For this shopping trip, Luo Chen avoided the Rogue Cultivator Market.
He had just made large purchases there yesterday; showing up again today would only draw unwanted suspicion.
Besides, that place was a bustling hub of loose tongues, mostly made up of people from the outer city. Anyone paying close attention would easily notice the changes in him with just a little digging.
Therefore, Luo Chen gritted his teeth and headed to Hundred Herbs Hall instead.
In the end, it cost him ten more spirit stones than before to gather all the raw ingredients needed for refining his pills.
With that, he had only twenty-nine spirit stones left in hand.
Factoring in the daily necessities and firewood he still needed to buy later, he would have to spend another four spirit stones.
Twenty-five!
Just last night, he had been holding a fortune of nearly a hundred and fifty.
*Spirit stones really don't last.*
*This meager sum isn't enough to buy the Attraction Art, either.*
Standing at the crossroads, Luo Chen looked at the antique architecture of Wanbao Pavilion, gritted his teeth, and walked inside.
As a business belonging to one of the six superior sects, its reputation and strength were unmatched in Dahe Market.
Other rogue cultivators would find it exceedingly difficult to pry into transactions made in a place like this.
"Looking to buy an artifact, honored guest?"
The moment he stepped through the doors, an attendant maid walked over.
Visiting such an upscale establishment for the first time made Luo Chen feel a bit nervous.
He told her he would look around on his own first, and the maid promptly took her leave.
There was no pushy sales pitch.
His realm was only the fourth layer of Qi Refining, and the robe he wore was semi-worn and a touch too small, fitting tightly around him.
One look showed he was a rogue cultivator of limited purchasing power.
After wandering the spacious ground floor for a while, Luo Chen's nervous unease settled down.
Taking a look at the shelves holding high-grade artifacts gave him a surge of confidence.
He waved the maid over and spoke directly: "I'd like to sell an artifact. You buy them here, don't you?"
The maid nodded. "We do, but a master appraiser must inspect it first before making an offer. As for whether the price suits you, that will be entirely up to you, guest."
"There's no appraisal fee, is there?"
"Hehe, you jest, guest. You're selling to us, so of course there's no appraisal fee."
Luo Chen had truly been spooked by Sun Shou's tricks yesterday.
Endless fees of every imaginable sort.
Sun Shou belonged to the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect, while Wanbao Pavilion was Tianfan City's enterprise; he feared these unscrupulous, wealthy major sects were birds of a feather.
Arriving on the second floor, he found an old man sipping tea while rolling two crimson walnuts between his fingers.
"Old Chu, this guest wishes to sell an artifact."
"Mm, you may go down." Old Chu kept rolling the walnuts with one hand while extending the other. "Let's see the goods."
A short sword was handed over, its hilt shaped like a swallow.
Old Chu gave a nod. "A standard artifact forged by our Tianfan City, a Flying Swallow Sword. High-grade."
Weighing it in his palm, he shook his head. "One liang light, and the blade is severely worn. It needs to be recast in the furnace."
He channeled spiritual power into the weapon, circulating it through the blade until light gleamed from the tip, body, and hilt.
"The Sharp Metal Array is damaged."
"The Deflection Array is down to eighty percent effectiveness."
"The Sturdiness Array is unstable; its runes will have to be redrawn."
"Oh, and the sword's owner was a fool—they carved words into it."
With that, Old Chu casually tossed the Flying Swallow Sword onto the table.
"One thousand. If you're willing to sell, Wanbao Pavilion will take it for a thousand spirit stones."
Hearing that sum, Luo Chen's eyes went wide!
Not because it was high.
Because it was far too low!
As was common knowledge, artifact prices followed the market, and cultivators were very attuned to them.
Low-grade artifacts ranged between one hundred and five hundred spirit stones.
Mid-grade artifacts ran from five hundred to one thousand.
High-grade artifacts started at one thousand spirit stones.
Offensive artifacts were generally on the cheaper side, with the most common sabers and swords at the very bottom.
Defensive artifacts fetched the highest prices.
As for peculiar, exotic artifacts, their worth was left to individual judgment based on their effects, but their prices remained consistently steep.
