Volume 1 Chapter 78 Black Market Spoils

  "Sorry, the grades of these battle soul techniques you provided are mostly too low. Although this one has reached the lower grade of Xuan, it's not suitable." Jiang Cheng regretfully pushed back a large stack of battle soul technique manuals handed over by another shopkeeper.

  Jiang Cheng was at this time in the innermost part of the underground hall, but not in the shop presided over by the old man wearing red clothes that the shopkeeper had mentioned earlier.

  The shop of the old man in red clothes, who was selling information, was next to the shop that Jiang Cheng was asking about. The old man, wearing a dark red long shirt, was staring intently at the piece of Frost Dragon Scale in Jiang Cheng's hand.

  That gaze was exceptionally intense, Jiang Cheng estimated that if it weren't for the certain conventions of this underground trading hall, the old man would have directly jumped over and dragged him into his store.

  Watching this scene, Jiang Cheng quietly pushed back the Battle Soul Secret Manual provided by the shopkeeper in front of him and prepared to leave.

  It's called doing a thorough job, in this underground trading hall, which merchant is not deceitful? If Jiang Cheng hadn't performed the play thoroughly, he might have been seen through and suffered a loss.

  Jiang Cheng was about to leave when the shopkeeper suddenly became anxious, "Young brother, don't go! I'll buy it at a high price. For this Cold Ice Dragon Scale, I'll give you 200 taels of gold."

  Jiang Cheng didn't hesitate at all, and the shopkeeper continued to raise the price, "How about 300 taels? What about 400 taels? 500 taels, this is an astronomical price!"

  "Shopkeeper, sorry, this Frost Dragon Scale is for exchange only, not for sale!" Jiang Cheng turned back and cupped his hands in a polite refusal to the shopkeeper who had tried to buy the Frost Dragon Scale from him at a high price, then walked towards the red-robed old man's store.

  It turned out to be true as the shopkeeper had said, the old man in red's store was indeed the best located and largest store in this underground grand hall. It seemed that his background was quite impressive, otherwise he wouldn't have dared to openly sell so many battle souls techniques.

  It was just the three-layered counter in front of Jiang Cheng, each layer had at least a dozen or so manuals of war soul techniques, but the prices marked on them were extremely astonishing.

  Even a low-grade Battle Soul Technique of the Mystic Stage would be priced at thousands of taels of gold.

  Moreover, this store is slightly different from others. Other shops usually have only one Lingwu practitioner in the Nascent Soul stage, but this store has two people emitting strong spiritual fluctuations.

  The old man in red robes before him was like a raging fire, his entire being seemed to be a concentrated mass of energy that did not reveal itself, and he was indeed unfathomably profound.

  Next to the old man in red, there was also a shopkeeper wearing a proper attire, carefully serving him on the side.

  At this time, seeing Jiang Cheng and Geng Xin Yu walking over, the red-clothed old man's eyes were fixed on the blue light flashing from the Frost Dragon Scales in Jiang Cheng's hand, his face filled with excitement.

  If it weren't for the shopkeeper beside him constantly persuading him, he would have probably collapsed and gone to welcome Jiang Cheng into the temple long ago.

  "Old Zhang, you just sit here and rest assured, I will definitely bring down that Glacial Dragon Scale for you." The shopkeeper was persuading Old Zhang with a worried expression, not for anything else, but as long as Old Zhang took charge, every time he bought some treasures, he would always get a few percent off the price.

  "Go, let your kid take action and drive people away for me. Where can I go? The last time the cigarette case was not ruined by this stingy kid of yours." As he spoke, Lao Zhu had already approached Jiang Cheng.

  The shopkeeper's face suddenly wrinkled like a bitter melon, "Steward Lao, wasn't it just one slip-up? You have to bring it up every day."

  "Do you want to lose a few more times? Alright, just watch from the side and let me take care of it." Only then did Zhuo Lao's words ease the shopkeeper's expression slightly.

  "Shopkeeper, will you accept Frostscale Cores?"

