Chapter 347: A Free Market

After Shopkeeper Dong and Little Desk left, Mo Tiange told the maidservant to leave then she entered the cultivating room, laid her own formation, and went into the Virtual Sky World to rest.

She already told Ayin, the maidservant, that she’d be resting for several days and that Ayin shouldn’t bother her if there was nothing important. That maidservant was already accustomed to waiting upon cultivators, thus, she was very mannerly. Without needing to say much, the maid already expressed that she’d only clean the courtyard and would never enter the rooms.

Mo Tiange felt very satisfied. The mortals on this North Pole Island were very tactful; maybe it was because Yunzhong’s people had long been accustomed to living side by side with cultivators that they had quite a deep understanding of cultivators’ characters and habits. For the next several days, Mo Tiange didn’t do anything important.

She only spent her days adjusting her breaths, and whenever she was idle, she’d play with her spiritual beasts or read about Mo Yaoqing’s insights on cultivation.

More than half a month passed, during which Shopkeeper Dong came once and she gave him dozens more spirit stones, telling him she still wanted to stay for a while. Shopkeeper Dong was very happy to see her paying straightforwardly. He told her about many matters on North Pole Island and reminded her that if anything was the matter, she could directly tell Ayin to call him. For every guest that lived there, they didn’t need to pay any additional fees if they wanted to ask for news or needed the management to buy things on their behalf.

Mo Tiange thanked him and bluntly asked him for a map.

On the North Pole Island pictured on the map, each spirit vein in each place, as well as the geographical distributions of demonic beasts, were meticulously depicted. Unfortunately, apart from this, there were only rough details on the other places. The picture of Yunzhong Continent only had the geographical distribution of the three big countries, while the positions of some cultivation groups were even completely unmarked.

In addition, Mo Tiange also noticed that North Pole Island was quite a distance away from Yunzhong Continent. If she were to fly, it might take her a very long time to reach Yunzhong, so she asked the maid how many ways there were to go to Yunzhong. Ayin, the maid, told her there were several places on North Pole Island which possessed Transporting Formations, and it’d be very easy for her to leave.

Mo Tiange felt relieved; it seemed the masters of formations in Yunzhong were quite powerful. Transporting Formations were one of the most complex formations. They required very complicated skills and countless spirit stones. There weren’t many Transporting Formations in the Celestial Pole, and those that existed were all short-distance ones. Furthermore, each was controlled by different big cultivation groups. In Yunzhong, however, even the tiny North Pole Island surprisingly had several Transporting Formations. If she wanted to use a Transporting Formation, she’d only need to pay with spirit stones.

After resting for several days and recovering her energy, Mo Tiange finally left the small courtyard she was living in temporarily and went towards the town.

According to Ayin the maid, the market on North Pole Island was famous in Yunzhong. Even Core Formation cultivators would come here to buy things.

Mo Tiange was rather surprised to hear that. It had to be known that this was also the case for the Celestial Pole’s individual cultivators’ most prosperous Kunzhong City, but this North Pole Island was only a small island on the northernmost side of Yunzhong, far inferior to the prosperity in Yunzhong’s main territory.

“Fairy, this street is our most bustling street. On this street, you can buy whatever you want, especially beast cores. On this street, there’s only things you can’t think of, but not things you can’t buy,” Ayin, who walked in front of her, explained with a proud expression.

Mo Tiange initially intended to roam about by herself, but Ayin said she was very familiar with the market on North Pole Island, so after some thought, Mo Tiange decided to take her along.

“Are you for real?” Mo Tiange asked as she smiled. She naturally knew what Ayin said was an exaggeration, but since Ayin dared to speak like that, this market must be worthy of praise in some way.

“Of course,” Ayin said, “Reportedly, our North Pole Island was still very desolate a few dozen thousand years ago. Later, a cultivator came here and found that there were spirit veins here, thus this place grew more and more lively. In the beginning, there were only some cultivation clans and small cultivation groups based here, but later, others found there were abundant sea beasts in this area, so they came here to hunt. Gradually, we grew into the present-day North Pole Island.”

