Treasurelight Grass

The moment Lu Shang stepped into the trading house, someone immediately came forward to greet him with an enthusiastic smile.

"Welcome, honored customer! What can I get for you?" the clerk asked warmly.

As he spoke, the clerk extended a hand to usher Lu Shang farther into the shop.

Lu Shang stopped and asked directly, "Do you have treasurelight grass?"

The clerk's brow creased slightly, but he immediately smoothed it out and continued smiling. "Yes, yes, we do! How much would you like?"

"One thousand..."

"No, make it ten thousand."

"Yes, ten thousand plants, and they must be high quality," Lu Shang said firmly.

"Ten thousand plants!" the clerk exclaimed loudly in astonishment.

A moment later, however, his astonishment turned into delighted surprise.

"Right, how much would that cost?" Lu Shang asked.

"Ten thousand plants would cost ten thousand spirit stones. Of course, for such a large quantity of treasurelight grass, we can offer a ten-percent discount." The clerk held his hands before his chest, his left covering his right, and kept rubbing them together as he answered.

Lu Shang could tell that he was afraid a steep price would dampen Lu Shang's desire to buy.

There were plenty of places selling treasurelight grass in Tianxing City. If Lu Shang disliked their price, dusted off his backside, and left, that would be bad.

A transaction worth ten thousand spirit stones was a sizable deal anywhere. Even at a slightly lower price, plenty of people would be willing to sell, especially when the goods were something as ordinary as treasurelight grass.

Lu Shang, however, had not known that treasurelight grass was nothing particularly rare.

His brow furrowed in confusion. "So that works out to just one spirit stone per plant?"

"Yes."

"Even the high-quality, well-aged kind I want costs only one spirit stone?" Lu Shang asked, still puzzled.

"Yes. You probably aren't aware of this, honored customer!"

"Although well-aged treasurelight grass is extremely effective, there's simply too much of it in the Chaotic Star Sea. Even the kind that can attract fifth-stage demon beasts and above costs at most one spirit stone. In some remote corners of the Outer Sea, it might sell for five or six spirit stones, but we're the finest trading house in Tianxing City. We would never cheat our customers," the clerk explained.

"So that's how it is." Only after the clerk's explanation did Lu Shang understand the situation.

"Good thing I didn't find any in the Outer Sea, or I might have been fleeced."

Lu Shang had originally intended to buy it in the Outer Sea, but he had never found a place where cultivators gathered, so he had waited until he reached Tianxing City.

Unexpectedly, his failure to find such a place had saved him thirty or forty thousand spirit stones.

If he really had been fleeced and then learned the true price of treasurelight grass here, Lu Shang might genuinely have been unable to resist making a scene.

Lu Shang was not Yazi, but that was his temperament: even a glare of resentment had to be repaid.

Just like that young master of the Ghost Spirit Sect. Once Lu Shang returned, he would certainly make him wish he were dead and ensure that the Ghost Spirit Sect vanished from the Heavenly South!

The mere thought of the Ghost Spirit Sect's young master filled him with anger.

It was one thing for Han Li, a mere Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator, to be driven to the Chaotic Star Sea, but he, a Core Formation cultivator, had been driven here too.

Lu Shang took out a storage bag and held it before the clerk.

"Count it. If everything's in order, bring me the treasurelight grass."

Seeing Lu Shang present a storage bag full of spirit stones, the clerk took it at once, opened it, and began counting.

A moment later, the clerk closed the storage bag and said to Lu Shang, "Please rest here for a moment, honored customer. I'll fetch your treasurelight grass right away. Please wait a little while. In the meantime, I'll have another clerk attend to you."

"Fine," Lu Shang replied casually.

At that, the clerk immediately hurried into the depths of the shop.

Lu Shang leisurely picked up the tea on a nearby table and began sipping it.

With a moment to relax, he looked around the trading house.

The building had some five or six floors, but most of the shelves held ordinary products that failed to interest him in the slightest.

After the first clerk went inside, another clerk, a woman, approached Lu Shang.

She appeared to be in her early thirties. Unlike the young girl on Red Moon Island, she had a full bust and rounded hips, along with the mature charm of a woman her age.

She wore a rather tight red dress that clearly outlined her graceful figure.

Anyone who did not know better might have thought this trading house offered some other sort of service.

Before long, she reached Lu Shang and addressed him respectfully. "You're the customer purchasing treasurelight grass, correct?"

"Yes. Is something the matter?"

"Then I have the right person. Preparing such a large quantity of treasurelight grass will take a little time. Would you mind telling me what you intend to do with so much of it?" As she spoke, she seemed to grow handsy, one hand edging toward Lu Shang's shoulder.

"Hmph!" Lu Shang gave a quiet snort.

He gently set his cup on the table, but despite that light touch, a powerful aura burst outward.

The aura nearly knocked the female clerk beside him off her feet.

"Oh? Does the Kuixing Island Grand Trading House think it can pry into its customers' private affairs whenever it pleases? Aren't you afraid of bringing utter destruction down upon yourselves?"

At his words, the woman immediately turned pale as she stared at Lu Shang.

"Not that I can't tell you. I merely intend to kill some demon beasts. But casually prying into a customer's private affairs is rather unusual for a trading house, isn't it?"

Although Lu Shang had only said he intended to hunt some demon beasts, such a large quantity of treasurelight grass meant at least ten thousand of them. Moreover, he had requested high-quality treasurelight grass, so it was easy to imagine that he intended to hunt countless high-rank demon beasts.

Yet the male cultivator before her was only a False Core cultivator. It was clearly impossible for him to hunt so many demon beasts with such high cultivation.

If his words had not been a lie to conceal his intentions, the force behind him must be incredibly powerful, with at least a dozen Core Formation cultivators.

A group like that would be no minor force anywhere in the Chaotic Star Sea. Wiping out a mere little trading house would be no problem for them.

The woman now stared at Lu Shang with barely concealed shock and fear.

Lu Shang's words had been both a warning and a threat.

Clerks who casually probed their customers' intentions were hardly uncommon.

Perhaps seeing that Lu Shang was only a False Core cultivator yet could produce so many spirit stones had stirred her greed, prompting her to sound him out. Instead, she had received a threat.

After that, the clerk could hardly continue attending to Lu Shang and could only retreat to one side.

A short while later, the clerk who had left reappeared in Lu Shang's sight and walked over to him.

"I hope you're satisfied with our service."

As he spoke, he took out a storage bag and handed it to Lu Shang.

Lu Shang accepted it and immediately walked out of the shop.

The clerk looked bewildered. They had been chatting pleasantly just a moment ago. How had everything changed in such a short time?

Then he noticed the pale-faced female clerk standing to one side.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" the male clerk asked.

"N-no... nothing," the female clerk answered haltingly.

Since she did not want to say anything, the male clerk did not intend to press her. A transaction worth nine thousand spirit stones had passed through his hands this time, likely earning him a sizable commission. Still absorbed in his own delight, he had no desire to ask about anything else.

How could he have known that the female clerk's momentary curiosity had nearly brought a deadly calamity down upon them?