Cultivation Starting from Choosing Augments-Chapter 53 - 52: A Chance Encounter at the Bat Tower
A sign hung from the blood-red greatsword, marking the bamboo building: Bat Tower.
Beneath it, a line of small text read: Background and origins not questioned. We have everything you could wish for, fair to all.
Xiao Chen read the small text on the sign and immediately realized that the Bat Tower was likely the kind of place in the Black Market that specialized in fencing stolen goods.
He happened to have two extra Magical Artifacts to sell. ’Might as well sell them here,’ he thought.
Pushing the door open, he saw a masked Cultivator already inside, making a deal. "Knock off another ten Spirit Stones, and I’ll take both of these."
Although the man had intentionally lowered his voice, he sounded young, and his tone was very similar to Ye Fei’s.
Xiao Chen glanced over curiously.
The man was buying a special fan-shaped Magical Artifact. The buyer was indeed the Cultivator whose back looked remarkably like Ye Fei’s.
After the man pushed the door open and left, Xiao Chen inquired, "Shopkeeper, that Magical Artifact just now looked pretty good. Do you have any more?"
The Shopkeeper shook his head. "You’re a step too late. That Yellow Fan was one of a kind. However, I have other similar Wind-Controlling Spiritual Artifacts here."
The number of Cultivators with Anomalous Spirit Roots like wind, lightning, and ice was small to begin with.
Among the people Xiao Chen knew, only Ye Fei had a Wind Spirit Root.
He then recalled the news he’d heard from Su Wanqing about Ye Fei turning the tables and killing a Tribulation Cultivator from Quanzhou.
Xiao Chen was almost certain now. That masked Cultivator was Ye Fei, and he had also used a Black Market Token from a Tribulation Cultivator to come and trade.
Making a mental note of this, Xiao Chen proceeded to ask about the buyback prices.
At the Bat Tower, you could both buy and sell items.
Furthermore, they didn’t ask about the specific origins of goods and were willing to buy back anything.
The only condition was that before Noon, they would buy items at seventy percent of the market price. After Noon, they would only offer fifty percent. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Although selling things here wasn’t as profitable as setting up his own stall, doing so would take a lot of time, and there was no guarantee he’d sell anything.
After some thought, Xiao Chen directly took out the two Flying Swords he had acquired last time, along with a small Storage Bag.
He also took out the Talisman Brush, Talisman Paper, and Talisman Ink to sell, keeping only the *Talisman Scripture Introduction*.
The Shopkeeper tallied them up one by one. "The two Flying Swords are valued at two hundred Spirit Stones. The small Storage Bag is also two hundred Spirit Stones."
"The Talisman Brush is thirty Spirit Stones, the Talisman Paper is two, and the Talisman Ink is eleven. The total market price is four hundred and forty-three Spirit Stones."
"At seventy percent of the value, that’s three hundred and ten Spirit Stones. Any problem with that?"
Xiao Chen nodded, completing the transaction and putting away the Spirit Stones.
He then looked around the Bat Tower before heading out to the stalls to shop around and compare prices.
He spent the better part of the day searching, going around in two large circles while being picky, until it was about half past one in the afternoon.
Xiao Chen still hadn’t found a satisfactory Wood Element Technique as he had hoped.
However, he happened to stumble upon a Metal Element Technique he quite liked—*Vertical Earth Golden Light*.
This was an extremely rare Yellow Level Escape Technique, basically the best of Tier One. It was just shy of being considered a Foundation Establishment technique.
It was perfect for making up for Xiao Chen’s shortcomings in speed.
If he could master an Escape Technique, his safety would be greatly enhanced no matter where he went in the future.
’As long as I can run fast enough, danger won’t be able to catch me.’
The seller obviously knew its value, asking for a sky-high price of five hundred and fifty Spirit Stones.
After a round of intense haggling, Xiao Chen decisively bought it for the high price of five hundred Spirit Stones.
’Even though I didn’t get a Wood Element Technique, I never expected to acquire an Escape Technique. This trip to the Black Market was definitely worth it.’
Xiao Chen was very pleased. He decided to focus on cultivating *Vertical Earth Golden Light* as soon as he got back, even if it meant slightly delaying his progress on the *Fire Transformation Treasure Talisman*.
He was already content and preparing to return to Bishui Peak.
But on his way, a short Loose Cultivator with several layers of white cloth wrapped around his face proactively approached him, trying to sell the Elixirs in his hands.
’Sometimes this world feels so small,’ Xiao Chen thought.
Of the two bottles of Elixirs in the man’s hands, one was shockingly a bottle of Qi Nourishing Pills he had just sold in the Marketplace yesterday.
He recognized the date mark he had carved on the bottom of the jade bottle at a glance.
Seeing that Xiao Chen seemed somewhat interested, the short Loose Cultivator set down the bundle from his shoulder.
Inside, a damaged Magic Robe with a hole in the chest was used as padding, wrapped around dozens of different Spirit Grasses.
There was also a half-empty bottle of Nourishing Essence Pills, two small booklets related to Alchemy, and what looked to be the most valuable items: two bottles of Qi Gathering Pills and three bottles of Qi Nourishing Pills.
Perhaps because the seller was in a hurry, one of the Spirit Grasses even had dried blood on it.
These were clearly hot goods from a robbery and murder.
