CH 10

Chapter 10: Raise the Price

Xiao Kui wasn’t able to swallow his anger; he had already made up his mind to make trouble for Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun. And since he had more than enough spirit stones anyways, later, when Zhangsun Zijun wanted to buy something, he would follow behind to raise the price making sure that the two of them went back empty-handed. Aside from soothing his anger, it was also for the Sword Fighting Tournament seven days from now. Seeing that they had decided to come out shopping at this time, it was probably because they were preparing for the Sword Fighting Tournament. Although Zhangsun Zijun was a disciple of the Medicine Hall, his ability was not to be underestimated. If he was allowed to get all the necessary equipment then he might actually be able to get a placing seven days from now. If he wasn’t able to buy anything then he would have to make do with scraps for equipment and he would be much easier to suppress.

Yi Xichen’s mind flashed and he suddenly had an idea. With a cold laugh, he said, “Wasn’t Xiao Kui being disdainful of the number of spirit stones that we have on us? Now I want to see exactly how much spirit stones he brought out with him.”

Hence he lowered his voice and said a couple of sentences to Zhangsun Zijun. After Zhangsun Zijun nodded, Yi Xichen separated from him.

Looking at them going in different directions, Xiao Kui was a little stumped. He didn’t know any cloning techniques so he couldn’t stalk both of them at the same time. If the two of them decided to buy things separately, it was true that he wouldn’t be able to block it all. However, he noticed that as Yi Xichen was leaving there was a secretive motion–he was giving the money pouch to Zhangsun Zijun.

The Bait-and-Switch tactic! Xiao Kui was immediately alerted. It looked like Yi Xichen was planning on luring him away, letting Zhangsun Zijun buy things by himself. Hmph, how could he possibly be tricked by this!

So Xiao Kui didn’t even bother to look at where Yi Xichen was going. He made up his mind to follow after Zhangsun Zijun.

Zhangsun Zijun walked around the market leisurely, looking at this and that. When he saw something he was interested in, he would pick it up and play with it. But when he saw Xiao Kui still following around behind him, he would put the stuff back down.

Haha, scared aren’t you! Xiao Kui was very proud of himself.

Finally, Zhangsun Zijun stopped in front of a certain stand.

“I want the Black Iron from Zhong Mountain.” Zhangsun Zijun said.

The stand owner was a young man wearing black clothes. He raised his palm, “Five intermediate spirit stones.”

Not waiting for Zhangsun Zijun to bring out his pouch, Xiao Kui sprinted up to them and threw out six intermediate spirit stones, “Six stones, I want it!”

Zhangsun Zijun took out eight stones, Xiao Kui generously threw out ten, “Mine!”

ZhangSun Zijun didn’t raise the price again.

The stand owner received Xiao Kui’s 10 spirit stones and gave Zhong Mountain’s Black Iron to Xiao Kui.

Zhangsun Zijun didn’t leave. He asked, “Do you have more?”

Almost like the stand owner was using magic, he took out another Black Iron from Zhong mountain, “Yes yes, I do. Does Shixiong want it?”

Xiao Kui frowned, once again throwing out ten spirit stones, “I want that piece too!”

The money and the goods were exchanged and the stand owner slowly took out a third piece.

Xiao Kui, “……”

“However many you have with you here, I want it all!” Xiao Kui angrily clutched his money pouch in his hand.

The stand owner did not panic. One after the other, he lined up five whole pieces of Black Iron from Zhong Mountain.

Xiao Kui was a little hesitant. He didn’t bring that many intermediate spirit stones with him but if he didn’t buy it all and let Zhangsun Zijun get a piece then the price raising previously would all be wasted.

“This is all of it, right? You don’t have anymore?” Xiao Kui wanted a confirmation from the stand owner.

“No more shixiong. There are only these last five pieces.” The stand owner said with a bright smile, “I’m the only one here today in Jin Ge market selling Zhong Mountain’s Black Irons. If you don’t believe this, you can go check. If you bypass my stand, you wouldn’t be able to buy anymore.

This was what Xiao Kui wanted to hear; what he wanted was precisely to prevent Zhangsun Zijun from buying it. Therefore he also brought out the high-grade spirit stones that he had on himself, calculated the price and bought all five pieces of Black Iron.

Although he bought a lot of things that he couldn’t use that was way above the market value, Xiao Kui was still very happy. If his spirit stones were gone, he can earn them back. As a disciple of the Sword Refining Hall, he was much richer than any disciple from the Medicine Hall. The most important thing was to make Zhangsun Zijun admit defeat.

Xiao Kui wanted to admire the expression on Zhangsun Zijun’s face as he was on the verge of losing control of his anger. However, who would have expected that Zhangsun Zijun remained very tranquil and was still refusing to move on from this stand. “Since Zhong Mountain’s Black Iron is gone, do you have the Mixed Elemental Pearl?”

