Stockpiling

Zhou Ning was dazed for a moment, then looked down.

The young woman had the demure look of a girl from a humble family, with delicate features and a hint of timidity in her eyes. She looked very honest.

Her slender, fair legs were pressed tightly together, and her posture was reserved.

So she's another guide. Zhou Ning was amused. How could she come out looking for customers with so little nerve?

Still, this was just the type he liked.

He didn't mind paying a little extra. Zhou Ning handed over the brocade pouch, then gave her his full list of requirements.

The young woman tilted her head and thought for a moment before saying softly:

"Senior, you can go to Hundred Herbs Hall in the south of the city. Its goods are reliable and its prices reasonable. If you want something cheaper, there's the Rogue Cultivators' market in the eastern corner. Most of the goods there are gathered and sold by the cultivators themselves, but fish and dragons mingle there, and there are plenty of fakes."

At that, the young woman glanced carefully at Zhou Ning, then mustered her courage.

"If you're buying a lot, Senior, go to Hundred Herbs Hall. I know someone there who can give you the lowest price."

"I really am not a middleman!" she added emphatically, though her eyes were full of yearning.

Oh, so she was a little broker too?

Zhou Ning didn't mind. He nodded. "All right."

The young woman brightened. "All right, Senior!"

Hundred Herbs Hall, in an elegant private room.

Zhou Ning reclined on a cushioned couch and got straight to the point. "How much spirit rice for one complete set of Qi-Benefiting Pill ingredients?"

The elderly shopkeeper froze, then shot the young woman a suspicious glance.

Could a pill of such a low grade count as a big deal?

The young woman stood obediently to one side, pretending to be innocent.

The old man showed no displeasure, however, and explained patiently, "A Qi-Benefiting Pill requires two green-sprout grasses, one congealing liquid flower, two taels of stone marrow... We have everything you need in the shop. If you buy fifty sets or more, I can round the price off for you: two and a half Spirit Stones."

The price was within Zhou Ning's expectations.

He also asked about the Spirit Essence Pill, a first-tier, middle-grade pill.

After some bargaining, they settled the deal. Zhou Ning spent six Spirit Stones on the ingredients for fifty Qi-Benefiting Pills, twenty Spirit Essence Pills, and ten Essence-Nourishing Pills.

He also asked for the ingredients for twenty Stasis-Clearing Pills, along with boxes and various other containers for storing medicinal herbs, as extras.

Zhou Ning reckoned that so many ingredients should be enough for him to become a first-tier Alchemist.

Both sides were delighted, and the young woman's eyes lit up.

She could earn at least twenty jin of spirit rice in commission from this deal!

Afterward, Zhou Ning had her make trips to two more herb shops, buying several kinds of medicinal herbs at each, including aged ginseng.

These were ingredients for the Ginseng-Nurturing Pill, a pill from the Land of Wei that Zhou Ning regularly took.

Finally, after asking about a few other things, he was satisfied and told the young woman her work was done.

He'd made a killing this time.

The young woman's name was Jia Tingwan.

It was nearly midnight by the time she returned home.

Low-level Rogue Cultivators like her couldn't afford to live on the main street or in separate courtyards rich in Spiritual Qi.

They could only rent row houses in the mixed residential district on the outskirts of the market. The houses had red bricks and dark tiles, each with its own entrance.

For all their exalted status as cultivators, even those who were doing poorly wouldn't be reduced to living in a dilapidated wooden shack.

The Spiritual Qi here was thin, however, and did little to help their cultivation.

Jia Tingwan pushed the door open. A lamp was still burning in the main room, and several figures stood in its light.

Her heart jumped, and she called out, "Grandpa-"

"Don't call me Grandpa!" Jia Xingwang shouted, suppressing his anger.

"Talisman Master Zhu said no one knew where you went this afternoon. Why are you only coming back now?"

"Do you know how much effort your parents spent so you could learn talisman-making?"

A middle-aged couple also stood in the lamplight, wearing plain satin jackets and trousers.

They looked as though they often did hard work, and their cuffs were badly worn.

Jia Tingwan's buoyant mood instantly sank.

She lowered her head. "Grandpa, I... I don't have much talent, and I'm clumsy."

Old Jia said angrily, "Wan'er, though you have a low-grade spirit root, yours is fairly outstanding among low-grade spirit roots. Once you've learned a craft, you'll be no worse off than someone with a middle-grade spirit root!"

