Seven Treasures Trading House

The blacksmith shop in the west of the city was a large-scale establishment that not only boasted fine craftsmanship but also sold rare metals.

Xu Bai looked over the price list for a long time before finally, with a pained heart, taking out two hundred gold soul coins to pay for the items he needed.

The burly man in charge of receiving Xu Bai was overjoyed to see such generosity from someone so young. He immediately patted his chest, promising that the goods would be ready for pickup in two days and guaranteeing that the quality would be absolutely flawless.

Leaving the blacksmith shop, Xu Bai pondered for a moment and set his next destination as the trading house in the city center.

As a medium-sized city, Huangshan City was home to many trading houses of varying sizes.

The largest and most conspicuous one was, naturally, the Seven Treasures Trading House located diagonally across from the City Lord's Mansion.

The trading house had three floors; its exterior resembled a traditional Chinese-style treasure pavilion, and its interior decor followed suit, forming a sharp contrast with the more Western-influenced architecture nearby.

This was, in fact, a characteristic feature of the Douluo world: the Spirit Hall, the two great empires, and other minor civilian factions all favored a medieval Western style, while the major powers preferred Chinese-style architecture.

This Seven Treasures Trading House was clearly an enterprise under the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect.

"Little friend, is there anything you need at our Seven Treasures Trading House?"

As soon as Xu Bai walked in, a young man dressed in blue approached him. The youth's attitude was kind, and he showed no signs of neglect despite Xu Bai being a child.

"Do you purchase heavenly treasures here? What are your rates?"

Xu Bai's attention was immediately drawn to several crystal-clear fruits displayed on the counter, beneath which the age of the parent plant was noted.

"Heavenly treasures?" The blue-clad youth was stunned for a moment before following Xu Bai's gaze, realizing, "Ah, the little brother is asking about fruits produced by plant-type spirit beasts."

"If the fruits are edible or have medicinal value, we do purchase them. Generally, fruits from a ten-year parent tree won't exceed ten gold soul coins, a hundred-year one won't exceed a hundred, and a thousand-year one won't exceed a thousand."

"As for those over ten thousand years, they are essentially priceless and rare; some are even comparable in value to spirit bones."

"If you intend to sell, we have specialized appraisers here who guarantee honesty and reliability. We can discuss the specific price when the time comes."

"Understood." Xu Bai nodded, wandered around casually, and then requested a product list for the first floor of the Seven Treasures Trading House.

In the world of Xianxia, plants that could bear fruit and provide benefits after consumption were collectively known as spiritual plants.

In the Douluo Continent, there were places like the Spirit Hunting Forest—man-made gathering grounds for spirit beasts—so naturally, there were factions that cultivated these plant-type spirit beasts just like spiritual plants.

Where there is demand, there is a market. Plant-type spirit beasts that could bear fruit grew too slowly for small factions to afford large-scale cultivation, and major powers didn't bother with them. Thus, a market naturally emerged for plant-type spirit beasts that had been dug up from wild gathering grounds and were already capable of bearing fruit.

As the largest trading house in Huangshan City, the Seven Treasures Trading House naturally stocked these plant-type spirit beasts.

Xu Bai had already observed that the first floor of the Seven Treasures Trading House only sold ten-year plant-type spirit beasts.

Although they were all ten-year beasts, there was a vast difference in price; the cheaper ones cost twenty or thirty gold soul coins per plant, while the expensive ones required nearly a hundred.

The price gap reflected the quality.

Those priced under fifty gold soul coins had a growth cap of ten years and would remain ten-year spirit beasts for life unless they encountered a stroke of luck.

Those priced above fifty had the potential to break through to the hundred-year level. Setting aside the value of the fruit, the higher the price, the closer the plant was to the hundred-year mark.

A ten-year plant-type spirit beast usually bore fruit once a year, but if Hundred Herb Liquid was used to accelerate its growth, that time could perhaps be shortened to one or two months.

After all, the purpose of Hundred Herb Liquid was to accelerate the growth rate of plant-type spirit beasts; flowering and fruiting were, of course, part of that growth.

"If the Hundred Herb Liquid can make these plant-type spirit beasts bear fruit every two months, then after accounting for food and living expenses, I can afford at most two hundred gold soul coins."

"The most cost-effective plant-type spirit beast is the Clear Heart Orange Tree. Each harvest yields fifteen to twenty-five fruits. The plant costs twenty gold soul coins, and the fruit sells for two gold soul coins each. If I sell them, the price will definitely be lower, but I reckon I can break even after the first harvest..."

As Xu Bai was deep in thought, the blue-clad youth who had been following him asked, "Little friend, do you have the intention to sell any heavenly treasures?"

"Not for now. I want to buy some plant-type spirit beasts. This one—give me five of them." Xu Bai snapped out of his thoughts and pointed at the Clear Heart Orange Tree on the product list.

Two hundred gold soul coins could buy ten, but he didn't understand the art of going all-in and decided to keep some gold soul coins just in case.

Youth: ?????

The service at the Seven Treasures Trading House was quite good; they even offered free home delivery for large items, which saved Xu Bai a lot of trouble.

However, the service only covered delivery; having the delivery staff help plant the Clear Heart Orange Trees was an extra service that required a fee.

Xu Bai naturally didn't want to spend that money, so after sending the staff away, he directly opened his Beast Taming Space.

"Awoo~"

Number One walked out of the Beast Taming Space, dazed, and looked at Xu Bai in confusion.

Beast Tamer, is it time to eat?

"Eat, eat, eat! All you know is eating! I really don't know if you're a tiger or a pig!"

Xu Bai glared at the white tiger, annoyed, and pointed at the courtyard. "I don't keep idle beasts in this house. See these trees? Your task now is to plant them in our yard. Did you hear me?"

Upon hearing this, Number One's eyes instantly cleared, and it looked at Xu Bai in disbelief.

Beast Tamer, you didn't misspeak, did you? I'm a tiger! A tiger, do you understand? You're actually asking me to plant trees? Do I have no dignity?

Xu Bai didn't care about Number One's protest at all and simply said, "You eat when you finish planting~"

Number One: !!!!!

But then again...

Ten minutes later, Xu Bai looked with satisfaction at Number One, who was digging the soil in the yard with a wronged expression, and took a gentle sip of the freshly brewed hot tea.

That's more like it. Isn't that exactly how beast taming is supposed to work? A beast tamer running around busy all day long—what kind of nonsense is that? It's completely upside down!

As a century-old soul beast, although First was a bit small in size, the power it could unleash was definitely not something an ordinary person could compare to, so it dug the pits quite quickly.

Looking at it this way, it wouldn't take long for First to complete the task Xu Bai had assigned.

However, Xu Bai didn't plan on sitting idle. There were still five portions of raw materials for the Hundred Herb Liquid left, and he intended to brew them all while First was busy planting the trees.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. With the experience of one successful refinement, the subsequent batches were quite simple for Xu Bai.

Following the steps in the manual, it didn't take long for Xu Bai to perfectly refine five bottles of Hundred Herb Liquid.

Pushing open the door, he saw First lying listlessly on the ground, playing with its own tail.

Upon hearing the commotion, First instantly perked up, scrambled to its feet, and looked at Xu Bai with its tiger head held high, looking as if it were begging for praise.

Xu Bai shook his head with a chuckle and walked over to the five planted Clear Heart Orange Trees to inspect them. Finding no issues, he nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. My First is truly amazing. I'll give you an extra meal today."

An extra meal!?

First's eyes lit up, and it let out an excited, low whine.

Long live the beast tamer!

As for the grievances from just a moment ago, under the temptation of an extra meal, they were cast to the back of its mind in an instant.