Chapter Seventy-Three: Bai Sheng in Peril

A majestic presence loomed over the shop, its eaves towering above, and above the entrance were inscribed three bold characters: "Deshengyuan." This was reputedly one of the top material acquisition shops in the entire Linggu Outpost. Yang Xiao had not needed to make many inquiries before finding its location, and soon enough, the shopkeeper himself came out to meet him.

"I've heard, young master, that you wish to sell a batch of materials, and that they're of quite fine quality—is this true?" The shopkeeper, a middle-aged man with sunken eyes and the surname Ji, regarded him closely.

"That's right. I can show you some samples," Yang Xiao replied, drawing several items from his storage pouch and laying them out before Shopkeeper Ji.

"This is the tail of a Striped Tiger, and this is the foreleg of a Golden Silk Spider. Hmm, impressive—these are fine materials indeed. But I wonder, are these materials complete? If sold separately, each type would fetch only a few hundred spirit stones; however, if you have complete sets, the price could be raised." Shopkeeper Ji's interest was unmistakable.

"All the vital parts of each spirit beast are perfectly intact. I wonder, then, how much a whole set of materials from a single beast might be worth?"

"If everything is complete, for a spirit beast of this grade, I could offer around seven to eight thousand spirit stones," Ji replied without hesitation.

"But what if I have materials from more than a dozen such spirit beasts?"

"More than a dozen? Did you hunt them all yourself?" Ji scrutinized Yang Xiao, unable to help but question his cultivation level. An ordinary cultivator at the Spiritual Awareness stage could not possibly hunt so many of these types of beasts in one go.

Ji had assumed Yang Xiao possessed materials from only two or three such beasts, and even that would have been enough to attract his attention. After all, these beasts could not be casually hunted; most cultivators who came to his store carried only one or two types of such materials, highlighting their rarity.

To see Yang Xiao produce so many at once naturally left Ji astonished.

Of course, Yang Xiao would never reveal the true source of these materials. He simply replied, "Does Shopkeeper Ji intend to investigate the provenance of these goods? If your store isn't interested, I can always try elsewhere."

"Please, young master, don't be hasty! We certainly don't intend to question their source—I'm simply surprised to see such a large quantity at once. But if you truly have that many, our shop can offer an even higher price—higher than any other establishment in town. Only Deshengyuan has the strength and resources to handle such a transaction," Ji hastened to reassure him.

"What, then, would the exact price be?"

"How about ten thousand spirit stones for each spirit beast? No other shop could match this, nor could they even afford so many materials all at once. Only we at Deshengyuan have this capability," Ji said confidently.

"Very well, in that case, I'll sell all the materials to your shop." With that, Yang Xiao fetched all the spirit beast materials from his storage pouch. The sheer quantity formed a small mountain on the table, enough to dazzle Ji's eyes.

"These are indeed fine goods. You are truly generous, young master. But here at Deshengyuan, we pride ourselves on our reputation. Allow me to tally everything and prepare your spirit stones," Ji said, delighted. These were all prime materials for crafting artifacts, and many of them were even suitable for forging mid-grade spirit tools. If successful, such a tool could sell for tens of thousands of spirit stones. Even though the chances of forging a mid-grade tool were low, so many materials meant they could attempt it multiple times. This was a transaction that could only yield profit.

"There are sixteen spirit beasts in total. Although the Golden Silk Spider materials are slightly incomplete, since you've brought so much at once, young master, I must offer you a generous deal. I'll pay you a total of a hundred and sixty thousand spirit stones. What do you think?" Ji said with a smile.

"Very well, one hundred and sixty thousand it is. Please pack them up for me. Also, I heard your shop sells storage pouches—I'd like to buy ten," Yang Xiao said, preparing for his next trip to the valley. After all, if he didn't have enough pouches, he'd have to make frequent trips between Myriad Beasts Valley and Linggu Outpost, which was both troublesome and a waste of cultivation time. Better to stock up now and have more time for training.

"You'd like some storage pouches? All the ones we sell here are top quality, five hundred spirit stones apiece. But that's nothing—I can give them all to you for free. It's just a token of goodwill, in hopes that when you have more fine materials in the future, you’ll think of Deshengyuan first. I promise our prices will never disappoint you," Ji said ingratiatingly.

"Excellent. Since you’re so forthright, I’ll come to you again next time," Yang Xiao replied, accepting the spirit stones and preparing to leave.

"By the way, we have some spirit tools for sale as well. You might want to take a look—having a good tool is a great advantage when facing spirit beasts," Ji suggested.

"Spirit tools for sale? Then let me have a look." Yang Xiao’s interest was piqued, but as he browsed the selection, he realized that most were low-grade spirit tools, with only a handful of mid-grade items and not a single high-grade tool in sight. He could not help but feel disappointed.

Now that he’d outgrown mid-grade spirit tools, only high-grade ones would be of any real help to him. But high-grade tools were exceedingly rare, and Deshengyuan had none at all.

"Are mid-grade spirit tools the best your shop has? Do you not carry any high-grade spirit tools?" Yang Xiao couldn’t help but ask.

"High-grade tools are extremely rare—finding the right materials is difficult enough, and the chances of success in forging them are slim. That’s why we have no stock at the moment. But if we do acquire any in the future, rest assured I’ll notify you at once, young master," Ji replied, eager to please.

"Thank you, Shopkeeper Ji," Yang Xiao said. He understood well enough: even if a high-grade spirit tool did become available, the price would be astronomical—likely all the spirit stones he had just earned would only buy him one. Even mid-grade tools fetched several thousand, even tens of thousands of spirit stones, so the price of a high-grade tool could only be imagined.

Leaving Deshengyuan behind, Yang Xiao returned to the ancient residence Bai Sheng had prepared for him. He planned to rest a while before heading back to Myriad Beasts Valley for further training.

But as soon as he entered the residence, he saw that Bai Xue was there waiting for him. The moment Bai Xue saw him, she hurried over, anxiety written across her face. "Young Master Yang, I’ve been looking for you these past two days!"

"Bai Xue, what’s the matter? I’ve recently hit a bottleneck in my cultivation, so I went out for a while to see if I could find a way to break through," Yang Xiao replied.

"Our shop is in trouble. Someone is trying to forcefully acquire it, and my father is at his wit’s end. The adversary is very powerful—my father fears he’s no match. I had no choice but to come to you for help. Of all the experts I know, you are the most formidable—only you can help us through this crisis," Bai Xue said, her voice tinged with desperation.