Spirit Realm Shopping

After returning to White Flower City, Fran immediately lay down on her bed and recited the incantation, her consciousness rising to the Spirit Realm.

Fran went to the Heart Lake Market this time, as it's the only market open recently.

After Fran climbed up, she didn't immediately go to arrange for the purchase of cotton. Instead, she went to the Adventurers Guild to inquire about the progress of her commission.

Somewhat to Fran's surprise, two of the requests had already made progress.

"Ms. Lai, your request number XXXXXXXXXXXX4 has been accepted by an Adventurer team. They have promised to deliver the item within half a month. Do you wish to use the Spirit Realm passage and transport it with additional Spirit Crystal?"

"There's also a quest numbered XXXXXXXXXXXX7. An Adventurer is willing to provide materials they've already hunted. Based on the information on the quest, do you want the hide and skeleton of Tosk Horned Bull?"

"The Adventurer is willing to offer one headless Magic Creature corpse in exchange for purchasing all the Magic Creature corpses, and will not accept tiered payments."

Fran raised an eyebrow, then began to deal with the matter.

"For the request ending in 4, I will use the Spirit Realm for delivery. I will deliver the Spirit Crystal shortly."

"As for the headless Tosk Horned Bull carcass..."

Fran paused for a moment. She had purchased the body material of this Second Order Demonic Beast to make an inner armor and imprint the runes of the Sky Dragon on it; the main body of the Tosk Horned Bull was what she actually needed.

From this perspective, it seems that the Magic Creature corpse provided by the Adventurer is exactly what she needs, only it's headless; Fran wants the main body anyway.

Fran stroked her chin and then said:

"I can accept that, but it would be best if the Magic Creature's corpse really is as he said, missing only its head and otherwise intact."

"I'm willing to sign an inspection agreement with him, notarized by the Adventurers Guild, requiring him to send the Magic Creature's corpse to the Spirit Realm, with all the Spirit Crystal provided by me."

"If this Magic Creature's corpse doesn't match what he described and what I requested, then I'll ask him to reimburse me for the Spirit Crystal I paid."

The staff member wrote down these words, and then the staff member continued:

"I'm sorry, Ms. Lai, if you want to have the goods inspected in the Spirit Realm, we can only guarantee a refund if the description is incorrect. If you no longer want the item at that point, we cannot compensate you for your Spirit Crystal."

"I can accept it." Fran didn't care; it was just some Spirit Crystal, not to mention that the Lord of Radiance's warehouse had several small mountains of them.

Even if there is a real shortage, the Lord of Radiance can still do what he used to do. Of course, this time it probably won't be so easy, as those markets have likely taken precautions recently.

Fran estimated that the guards at the market gates were now at least Tier 2, and might even have Tier 3 guards.

If the Lord of Radiance wants to continue taking more, then he'll have to carefully consider the strength of his side.

It was obvious that they had taken advantage of a loophole in the rules of the Spirit Realm. The market people all thought that with the rules of the Spirit Realm in place, nothing would go wrong, so they relaxed their vigilance in guarding.

And this was clearly a lesson learned from the Lord of Radiance; Fran didn't believe that these Spirit Realm Market would dare not learn from this experience.

"I'll come back in three days, and then we'll inspect the goods."

"Okay, Ms. Lai, please take care."

Fran walked out of the Adventurers Guild, intending to deal with the cotton matter, but she suddenly froze on the street.

Because even she herself didn't know where to find a way to satisfy this need.

After all, most of the transactions in the entire Spirit Realm are for small-value items, such as weapons, equipment, and potions.

Large-scale transactions are extremely rare in the Spirit Realm because each piece of material requires a Spirit Crystal to be delivered in order for it to enter the Spirit Realm.

This results in transactions in the Spirit Realm being generally much more expensive than buying materials in the Material Realm, since an extra Spirit Crystal is required.

Large-scale Spirit Realm transactions only occur under certain special circumstances.

In such special circumstances, famine often occurs in a certain area, and due to the long distance or insufficient preservation conditions, people have no choice but to purchase expensive food from the Spirit Realm.

Even if a grain merchant raises the price of grain three times, the grain itself will not exceed half of the final selling price.

This shows that Spirit Crystal are okay for weapons and equipment, but for large quantities of low-priced items, they are simply too expensive unless it's a life-saving necessity.

Of course, some people do this kind of business, since three times the price allows them to make a lot of money and also clear out inventory, making it a really good business.

