Wutan City West Market was packed with people.
It was the most chaotic place in the entire city, and the most alive.
Mercenaries from the Magical Beast Mountain Range, reeking of blood and menace, hawked the Magic Cores and medicinal herbs they had risked their lives to obtain.
Canny merchants, meanwhile, sold weapons, armor, and pills brought in from all over at exorbitant prices to people who never knew what tomorrow might bring.
The cries of hawkers, the haggling, the clang of colliding weapons, and the stench of sweat, blood, and cheap ale blended into a rough but vivid tableau.
Su Chen stood at the edge of that tableau.
He wore a faded set of old clothes. In the crush of the crowd, his thin frame was like a withered stalk ready to snap at any moment.
His face held none of the ruggedness or numbness that belonged to this place. It was only calm, utterly at odds with his surroundings.
His gaze swept rapidly over the stalls.
All manner of mixed, inferior Beast Flames lay haphazardly on display. Most were kept in crude clay jars, their flames a murky dark red, belching black smoke and radiating an unstable, violent aura.
Those were his competitors.
A heap of rubble.
Su Chen drew back his gaze, picked up his inconspicuous wooden box, and headed for a relatively quiet corner of the market.
It wasn't the busiest spot, but it stood along the route of several main thoroughfares.
Unlike the other vendors, he didn't holler himself hoarse.
He simply found a clean patch of ground, spread a gray cloth over it, then carefully took the ten identical little green jade bottles from the wooden box and lined them up neatly.
At last, he picked up one bottle and pulled out the stopper.
Pfft.
A wisp of flame rose into the air.
There was no black smoke, no violent aura, and no pungent smell of sulfur.
The flame was only as big as a fist, its entire body a mellow shade of orange-red.
It burned quietly, steady as a lit piece of amber, radiating pure, gentle heat. Against the smoky, inferior Beast Flames around it, it stood out like a crane among chickens.
Several passing mercenaries stopped without thinking.
Their eyes were drawn to the flame, so different from the rest.
Su Chen's heart beat a little faster.
He kept his expression blank, but a voice inside him told him:
"Good goods don't fear a deep alley."
An hour passed.
Still, no one stood before his stall.
Most of those who cast curious glances his way stopped only briefly before shaking their heads and walking off.
The flame certainly looked good—pure, stable, and far superior to those worthless wares.
But this was the West District.
Most who came here were mercenaries who lived by the sword, or the lowest-ranked unaffiliated cultivators.
They needed things that were cheap, plentiful, and good enough—not "premium goods" that looked expensive at a glance.
As time went by, Su Chen's confidence began to wear away.
He still sat ramrod straight, but the fist hidden in his sleeve had clenched without his realizing it.
Had he gotten it wrong?
Just then, a burly man with a vicious scar across his face strode over.
The reek of blood that clung to him made passersby instinctively get out of his way.
The burly man stopped in front of Su Chen's stall.
His gaze fell on the quietly burning orange-red flame, and a flicker of surprise crossed his eyes.
"How much for this fire?"
His hoarse voice sounded like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.
Su Chen's heart leaped into his throat.
His first customer!
He looked up and met the man's scrutinizing, oppressive gaze. In as steady a voice as he could manage, he named the price he had already worked out countless times in his mind.
"Twenty gold coins a bottle."
That was twice the price of ordinary Fire Rock Lizard Beast Flame on the market.
But for this purified "Rock Fire Seed," Su Chen thought it was practically giving it away.
The scarred man raised an eyebrow.
He didn't haggle right away. Instead, he reached out with a hand as broad as a fan and snatched up the sample bottle of "Rock Fire Seed."
Gentle, pure warmth seeped through the bottle.
He could sense that the fire attribute energy contained within was far purer than that of any Tier 1 Beast Flame he had ever seen.
A trace of greed flashed in his eyes.
"Twenty gold coins?"
He grinned, revealing a set of tobacco-stained yellow teeth. His smile looked somewhat sinister.
"Kid, what Tier 2 Magical Beast did you get this fire from?"
In his eyes, only a Tier 2 Magical Beast's innate Beast Flame could possibly be this fine.
Su Chen's heart missed a beat.
He hadn't expected the man to have such a discerning eye.
He didn't answer, only watched him calmly.
Seeing that he wouldn't speak, the scarred man didn't seem to care. He simply tossed the jade bottle in his hand.
"Twenty gold coins is too much."
He stared at Su Chen, his voice sinking, heavy with an unquestionable threat.
"I'll give you five gold coins a bottle. I'll take all ten."
Five gold coins a bottle.
This wasn't bargaining. It was robbery.
Su Chen's expression darkened at once.
Looking at the man's face, etched with arrogance and greed, he felt anger flare up inside him.
But he knew full well that he didn't have a trace of Dou Qi. The other man could crush him with a single finger.
That was how the West District worked.
Without strength, no matter how good your goods were, you were nothing but easy pickings in someone else's eyes.
Su Chen fell silent for a moment.
