Chapter 288

The Chicheng Marketplace is located in the Wu-Yue region and is the largest marketplace Liu Xiaolou knows of.

He had been here seven years ago, and now that he was revisiting this old haunt, it seemed as though nothing had changed; perhaps the only thing that had changed was his own state of mind.

In truth, he could not clearly describe his own state of mind either; he just felt that many things were rather dull, and he could not muster much enthusiasm.

Except for Foundation Establishment Pills.

Today was a clear winter day, with high skies and thin clouds, and everything was bright and transparent; yet, looking toward the Chicheng Mountain in the north, it remained shrouded in clouds and mist, making it impossible to see the true nature of the mountain.

He also wondered what the scene was like inside the Chicheng Sect, which ranked among the top ten sects in the world, and how many spiritual eyes like the one on his own Ganzhu Ridge were there, and how dense they were.

Stepping into the marketplace, the Tianfu Records, Spirit Beast Fragrance, Lingnan Spirits, and Central Plains Water Banquets—

These famous restaurants were crowded with guests and very lively, but Liu Xiaolou no longer had the interest he had on his last visit; he flashed past the doors and headed straight for the spiritual material shops, especially those selling spiritual flowers and herbs.

It was indeed the Chicheng Marketplace; the answers he could not find at the Tianmen Marketplace or the Yueyang Marketplace finally had results here.

In the spiritual material shops opened by the Qingcheng Sect and the Luo Fu Sect, Liu Xiaolou found the three types of spiritual flowers that bloomed on his own Ganzhu Ridge:

The purple spiritual flower shaped like a wintersweet, named Purple Plum Sunken Duan Jinrui, three stalks of which were worth one spirit stone;

The long and thin one that drifted like willow leaves, named Yang Willow Fragrant Row Leaf, nine leaves of which were worth one spirit stone;

And the one that bloomed on a single branch with plate-like flowers, turning daily to follow the sun's rise and fall, named Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower, one flower of which could be exchanged for one spirit stone.

After some roundabout inquiries, Liu Xiaolou learned that the Purple Plum Sunken Duan Jinrui and the Yang Willow Fragrant Row Leaf were both medicinal materials used for alchemy; many spiritual pills for healing and assisting cultivation required these two spiritual medicines, and they belonged to the high-end category of low-grade spiritual medicines.

As for the Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower, it was an auxiliary spiritual material for refining magic treasures and belonged to the mid-grade category of spiritual materials.

These three types of spiritual medicines were not specialties of Jingxiang, and he did not know where they came from; their eventual rooting on Ganzhu Ridge was mostly likely related to the Golden Ring Bees.

After carefully recalling, there should be five stalks of Purple Plum Sunken Duan Jinrui growing under the cliff, twenty or thirty leaves of Yang Willow Fragrant Row Leaf, and only one Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower; it seemed he should put some effort into this in the future, striving to form a scale and become another source of livelihood for the Three Mystical Sect.

Liu Xiaolou took out over a hundred taels of silver, and since he could not invite the shopkeeper of the Qingcheng Sect's alchemy room out, he invited the enthusiastic clerk who had received him to eat a top-quality Central Plains Water Banquet.

Although that clerk had a low cultivation base, only at Stage 3, and had not yet reached the Mid Qi Refinement stage, he had served in this alchemy room of the Qingcheng Sect for over ten years and had seen the world. After three rounds of drinks, he did not hide anything and said generously, "If the honored guest has any questions, please speak clearly. If I can help, I will certainly do my best, but there is only one point: for matters that harm my sect, I am afraid I am powerless."

Liu Xiaolou laughed, "How could that be? To tell you the truth, I accidentally obtained a few spiritual medicine seeds, but I don't know how to cultivate them, so I wanted to ask for your advice, little brother."

