Gu Erniu and Gu Sheng remained calm and unhurried. They were confident; when it came to selling hides, especially scarce goods like silver fox pelts, they were the ones others had to come begging to.
Before long.
A slightly plump middle-aged man with a round face walked in with a smile. Dressed like a wealthy gentleman, his eyes narrowed into slits when he smiled as he repeatedly cupped his hands in apology.
"Sorry to keep you two waiting. I have been truly occupied with business. My surname is Qian; you may call me Manager Qian."
"Greetings, Manager Qian."
Naturally, Gu Sheng and Gu Erniu could not actually call him Fatty Qian.
Manager Qian sat down and discreetly assessed the two men opposite him. Though they had made some effort to conceal themselves, the air of the wilderness about them was not difficult to discern.
Yet he did not look down on them.
They were both powerfully built and stern-faced, and the large bundles of hides behind them made their identities equally obvious.
Hunters—and no ordinary hunters.
"What business do you two wish to conduct?"
Gu Sheng pulled out the silver fox pelt he had prepared beforehand.
With a light shake.
The silver fox pelt, originally rolled together, instantly unfurled and landed atop the square table before them. Its bright silver sheen caught the eye. Manager Qian's heart skipped a beat as he reached out to touch it, and a soft, comfortable texture greeted his hand.
He examined it closely, his eyes growing increasingly astonished.
The pelt was incomparably whole and smooth. Apart from a few necessary cutting marks, there was not a single puncture or tear.
"Excellent pelt! Excellent archery!"
He could not help crying out in praise.
With his discerning eye, he could naturally tell it was a silver fox pelt. For it to be so intact, the fox must have been felled by a single arrow through the head. The implications were obvious.
One of these two hunters had to be a master archer—perhaps even both of them!
His smile immediately became much warmer.
This truly was a major deal.
This was also Gu Erniu's first time seeing a silver fox pelt. He almost instantly reconstructed how Gu Sheng had hunted the silver fox, and his eyes filled with greater admiration. Such archery was truly formidable.
"Manager Qian has a sharp eye indeed. Admirable. What price are you offering?"
Manager Qian pondered for a moment before naming his price.
"Ordinary silver fox pelts generally sell for eleven or twelve taels. Yours is superior quality and has no puncture holes whatsoever, so I can offer twenty taels."
Gu Erniu's breath caught at the quoted price.
Gu Sheng was delighted as well.
"Twenty taels is too low. I have heard that market prices can go for more than double that. How about twenty-four taels for this pelt?"
Manager Qian shook his head with a smile.
"You two must have heard about that silver fox pelt from two years ago. That sort of thing is a rare stroke of luck. To be honest, I intend to purchase this pelt as a gift for my master's wife. Twenty-two taels, then—consider it the price of making friends with two master archers!"
"I see you have other hides and medicinal herbs behind you. How about this? I will purchase them all at the market-stall prices."
He had shown great sincerity. Mingyu Hall truly deserved to be called the enterprise of a great clan; it did not take advantage of others.
Gu Sheng secretly nodded.
That was roughly his expected price, perhaps even a little higher. On top of that, Manager Qian would buy their other hides at a better price, saving them the trouble of setting up a stall themselves.
The two exchanged glances, and Gu Erniu smiled.
"Since that is the case, we will follow Manager Qian's arrangement."
"Good, straightforward! I will have someone take inventory at once!"
With the deal settled, both parties smiled happily.
Very soon.
Someone finished taking inventory.
Manager Qian held an abacus and flicked its beads back and forth before finally looking up.
"The total comes to eight taels and three large coins. What do you two think?"
Gu Sheng and Gu Erniu both nodded, delight visible in their eyes.
Gu Sheng's pile was worth five taels, while Gu Erniu's amounted to three taels and three large coins. It was no small fortune.
Once the accounts were settled.
Gu Sheng held the weighty twenty-seven taels of silver, feeling utterly satisfied.
A few months ago, when he had first awakened his past-life wisdom, he had nothing to rely on. Never mind twenty-seven taels—he had not even seen a single tael of silver. Now, he had finally escaped the most basic crisis of survival and begun moving toward a better future.
"If you need anything, feel free to look around Mingyu Hall. We have weapons and medicinal powders of every kind, all of excellent quality," Manager Qian said with a smile.
With money in his pocket, Gu Erniu felt more confident too and was eager to browse.
The two simply wandered around the building, only to be left speechless.
Some of the medicinal powders and pills used by martial artists cost at least several taels, while others cost hundreds. They were far beyond anything the two could have imagined.
They did not lack weapons, so they merely took a casual look.
