotic scene reminded Wang Quan of the immortal-cultivation markets he used to read about in storybooks, though the one before his eyes looked much shabbier, much more chaotic, and even more... unreliable. That Blazing Palm incomplete manual had pages as fresh as if they had just been manufactured; that Qi Condensing Pill exuded a whiff of lime smell; and the red lines drawn on those talisman papers were crooked, without even the slightest hint of spiritual Qi.

Wei Dayong basically didn't spare a proper glance at the hawking from the stalls on either side, occasionally glancing at a stall selling ores or weapon billets, but his feet didn't stop as he led Wang Quan straight toward a two-story wooden building deep in the black market that looked somewhat orderly. Hanging in front of the building were two ghostly white lanterns, illuminating two brawny men with crossed arms and cold, stern expressions.

Wei Dayong walked over without making a sound, fished that pitch-black wooden token out from his bosom, and waved it at one of them. The brawny man glanced at the token, sized Wang Quan up from head to toe, and stepped aside to clear the stairway entrance.

It was much quieter upstairs, and the air held a faint, strange scent of burning incense, like sandalwood mixed with something else. An old man wearing a silk tunic and looking lean and shrewd heard the movement, lifted the curtain from the inner room, and piled a smile onto his face. "Ah, Master Wei! What wind has blown you here? Please come in, please come in! And this little brother is...?"

"My brother, Wang Quan." Wei Dayong casually dropped himself down into a seat beside the tea table.

"Brother Wang, good, good. This old man's surname is Hu, and on the streets they do me the favor of calling me Old Hu." The old man cupped his fists toward Wang Quan and turned to shout inside, "Bring up good tea!"

A maid silently served two cups of hot tea. The tea water looked clear and bright, and a special, delicate fragrance drifted out, making one's mind clear the moment it was smelled.

"Master Wei, Brother Wang, have a taste. These are Clear Heart Mist Buds newly acquired this year, procured from the capital through a favor. Truly good stuff, drink them to calm the mind and refresh the spirit." Old Hu greeted them warmly.

Wei Dayong picked his cup up, took a sip, and his eyes lit up. "Mm, not bad! It clears up your brain quite a bit once swallowed."

Wang Quan also took a sip. The tea water tasted a bit bitter at first, which then turned into a lingering sweetness, and a cool Qi rushed straight to his crown. Even the exhaustion of pulling an all-nighter and his tense nerves relaxed somewhat, and the Turtle Breath Vitality Art inside his body seemed to revolve a bit more smoothly on its own. This tea was probably extraordinary.

"Tea is good tea." Wei Dayong set his cup down and tapped his fingers against the tabletop. "Old Hu, let's not beat around the bush. Do you have any 'live cargo' here recently?"

The smile on Old Hu's face didn't change, but his gaze shifted. "The live cargo Master Wei speaks of is...?"

"Alive, things with a bit of spirituality," Wei Dayong leaned his body forward and lowered his voice. "Demons, any level of cultivation is fine. Corpses from the Corpse Clan that can still twitch right after rising will also do. Or... Nightmares. That sort of thing is even rarer, and it would be even better if you have one."

The smile on Old Hu's face slowly faded. He picked up his tea cup, took a slow sip, lifted his eyes to stare straight at Wei Dayong, and slowly shook his head. "Master Wei, aren't you making things difficult for me? Live demons, corpses, nightmares? The imperial court explicitly forbids privately capturing and selling them. We run an honest business and wouldn't dare touch that. It's a head-dropping offense."

Wei Dayong let out a heh and tapped his finger on the table. "Old Hu, you and I haven't known each other for just a day or two. I'm buying it for my own use, not to fish for a trap against you. The price is negotiable. You know my character, Old Wei. Furthermore... from now on, if there's any movement at the garrison, any useful news, I can give you a heads-up first. How about that?"

Old Hu held his tea cup and fell silent. His gaze lingered on Wei Dayong's face, then swept over Wang Quan, who had been silent the whole time, as if he were weighing the options. After quite a while, he finally set his cup down, his voice lowering even further until it was almost inaudible. "I naturally trust Master Wei's character. Since it has come to this... to not hide it from you, I do indeed have a couple of 'half-dead' little demon brats on hand. The Corpse Clan is truly nonexistent; that stuff is too eye-catching and prone to causing trouble. Nightmares... those are even rarer. I hear they only occasionally crop up in the depths of ancient battlefields or mass graves heavy with Yin Qi where countless people have died. They are encountered by chance rather than sought, and I have no channel for them."

