Selling Magic Tools, Buying Spirit Ginseng

Compared with a small place like Azure Cloud Valley, Red Cliff Market was much larger.

The market had been established on a mountain peak two or three hundred zhang tall. The entire peak, along with several nearby hills, had been incorporated into the market, which contained more than a hundred shops of all kinds.

When Zhou Chun entered, he could easily see the figures of cultivators coming and going across the mountain.

Only such a bustling scene truly lived up to the words "marketplace for cultivators."

The market was naturally safe. After looking around, Zhou Chun began wandering through it, searching for an opportunity to inquire about news of where the Zhou Family had settled.

After being attacked earlier, Zhou Chun naturally had to be much more careful when asking for information.

He absolutely could not make it so easy for others to guess his connection to the Zhou Family and thus harbor evil intentions toward him.

After making one circuit of the market, Zhou Chun quickly found a shop that looked decent and walked inside.

The shop, called "Wu's General Store," was not large. He did not even see a shop assistant inside, only an old man in blue robes sitting in a chair and reading.

When the old man saw Zhou Chun enter, he first looked up at him. Upon realizing that Zhou Chun was not a regular customer, he said lazily, "Greetings, Daoist friend. Everything our shop sells is written over there. Our prices are fair, and we never cheat the young or old."

As he spoke, he gestured with his lips toward a white cloth covered in black writing on the wall beside him.

Seeing his attitude, he showed not the slightest awareness that "the customer was king."

But Zhou Chun knew this was normal in this world.

Those who could open shops in a market like this either had profound cultivation, substantial wealth, and some skill to rely on themselves,

or they operated shops established by sects or families, with the people managing them being disciples of those sects or families.

Regardless of which situation applied, their status was far nobler than that of ordinary Rogue Cultivators.

Under such circumstances, how could anyone expect them to treat Qi Refining cultivators who came into their shops like "kings"?

Besides, even in the world of his previous life, there were not many roadside shops capable of doing that. Not bullying customers because the shop was large was already good enough!

Naturally, Zhou Chun did not take offense at the old man's attitude.

He did not look at what was written on the white cloth. Instead, he cupped his hands toward the old man and said, "Greetings, shopkeeper. I have several discarded magic tools in my possession. I wonder if your esteemed shop would be willing to buy them back?"

"You want to sell magic tools?"

The old man in blue robes froze. He then put down his book and narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized Zhou Chun.

Looking at Zhou Chun's young and handsome face, he frowned slightly, seemingly unable to believe that such a young junior cultivator could be a bandit cultivator who made a living through Murder and Treasure Seizing.

But if he was not a bandit cultivator, how could someone of Zhou Chun's age and cultivation possess extra magic tools to sell?

Various thoughts turned through the old man's mind. Only after a good while did he give a slight nod and say, "Take out the items and let me have a look first. If there are no problems, our shop can buy them back depending on the circumstances."

A general store like theirs sold everything and bought everything.

Zhou Chun did not say anything more. He directly took out the magic tools he had obtained from the two Rogue Cultivators, along with the two First-grade Low-tier magic tools he had on him.

All the magic tools, spells, talismans, pills, and formations used by cultivators were divided into grades.

In general, they were divided into first, second, and third tiers, with each tier further divided into First-grade Low-tier, First-grade Mid-tier, and First-grade High-tier.

Basically, first-tier magic tools were used by Qi Refining cultivators, Second-tier magic tools corresponded to Foundation Establishment cultivators, and third-tier magic tools corresponded to Violet Palace cultivators.

The value of a magic tool was closely related to its grade, but it was also greatly affected by factors such as its purpose and performance.

The magic tools Zhou Chun brought out were all single-purpose offensive tools. They had no particularly impressive special abilities and were merely the sort of tools used by novices who had only recently entered the Cultivation World.

Thus, after an appraisal, the two tools he had obtained by killing the two Rogue Cultivators were returned to him by the old man. He kept only the two magic tools that he and Li Han had genuinely discarded.

Then he looked at Zhou Chun and said, "The quality of these two magic tools is acceptable. The Artifact Refiner's skill was fairly good. Our shop is willing to buy them back for twenty Spirit Coins each."

"As for these other two magic tools, you'd be better off taking them to the Stall Market inside the market. Some Daoist friends who have only recently entered the Cultivation World might be willing to buy them as the first magic tools of their lives."

This result left Zhou Chun feeling somewhat upset on behalf of the two Rogue Cultivators who had died by his hand.

It turned out that the magic tools those two fellows used were not even worth buying back for a general store. It was clear how miserably the pair had lived.

He could only follow the old man's advice, put away the two returned magic tools, and count the forty Spirit Coins the old man gave him one by one.

After leaving Wu's General Store, Zhou Chun really did go to the Stall Market inside the market, just as the shopkeeper had suggested.

The Stall Market was a place that every market in the Cultivation World had to have. It was where cultivators traded freely, but it was also a place where counterfeit goods ran rampant.

By paying one Spirit Coin to the market administrators as a stall fee, one could stay in the Stall Market for an entire day and even sit in meditation to cultivate.

The prerequisite was that someone could actually put their mind at ease enough to enter meditation and cultivate in such an environment.

