Chapter 12: The Cultivation Market

Listening to the sounds around him, Qin Chengming made his way forward. At an intersection, he turned onto another street, one that was noticeably narrower and less crowded. Finally, he heard some good news: many shops here accepted gold and silver as payment. At this, he let out a long sigh of relief. He had a storage pouch full of gold, originally set aside for refining gold essence to coat his accessories. Thankfully, he hadn’t gotten around to that, or he wouldn’t even be able to afford clothes now.

The shops here contrasted starkly with those on the previous street. The garments were plainly made, crafted entirely from natural plant fibers and dyed with plant-based pigments. This kind of clean, refreshing clothing was just to his taste—and, more importantly, so were the prices. A single small gold ingot could buy him forty or fifty complete outfits from head to toe! It was almost too good to be true.

With one small gold ingot, Qin Chengming carefully selected a heap of clothes and shoes. He stored most of them in his storage ring, keeping only a set of black garments, which he changed into right there using a small fitting room in the shop. Being a cultivator had its perks; one Cleanse spell and he was spotless, no bath required.

He had entered looking like a beggar and emerged as a handsome young man—so much so that even the proprietress gave him several lingering glances. It was no wonder people said clothes make the man; when he was dressed like a beggar, the larger shops wouldn’t even let him in. Even the ready-made clothing shop he’d just visited only admitted him after he showed gold. Yet, once he changed—even into the simplest attire for commoners—the shop assistants treated him with the utmost respect.

Now, dressed properly, Qin Chengming felt more at ease and finally took stock of his surroundings. The buildings here were modest and not lavishly decorated, yet the archway at the entrance of the street was striking, with three large gilded characters reading "Luo Yi Lane" that gleamed in the sunlight. The street wasn’t wide—just enough for three carriages to pass side by side—and the shops on either side sold only goods for ordinary folk, nothing infused with spiritual energy.

Qin Chengming wandered deeper down the lane to its end, but not a single shop carried goods for cultivators. How could that be? This city was the closest to the East Sea; if someone hunted a sea beast, would they have to haul it to another city to sell? The main street he’d first entered only offered luxury goods, and even then, few items contained spiritual energy—let alone sea beast trades. Was he mistaken? That couldn’t be; coming from the East Sea, his spiritual sense had detected many out at sea hunting sea beasts. With so many hunters, there had to be trade—it was just that he hadn’t found the right place.

With nothing better to do, he decided to keep searching. The whole city of Chaoge wasn’t that large, after all—surely he’d find it eventually.

He strolled along, pausing here and there, even picking up a few intricately carved wooden hairpins along the way. At another intersection, he spotted a low, grayish archway ahead.

“Shangde Road!” he read. “Shangde… doesn’t that sound like ‘lacking virtue’? Just how rotten do you have to be to name a place that?” He snickered at his own crude joke, twisting a perfectly good name into something indecent.

A woman nearby, unable to ignore him, mocked, “Where did this idiot come from? Can’t even tell ‘noble’ from ‘shameful.’ Open your eyes—‘shang’ means noble! It’s Noble Virtue Road, nothing like what you said.”

Glancing at his critic, Qin Chengming saw it was a middle-aged woman who didn’t seem malicious, just annoyed. He didn’t take offense; after all, he was in the wrong. So, he offered a polite bow and strode straight under the archway. The woman seemed about to say more, but he had already vanished through the gate.

“Cultivator!” she gasped, collapsing in surprise.

As Qin Chengming passed through the arch, it felt like stepping through a wall of water. The previously quiet world erupted into bustle and noise. Clearly, this place was hidden behind a formation, isolating it from the outside world—one step, and he’d entered another realm entirely.

“Top-grade Rejuvenation Pills, cheap for sale!”

“Water-Repelling Pearls, a must for sea voyages! Come and take a look!”

“Tier One and Tier Two Prepared Talismans, bulk discounts for large orders…”

The lively, clamorous scene was finally what a cultivator’s market should look like! Qin Chengming glanced around: there were no actual shops or houses, just a long, bare avenue lined with open-air stalls. Calls to buy and sell and the clamor of bargaining filled the air, reminding him of the market beneath the Divine Sword Sect’s mountain gate.

He had intended to buy something, but a casual inquiry about the price of a Tier Two Rejuvenation Pill left his mouth hanging open—a single pill cost ten mid-grade spirit stones! For a pill that was only marginally better than Tier One, it was outrageously expensive.

Such a pill would cost a single mid-grade spirit stone in the Eighth Realm, and that would buy not one or two, but nearly a hundred bottles—each with ten pills inside. Was spiritual currency really so abundant in this world? Maybe he could use this to his advantage and “develop” a little wealth here…

Lost in thought, Qin Chengming was jostled aside by a young woman, not more than twenty-five by her bone structure. She glanced at him and, with practiced ease, bought a bottle of twenty Tier Two Rejuvenation Pills.

He wasn’t annoyed at being pushed aside; with pills that expensive, he hadn’t planned to buy any anyway. Brushing the dust from his clothes and preparing to leave, he happened to spot the so-called mid-grade spirit stones the woman paid with—and immediately sensed something was off.

These were mid-grade spirit stones? These things? They looked exactly like the ordinary jade mortals used for jewelry! They contained only the faintest trace of spiritual energy, not even enough for a first-stage Qi Refining cultivator’s single use. If these were mid-grade spirit stones, what passed for low-grade here, rocks you picked up off the street?

This prompted Qin Chengming to realize he needed to thoroughly understand local prices. He could no longer assume that items with familiar names from the Eighth Realm were the same here.

Sure enough, as he continued to observe, he found that many similarly named items were entirely different things. If the names differed, the differences were even greater.

He wandered the market, carefully watching the buyers and sellers. Most people here were of low cultivation, predominantly in the Qi Refining stage, with the occasional Foundation Establishment cultivator, and only a single Golden Core cultivator overseeing the entire marketplace.

That Golden Core cultivator, likely the market steward, stood in one spot without moving. At intervals, a Foundation Establishment cultivator would patrol the street with two Qi Refining disciples—presumably to maintain order.

All transactions here were conducted with spirit stones. Although Qin Chengming had plenty in his storage pouch, they were nothing like the spirit stones of this world. Until he fully grasped the local situation, he had no intention of drawing unnecessary attention just for the sake of a few purchases.