Market Leaks and Staggering Profits

With the help of the Ink Jade Divine Bamboo, the second-hand flea market transformed into another world in Mo An's eyes, a world composed of flowing heavenly and earthly spiritual energy.

Ordinary objects possessed no spiritual energy at all, while medicinal herbs of a certain age harbored faint traces of it. Through observation, Mo An basically determined that the more valuable an item was, the denser the spiritual energy it contained.

In a transcendent world, the amount of spiritual energy contained in an item directly determined its value. This was the simplest and most direct criterion for judgment.

While observing his surroundings in an attempt to pick up leaks, Mo An couldn't help thinking of the continent's number-one auxiliary martial soul, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. It likewise possessed treasure-hunting abilities. In the original work, Ning Rongrong had once displayed this ability in Gengxin City, helping Tang San find the plate crystal fine gold needed to make the Dragon Whisker Needle, the Cold Heart Iron Essence—the crucial material for making the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus—and the Deep Sea Silver Mother for crafting the Storm Pear Blossom Needle.

As long as he intercepted these raw materials in advance, Tang San would never be able to manufacture those two terrifying ultimate weapons, the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus and the Storm Pear Blossom Needle. A clever housewife could not cook a meal without rice, and Mo An simply did not believe that the child of his enemy, Tang San, could conjure materials out of thin air.

He wondered whether the treasure-hunting ability of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda or his own Ink Jade Divine Bamboo was stronger. He would have to compare them given the chance.

After wandering around the second-hand flea market for over half an hour, Mo An stopped in front of a very crude stall. This stall held the item containing the densest spiritual energy he had seen since entering the market.

The owner of the stall was a mountain-forager who lived off the mountains. The item with the most spiritual energy was hidden among the mushrooms on the stall. Mo An pointed at the mushrooms on the stall with his finger and asked, "How are these mushrooms sold?"

"These are fresh, premium mountain goods, wild mushrooms I picked from the mountain just yesterday. Whether they're stir-fried or boiled in soup, the taste is exceptionally good. Ten copper soul coins a jin."

The mountain-forager praised the mushrooms on his stall before stating the price with some hesitation. To be honest, a price of ten copper soul coins still felt a bit expensive to him, but prices were identical all down this street, and this was already his rock-bottom price.

"They really are fresh. I'll take some back to try. If the taste is good, I'll keep coming back to buy more."

Hearing the price of ten copper soul coins, Mo An took a small pouch from his pocket and began picking out wild mushrooms. During the selection process, the mushroom containing the dense spiritual energy was likewise tucked into the pouch.

After paying twenty-three copper soul coins, he carried the bag stuffed with wild mushrooms and vanished from the sight of the mountain-forager, who was marveling at how wealthy city kids were.

At a stall selling exotic stone penjing, Mo An spent eleven silver soul coins to purchase a penjing that looked rather ordinary.

Inside a small herb shop, Mo An bought a few snow lotuses and a few utterly unremarkable cordyceps.

The second-hand flea market dealt in the sinking market; there were simply no good things here to begin with, and the people doing business here couldn't even lay hands on anything decent. After making three successive moves, he had picked clean every leak to be found here.

Having finished touring the two markets and accomplishing the goal he had set before stepping out, Mo An no longer felt any inclination to continue browsing. Marching back in a hurried rush, he successfully made it in time for the lunch Uncle Fu had prepared.

"Uncle Fu, I went over to the second-hand flea market to look around this morning, and used my martial soul's treasure-hunting ability to find a few good things. Can you help me take a look?"

During the meal, Mo An voluntarily explained his whereabouts for the morning, pulling out the few items he had scavenged from the second-hand flea market out of his Azure Jade Ring and placing them all on the table.

Voluntarily explaining his whereabouts was to set Uncle Fu's mind at ease.

Not mentioning his purchase of the whale rubber was to keep Uncle Fu from overthinking.

