For an ordinary household, two hundred thousand Spirit Value Coins was already a huge sum, but here it felt like nothing.
Those three small pieces of Spirit Ore alone had just cost him nearly fifty thousand Spirit Value Coins, and weighed less than three kilograms in total.
"No wonder the products from those Artifact Refining companies only mention the ingredients of their main materials, without saying a word about their proportions."
Otherwise, given the weight of the Heart-Questioning Sword, they'd lose their shirts on the cost of the materials for a single sword if it didn't contain any alloy.
"Traditional weapon refining is still the way to go. It's not all technology and dirty tricks."
Bai Yi thought to himself. This was probably one of the reasons the Dao-Deriving Mirror looked down on technological weapon refining.
After making a few more fruitless rounds, Bai Yi didn't linger. He headed straight for the last and busiest long street.
"Joyous Union Powder from Joyous Union Valley. Love whom you love, think what you think..."
"Blood-Exploding Pills, six to a bottle, only twenty thousand Spirit Value Coins... Buy now, only one bottle left..."
"Silver-Scale Breastplate, five thousand each..."
"The Wehua Group's ninth-generation flagship Blackwater Electronic Dao Talisman, only thirty thousand more..."
"Illusory-God Clear Smoke, ethereal as an immortal, only fifty thousand a plate!"
Ignoring the somewhat noisy hawking around him, Bai Yi quickly passed stall after stall. The moment his fingertip lightly touched a blue crystal, he stopped.
"Good eye, sir. This Blue Water Stone isn't very high quality, but it weighs about two kilograms."
When he saw Bai Yi stop, the stall owner, who wore a black mask, hurriedly introduced it.
"How much? At this quality, using it to enhance a spirit artifact or make repairs would mean paying an additional refining fee."
"Seventy thousand! No bargaining!"
Hearing the stall owner's answer, Bai Yi's face darkened. The Blue Water Stone looked quite heavy, but its quality was too poor.
If he were willing to pay that price for it, would he have come to a wretched place like this?
Bai Yi was about to get up and leave when, out of habit, he ran his fingers over the other items on the stall. As his fingertip touched a short, reddish-black rod, the Dao-Deriving Mirror in his sea of consciousness suddenly gave a slight tremor.
Noticing the Dao-Deriving Mirror's movement, Bai Yi was delighted, but kept his expression unchanged as he picked up the Blue Water Stone again.
"Forty thousand. At this quality, that's all it's worth in a place like this."
"Sixty thousand! If you don't want it, you can look elsewhere."
Bai Yi furrowed his brows, pretending to get up and leave before turning back. "Sixty thousand it is, but you have to throw something else in."
"Then what would you like?"
The stall owner spread his hands, his expression uncertain.
As he spoke, Bai Yi left his hand resting on the reddish-black rod for a few seconds, then picked up a nearby object that looked like a compass.
"Hey... I've seen your tricks plenty of times. This compass has quite a history, so you'd better put it down."
Just as Bai Yi was putting the compass away, the stall owner's eyes flashed. He grabbed Bai Yi's hand and gave a sly grin.
"What do you mean by that?"
Bai Yi feigned urgency, his low voice carrying a hint of anger.
"Heh, we both know what's going on. Why don't you tell me what this compass is really worth, and I'll give you a better price?"
"I have no idea. It's just the extra item I picked."
"That won't do. If you really want it... you can have this as your extra item. But leave the compass."
The stall owner gave a cold laugh, casually picked up the inconspicuous reddish-black rod beside the compass and handed it to Bai Yi, then snatched the compass away.
"Got it."
Gripping the reddish-black rod he'd gotten his hands on, Bai Yi suppressed his joy and, acting deeply displeased, picked up the Blue Water Stone. He transferred sixty thousand using an anonymous account.
"Great! Thanks for your business. The money and goods have both changed hands."
"You should practice your tricks a bit more."
Clutching the compass, the stall owner looked smugly at Bai Yi, who seemed furious.
Among the crowd
A man in a suit, clutching a banner in his hand, looked around with a frown.
The moment a trace of energy flickered, the suited man followed the banner's response and scanned the area.
"The response from the Hundred-Ghost Banner's shaft really is coming from here."
The suited man stared intently at the reddish-black rod in Bai Yi's hand.
Then he tugged hard at the tie around his neck. After calming himself somewhat, he quickly pushed through the crowd and squeezed his way over to Bai Yi.
"Friend, what you're holding is something passed down in my family. I lost it by accident earlier. Could you give it to me?"
"Fifty thousand!"
Bai Yi looked at the suited man who had suddenly appeared in front of him, briefly startled before politely refusing.
"Sorry, I've already bought this. I don't want to sell it."
"One hundred thousand! How about one hundred thousand?"
Without the slightest hesitation, the suited man raised the offer by another fifty thousand.
Hearing this, the stall owner, who had been looking smug just moments earlier, froze, his face full of regret and remorse.
How could he not understand now? Bai Yi's target had been that reddish-black rod from the very beginning, and he'd been like a fool, personally putting it into his hands.
"Sorry, I really don't plan to sell it. If there's nothing else, I'll be on my way."
Bai Yi waved a hand indifferently. As his fingers brushed past the man in front of him, they quietly swept over him.
A faint glimmer flashed through the depths of his eyes and was gone in an instant. Then he turned and left.
In the black market, you say it's been passed down in your family? What, did your family pass down a wastrel?
Seeing Bai Yi leave so decisively, a savage glint flashed through the suited man's eyes. He yanked hard at his tie and headed in the same direction Bai Yi had gone.
Half an hour later, Bai Yi had finished browsing all the stalls. He added a few more pieces of Spirit Ore to his collection, then left the black market and returned to Nameless Street.
On the noisy street, Bai Yi felt a vague threat hanging over him.
His peripheral vision caught a familiar figure in the crowd, there and gone in an instant.
Bai Yi's gaze tightened. That figure was clearly the suited man who had earlier tried to buy the reddish-black rod from him.
Although the Blue Mountain Black Market was a semi-public black market in Lanshan City, it had its own rules.
But once you left, those rules no longer held you back.
Between Nameless Street and the Old District platform, no matter which way you went, you had to pass through an unmanned area where monitoring robots were missing.
Bai Yi furrowed his brows slightly, his thoughts racing.
Since I can't avoid him, I'll strike first!
Bai Yi's gaze sharpened. He'd quietly probed the man once when he first appeared. Though he'd had little time, he could still tell that the man's Spiritual Power was extremely muddled and impure, and his aura wasn't particularly strong.
After discovering just now that he was being followed, Bai Yi had probed him once more.
The man hadn't noticed at all. That meant that even if his cultivation realm was higher than Bai Yi's, the difference couldn't be too great.
With that in mind, he gave up on the open ground along the way he'd come and headed toward an area of ruined buildings east of Nameless Street.
Ruined Buildings
Clouds shrouded the moonlight, adding a few more shades of gloom to the already pitch-black night.
Amid the devastated ruins, the suited man watched Bai Yi disappear from sight. He looked around frantically, his face twisted, the tie around his neck already torn off.
"You can't escape. I can sense that the shaft of the Hundred-Ghost Banner is somewhere nearby!"
The suited man's voice was frenzied. The whites of his eyes gradually filled with blood vessels, and strands of blood-red Spiritual Power rose from his body.
He took a pendant covered in pale bones from behind him. As his Spiritual Power poured into it, dreadful wails rang out from the bone plaques. Souls, each howling and shrieking, gradually took shape on their surfaces. They transformed into chains of vengeful spirits and flew in all directions at the suited man's command.