When Zhou Chun arrived at the Stall Market of Red Cliff Market, he found that there were indeed many more cultivators here. The cultivators setting up stalls and those browsing the area were roughly equal in number.

Because most cultivators preferred peace and quiet, the Stall Market was not particularly noisy unless buyers and sellers encountered prices they could not agree on.

Zhou Chun actually saw several Rogue Cultivators who had casually placed a few items on their stalls as a pretense, then closed their eyes and sat in meditation.

After seeing this, Zhou Chun pondered briefly before also paying one Spirit Coin to rent a stall. He placed two magic tools and several miscellaneous items on it and began running the stall.

Of course, Zhou Chun's true purpose was not to set up a stall. He was using the stall as an excuse to chat and make small talk with some Rogue Cultivators who were also selling here, trying to obtain the information he wanted through indirect questions.

After setting up his stall in the Stall Market for less than two days, Zhou Chun successfully sold the two magic tools for thirteen Spirit Coins and fourteen Spirit Coins.

However, his inquiries did not go smoothly. Many of the Rogue Cultivators here had heard that the Three Absolute Sect had been dismantled, but no one knew where the Zhou Family had gone after leaving the Three Absolute Sect.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun could only be patient and continue waiting for an opportunity in the market.

On the third day after he arrived at the market, a Rogue Cultivator at Layer 10 Qi Refining suddenly came to the Stall Market.

The old man, whose hair had already begun to turn white, spread out his stall and immediately placed more than a dozen items on it. Among them were freshly picked spirit medicines, Spirit Ore dug out from who knew where, and a slightly damaged magic tool.

As soon as they saw this, many of the stall-setting cultivators began looking at the old man strangely.

Generally speaking, cultivators who sold everything were very likely to be bandit cultivators who specialized in Murder and Treasure Seizing.

Or even if they were not bandit cultivators themselves, they had a close relationship with bandit cultivators and were responsible for handling the treasures those bandits had seized.

But thinking was one thing. Unless there was something on the stall that someone connected to them wanted, no one would meddle in other people's business.

Instead, because the items handled by bandit cultivators were usually slightly cheaper than market prices, they often attracted many cultivators who wanted to snap up a bargain.

Yet when those bargain hunters came forward and asked the prices, each of them immediately stormed away in anger.

Although the old man had set up a street stall, his prices were not actually much cheaper than market prices. There was hardly any room to buy and resell the goods for a profit.

Before long, everyone who had gathered around dispersed.

Seeing this, Zhou Chun's eyes suddenly shifted, and he also stepped forward to ask about the prices.

"Greetings, Daoist friend. How much are you asking for this spirit ginseng?"

He pointed at a yellow-white spirit ginseng on the stall, some soil still clinging to its roots, and quietly asked its price.

"A Wild Spirit Ginseng over a hundred and fifty years old. Twenty-four Spirit Coins, no bargaining!"

The old man glanced up at Zhou Chun and stated the price indifferently.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun could not help frowning. "Wild Spirit Ginseng accumulates Turbid Fiendish Energy inside it. Before it can be used as medicine, that Turbid Fiendish Energy must first be removed. More than twenty Spirit Coins is honestly a little too expensive!"

The old man immediately snorted unhappily, his face full of displeasure. "Hmph. If the methods for removing Turbid Fiendish Energy from these spirit objects were not controlled by those sects and families, would a hundred-year-old spirit ginseng sell for so few Spirit Coins?"

After saying that, he glared at Zhou Chun. "Junior, if you want to buy it, then buy it. If not, go watch from the side. Don't come here to make fun of this old man!"

"Ah, I was only saying. Why are you getting angry, Daoist friend? When doing business, you have to let people bargain."

Zhou Chun shook his head, then swept his gaze over the other spirit medicines on the stall and continued, "How about this? I'll buy all these spirit medicines of yours. You can give me a little profit as well—how about taking a few Spirit Coins off the price?"

The old man still wore a cold expression. "No. Not a single Spirit Coin less. If even one coin is missing, I'll send everything straight to the medicine shop to be dealt with!"

Seeing this, Zhou Chun immediately softened his tone. With a pleading look in his eyes, he gazed at the old man and said, "Please, show some kindness. Can't you treat it as helping a junior? It's not easy for someone of my cultivation to earn Spirit Coins. You came up from being a junior cultivator too, so you should understand!"

"Heh. If this old man helps you, then who will be willing to help this old man?"

The old man sneered repeatedly.

He then looked at Zhou Chun with mockery in his eyes. "Stop pretending to be pitiful in front of me. You're so young yet already possess this level of cultivation. You must be a disciple of some Cultivation Families. You want to buy spirit medicines cheaply in the Stall Market, then resell them to your family at a high price. I understood that trick more than a decade ago!"

"Ahem, Daoist friend, you've misunderstood. I absolutely have no such intention."

Zhou Chun gave two awkward coughs and hurriedly denied it. Although he truly had such thoughts, they were completely different from what the old man had described. But the old man clearly did not believe him. He merely let out a disdainful snort and said no more.

In the end, Zhou Chun could only buy that stalk of spirit ginseng for twenty-four Spirit Coins.