"Let me take a look." Uncle Fu picked up the wild mushroom Mo An had taken out of the mushroom bag, observed it closely for a moment, and immediately gave a definitive answer: "This is an extremely rare centennial black truffle. If taken out to sell, it can fetch at least over three hundred gold soul coins. How much did the young master pay for it?"

"I bought it from a mountain-forager. Along with that bag of wild mushrooms, it cost twenty-three copper soul coins in total."

Mo An had never seen a black truffle before. He answered Uncle Fu's question while observing the black truffle in Uncle Fu's hand, wanting to see what difference there was between it and an ordinary wild mushroom. After looking for a good long while, Mo An still couldn't tell what the difference was between the black truffle and a wild mushroom.

Noticing that the young master was looking at the centennial black truffle in his hand, Uncle Fu placed it in front of the young master so he could examine it at his leisure. Then he picked up the snow lotus and cordyceps and began to inspect them closely.

"This stalk is an Ice-Pattern Snow Lotus. Although its appearance is extremely similar to a snow lotus, they are two completely different varieties. The primary function of a regular snow lotus is to warm the kidneys and assist yang, dispel wind and overcome dampness, and dredge the meridians and quicken the blood, whereas an Ice-Pattern Snow Lotus is a miraculous medicine that can accelerate the cultivation of ice-attribute soul masters. This thing can be sold for quite a bit of money at an auction. Back in the day, the master even sought out a batch of Ice-Pattern Snow Lotuses for that damned Clear Sky Sect."

"This root is cordyceps essence, the very best kind of cordyceps, except that its medicinal efficacy has suffered severe damage due to improper storage, yet it is still a hundred times stronger than ordinary cordyceps."

"As for these stones, I can't make head or tail of them."

Uncle Fu had some research into medicinal herbs, but he knew nothing whatsoever about ores. After finishing speaking about the things he recognized, he placed these few items in front of the young master.

"I'll put the Ice-Pattern Snow Lotus away to trade with other soul masters in the future. Uncle Fu, you can handle the centennial black truffle and the cordyceps essence."

Puttings the Ice-Pattern Snow Lotus into his storage pouch, Mo An pushed the other two herbs toward Uncle Fu. These two herbs were useless in his hands anyway, so it was better to let Uncle Fu handle them.

"That's fine, too."

Uncle Fu took the centennial black truffle and the cordyceps essence, preparing to use these two precious herbs for bartering and exchange some useful items back for the young master.

Since Uncle Fu couldn't tell what was inside the stones, it was better to crack them open and see. That way, he would know what the ores contained. In any case, they were items bought at the low price of eleven silver soul coins, so even if he smashed them to pieces, his heart wouldn't ache.

After telling Uncle Fu his idea of smashing the stones open to see, Uncle Fu, who likewise couldn't recognize the stones, nodded in agreement.

Mo An took the stones out of the basin, placed them on the ground, summoned his martial soul, the Ink Jade Divine Bamboo, and smashed down hard.

Accompanied by a loud crash, the stone split straight into several halves as commanded, and the objects hidden within the stone appeared before Mo An and Uncle Fu.

Picking up the purplish-red little stone about half a thumb in size from the ground, Mo An took the Treasure Record out of his Azure Jade Ring, flipped to the tenth page, and after careful comparison, confirmed the name and function of this stone.

Natural Copper Essence, a naturally formed high-purity copper possessing exceptional energy-transmission capabilities. It was an excellent material for crafting soul master weapons and was wildly popular in the blacksmithing profession.

Using the Ink Jade Divine Bamboo to crack open the remaining stones, Mo An successfully obtained five chunks of copper essence.

An expenditure of less than two gold soul coins had successfully yielded a harvest of over a thousand gold soul coins. Such an exaggerated profit was enough to drive anyone crazy. Mo An was finally beginning to understand why the Azure Bamboo were given special treatment by Spirit Hall, and where the boundless wealth of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect came from.