But then again, not many things that appeared in the Black Market were truly "clean."
The short Loose Cultivator picked out the blood-stained Spirit Grass and casually tossed it behind him.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he continued his sales pitch. "Fellow Cultivator, I’m selling all of this at a low price. For just one hundred Spirit Stones, it’s all yours."
Xiao Chen flipped through the two small booklets. They were densely filled with notes on Alchemy, clearly the personal journals of an Alchemist.
"Fellow Cultivator, this stuff is actually really valuable. If you’re interested in Alchemy, you can learn half of it just by reading these."
The short Loose Cultivator was just spouting nonsense, hyping up the value of the notes.
Of course, this was complete bull. The booklets only recorded the medicinal properties of some Spirit Medicines. You couldn’t learn a damn thing about Alchemy from them.
However, Xiao Chen noticed that while analyzing the interactions between different Spirit Medicines, the Alchemist had also transcribed some Pill Formulas into the notes to analyze their reactions.
But the transcription was rather haphazard, and the content was fragmented.
One would have to read through the entire context to possibly piece together a complete Pill Formula. A layman wouldn’t understand it at first glance.
In fact, even Xiao Chen could only get a rough idea for the time being.
But if he could really manage to assemble even one new Pill Formula from it, the value of these booklets would be extraordinary.
’Should I take a gamble?’
’Bet on myself to successfully restore the Pill Formula. If I win, it’s a huge profit. If I lose, the loss won’t be that great.’
After all, the Elixirs alone were worth sixty or seventy Spirit Stones.
Seeing him staring at the booklet, the short Loose Cultivator covered the contents with his hand. "Hey, Fellow Cultivator, this isn’t free to read."
He stared intently at Xiao Chen, his eyes darting around.
Xiao Chen closed the booklet and casually tossed it back into the bundle.
Then he shook his head. "It’s just some stuff I can’t understand. How about this: I’ll just take the Elixirs and nothing else. Give me a cheaper price."
The short Loose Cultivator was immediately unwilling.
"No way. I’m selling all this as a set, not separately."
He also gave up the idea of jacking up the price on the spot. "One hundred Spirit Stones, and you take everything, even this Magic Robe. It’s a bit torn, but it’s got to be worth at least ten Spirit Stones, right?"
Xiao Chen continued to bargain. "How about this, you keep the Magic Robe, and I’ll take the rest for ninety Spirit Stones."
"No, no."
The short Loose Cultivator shook his head like a pellet drum. "Everything gets sold together. One hundred Spirit Stones is the final price, not one Spiritual Sand less."
"Fellow Cultivator, you’re wearing such a nice Cloak, you can’t be short on a few Spirit Stones. If you insist on buying separately, I’ll just go find someone else."
Xiao Chen feigned a careful inspection of the Elixirs’ quality, feeling the time was about right.
Then he took out one hundred Spirit Stones. "Fine. It’s only because the quality of these Qi Gathering Pills is decent and the Spirit Grass is worth something. Otherwise, your price is clearly too high."
After leaving the Black Market, he organized his Storage Bag while walking.
After spending another hundred Spirit Stones, he was now so poor he only had one hundred and fifteen Spirit Stones left.
’I almost don’t have enough money to buy Spirit Grass. This won’t do. I have to keep some startup capital for Alchemy.’
To prevent himself from overspending, Xiao Chen decided that from now on, he would avoid all but the most necessary expenditures.
In truth, the speed at which he earned Spirit Stones was incredibly fast, far exceeding the level expected of a late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator.
In this regard, he was even better than some less-skilled Foundation Establishment Cultivators.
However, he had only been an Alchemist for a relatively short time, and he spent money like water.
First, there was the eight-hundred-Spirit-Stone Alchemy Furnace, then the five-hundred-Spirit-Stone Secret Technique. Those two items alone cost him a total of thirteen hundred Spirit Stones.
’Cultivation isn’t easy. There are never enough Spirit Stones.’
Xiao Chen sighed and looked up at the sky, but a flicker of movement in the corner of his eye caught three familiar figures.
A little way ahead, under a tree, three Cultivators in black clothes and Conical Hats were holding Wine Gourds, seemingly resting by the roadside.
If he remembered correctly, the three of them had been waiting there this morning. ’And they’re still here!’
Xiao Chen stopped in his tracks. He observed them for a moment and found that although the three seemed casual, one of them always kept their eyes fixed on the Cultivators coming and going on the road.
He immediately prepared to take another route to avoid getting drawn into unnecessary trouble.
But at that very moment, Ye Fei appeared, walking straight past them.
Although Ye Fei was masked, Xiao Chen noticed that after seeing him, the three men in the distance put away their Wine Gourds, as if they had finished resting and were ready to move on.
What was even more interesting was that Ye Fei also seemed to have noticed something and immediately quickened his pace.
Xiao Chen didn’t rush to leave. He quietly observed the three men.
Sure enough, they followed in the direction Ye Fei had gone, giving chase.
From the looks of it, they had clearly waited all day just for Ye Fei.
HISS!
Xiao Chen sucked in a sharp breath.
’Could it be... an unexpected windfall today?’
After a moment’s hesitation, he chose to follow the three men, intending to watch from a distance and see what was going on.
If the opportunity arose, he wouldn’t mind playing the part of the oriole stalking the mantis that stalks the cicada.
