Chapter 430 - 205: Hundred Li Grand Market, Qi-Blood Fake Pill
Chapter 430: Chapter 205: Hundred Li Grand Market, Qi-Blood Fake Pill
Lu Zicong voluntarily backed down, and Gao Changgeng didn’t press the matter further. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he turned and left with his junior sister.
Xiao Chen couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. ’Why didn’t they start fighting?’
He recalled Shouyuan True Man saying that the Magic and Spiritual Artifacts of the Eastern Domain were exceptionally powerful.
That was why he had been all set to watch a good show.
Ever since arriving in the Eastern Domain, he hadn’t personally witnessed a magical combat between local Golden Core Cultivators, so it was difficult to assess his own true combat power.
Unfortunately, Lu Zicong had choked at the critical moment, not even getting angry when he was mocked on his own home turf.
Although Alchemists’ practical combat abilities were known to be on the weaker side, their networks were strong.
Unfortunately, from the look of the man, although his expression was sour, he didn’t seem to have any intention of calling for backup to settle the score.
Tsk, tsk. What a real shame.
New Alchemists were still taking the high stage to give demonstrations, but the crowd in the square had suddenly thinned out considerably.
For one, they had just seen something far better. For another, some of the local disciples were fuming and decided to leave on their own accord.
Besides, given the time, the afternoon market had probably opened already.
So, Xiao Chen followed the flow of people to East City.
To celebrate the Sea Spirit Festival, a great street had been built here many years ago. It led directly out of the city and was a full thirty-six zhang wide, stretching so far one couldn’t see the end.
The entire street was said to be a full hundred li long.
The twenty li within the city were lined with all sorts of shops, while the eighty li outside the city were filled with stalls set up by Loose Cultivators, earning it the name "Hundred Li Grand Market."
Besides the Sea Spirit Festival, it was also used during other major celebrations, such as the opening of the Hundred Herbs Secret Realm, and was considered a famous sight on Hundred Herbs Island.
Along the way, Xiao Chen overheard all kinds of discussions.
"Do you think any Loose Cultivators will fight over stall spots this year?"
"Of course they will. Do you even have to ask? Every year for the past three years, they’ve fought tooth and nail for those few good spots near the city gate."
"I don’t know about that. Didn’t they say the City Lord is adding extra patrols this year?"
...
Most of those with stalls outside the city were Foundation Establishment Cultivators; Golden Core Cultivators rarely made an appearance.
Therefore, Xiao Chen wasn’t particularly interested in the area outside the city. He planned to first take a good look around the shops within the city walls.
However, as soon as he entered the first shop, he heard a wave of gasps and exclamations, mostly people crying out about how expensive everything was.
He glanced at a Middle Grade magical artifact, a Flying Sword, displayed nearby and was shocked to see a high price of one thousand six hundred Spirit Stones tagged below it.
HISS!
To put that price into perspective, for just four hundred more Spirit Stones, one could buy an Upper Grade Magic Sword, albeit of lower quality.
Besides, most Qi Refining Cultivators were not wealthy.
They could barely scrape together enough Spirit Stones for a Foundation Establishment Pill, so how could they have spare funds to spend on a Flying Sword?
Of course, that wasn’t to say this Flying Sword had no merits. It had a slot reserved for a Spirit Stone, which could drastically conserve one’s Magical Power, and its might was nearly on par with an Upper Grade magical artifact.
A Qi Refining Cultivator who wasn’t short on cash could buy it and easily take on ten opponents of the same level.
Its main purpose was to be worn, effectively displaying the owner’s status and background.
’Verdict: a luxury item.’
Xiao Chen stared at the Flying Sword, his eyes glinting.
Extrapolating from this small example, the Eastern Domain was indeed several times more prosperous than the Southern Domain, just as the rumors claimed.
Although this Flying Sword seemed like nothing special to him, the very existence of such a "luxury item" as a concept was extraordinary in itself.
In a place like the Southern Domain, where cultivators would pinch every penny and wish they could split a single Spirit Stone in two, nearly every cultivator was extremely concerned with cost-effectiveness when purchasing magical artifacts.
There was basically no market for luxury goods of any kind.
Only a handful of Golden Core True Men would custom-order magical artifacts to use as decorative pieces to keep up appearances.
Here, however, such items were openly displayed for sale in shops.
Previously, when Xiao Chen had visited the Ten Thousand Immortals Tower in Xilai Country, he’d felt that the Eastern Domain wasn’t all that special and didn’t seem as prosperous as the rumors claimed.
Now, it seemed that was only because the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was a Loose Cultivator Alliance that specifically served their kind, which was why it had seemed relatively plain.
Now that he had arrived in a land of true wealth, he was finally getting a taste of what real extravagance meant.
An Upper Grade Magic Shield cost an extra five hundred Spirit Stones just for being slightly more aesthetically pleasing in its design.
An Upper Grade Magic Robe, simply because it was embroidered with a Treasure Pearl inscribed with a Tier One Illuminating Spell, had an audacious markup of an additional one thousand Spirit Stones.
He walked briskly to the second floor.
The first thing he saw was a jade belt carved with a cloud-and-peach lingzhi pattern, priced at a hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
Below it was a description, stating that this was a Tier Three Spiritual Ornament.
It also listed in detail the sixteen precious Tier Three materials used to create the belt and mentioned that several master Artifact Refiners had been commissioned to craft it jointly.
But when Xiao Chen took a closer look, he realized the primary function of this thing was—to look good!
It also came with a few functional Small Magic spells, such as the Fire Avoidance Technique, the Cold-Avoidance Technique, the Spirit Calming Technique, the Dust-removal Technique... and so on, for a total of twelve types.
The rest were seven inherent properties of the belt itself, such as Wishful Size, Permanent and Undamaged, "Warm and Smooth as Tallow," "Brilliant as a Mirror"... and so on.
And that was it.
As far as Xiao Chen was concerned, the most useful feature was probably its "Permanent and Undamaged" property; perhaps it could be used as a soft whip.
Although its other functions seemed numerous, they could be described in four words: all show, no go.
In the Southern Domain, pricing this thing at ten thousand Spirit Stones would be considered outright robbery.
Fortunately, not everything was this outrageous.
Or rather, the shopkeeper had probably placed the most gimmicky items out front on purpose.
The other items were much more reasonably priced.
For example, a Youthful Appearance Pill, which claimed to help a cultivator maintain their youth forever after a single dose, was priced at twenty thousand Spirit Stones.