“I see…”

“It’s not just this!” Ayin said with a laugh, “Originally, those cultivators who hunted sea beasts would all take their kills to the mainland to be sold, but because the people who came to hunt beasts kept increasing in number, many merchants directly established branches that specialize in accepting the inner cores of sea beasts here. As time passed by, the North Pole Island became Yunzhong’s biggest market for demonic beast inner cores. Even the inner cores of demonic beasts that live on land are also taken to this place to be sold. It could be said that if a beast core can’t be found on North Pole Island, then it’d be hard to find in all of Yunzhong.”

“Is that so?” Such a small island was actually the biggest marketplace for demonic beast inner cores. That being the case, she could peruse the demonic beast inner cores at this market and buy the ones she found suitable.

Upon entering this so-called “beast core street,” they were immediately greeted by various merchants: “Fellow Daoist? Are you buying beast cores? My place has superior-grade sea beast inner cores. If there’s any damage, I’ll give you double the price as compensation!”

“Seniors, a new batch of beast cores has just arrived in our shops from the mainland. We guarantee each is top-quality. It will be first come, first serve because the items are limited!”

“An inner core of a Cloud-Rending Beast, starting from a thousand spirit stones. If you’re interested, please come inside to discuss the details!”

Mo Tiange was astonished to see such a scene. The market squares in the Celestial Pole were rarely as bustling as this. Even if the cultivators were doing business, they would never hawk their things like mortals did. Most of them would only set up a stall and wait for customers in silence. In Yunzhong, however, things weren’t the same. Cultivators would also hawk their goods like mortals did to attract customers. Maybe… It was because mortals in Yunzhong also cultivated, so the mortals and the cultivators here weren’t as far apart as the mortals and the cultivators in the Celestial Pole?

Just as she was thinking, someone approached her. “Fellow Daoist, are you perhaps interested in the inner core of a fourth rank Storm-Treading Beast?”

Mo Tiange simply waved her hands at that advertising cultivator to show her disinterest then proceeded to stroll about the street with Ayin.

The one who talked to her was a Foundation Building cultivator. If they were in the Celestial Pole, how could a Foundation Building cultivator do business like this? They would most likely be unwilling to even set up a stall. Sure enough, the customs in Yunzhong and the Celestial Pole were extremely different.

“Fairy, are you just looking around? There’s nothing to buy?” Ayin asked anxiously.

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Mo Tiange cast her a glance then said with a smile, “Do you maybe want to recommend some shops?”

Ayin wrung the handkerchief in her hand with embarrassment. “Our boss also has a shop here. If I take you to the shop, you can get a 10% discount, and I can also get a commission.”

From what she experienced when she first came to the North Pole Island as well as what she saw and heard during this period, Mo Tiange already knew that this was the custom in Yunzhong and that their business path was much more prosperous that the Celestial Pole, so she just chuckled.

Seeing as Mo Tiange didn’t seem interested, Ayin no longer talked about it and proceeded with explaining the shop in front of them.

“Fairy, please take a look. This Jade Qilin Pavilion is the shop of Tianyan Sect, the biggest cultivation group on our North Pole Island. There are many things inside. You can even find sixth or seventh-rank beast cores inside. It’s said that the best treasure of this Jade Qilin Pavilion is the inner core of an eighth-rank demonic beast!”

“Eighth-rank inner cores? This Tianyan Sect has Nascent Soul cultivators?”

“En.” Ayin nodded. “Tianyan Sect has two Nascent Soul cultivators. Apart from them, Wuwei School also has a Nascent Soul cultivator. Our North Pole Island is very small—there are only these three Nascent Soul cultivators here.”

The North Pole Island was indeed very small. From what Mo Tiange saw on the map, North Pole Island was only a small dot in the north compared to Yunzhong Continent; it was roughly equivalent to a mere town in the three countries. Nevertheless, it was just a small island, yet it actually had three Nascent Soul cultivators. She really wondered how many Nascent Soul cultivators there were in the entire Yunzhong. Maybe… twice as many as in the Celestial Pole?

