Don’t use those you doubt, and don’t doubt those you use.

With that in mind,

Shen Changchuan didn’t hesitate, handing the Storage Bag with all his Spirit Grain directly to Guo Cheng.

As for the business of pulling strings and using connections, Shen Changchuan decided he wouldn’t get involved any further.

He didn’t need to think twice to know how tedious that whole process would be.

If it didn’t work out, the worst-case scenario was simply selling it at market price.

He couldn’t be bothered to expend a great deal of mental energy just to earn an extra ten-odd Spirit Stones.

Shen Changchuan had always had a very clear perspective.

Most things were merely external possessions.

Only one’s cultivation and strength were truly one’s own—the things most worthy of his focus.

After they exchanged contact information,

Shen Changchuan parted ways with the others.

He then took a look around and casually inquired at a nearby shop that was purchasing Spirit Grain. The price they offered was the same: ten jin and five liang of Spirit Grain for one Spirit Stone.

This didn’t surprise him.

These traveling merchants obviously knew one another and had a tacit understanding.

The price was basically the same everywhere.

It wasn’t going to change much.

Perhaps a real social butterfly or a master haggler could spend half a day negotiating and raise the purchase price a little, but even then, it probably wouldn’t be by much.

It simply wasn’t worth the effort.

So Shen Changchuan didn’t bother asking any further.

He then wandered over to a nearby plaza filled with market stalls.

The plaza was jam-packed with stalls, occupying an area the size of a dozen football fields.

The vendors here included individual merchants who had traveled from Qing City with the caravans, as well as some Loose Cultivators, patriarchs of minor Immortal Cultivation Clans from the villages, and others.

These people might have found some Heavenly and Earthly Treasures in the wild or stumbled upon some treasure by sheer luck.

Unsatisfied with the low prices offered by the major merchant guilds, they paid a small fee to set up a stall here, hoping to find a destined buyer and get a satisfactory price.

Of course, there were plenty of scams and swindles to be found as well.

For example,

as Shen Changchuan passed a stall piled high with old bottles, jars, and all sorts of ancient-looking junk,

the vendor was in the middle of a wild spiel, claiming that the items on his stall had been excavated from an ancient tomb.

He claimed, however, that he was too ignorant to recognize true quality and couldn’t tell which of them were treasures.

Just a few days ago, someone had bought a Bronze Jar. After the customer used their Magical Power to wash away the patina and reactivate it, it turned out to be a previously unknown Ancient Treasure!

He swore he saw with his own eyes as the customer chanted a Technique, causing the Bronze Jar to expand in a flash and burst forth with a dark golden light.

At this point in his story, the vendor slapped his thigh in regret, saying he had completely misjudged and sold it for a huge loss. That item was clearly a top-tier Magical Artifact for trapping enemies, yet he had let it go for a mere ten-odd Spirit Stones.

The look of extreme regret on his face,

Shen Changchuan felt that even an award-winning actor from his past life couldn’t have put on a better performance.

The onlookers who had gathered to watch the spectacle were completely captivated.

A good number of them actually started reaching out to handle the ’ancient’ items on the stall,

looking eager to try their luck.

As for all this,

Shen Changchuan was thoroughly unimpressed.

He’d had his own fantasies, of course—of being like the protagonist in some old-school fantasy web novel, casually picking up a brick that turned out to be an Ancient Divine Artifact and then slaughtering his way to invincibility.

But he was long past that cringey, adolescent age.

Daydreams were just daydreams, after all.

In his past life,

he’d seen plenty of similar scams in crowded places like hospital entrances and pedestrian overpasses. Someone dressed as a migrant worker would lay out a few old items—a piece of porcelain or jade still caked with mud—and claim they were antiques dug up from a construction site.

He had to admit,

this vendor’s technique was leagues behind those con artists from his past life.

’Trying to get money out of him?’

’That was never going to happen.’

Shen Changchuan simply walked away.

Fortunately, Shen Changchuan’s trip wasn’t entirely fruitless.

At some of the plaza’s stalls, vendors had signs posted offering high prices for Demon Beast Materials, Ore Spiritual Materials, and other miscellaneous items.

After checking the prices at a few places, Shen Changchuan sold the Demon Beast Materials he had to the highest bidder.

The hide from the giant Demon Pig he’d killed on his way to Dawan Village sold for fifteen Spirit Stones.

The Crocodile Demon Hide sold for another twenty.

In addition,

the various Ore Spiritual Materials and other miscellany he’d looted from enemies like the He Mountain Four Fierce and their black-robed leader also fetched forty Spirit Stones.

In total, he earned seventy-five Spirit Stones.

It was a decent little windfall.

Even so,

the soaring prices all around him still made him sigh in dismay.

Never mind the exorbitant prices of Magical Artifacts; even a simple Magic like the Wind Blade Technique cost several Spirit Stones!

And that was for copies from nameless street vendors, with no guarantee of quality whatsoever.

With an Elixir, if it was tainted with something, the Spiritual Qi would just dissipate and it would become a Wasted Pill; you wouldn’t really have to worry about your safety.

But if a cultivation technique had some hidden trap embedded within it, you’d likely never discover it until it was too late!

The magic manuals sold by the major merchant guilds came with a guarantee, but their prices were several times higher!

If Magic was like that,

then Elixirs were even more outrageous!

It was only after asking around that Shen Changchuan realized the bottle of thirteen Qi Introduction Pills he had obtained after killing the He Mountain Four Fierce was worth nearly four hundred Spirit Stones!

That’s right.

A single Qi Introduction Pill cost a shocking thirty Spirit Stones!

Upon learning this, Shen Changchuan drew in a sharp breath. He was completely floored.

His experience of using the Qi Introduction Pills to break through to the First Realm in just two months had made him think about buying some new Spirit Pills when he came to the Wu Family Collection.

He’d wanted to use them to aid his cultivation and accelerate his progress.

But now, it seemed,

that was nothing more than a fantasy!

With his meager savings, trying to cultivate by chugging elixirs...

...was completely out of the question!

’No wonder cultivating with elixirs is so fast, yet the cultivation realms of the people around here are still so low.’

’It seems you can’t possibly afford the cost of chugging elixirs without a massive family fortune to back you up.’

’Forget it. I’ll just wait for the payment from the Spirit Grain to come in before making any plans.’

Thoroughly discouraged, Shen Changchuan let out a long sigh and shook his head.

He took the plans he’d arrived with and slashed them by half, then slashed them by half again.

The plan to buy elixirs with Spirit Stones was struck out completely.

Cultivating with elixirs was fast, to be sure,

but it was far too costly!

Even so,

by Shen Changchuan’s estimates, his Spirit Stones would likely still not be enough.

’I’ll just have to play it by ear.’

’Right now, the most urgent task is to prepare to deal with that Gale Falcon!’

Shen Changchuan sighed to himself.