Villain Cultivator

Cao Mao stayed in Xuan City for a week.

During the daytime, Cao Mao explored the city and gathered information on the black market, Tang Clan's merchant guild, the auction, the Qiang Clan, and other minor clans in this city.

At night, Cao Mao slept over 10 hours each day to use the additional time in the system space. After 3,500 hours of doing nothing but concocting pills, he managed to mutate three more types of pills.

Yet, Cao Mao was not satisfied. He needed more products to milk all refined stones from the upcoming auction event. There were three weeks left until the grand auction at the Tang Merchant Guild started.

Changes occurred to the Xuan City, which made Cao Mao anxious.

First, the lord of the Qiang Clan, Qiang Sui, came to the Xuan City with his army of 10,000 fourth-stage cultivators. He came here to fortify this region as the grand event would happen soon.

Secondly, the mural with the record of space-and-time law attracted many top cultivators to this city. Even if he had successfully auctioned the mural piece, he wouldn't be able to get back to the Siren City since all greedy arrogant 6th-stage and 7th-stage experts might ambush him on the road.

And lastly, this city became crowded. All hotels and inns were packed with people.

Not only the Qiang Clan gathered their forces here, but patriarchs and elders from smaller clans also visited the city and booked several inns for their members. Even the Ma Clan's inn was reserved.

Fortunately, Cao Mao had a connection with Ma Ping. He managed to extend his reservation for another month, but he paid quite a few refined stones for it. Ma Shoucheng, the opportunist, raised the rental fee and the price of all liquors during this season. Even Cao Mao was not exempted.

Among the new visitors, foreign cultivators showed up as well.

Surprisingly, the imperial clan dispatched an envoy to Qiang Sui and negotiated a ceasefire treaty. They even sent gifts to the Qiang Clan.

As greedy as he was, Qiang Sui accepted the bribes and signed the ceasefire treaty for 3 months so that the people from the Liu Dynasty could participate in the auction event. However, newcomers had to pay an expensive toll of 100 refined stone per person to enter Xuan City.

As such, the borders were opened. More rich cultivators from the east flocked to this city.

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Xuan City was packed with travelers and visiting foreigners. Many wild men created commotion left and right, and their noises were so loud that Cao Mao thought he was in the middle of a crowded public square even though he was resting in his room.

Cao Mao had a sense of déjà vu.

The development was similar to the annual examination event at the Mountain Goose City. This was a plot device that would be one of the turning points for the local protagonist.

Getting restless, Cao Mao decided to visit the Tang Merchant Guild to scout the next battlefield, where he might have to contest against other cultivators for the time-and-space mural piece. He also needed to put his finished items for the auction.

When Cao Mao arrived at the merchant guild, many people had already flocked into the building. The guild employees set up a queue card system and made over a hundred customers waiting in front of their stores.

Seeing how busy it was, Cao Mao was discouraged. He sighed and was about to leave.

But he spotted a big signboard and another gate, which didn't have many people in line.

It said [Submit your auction items here].

Since Cao Mao came here as a seller, he was eligible to join that group. Curious about what he could discover there, he took a queue card and waited in front of the other gate.

It took 10 minutes before Cao Mao got his turn. When he was called to enter the building, many other customers, who were taking the long lines, stared at him in envy.

Fortunately, no cliché villain screamed or tried to find trouble with Cao Mao. With the strength of the half-step 4th-stage and his youthful appearance, everyone thought that he was a young master of a major clan.

Cao Mao was led to a large room, where a hundred small booths had been prepared beforehand.

"Please take a seat at the counter number 19. You can present the items that you wish to sell in the auction there. If you have any questions, please ask the staff behind the counter. You can also request a guidebook from him."

"Oh, that's neat."

Cao Mao sat in front of counter number 19. On the opposite side of the booth, a young man with the Tang Merchant's uniform, red robes with a golden piggy bank emblem, placed a blank scroll and a tray on the counter.

"Please place your items on the tray for the evaluation."

"Hmm?"

Cao Mao came here without any prior knowledge of the custom or regulations. He scratched his head in confusion.

"Excuse me. Could you explain what I should do? This is my first time participating in an auction as a seller."

The receptionist stopped preparing his brush pen and looked up, gazing at Cao Mao's face with a deep frown. Still, he patiently explained.

"The annual auction lasts a week. We'll place your items in the auction if we evaluate that it's worthy to get our attention. If you have common items, we'll put it on a rented store space, where customers can buy it upfront without going through the auction process."

In other words, not everyone could sell their items in the auction. The Tang Merchant Guild would filter out common items and only select interesting items to put in the event.

The staff also explained the regulations in detail.

