Bargain Hunting at the Market: What Others Don't Want, I Buy!

Hehuan Town, marketplace.

Lu Chen set down the cracked suit of armor in his hands.

Black Tortoise Shell, a Damaged Artifact. It could only be used once, but it could withstand the full-force strike of a cultivator at the Tenth Layer of Qi Refining.

Yet the old man in blue had quoted a price of five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Far too expensive.

Lu Chen rose to leave.

"Wait, Fellow Daoist! Let this old man form a good bond with you. Three hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and the Black Tortoise Shell is yours!"

The old man in blue hurriedly called after Lu Chen.

Lu Chen ignored him.

"Ah, Fellow Daoist, how about two hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones? One hundred—one hundred will do too... Don't leave!"

The old man in blue shouted anxiously. He had not made a single sale for days.

If he did not open for business soon, he would be left to drink the northwest wind.

"One hundred is still too expensive. I'd better pass!"

Lu Chen did not look back.

"You old fool, still trying to swindle people?"

Yun Ao said coldly.

"Young Master Yun, this old man is merely trying to scrape together a living."

The old man in blue was utterly depressed.

"Does scraping together a living mean you can cheat people?"

Yun Ao said dismissively.

Knowing himself to be in the wrong, the old man said nothing more.

Nor could Yun Ao do anything to him.

After all, the man had paid the entrance fee. He had the right to set up a stall here.

Lu Chen then came to the stall selling cultivation techniques.

"No way..."

He was directly stunned by the "peerless cultivation techniques" displayed on the stall.

There was the Five Elements Swallowing Heaven Scripture, the Yin-Yang Ascension Record, the Supreme Carefree Manual, and the Feathered Ascension Scripture.

The names of these cultivation techniques were simply too grandiose.

The stall owner was a fair, plump young man.

This was definitely a fellow shrewd to the extreme.

Lu Chen picked up the Five Elements Swallowing Heaven Scripture and began flipping through it.

"This Fellow Daoist truly has a discerning eye. This was the sect-protecting cultivation technique of the Five Elements Immortal Sect three thousand years ago. After the Five Elements Immortal Sect was destroyed, this technique fell into my hands. Now, this technique has finally encountered its destined person. Fellow Daoist, you are that destined person!"

The fat man spun a tale so dazzling it could make flowers bloom from his tongue.

"Brother, do I look like an idiot to you?"

Lu Chen said irritably.

"Uh?"

The fat man froze at his words, then immediately understood. He could not help awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

"This Fellow Daoist, this guy is called Duan Zhengde, and he is also a swindler. He excels at disguising incomplete cultivation techniques as complete ones and selling them. Cultivating this kind of technique carries the risk of going berserk!"

Yun Ao showed up again.

"Young Master Yun, you..."

Duan Zhengde was utterly depressed.

A customer had finally come, yet Yun Ao had popped up to cause trouble.

"Duan Zhengde? Do you happen to have two brothers, one called Duan Zhengming and the other Duan Zhengchun?"

Lu Chen grinned.

"What? I don't have any brothers. I only have a younger sister. How about this? If you buy my cultivation techniques, I'll introduce my sister to you. My sister is very beautiful!"

Duan Zhengde said with a smile.

"How many Spirit Stones for this one?"

Lu Chen shook the Five Elements Swallowing Heaven Scripture in his hand.

"A peerless divine art! Master it, and you'll be invincible beneath the heavens. At least this many!"

Duan Zhengde held up one finger.

"Ten Low-Grade Spirit Stones?"

Lu Chen asked.

Duan Zhengde shook his head. "One hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones!"

"..."

Lu Chen was speechless. A peerless divine art was worth only one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones?

This guy really took him for an idiot.

"I'd like to see what sort of peerless divine art is worth one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones!"

As Yun Ao spoke, he took the cultivation technique from Lu Chen and began flipping through it.

"Duan Zhengde, Duan Zhengde! This is clearly the Five-Element Body-Refining Technique, the most basic body-refining technique without grade or rank. And it's only an incomplete volume at that. Techniques like this cost one Low-Grade Spirit Stone apiece, and there are as many as you want. You changed its name and now want to sell it for one hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones? You truly have no virtue!"

"It's only worth one Low-Grade Spirit Stone?"

Lu Chen was speechless.

The waters of the marketplace ran deep.

Well, he had the Yin-Yang Creation Cauldron. Incomplete cultivation techniques could be restored.

He was short on cultivation techniques. He would buy it first and talk later.

"Besides this Five Elements technique, I want this Blazing Sun Art, this Frost Art, and this Lunar Truewater Art as well. One Low-Grade Spirit Stone each!"