Wei Dayong's eyes lit up. "Half-dead is fine too! What kind of demons? Where are they?"

Old Hu didn't answer immediately, however. Instead, he rubbed his fingers together and revealed a trace of a businessman's smile. "But Master Wei, as for the price... In addition, this old man has an unrequited request. If you happen to obtain the inner core from those demons, or scales, claws, teeth, and the like with fine quality... could you perhaps prioritize this old man of mine? I guarantee the price will satisfy you."

Inner core? Wang Quan's heart stirred as he recalled that when he previously chopped down those walking corpses, it seemed he hadn't obtained anything similar, indicating that the lowest-tier Corpse Clan members didn't have them, or else that trace of primordial Yin Qi didn't count. Demons had inner cores? This sounded like much more valuable "material."

Wei Dayong didn't seem surprised by Old Hu's request. He snorted, fished out two dark-red, thumb-sized oval stone lumps that still felt somewhat warm to the touch from his bosom, and placed them on the table. "I knew you old rascal had your eye on this. Look here, inner cores from two first-tier Fire Lizards, and the quality is passable. If things go smoothly this time, the goods can be sold to you. But the price must be fair."

The moment Old Hu laid eyes on those two inner cores, his small eyes instantly lit up. He picked them up, carefully examined them against the lantern's light, and nodded repeatedly. "Good stuff! Ample quality and flourishing fire-attribute Qi! Master Wei is straightforward! Rest assured, I understand the rules!"

He carefully put the inner cores away and stood up. "You two sit for a moment, I'll go get the goods." With that, he turned and stepped into the inner room.

Before long, Old Hu walked out carrying a grey, unremarkable, palm-sized old cloth pouch. He handed the pouch to Wei Dayong and lowered his voice. "The things are inside. Two of them, placed under a bit of restriction, listless, won't die for a while, and can't kick up a fuss either. This storage pouch is on loan from you, Master Wei, so remember to return it when you're done using it. Small-scale business, this is all the family property I have."

Wei Dayong took the pouch and weighed it in his hand; it had some heft. "I understand the rules, I'll return it when I'm done." With that, he directly shoved the pouch over to Wang Quan beside him. "Hold onto it, we'll look when we get back."

Wang Quan took the cloth pouch, and while touching it felt like coarse linen, he could vaguely sense a trace of a faint fluctuation, unlike the surrounding environment, locked away inside.

Old Hu thoughtfully glanced at Wang Quan without asking further, smiled, and cupped his fists. "Master Wei, Brother Wang, take care. When you have good goods next time, remember to look after this old man's business."

Leaving that small wooden building, they returned to the bustling black market streets. The trace of ease on Wei Dayong's face was gone, and as he walked, he spoke in a low voice to Wang Quan, "Those shoddy cultivation techniques on the outside stalls, ten out of ten are scams. As for methods that can actually be cultivated, which family doesn't keep them tightly under wraps? Even if some leak out, they are mostly missing arms and legs, or else crooked, evil things that will cause trouble when cultivated. My Bronze Armor Technique can be considered a proper path, but it's not all that rare in the garrison, and the superiors don't allow it to be privately passed on. But don't you worry, I remember it, and I'll definitely scout out a reliable manual for you when the chance arises. Don't be polite or decline with me either."

He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and his dark-toned face appeared particularly stern in the dim light as he looked at Wang Quan. "I know you kid are extraordinary and holding a drive inside your chest, wanting to climb upward. In this world, without a bit of genuine skill, you can't live securely. Today I brought you here and got you this not as a handout."

Wei Dayong paused, his voice dropping even lower and deeper. "If something happens to me in the future and I don't come back... look after my family for me. Xingniang and my daughter... Let this be your payment from me. All right?"

Wang Quan's heart shook as he raised his eyes to meet Wei Dayong's gaze.

He gripped that storage pouch that still held a trace of warmth, fell silent for a moment, and then slowly nodded, spitting out a single word. "Good."

He didn't say any guarantees, didn't swear any oaths, but just this single word carried the weight of a thousand catties amidst the noisy background sounds of the black market.

Wei Dayong cracked a wide smile and heavily patted Wang Quan on the shoulder, his grip quite strong. "Good brother! Let's go, back we go!"