  "Ahah!" Before Jiang Cheng could finish speaking, the old man with a smile that lit up his entire face like a blooming chrysanthemum, came forward to greet them. "You're here to exchange Frost Dragon Scales for Battle Soul Secret Manuals, right? You should've come to me earlier! In this entire black market, my Battle Soul Secret Manuals are second to none, no one dares to claim they're the best!"

  The shopkeeper who was following Lao suddenly became speechless.

  Looking at the old man's expression, Jiang Cheng really wanted to thank the shopkeeper who had pointed him out. If he hadn't revealed his cold and icy scales early on, if he had come here to buy the War Soul Technique, they would have begged him to sell it to them instead of this old man begging them to sell it to him now.

  "The higher the rank of the Battle Soul technique, the better it is. If there's a water attribute Battle Soul technique, that would be great too!" Jiang Cheng slowly revealed his intentions bit by bit.

  "Water attribute battle soul technique? Easy to say!" That old man swept a glance at the counter, and then took out no less than five battle soul techniques from the counter. Looking at the marked grade, they were all lower-grade mystic-grade battle soul techniques.

  "The power of the water attribute spirit's battle soul technique is not too great, and it's more focused on defense. These five books are good, especially this 'Bibo Zhang' (Emerald Wave Palm), which is continuous and unbroken, making it a great technique to use against enemies. It's considered one of the top lower-grade battle soul techniques. If you're willing to trade, I'll exchange one for one..."

  "Two pieces, two pieces of Frost Dragon Scale, in exchange for a Battle Soul Technique, especially that Emerald Wave Palm which is almost at the level of a Mystic Rank Middle Grade technique. Three pieces, three pieces of Frost Dragon Scale are required to make the trade!" Just as Old Man Zhu was about to quote an 'astronomical price', the shopkeeper behind him hastily intervened and quickly quoted the price.

  "You're robbing me! A piece of Cold Ice Dragon Scale, they're selling for 500 to 600 taels of gold over there. And this secret manual is only priced at 1,000 taels of gold!" Geng Xinyu was extremely dissatisfied with the shopkeeper's quote.

  The shopkeeper, however, sneered and said: "That depends on what kind of goods they are. My family's War Soul Technique is not available in other families. For example, this 'Bi Bo Zhang' is only available within the War Spirit Temple..." The shopkeeper suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

  Jiang Cheng gently pinched Geng Xin Yu's small hand, but smiled calmly, "Is there a higher-level Soul Warrior technique? For example, a mid or high-grade Xuan stage one?"

  "Top-grade Xuanjie battle soul technique?" The shopkeeper burst out laughing, "Top-grade Xuanjie battle soul techniques are precious treasures that won't be easily taught in the Battle Spirit Temple. How could we have one here? But there is a mid-grade one, I'm just afraid you can't afford it!"

  "Right, right, a mid-grade Soul Warrior technique. We just so happen to have one, it's also our shop's treasure, but the price is too expensive. Ah, yes, little brother, how many pieces of Frost Dragon Scale do you have?" The old man asked hastily.

  "How much?" Jiang Cheng asked after a moment of deliberation.

  He pointed out that the shopkeeper had said before, that 'Ice Xuan Jian', had once opened a sky-high price for Yuan Yu Bai Fang, and the true price of the treasure was only thirty or forty yuan.

  Yuanyu is a treasure that has been circulating among the spiritual warriors for some time, containing a large amount of heavenly and earthly yuanqi within it. It can be directly absorbed and refined to enhance one's cultivation, or used as currency for trade.

  Normally, one inferior yuan jade is worth 100 taels of gold and 10,000 taels of silver. If calculated at the rate of 40 original yuan jades, then the actual price of Bing Xuan Jian would be 4,000 taels of gold or 400,000 taels of silver.

  Jiang Cheng's Frost Dragon Scales had a highest bid of only 500 taels, with most people bidding around 400 taels.

  In other words, the true value of Bing Xuan Jian is worth at least ten pieces of Frost Dragon Scales.

  Jiang Cheng didn't say a word, and Laozi became more anxious. "Young brother, speak quickly! How many pieces of Frost Dragon Scales do you have? The more Frost Dragon Scales, the higher their value."

  "Is the value higher with more quantity?" After some thought, Jiang Cheng also understood that the Frost Dragon Scales were mainly used for defensive Soul Equipment. If there were too few, they would be useless.