There was no such notion in this world as dying faster from using weirder artifacts.
The more peculiar the artifact, the more unexpected its effects tended to be. In battle or when exploring hidden realms, it could often secure victory through surprise at a critical moment.
Luo Chen had mentally prepared himself for flying swords to fetch lower prices.
Yet this was so low he simply could not accept it.
"The Flying Swallow Sword sold in your shop goes for two thousand five hundred low-grade spirit stones!"
Old Chu replied indifferently, "Don't you know Wanbao Pavilion buys back second-hand artifacts at half price for the most part?"
"This isn't even half!" Luo Chen retorted indignantly.
People from major sects might not care about an extra hundred or two hundred spirit stones, but to him, that was the entire fortune of years of grueling toil.
"Then do you have any idea how much effort it takes for us to take in an artifact and put it back on the shelves?"
Old Chu began ticking items off his fingers. "First, we must send it back to the sect, which means transportation costs."
"Selecting the proper materials for repairs is another expense."
"Hiring a formation master to restore the arrays costs even more."
"And to guarantee our quality standards, so nobody accuses Tianfan City of selling shoddy goods, we have to hire high-level cultivators to inspect it with utmost care."
"Finally, we have to expend great effort transporting it thousands of li to our various Wanbao Pavilions."
"I haven't even factored in the sundry incidental expenses."
Luo Chen felt a sour ache in his teeth.
This old man lacked any of the magnanimity expected of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, haggling and nitpicking on par with Old Daoist Chen.
"Speaking of which, I really have to give you youngsters a piece of my mind."
Old Chu shook his head, looking like a disappointed elder lecturing an unruly child. "All you know is fighting and killing all day long. Are artifacts meant for flexing muscles and throwing tantrums? These are instruments to safeguard your Dao—they should be treated with care and cherished."
"After a fight, shouldn't you give them a proper wipe and polish?"
"When you have free time, shouldn't you nourish them with spiritual power?"
"Every used artifact brought to me is battered and broken from brutal abuse."
"It breaks this old man's heart!"
By the end, he was growing genuinely emotional.
The look he cast upon the Flying Swallow Sword was like that of a man seeing his beloved returned home ruined and defiled.
Luo Chen could hardly stomach it.
Yet for the sake of cultivation resources, he gritted his teeth and insisted, "That's too low. This junior simply cannot accept such a price. If I took this to the Rogue Cultivator Market, someone would easily buy it for fifteen or sixteen hundred."
Having said that, he picked up the sword and turned to leave.
"Hey, hey, hold on a moment, lad."
Old Chu hurried to call him back. "Eleven hundred. How about that? That's the absolute highest I can offer within my authority."
"Still too low."
"It's plenty, truly plenty. I haven't even paid that much for flying swords in better condition than this."
Old Chu adopted a solemn tone. "Besides, ordinary rogue cultivators wouldn't dare touch a flying sword with carved inscriptions, right?"
"Eleven hundred, that's the price. If you're sincere about selling, Wanbao Pavilion will take it. And I promise you, we won't leak a single word about your sale to anyone outside!"
Luo Chen remained rooted to the spot, his expression shifting uncertainly.
At last, he let out a long sigh.
"Fine. Deal."
A short while later, Luo Chen stepped out of Wanbao Pavilion.
Facing the blinding sunlight, he spat uncouthly onto the ground.
"Damn swindlers!"
A female cultivator passing by cast him a disdainful glance.
*Where are this guy's manners?!*
Back inside Wanbao Pavilion.
Old Chu handed the Flying Swallow Sword with a grin to a bare-chested, muscular burly man.
"Melt off the inscription, temper it with a bit of five-metal qi, and put it on the ground-floor shelves!"
The burly man took the flying sword and scratched his head.
"The condition is quite good—hardly damaged at all. How many spirit stones did you pay for it this time, Old Chu?"
"Not bad, eleven hundred. A tidy profit to be made."
Old Chu gave a smiling reply, then paused and sighed.
"Youngsters these days know how to pinch pennies more and more, haggling with this old man over a mere hundred low-grade spirit stones. So petty—how can they ever achieve the Grand Dao!"
Chapter 26