Plundering the Heavens

Chapter 12

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A month had pa.s.sed and Fang Xing could feel that the amount of Qi he had acc.u.mulated from his lone Spirit Stone had started to dissipate. It was at this same time that Yu had sent him good news about the Black Market: the time and date of the next market had been set by a dozen of interested outer court disciples. Excited for the upcoming event, Fang Xing shouted out for Yu to bring an extra lavish meal.

All of the money still came out of Yu"s pocket, of course.

On the day of the market, Fang Xing prepared a few things to take along with him before using his [Mask of Wanluo]. Activating the mask with Qi, as soon as he placed it on his face, his body and facial features changed so rapidly that it was even visible to the naked eye. His bones cracked as he grew a few inches taller into the size of a grown adult, though due to his small frame -- even in his more mature appearance -- he was still paper-thin.

His appearance as a twenty-something-year-old man was so ordinary that he could easily be forgotten after being seen, and clearing his throat revealed a deeper, husky voice like that of a grown man as well. Fang Xing put on the robes he had borrowed from Yu before swaggering towards where the Black Market was to be held.

No one paid any attention to such an ordinary disciple.

The Black Market was located in a valley a few miles away from the outer court, and when Fang Xing -- or, rather, an ordinary young man -- arrived, the moon had already appeared in the sky. At the valley"s entrance, two masked men looked towards Fang Xing. "What brings s.h.i.+xiong here today?"

Slightly surprised at the men"s caution, he snickered, "What brings me here? Why would I be here if I don"t have something? You know what I"m talking about; it better not disappoint me today!"

"Of course. But please, s.h.i.+xiong, we can"t let the sect know about this. After all, it is…" exchanging looks, one of the men replied almost in a whisper.

"Hah! You really think the sect doesn"t know about this? If they really didn"t allow it, do you really think it would be possible? They"re just pretending to not know," laughed the ordinary-looking young man. "Why so serious?"

In fact, Fang Xing had made sure that Yu had told him everything he knew about these markets. While the sect had its rules, they weren"t going to stop low-level disciples from exchanging goods as long as they didn"t turn it into a spectacle. Even then, the sect would only need to send an elder to address the issue before such a thing would be closed for a few years.

The market today was really only for the new disciples that had joined four or so months ago. Most of their cultivation levels were between tiers one and two, and it really served no interest to anybody that had been in the sect longer than that. No one really knew anyone else in a market like this and ident.i.ties couldn"t be checked in advance, either; Fang Xing didn"t even have to break a sweat to smuggle himself in as the ordinary-looking man, masked just like everyone else.

At first, it was said that only a dozen or so disciples that were interested would be at the market, yet it seemed that over twenty had already arrived. Everyone that had come earlier had already chosen a quiet and concealing corner, observing everyone else around them with caution.

One man wearing a black mask could not wait any longer and decided to break the silence, "All dear s.h.i.+xiong and s.h.i.+di here, I don"t want to waste any more of your time. If anyone wants to exchange anything, please speak now so we can get this done and over with."

"That"s right. Let me start first, then." A scrawny man placed five or six s.h.i.+ny red stones on the large limestone in front of him. "We"re all new in the sect, so these Spirit Stones are what we all need the most right now. The sect asks for one hundred gold taels for each Spirit Stone, but today I"ll trade for eighty gold taels each."

It was a full twenty gold taels cheaper than exchanging with the sect and a few were visibly moved by this offer. One chubby man -- also masked -- soon stepped up and spoke, "I… I need t" examine them stones first."

"Go ahead! Why would I sell fake ones, anyway!" The scrawny man laughed at the idea and waved the man to check as much as he pleased.

Hearing the voice of the scrawny man, Fang Xing felt a sense of familiarity, as though he"d heard it somewhere once before. Activating his [Book of Revelation], Fang Xing let out a smirk; it was none other than the mustached man from the Pavilion of Spirit Tools. But of course, who else would have so many Spirit Stones to exchange?

Since he already had his [Book of Revelation] activated, Fang Xing decided to check on the rest of the people here: most people had only achieved tier one, there were a few in tier two, and only this mustached man was at tier three.

"Them Spirit Stones! I"ll take two of "em!" The chubby man excitedly threw a small bag of gold leaves. "Check "em an" make sure it"s correct ay!"

"No need; I believe you." The mustached man grabbed the bag and smiled, knowing the amount was exact just by weighing the bag with his hands. "Only four left…."

"I"ll take three!"

"Leave two for me!"

Soon enough, all six Spirit Stones were completely sold out.

Seeing how smooth the transaction was, a few others had also taken out their Spirit Stones for sale. Most of these people had probably been in the sect for a few years and saved up a few Spirit Stones to see if they could exchange for something more useful from the new disciples.

"It"s my turn now! I"ve got something here that I"d also like to exchange for some Spirit Stones, but let me be honest, not everyone is able to handle it." It was another masked young man, and with a wave of his hand a red sword appeared in his grasp. There was a hint of gold within its red s.h.i.+ne, but what caught most of the people"s attention wasn"t the sword, but how he had taken the sword out: it had just appeared. If one looked carefully, this man was wearing an antique-styled ring that the sword had appeared from.

"Isn"t that… a storage ring? A new outer court disciple with a storage ring…."

"That sword isn"t an ordinary sword, either! By the looks of it, it must be mid-tiered too…" the small crowd whispered among themselves, all of them surprised by how wealthy this man was.

As though he was already used to such a reaction, the man scanned across everyone before speaking, "Before coming here, I used up all of my savings on this mid-tiered spiritual weapon, the [Nine Snakes" Sword]. Who would have known that I bought it way too early, and with my current level of cultivation I can"t use it to its full potential just yet. I need a lot of Spirit Stones to improve my cultivation, but my clan is quite far away; the extra silvers and golds that they"ve prepared for me won"t arrive here for another two months" time…. It will be too long for me to wait, so I"m here now to sell this sword."

Everyone stood still in shock. It was a mid-tier spiritual weapon as expected, but no one spoke up since it would not come without a heavy price.

Seeing the quiet crowd, the man then continued: "I bought this sword with twenty thousand gold taels, and if I were to do the exchange today, it would be a minimum of a hundred Spirit Stones. Though is there anyone who may just happen to have this much today?"

Pausing slightly, he nodded in an expectant manner. "Of course, if no one has this much on them it"s not a problem either; I will be bringing this along with me at the next Black Market for anyone who may be interested. If you know any s.h.i.+xiong who are not here today who may also be interested, please do let them know, too."

It seemed that the man had been expecting this. He knew that it wouldn"t be sold in one go but was only here to see if there were any potential buyers. The sword, though, was definitely quite something; those in the third tier would undoubtedly be interested in this, perhaps even those in the fourth tier.

"Very interesting. But don"t worry; I wasn"t expecting something so fascinating to appear at the Black Market so I didn"t prepare enough for something like this, but I like this sword very much. As soon as I get back, I will have the stones prepared for you. Would you like to hold onto it for me?" It was none other than the mustached man, his eyes sparkling with greed.

Having worked at the Pavilion of Spirit Tools, he knew quite a bit about spirit tools and weapons!

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