Chapter 48 – 47 Large Market Gathering_1
One clear morning in Qianchuan Market, at the plaza in the Southern District.
After half a month of secluded alchemy, Lin Tianming erged from his retreat. Since Ye Pinghai was still refining Minor Foundation Building Pills and shouldn’t be disturbed, Lin Tianming planned to set up a stall to sell off so useless spiritual dicine materials, elixirs, and spiritual artifacts he had on hand.
Lin Tianming approached the exterior of a stone building, where already quite a few cultivators were coming and going, all there to rent stall spaces. The vast majority were below the Eighth Level of Qi Refinent, and there were a few whose cultivation levels he couldn’t discern.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Tianming walked into the hall.
Within the hall, five cultivators dressed in uniform attire stood out conspicuously, embroidered with a bright sun on their golden clothes, the emblem of the Zhenyang Sect of the Wei Kingdom.
Since Qianchuan Market was a property of Zhenyang Sect, managing the market and related affairs naturally were taken as tasks assigned to the inner sect disciples of the sect.
With over a thousand mbers in Zhenyang Sect, only inner sect disciples above the Fifth Level of Qi Refinent were issued such robes, a uniform attire. Lower-level cultivators below the Fifth Level of Qi Refinent could be considered only as outer sect disciples, with hardly any status to speak of, and could barely count as mbers of the Zhenyang Sect.
In Zhenyang Sect, only the cultivators at the Foundation Establishnt Stage were considered core disciples, not to ntion the even higher ranked true disciples, each one being a young talent with extraordinary gifts.
Zhenyang Sect controlled two dium-sized markets, with Qianchuan Market being just one of them. The other dium-sized market was located to the north of the Zhenyang Sect, over ten thousand miles from here.
Lin Tianming felt very envious, wishing that one day the Lin Family could also have thousands of mbers, uniform attire, and manage a dium-sized market like Qianchuan Market.
Inside the hall, four Zhenyang Sect cultivators were attending to others who ca to rent stalls. There was one cultivator whose spot was conveniently vacant, so Lin Tianming quickly stepped forward and started talking to the sect disciple in charge.
After so conversation and choosing his spot, Lin Tianming took out five low-grade spirit stones and handed them to the disciple, receiving a gold-yellow card in exchange.
The card served as a permit for setting up a stall. The enforcent team often patrolled the entire Southern District plaza to maintain order and check whether the stallholders had all the proper docuntation. Those without a card who attempted to blend in and set up a stall illegally would be apprehended and punished. There were even cases where those who resisted were killed on the spot.
Lin Tianming pocketed the card and left the hall, heading towards the center of the plaza.
By then, the plaza already had over a hundred stalls set up, with more cultivators continuously arriving.
For so reason, today’s market seed exceptionally bustling to Lin Tianming, much to his surprise.
In a hurry, he found the spot he’d selected, a corner in the western part of the plaza, covering a few square ters. It wasn’t in the center and wasn’t near the edge of the plaza; the location was quite ordinary indeed.
He thought he was up early, but others had been earlier, and the better spots had already been rented out, leaving only these peripheral corners available.
Lin Tianming spread out a piece of beast skin on the ground and sat down.
He took eleven bottles of Lingshen Pills out of his storage bag. They were common Lingshen Pills not refined with the help of the Eye of Five Colors, and these were all he had left. Although their potency couldn’t compare with those refined later, they were still decent among the common Lingshen Pills and should sell well.
As for the Superior Spirit Essence Pills he refined later, he didn’t dare sell them here as it could attract unnecessary trouble. He could only take them himself or sell them to the family for exchange and use by the clan mbers.
Half a quarter of an hour had passed, and in front of Lin Tianming lay quite a few items. Besides the eleven bottles of Lingshen Pills, there were also over thirty pieces of First Order Spiritual dicine—rewards from his days guarding Qingfeng Town. He kept about a dozen of the dicines that had multiple purposes and sold all the other Lingshen Pill materials and so of the useless Spiritual Objects, exchanging them for Spirit Stones.
He also brought out a set of hamrs, Spiritual Artifacts, which he had obtained from the Red Robe Cultivator. More than half a year had passed since the fight, and given the distance to Qianchuan Market and its teeming, diverse crowd where countless Spiritual Artifacts changed hands daily, it was the perfect opportunity to sell those ill-gotten gains. However, he had no plans to sell the three Spirit Swords Spiritual Artifact he had acquired; after using them for so ti, he thought they would be very suitable for Lin Tianyue.
The items Lin Tianming set out for his stall were nurous, including elixirs, Spiritual dicine materials, and Spiritual Artifacts, all of fine quality and almost entirely acquired from Qingfeng Town.
As ti moved on, after half an hour, the plaza surprisingly hosted hundreds of stalls, which even astonished Lin Tianming.
“What day is it today that the number of stalls has more than tripled suddenly? It’s truly strange.”
The female cultivator at the stall next to Lin Tianming was in the Sixth Level of Qi Refinent, about thirty years old in appearance, dressed like a noblewoman; it was unclear whether it was her true appearance or if she had altered it sohow.
Lin Tianming took the initiative to start a conversation, aiming to glean so information.
“Excuse , fairy, do you know why today there are so many fellow cultivators setting up stalls? The number has increased several-fold.”
The well-dressed lady, seeing the extraordinary items Lin Tianming had for sale, intended to beco acquainted with him.
“My na is Xin Qing, just a Loose Cultivator. May I ask the esteed na of this fellow daoist?”
“I am Chen Tian, also a Loose Cultivator. Pleased to et you, Fairy Xin.”
Lin Tianming replied calmly, with a hint of a smile, deliberately using a different na and not revealing his real one. He picked a rather common surna, as Chen was a major family na within Wei Kingdom and countless cultivators bore it.
“Is this your first ti at Qianchuan Market? Don’t you know about the decennial grand assembly of the market?”
Lin Tianming gave an embarrassed smile and listened as Xin Qing explained the origins of the grand assembly.
It turned out that Qianchuan Market held a small assembly every two years and a grand assembly every ten years. In three days, the decennial grand assembly would take place, attracting nurous cultivators into the market to buy items needed for their cultivation or to conduct business and earn Spirit Stones. So cultivators ca just for the spectacle. It was said that even Nascent Soul Masters might attend the trade conference.
Each market assembly featured several large auctions where various cultivation techniques, manuals, elixirs, Spiritual Artifacts, and many rare treasures were presented. At the last grand assembly for Qi Refining Cultivators, even Foundation Establishnt Pills had appeared—five of them—with each selling for more than 30,000 Spirit Stones, the finale of the Qi Refining auction stage.
Hearing Xin Qing’s explanation, Lin Tianming was quite surprised. Foundation Establishnt Pills were available, no wonder so many cultivators flocked to Qianchuan Market.
Lin Tianming was deeply moved at that mont, considering how the Lin Family, established for eight hundred years on Green Bamboo Mountain, had always found the struggle for Foundation Establishnt to be imnsely difficult, with many forebears sacrificing for it. Even a Foundation Establishnt Cultivator family like the Lin’s, which had never lacked for cultivators, found it hard, which made one imagine the plight of Qi Refining families and Loose Cultivators being even more challenging.
Ti gradually passed, and eventually, all the stalls in the Southern District’s plaza were occupied by cultivators, with groups of cultivators entering to shop and enlivening the area.
Lin Tianming paused his casual conversation with Xin Qing as they returned to their respective stalls, ready to deal with cultivators who ca to inquire about the prices.
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