Lu Chen picked out several cultivation techniques.

"No, Fellow Daoist, are you really buying these useless cultivation techniques?"

Yun Ao looked at the fellow in the bronze mask before him as though looking at a fool.

"Young Master Yun, since he wants to buy them, I can hardly refuse to sell them!"

Duan Zhengde hurriedly handed those cultivation techniques to Lu Chen.

Lu Chen put away the four cultivation techniques, then paid four Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Yun Ao shook his head helplessly.

There were fools every year, but this year there were especially many.

Lu Chen then came to a stall selling spirit herbs.

"What a pity. These spirit herbs are not old enough, yet they were dug up like this. What a waste of Heaven's gifts."

A middle-aged Daoist said regretfully.

"Heavenly Spirit Grass, Purple-Gold Ginseng, Dragonblood Grass, Nourishing Spirit Grass, Divine Origin Fruit... These are all excellent spirit herbs!"

Lu Chen said in surprise as he looked at the spirit herbs on the stall.

"Their age is insufficient, and their medicinal potency is less than one-thousandth of what it should be. What use are they? What a pity. If they were cultivated for another hundred or two hundred years, these spirit herbs would truly be valuable."

The middle-aged Daoist shook his head, sighed, and turned to leave.

Lu Chen was about to leave as well.

But he suddenly halted.

Wait, he had the Yin-Yang Creation Cauldron.

As long as he consumed Yin-Yang Essence, he could raise the grade of spirit herbs.

Were not spirit herb grades determined by their age?

Raising the grade of a spirit herb meant raising its age.

He had nearly missed out on a tremendous opportunity.

The stall owner was a veiled woman.

"I'll take all these spirit herbs. How many Spirit Stones altogether?"

How could Lu Chen let such an opportunity slip away?

"You... want them all?"

The veiled woman looked at Lu Chen in astonishment.

Many people had come to inspect her spirit herbs, but she had not sold a single stalk. Everyone who had seen them said they were not old enough and lacked medicinal potency. Whether used for pill refining or consumed directly, they were useless.

"Yes."

Lu Chen nodded.

"You're buying spirit herbs that no one else wants. Are you stupid?"

At that moment, a voice sounded beside Lu Chen.

Lu Chen looked over and saw that it was Lin Shicai, the man Yun Ao had tricked at the House of Ten Thousand Beauties.

"Whether I'm stupid or not, I don't know. But you're definitely a real genius!"

Lu Chen gave Lin Shicai a thumbs-up.

"Of course I'm a real genius!"

Lin Shicai said smugly.

"Yes, yes, you're a real genius—the genius who helped Young Master Yun buy nine female Half-Demons!"

Lu Chen could not help laughing.

"You..."

Only then did Lin Shicai realize the other party was mocking him.

"Outrageous..."

Lin Shicai was about to step forward and make a move.

"Lin Shicai, do you dare cause trouble here?"

A cold laugh rang out as Yun Ao approached, waving a folding fan.

"..."

Lin Shicai's eyes turned red with rage.

He looked at Yun Ao, then at Lu Chen in the bronze mask, and held himself back.

Fine, fine. I can do nothing to Yun Ao, but can't I still kill you, you rat who wears a mask and dares not show your true face?

Lin Shicai turned and left.

After leaving the marketplace, he immediately ordered someone to keep an eye on Lu Chen.

He had already swallowed a bellyful of anger at the House of Ten Thousand Beauties, and now he had been mocked by a fellow wearing a bronze mask. How could he possibly swallow this insult?

"Outrageous! If I let you leave Hehuan Town alive, then my surname isn't Lin!"

Lin Shicai always repaid even the slightest grievance.

Lu Chen, however, had no idea he had brought a deadly calamity upon himself.

In the end, the veiled woman sold all her spirit herbs to Lu Chen at one Low-Grade Spirit Stone per stalk.

Lu Chen's actions left Yun Ao completely dumbfounded. Why did this fellow keep buying things nobody else wanted?

The spirit herbs Lu Chen had bought were not old enough.

Even in his dreams, Yun Ao could not have imagined that Lu Chen was picking up bargains—and enormous ones at that.

Lu Chen then bought several dozen small jade bottles from another stall.

He intended to use these small jade bottles to store pills.

Well, it was getting late. It was time to secure that Black Tortoise Shell.

He still had to return to the House of Ten Thousand Beauties and cultivate some feelings with those three female Half-Demons.

He had not forgotten why he came down the mountain.

Only dual cultivation could grant him Yin-Yang Essence.

Everything was ready; only the east wind was missing.