Chapter 281: Fruitless Flower
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In reality, the Free Trade Zone in the Huatian Palace had long been established as the largest trade market in the ancient martial arts world. Many ancient martial art factions were manipulating the trades behind the scenes.
For example, some s.h.i.+pped their sects’ resources to the Huatian Palace for trading through the Huatian Palace’s Executors, who then earned many Contribution Credits that were used to redeem items from the Huatian Palace Redemption Main Hall.
For the outside ancient martial art sects, all the resources available in the Huatian Palace were things that were highly sought after. Every item was a rare treasure. Because they didn’t have the right to redeem items directly in the Huatian Palace, they could only ask for the help of the Huatian Palace Executors.
In reality, many ancient martial art sects would constantly send the Huatian Palace their talents. They were hoping that the Huatian Palace would accept these people, then they could utilize their connections in the Huatian Palace to trade treasures.
After Chen Zi explained this to him, Mo Wen was surprised. It turned out that there was such a place in the Huatian Palace. Since the Huatian Palace had allowed the Free Trade Zone to exist for such a long time, it meant that they had silently agreed to it. In other words, they had agreed to trade with the outside ancient martial art sects and did not care about the loss of the items in the Huatian Palace to the outside world.
Within a few minutes, Chen Zi had led Mo Wen to a huge s.p.a.ce. It was like a giant market square and was about the size of a soccer field. It was further divided into a few floors.
In the square, there were many cubicles that were separated using basic paperboards. Each cubicle was like a small shop with a shopkeeper available for trading.
Mo Wen felt like he had walked into a mall. However, even though this mall was simple, the items traded there weren’t.
“Follow me!” Chen Zi pulled Mo Wen as they ran up to the second level. Then, a large screen appeared with line after line of words on it. The screen kept scrolling, constantly refres.h.i.+ng itself.
“Do you see it? Actually the Huatian Palace is also purchasing the medicinal herbs that you are talking about. Every day, the Huatian Palace purchases a large amount of medicinal herbs and other ingredients from the ancient martial art sects.
“Under normal circ.u.mstances, these ancient martial art sects will sell their items to the Huatian Palace. However, it seems the price offered by the Huatian Palace is not high enough, so there are some people who choose to not sell to the Huatian Palace. Instead, they put the items in a shop, hoping that people who need the items will buy them at a higher price.”
What Chen Zi had explained was simple. Most of the raw materials, including medicinal herbs, were purchased by the Huatian Palace. If Mo Wen wanted to buy medicinal herbs, he could only purchase the leftover medicinal herbs that had not been sold to the Huatian Palace because the owner felt like the price offered was too low.
On the large screen, there was indeed a list of various types of raw materials. There were price tags attached at the side. The list was divided into a few large categories including minerals, medicinal herbs, special metals, and special items.
All sorts of medicinal herbs were listed in the medicinal herbs category. The list had thousands of types of medicinal herbs, with 90 percent of them being spiritual medicines. The Flame Flower and the Blood Lingzhi Mushroom were listed, too. As for the common Silver Tooth Gra.s.s and hundred-year ginseng, they were categorized as the lowest grade medicinal herbs.
On top of that, there were items under the minerals and special metals categories. Mo Wen glanced through and noticed that most of the items listed were useful in the Immortal Cultivation world. They were raw materials that could be used for manufacturing refined weapons, talismans, and stratagems.
It was no wonder that the Huatian Palace did not stop the Free Trade Zone from existing. Now, Mo Wen finally understood. Those sects from the ancient martial arts world had all thought that they had taken advantage of the Huatian Palace. However, when it came to winning, they did not know that, in the end, the Huatian Palace was the greatest winner.
Each item on the list was of unimaginable value. All of them were items that could be used in the Immortal Cultivation world.
The Huatian Palace was practically robbing the entire ancient martial arts world. It let all the ancient martial art factions search the entire world to find and gather Immortal Cultivator resources for it.
No wonder the Changtian Sect that he had met in the Changbai Mountain sent its disciples out to find and gather medicinal herbs in the mountains all year long. They clearly could not use spiritual medicine, but they guarded a stalk of Flame Flower as though it were a treasure.
From the looks of it now, probably all of it was used for trade with the Huatian Palace. With so many ancient martial art factions gathering resources for the Huatian Palace, no wonder the Huatian Palace did not worry at all about its outflow of resources. Compared to the things it obtained, its expenditure was but a drizzle, not even a drop in a bucket.
Mo Wen took a glance at the prices of the items. His mouth twitched slightly, and after a while, he only uttered this one word, “Cheating!”
The Huatian Palace was cheating with its prices, and not just ordinary cheating. On the list, the price of a stalk of fully matured Flame Flower could only be sold for 70,000 Contribution Credits. On the surface, it seemed like a lot, but in reality, when compared to the Huatian Palace’s item redemption price, it was practically trash.
Just now, the pills that he saw in the Four stars Redemption Main Hall were priced at around 60,000 Contribution Credits. It was almost the same price as a stalk of Flame Flower.
The value of this kind of pill was not even that of a leaf of the Flame Flower. Even Mo Wen could concoct many of them. Placed in the Huatian Palace Free Trade Zone, it could actually be used to redeem a stalk of Flame Flower. It was too miraculous.
