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.
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."