Proofreader: Zhu Yuan
There were countless shady businesses, countless shady people and countless noisy voices in the fish market.
As Ding Ning punted from the dark dock, moving forward between countless wooden pillars that supported the fish market, the suspicious young man with heavy eyebrows who appeared before, and the young childe outside the market walked into a p.a.w.n shop by the river.
Without p.a.w.ning anything, under the guidance of an old man with a black bamboo walking stick, the two pa.s.sed through the back gate of the p.a.w.nshop, went through a narrow alley and entered another gate.
It was very quiet in the dark and damp narrow alley, but inside this gate was a completely different world.
The hall was not big, there were more than ten square tables in it, but at least a dozen people were crowded around each square table. Aquilaria was burning in every corner. However, because of the noisy crowds, it was quite malodorous.
At the moment of seeing the scene in this room, the pupil of the young man shrank slightly unconsciously - Not because of the hostility hidden in the eyes of those around them and the unique flavor of pract.i.tioners, but because of something that was now on the table in the middle of the room.
It was a piece of yellow jade of the size of a human thumb.
In the eyes of ordinary people, this might be an ordinary jade of poor color, but almost all pract.i.tioners knew that this was the Yellow Bud Dan from Nanyang Dan School of the former Han dynasty.
Yellow Bud Dan was mild in nature and beneficial to Qi. It was one of the best auxiliary magic drugs for pract.i.tioners with congenital deficiency of Qi on their way to True Yuan level.
During the heyday of Nanyang Dan School, there were only a few hundred Yellow Bud Dans that could be refined in a year. At this time, Nanyang Dan School had vanished and Yellow Bud Dan were even rarer.
This kind of Dan medicine was also forbidden to trade in Great Qin. However, all the noise in this room was clamoring for price.
Obviously, this was an illegal auction site.
The young man with heavy eyebrows originally knew that there were many unimaginable scenes inside the fish market and many transactions of things that were very important to the pract.i.tioners. However, when he entered the market and saw something rare like Yellow Bud Dan, he was still shocked, just like a child from the countryside who had just entered the city. He could not help thinking that the fish market in Changling was indeed worthy of its name.
The scholarly young man in front of him also stopped and stared at the crowd. The old man who led the way did not urge him, but waited in silence.
At the moment, the compet.i.tion for this Yellow Bud Dan had reached the point of madness. The medicine worth two thousand taels of silver years earlier had already reached the price of one thousand taels of gold, and several parties were involved in the compet.i.tion.
After several more shouts, the only two compet.i.tors were a young swordsman in gray and a middle-aged man with a black veil.
The young swordsman"s face was flushed, and beads of sweat kept falling from his forehead. However, the middle-aged man with black veil was sitting still and extremely calm. Each bid of the middle-aged man was only made in accordance with the minimum rules, adding one hundred and twenty taels of sliver to the young swordsman"s bid every time.
It had reached one thousand three hundred taels of gold in a short time.
The young swordsman"s face changed from red to white. This Yellow Bud Dan was extremely important to him. Without this, he would have no chance to break through from the second realm to the third realm in this life due to the root of his illness.
Thus, he turned his head and looked at the black-veiled middle-aged man with almost begging eyes.
Middle-aged man saw his eyes, but only let out a chuckle.
The mood of the young swordsman finally got out of control. He suddenly stood up and snapped, "Two thousand taels of gold!"
The room was quiet.
All eyes were on him.
Even though this young swordsman was the son of a clan with abundant financial resources, it was still extravagant to buy a Yellow Bud Dan with two thousand taels of gold.
If it were not for the compet.i.tion of the middle-aged pract.i.tioner, this Yellow Bud Dan could be bought at about one thousand taels of gold.
Hearing the young swordsman shout out the price of 2,200 gold, the middle-aged pract.i.tioner obviously stagnated. However, he still sat calmly, but his voice was slightly cold. "You have great boldness of vision, but can you really afford two thousand taels of gold?"
The young swordsman"s face suddenly became extremely white.
There was an uproar.
Just looking at his face, all the people in this room knew that he was not the son of the super-rich clan at all. He just shouted out the price of two thousand taels of gold because he lost control of his mood.
Laughing was followed by cold.
There were rules everywhere, and the rules of dark fish market were even stricter.
The thin man presiding over the auction, who had been standing in front of the table where the precious Dan was placed, shook his head. He looked at the young swordsman with sympathetic eyes and sighed softly: "You should understand the rules here."