The Huatian Palace had the perfect setup. They bought spiritual medicine at an extremely low price but sold it at an extremely high price. Judging from Chen Zi’s expression, it seemed that the ancient martial art factions were more than willing to sell to the Huatian Palace, so they always had a steady supply of spiritual medicine.
Now, he could only sigh. Ignorance was truly very frightening.
“You mean to say that some of these shops have some of the medicinal herbs on the list, but don’t sell them to the Huatian Palace?” Mo Wen suddenly realized, since the Huatian Palace could cheat and swindle, buying spiritual herbs and medicine for low prices, didn’t that mean that he could also exploit this loophole? Just thinking about it made Mo Wen instantly excited.
Chen Zi nodded. “That’s right. However, the price they sell to others will be higher than Huatian Palace’s price. However, it won’t be too much higher. After all, with the Huatian Palace’s listed standard price, they can’t raise the price too much, otherwise no one would buy.”
Standard price!
Upon hearing this, Mo Wen laughed coldly. With just this price, even if it was higher by a bit, even if it was ten times more, he was willing to buy.
“Come, let us go and find some.”
When he realized that the Free Trade Zone possibly had many spiritual medicines to trade, and that their prices were ridiculously low, Mo Wen finally could not stand it anymore. He turned and headed into the shop area.
Along the way, almost everything was on sale. The items were much more varied than in the Huatian Palace Redemption Main Hall. However, most of the things being sold were things of the outside world. It wasn’t like the Redemption Main Hall that usually only had stuff that could be found within the Huatian Palace.
Also… Mo Wen even saw a shop that did business in Renminbi…
How much Renminbi could be exchanged for how many Contribution Credits? Mo Wen went up to take a look. Ten thousand Renminbi could be exchanged for ten Contribution Credits. One million Renminbi could be exchanged for 1,000 Contribution Credits…
Mo Wen could only sigh. The charm of the Huatian Palace was truly superior to all. The ancient martial art factions from the outside world could be said to have thought of all sorts of ways to obtain Huatian Palace Contribution Credits.
They had just pa.s.sed four or five shops, when Mo Wen found a shop that traded medicinal herbs. He was extremely interested and entered immediately.
Upon seeing people entering the shop, a big man immediately welcomed them warmly. “Brother, what has caught your eye? Our shop’s items are the real deal and fairly priced. We don’t sell counterfeits and never swindle the young or old.”
This big man had a normal appearance. He should have abilities of the Qi Nucleation realm. However, he was only at the beginning stage from the looks of it. He should only be a Three stars Executor. If it were in the outside world, being able to have Cultivation in the Qi Nucleation realm was most likely enough to be the dominant party in an area.
However, in the Huatian Palace, he was practically a small fry. Also, this person’s age was not young. He was probably 40 or 50 years old. In the Huatian Palace, being only at the beginning stage of the Qi Nucleation realm after practicing for so many years made it evident that his qualifications were average. He would not have many more achievements in this life.
Mo Wen knew that the type of people who ran shops, which was different from what the Huatian Palace normally did, had their hearts set not on practice but on business. Or maybe it should be said that they were the ones who had been eliminated by the Huatian Palace’s strict Executors system. Unable to improve anymore, they could only turn to doing business, helping the ancient martial art factions from the outside world gather resources from the Huatian Palace.
“What do you have?” Mo Wen glanced through the shop. He saw that along with some medicinal herbs, there were also some jars and bottles. He knew instantly that this shop was most likely a shop that sold finished products and medicinal herbs.
Even though he knew it, Mo Wen pretended to not know. He seemed like he was just pa.s.sing by and checking things out.
“Our shop has many high quality pills. They are supplied by the Hu Clan, one of the renowned Eight Ancient Martial Arts Aristocratic Families. You know the Hu Clan, right? They are ranked right after the Medicine Manor. They are the Ghost Physicians Hu Clan who specialized in producing miracle physicians. The quality of the Hu Clan’s products is guaranteed.
“Our shop has various types of pills. Some pills are helpful with a.s.sisting in practice and improving Cultivation. Some medicines can cure internal injuries. There are also some pills which can dispel venomous creatures. All pills are top grade. Brother, do you want to buy some in case of emergencies?”
The shop owner began to warmly promote the products in his shop. He spoke until his spittle was flying everywhere, acting as though if Mo Wen did not buy a few bottles of pills, he would certainly regret it.
Upon hearing this, Mo Wen nodded without expressing an opinion. In reality, he knew nothing about the Ghost Physicians Hu Clan. As for the Hu Clan’s pills, he had no interest in them at all.
The only item that he was interested in was a stalk of medicinal herb among the medicinal herbs in the store. It could compel even him to take action.
Spiritual medicine!
Mo Wen had not expected to find a stalk of spiritual medicine after only visiting a few shops… and it was a stalk of Fruitless Flower!
For Mo Wen, although the Fruitless Flower was just a stalk of low grade spiritual medicine, its value to him was something normal medium grade spiritual medicine could not compare to.
Not only was it because the Fruitless Flower was uncommon and normally very hard to find, but a stalk of Fruitless Flower combined with the Blood Mushroom he had could be concocted into a pill. It could be used to concoct a higher grade Vigor Cultivating Pill.
If he had the Vigor Cultivating Pill, it was equivalent to reducing his practice labor by 20 years. Breaking through from the later stage Qi Nucleation realm to the pinnacle would be an easy task, so when he laid eyes on the Fruitless Flower, he felt an uncontainable excitement surge up inside.