Sometimes, the price of a certain commodity in a certain place is so high that it exceeds the cost of Spirit Crystal. At this time, some merchants will quickly sell it through the Spirit Realm and make a profit.

These large-scale transactions in the Spirit Realm are usually handled by those merchant guilds, and they never refuse such business.

Fran asked two random people for directions on the way and then headed towards the White Hill Chamber of Commerce's storefront.

Fran, seeing that the shop was only slightly decorated, still went inside.

"Hello, are you looking to order equipment or purchase potions? We don't have any in stock right now."

A receptionist approached Fran and asked slowly.

Fran got straight to the point and stated her requirements directly.

"I want to purchase large quantities of basic crops."

"Large-scale purchase of basic crops?"

"Yes, I can pay extra Spirit Crystal."

"Please wait a moment, I'll go find someone."

The receptionist was clearly unsure of the situation, so she went to another room and was followed out by a neatly dressed man.

"My name is Pierce, and I'm the store manager of the White Hill Chamber of Commerce in the Spirit Realm. You're here to purchase basic crops in large quantities, right?"

Pierce asked politely, his movements fluid yet not hurried, as he wore a fitted leather coat.

It's me.

"Then please come in with me, and we can talk in detail."

Fran entered a slightly decorated little room, sat down in a soft chair, and began to talk to Pierce face to face.

"Could you tell me exactly what kind of basic crops you want to purchase?"

Pierce smiled and asked slowly.

His current mood is just like what his face shows—he's extremely happy.

He knew that those who commissioned large-scale purchases of basic goods were usually wealthy individuals who were willing to pay substantial sums.

Just one of these orders can make the profit figures on the report look amazing; it's real money!

So Pierce was really looking forward to the conversation, and he was even already thinking about which warehouse to get the goods from if the other party wanted them.

Fran didn't waste any words and said directly:

"I need to buy cotton, the more the better..."

Fran knew that this thing wasn't produced in large quantities; in this world, the hides of many Magic Creature were much better at keeping warm.

Of course, as a very cheap crop, some people still use cotton to make warm clothing.

"Ah?"

Pierce had no idea what Fran was referring to; it was as if he had heard a word he had never heard before.

After Fran repeated herself, Pierce realized he didn't know the name of the crop.

"Could you describe what this crop looks like? After all, we are in the Spirit Realm, and the names for plants may differ from place to place."

After Fran described what cotton looked like, Pierce was convinced that he truly didn't know such a plant existed in the world.

Seeing Pierce's troubled expression, Fran guessed that he probably didn't even know about cotton, such a niche crop, so she said directly:

"Does this place have the plant encyclopedia published by the Alliance? It's in there."

Please wait a moment.

Pierce left in a hurry and didn't return for ten minutes.

When Pierce sat down, he was still in a daze, because he suddenly realized that when you need to consult a botanical encyclopedia to find information about a crop...

This alone is enough to show that what the other party wants must be very niche and rare. Pierce couldn't guarantee that the White Hill Chamber of Commerce's warehouse would have the items they wanted in stock.

"This is it."

Fran flipped through the book, because it wasn't the same version as the one Fran had seen before, but Fran still managed to find the page she was looking for.

Pierce kept his gaze fixed on the plant Fran had pointed to; the book was illustrated with pictures, which was precisely why it was worth two silver coins.

"Is this the plant you want?" Pierce asked hesitantly. Although he hadn't handled it before, he could still see it on the White Hill Chamber of Commerce's books.

Furthermore, their White Hill Chamber of Commerce also cultivates a small cotton field, and has some cotton in their warehouse, but...

Why would the other side want this stuff? If it were food, weapons, Ore... Pierce could understand, but it's cotton!

In Pierce's mind, this stuff was only good for making warm clothing; there were many things in the world that were better.

Some people only buy one because it's cheap.

"Guest, if you'd like some warm materials, I can recommend our chamber of commerce's flagship product— White Hill Goat wool. Our wool is lighter and more comfortable..."

"I only need cotton. I'll buy as much as you have, and if there's any more later, I'll take that too..."

Pierce's voice trailed off. He composed himself and began discussing the delivery date and amount with Fran.

Even after Fran left, Pierce still couldn't believe that someone would come to their White Hill Chamber of Commerce not to buy White Hill Goat wool, but to buy a low-grade crop, and even transported through the Spirit Realm.

After being transported through the Spirit Realm, the price difference between the two was less than 10%, yet the other party still insisted on buying cotton.

But for Pierce, as long as he can make money, he doesn't care about anything else.