“Yes yes yes!” The stand owner said, “It’s such a coincidence! A couple of days ago, there was a new batch of goods and there are still leftovers. A high-grade spirit stone for one Mixed Elemental Pearl, does this shixiong want it?”

“Yes.”

Xiao Kui became anxious, “Your Mixed Elemental Pearl is sold for a high-grade spirit stone? Why don’t you go rob someone?”

“Ai, shixiong, that’s a wrong saying. If you can’t afford it, you don’t have to buy it. It’s not like this one is doing a business where we force each other to buy and sell.” The stand owner opened his eyes to give Xiao Kui a meaningful smile, “You have to have the intention and I have to be willing.”

The price was already far above the market value. The stand owner probably saw the two of them raising the prices and thought to himself that with the two fat sheep in front of him, he had to take the chance to earn a fortune. Xiao Kui felt very unwilling and secretly took a glance at Zhangsun Zijun. Unexpectedly, Zhangsun Zijun actually really did take out a high-grade spirit stone.

When you fight, you have to fight till the end; otherwise, if you retract halfway, all the advantage you’ve had previously will amount to nothing. Xiao Kui achingly clenched the high-grade spirit stone in his hands, gritted his teeth, but still handed it out, “The Mixed Elemental Spirit Stone is mine now!”

However, the stand owner refused to hand over the Mixed Elemental Pearl, “Shixiong, you aren’t raising the price anymore?”

“You’re selling it so expensively and you still dare to mention raising the price?!”

“That’s another wrong saying. It’s not that I want to raise the price, it’s shixiong who wants to raise the price.” The stand owner said, “There are rules when one does business. It was the shixiong that looks more handsome that came first, so if you don’t raise the price, then I can only sell this Mixed Elemental Pearl to him.”

Finished, he placed the Mixed Elemental Pearl into Zhangsun Zijun’s palm.

Xiao Kui swiftly stole it, and aside from the high-grade spirit stone, he threw out a couple more primary spirit stones, “Raised! I’ll raise it to death! I don’t care what he wants to buy today, I want it all!”

“Really?” The stand owner chuckled and brought out the second Mixed Elemental Pearl.

Xiao Kui, “……！！！”

Even if you were a Sword Refining Hall disciple with no worries when it came to food and clothing, it still wasn’t easy to get a high-grade spirit stone. In the beginning, Xiao Kui was only thinking that all the disciples of the Medicine Hall were all extremely poor so bullying Zhangsun Zijun wouldn’t be a hard thing to do. But he didn’t anticipate that it didn’t take long till his own money pouch was almost hollowed out. He didn’t have any more high-grade spirit stones, therefore, in order to obstruct Zhangsun Zijun, he could only pour out all his primary spirit stones and calculate the approximate price to buy it.

Zhangsun Zijun sighed quietly.

Xiao Kui almost had smoke coming out of the top of his head, but when he heard the sound of Zhangsun Zijun’s sigh, it was as if he drank the rare extract of warm jadeite, he was suddenly, once again, full of motivation.

Zhangsun Zijun asked, “Is there really no more Zhong Mountain’s Black Iron?”

“I can’t say that I don’t have any.” Seeing that Xiao Kui’s eyes looked like he wants to kill someone, the stand owner hurriedly said the next sentence, “There are only the last two pieces, but it’s left for me and my friend to use. I really can’t sell it. You can continue looking, is there anything else you want?”

“Oh.” Zhangsun Zijun said, “If you don’t have Zhong Mountain’s Black Iron, do you have the ore of Zhong Mountain’s Black Iron? I can buy it and refine it myself.”

Xiao Kui, “……”

“Yes yes yes!” The stand owner opened his spatial bag, upturned it onto the floor, and two kilograms of ore fell out, “I just bought it from the stand next to me. I’ll sell it to you for cheaper, you can be the one to name the price.”

Zhangsun Zijun gave Xiao Kui a glance, “How many spirit stones do you have left?”

Xiao Kui was already so angry his brains were fried–he instinctively counted his own storage and there was only a little more than ten primary spirit stones left.

“That’s not quite enough.” The stand owner looked at Xiao Kui and reached his hand out to point at the belt made of a white tiger’s tendons at his waist, “The primary spirit stones along with that belt should probably be enough.”

“You!” Xiao Kui held onto his own belt and glared furiously at the stand owner. This belt was obtained when he killed a white tiger monster during a training session for the disciples of the Sword Refining Hall. He was the one that personally sliced off the tendons to make the belt for himself. Making spoils into accessories and keeping them on yourself is something that many sword cultivators do. Although it isn’t worth much money, it is a symbol of power and glory.