“Fairy, do you want to enter the Jade Qilin Pavilion and look around?”

Mo Tiange nodded indifferently. “Sure.” She had nothing to do after all; strolling around wasn’t a bad choice.

The moment she entered the Jade Qilin Pavilion, a cultivator immediately came over to greet her. “Senior, please come in, please come in.” Even though they were the shop of the biggest cultivation group on North Pole Island, they were very enthusiastic about receiving customers. According to what Mo Tiange heard, although the spirit veins in the North Pole Island weren’t bad, the island didn’t have many spirit stone veins, so they usually relied on business with foreign cultivators—this was the only way they could obtain enough spirit stones to sustain their cultivation.

“Senior, what do you need? Our shop has the richest collection of beast cores in the entire North Pole Island. No matter what beast core you want, as long as you can tell us, you will most likely find it in our shop! In addition, when it comes to spiritual plants, magic tools and the like, our shop has them all.” The one who came over and greeted them enthusiastically was a mortal. He was all smiles.

While taking a peek at Mo Tiange’s expression, Ayin bowed to that person and said, “Big Brother, we’re just looking around for now. We’ll call you again if there’s something we need.”

“Okay. You two please take your time and have a look around.” The shop clerk was passionate but not overly so. After he saluted them, he politely retreated.

Mo Tiange mused: The people in Yunzong were indeed capable in doing business. They could actually make people feel welcomed but they didn’t stick onto people like sticky candies. Their enthusiasm was at a perfect level, thus making people feel very cozy and inevitably think that if the items were pretty good, buying one or two wasn’t a bad idea either.

She raised her eyes and looked around. This Jade Qilin Pavilion was enormous with densely packed counters arranged inside. People were shuttling about, and all of them were low-level cultivators who were talking with the shopclerks in whispers.

“Fairy, the things sold on the first floor are just low-ranking beast cores. For you, they’re most likely nothing great. The second floor, on the other hand, sells mid-ranking beast cores. If you want to buy high-ranking beast cores, you can directly ask for the shopkeeper. However, if Fairy just came to look around, you better go to the underground hall, the most special place of this Jade Qilin Pavilion.”

“The underground hall?” Mo Tiange asked with interest, “What’s special about it?”

Ayin smiled. “Fairy will know when you get there.”

Mo Tiange contemplated for a moment and thought it wasn’t a bad idea, so she nodded and said, “Lead the way.”

Ayin bowed, smoothly led her to bypass those counters into a carving stone door, then they descended on the stone steps behind it.

Mo Tiange could already sense that there were many people down there. Once she reached the last step, she went through another opened door and instantly felt everything in front of her brightening.

Before her eyes was a very spacious hall. It could almost be called a plaza. Numerous stalls had been arranged inside, and countless cultivators and mortals were shuttling about. The voices of people talking were buzzing in her ears.

“This…”

Ayin smiled. “This underground hall is the trademark of Jade Qilin Pavilion. It’s a free market. There are no shopkeepers here; there are only customers. No matter what their cultivation level is, or whether they want to buy or sell, they can all come here and look around. The Jade Qilin Pavilion won’t ask for any fees.”

As Mo Tiange slowly ran her gaze over the hall, she said, “That being the case, what’s the difference between this and the stalls outside?”

“The difference is that this place has treasure appraisers stationed by the Jade Qilin Pavilion. If a buyer and a seller reach an agreement, they can find the appraiser here to evaluate the authenticity and the quality of the goods. If a deal is made, the Jade Qilin Pavilion will ask for a 10% appraisal fee. If the goods don’t conform with what the sellers said and consequently the transaction fails, they won’t have to pay anything.”

“Oh.” Mo Tiange finally understood. “Doing business here is a bit safer, right?”

“Yes. If the appraiser makes a mistake, the Jade Qilin Pavilion will compensate them according to the price. What cultivators who come to the North Pole Island to buy beast cores are most afraid of is having the goods swapped out by inferior goods, so they’re willing to spend a bit more money and set their mind at ease with their purchases.”