Zhou Ning in particular was a negative example, always mulling over all sorts of messy things.

"I let it pass when you fiddle with flowers and plants, but what were you doing tonight?" Old Jia pressed.

Jia Tingwan's parents said nothing, clearly accustomed to keeping quiet.

"Grandpa, I wanted to help support the family, so I did some guiding at the market entrance," she said truthfully.

Old Jia's anger made his mustache bristle and his eyes bulge.

"Don't call me Grandpa! I don't have a granddaughter like you! How much can a guide earn? Once you become a talisman master, would you even spare such pocket change a glance?"

On hearing this, Jia Tingwan took out two defensive talismans worth twenty-five jin of spirit rice. They were her commission for the night.

Old Jia knew quality when he saw it. He froze and asked in disbelief, "You earned these as a guide tonight?"

"Mhm," she said softly.

A whole parade of expressions crossed Old Jia's face. He immediately said, "Good granddaughter, come on, call me Grandpa."

"Then again, no profession is nobler or baser than another..."

Late that night.

Zhou Ning personally visited several medicine shops, buying scattered quantities of Ginseng-Nurturing Pill ingredients such as vein-moistening flowers and yellow-heart fruits.

The Ginseng-Nurturing Pill Formula had never appeared within Chen State. To throw people off the scent, Zhou Ning also bought other herbs, including ingredients for Three Flowers Pills and Spirit Condensation Pills.

At an artifact-refining shop, he bought several large blood-sealing jars, enough to store a full five hundred jin of eel blood, to resell on his next trip to the Land of Wei.

For his final stop, Zhou Ning stood before the Thunder Crystal Pavilion.

The three-story building occupied a vast plot of land. Two imposing stone lions stood at the entrance, lightning patterns cast into their foreheads.

Is this the Lei Household? The core formation Lei Household that's fighting a great war with the Jade Countenance Sect?

Zhou Ning recalled what the young woman who had guided him earlier had said. As a core formation clan, the Lei Household held a larger share of the market than the other four households combined.

And now, with the death of the Guo Household's False Core ancestor, the balance in Forget-Return Market had been broken.

If not for its war with the Jade Countenance Sect, the Lei Household would probably have advanced another step.

He had come to buy first-tier Thunder Plasma, which was needed to temper the ingredients for the Ginseng-Nurturing Pill.

Zhou Ning walked up the jade steps and into the shop. Pillar after pillar rose through the luxurious hall, their shafts wrapped in runes that flickered faintly with electric light.

He looked around and saw all sorts of lightning-type spiritual items in the display cases, including Thunder Explosion Pearls.

Each was the size of a fist and pale bluish gray all over, with lightning glimmering across its surface.

He had heard that when activated with spiritual power and thrown, one of these could blast a cultivator at Qi Refinement Perfection to death.

Zhou Ning asked, "How much are the Thunder Explosion Pearls?"

The young man behind the counter wore a purple-trimmed robe and had a cultivation at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

Without even lifting his eyes, he chuckled. "You don't even know the value of a Thunder Explosion Pearl, yet you dare come to this pavilion?"

Zhou Ning was slightly taken aback.

Is the Lei Household really this overbearing? Does he think he's some kind of lord?

Zhou Ning didn't take offense. He said sincerely, "I've only just arrived here and have long heard of the Lei Household's mighty reputation. Please enlighten me, fellow cultivator."

Only then did the purple-robed young man raise his head and look Zhou Ning over. He looked to be in his forties or fifties, with a cultivation at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer-nothing special.

He said unhurriedly, "It's been the same price for years. A first-tier Thunder Explosion Pearl is two Spirit Stones, and a second-tier Mystic Thunder Orb is twelve Spirit Stones."

"That's expensive!" Zhou Ning clicked his tongue.

Before he could express any intention to buy, the purple-robed young man said, "We don't sell Thunder Explosion Pearls without an identity token from a major sect or clan."

All right, then. Zhou Ning wasn't in any hurry to buy one anyway. Though Thunder Explosion Pearls were powerful, they had to hit someone to work, making them less useful than his Fallen Red Sword.

"What about first-tier Thunder Plasma Liquid?" he asked, coming to his main purpose.

"A minimum of twelve portions, one Spirit Stone," the purple-robed young man said.

Zhou Ning thought it over and bought thirty-six portions.

Judging by the war between the Lei Household and the Jade Countenance Sect, the price might well have gone up by the next time he came.