“Not exchanging? It’s fine then.” The stand owner pushed the iron ore towards Zhangsun Zijun, “It’s yours now.”

“Exchange!” Xiao Kui ground his teeth. Wasn’t it just a belt? He’ll find a replacement when he goes back. In the future, he can just go hunt a more powerful beast!

While he was untying his belt, Xiao Kui asked, “This is all of your iron ore, right? It can’t be that after you sell this, you’ll bring out another couple of kilograms, right?”

“No more. This time, there really isn’t any left. Besides, even if I do have more, doesn’t shixiong still have your sword to be used to bargain? If you don’t want to exchange your sword, your shirts and pants can also be used as collateral!”

“You can keep daydreaming!” Xiao Kui ferociously threw his belt over.

Zhangsun Zijun turned around and looked at Xiao Kui, “No more spirit stones?”

Xiao Kui refused to show his weakness and, instead, glared back, “Who-who said I don’t have any more spirit stones! Either way, you don’t have any black iron! I want to see exactly what you would use to refine your sword!”

“Tsk.” Zhangsun Zijun disdainfully said, “You dared to go to the market with this amount of spirit stones?”

Xiao Kui, “………………” Didn’t he say this sentence to Zhangsun Zijun just earlier? Why was it given back to him!

“He doesn’t have any more spirit stones. Let’s go.” Zhangsun Zijun lifted his chin to gesture at the stand owner, “Let’s go back to practice our swords.”

Xiao Kui was shocked when he saw the stand owner start emitting puffs of white smoke with a ‘poof.’ When the white smoke dissipated, the one sitting there was no longer the black-clothed youth. It was Yi Xichen! It turned out that, previously, when Yi Xichen and Zhangsun Zijun were secretly discussing, they decided that since Xiao Kui was choosing to spend a lot of his blood, they might as well be the one that earned something out of this rather than the other stand owners. Thus, the two people resolved to work separately. No matter who it was that Xiao Kui decided to stalk, the other person would go to buy a couple of things and then come back to use a camouflaging spell. With the two working together, they earned twice that of the buying price in a blink of an eye. It was so easy doing business.

Xiao Kui almost fainted! Such a low-level camouflaging spell, if he had only paid a little more attention, he would’ve definitely been able to see through it! However, he had been too focused on fighting with Zhangsun Zijun, he actually completely failed to recognize it!!!

Worked up and indignant, he lunged over wanting to teach Yi Xichen a lesson but this time, Zhangsun Zijun’s hand didn’t slip, his foot slipped; Xiao Kui fell by Yi Xichen’s feet with a position like that of a dog eating mud. He grabbed onto Yi Xichen’s pants with a pale face and red eyes, “You! You used spells to lie to me! Give me back my spirit stones!”

Yi Xichen shrugged and pulled off his fingers one by one, “This shixiong, I’ve already said it before that the basis of doing business is that you have to have the intentions and I have to be willing. It’s not like I used my spells on shixiong’s body, I used it on myself. Sorry, this little store didn’t provide a return service.”

Yi Xichen rolled up the stand he had used to sell everything, turning it to a spatial bag. He waved his full-to-bursting money pouch in front of Xiao Kui’s eyes, smiled blissfully and said, “Many thanks to Xiao Shixiong for giving me face! In the future, if Xiao Shixiong wants to buy more stuff, you can come straight for me! And if I have anything good, you would be the first person that I think of! We’re leaving!”

Xiao Kui had just crawled back up and suddenly taste a tangy sweetness from the back of his throat. He had to grab onto a wooden column to steady himself; otherwise, he was afraid that he is once again going to end up on the ground again after throwing up blood.

Zhangsun Zijun and Yi Xichen had already walked far away, but the sound of their conversation was just loud enough to reach his ears and attack his already fragile, nerves.

“Zijun, our luck today really isn’t bad. If I’d known earlier, I would’ve sold him the leftover two pieces of Zhong Mountain’s Black Iron too. With that many spirit stones, we could’ve just bought a better new sword.”

“En.”

“Oh, right. He gave us his belt, so when he rides his sword back, do you think his pants will fall off if the wind blows?”

“Yes.”

“Pfft…hahahaha……”

“What are you going to do with his belt?”

“The mountain hog that Elder Yao is raising spends everyday running all over the mountain. Let’s use this tiger tendon to leash the pig.”

“Oh.”

“Xiao Shixiong!” Yi Xichen looked back, excitedly waving at Xiao Kui as he jumped up and down, “Remember to hold onto your pants! Don’t drop it!”

“Zhangsun Zijun! Yi Xichen!” Xiao Kui raised his head to the sky, devastated, and furiously hollered, “You better watch it!”