  "Ten pieces, I only have ten pieces of Frost Dragon Scale!" Jiang Cheng thought for a moment and reported a number similar to Bing Xue Jian's. "Alright, let me take a look at that mid-grade Soul Warrior technique from your sect."

  He took over the shopkeeper's handed-over secret book, with the three big characters 'Ice Xuan Jian' on it making Jiang Cheng secretly delighted. Especially on the first page of the secret book, it was specially noted that only those with variant ice spirit power could exert the full power of this technique.

  "Little brother, this Ice Profound Slash is extremely powerful. If it weren't for the fact that it requires the practitioner to have variant spiritual power, this technique would definitely be a top-grade Soul Technique of the Mystic Realm. And if paired with variant ice spiritual power, its might would be even more astonishing!" Old Man Zhuo added.

  "What a pity!" Jiang Cheng sighed, "What I need is the Water Spirit Battle Soul Technique, but this mutated Ice Spirit Power doesn't have it. So, this Ice Profound Slash isn't very useful after all!"

  Upon hearing this, the old man's expression changed to one of urgency, "It's useful indeed, the Water Spirit Force can also be used with the Ice Profound Slash, although its power is slightly inferior, but compared to a low-grade Soul Warrior technique, it's still much stronger."

  "How much is this?" Jiang Cheng asked with a hesitant expression.

  "Give me those ten pieces of Frost Dragon Scales and this Ice Profound Slash will be yours!" Lao Zhuang said.

  The shopkeeper's mouth twitched, "This treasure, someone once offered six thousand taels of gold and sixty pieces of lower-grade jade, your ten pieces of Frost Dragon Scale are only worth thirty or forty pieces of jade, Master Zhuo is already giving you a very good price, you're getting a great deal."

  "I didn't think I got a great deal, this Ice Slasher isn't that useful to me either... Alright, let's go take a stroll again..."

  Jiang Chengyi pulled Geng Xinru and was about to leave.

  The shopkeeper was about to say something, but Lao Zhuo suddenly became anxious and hastily rushed out from behind the counter, pulling Jiang Cheng back: "Young brother, let's talk about the price, how much do you want to sell?"

  "This..."

  "Don't hesitate, as long as you sell me all ten pieces of Frost Dragon Scales for 10 bucks, you can pick one or two more items in my store."

  Lao directly quoted a price for Jiang Cheng, while the shopkeeper's mouth corner twitched, "Choose only one, just one!"

  Jiang Cheng ignored the shopkeeper and directly asked Lao: "Really?"

  The old man nodded vigorously, "Really!"

  "Good, I'll take this Bi Bo Zhuan too!"

  The old man nodded, and the shopkeeper's mouth twitched slightly to one side.

  "That should be a high-grade spiritual medicine, Purple Heart Branch. I need one hundred branches."

  "Is there a Dan master at your house?" Lao Zhuo was puzzled for a moment, and nodded casually: "Yes." The shopkeeper next to him had already smiled, with a purple heart branch of Huang Jie's top grade, their purchase price was over 200 taels of silver.

  Jiang Cheng Zheng was considering what to take when he suddenly saw Geng Xin Yu's gaze lingering on a certain "Yan Luo Bian" battle soul technique in the Xuan Xia stage, and he pointed and said: "I'll take this Yan Luo Bian too!"

  Even Lao's mouth corners twitched, but he gritted his teeth and nodded, "Alright!"

  But Guo Lao agreed, and Jiang Cheng smiled lightly again, saying to Guo Lao: "Guo Lao, this time I left home with only the Frost Dragon Scales on me. If I gave them all to you, I'd have nothing but northwest wind to drink. How about giving me a thousand or eight hundred taels of gold and silver for pocket money?"

  "Hey kid, don't be too greedy!" The shopkeeper couldn't hold back any longer.

  Jiang Cheng raised an eyebrow and picked up the Cold Ice Dragon Scale on the table. The old man's mouth, which was about to curse again, bit his teeth once more and said, "Hand it over!"

  PS: For those who think this book is too thin, you can kill the old pig and read the premium novel "Dominating the Stars"