After making the rounds, the two immediately reined in their slightly inflated spirits.
In the end.
They bought some medicinal powders for stopping bleeding and neutralizing poison, in case they were injured or poisoned while hunting in the future. After hesitating, Gu Sheng also bought a bottle of Black Blood Powder.
This Black Blood Powder was quite costly, requiring a full two taels of silver!
Applied to a weapon, once it entered the human body and the poison took effect, even a Skin Refining stage martial artist would have difficulty enduring it. They might not die on the spot, but their combat ability would certainly be greatly reduced.
Though the matter with Li Yan had passed, Gu Sheng still needed to keep a trump card in reserve.
He had yet to practice martial arts. If a martial artist truly came seeking revenge, he needed some means of dealing with it. Perfect archery combined with Black Blood Powder was enough to threaten an ordinary martial artist.
His twenty-seven taels of silver instantly dwindled to just over twenty-four taels.
Gu Sheng hurriedly restrained himself.
After all, he still needed to save money for martial arts training.
Under Manager Qian's watchful gaze, the two left Mingyu Hall and returned to the side courtyard to retrieve the bows.
Naturally, they could not openly dispose of such stolen goods at Mingyu Hall. Though the odds of discovery were low, they still had to be careful.
This time, Gu Erniu wrapped Gu Sheng up so thoroughly that not even a sliver of him was exposed. In the end, they went to a small alley and lightly knocked on a wooden door several times. Someone immediately poked out his head warily.
"Brother Dao's friends. We are selling three bows!" Gu Erniu said in a low voice.
The man visibly relaxed and did not find their attire strange. This was a place to sell illicit goods, and caution was only natural.
"Come in."
The two slipped inside, and the man immediately shut the wooden door.
The room was sparsely furnished and dimly lit. A gaunt old man sat behind the counter with a blank expression, utterly unlike Manager Qian's earlier warmth.
Gu Erniu did not waste words.
He directly laid out the bows belonging to the three Li Family Fort hunters.
The old man examined the three bows for a moment before saying flatly, "They are seventy to eighty percent new. The three bows together are worth only three taels of silver."
Through legitimate channels, a one-stone bow would cost two taels of silver. Even at seventy or eighty percent new, it should not have been worth merely one tael. The price had been pushed down considerably.
But since they were illicit goods, Gu Sheng could accept it.
Safety came first.
After putting away the silver, Gu Sheng considered for a moment before asking, "Can we trade for a bow here? A two-stone bow."
After seeing the old man nod, he immediately placed Li Yan's bow on the counter as well. Earlier, while looking at weapons in Mingyu Hall, Gu Sheng had noticed that Li Yan's bow seemed somewhat different from ordinary two-stone bows. He had thus changed his mind at the last moment and decided to spend a little extra to trade for another bow.
If there were some hidden issue he had not considered, it would be troublesome.
"Add ten large coins, and you can trade for this one."
The old man rummaged beneath the counter and brought out another bow. It was also a two-stone bow, and Gu Sheng's sharp eyes could see that it was identical to those sold at Mingyu Hall, only somewhat older and marked by use.
Gu Sheng's eyes lit up. This was exactly what he wanted.
"I'll take this one!"
After checking that there was nothing wrong with the bow, Gu Sheng and Gu Erniu walked out through the wooden door.
At that moment, Gu Erniu could not help advising him, "Sheng, even though you have money now, you still need to save it. The Black Blood Powder was one thing, but this bow is not much different in quality from Li Yan's. There was no need to spend half a tael of silver. We could have disguised that bow ourselves, and no one would have noticed."
His heart ached over the expense.
He had worked all year gathering those hides and sold them for only a little over three taels of silver, yet Gu Sheng's successive purchases had already cost nearly that much.
"You still need to practice martial arts, marry a wife, and support a family. It is always good to save more money."
He could not quite understand Gu Sheng's behavior. He felt Gu Sheng was being overly cautious.
Gu Sheng merely smiled without explaining. Holding Li Yan's bow still did not sit right with him. The fewer openings he left behind, the better.
Still, he knew Gu Erniu meant well, so he simply smiled and said he would keep it in mind.
Gu Erniu let the matter drop.
Gu Sheng was in high spirits. This trip had shown him the completely different scenes of Mingyu Hall and the illicit trading spot, broadening his horizons considerably.
He had successfully converted all his previous gains into silver. Adding the few taels saved at home, he now had more than thirty taels of cash!
He had also traded for a powerful bow, allowing him to fully unleash the might of his perfect archery.
His trip to Canghe County had been a complete success!
Before you continue