The Arrogant Immortal
Chapter 368 - 367: The Bizarre Stall Owner

Chapter 368: Chapter 367: The Bizarre Stall Owner

After a night’s rest, Xie Jiuniang was once again full of vigor.

Early the next morning, dressed and ready, she stepped out of her room.

The maidservant was waiting outside to lead her to the dining hall.

Chaoyan was leisurely sitting there drinking tea, and when she approached, his brows raised, "Now that we’re all here, shall we have a meal before we go?"

"Do you really need another meal?"

Xie Jiuniang was speechless.

They had long since practiced Fasting and didn’t even need Fasting Pills.

Seeing that she had no interest in eating, Chaoyan simply ordered everything that was prepared to be taken away, and led his disciple out the door, "I went out last night and got an auction invitation."

"Did you get it from your old friend?" Xie Jiuniang remembered he had mentioned something like that the day before.

Chaoyan laughed heartily, "Yes, an old acquaintance."

That so-called old acquaintance probably wasn’t too pleased to see him.

Xie Jiuniang followed Chaoyan to a street.

Chaoyan walked to the last outlet, an old shop, and placed a Wooden Token on the counter, "Two people."

The shopkeeper checked the token, "Do the guests require masks and cloaks?"

Chaoyan turned to look at Xie Jiuniang.

She took out a Cloak and draped it over her shoulders.

Chaoyan smiled and followed by putting on a Cloak as well.

The two of them were using the Face-changing Technique and weren’t worried about their identities being revealed, but they still made a show of concealing themselves. Otherwise, if everyone else was veiled in cloaks and only they weren’t, wouldn’t that draw unwelcome attention?

The shopkeeper handed back the token to Chaoyan.

He then led the two to an empty room, pushed against one wall with his hand, and pushed it open with force.

A door was revealed.

The shopkeeper said, "You two can go in now. Just walk through the passageway, and you’ll arrive. Don’t randomly probe with your Divine Sense inside."

"Mhm."

Chaoyan stepped in first, with Xie Jiuniang silently following.

In front of them was a stone corridor, with torches on either wall.

"Are we going to the black market?" Xie Jiuniang asked.

Chaoyan replied, "Indeed. The auction has not yet begun; I brought you here first to broaden your horizons."

Xie Jiuniang had been to a black market in her previous life.

Upon entering, she discovered that this black market was unlike what she remembered.

The vast territory was maintained by strong enforcers.

There were many people here, yet it was very quiet.

The stalls were well-organized in rows, leaving passages for customers to walk through, and there were no less than a thousand stalls. The items displayed were not the fake goods sold by small-time peddlers on the outside.

All were scarce in the marketplace.

However, over ninety percent of the stalls were not for selling but for proposing trades for various items.

Xie Jiuniang passed by a stall.

The item for sale was Ice Silkworm Silk.

A small figure wrapped in a cloak was squatting at the stall, gesticulating vigorously.

Xie Jiuniang knew what this meant; it was haggling.

"Interested in buying?" Chaoyan asked through a soul transmission.

Xie Jiuniang shook her head, "No need."

"You don’t necessarily need it to buy it. You might want to get some to keep for later. The quality of Ice Silkworm Silk this person is selling is rare to come by."

Since her elder had put it this way, Xie Jiuniang was always obedient.

After all, she was not lacking in Spirit Stones. When the person had finished buying and left, she squatted down, pointed at the best Ice Silkworm Silk on display, and asked softly, "How much?"

The stall owner, wearing a cloak and mask, first held up one finger, then changed to three.

Xie Jiuniang felt bewildered.

What did that mean?

Chaoyan chuckled and transmitted, "One bundle of Ice Silkworm Silk, two hundred thousand."

"Isn’t the market price twenty thousand?" Xie Jiuniang felt stifled.

That’s expensive!

Chaoyan reminded her, "The bundle you pointed at is a mutated top-quality Ice Silkworm Silk. The others might be twenty thousand."

Mutated Ice Silkworm Silk might have special uses.

Xie Jiuniang wanted to bargain, but the stall owner ignored her. When she leaned in closer and quietly asked if the price could be lower, perhaps the stall owner realized from her voice that she was just a young girl and became a bit more lenient. He told her bluntly that he did not negotiate.

With no other options, she could only bear the pain and buy the entire bundle.

The stall owner, "..."

He had thought she was just a junior out to gain some experience; he hadn’t expected to find a little lamb ready for fleecing.

Once the transaction was complete.

Looking at the hundreds of bundles of Ice Silkworm Silk in her Storage Ring, Xie Jiuniang finally felt satisfied and turned her eyes toward the next stall.

