Chapter 463: Quality

Chapter 463: Chapter 463: Quality

Ah Er spread his five fingers. He recalled the mannerisms of the merchants in the marketplace and said slowly,

"About... thirteen pounds, maybe more..."

"What!?"

"This..."

Niu froze. His face flushed red, then paled. His throat felt dry.

As Loose Cultivators, when had they ever seen such a large quantity being measured out so boldly?

Ah Er mimicked Bai Mo’s posture and frowned.

"What’s wrong?"

Niu met Ah Er’s gaze, terrified of displeasing this moneybags, and said through gritted teeth,

"A quantity like that... I can’t take it all!"

He quickly explained.

"It’s not just me. No one in this town can handle a batch this large on their own."

"Sir, if you want to sell treasures like these, you’ll need a lot of us working together."

The other Cultivators nodded in agreement.

"That’s right, that’s right..."

Niu glanced at the others and snorted, then gestured to the side.

"Sir, please come with me. This isn’t the place to talk."

The town was fully equipped with commercial establishments, and Niu led Ah Er to the best restaurant in the entire place.

Tossing out a bag of Spirit Stones, Niu declared grandly,

"Yan! Your Heaven-tier private room. Lead the way!"

"We need to give the immortal a proper reception!"

The small, thin Shopkeeper in a cloth cap deftly caught the bag.

He didn’t even need to open it. From the clinking sound and the weight, he could tell exactly how many Spirit Stones it held.

’Did these guys really just score a huge bargain?’

The Shopkeeper sighed to himself. Adjusting his cap, he turned to the sharp-looking Daoist Child, his face already breaking into a smile.

"This way, gentlemen..."

Ah Er followed the group upstairs, feigning a casual air. He discreetly scanned his surroundings, his curiosity piqued.

But when he arrived at the so-called "Heaven-tier" private room, he felt rather underwhelmed.

It was nothing special. The room just had an Array, some Spirit Plants competing in splendor, abundant Spiritual Qi, and a thriving vitality.

Maintaining a room like this must be a considerable daily expense for the restaurant.

But after spending so much time with Bai Mo, Ah Er had seen more than his fair share of Spirit Plants, so he wasn’t the least bit surprised.

All this eye-catching decoration was lost on a non-human creature like him. It was a case of casting pearls before swine.

On the contrary, after so long with Bai Mo, the moment he saw these Spirit Plants, his mind instantly filled with thoughts of their cultivation methods and monetary value.

His gaze was purely one of appraisal.

This attitude, of course, only served to make the Loose Cultivators even more convinced of his credentials.

Ah Er sat down with an air of indifference and said casually,

"This is my first time out in the world. If my master hadn’t ordered me to, I wouldn’t have the time to leave."

"I’m busy day in and day out."

He was talking about his work chopping herbs.

"So, what are you all planning to do?"

Niu made a snap decision and said,

"We’ll pool our money and buy all those Pills from you!"

One of the Loose Cultivators spoke up hesitantly.

"We were just wondering... what’s the toxicity level of your Pills?"

When it came to Pill transactions, the people they dealt with most often were the Daoist Children from Pill Peak.

Some of them would line their own pockets, often intercepting defective Pills and smuggling them out of the sect to sell.

The particularly thrifty ones would even sift through discarded Pills, salvaging any that still looked passable.

There was always a market for them on the outside.

Ah Er, oblivious to their crooked dealings, was instantly offended.

"Are you looking down on my master?!"

"Why would he ever touch that kind of junk?"

He reached into his robes and pulled out a cloth pouch.

With a flick of his wrist, a row of flawed Pills, medicinal pastes, and other items appeared.

Even though they were flawed, their Pill Fragrance instantly overpowered the scent of the Spirit Plants in the room.

As primary middlemen, Niu and the others naturally had a discerning eye.

At the sight, their eyes blazed with undeniable desire, and their throats went dry again.

"Quality like this is rare indeed."

"If you’ll just give us until noon to gather the Spirit Stones..."

Niu and the others exchanged a look and pleaded eagerly.

Just then, the food arrived from the restaurant. Ah Er glanced over it. Seeing that it was actually quite impressive, he gave a wave of his little hand and agreed.

"Just be quick about it. If I’m gone too long, my master might get angry..."

Niu and the others scurried away.

Ah Er remained in the private room, rolled up his sleeves, and dug into the feast before him.

’I wonder how the chefs here stack up against me...’

「Afternoon.」

Niu and his group returned one by one.

They presented the Spirit Stones, and in no time, all the flawed goods Ah Er had were sold out.

He had made about four thousand Spirit Stones.

It wasn’t a huge amount, but it certainly wasn’t small, either.

Niu and the others were extremely satisfied with the transaction. They stood to make a handsome profit from reselling this batch of Pills.

They became even more solicitous toward Ah Er, especially after learning this would likely become a long-term arrangement.

Once the deal was done, however, Ah Er didn’t give them much of a chance to fawn over him. He calmly departed from the town.

Once he reached a deserted area, with a POOF, he reverted to his plump original form.

His belly was especially large, probably from eating too much at the restaurant and now being free from the constraints of clothing.

After a few grunts and snorts, Ah Er gritted its teeth, sucked in its belly, and held it tight as it headed back toward town.

Those men had acted a bit strange. It wanted to see if it had been swindled.

...

By dusk, Ah Er returned, a dazed look still on its face.

Its investigation revealed that Niu and the others hadn’t deceived it. Rather, it had learned about the typical quality of the flawed Pills circulating in the area.

To say they were "bad" would be an understatement!

’Just because they’re made by Sect Disciples doesn’t mean they’re good, I guess. To think there’s a market for stuff like that.’

As it thought about this, it began to question the integrity of the Daoist Children it usually saw in the marketplace.

It had heard that the ones selling those flawed Pills were mostly people just like them.

’Tsk, tsk. They’re not even as good as the waste pills I haul off to be buried.’

Ah Er was deeply pained.

’Such valuable things, all wasted by pigs. So how much is this pig’s hide worth?’

The Flying Ship took to the air, and Ah Er headed back toward the Xuandao Sect.

After flying for some distance, a patch of colorful miasma suddenly appeared ahead.

It definitely hadn’t been there on the way out. It was probably a patch of miasma that had been blown in by the wind.

Preoccupied, Ah Er relied on its robust physique and the immunity it had built up from constantly eating Pills, and plunged straight into the miasma.

"Look, a Demon Beast flew into the trap!"

A few scattered voices reached its ears.

"What kind of Demon Beast can pilot a Flying Ship! It must be one of those Crystal Charms. It must’ve killed some unlucky Cultivator and stolen their ship."

"Men, fire your arrows! Raise the net!"

Ah Er felt groggy, and the scent reaching its nostrils was strangely familiar.

Its body felt weak. It dragged itself to the edge of the Flying Ship and peered down at the Cultivators chasing it on the ground.

Just as its eyes focused, it saw a man lift a bow half his height, aim at the Flying Ship, and let an arrow fly.

The cold glint of the arrowhead nearly blinded it.

The next moment, THUD! CRASH!

The arrowhead grazed Ah Er’s scalp, tearing away a few tufts of fur.

A chaotic series of sounds erupted as the Flying Ship was struck, sending it into a mid-air spin.

The shock jolted Ah Er back to its senses.

"AGH!"

It fumbled at its chest, grabbed a pawful of Pills, and stuffed them all into its mouth.

It had just swallowed the Pills when the Flying Ship gave a violent lurch and began to plummet headfirst toward the ground.

Atop the plummeting vessel, Ah Er’s heart was practically bleeding.