The clothes of the young swordsmen were soaked with sweat.
His right hand fell on the long sword hilt hanging obliquely at his waist.
Then he took a deep breath with a firm look, slowly stretching out his left hand.
Originally the eyes of all the people in the room had been gathered on the long sword at his waist. At the moment, seeing such actions, the mocking sense in the eyes of the vast majority of people in the room began to disappear, and a look of respect appeared on people"s faces.
This young swordsman"s sword looked very light. The hilt was a rare cyan gold. This was definitely not a common sword and its value should be at least two thousand taels of gold.
According to the rules of the black market, like this fish market, now that he had called out the price, he could at least use this sword to offset, in exchange for the Yellow Bud Dan, but his actions at the moment obviously showed that he refused to give up this sword, but to use the method of cutting fingers as a replacement.
If the sword was lost, it could be found again; but the cut finger could not be regenerated.
However, the sword was a symbol and a spirit for pract.i.tioners who majored in sword.
Pract.i.tioners with this spirit could often go further on the path of practice.
Therefore, this young swordsman"s choice at this moment made all the contempt and ridicule in the hearts of all the people around him disappear and turn into respect.
"That"s enough."
The young swordsman was already exerting his strength, about to cut off his two fingers according to the rules here, but at this moment, a clear rebuke sounded.
"I"ll give him this Yellow Bud Dan."
The voice was simple and calm, without any feelings of showing off or winning favor.
The young swordsman turned his head in astonishment.
It was the scholarly good-looking young man.
While he said this sentence simply and calmly, the young man with heavy eyebrows behind him raised his eyebrows slightly and took out a black pearl directly from the baggage behind him and placed it beside the Yellow Bud Dan.
This black pearl was the size of a pigeon egg and emitted a faint light. Anyone seeing it would know that this was definitely more than two thousand taels of gold.
The young swordsman was convinced that he had never seen the two men before. He would lose his two fingers if the scholarly young man spoke more slowly.
He felt lucky and surprised at first, then ashamed, unable to say anything at the moment.
The scholarly young man did not say anything, but took a look at the old man guiding him.
The old man did not say much but led the way to a side door in the room.
The young swordsman began come to his sense. His hands trembled uncontrollably. Because of excitement, his pale face was once again covered with a strange flush. "I am…"
He obviously wanted to give his name, but he just spit out four words and was interrupted by the handsome scholarly young man.
"I don"t need you to repay me anything, so I don"t need to tell me your name."
Young man did not turn back but said calmly and even inhumanly.
Then he followed the old man into the side door and disappeared.
The young swordsman stood still for a few seconds, and sweat rolled down his forehead again.
He suddenly understood the meaning of the young people"s action.
For people like the scholarly young man, it was only a matter that could be solved easily. However, for his life, he would never meet such a person again and never have another chance like this.
He must never make that terrible mistake again, losing control of his mood.
To learn a lesson and realize the truth was greater than obtaining the precious Dan.
After taking the Yellow Bud Dan handed over by the auctioneer, the young swordsman from Zhongjiang gave a deep salute to the side door where the scholarly young man disappeared.
Seeing such a move, many spiritual pract.i.tioners in this room were even more solemn.
……
Inside the side door was another deep alley.
Rains kept dripping down from the eaves and awnings above the hutong.
On both sides of the many houses, there were shadows of a lot of people like ghosts shaking. Voice and sound were mixed disorderly, and no one knew what they were doing.
The wind and rain were dark and the people were like ghosts.
In such a scene, even the young man who casually gave away a Yellow Bud Dan had a little more reflection in his calm and firm eyes.
However, he woke up immediately and a trace of anger appeared on his face.
A hot breath spread around his body, wind and rain could not come close to him, and the dark breath was scattered when approaching him.
The old man leading the way was leaning on a black bamboo stick.
Not far ahead on the left, against the wall of the hutong, there were also several black bamboos planted.
At this moment, several black bamboos twisted like living snakes and quickly turned into black gas and disappeared.
The scene suddenly changed, and many ghostly swaying figures disappeared. However, where the black bamboo trees disappeared, a wooden door appeared.
It was unlocked.
Inside the wooden door, it was a dark room.
"I can"t think of a decent lady from a business clan practicing Yin and Ghost way."
The handsome young man smiled coldly and said indifferently.