Then he shook his head.
"Not for sale."
Two words, clear and firm.
The scarred man's face darkened in an instant.
A ferocious aura spread from him, a pressure so tangible it seemed to bear down on Su Chen.
"Kid, you'd better think this through."
His voice now carried an unmistakable threat.
"In the West District, sometimes getting the money safely into your pocket matters more than how much you make."
A few vendors and passersby who had noticed the commotion wore expressions of anticipation.
They all recognized the scarred man.
Wang Tu, deputy leader of the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group.
A Dou Shi powerhouse, famous for his ruthlessness.
As far as they were concerned, this kid who didn't know his place was about to lose everything.
A layer of cold sweat had already formed on Su Chen's back.
The aura of a Dou Shi powerhouse made it hard for him to breathe.
But he didn't back down.
This was his first deal, and the bottom line of his dignity.
If he gave in now, he would never be able to hold his head up again.
He raised his chin and stared straight into Wang Tu's murderous eyes, repeating each word with deliberate emphasis.
"I said, it's not for sale."
The air seemed to freeze in that instant.
The muscles in Wang Tu's face twitched.
He hadn't expected this frail-looking kid to refuse him again and again.
A flare of anger at being insulted shot straight to his head.
"Looking to die!"
He barked, then squeezed the jade bottle hard. Pale green Dou Qi surged between his five fingers, and he was about to crush the bottle, flame and all, into powder!
At this very moment—
A voice, rather languid yet carrying a trace of authority, came from nearby.
"Wang Tu, why so fired up? Bullying a child—aren't you afraid it'll tarnish your reputation as a Dou Shi?"
At the sound of that voice, the Dou Qi about to erupt from Wang Tu abruptly stalled.
His angry expression instantly turned to wariness and apprehension.
He stiffly turned around.
A middle-aged man in a moon-white alchemist's robe was strolling over with his hands behind his back.
A delicate badge adorned his chest.
A silver pill cauldron shone brilliantly on it.
Above the cauldron, two golden stars gleamed even more brightly.
A Second-Rank Alchemist!
"Ma-Master Gu Ni!"
The flesh on Wang Tu's face quivered. He hurriedly withdrew his Dou Qi, then forced a fawning smile onto his previously fearsome face—one more painful to behold than weeping.
He rushed over, bobbing and scraping as he spoke.
"Master, what brings you to a place like this? It's a misunderstanding, all of it! I was just joking around with this young brother!"
The middle-aged man called Master Gu Ni didn't even glance at him.
From the very beginning, his eyes had been fixed on the bottle of "Rock Fire Seed" in Wang Tu's hand.
As a Second-Rank Alchemist, his sense for flames far surpassed that of ordinary people.
At a single glance, he could tell that this flame was extraordinary.
Pure, stable, concentrated.
Th-this was the perfect kindling, practically born for alchemy!
He walked up to the stall and took the jade bottle straight from Wang Tu's stunned hand.
Bringing it close to his eyes, he examined it carefully. A light unlike any he had shown before blazed in his cloudy eyes.
"Fine fire, truly fine fire..."
He couldn't help exclaiming in admiration, his voice brimming with delight.
"Even in the bodies of some Tier 3 fire-attribute Magical Beasts, a flame of this quality would be hard to find!"
He raised his head and looked at Su Chen, still seated on the ground. His previously languid gaze had become more serious than ever.
"Little fellow, where did you get this flame?"
Beside him, Wang Tu was utterly dumbfounded by Master Gu Ni's verdict.
A Tier 3 Magical Beast?
He swallowed hard. When he looked at the flame again, his expression had completely changed.
That wasn't a flame.
That was a pile of glittering gold coins!
He had actually tried to buy a treasure comparable to Tier 3 Beast Flame for just five gold coins?
A cold dread surged from the soles of his feet straight to his crown.
He knew he had nearly brought disaster upon himself today.
Looking at the Second-Rank Alchemist before him, Su Chen finally felt the stone hanging over his heart fall.
He knew he had bet right.
He didn't answer Master Gu Ni's question. Instead, he pointed at the nine jade bottles left on the stall and calmly asked:
"Master, would you like to look at the others?"
Gu Ni froze. Then his gaze swept over the nine identical jade bottles, and his breath caught.
He hurried over, picked up another bottle, and pulled out the stopper.
An identical, flawless orange-red flame rose into the air.
The third bottle.
The fourth bottle.
When all ten jade bottles had been opened, ten identical flames, pure to the utmost, burned quietly on the little stall.
An entire corner of the West District fell into a strange silence.
Everyone stared at the scene, as if witnessing a miracle, their minds utterly blank.
Master Gu Ni's hands had already begun to tremble slightly.
He looked at the young man before him, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
"These... are they all?"
Su Chen rose to his feet and brushed the dust off his clothes. Meeting everyone's gaze, he slowly nodded.
"Twenty gold coins a bottle."
His voice wasn't loud, yet every person there heard him clearly.
"No haggling."
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