If Cao Mao's items were selected, the Tang Merchant Guild would take a 10% cut from the successful auctioned price. But if the items were separately sold through common store channels, the guild would take only a 5% cut as a rental fee.

The deadline for item submission was one week before the auction event week. Low-tier items would be put on auction on the first day while rarer items would be auctioned at the later dates. Only the exceptional ones would be auctioned on the last day.

After Cao Mao understood the basic rules, he tested the market by placing ten bottles of orc strength pills on the tray. There were only 100 pills, but he guessed that it might not pass the preliminary selection.

"Can these items be sold in the auction?"

"What's this?"

"Aphrodisiac pills."

"…"

The guild staff gave Cao Mao an odd look. His mouth curved upward into a sneer, "Sir, aphrodisiac pills are common in the black market. They are indeed expensive, but your items won't be selected."

The unique pills couldn't meet up the standard of these merchants. These people didn't care about pills that already circulated in the markets.

"Oh, I see," Cao Mao took the pills back, but he offered new items instead. "How about these?"

Cao Mao brought out a transparent bottle with one thump-sized pill inside.

The receptionist squinted his eyes. He glanced at Cao Mao again, "Could you tell me what it is?"

"Superior Orc Strength Pill!"

Cao Mao decided to reveal its true name.

This pill was merely a mutated pill that had the same effect as a medium-grade healing pill, but it also contained a strong aphrodisiac effect. If a commoner without a cultivation base were to consume it, he/she would be able to have sex all day as if he had an orc bloodline. Moreover, the bodily fluid of the pill consumer would also temporarily give an aphrodisiac effect and would intoxicate the partner.

However, Cao Mao chose not to explain this part to the receptionist since he didn't want the guy to interpret this pill as another aphrodisiac pill in the market.

"That's the first time I hear it," The receptionist was interested.

Cao Mao shrugged, "It's an original pill. You can't find it anywhere other than buying it from me."

"That's quite a confidence. Well, I'll ask the experts from our clan to evaluate your pill. For now, do you have other things to offer?"

Cao Mao placed five different bottles with five different pills on the tray. He grinned and challenged the staff, "You'd better call your guild's alchemists or appraisers here. These five pills are also original pills that you can't find in the market."

"…Sure."

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Ten minutes later, Cao Mao was standing in front of the Tang Merchant Guild building.

Due to the massive amount of customers and sellers, the staff asked Cao Mao to deposit the unique pills with the guild. After their experts examined the items, the guild would contact Cao Mao later on.

Since it would take time for the merchant guild to process through everything, Cao Mao proceeded to another place, where he had learned from Qiang Han.

The Slum

Every city had a slum.

Similar to the southern district of the Mountain Goose City, this place was a gathering den of outlaws and hoodlums. Illegal products could also be acquired here.

In a way, this place was the center of the black market. Whatever Cao Mao wanted to find, he might find it here.

Still, this place was also a territory of the Qiang Clan. Their subsidiary clans and organizations were managing this district and sent back their profits to their lords.

If Cao Mao wanted something, he could have asked Qiang Han to get it for him. However, as there were many new visitors in town, it would be a waste not to dip his hands in this shady world and get something out of it.

With the Qiang Clan's VIP guest medallion, Cao Mao walked straight to one of the vessel clans of the Qiang House, the Pang Clan.

Cao Mao had a funny feeling about this clan.

Pang Lingming, the only fighting force of the Ma Clan, had the same surname as this clan's name. There might be some kind of complication going on behind the scenes.

The Pang Estate was a rundown 2-story building in the middle of a 2-acre courtyard. 2-meter-high brick walls surrounded all four sides of the territory, but there was only one entrance gate.

In front of the Pang Estate's gate, two guards with the strength of 3rd-stage were standing, yawning and dozing.

Cao Mao walked toward them.

"Hello," Cao Mao flashed the medallion to the guard of the Pang Clan's estate. "I'm here to discuss some businesses. I heard that the Pang Clan is managing the local stores around here. I wish to rent a storefront so I can sell my ware."

The guard nodded and rushed to the estate.

Five minutes later, the guard came back with a scroll, "We have no empty booth for you at the moment, but we're willing to give you one of our reserved booths. However, the rent fee is 1,000 refined stones per day."

The rate was extremely expensive. Unless someone could earn more than 1,000 refined stones a day, they wouldn't be able to rent a place to establish their booth or store here.

However, the Pang Clan set this rate for a reason. Currently, an influx of foreign cultivators came with a massive amount of spirit stones. Any store could attract more customers than usual during the month.

For Cao Mao, 1,000 RSS a day was nothing. He had a lot of cheap pills that could be sold here.

Cao Mao nodded and accepted the offer. He signed the contract scroll that the guard had brought and paid 1,000 refined stones, reserving the booth for a day for now.