The clerk nodded and said, "I guessed it was for this. The honored guest asked very detailed questions about the Purple Plum and Yang Willow leaves today. It's actually simple, and you don't need to spend money. It's just finding a place with a spiritual eye to plant them. If there is no spiritual eye, you can bury spirit stones under their roots. How many to bury is not fixed; you need to explore it yourself, as it's nothing more than the right time and place. But there is one rule: do not water them without authorization. For all spiritual flowers and herbs, watering is useless. Their roots only collect heavenly water; rain, snow, frost, and dew are all fine, but stream, river, lake, and well water are ineffective."

Liu Xiaolou asked again, "What about the Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower?"

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The clerk said, "The same, but there must be no tree shade blocking it. In addition, the Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower has a preference: it likes honey. It doesn't need much; a palm-sized piece of honeycomb buried at the roots is enough for a year."

Liu Xiaolou raised his cup to thank him, "Many thanks for your guidance."

The clerk drank and said, "A small matter. However, if the honored guest succeeds in cultivating the Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower in the future, can you sell it to my Qingcheng alchemy room? Regardless of the size of the flower, my house will collect it at the price of one spirit stone. I can make the decision on this matter."

In the Luo Fu Sect shop, the price of a Three San San Yin Dong Zhu Sunflower was one spirit stone for a flower of good quality, and the collection price was not that high—four flowers for three spirit stones, or supplemented with silver. The price offered by this clerk from the Qingcheng alchemy room was indeed quite high.

After thanking him again, Liu Xiaolou inquired about news of the dark market.

The dark market was what people commonly called the black market. Some were quietly opened by resident merchants in the marketplace, while others were simply opened by the sects that organized the marketplace, with the purpose of trading things that were not easy to bring to the surface.

Hearing his inquiry, the clerk said, "The dark market of our Chicheng Marketplace is held once every ten days. To go to the dark market, it is easy if you say it is easy; just submit a post to the outer hall of the Chicheng Sect and pay the entry fee according to their rules."

"Oh, so it is opened by the Chicheng Sect?"

"Hehe, I feel like old friends with the honored guest at first sight, which is why I told you so frankly. If others ask, they will not admit it."

"Understood."

The banquet was enjoyed by both host and guest. When they parted, Liu Xiaolou thanked him with a spirit stone and sent the clerk back.

The outer hall of the Chicheng Sect was located at the foot of Chicheng Mountain. Strictly speaking, it was not within the sect gate, and although it was called the outer hall, it was not so in name. The name it hung was a medical clinic opened by a loose cultivator family at the foot of Chicheng Mountain.

When Liu Xiaolou went, there were already several patients waiting for diagnosis outside, so he waited patiently in line. When it was his turn, he roughly understood the whole process: go in for a diagnosis, then pay the consultation fee, and receive a bamboo paper, on which was a prescription.

The consultation fee was one spirit stone, which was the entry fee for the dark market. This was non-refundable and quite expensive.

Being able to sell dark market tickets for one spirit stone each was a considerable income for a sect, no wonder many large sects opened dark markets privately.

The prescription was not written randomly. Liu Xiaolou looked at it over and over, but he did not understand what was written. However, he did not dare to imitate it at will; heaven knows what secret marks were on it.

Two days later, Liu Xiaolou came to the outside of a courtyard at the easternmost end of the Chicheng Marketplace. This was a pharmacy. From time to time, guests came forward to get medicine. Some grabbed medicine at the counter and left, while others turned behind the counter.

Liu Xiaolou handed over the prescription. The prescription was collected at the counter, and they pointed to the back. So Liu Xiaolou turned behind the counter, lifted a door curtain, and walked in.

Behind the counter was a dark room. Several people were already waiting inside. Without a word, they draped a cloak over him, put a felt hat on him, and finally put a wooden mask on him, urging him, "It's best not to take it off."

This was not mandatory, but wearing it was the best choice; otherwise, everything you did would be exposed to others, which would be seeking your own death.

Someone else read out the rules. There were only two rules: first, once you make a deal, you must buy it, otherwise you can't leave; second, you must not cause trouble inside, otherwise you can't leave either. With the Chicheng Sect's endorsement, there was no doubt about the implementation of these two rules.

Liu Xiaolou nodded and agreed, then followed a tunnel and walked diagonally downward.

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