Chapter 13

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After the small turn of events, everyone returned to their own exchanges of goods and -- despite the cautiousness between the parties -- the trades were still carried out in an orderly fas.h.i.+on. It wasn"t long before the Black Market reached its climax, and even those that had wanted to wait and see first could hold themselves back no longer, finally joining in on the exchanges.

As people were finis.h.i.+ng off their trades, Fang Xing walked to the front of the crowd and spoke in a clear voice, "I"ve got something I"d like to trade as well, but the price is fixed at one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones. No less. See… the truth is, even with a hundred fifty stones, it will still settle at a loss for me; before I joined the sect, it had cost my father over thirty thousand golden taels…."

As soon as he started to speak about the worth of his trade, everyone around him quieted down.

The young man from before had amazed everyone with his mid-tiered Flying Sword worth a hundred Spirit Stones, and now there was something worth even more? And he was even claiming that there would still be a loss for this amount? Such a rare treasure had everyone rus.h.i.+ng over around Fang Xing, especially the mustached man from earlier; his eyes in particular were squinting with excitement.

"What Spirit Tool could be worth thirty thousand golden taels? Come on and show it to us!"

Walking over to where the mustached man was, Fang Xing gave a polite request, "Dear s.h.i.+xiong, you look like you might know your Spirit Tools well. Would you like to have a look for me? To see whether it is worth one hundred and fifty Spirit Stones, or if it should be more?"

As soon as his words had finished, Fang Xing opened up his palm to reveal a strange yet wonderful snuff bottle glistening with the reflections of the moon hanging above.

"Hmm?" The mustached man took a quick look. It was indeed a Spirit Tool, but something didn"t seem quite right. He was sure it could not be worth as much as Fang Xing declared it was, but since Fang Xing appeared so confident he would need a closer look to verify his thoughts.

The mustached man wasn"t the only one to have those thoughts at first glance; all of the people came closer for a second look.

"It is a Spirit Tool alright, but it"s definitely not worth thirty thousand golden taels. Are you sure your father wasn"t cheated by the merchant?"

"You"re not doing this on purpose, are you? You don"t really think you can scam us, right?"

"But we don"t know, do we? Perhaps there"s something special about this; would you mind showing us why it"s worth this much?"

As everyone debated over its actual value, someone had finally wanted to see how the snuff bottle worked.

"Of course I can show it to you all! And for those that think it"s worth less than what I said… I don"t even want to say this, but you have such bad tastes in things! Just for you guys, today I"m going to redefine your knowledge on what a real Spirit Tool should be like!" Fang Xing placed his other palm above the snuff bottle before continuing, "Now, come closer everyone; you need to make sure you look very closely…."

Hearing Fang Xing"s explanation, n.o.body could help but to huddle up even closer towards the snuff bottle, unwilling to miss a single thing.

"Abracadabra! Show us your worthiness of this thirty thousand golden taels!"

"SWOOSH…"

Within seconds, a bluish-green smog leaked out of the snuff bottle, sending a soporific fume into the nostrils of everyone nearby. All those in tier one fell straight away into sleep.

Those in tier two were also heavily shaken by the fume: first they would feel lightheadedness, then an overwhelming powerlessness in their knees before they pa.s.sed into sleep.

The mustached man was the only person present in tier three. He was able to react to the fume before anyone else and almost escaped to the entrance, but it was of no use; he had also been the person standing closest to Fang Xing, and Fang Xing had made certain that the mustached man had inhaled the highest concentration right when the fumes were released.

"Why… you little…" The man pointed his fingers at Fang Xing while trying hard to keep his eyes open. He released an angry growl before finally falling down to the floor alongside everyone else.

Though the mustached man was the cautious type, he had never thought that a brand new disciple would have the nerve to do such a thing. Even as he traded, he would always have an extra eye on the few older looking disciples just in case they were up to no good; it was only because of a single moment of misjudgment that he had ended up falling for Fang Xing"s trap.

"Argh! You almost cost me my entire plan!" Fang Xing started to kick and abuse the mustached man in order to release his dissatisfaction, stopping only after he had confirmed the man had completely lost consciousness.

Although Fang Xing knew that a person with a higher cultivation was less likely to be affected by the fumes, the snuff bottle"s strength had certainly lived up to expectations this time. There had been an even larger one owned by Fang Xing"s fourth uncle before his death which he had used against Xiao Jianmin, though there had unfortunately been no effect and it had been shattered with a simple wave of his sword.

From this, chances were high that the fumes would be ineffective against those in tiers seven and above.

The reason why Fang Xing had decided to use this method was that he had tested the fumes on himself a few days earlier. Since he was only at tier one, it had taken only a small amount to send him sleeping for an entire day and night.

Based on this, he had decided it was worth a try.

"Is everything okay?" someone from the entrance shouted. Fang Xing soon realized that the guards must have noticed something was amiss.

"Ah sh*t, I forgot about those two."

"Hey, don"t push me! I won"t trade it anymore! Get out of my way, I am out of here!" Fang Xing yelled out as though angry and pretended to leave the market.

The guards exchanged glances before running inside, only to nearly b.u.mp into a thin man and cause a snuff bottle to fly out of his hands towards the two. When one of the guards tried to catch the snuff bottle reflexively, the thin man jumped up, pressing his palm on top of the bottle to release its fume right into the guard"s face.

"Who…" The guard fell into a sweet snooze right then and there, before he could even finish his sentence.

"What… what do you want!" While the other guard was somewhat dazzled by the fume, he hadn"t been as close.

"I want… THIS!" Fang Xing drew out his dagger and stabbed it towards the remaining guard.

The guard narrowly dodged the stab by jumping out of the way before being sent to the ground with Fang Xing"s kick. The guard was still recovering from his dazed state from the earlier fumes, leaving his reactions slow.

The guard finally reached for his Flying Sword, resisting his lightheadedness with great difficulty, determined to take Fang Xing down for good. At the same time, however, Fang Xing also took out something s.h.i.+ny before throwing it right towards him.

"Tzin tzin tzin..."

A flash of silver flew towards the guard, a frightening sound accompanying it.

"You know… this stuff is no fun when they"re nailed into you. If you don"t want to die, put your sword to the side," Fang Xing coldly ordered the guard, a metal cylinder -- the origin of the silver flash -- held in one of his hands.

After turning around, the guard could see an entire row of silver needles, most of them pierced deeply into the ground with a few lodged inside a nearby tree. Each one -- without fail -- was almost fully embedded in its target, and this sight caused him to tremble as he imagined them piercing his body instead.

"I see you"d rather die. Then…" Without allowing too much time for the guard to do anything, Fang Xing raised the metal cylinder once more.

"No! I"ll throw away my sword!" the guard pleaded as he put the sword down. He was just a new recruit to the outer court as well, after all; there was no way he was going to risk losing his life for this.

"Good. Good boy," Fang Xing sneered as he put his metal cylinder away, walking up to the guard before kicking him right in the face.

"What? Why?" the guard cried out as he slowly looked back up, unable to comprehend what this man now wanted.

"Ok, this is a bit awkward." Surprised that the guard was still conscious even after his kick, Fang Xing embarra.s.sedly took out his snuff bottle once more.

"What a good day! So many cash cows…." Dragging both of the guards into the market with everyone else on the ground, Fang Xing gave a laugh before collecting his earnings for the day.

Since he remembered very clearly the people who had shown something of value, it was like an easy drive on a familiar path for Fang Xing. Of course, the first thing he did was grab the storage ring from that rich b.a.s.t.a.r.d, followed soon after by the Spirit Stones.

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