Xu Bai lingered in the shop, and the proprietor made no move to stop him.
After all, with a countenance that could truly be described as peerless, Xu Bai could attract the gazes of quite a few passing cultivators simply by standing there and doing nothing at all.
Even though immortal cultivators could reshape their appearance and extraordinary beauties were hardly rare, Xu Bai was still breathtaking at first glance.
Combined with the ethereal, enigmatic aura about him, it only heightened his allure.
Men and women alike lingered in the shop. While stealing glances at Xu Bai, they casually bought a Tianling Flower as a cover.
With business booming, the proprietor naturally grinned from ear to ear. In his sheer delight, he wished Xu Bai would stay in the shop day and night.
Evidently, however, that was impossible.
Two days later, the Tianling Flower Xu Bai had chosen bloomed proudly.
At first, the crowd did not pay it much mind, their eyes still drifting back to Xu Bai from time to time.
Yet when Xu Bai took the flower into his palm and the onlookers inadvertently glanced over...
Gasps of astonishment rose one after another.
"What is this?"
"A true red bordering on pink, so faint it is barely visible... It qualifies as a First-Grade Tianling!"
"*Hiss*, I heard that not long ago, a First-Grade Tianling Flower sold for the exorbitant price of a hundred thousand contribution points. This pot certainly won't go for anything less, right? I heard he bought it for just a thousand contribution points—isn't that an absolute windfall?"
"Wow. Not only is he so striking, his luck is incredible too. Truly enviable."
...
*So this is the wonder of fortune. Even without deliberate pursuit, every word and deed steers things in a direction favorable to oneself.* Holding the Tianling Flower in silence, Xu Bai reflected on how fortune influenced reality.
Sensing that a portion of his fortune had been depleted, he immediately drew from the Feather of the Profound Bird to replenish it.
Coming back to his senses, he saw that the cultivators, including the shop proprietor, were all looking at the flower in his hand with great excitement. Xu Bai could not help but smile faintly.
"No matter how stunning a face may be, it cannot move the heart like profit."
And so, right before everyone present,
he remarked indifferently, "A First-Grade? Utter garbage."
Then, spiritual energy surged in his hand, and in an instant, the twelve-petaled First-Grade Tianling Flower dissolved into flying ash.
"What are you doing?!"
The scene immediately erupted into an uproar.
Even though Xu Bai was the owner of the flower and how he handled it was entirely his own affair, it was still a rare treasure worth over a hundred thousand contribution points. Destroying it so casually was one thing, but calling it "garbage" right to their faces...
That was simply going too far!
The expressions of the cultivators present turned rather sour.
A scholar-like cultivator holding a pot of Tianling Flowers stepped before Xu Bai with an ashen face. "Fellow Daoist! You may not cherish it, but please do not harm it!
"The life of a Tianling Flower is inherently ephemeral. At the height of its bloom, it ought to be displayed for all the world to see—"
While the scholar was still self-righteously making his proclamation, Xu Bai produced a folding fan and used it to nudge him aside.
"Excuse me, you are in my way."
Ignoring him completely, Xu Bai strolled straight past.
"You..." The scholar's face flushed crimson.
Strictly speaking, the scholar was not bad-looking either, but compared to Xu Bai, he lacked that certain grace. He had already found Xu Bai somewhat irksome, and now, being slighted so dismissively, jealousy and fury surged within him at once.
"Even a First-Grade Tianling is garbage? What arrogant talk! With the Original Strain lost to the world, the most magnificent Tianling Flowers under heaven are only those few supreme-grade specimens. Could it be that you have actually seen them?" the scholar shouted after Xu Bai.
"As far as I know, the moment those supreme-grade flowers bloomed, they were purchased immediately and presented to dignitaries across the Immortal Alliance for appreciation. Who are you to speak, and when could you have ever seen them?"
The scholar remained somewhat cautious, afraid of crossing someone he could not afford to offend, so his tone held a measure of restraint and probing.
Hearing this, Xu Bai turned around.
With a crisp snap, he opened his folding fan. He fanned it lightly and smiled, shaking his head. "I haven't seen those so-called supreme-grade Tianling Flowers either."
"Then you are merely seeking attention, ignorant and brazen—" the scholar scolded in anger, his mind put at ease.
"Yet in my eyes, even those supreme-grade Tianling Flowers are nothing more than garbage."
Xu Bai's voice was soft, but in the ears of the crowd, it rang out like a clap of thunder.
The scholar froze on the spot.
Then, he laughed out of sheer fury. "By that logic, I suppose only..."
Xu Bai picked up his words: "Precisely! Only the Original Strain can truly be called a Tianling Flower!"
With that, he extended his right hand.
A sheet of paper, translucent and thin as a cicada's wing, unfolded in his palm.
A Tianling Flower manifested upon the paper, lifelike as though it were a living thing.
The scenery across all seventeen petals was exceptionally distinct.
One could even see the entire flower trembling ever so slightly.
The scene instantly fell dead silent.
Every person present had studied the Tianling Flower, and the blossom in Xu Bai's hand captured their undivided attention in an instant.
"The Original Strain?"
A moment later, someone snapped out of their stupor and cried out in disbelief.
"What? That is the Original Strain?!"
"The consummate Tianling spectacle—truly worthy of the name! Compared to the Original Strain, what supreme-grade, what First-Grade? As long as it is tainted by even a trace of blood qi, it is no better than garbage!"
...
Not only was the rude scholar dumbfounded, but that cry of "Original Strain" also drew the gazes of most cultivators throughout Tianling City.
More and more cultivators gathered upon hearing the commotion, staring in a daze at the Original Strain Tianling Flower in Xu Bai's hand.
*Thud!* The pot of Tianling Flowers in the scholar's hands slipped and crashed to the ground, but he did not care in the slightest.
He merely gazed in an infatuated trance at the Original Strain in Xu Bai's hand, his eyes filled with obsession as he slowly approached.
Just as he drew near, Xu Bai suddenly put it away.
"No..."
As if he had lost the one he loved most in an instant, a savage expression surfaced on the scholar's face. Like a man possessed, he lunged toward Xu Bai.
Fighting was strictly forbidden within the Heavenly Cities of the Immortal Alliance.
Even before the towering statue of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable could mete out punishment, a gleam of light flashed from Xu Bai's garments.
Xu Bai stood motionless, while the scholar let out a miserable shriek as the recoil sent him flying.
Immediately after, a beam of brilliance fell from the Heavenly Venerable's statue, instantly scorching the scholar pitch-black.
After struggling for a few moments, the scholar lost all breath and collapsed dead on the ground.
Cultivators from the Martial Practice Hall hurried over to collect the corpse, and together with the omen of a fallen cultivator appearing overhead, the crowd was finally cowed into order.
Xu Bai cupped his hands toward the onlookers and drifted away.
"Ruined. The Tianling Flower trade is completely ruined." Staring at Xu Bai's receding figure, the shop proprietor turned pale as death and muttered under his breath.
With that, his gaze swept across the Tianling Flowers packed tightly throughout his shop, and he hurriedly wrote out a sign reading "90% Off Sale" and hung it outside the door.
Chapter 688