The wares were Spirit Plants, nothing particularly rare; one could find them in the Sect. Xie Jiuniang simply ignored this and looked towards other stalls instead.

The items sold were odd and varied.

Some she recognized, others she did not.

Those she did not recognize, she would ask Chaoyan, who was by her side.

Chaoyan was exceptionally patient, explaining each one by one, broadening her horizons greatly and teaching her much.

Whenever they came across something that caught their interest, Chaoyan would make a purchase.

Xie Jiuniang, probably having been brought up too delicately, bought even fewer items than Chaoyan.

When they reached the innermost stall,

This stall’s location was not ideal, tucked away in the furthest corner, and the assortment of items laid out by its owner looked like those one might find in a Fangshi market outside.

Xie Jiuniang was about to turn away and leave.

Suddenly Jian Lingyan urgently reminded her, "Dog master, there is a Fusang Order on that stall."

Huh?!

Xie Jiuniang was quite surprised.

One couldn’t use Divine Sense carelessly here, but it was acceptable to use it to check the items on the stalls. Sure enough, amidst the clutter, there was a Fusang Order hidden underneath.

She hadn’t noticed it before because the Fusang Order was beneath a piece of pitch-black wood.

To uncover it, she needed to move the wood aside.

Pointing at the pile of items, Xie Jiuniang asked, "How much are these?"

The stall owner stretched out one finger, then another finger.

Xie Jiuniang guessed, "One item, one thousand Spirit Stones?"

"A million," the stall owner spoke indifferently.

Xie Jiuniang gasped sharply.

Chaoyan glanced over the stall’s wares and didn’t stop his disciple’s actions.

The stall seemed to have the potential to swindle unsuspecting victims.

With the discernment of Divinity Transformation, he saw few items of value on the stall; the few that might have caught his eye were either broken or damaged. There were a few that might once have truly been Spiritual Artifacts, but unfortunately, they were now ruined.

A million would be a fool’s payment.

Xie Jiuniang raised a finger, "Ten thousand per item, I’ll take one."

"Not selling," the stall owner said firmly.

The impression was that it was a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

Xie Jiuniang sneered softly, mumbling, "Not to mention a million, ten thousand could buy up all the stuff on your stall. If it weren’t for the fact that little gourd looks nice, I wouldn’t even bother squatting here."

The stall owner was aloof, ignoring her.

But he did not shoo them away either.

There was indeed a little wooden gourd on the stall.

The gourd featured a beautifully carved landscape painting, as if a master craftsman had painstakingly worked on it. In the young girl’s eyes, it truly was attractive—something the stall owner was willing to display.

He must have pondered over it countless times.

Yet she had never discerned any special characteristics of the little gourd.

The stall owner dared to demand such a price, and black market enforcers did not intervene, for a reason.

The items he displayed were indeed not forged counterfeits.

Apart from a few damaged spiritual Artifacts, the rest of his items were relics from various places.

After thinking it over, Xie Jiuniang made another gesture with her hand, "One hundred thousand no more."

"Not selling."

The stall owner was unmoved.

However, he glanced over Xie Jiuniang’s shoulder at Chaoyan.

Chaoyan raised an eyebrow, sending a message to his little disciple, "This stall owner has undergone Divinity Transformation; he isn’t interested in your one hundred thousand."

Xie Jiuniang, "..."

Damn thing, why didn’t you warn me?

Jian Lingyan felt wronged, "You didn’t ask. Even if someone has undergone Divinity Transformation, can’t they swindle money out of fools?"

Xie Jiuniang reached over and picked up the little gourd.

She inspected it carefully, looking enamored, and then with seeming reluctance, she set it down, making one last attempt at bargaining, "Buy one get one free, what do you say? If not, never mind."

Xie Jiuniang did not make a move to leave, waiting for the other’s response.

The stall owner hesitated for quite a while and finally squeezed out two words, "Not selling."

The owners of nearby stalls chuckled.

The laughter was faint, yet they heard it.

The stall owner turned his head as if to glare at a fellow vendor nearby, who wasn’t the least bit intimidated and openly jeered, "You’ve got that old problem of yours acting up again, haven’t you? Anything that someone takes a fancy to, you don’t want to sell because you’re always suspecting that it’s fate. Before displaying these items, you clearly studied them over and over. Even if there is a great opportunity among them, it’s not destined for you."

The words stabbed the stall owner in the heart.

Xie Jiuniang and Chaoyan were both speechless.

At first, they thought this stall owner was trying to rip off customers.

But is this really it?